Originally Posted by
kiwidollabill
Been thinking about these guys more recently....
My general feeling has gone from somewhat negative to full on bear for a few reasons... Most of this is centered around Kathmandu rather than RipCurl and Obaz as I know more about it and from an earnings perspective is the cash generator of the bunch.
As posted above, Kathmandu is really the business they are by identifying a thin niche within the consumer goods market. They arent the best 'rag trader', holding ~17 weeks of inventory (IMHO HLG is good performer on global standards) but they knew who their customer was and effectively sold into that market. What is really probamatic is that their product portfolio from a purchasing perspective is quite 'activity related' i.e. if you need to buy everyday items you dont necessarily think of Kathmandu (and their marketing isnt aligned this way), but if you are travelling, or spending time in the outdoors then thats their niche. From a $ perspective product is 'upper mid' and so in a reduced economy that same niche of consumers will look to trade down within the category. The macro social/consumer effects over the next 2 years are going to seriously work against them, I know of other large brands which are re-configuring focus of their porfolio to be on the right side of these changes. Likewise their online sales arent amazing (though growing well rec
Also, I dont think (and somewhat know from discussions I've had with senior staff through my work) that they dont have near the brand equity around ethical/sustainability to keep those concisous consumers in a downturn (they list ~600M of intangibles on their balance sheet(. Moreover, from some social media posts I've seen (and joining all of the dots) they are withholding payment to local NZ suppliers of theirs....
IMHO, unless they do some serious turning of the ship they are going to be in some serious trouble. Their high levels of inventory holding (due to seasonal business) will come back to bite them. Has anyone stress tested their numbers? Asuming the raise goes ahead and the cost out initiatives they have outlined, are they able to swallow a -25% best case/ -50% worse case decline in revenue?
Sorry long post of rant