WHS - Warehouse Group

[Oliver Mander]

Percy, that was part of the point I was trying to make - keep making the changes to reduce the fixed costs and improve net margins. Gross Margins, in context, look quite good...their issues are below the line, and management attempting to address those.

[percy]

Percy, that was part of the point I was trying to make - keep making the changes to reduce the fixed costs and improve net margins. Gross Margins, in context, look quite good...their issues are below the line, and management attempting to address those.

May I apologize for not reading your article.
I find reading The Herald via ChCh libraries "press reader" difficult.
Going from previous posts I see it was 25th July.
I will make an effort to read it.
Sorry didn't get far, as ChCh Libraries Press Reader The Herald is only up to the 24th July.
Will try again tomorrow.

Will you be covering PAZ's 7th August result and update.? lol.

[Oliver Mander]

May I apologize for not reading your article.
I find reading The Herald via ChCh libraries "press reader" difficult.
Going from previous posts I see it was 25th July.
I will make an effort to read it.
Sorry didn't get far, as ChCh Libraries Press Reader The Herald is only up to the 24th July.
Will try again tomorrow.

Will you be covering PAZ's 7th August result and update.? lol.

lol, you never have to apologise for that - I'm only one of many opinions, lucky enough to have an outlet for them, and I'm simply not that good anyway!!
Any you are correct about the cost structure - I did a quick comparison with other retailers (eg, Briscoes) as part of my research for this column, and their ratios (apart from gross margin) look very different. So you're bang on.

the thrust of my point was that they have to keep changing - regardless of what challenges they face from unions and other vociferous stakeholders.

PAZ - probably not, feel like I don't know enough about them yet...but you never know :-)!

[tga_trader]

Sorry I also can't read the article. Does that 17% staff cost get broken down to shop staff vs head office wages?
The main store here can NOT drop any more staff. I had a wander around and there were only 2 staff for the entire shop floor, in one of the largest Warehouses in the country.
Cutting staff to reduced hours is also probably not the best strategy. Surely it's much harder to get and maintain quality staff for a 40hr/week role than if it's only offering 20 hours.

What are the property lease costs as a % of revenue. Probably higher than if they had maintain ownership of their stores?

I personally can't see a way back for The Warehouse. There just doesn't seem to be enough costs that they can continue to cut, especially long term. How many more of these 'agile' restructurings can they really do?

[bottomfeeder]

The only reason they are cutting costs is because they have lower income, and activity. The Warehouse has been going long enough to get their cost structure right. If they hadnt got it right by now, they never will. By making such bold announcements, they show the difficulties they are in. Still holding 5k though. Just a comfort stock. Cant see any real upside though...ever....

[percy]

lol, you never have to apologise for that - I'm only one of many opinions, lucky enough to have an outlet for them, and I'm simply not that good anyway!!
Any you are correct about the cost structure - I did a quick comparison with other retailers (eg, Briscoes) as part of my research for this column, and their ratios (apart from gross margin) look very different. So you're bang on.

the thrust of my point was that they have to keep changing - regardless of what challenges they face from unions and other vociferous stakeholders.

PAZ - probably not, feel like I don't know enough about them yet...but you never know :-)!

Went to the library this morning.Very helpful as per usual."Press Reader" has the article in The Weekend Herald.
An excellent article.Agree with everything you have written.

[Cyclical]

Correct me if I'm wrong here people, but with wages at the bottom going up, and therefore WHS costs, should the prices of their goods be going up accordingly? I'm not really sure on the figures, but if 17.5% of the expenses are staffing costs, and if hypothetically said staff have a 10% wage increase (I assume it's somewhat less than that in reality), then that should be covered by a 2% rise in prices throughout the store, maybe a bit more due to the indirect cost increases in other parts of the chain. Would such a price increase deter customers from going to the red sheds? I doubt it. One would expect their main competitors (eg K-Mart) will be under similar pressures and would love to do the same. After all, surely inflation should impact more than just property prices, right, and with the COL dropping in some helicopter money from the bottom, I'd expect that to ultimately impact consumer goods prices too.

[ratkin]

Went to the library this morning.Very helpful as per usual."Press Reader" has the article in The Weekend Herald.
An excellent article.Agree with everything you have written.

What is this "press reader" Is it the app that is 39.99 per month/? Is it free fr chch library users, and can I access from home.

[percy]

What is this "press reader" Is it the app that is 39.99 per month/? Is it free fr chch library users, and can I access from home.

It is free for ChCh City library members.
Log into ChCh Libraries, using your library card number.Choose your password, and you have access to newspapers and magazines from around the world.
Another free service is you can watch 10 of their free movies a month.That is called Kanopy.
Any difficulties, either South Library ,or Spreydon library will get you up and running.

[ratkin]

It is free for ChCh City library members.
Log into ChCh Libraries, using your library card number.Choose your password, and you have access to newspapers and magazines from around the world.
Another free service is you can watch 10 of their free movies a month.That is called Kanopy.
Any difficulties, either South Library ,or Spreydon library will get you up and running.

excellent, will get on it now