We sent out our November issue of the Retail Examiner last week, looking at Internet retailing. Our research forecasts that at least $1 billion of NZ retail sales will be made online by 2016. This isn’t much as a percentage of NZ’s total sales – and considerably less than the percentage in countries like the USA and South Korea – but we expect major growth. Have a look at NZI Business between 6am and 6.30am on Tuesday morning, or Campbell Live on Tuesday evening, for more – our research analyst John Polkinghorne will be on both programmes.
Updated: here’s a link to John’s interview on NZI Business: RCG Reports on Online Retailing NZ.
Our Research Analyst John Polkinhorne on NZI Business TV
The Retail Examiner can be downloaded from the ‘Downloads’ link in the top bar of this site. We will also be putting up a few more bits and pieces about Internet retailing on the website – we weren’t able to fit everything into the finished document!
We have all followed the activities of various finance companies, and last week Hanover were in the news again. The directors took considerable flak from the shareholders for their poor performance. This prompted another round of reporting on other finance companies that have left investors much worse off than they expected to be. The next line of investigation could see certain individuals processed in the courts. Some cases, it seems, will not be heard until 2012.
Meantime, those responsible remain relatively unscathed. Where is the prompt justice? Furthermore, with various experts suggesting that the retirement age be raised, we point out that people in their 60s will have to keep working to maintain their lifestyle anyway, given that their income streams and investments have taken a hammering – especially for those who had investments with companies such as Blue Chip.
We commented last week on the Mitre 10 resource consent application in Cambridge. We failed to advise that Mitre 10 do have an existing store in Cambridge, which that trades very well in its existing location, in face of the new Bunning’s store. What we were describing was the detail contained within the resource consent application and our opinion as to the merits or otherwise.
We remain of the view that Cambridge is an excellent town with growth potential for many retail categories, DIY being one of them. Performance of retail is generally driven by location and accessibility.
Our noses tell us that we are not quite out of the mire yet when it comes to good news for retailers. We have said several times that the Christmas season will be a breath of fresh air for retailers who have toughed it out this year, and while sales may not be as high as some previous years, the results will be satisfying. Some retailers, however, will not make the grade and we expect some more bad news to emerge in retail circles before Christmas!
Kirkcaldie and Stains Ltd operate a premium department store on Wellington’s Lambton Quay, and also own the adjoining shopping centre (Harbour City Centre). The company’s annual results came out late last month, and we think they are pretty impressive.
ShareWatch
Kirkcaldie and Stains Ltd Share Prices Nov 2007 - Nov 2009
Retail sales fell by 5%, with the first half of the year (which included the important Christmas period) being especially affected. However, Kirk’s managed to trim costs in a number of areas, including inventory.
As a result, Kirkcaldie and Stains made an after-tax profit of $1.024 million, which is in line with results over the previous five years. This is a good effort for an upper-market retailer, given the current state of the economy, and especially given that the value of its property holdings fell over the year!
