31 MAY 2019
ISSUE02
QUARTERLY
BRANDS WE LOVE Natural hair remedies
EDGARS TEAM SPIRIT Celebrating Whitney Martyn
Send your comments or queries to: EdgarsBuzz@Edcon.co.za
EDGARS ON TREND Winter warmers for the home
Message from CE: Mike Elliott
LOOKING AHEAD TO 0 IN 3 I am pleased to share that based on preliminary numbers for the full 2019 financial year, our EBIT (bottom line profit) was a smaller loss than in 2018. While this remains a substantial miss to our budget, it is nevertheless worth celebrating. Despite a lot of heavy clearance activity throughout the year, lower promotional activity and better stock management meant that we achieved a 0.4% better gross margin, and we enter the new financial year with very little clearance stock. Even better news – we have just finished the first month of the new financial year and we exceeded our April sales budget by R8 million, which is the first time we can say that as a business in a long while. With our people disruption behind us, we are now building a strong, solid team to drive the business back towards profitability. Our goal is simple: 0 in 3 (that is, we must be profitable within three years). How we do this is also simple – drive gross profit Rand and manage expenses like never before (austerity being the key word). Sales and gross profit come from great product that arrives at the right time, in the right store, in the right quantity, delivered to the customer with simplicity and great service (champions of our customer). To this end, I look forward to seeing our NPS score and credit sales growing again. The business has endured an incredible amount of uncertainty and change. With this now largely settled, our goal must be to bring pride and passion back to our brand. With our values firmly at our core, let’s make Edgars the company everyone wants to be part of once again. Best Regards
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