Myer has recorded a $172m loss, stands down 10,000 workers
Myer’s chief executive has lashed out at the state government’s frustrating lack of consultation with businesses for the roadmap out of stage four. It comes as the retail giant recorded a $172.4 million loss.
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Myer chief John King has branded the state government’s consultation with business a “box ticking exercise”, saying a lockdown of most retail until the end of October risked “devastating” scores of businesses.
Mr King has also questioned the logic of Victoria’s roadmap out of lockdown, noting that holding off opening up bricks and mortar retail until late October at the earliest was likely to create more crowded stores in the countdown to Christmas.
“We need a supercomputer with common sense attached,” Mr King said.
“I think we should have a staged release of a lot of businesses. Cramming all the openings until the end of October or November just means that there will be a pent up demand and people will be out and about in volume. I don’t think that is what they want to achieve.
“The curfew I don’t understand and I think we need to get on with life. COVID is here to stay. We need to learn to live with it and people need to be trusted to do the right thing.”
Under the roadmap, current restrictions on retail and hospitality businesses will remain until at least October 26, or until Victoria records an average of fewer than five new cases over two weeks, with fewer than five unknown cases over that time.
Mr King said Myer had been represented in discussions with the state government via the Australian Retailers Association but he did not believe they were genuine.
“From our perspective it felt like a box ticking exercise,” he said.
“It was the government just collecting and disseminating information as opposed to a consultation. We all found it very frustrating.
“The best case response to it (roadmap) is frustrated and disappointed and the worst case is devastating – it could be devastating for a lot of businesses.”
Mr King was speaking on Thursday after Myer unveiled a $172.4m full-year loss as the coronavirus pandemic forced it to shutter its stores and stand down 10,000 workers.
Sales at the department store chain dropped 15.8 per cent to $2.52bn for the year ending July 25, it reported on Thursday.
While total sales were down, online sales surged 61 per cent to $422.5m with cosmetics sales up 218 per cent, homewares up 177 per cent and intimate and activewear up 144 per cent.
Womenswear posted the lowest growth, up 29 per cent.
Online sales made up 17 per cent of Myer’s total full-year sales.
Myer’s plunge into the red is dramatic but not as bad as the near $500m loss it posted in 2018 when it slashed the value of its brand.
Myer chief John King said the decision taken in March to temporarily close all 60 stores “was one of the toughest decisions Myer has faced in its 120 years of operation”.
Myer stores remained closed for the majority of April and May.
Myer’s Melbourne stores are shut under the city’s second lockdown.
“We are now living in a new world, a COVID world, which has fundamentally changed consumer behaviour and I believe these changes are here to stay,” Mr King said.
“The 2020 financial year has certainly been like no other which has changed the way business has been and will be.”
Myer collected $93m in JobKeeper payments.
The department store chain refinanced its debt facilities in August.
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