Myer set for record profits after abysmal few years

What the embattled retailer has pulled off is nothing short of a miracle as it boasts record profits after enduring a horror few years because of the pandemic.

What the embattled retailer has pulled off is nothing short of a miracle as it boasts record profits after enduring a horror few years because of the pandemic. Picture NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Upscale Australian retailer Myer has seemingly achieved the impossible as it posted a record profit forecast despite the cost of living crisis and years of Covid lockdowns which left its future in doubt.

It appears that Australians have returned to brick-and-mortar stores with a vengeance, with Myer set to rake in as much as $66 million in profit come March in just six months.

That’s more money than the retail giant has ever made in a six-month period since records began in 2004.

On Tuesday, Myer posted an update with the ASX which outlines how it predicts that its half-year profits will be higher than all of last year combined.

In all, its profits surged by 104 per cent for the first five months of the financial year ending December 31.

It’s nothing short of a miracle considering for the entire 2022 financial year, Myer made just $60.2 million.

Myer has had a sudden surge in customers, posting record profits. Picture: Dean Martin/Newswire

Myer said that its total number of sales had increased 24.8 per cent in that five-month period.

In contrast, online sales dropped by 9.4 per cent as more people returned to an in-store shopping experience in a sign of a post-Covid decline in online shopping.

The company’s CEO, John King, said in a statement: “The results … are particularly pleasing and more importantly also show improved profitability in the business”.

Myer acknowledged that the many lockdowns over the years, followed by the Omicron spike, had taken a toll on the business, but things seem to have turned a corner.

“Trading from the stocktake sale period continues to strongly outperform the prior corresponding period, which was impacted by Omicron,” the company stated.

In response to the good news, investors piled into the company, seeing Myer’s shares enjoy a five person rise to rest at 90c by Tuesday’s close.

At time of writing, the share price had climbed even higher, now sitting at 94c.

Overall, Myer’s share price has risen by 124 per cent in the past year.

A pedestrian walks past a closed Myer department store in the Bourke Street Mal during one of Melbourne’s many lockdowns. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

It comes after several bad years for the previously embattled department store chain.

The Covid-19 pandemic eviscerated Myer. In 2020, its shares traded as low as 10c.

Even before the pandemic

Three years ago, Myer’s stocks hit rock bottom at 10c.

And two years before that, it suffered a $486 million loss, causing concerns it was on the brink of collapse.

In 2019, right before the Covid-19 catastrophe, Myer eked out a narrow full-year net profit of $24.5 million, which was the first time it reported a profit in nine years.