Shop from home works for Shaver Shop as profit lifts

Shaver Shop says the big switch to shopping from home has worked well for customers and investors, with full-year profit booming.

Shaver Shop CEO Cameron Fox says the big shift to online shopping during the pandemic. Picture: Ian Currie

Shaver Shop Group believes the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the push to online shopping as its consumers chose to switch to online and purchase grooming products while isolated at home, with the retailer’s full-year net profit up 44.6 per cent to $10.6 million.

The retailer, which owns a portfolio of retail stores specialising in personal grooming products, said that total sales for the year were up 16.4 per cent to $194.9m with like for like store sales better by 15.3 per cent and online sales rising by 103.5 per cent to $47.8m, representing 22.7 per cent of total group sales.

And the strong growth in sales over 2020 have pushed into the first few months of fiscal 2021, with Shaver Shop providing a trading update that showed for the first seven weeks of the year total sales were up 27.5 per cent and like for like sales up 28.2 per cent. In the period online sales were up 187 per cent.

Shaver Shop chief executive Cameron Fox said the retailer had backed up its strong first half result with an even stronger second half.

“Our omni-retail strategies are delivering strong online and in-store results, evidenced by 15.3 per cent growth in annual same store sales. Our key customer service metrics are also trending at all-time highs.”

The company declared a final dividend of 2.7 cents per share, up 8 per cent, payable on September 24.

“It’s been an incredible year for Shaver Shop. The resilience and adaptability of our business has been tested and proven itself. Our record financial results this year could not have been accomplished without the amazing efforts and dedication of the entire Shaver Shop team. I would like to thank all our people, but most specifically those on the frontline, in our stores, for delivering truly exceptional results in a very challenging, COVID-impacted retail environment.”

Online sales grew more than 100 per cent and Mr Fox said consumers had quickly pivoted to buying personal grooming products online.

“We believe COVID-19 has led to an acceleration of consumer adoption of both online shopping and do-it-yourself (DIY) personal grooming. Shaver Shop is further increasing its digital investment and capability to extend its online leadership position and further increase market share in the category.

“The investments we made in our digital platforms and capability over the past 18 months drove strong growth across the year. Importantly, this investment enabled Shaver Shop to manage the surge in online sales in the fourth quarter as customers moved to online ordering.”

He said more recently, the flexibility and strength of its omni-retail approach has proved invaluable in Victoria, where despite Stage 4 store closures in metro Melbourne, overall sales remained robust.

“Our store teams provide service excellence to our in-store customers, whilst also fulfilling and dispatching online orders making our full range and inventory holding available to all our online customers, regardless of the location of the inventory in our business. This improves the productivity of our inventory investment, makes for a superior customer experience, and aligns our store teams around delivering an excellent omni channel customer experience, regardless of how customers choose to engage with Shaver Shop,” Mr Fox said.

Shaver Shop ended fiscal 2020 with 123 stores across Australia and New Zealand.