Personal shopper group Aumake smashed by closed borders during Covid

Aumake, which caters to Chinese tourists and personal shoppers known as Daigou, has suffered a massive blow out in annual losses as international border remain shut.

Daigou shoppers, once crowding Australian stores, have dried up as international borders are closed during the pandemic. Picture: Christian Edwards/AAP Image

Aumake, the ASX-listed online retailer built around Chinese tourists and personal shoppers known as Daigou, has seen its financial performance smashed by international borders closures and trade tensions between Beijing and Canberra.

The group’s losses have blown out to $20.1m for the year ended June 30 from a loss of $5.1 last year, as revenue sank by 79 per cent to just $12.4m.

The company blamed the revenue drop on the continued impact of Covid-19 on its business.

Online gross merchandise value rose to $9m, representing 72 per cent of total revenue as active users purchased more products from its new online platform.

Aumake said its $20m-plus loss consisted of non-cash losses of $13.5m and a cash loss of $6.6m, due to the fallout of Covid-19 and ongoing investment in its new online platform.

“The company has reduced non-core operating expenditure, streamlined its labour force including staff redundancies, divested physical stores and benefited from increased government subsidies (such as JobKeeper),” Aumake said in a statement to the ASX.

The group received $1.1m of JobKeeper subsidies from the federal government in the 2021 financial year.

Aumake recently completed the acquisition of Broadway, an inbound Asian tourism business in Australia and New Zealand that manages more than 100 Asian travel agent relationships.

In its annual results statement, the company said the settlement of the final tranche of Broadway, current liabilities have fallen to $5.2m. It primarily consists of $1.3m in trade payables and $3.3m total rent owed and commissions payable to travel agents.

“The company continues to maintain good relationships with landlords and travel agents, to effectively manage this $3.3m in accrued expenses,” Aumake said.

Aumake reported it had cash of $4.3m in the bank at the end of June.

No dividend was declared.