Super Retail Group cuts dividends as theft impacts retail profits
Super Retail Group has pinpointed Victoria as the capital of ‘out of control’ crime and smash and grab theft from its chains including Rebel and Supercheap Auto.
Super Retail boss Anthony Heraghty condemned “industrial scale theft” at his Rebel stores for severely draining his latest profits and called out Victoria as the worst offender.
Amid rising crime rates across Australia, accompanied by assaults on staff, the chief executive of the retailer that owns Rebel, Supercheap Auto, BCF and Macpac pinpointed Victoria as the capital of “out of control” crime and smash and grab theft.
“We think roughly Victoria equates to 40 per cent of the increase in this activity. So that’s disproportionate,” the retail boss told The Australian. Only last week, Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston highlighted that a surge in luxury car thefts in Victoria was contributing to increased motor insurance costs for customers.
Organised crime gangs were scooping up tens of thousands of dollars of expensive sports items like tennis rackets to sell on online marketplaces for a quick profit, Mr Heraghty revealed, a dangerous step up from teenagers sneaking out with t-shirts.
Noting federal treasurer Jim Chalmers and community leaders met in Canberra for an economic roundtable on productivity, Mr Heraghty said he wanted national focus on “the story of the day”: retail crime on an organised scale.
“This is industrial scale theft. This is not children taking an item and putting it in their school bag, this is gangs of people coming into our stores, taking thousands of dollars, in some cases tens of thousands of dollars in stock,” Mr Heraghty said as Super Retail posted record full-year sales of $4.07bn, up 4.5 per cent.
The retailer’s profitability went in the opposite direction, as annual net profit for 2025 fell 7.6 per cent to $221.8m driven by what Mr Heraghty described as a “deliberate decision” to roll out more stores which drove up costs and weakened margins. It also reflected the spike in theft, particularly at his Rebel store network.
Last year, Super Retail was ensnared in its own corporate scandal when two former executives turned whistleblowers launched court action and made a string of sensational allegations including that Mr Heraghty had been engaged in an illicit affair with the then head of human resources Jane Kelly.
The retailer has consistently denied these allegations including that Mr Heraghty and Mr Kelly had been in a relationship.
On Thursday, Mr Heraghty declined to comment on the matter and how much court costs had been rung up by the protracted case. He also declined to comment if he was now in a relationship with Ms Kelly, when asked by The Australian.
According to the Super Retail annual report the company has set aside $11.3m for unspecified “legal, professional fees and expenses related to regulatory and litigation matters”.
The matter remains before the Federal Court.
Meanwhile, shares in Super Retail rallied more than 22 per cent on as investors looked beyond the profit slip to focus on the fact it was 6 per cent ahead of market expectations, and that strong sales momentum had pushed into the current half.
On the earnings briefing, Mr Heraghty was asked about the impact of crime to his bottom line as Super Retail’s 70 basis point margin decline over 2025 was almost evenly split between the store investments and theft.
Mr Heraghty said swollen crime rates were an issue afflicting many retailers and it was making the public square increasingly unsafe.
“The jump up (in crime) is significant anti-social, structural theft that is impacting a number of stores and quite frankly we are not alone.”
The Super Retail business operates 782 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s organised theft, so it is someone coming in and taking thousands of dollars in one move and usually assaulting the team members on the way out. (They are) threatening our team members with weapons, driving 200 Series Land Cruisers through shopping centres, it is out of control.”
He later told The Australian the store investments would reap future growth.
“So we’ve opened a record number of stores in fiscal 2025 and when you open a new store, you take on the costs associated with opening the store, and you take on the costs of running the store whilst its revenue is ramping up,” he explained.
“We knew coming off Covid, this is pretty important that we were going to potentially see a retreat in sales. And the counter-measures that we deployed against that retreat in sales was this significant investment in stores and loyalty and so that 40 basis point profit decline in this period, in many respects, is a deliberate decision to engage additional costs, to grow future earnings.
“And I suppose we would see the investment in the business for future growth, as good stewardship of the business.”
Its Supercheap Auto business booked the largest revenue, with sales up 2.1 per cent to $1.5bn and at Rebel sales grew by 4.8 per cent to $1.4bn.
Super Retail declared a special dividend of 30c per share, down on the 50c special dividend paid last year. The ordinary dividend of 34c was also weaker, with the total payout down by 26 per cent.
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