By Grant Shepherd
David Jones has announced its results for the FY09 ending 25 July 2009. The retailer performed exceedingly well, recording its highest full year profit result and dividend since listing in 1995.
According to the report issued to the Australian Securities Exchange, David Jones recorded underlying 2H09 Profit after Tax of $56.4 million, up 36 per cent on the 2H08 result of $48.1 million. In addition to this it also reported a full year 2009 Profit after Tax of $156.5 million for the year ending 25 July 2009, a 14.2 per cent increase on FY08 ($137.1 million).
David Jones CEO, Mark McInnes, was very pleased with the results and commented on the company’s strong business model.
“Despite an extremely challenging environment for all of the world’s major economies over the past 12 months we are pleased to report that our company has delivered a record profit result and declared a record dividend – both being our highest since listing in 1995,” he said.
“Our ability to deliver both profit and dividend growth over the past 12 months demonstrates the strength of our business model. Looking forward we are positioned to fully leverage the next upturn in the economic cycle.”
As announced on 5 August 2009, David Jones’ sales revenue for the year was $1.985 billion, which was down 5.4 per cent on FY08. Earnings before Interest and Tax in FY09 was $225.7 million, up six per cent on FY08.
In addition to this the total cost of doing business percentage for FY09 was 30.3 an improvement of 90 basis points, and McInnes noted that this was due to the company’s strong focus on cost efficiency.
Gross profit was also up, with an increase of 50 basis points to deliver a full year result of 39.6 per cent. This ability to improve GP margins was attributed to the difficult retail environment and the leverage that exists to improve margins when strong retail conditions prevail.