Thank you, and thanks for joining us this morning, and as always, thanks for your interest in the business. As normal, we'll talk through the presentation and then allow some time for questions at the end. I'll now turn to page four, our group model. Most of you will have seen this and seen it many a time, and we've covered it off in detail, but a few points that are worth emphasizing. You know our brands. If we move down to our product offering, I think the importance here is the strength and the importance of our product offering. You know, the tech we sell is very much integral into our customers' lives, such as mobile phones, computers, and therefore more of these categories fall outside the traditional discretionary spend.
Combined with the fact, you know, we do have a younger customer who typically always wants to upgrade to the latest. With Home Appliance offering in which we have in both brands, we are focused on the replacement market, which is less impacted by economic conditions, and again, falls outside the discretionary spend. Our categories maintain high consideration regardless of the external environment. If we move down to our target customer, I think the key here is they're a highly engaged target customer. While it's very broad across both brands, we are skewed to a much younger customer, especially in JB, and these customers are less likely to hold off upgrading to the latest devices. Moving down to customer proposition. Again, here it's the power of our value-driven customer proposition.
You know, we are known for great value, and we are known for discounting and negotiability. Importantly, this is on the big brands. You know, when, if household budgets tighten, customers will increasingly turn to trusted, value-driven retailers such as ourselves. Of course, all of this group model is underpinned by our four key competitive advantages, which I'll now turn to on page five. Again, you will know most of these. I've covered them off many times before, but again, just to point maybe through each of them. When it comes to scale, our first competitive advantage, you know, we'll continue to leverage our scale and our significant buying power to access further deals from suppliers and pass these savings on to our customers.
The significant size of our younger customer database drives ongoing brand importance to suppliers to maximize sales of newly released technology and innovation. Finally, with scale, you know, the high volume web traffic combined with a large and engaged contactable database provides for significant marketing opportunities and reach. Our low-cost operating model, number two. Look, it's a very efficient model, and we're really focused on eliminating waste to ensure we can respond to market price activity and maintain focus on market share. Plus, it allows us to compete effectively with traditional competitors and the newer market entrants. Plus, we always maintain a strong focus maximizing wage productivity in line with sales. This is in our DNA, so we can react fast and maximize this productivity when needed.
Number three, multi-channel capability. Over the last few years, we've really proven the power of our multi-channel capabilities and its importance to our customers. Look, at the end of the day, it's about providing the customers with the ultimate choice in how they wish to shop with us, and therefore cater for all their different shopping needs. Over to number four, people and our unique culture. I think the key here is dynamic and flexible environment allows us to pivot the business quickly as has been demonstrated over the last few years, and adapt to any changing market conditions. Our knowledgeable and passionate team members who put customers first and are known and trusted in providing exceptional customer service. Plus, we maintain, you know, our unrelenting focus on health and safety. Over to page six.
We remain focused on generating long-term sustainable growth for the business and are committed to having a positive impact on our people, community, and environment. Some of the highlights through our achievements for FY22 are people. Continued to action a set of diversity inclusion initiatives to improve diversity in leadership and inclusion within the organization. Launched an updated parental leave policy which supports all primary carers regardless of gender and doubles the amount of paid leave from six to 12 weeks. Continued focus on safety with a strong focus on mental health and well-being programs during the year. Achievements with the community. FY22 workplace giving donations totaling AUD 3.7 million and AUD 31.7 million since inception across both the JB Helping Hands and the Good Guys Doing Good program.
Updated and distributed our revised group ethical sourcing policy outlining the minimum standard we expect from our suppliers. From the labor, safety, environment, environmental and ethical practices, including a new requirement for social compliance auditing. With our environment, solar power generation installed on 14 stores in FY22 and 10 stores scheduled for FY23 as the group works towards net zero direct carbon emissions by 2030. We improved the management and recycling of waste generated by our operations and improvements in sustainable packaging of our own brand products in line with the 2025 national packaging targets. Over the page to page seven, the group performance. We'll talk through this in more detail as we move through the presentation, but it is a very pleasing result in what continues to be an extraordinary period.
I mean, these results reinforce the enormous trust our customers have in our brand and the strength of our multi-channel offer, which continues to provide customers with the ultimate way or choice to shop. What we saw during the year, we had total sales up 3.5% to AUD 9.23 billion. EBIT was up 6.9% to AUD 794.6 million. NPAT up 7.7% to AUD 544.9 million. Earnings per share up 8.8% to AUD 4.795 per share.
Final dividend per share are up AUD 0.46 per share or 43% to AUD 1.53 per share, bringing the total dividend for FY22 to AUD 0.36 per share, up AUD 0.29 per share or 10.1%. Through the total dividend for FY22 and the FY22 off-market share buyback, the group has returned AUD 604 million to shareholders. Over the page, the divisional performance. Again, I will take most of this slide as read as we'll discuss in greater detail as we move through the presentation, but it's pleasing to see growth across all divisions. As discussed on the previous slide, sales momentum was strong through the year with total sales of just over AUD 9.2 billion.
H2 total sales were up 9.9% as COVID-19 restrictions eased and customers returned to shopping in store while continuing to shop online. Online sales were up 52.8% to AUD 1.63 billion, representing 17.6% of total sales. In the H2 as restrictions eased, online sales represented 11.9% of total sales. Over to page nine, divisional earnings performance. EBIT was up 6.9% to AUD 794.6 million. H2 FY22, EBIT was up 33.4%, benefiting from both the elevated sales growth as restrictions eased and the improvements in gross margin.
Our ability to continue to grow sales and EBIT despite the ongoing disruptions to all areas of the business, including stores, online and supply chain, continue to highlight the strength of our model in being able to deliver value to our customers. Over to page 11. We're now turning to the divisional performance, starting with JB Hi-Fi Australia. I will take this slide as read as we'll be covering off in greater detail as we move through the presentation. Over the page to slide 12. FY22 sales for JB Australia. Total sales increased by 4% to AUD 6.2 billion, with comparable sales up 3.4%. Sales momentum was strong through the year, particularly in the H2, with sales up 11.7%. Hardware and services sales were up 5%, with comparables up 4.3%.
The key growth categories were communication, largely driven by strong Apple iPhone 13 launch in the H1, with growth in both units and ASP. Visuals or TVs, which was particularly pleasing given the stock challenges we faced. We continue to see customer preference to purchase larger screen panels. Small appliances continue to perform well off the back of strong FY21, with strong growth coming from stick vacs, robot vacs, coffee and kitchen appliances. Smart Home continues as a great category with strong sales in security. Our software sales were down 11.9%, with comparables down 12.4 as a result of a decline in movies, music and games software categories. Sales were not helped with store closures during the period. Software sales were 4.7% of total sales.
Online grew 52.3% to AUD 1.19 billion or 19.2% of total sales. In the H2, with all stores open, online sales represented 12.5% of total sales. We also saw the commercial business record solid sales growth as it continues to improve its customer offer. On to page 13 and earnings results. Gross profit increased by 4.7% to AUD 1.39 billion, with gross profit margin up 15 basis points to 22.4%, driven by strong improvements in the key categories, particularly in the H2. Cost of doing business was 11.4%, up 21 basis points. Cost of doing business in absolute terms grew 6% with disciplined cost control through the year.
Depreciation increased by 0.8% with an increase in depreciation of right to use assets, partially offset by a decline in the depreciation of fixed assets. EBIT was up 4.2% to AUD 544.9 million, with EBIT margin up 1 basis point to 8.8%. H2 EBIT was up 30.7%, driven by elevated sales growth and improvement in gross margins. Now turn to New Zealand on page 15. Again, as Australia, I'll take most of this as read as I'll move through it in greater detail in the coming slides. So over to 16. FY22 sales. Total sales increased by 0.3% to NZD 262.4 million, with comparable sales up the same.
H2 sales were up 6.3%. Hardware and services sales were down 0.1%. The key growth categories that we saw were visual or TVs, games, hardware and Smart Home. Software sales were up 5.9%, with software sales were 7.4% of total sales. Online sales grew 56.7% to NZD 43.3 million or 16.5% of total sales. In the H2, with all stores open, online sales represented 11% of sales. Over to 17. Our earnings. FY22 New Zealand earnings gross margin was down 43 basis points to 17.4%.
Cost of doing business was 12.8%, down 36 basis points, and in absolute terms, declined 2.5% as store wages remain well controlled. EBITDA was NZD 12.2 million, down 0.9%. EBIT was up 51.7% to NZD 8.8 million, with EBIT margin up 114 basis points to 3.4%. Underlying EBIT, excluding the impacts of the impairments in the current and prior year, was NZD 4.7 million, down NZD 1.3 million . Over now to page 19 and The Good Guys results. Again, in previous slides, this summary slide I'll take as read as we'll move on to the detail in the following slides. To page 20.
FY22 sales for The Good Guys. Total sales increased 2.7% to AUD 2.79 billion, with comparable sales up 2.2%. Sales momentum was strong through the year, particularly in the H2, with sales up 6.7%. The key growth categories we saw were laundry, which had solid growth in large capacity washers and heat pump dryers. Good growth in portable or small appliances. We saw good, strong growth in unit sales across coffee machines, and cooking preparation. Floor care with growth across stick vacs, robots and steam cleaners as we continue to expand our offer across this category. Visual or TV, which as with JB saw an increase in larger panels generating growth.
Online sales were up 53.7% to AUD 397 million or 14.2% of total sales. In the H2, with all stores open, online sales represented 10.8% of total sales. Over to page 21. Earnings, The Good Guys earnings. Our gross profit was AUD 649.9 million, with gross profit margin up 89 basis points to 23.3%, driven by strong improvement in the key categories, particularly in the H2. Cost of Doing Business was 11.8%, up 12 basis points, and in absolute terms grew 3.8% as store wages remain well-controlled through the year. Depreciation grew by 3.3% with an increase in both depreciation on right-of-use assets and depreciation on fixed assets.
EBIT was up 12.5% to AUD 241.4 million, with EBIT margin up 75 basis points to 8.7%. H2 FY22 EBIT was up 36.5% driven by elevated sales growth as stores reopened and improvement in gross margin. I'll now hand over to Nick for balance sheet and cash flow.
Thank you, Terry. On slide 23, the balance sheet and starting with inventory. FY22 inventory finished at AUD 1.14 billion, up 20.9% or AUD 196 million year-on-year as inventory availability continued to improve from the low closing inventory positions in FY21 and FY20, driven by COVID-related supply shortages. When compared to FY19, inventory was up 28% versus sales growth of 30% over the same period. As we've always done, we will continue to manage inventory levels in line with sales with the flexibility of our sourcing model and the nature of the product we sell, allows us to quickly flex up and down when required.
Payables, which ordinarily would move in line with inventory, were up 7.9% or AUD 53 million as supply improved and inventory was purchased earlier in the H2 to replenish inventory levels. As a result, at 30 June, net working capital at AUD 121 million has returned to be more consistent with our historical levels, which you can see in the five-year balance sheet in the appendix, where pre-COVID working capital was circa AUD 150 million. Turning to slide 24 and highlights on the cash flow statement. Operating cash flows and operating cash conversion were impacted by those increases to working capital to replenish inventory levels from the low FY 2020 and FY 2021 closing positions, but do remain very strong over three years. In aggregate, over the three years FY 2020- FY 2022, cash conversion was 103%.
Moving to CapEx, which was in line with the prior year as we continued to invest in our store portfolio, our online offers, and our other strategic initiatives. In addition to the significant dividends, we returned AUD 250 million to shareholders via the off-market share buyback, which I'll talk to on the next slide. We are pleased to close in a positive net cash position even after the buyback with net cash of AUD 66 million at 30 June. Moving on to slide 25, capital management. We've today declared a final dividend of AUD 1.53 per share, fully franked up AUD 0.46 per share or 43% on the FY21 final dividend, bringing the total dividend for FY22 to AUD 3.16 per share, up AUD 0.29 per share or 10.1%. This represents 65% of NPAT.
The record date for the final dividend is the 26th of August, with payment to be made on the 9th of September. As we announced previously, the AUD 250 million off-market share buyback was completed on the 11th of April and comprised a AUD 232 million fully franked dividend and AUD 17.6 million capital component. Importantly, the high dividend component distributed AUD 99 million of franking credits to our shareholders. As Terry called out earlier, through the total dividend for FY22 and the off-market share buyback, we'll have returned AUD 604 million to shareholders while still maintaining a very strong balance sheet with closing net cash of AUD 66 million at 30 June.
The board will continue to regularly review the group's capital structure with a focus on maximizing returns to shareholders and maintaining this balance sheet strength and flexibility. I will hand back to Terry.
Thanks, Nick. Now to the trading update on page 27. July sales update for the period 1st of July to the 31 of July. Total sales growth for JB Australia was 9.7%, with comparable sales growth up 9.2%. Total sales growth for JB New Zealand was down 0.9% with comparables of the same. Total sales growth for The Good Guys was 7.8% with comparables at the same. Now we are pleased with the start to FY23, with continued sales momentum and strong sales growth over the three-year period. I'll turn to page 29 now. Look, to finish off the presentation, just wanna give you an overview of the ongoing focus areas for the business.
As we move into what is an increasingly uncertain retail environment, we know we must stay focused on those areas that will continue to see us as that trusted destination for big brands at great value pricing. The areas we're focusing on we will continue to do is multi-channel. When we look at stores we're in. You know, stores remain an important shopping channel for our customers, especially with the high involvement purchases, and that was evidenced by what we saw during the COVID lockdowns. Once the lockdowns ended, people flooded back to stores.
We'll stay focused on evolving the in-store experience and the store layouts to maintain the high level of in-store engagement, education, and entertainment that our customers love. When it comes to online, look, it's an increasingly important and a vital part of the overall customer proposition in conjunction with the physical stores. We'll continue to improve and enhance the online shopping experience, along with delivery options that meet customers' needs. We will also continue to look for new ways to engage and to deal with our customers. We'll continue to innovate our offer to ensure we cater for our customers' evolving needs and differing access channels to the educational content that we produce. Over the page, to page 30. Again, just multi-channel continue. Look, you know, we wanna continue to.
We have an ability, I should say, to leverage our website traffic and database. The nearly 6 million weekly website sessions across the group, which provides us ongoing opportunity to further leverage this traffic and provide both access and education to new and expanding sales categories to this traffic. With over 9 million, and growing rapidly, a database of engaged customers who have requested to hear from us in order to get the latest updates on new products, hot deals, et cetera, will continue to give us opportunities to drive sales and greater value to these customers. Our second point there is personalizing the customer experience. You know, understanding our customers across all the channels, gives will provide us and provide them with a more personalized shopping experience.
We are also trialing a new JB Hi-Fi membership program called JB Hi-Fi Perks, which is designed to provide additional value to these members. We'll continue to enhance The Good Guys Gold Service Extras program. Over to page 31, supply chain. The key here is, look, customers want a choice in how they shop. You know, they want the in-store experience and expertise. They want to be able to live chat with an experienced salesperson. They want to call and negotiate for a deal or buy online. Delivery becomes a vital part of that overall customer experience, and fast and flexible options are a must for our customers. We're about to launch and improve delivery options for The Good Guys customer, which will focus on increasing certainty and transparency, plus choice.
In JB, we are continuing to refine our parcelized delivery options for our customers. Significantly, we will shortly be launching an on-demand delivery solution, which will see approximately a 90-minute delivery via our partnership with Uber. This complements our existing next-day delivery through our closed or dedicated network courier solution. We have our standard delivery, Australia Post, et cetera, one hour click and collect and, of course, the ability to buy in store and take home immediately across a wide range of products. Secondly, we've got the big and bulky enablement. We're gonna continue to develop the big and bulky home delivery center sites to improve the customer availability and delivery experience. Over the page to 32. Commercial continues to be the focus for us.
Really now it's about setting the commercial business up for that next phase of growth. The team have done a great job in restructuring the business to allow this growth. Three of the key areas are evolving the brand. We're repositioning the brand, or have been repositioned from traditionally what was known as JB Hi-Fi Solutions to a much clearer brands that align with our key market segments of JB Hi-Fi Business, JB Hi-Fi Education, and The Good Guys Commercial. Continue channel development. New eCommerce platform has been launched, which will provide greater access and ease and convenience for SMB markets, plus expansion of a dedicated telco business channel. Lastly, deliver a better customer experience. We wanna tailor services to businesses, government and education.
The multi-channel or omni-channel experience will be expanded to all business, be it small, medium and large, and greater integration of the brands to allow greater ranging and operating synergies. Over the page to New Zealand. It's a big focus on New Zealand and a great opportunity. We've done a review and seen the opportunity to grow and expand the business. The key to success has always been for the JB Group, lies in the talent and skill of the team. We've been very fortunate to secure Tim Edwards as our new MD in New Zealand. Tim has a proven track record of retail success and a deep understanding of the New Zealand retail market.
This gives us great confidence in moving forward, that we can maximize the New Zealand opportunity and drive greater relevance of our brand to the New Zealand consumer. To do this, we'll be refreshing the network. We'll be expanding our reach via new store locations. We'll update the New Zealand website platform and continue to develop the local team. Over the page, to retail execution. Look, you know, unashamedly, this slide's focus is on calling out, you know, our strong and highly trusted brand reputation across both brands as a customer-focused, value-driven retailer. When we look at delivering value, we have strong brand loyalty built up over years of continuing to drive value range and service to our customers.
We operate in categories that have seen constant innovation, and we remain top of mind for customers when this innovation is launched. We have the scale to continue to drive suppliers to find deals and pass these savings on to our customers. Our passionate and knowledgeable teams work hard to meet the customers' ever-evolving needs. Secondly, we're leveraging our efficiency. We have multi-brand inventory sourcing direct from supplier. This gives us the flexibility to quickly adjust range and order volume to meet our customers' needs. We have a low cost culture that focuses on eliminating unnecessary expenditure, and our multi-channel strategy provides the ultimate convenience and reach to service our customers. I'll now turn to the final slide, our investment checklist. Look, just in closing, you've seen the investment checklist.
I'm not sure that I need to cover it off. However, I do just see it as a good reminder of the business strength that we have. Thank you, and we'll now go to questions.
Thank you. Just as a reminder, it is star one if you wish to register for a question. Your first question comes from Michael Simotas with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning. The first question from me is around the gross margin. H2 gross margins in JB Hi-Fi Australia and The Good Guys were very high, just over 23% for JB and just over 24% for The Good Guys on my numbers. Discounting's been subdued for a while. What was different in that half that pushed it up even further? It doesn't sound like it was mix, especially in JB Hi-Fi Australia. Were there some stock profits in there around the inflationary increases coming through?
What was different between the two halves? If you take JB Hi-Fi Australia, remember we're cycling off of the H1, some lower margin that was coming from cycling some free freight that we were doing during that time and our inability to sell our services as the stores were closed. You know, it really returned what we thought was probably a little bit more to what it should have been during that time, given the lower discounting or lower on floor discounting that you have mentioned. When it comes to The Good Guys, there's definitely some mix impact appearing in there as we're seeing some good strength in the home appliances segment of the business.
That's a higher margin, as you're aware. Look, we're just seeing, you know, that lower negotiation on the sales floor as, you know, with that lack of stock really meant that customers were just keen to secure stock. You know, we've just seen some less discounting happening there. I should just remind you that, I mean, we did maintain promotional intensity during that period. It was more around that on floor discounting in both brands that saw some benefit flow through to margin.
The second one is inventory. Obviously availability's improved a little bit or significantly, and your inventory to sales is back pretty much at normal levels. It is still well above 2019 on an absolute basis. I think, Nick, you made the comment that you can be pretty nimble to adjust inventory in both directions where you need to. Are there any categories where there is a little bit of inventory appearing out there? I guess I'm not so worried about your ability to manage inventory, but historically, albeit with a different industry structure, the industry has had a couple of mishaps in terms of being stuck with a little bit too much inventory from time to time.
Yeah, look, it's not that we're seeing at the moment, Michael. I think the benefit we have over the last two years having run inventory so low is the quality of inventory. You know, it's all new stock. It's all very relevant. No one, from what we can gather, is stuck with sort of old stock that they're trying to move through. It's all very fresh, and it's all in line with sales run rates at the moment.
All right. Thank you.
The next question comes from Shaun Cousins with UBS. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. Just a further question on inventory, if I can. Just in terms of how are you as JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys, and then also how are suppliers planning inventory as we understand that, global supply is sort of opening up and we're expecting more inventory to come later this calendar year as supply chains ease, and we're just fearful around how that coincides with a potential sort of decline in demand there. Maybe what are you hearing from your supplier counterparts around what they're planning in terms of inventory levels? Are they planning for a slowdown or ongoing strength, please?
Well, I think the key here is that, you know, that we do have some flexibility, and so do they, in the sense of the forecast we're putting in, that we can change those over a relatively short period of time, and we're talking maybe three months, not weeks. So they are looking at it at the moment. They are thinking like taking our forecast. We're at this point in time saying, you know, we're continuing to see some, you know, the market continuing to be reasonable, and therefore we can forecast that to continue on.
It does give us the ability, and we can do that just because we know we've got the ability to turn those forecasts down reasonably quickly if we need to.
Pardon me. To clarify that, Terry, you're forecasting the market to generally remain, dare I say, where it is at the moment in terms of the existing sort of consumer demand to sort of broadly continue on. Did I get that right, please?
Yeah. Look, that's how we're thinking of it when we're forecasting the suppliers.
Yep, perfect. My second question is just around, I think about your cost base and possibly maybe one for you, Nick, just in that labor costs are going up, we're looking at, you know, Fair Work, and then some of your stores are located in shopping centers and the like there. So rents, can you just talk a little bit about how you're looking at your broader CODB, which not only has been benefiting from operating leverage and quick transactions, but is now, which may not continue, but is now going to potentially face higher labor and higher rent costs. How do you think about managing that, please?
Yeah. If you break CODB down, and maybe I'll use the old CODB method that actually includes rent, you know, the two biggest costs are wages and rent. Wages are sort of two-thirds of your cost of doing business. To your point, yes, we are on the general retail award, and so the award increase does come through 1 July, and that is above, you know, above what historically we've seen as it's sort of 4.6%-5.2%. Again, it's very similar to how we manage sales. We absolutely manage labor to sales. When the sales are there, we roster, and we try and maintain flexibility in our workforce to enable that, so that when the sales are there, we roster on.
In the event the sales aren't there, then we need to be very focused on where that labor gets allocated and making sure we can bring it back if the sales aren't there. Rent being the second one is more difficult. To your point, we do, you know, the rent typically have annual increases in them. A significant portion of our rents are linked to inflation, so those inflationary increases will be coming through in a cost base. It is a bit strange with the AASB 16 accounting now because that will get pushed into the right-of-use asset and the right-of-use liability and will be spread out over a number of years, basically.
Great. Thanks so much, Nick. Thank you, Terry.
The next question comes from David Errington with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, Terry. Morning, Nick. First question is the performance of the stores, particularly in that Q4. On my rough numbers, if you look at the H2, this is JB Hi-Fi Australia, the sales increased by AUD 300, but I think online only increased by AUD 60. I'm assuming, I suppose, Nick, this might be to you, but the Q3 where Omicron hit pretty hard, online would have been pretty strong in that Q3. I don't know if you've disclosed that number, but the Q4, where I'm going with this, it looks like the customers just absolutely flocked back to your stores. Is that the right way of reading this? Your costs haven't improved, so were your stores able to handle that increased traffic? That's an ongoing feature, do you think?
Because most people that we've been, you know, people were fearing that store traffic would be down, but it looks like that Q4 was a particularly strong quarter for in-store traffic returning. Could you give a bit of an update on that, Nick and Terry?
Yeah. Look, you're absolutely right. I mean, remember the H1, you know, we were cycling some of those closures, and therefore consumers had no other option but to buy online. In those states where there wasn't closures were probably a little bit hesitant to be out in, you know, sort of the public, so to speak. But what we did see, as soon as stores reopened, you know, it almost returned back to what it had previously been. What we are seeing is online is elevated above obviously the levels from pre-COVID, but it quickly returned to a very, you know, a few percent higher than it was pre-COVID. In other words, customers just came straight back to stores.
Yeah. That's continuing right through now.
Yeah. Your point there.
Sorry.
The Q3 online percentage of sales was definitely higher than Q4, so that's right. Your other point around conversion, we are seeing customers coming to store and converting at a higher rate when they're in store. They are, you know, they're doing more and more research online, and they're coming to store with that intent to purchase.
Which is just perfect for your business model, isn't it?
It's helpful with the service business, but again, it's very helpful in terms of how we manage the labor.
Yeah, yeah. Second question, Terry, on this, Terry and Nick, look, I know it's a pretty hard question to answer, but you opened the door a bit, I suppose, Terry, with your opening comments about affirming the resilience of your customer base. It's not a discretionary, it's resilient. Can you elaborate a bit, please, on that? Because again, it's aligned with my view is that a lot of these products are not defensive products, but they are resilient in that young people do want the most up-to-date. I notice in The Good Guys a lot of that stuff, refrigeration, laundry, floor care, portable appliances, it's not. It's sort of like products there that you do with a renovation. It's not a discretionary type of item.
Can you give a bit of an overview, one, how resilient do you think your sales are? Two, what are the replacement cycles likely to be, particularly in those The Good Guys area and in those new electronic-type products? And three, you know, what areas do you think that you've actually grown the category that we can expect that more resilience in sales? 'Cause the million-dollar question is everyone thinks your sales are just gonna fall off a cliff as soon as the economy comes off. But I'm not sure that that's necessarily the case, but I'd be interested if you could elaborate a bit on that, please.
Yeah. I think first and foremost, we're a value-driven retailer. You know, if we're assuming sales do slow, then consumers will gravitate to those to value. You know, we're absolutely known for that. If you think of our categories, you're right. A lot of the tech categories like phones, definitely phones and computers are very much so integrated into you know, our customers' lives these days, that they are very. Then they don't fall into that discretionary. They are must-haves for a lot of the consumers.
Now, especially if it breaks, but they also want the latest tech, and we see that every time, you know, Apple launches a phone, Samsung launches a phone, or there's an upgrade in the computer side of the business. You know, we absolutely see it as being, you know, becoming less discretionary as time goes on, just because it's so integrated into their lives. When we think of The Good Guys and JB Hi-Fi as well, but The Good Guys very much focused around it always has been focused around a replacement business. The opportunity for us has always been to sell up, but it's focused around the replacement business. It's focused around providing just great value for first-timers, but more importantly for those where a washing machine has broken down.
Of course, if a fridge, washing machine breaks down, you know, you have to replace it. You know, that's where we see the benefit of our model.
Thanks, Terry. Thanks, Nick.
The next question comes from Adrian Lim with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Terry and Nick. First question I had was just how price rises are being accepted in the market at the moment and what your inflation outlook for the next six months might be, given that, you know, obviously we're hearing that supply constraints are easing.
Yeah. Look, so far price rises, and look, it's mainly coming through on those HA products, has stuck. You know, they're being accepted and, you know, I guess consumers are not. It's not a frequent purchase, so there's probably not a lot of relativity of the prices changing, when they're coming into store. Importantly, we also make sure we maintain those key price points for consumers as well. At this stage, they seem to be sticking. You know, one comment I will make around that is that, you know, suppliers are very fixated on their market share, so if they do find themselves out of step with their competitors, they will adjust.
We're price protected in it, but they will adjust fairly quickly if they need to. There's that safety net, if you will, inbuilt into our model. As far as the outlook, you know, there has been some talk that there may be some further increases in home appliances, but that seems to be dying down a little bit at the moment. There is a potential we may see some brands do some smaller price increases, but we're not basing what we have done over the last 12 months, that's for sure.
Okay. Great. Thanks very much for that. Just one other question I had, please, was just looking at New Zealand. I think investors have been looking at that as a market that might be, you know, the sort of canary in the coal mine for Australia, given that they started on the path of rate increases earlier. It looks like to us, if we looked at the three-year stack growth, you know, it might have slowed a little bit in the trading update, you know, relative to where it was in the Q4, but still pretty strong. We have heard that mask mandates have hurt things a little bit, but can you talk to what you're seeing in New Zealand and any sort of read-throughs for Australia? Thanks.
You know, it's a little bit hard. We haven't looked at it through that lens of trying to pick out trends that are happening in Australia because I guess New Zealand's been through its own challenges as has with business, you know, over the time, you know, closing some stores and now looking to relocate stores. You know, it appears to have stabilized. We've got some benefits in New Zealand coming too, which has not been replicated in Australia where The Warehouse Group has pulled out of whiteware and therefore, you know, we've become a real destination. We're seeing some opportunity there to keep growing it.
Look, overall, New Zealand seems to be tracking fairly consistently, and I think that's pleasing in our mind.
Great. Thanks very much.
Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, team. Just on some of the key work from home categories which obviously performed very well during COVID, computing. How are you seeing them at the moment? I don't think they were called out in the slide deck. Given we've pretty much entrenched work from home, it seems, across most of the office space workforce, are you seeing that sort of stabilize at a high level, or is it going back to where it was pre-COVID? Just be good to get a feel for that, for that category if possible. Thanks.
Yeah. Look, that, you know, in JB, you know, that category continues to perform well. Excuse me. We're seeing that, you know, other than, you know, we were fairly tight on stock at some periods during the financial year last year. Once stock's back in, it's continuing to perform well.
Right. Would that be settling at a much higher level than pre-COVID, that category now, or is it sort of?
Uh, well-
remain very elevated, or?
Look, it has. It is remaining at those levels, at the higher levels, and we're seeing continuing sense of growth. Again, you know, we've, you know, over the year, of course, that work from home has continued. I think what we continue to see is, while people have probably got a computer for home, they're probably now thinking, you know, they're upgrading it. They're continuing to upgrade their technology in the home, considering they're probably settling into to stay at home for a lot longer periods now.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then just my second question, just on some of the supply issues you called out in visual. I'd just be interested how much that is driven by external factors, whether it's global supply chains or supplier-led issues, or how much is driven by, you know, potentially some of the issues you may be having with bigger screen sizes going through home delivery centers. Is that creating any challenges, given how much that category's expanded in recent years in terms of screen size? Yeah, be interested to get a bit more detail around that.
No, it was all. It's all been supply, as in, supply into the country, for all the brands. You know, they were seeing such strong demand around the world. You know, ships were being diverted and not coming to Australia basically. They were going into the other markets. It was challenging for the Australian, the likes of Samsung, LG to access stock and get stock into the country. That's starting to improve. We still would like more of that stock, but it's definitely starting to improve. It's all supply chain issues, if that makes sense. Yeah, our staff in our home delivery centers, Brian, are working pretty hard to receive that stock and get it out to customers quickly.
I'd imagine. Just to clarify your comment, Terry, just on starting to normalize. You've seen, obviously we talked a lot already about inventory. I don't wanna rehash all of that. But with that 20% step up in inventory, is that also coming through in the visual category, or is that driven by others, given you haven't yet seen visual really ramp up in terms of stock?
It's starting to build. It's starting to improve. It's still, it formed part of that figure.
Okay. Okay, thanks.
Your next question comes from Ross Curran with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
G'day, team. It's Ross Curran from Macquarie. Just a quick question just around New Zealand and your strategic review. Are you able to give us a bit of color around, you know, that store rollout potential in New Zealand? How much capital you might be committing to that business over the next few years? And really, you know, what hasn't worked in the past that you're gonna be changing going forward, and where you see the opportunity for EBIT there?
Look, so we've done a lot of work on New Zealand and obviously with Tim's appointment, I think that just demonstrates we think there's a significant opportunity. When you look at the market, you know, we're a number three or number four player in the market. When you look at the key competitors, a business like Noel Leeming has 60-70 stores. Harvey Norman got 30-40 stores. We're currently at 14. You know, we do think there's a good opportunity. We've got great brand awareness there, and we've got some good momentum in the business. We will look to roll out, you know, stores over the next few years. It'll be pretty measured, Ross, you know, as we are. We wanna make sure we're getting return on the capital we're deploying.
You know, I think you could expect to see somewhere between AUD 5 million and AUD 10 million dollar investment in capital over the next sort of per annum over the next three years.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Morning, Terry and Nick. Your sales are up 30% on three years ago and inventory up 28%. I know this might be difficult to be precise, but can you give us a sense on what those two metrics would be on a unit basis? Like how much inflation and mix is in your sales and how much inflation and mix is in your inventory?
Yes, it would be. I'm just pulling things to go back to 2019, Craig, but if I look year-on-year, we're seeing about 50/50. About half ASP, half unit growth. In that might be 2022 or 2021. We'd have to go back through to 2019.
It'd be directionally, you know, that sort of just looking for a rough range. It's 'cause it is. I mean, this concern about sales slowing is partly about volumes reverting to normal, but there is both mix and price inflation in your sales in there. Yeah.
Yeah. Look, then a part of the price inflation, and we probably refer to it more as average sale price internally, but that is a deliberate strategy from us to sell up into higher price points as well. We would be looking for ASP growth over that three-year period, regardless of what's happened with price increases more recently.
Sure. And Terry, you seem to have got off lightly on questions around gross margins this time around. You know, how do you see gross margins normalizing? JB Hi-Fi brand has always been at 22%. It's above that. The Good Guys has some fundamental improvements, but previously you'd signaled that there might be some reversion of gross margins in The Good Guys. Some of the gains might be dealt back. What's your view on gross margins for both major brands?
Yeah. I to your point on JB, you know, it's always sort of been that circa 22 point something around, you know, low 20, 22.1, 22.2. It's only slightly elevated above its historic sort of run rate. You know, maybe there's just a little bit of that on-floor lack of on-floor discounting that's probably, you know, it's benefiting from at the moment. You might give some a little bit of that back potentially in JB. That's where I see JB. The big one of course is The Good Guys. You know, where we're seeing significant increase in margin since 2019, gross margin that is since 2019.
You know, still feel that it's probably up that 250 basis points over that time. Still feel that you know, we can maintain probably 50% of that. Still fairly confident on that, given improvements with negotiations around stock and suppliers, you know, mix. I feel that you know, we'll land somewhere in between where it is and where it was in 2019.
Thanks, Terry. Appreciate that.
Thanks.
The next question comes from Grant Saligari with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks. Just two quick ones. First, what was the average rate of price increase across the business in the H2, please, year-on-year?
Price increase is predominantly in home appliances, as Terry flagged. There was a couple of rounds coming through. They ranged, both rounds ranged between sort of 5%-10% on average. I would say that doesn't translate to what we sell at, 'cause to Terry's point earlier, we do make sure we maintain those key price points. We still had a fridge at AUD 999, and if a consumer wanted a fridge at AUD 999, that's what they spent. Price rises were there, but that doesn't translate directly into ASP growth.
The 5%-10%, were they cumulative or were they like 5%-10% and then another 5%-10%?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.
Cumulative.
Just second quick one, if I could. What are your plans for store openings by brand for FY23, please?
There is some opportunities coming in JB. You know, we are seeing landlords pretty active in redeveloping centers and some Homemaker centres as well. In JB, there is some store growth coming. We see three stores in the H1, three new stores. Different formats, so don't extrapolate historical sales out there. Some of those are smaller. And again, still trying to firm up. At the moment, Grant, it's pretty hard with getting access to trades and materials around timing of openings. I'll commit to the three in the H1, and then we'll come back to you on the H2. At Good Guys, more about relocations and optimizing the locations rather than new stores in the short term.
Okay. All right. Thanks very much.
The next question comes from Lisa Deng with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, Terry and Nick. Just one question on the new initiatives that we've talked about, especially around the trial of the membership program, building more of the data, and supply chain options. What are sort of OpEx and CapEx sort of spends expected to get this to scale? And what would we be looking for in terms of, you know, performance measurement or payback around these new initiatives?
We're comfortable we can manage those within the existing envelope. Specifically, you know, specifically around the perks we do, as Terry talked about, we do have a large contactable database today, so it's how we adjust that program to sort of transform it into a more broader membership program. In terms of the delivery options, again, that comes back to how we partner with those third parties like Uber to make that happen. Again, there's not significant investment required in either of those. Then how we measure the payback on those is not inconsistent with how we do everything. We're very disciplined around how we allocate capital, how we measure our return, given it's not incremental.
It's more about how we assess the deployment of that capital between that and another alternative. We're comfortable those are priorities at the moment, and based on what we've trialed to date, we're, you know, comfortable that they are working well.
Okay, got it. Meaning it's not like we're gonna be expecting some large build-out of digital teams, et cetera, which would lead to lumpy OpEx or start-up sort of costs?
No.
That would be.
I think if you look back over a few years, we have invested pretty significantly in those areas already.
Yeah.
The bulk of that is in the cost base already.
Got it. My second question would be, obviously there has been a large swing back from online to offline in the H2 and particularly in the Q4. Can you maybe illustrate to us what that does again to sort of the basket, you know, versus transactions in the sales and then at the margins? Like what would be the online versus offline margins that we would be looking for in the Q4?
They're very similar. Yeah.
Okay.
You don't really see any impact in the sense of the margin or the basket size generally.
Oh, even the baskets weren't that different?
No. In The Good Guys, the basket can be a little bit lower online, but that's only because people generally don't order a, you know, a big French door fridge online, when the stores were closed, 'cause that may have been part of an upgrade. No, in JB, it's very similar.
Very last question. Can you please remind us roughly around Home Appliance, what that is a percentage of total sales for us?
In The Good Guys, Home Appliance is about 60% of the business.
Not much in JB?
Yeah, a small part of JB. Yeah.
Got it. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Ben Gilbert with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just on the wage one, Nick, just how to think about that. I know you sort of said it catches up and you guys usually manage it, but with stores opening now, should we be expecting wage inflation above that sort of circa 5% increase in the award out there? 'Cause I know, what, the H1 was up a bit over 3% and H2 was up around 5%.
Yeah, if we didn't adjust like hours, Ben, absolutely. You say we've opened new stores, so you'd have incremental wages in the new stores. If there was no change to wages, then that, you know, Fair Work increases would drop through to cost.
Just to the point before that you're seeing store traffic increasing, in theory that obviously then comes with a greater weighting of hours 'cause you need to staff the stores to obviously then go hopefully get the benefit around services, et cetera, from a gross margin perspective.
Yeah. What we have been very focused on over the last two years is making sure we allocate as many hours to the shop floor as possible. We've been doing a lot of work in the back of houses in stores so that we're redeploying sort of admin hours from the back of the stores onto selling hours on the front of house. Trying to manage it within the existing cost base, but increase the customer-facing hours.
Great. Just on the CapEx, Nick, so are you still expecting CapEx to be at a similar level in 2023 as to 2021 and 2022, which was obviously pretty similar as well?
Look, I think you've got the moving parts. You know, we talk about that sort of circa AUD 60 million of CapEx in 2021 and 2022. You've got New Zealand investment on top of that. What we would say is, you know, we're seeing opportunities for relocations of stores for a few new stores. Some opportunities in the store network that probably haven't been there over the last few years with landlords being relatively conservative on what they're doing. You know, we'll continue to assess those opportunities as they arise, and if we think, you know, there's a good return from investing above that AUD 60 million, Ben, then we'll obviously do it.
Great. The stuff you're talking about around sort of data and tech and loyalty, that all goes through the OpEx line, doesn't it?
It does. You know, a lot of those services are either people development or software as a service, so they're all running through OpEx.
Okay. Fantastic. Appreciate it.
The next question comes from Mark Wade with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, hi team. Thanks for taking the questions. Just starting with the, I guess the economic backdrop. How do you kind of reconcile the fact that you've got really strong sales and the economy seems to be humming along quite nicely, with the really weaker consumer sentiment or confidence and what you see in countries like the US? Like how do you reconcile those figures?
Good question. Look, you know, at the end of the day, we don't sit there and question it. We just keep delivering for the customers and, you know, just stay focused on those that are in the store, those that are wanting to buy. You know, how do you reconcile it? Do we just stay focused on providing the service?
Okay. On the service, Terry, I mean, there was a recent consumer advocacy group put out their latest survey on a whole lot of electronics retailers, and you guys, to your credit, were probably second quartile on most measures, and value for money kind of sat in the middle. Is there any aspects of the value proposition you really wanna hammer home in this environment we're stepping into then?
No. Sorry, I missed who was in the middle?
On the overall measures, you guys were on value for money, but on the overall metrics sat in that second quartile. I was just trying to think.
Okay.
range you're above average on, value for money kinda sat in the middle, service around the middle as with delivery, et cetera. Just trying to understand, going where do you really wanna make a big difference as in the future?
What we've gotta do, you know, especially now is just, you know, just stay focused on the fact. I hear what you're saying about, you know, a survey, but we just gotta stay focused on that customer service aspect. You know, we've just gotta keep monitoring that in store, keep looking for the ways that we can improve it. We've just gotta keep out there just driving and improving the value that we can give to consumers, something we do day in, day out, but we've just gotta keep and really stay focused on it. You know, for us it's just more of the same, just being, you know, highly laser-like and staying focused on it all.
Excellent. Good to hear. Thanks and all the best.
Your next question comes from Phillip Kimber with E&P Capital. Please go ahead.
Oh, g'day, Terry and Nick. I just had one question just on the cost of doing business. If I look, the H1 growth for Australia was about 4%, The Good Guys was 3%, and in the H2 it stepped up in Australia to 6% and 4.5% for The Good Guys. I mean, I know you sort of partly answered this before, but you know, what's really driving that step up in growth? And then a second related question to that is, if rents link to inflation, what actual inflation number is it linked to? 'Cause, you know, it's running at 6% as a headline at the moment. Is that what it's linked to or is it more of a CPI or sort of 3%, whichever's lower, built into the rental clause?
First question on the cost of doing business, I know we've said it a few times, is just sales. H1, stores were shut, sales were down. We managed costs closely. H2, as sales came back, we obviously had to put the labor in to capture the sales. When you look at you know, cost of doing business there as a percent, I think if you look in the H2, Phil, on a percentage, it's actually percentage got down in the H2 versus it went up in the H1. In terms of your next question, look, it depends on the leases. It depends on the lease. The definition is, there's some of this, some of the leases are CPI, some are CPI plus, some are fixed annual increases, and there are different definitions in each lease.
Does depend on the landlord, and it does depend on the state.
Right. Should we assume with, you know, nominal inflation going up, that growth in rent over the next year is probably gonna be like, putting aside any new stores, is probably gonna be higher than it has been in the last few years? Would that be fair?
Yeah, look, there's a large portion of our store network on fixed annual increases, so they're not impacted. Those that are on CPI, yes, that will have more of an impact. Again, coming back to this AASB 16 accounting, you end up capitalizing that into your asset and your liability, and it gets spread out over the remainder of the lease term. It does sort of get smoothed to some extent from an accounting-
Yeah, but.
From a capital expenditure perspective.
Yeah. Cash.
Yeah.
Yeah. Gotcha.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Terry for closing remarks.
Well, thanks again, everyone for the interest, and we look forward to catching many of you over the next week. Thank you.