Welcome to Super Retail Group's FY22 full year results presentation. Today's call will be hosted by CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Anthony Heraghty and CFO, Mr. David Burns. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This presentation is for investors and analysts only. Media seeking access to management should contact Kate Carini, whose contact details appear at the bottom of today's ASX announcement. I would now like to hand over to Mr. Anthony Heraghty to begin the presentation. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning, everyone, and welcome to Super Retail Group's full year results presentation. Joining me this morning is our Chief Financial Officer, David Burns. Good morning, David.
Good morning.
All right, in terms of structure for today's presentation, I'll begin by speaking to some of our financial and operating highlights for the period. I'll also discuss our brand performance before asking David to provide more detail on the full year financial results. I'll then take an opportunity to overview the progress we've made against our corporate strategy before talking to our new sustainability framework and targets, as well as some of our ESG achievements this year. Finally, as always, I'll provide you with a trading update for the first six weeks of FY2023. Of course, there'll be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of the call. Firstly, some housekeeping.
FY2022 comprised a 53-week trading period as compared to a 52-week trading period for FY2021. We've set this out for you on slide two, the impact of that 53rd week on key line items in the P&L. Unless otherwise indicated, growth numbers in the presentation are comparing a 53-week trading period performance with a 52-week trading period performance. All of the like-for-like numbers, however, in the presentation, are based on a 52 versus 52. Importantly, we've made no adjustments for store closures. Finally, it's important to note that because of this extra week, it included an additional payment cycle for store rental, certain trade partners, and also payroll. The impact on group cash flow was an additional outflow of AUD 49.4 million. All right, that said, let's cover off the highlights of the results.
The group has delivered a record sales result and a record online sales result. Indeed, it was our online sales performance and the group's strategic decision to invest in inventory in response to a pretty significantly disrupted global supply chain that really underpinned our first half performance. As these lockdowns subsided, the group delivered a strong second half result. Like-for-like sales in that second half increased by 5% with like-for-like performances or positive like-for-like performances recorded across all four brands. Growing contribution from our successful new store formats and a record June winter sales result for Macpac topped off a solid revenue performance for the full year. Pleasingly, the group achieved gross margin of 46.8% by optimizing our promotions and pricing to offset higher supply chain costs.
At the bottom line, the group delivered a net profit after tax of AUD 241.2 million. As a result of the group's strong performance, the board has declared a final fully franked dividend of AUD 0.43 per share, bringing our total dividends for the year to AUD 0.70. Entering FY2023, the group has a conservative balance sheet with positive net cash balance. Right on to the particulars of the result, and turning to slide seven. In contrast to lockdown impacted half one, the group achieved a half two like-for-like of 5% with, as I said, all brands in growth. Half two saw pandemic fears ease and customers began returning to stores. Rebel's more muted half two growth reflected inventory constraints, most of which have been remedied in Q4.
On a full year basis, the group has delivered another record year revenue, with sales up 2.8% to AUD 3.55 billion or 1% when adjusted for that 53rd week. On to gross margin in slide eight, we were pleased with gross margin performance of the business in FY22. A successful execution of pricing promotions and improved sourcing offset higher supply chain costs. As a result, group gross margin of 46.8% remains well above pre-COVID levels. As expected, the level of promotional activity is beginning to normalize, particularly in BCF. However, at a group level, promotional sales as a percentage of total sales remains below FY2020 levels. Turning to slide nine, cost of doing business this year has normalized to 35.7% of sales, which is slightly below pre-COVID levels.
Importantly, higher CODB in FY2022 reflects a deliberate decision to increase our investment in our business. These investments are in line with our strategic priorities and are designed to sustain performance in a post-COVID environment. These investments include the opening of 21 new stores and the refurbishment of over 40 as part of our store rollout and refurbishment program. The execution of our portfolio projects, notably Workforce Planning, Warehouse Management System, and the Flybuys and Gift Card programs. It is also an ongoing investment in the group's personalization and loyalty capability designed to leverage the first-party data from our 9.2 million active club members.
Looking forward, inflationary pressure on rent and wages will represent CODB headwinds in FY2023, offset in part by the unwinding of costs incurred during this year, and in fact, prior years associated with COVID and COVID lockdowns. In addition, in FY2023, we're investing a further AUD 12 million in customer and loyalty capability. This investment will help redesign our loyalty programs and build our customer analytics that allow our business to make increasingly personalized offers to our customers, utilizing analytically driven data and insights. On slide 10. The business has continued to attract and retain new customers with more than 1 million new members added to our loyalty program in FY2022. This takes our loyalty program membership to a record 9.2 million active club members.
Remember, to be active, you have to have purchased in the last 12 months, and these club members contributed 70% of total group sales. We have more customers than ever, and I'm pleased to report they're increasingly satisfied with our brand, product, and service because our Net Promoter Score increased to 64.6, with all brands recording an improved performance. Simply put, more customers, happier customers, not a bad result. Over to slide 11, sort of sets out how we are thinking about our investment in loyalty and personalization. With the 9.2 million active club members, they are an asset to our business, as is the first-party data that is generated as a consequence. Our investment in loyalty and personalization seeks to better leverage this asset.
This program of work is well underway, and its fruits can already be seen in the acceleration of club growth in the last 12 months, especially within Supercheap Auto. Looking forward, the group will launch new loyalty programs for Rebel, Supercheap Auto and BCF, which will enable the business to focus growing at annual customer value by incentivizing visitation and transaction value. Concurrently, the group will continue to invest in our advanced analytics capability. Our first use cases is personalized one-to-one promotions. The algorithm is built and the test and learn phase is well underway. In short, encouraging 9.2 million customers to visit that one more time or purchase that one more item generates a material benefit, and this is the key goal of the program. On slide 12.
As I highlighted earlier, FY 2022 has been a big year investment in our store network, one of our biggest. It's not just about new stores, notwithstanding the fact that we opened 21 new stores within the year. It's also about refurbishing the network and upgrading our fleet with new and exciting formats. In Supercheap Auto, we converted over 30 stores to the next generation format, and this helped deliver solid uplift for our like-for-like sales, particularly in the tools category. In Rebel, we now have 11 RCX stores open, including our featured flagship Rundle Mall store in Adelaide. These are large format stores showcasing comprehensive range across key global brands, focusing on core categories of running, gym and fitness, football, basketball and kids. They provide a differentiated customer experience through physical experiences like half-court basketball, indoor football pitches and sporting gaming consoles.
This unique format is attracting co-investment from leading global sports brands and giving us access to exclusive products. We've continued to roll out our specialized, in-store world of formats in must-win categories of basketball, football, running, kids and training more broadly across the Rebel network. In BCF, our small format regional stores with tailored ranging are performing well above expectations. In Macpac, sales and brand awareness have been boosted by the opening of additional 10 new stores and the ranging of Macpac product in over 200 Rebel and BCF stores. Looking forward, our network expansion plan for FY 2023 includes up to 30 new store openings, including our BCF Super-Superstore in Townsville. We also expect to add an additional five Rebel RCX stores within the next year. On to slide 13. Group digital sales grew by 44% to over AUD 600 million.
This record sales result showed that our omni-retail execution is continuing to improve, and we are capturing an expanded digital market share. Since FY 2019, online sales have increased by a factor of 3x , and they have increased as a proportion of overall sales from 7%- 17%. Click and Collect, which leverages the strength of our store network, continues to outgrow and outpace home delivery. In FY 2022, Click and Collect represented 55% of total online sales and 9% of total sales. The importance of our national store footprint is underscored by the fact that despite the pandemic in FY 2022, over 90% of our sales were transacted in-store, whether it be through in-store sales or indeed Click and Collect.
Finally, the investment we've made in our order management system is continuing to reap benefits in terms of reduced numbers of split deliveries, adding to the profitability of our home delivery sales. Okay, onto the brand results, Supercheap Auto. Supercheap Auto delivered record sales result in another COVID disrupted year, reinforcing the reliability of the auto category and simply the strength of the Supercheap business. Benjamin Ward and his team continue to excel in customer acquisition, having added more than 1 million new members to their club membership program in the last 12 months. Total sales increased by 2.4% to AUD 1.34 billion, or just 0.5%, adjusting for that 53rd week. Online sales grew by 64% to AUD 175 million and represented 13% of total sales.
Like-for-like sales for the year fell 0.1%, but rebounded strongly in the second half, with second half, too, like-for-like sales growing by 7.7%, driven by strong performance in lubricants, auto maintenance and tools. Gross margin declined by sixty basis points versus the prior corresponding period as higher trading margins were offset by higher supply chain costs and normalization of promotions. Segment PBT fell to AUD 176 million, but pleasingly, second-half PBT of AUD 100 million was almost 12% higher than in the prior corresponding period. Rebel delivered another very strong sales performance in FY 2022, despite inventory challenges and a peak Christmas trading period, which was impacted by a reduction in footfall in CBD and large shopping malls courtesy of COVID.
Faced with this challenge, Gary Williams and the team did a great job in pivoting to meet online demand, with Rebel lifting online sales by almost 40% to AUD 268 million, or 22% of total sales. Like-for-like sales were down 2.8% for the year, but rebounded in the second half as foot traffic recovered and footwear and apparel stocks were replenished at the end of the fourth quarter. Gross margin was 80 basis points lower than PCP, as higher trading margins were offset by supply chain costs and increased promotional activity and inventory supply challenges. Segment normalized PBT fell by 15% to AUD 141 million, but pleasingly, second half segment normalized PBT of AUD 73 million was almost 5% higher than the previous period.
If we look at slide 21, we see that Rebel's relationship with the world's leading sporting brand is key to our position or to maintaining our position as the preeminent sports retailer in Australia. This slide includes testimonials from some of our brand partners which speak to the strength of those relationships. While global brands have expressed an intention to expand their direct-to-customer offering, we actually see this as an opportunity for Rebel, as the global brands are gonna be more selective about who they partner with. Nike, adidas, and Under Armour all co-invested in our RCX formats, and I'm sure you can get a more positive endorsement than that. Slide 22, BCF. From BCF, there was a very strong top line result, another record year of sales.
Paul Bradshaw and the team have continued to build this business through store network optimize-expansion, range improvement, and tailored ranging. Total sales increased 4% to AUD 830 million or 2.7% adjusting to that 35th week, driven by like-for-like sales growth and contribution from new stores. Online sales grew by 36% to AUD 117 million and represent 14% of total sales. Like-for-like sales for the year grew 1.1% following a strong second half performance. H2 like-for-like sales increased by 6.7%, driven by strong trading over summer and Easter holiday period, particularly in boating and camping. The decline in BCF gross margin reflects the anticipated increase in promotion activity, sales mix skew, and higher supply chain costs. PBT of AUD 60 million was 38% lower than prior year.
However, second half PBT of AUD 28 million was only 14% below the prior year. Over to slide 23, BCF has continued to strengthen its portfolio of private label and strategic brands, which now represent 45% of sales. Given the highly competitive category which BCF operates in, we are pleased with the progress we are making in growing our relationship with marquee brands like YETI, Under Armour, and Weber, whose products are simply unavailable in other outdoor big box competitors. On to Macpac, page 24. After a challenging first half, which was impacted by COVID, Cathy Seah and the Macpac team delivered an outstanding second-half performance driven by record June winter sales period in Australia. Total sales increased by 15% to AUD 177 million or 11% adjusting for that 53rd week.
Online sales grew by 35% to AUD 41 million and represented 23% of total sales. Like-for-like sales grew by 4.4% overall and 8.5% in the second half. This strong performance was driven by Australian stores, where like-for-like sales increased by 12.4% off the strong demand in rainwear and insulation due to cold and very wet weather. Our performance in New Zealand was subdued, owing to the impact of COVID and reduced tourism and travel. Pleasingly, wholesale sales of Macpac product to Rebel and BCF increased by 95% following the expansion of this offer to now over 200 stores for Rebel and BCF stores. Now, for avoidance of doubt, Macpac's reported like-for-like sales numbers exclude these wholesale sales.
For Macpac, gross margin was lower than prior corresponding period due to higher freight costs as a result of significant uplift in home delivery sales in the first half. Second half gross margin was higher than the prior corresponding period. Adjusting for the 53rd week in FY 2022, which occurred in the peak winter promotional period, we note that segment normalized PBT was only 1.99% below PCP, despite an AUD 1.5 million loss incurred in the first COVID-19 impacted half. Normalized PBT was 130 basis points lower than the prior year. However, second half PBT margin was 250 basis points higher than the prior corresponding period. On to slide 25. Macpac's continuing to scale its business, build brand awareness both through network optimization and expansion and expanding the offering in Rebel and BCF.
We have 48 stores in Australia and we've been looking to expand our Australian footprint through the opening of up to nine stores in FY 2023. I'd now like to hand over to David Burns to talk in more detail about the financials. David?
Thank you, Anthony. On page 26, we highlight the key balance sheet areas for focus. Inventory investment has been a key component of our ability to grow sales by 31% since June 2019. While inventory has increased on the pre-COVID levels, it now represents 22.5% of sales, an increase of just 1.8% compared to June 2019, a pre-COVID reference year. The increase primarily relates to increased safety stock of an additional four weeks of cover measured by units to offset supply chain risk. Recognizing that our inventory is non-perishable and where we have seasonal exposure, such as Rebel, we have a very clean stock file. Inventory has been reduced by AUD 109 million since we last reported to you in December 2021.
In the last six months, we have demonstrated we can lower inventory levels without compromising gross margin profit delivery. Net inventory investment has increased and has impacted operating cash flow in the period. This has been driven by three factors. First, the second of July close has picked up an additional payment cycle. This will normalize over time and is not permanent. Second, the additional week of trading has impacted net inventory twofold. A reduced payables balance of AUD 70 million associated with the additional payment cycle, offset by AUD 30 million of inventory that has run through cost of goods in the 53rd week. Therefore, a net impact on net inventory of AUD 40 million. Finally, net inventory was impacted as we reduced total inventory investment, which we have done in the second half. Our purchase frequency slowed, and we have had less benefit from trade payment terms.
This, again, will normalize. In summary, there's been no reduction to our trade payable terms. There's been an impact on net inventory investment as follows. We've increased carrying inventory to accommodate stronger sales position. We will align this investment as we adjust to the sales outlook. We have increased units covered by four weeks to accommodate supply chain challenges. We will adjust the cover once the supply chain normalizes. Thirdly, the second of July balance date is a snapshot, and it will normalize over time. Finally, we will gain more leverage from our trading terms as inventory purchasing patterns normalize. The group remains in net cash positive position despite the late close. Slide 27, group unallocated. The group unallocated segment includes the corporate costs, which were consistent year-on-year, and other costs not included in the four core brands.
Operating costs to develop the loyalty and personalization capability have been captured in group unallocated. As noted earlier, these are expected to increase by AUD 12 million in FY 2023. We wrote down our investment in Ordermentum in the period. This is a non-core investment which delivered a valuation gain in the FY 2018 accounts. Slide 28, returns and capital ratios. As highlighted on this slide, the group's balance sheet is strong, access to liquidity is significant, and we expect once conditions normalize, the group can sustain a level of bank debt of up to 0.5x EBITDA, as measured on a pre-IFRS 16 basis. Return on capital is excellent, above 20%. Slide 29, cash flow. Operating cash flow this year was impacted by the financial close of 2nd July, including an additional payment cycle, which we outlined, the full impact on the slide.
Tax payments attributable to last financial year and funding the increased investment in net inventory, which I've outlined earlier. As noted, it's our creditors' terms leverage will recover over time. Capital expenditure of AUD 125 million is consistent with previous advice. I will now hand back to Anthony to take us through strategy and FY 2023 trading update.
Yes, thank you, David. On to slide 31 and 32. They really provide an overview of the key pillars of our corporate strategy, which we first released at our Investor Day in November 2019, seemingly a year on the go courtesy of COVID. The group's strategic focus has continued to remain on growing our four core brands, leveraging closeness to our customer, connecting our omnichannel retail supply chain, simplifying the business, and excelling in omnichannel retail. Slide 32 contains further detail on our progress to date in executing the strategy, which just given the limited time today, I won't talk to the detail on this slide. We'll turn to slide 34 and talk about our updated sustainability framework. Today, we released our latest sustainability report, setting out a new framework and targets.
This framework has five focus areas, team, community, responsible sourcing, circular economy, and climate. These focus areas have 12 goals linked to measurable targets. They're all set out in slide 34. Given the time constraints, I cannot speak to all of this detail now, but in terms of some of the key targets we've set, I'd like to call out the following. We've reset our carbon emissions targets with a new goal of zero emissions to Scope 1 and 2 by 2030. We've set a 40/40/20 target for board, executive, and senior leadership positions. We are targeting 100% of private brand packaging to be reusable or recyclable. We're developing a disability action plan, and we also committed to developing a Reconciliation Action Plan. I would strongly encourage you to refer to our sustainability report, which was released this morning for further details.
Turning to slide 35, I'm incredibly proud of the progress we've made in 2022 against some of our key sustainability and team performance measures. These highlights include a 16.9% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, Scope 1 and 2, from the FY 2017 base year. We've recycled over 1 million li of oil through Supercheap Auto. In Macpac, we've had over 1 million bags refused since a Refuse a Bag program began in 2018. In terms of team highlights, we have over 45% female representation at the executive leadership level. Over 2,500 team members participate in our I Am Here mental health program. We continue to have a very high team member engagement score of 82 and 80 in our October and June team member surveys.
On the slide 38, before we turn to our specific trading update, I want to remind you of the group's track record of performing through different parts of the economic cycle. Indeed, prior to FY 2022, Supercheap Auto has delivered 15 consecutive years of like-for-like growth. 40% of Supercheap Auto sales are in non-discretionary products like lubricants, car batteries, wipers and car parts, which our customers need to keep the cars on the road. Growth in the Australian car park and the aging of that car park, particularly given current shortages of new cars, are a positive trend for Supercheap Auto. The recent resilience, performance of Supercheap Auto's New Zealand business in an economy that's impacted by not only COVID disruption but depressed tourism, rising interest rates, also speaks to the defensive nature of the Supercheap Auto business.
Similarly, following the acquisition by the group in November 2011, Rebel has delivered 10 consecutive years of like-for-like growth. Looking ahead, Rebel continues to benefit from long-term trends. This increased focus on personal health and wellbeing, the resumption of grassroots sports, and the return of crowds to professional sport, and indeed flexible working arrangements and increased leisure time, which basically leads into selling more trackie daks for people at home. Finally, I'd also point out that across our core four brands, the group has low exposure to big-ticket items. Over 90% of the items we sell across the group cost less than AUD 100. So arguably, that should help support the business in more challenging economic times. Over to page 39. The trading update. Look, we've made a positive start to FY 2023. 17% like-for-like growth in the first six weeks.
The composition of that like-for-like growth by brand is set out on the table on slide 39. Given the group is cycling lockdowns in the prior corresponding periods, we'll sort of point out that investors are cautioned against extrapolating this growth. Like-for-like growth against the comparable non pre-pandemic period, we have to go back to calendar 2019, is 29%. Low unemployment and high levels of household savings are currently supporting strong consumer demand, and foot traffic in shopping centers continue to build. Shipping availability, port handling times are improving, although the risk of supply chain disruption remains. Transport and logistic costs have started to moderate but remain well above historical pre-pandemic levels. Business improvements and the unwinding of these pandemic-related costs are expected to partly offset the impact of higher rent and wages on cost of doing business.
The group is targeting CapEx in FY 2023 of AUD 125 million to fund its store development program and its investment in omni and digital capability, including personalization and loyalty. Group and unallocated costs in FY 2023 are expected to include corporate costs of AUD 25 million and AUD 19 million expense costs relating to the investment to build personalization and loyalty capability. While current trading remains strong, we expect that rising interest rates, higher cost of living will start to impact consumer spending, especially in the second half, and that elevated level of demand which arose across the pandemic period will of course. We would expect them to subside.
To prepare for a more challenging macroeconomic condition, we're gonna take cost control actions focusing on normalizing our supply chain costs, store cost normalization, maximizing our cost of goods sold efficiency, and implementing a variable cost plan to align costs with revenue. The group's conservative balance sheet, customer value proposition, a large and growing active customer base, and the resilience of its key auto and sports businesses means we are well-positioned to manage inflationary pressures in a more challenging retail environment. I would now like to hand back to the operator for Q&A.
Thank you, Mr. Heraghty. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up a handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Adrian Lemme from Citi. Please go ahead.
Morning, Adrian. You're on mute. Sorry, operator. We can't seem to hear Adrian. No.
Okay. We will go to the next question from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and well done on a great year. I just wanna touch on the comment in the outlook statement around your expectation for consumer spending to slow from the second half. I mean, obviously, it's difficult to predict these things given the time we're in. How's that feeding into your inventory planning? If demand moderates a little bit earlier than what you expect, or perhaps the moderation's a bit sharper than what you expect, to what extent can you move quickly to adjust your inventory position?
Good morning, Michael, and thanks for the question. I think if you look at the way our demand pattern flows across the year, clearly that Christmas summer peak trading period is key. Like any Christmas or summer trading period, you have to plan your inventory well ahead. It would not be unusual for us to set our inventory position March, April of every calendar year in anticipation of peak. That's no different this year, with the exception that with heightened safety stocks, we've called out that. You know, four weeks of cover in the system, so that's sitting there. We've built our inventory plan noting that we've got higher inventory. Our purchases coming into this Christmas peak will be lower than last year.
It will give us the opportunity to begin to normalize that safety stock over the full financial year. In terms of an exposure to that Christmas trading period, we would have an exposure similar to any other year, where we plan inventory in April, we anticipate a trading pattern, we decrement that inventory off that trading pattern, and you get what you get. I'd make a couple observations. One is that in terms of our Christmas planning or summer planning for this year, we're anticipating a similar level of demand, not a growth on the prior corresponding period, but similar. We're also extraordinarily cautious around how we think about that safety stock.
We've invested in key core lines that have got strong rates of sale, and I would also point out where we've got the most significant amount of safety stock is in Supercheap Auto, which is our most consistent performer.
Okay. No, that's very helpful. Then the second question I've got, which is related to that, do you have much visibility either through your own observations or conversations with your suppliers, either exclusive products or national brands about how your competitors in each category are positioned from an inventory perspective? Do you get the sense that there's some discipline like what you're applying? Or do you think there's some risk that the industry as a whole might get caught with too much inventory, even if you manage it fairly well yourself?
Oh, look, there's always that possibility. I mean, I think what you'll find is there'll be hotspots, where people have gone long in inventory, but the crossover of those hotspots are relatively low. For argument's sake, where you've got strong levels of crossover in the outdoor category would be outdoor apparel, BCF versus other big box retailers. BCF has relatively low penetration in that area. So we're probably not overly concerned about, you know, competitors having incredibly long in inventory, which would potentially force price collapse as they try to clear it. We've not seen any evidence of that. There's pockets of it. But as I say, it has relatively low levels of crossover, and we don't think it's material.
Thank you. That's a good color.
Your next question comes from Marni Lysaght from Macquarie Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Just two quick ones from me. Just focusing on Supercheap Auto, you called out gross margin declining 60 bits with higher trading margins offsetting normalization of promos and higher supply chain costs. I mean, rewind back to FY 2021, and you call that some serious gross margin expansion in this brand. How do we think about, I guess, potential moderation or in margin, gross margin for this particular brand, given its positive exposure to economic downturns and the aging of cars and the car park? Do we expect that there'd be ongoing moderation, or do you think that maybe, you know, best case you can hold higher trading margins over the next, you know, 12-24 months?
No, thank you, Marni, and thank you for the question. I think if you trace back that gross margin performance in the prior period you mentioned, mostly that was driven by heightened demand courtesy of COVID or effectively the turning off of the promotional activity. Over that period, there was almost zero promotions. We were pulling catalogs because demand was quite frankly running the risk of outstripping supply, and we were running high out of stocks. That just meant that you were seeing a super inflated gross margin position over that period. We always had called out that high-water mark of gross margin would reduce, and we had an ambition. I think it was a 300 basis point movement off the base at group level.
We had an ambition and continue to have an ambition to keep half of that and working diligently through our pricing and promotional analytical team to achieve that goal. We'd reasonably believe that Supercheap Auto gross margin would dilute back to a normalized level, but north of where it left in FY 2019. Mainly because of that zero promotional activity at the peak of that COVID period, 2021-ish.
Okay. Yep. Okay, that's clear. Then just another one from me on like-for-like, so 5% in the second half. I just recall when, you know, we looked through previous disclosures over the course of FY 2022, just around the impact of Boxing Day. Can you perhaps kind of point us in the right direction of how we think about where the skew to the like-for-like sales performance was in the second half?
Yeah, certainly. We've obviously called that out and shown that in quite a bit of detail in the half. The information is there. We chose with the 53rd week not to try and complicate the second half analysis by adjusting for Boxing Day. But I think, you know, the information is clearly outlined. It is one day, so we think we've got to be careful of just sort of what that one day impact is. But certainly it's there for you to look at and when you do those comparisons against the December information we circulated.
Sorry, just one more from me before I jump back in the queue. You're calling out, I guess, the inventory declining AUD 110 million over the half, but still being, you know, elevated. Can you walk us through maybe how that inventory moved over the first half in terms of the unwind from the peak in December and the build up that you've seen over the half?
Yeah, obviously we have a couple of businesses that are a bit seasonal, and so we do tend to have a higher inventory build that we have to take into account as we run into the summer period, particularly in BCF and also Rebel. There is an elevated position that we tend to have to build an inventory. It's very much a sales and operations planning exercise to be able to just manage that flow through our distribution centers. We would traditionally see a slightly more elevated position in December, and then we fall through as we go through past Easter, particularly for BCF. That process of sell-down was quite active in the half. It was 110, as you can see.
Obviously you can see if you just look at it at a brand-to-brand level, that's been achieved. We would say that it's important to look at the percentage of sales. I mean, we've gone and increased inventory in alignment with sustained demand. You know, when we raised capital back in June 2020, we said we were going to invest organically in the business. We saw this demand quite clearly coming through. It's been very strong, and it's been really consistent. I think it's important that as a percentage of sales, we're actually quite in line with history. I think we've got a small elevated position as a consequence of supply chain risks, noting that China still has a COVID compression strategy. Noted. Thank you very much.
I'll jump back in the queue now. Thanks, Maddie.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks for that. I appreciate inventory's already been talked about a lot. Just wanting to get a feel for the overall GP margin outlook, given your commentary around a slowing backdrop, plus where you're at on inventory. Appreciate that you've got a bit of flexibility into the back half of the calendar year. Relative to that 45% pre-COVID level, do you expect you'd be able to hold on to a fair bit of the uplift that you've been able to generate up until now? You talked about maximizing COGS efficiency going forward as part of your strategy to deal with a slowing consumer.
Just wanting to dig into that a bit further around what, you know, for us, really, what is gonna be sticky and hanging around versus what is transitory and ultimately, you know, should unwind.
Yeah. Bryan, morning. Got to be careful about sort of getting into guidance here, which I obviously wanna avoid. I think take the commentary of the ambition of sort of keeping half at group level is still, that's an internal ambition that we still are keen on. I think probably a bit of color. So within. As we saw that high, quite aggressive demand and a bullwhip go through the supply chain, you know, we've eaten a lot of costs. I mean, just if you think about TEU inflation and the like. I suppose what if we would start to see a moderation in demand, it would be logical to see a moderation in the associated supply chain costs that increased with the heightened demand.
What we're calling out is as things start to normalize, touch wood they do, there should be costs within COGS and costs within logistics and warehousing that we should get access to because we've had to. You know, there are costs associated with holding the safety stock in terms of external storage. There are costs associated with trying to move stuff around the middle of a mess, global shipping. We think there's an opportunity to access that cost pool and pull that down as we'd see a normalization of demand. Two stories. One, still have the ambition of trying to keep half of that gross margin gain, that 300 basis points, pricing, et cetera, et cetera.
The other tool available to us is to go after this hyperinflation of supply chain costs that happened over COVID. Yeah. Look, I'd also add, Bryan, you know, retailers have always had promotional patterns, which I think, well, which are definitely at times ineffective. The pressure that we had historically was to deliver like-for-like comps and the brand merchants that have that pressure on them. The opportunity to cleanse your promotional calendar and have the opportunity to reset it at higher quality promotions actually is certainly a factor that I think you'll see across most retailers, in fact, unless they've had, they've probably been on the wrong side of COVID.
I would also say there's been an opportunity to cleanse the promotional calendar that's factoring into the gross margin capture.
Right. Just to follow up on that is, the aged inventory balance of circa 2% feels low. I just don't recall that number being disclosed pre-COVID. Can you give us a feel for where that would've sat, you know, in 2018, 2019, roughly?
Yeah. Look, it's a historical norm. I wouldn't say that it's. You're right. We've tried to give you more color, to give you more comfort, but that is what I would describe as a sort of pre-COVID norm. The level of aging in Rebel is very good. We've had real challenges getting access to stock in Rebel. In fact, through the period, we've had fragmented deliveries of outfits of tops, bottoms, and shoes. It's been quite a challenging trading period, and you can still see the results we've achieved, but that has certainly normalized a lot in quarter four.
Okay, great. Then just one sec, my second area of questions around this investment in personalization and loyalty. We've got a AUD 19 million run rate in 2023, which is a full year basis. How should we think about that investment going forward? Is it one-off or should it just be in the base, or will it continue to grow? Just what I can think about and beyond FY2023, if I could.
Yeah. I think the way I think about that, Bryan, we've tried to capture in the group unallocated the establishment costs. That's not sort of hidden in the segment results. As we go from build to run, those costs or those residual costs will then find their way into the segment result, as will the benefit that those costs generate. What we'd wanna see is as we and that's also given the timeline in terms of execution. You know, as we go out to 2024, we start to get to the end of the build, those costs start to find their way in the segment results, the benefits start to come on stream, and away you go. That's probably the best way of thinking about it.
Yeah. Just to add to that, you can see there in the group unallocated. Last year we captured some IFRIC-related costs. We are having to OPEX a lot more of our investment in things due to the accounting changes. This means that where you would traditionally be able to sort of build something and then run it when you're getting the benefits, you're getting an alignment of sort of expense and benefits. It's unfortunately there's a lot more expensing up front as you're building. We're just trying to ensure that you can see it and that it's not impeding the delivery of the results for the brand until they're actually getting the benefits of the technology.
Right. Just, I mean, you mentioned the return on that investment as well. Is that in terms of how that comes about, is that less traditional advertising you'd be doing? If you're gonna be doing more of this or the incremental sales is the main driver? How? Is there any particular there?
Yeah. It's an incremental sales. It's enhanced gross margin by not having to do as much broadcast promotions, and it's an appropriate shift of marketing expenditure from above the line more to direct. If you're getting—I mean, we've got 70% of everything we sell is to people that we know. The need to reacquire them by advertising to say, "Please be a member," should be diminished. The game then becomes not acquiring a customer, but growing their annual value. That's just by coming one more time, buy one more thing. Just the law of large numbers would suggest if you achieve that at scale, you've got yourself a ballgame.
Absolutely. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Shaun Cousins from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I'm just conscious of the trading to start first half 2023, and we've sort of got mixed two-year stacks given what we were cycling there. BCF and Rebel were down. Supercheap Auto and Macpac were up. Can you just talk a little bit about where you're seeing the consumer, particularly if there has been any impact that you've seen so far on traffic, spending, promotional participation due to cost of living, particularly, I guess fuel prices have been an issue in the past. Or is it fair to suggest that the low unemployment and savings that you've called out are actually the dominant factor that is impacting the consumer, that shopping across your brands, please?
Yeah. Good morning, Shaun. Look, it's pretty solid. The consumer's there. We're not seeing material softness. I think if you compare and contrast to New Zealand, especially Macpac. We're seeing solid performance coming out of Supercheap because it runs strongly in the cycle. We've called out, you know, quite subdued performance in New Zealand. We're not experiencing that kind of fragile customer sentiment that's existing in New Zealand and Australia. Where we can see a relatively clean read in terms of like-for-like, you know, we're still seeing green numbers against a pretty racy base. It's not. I don't think we're seeing a growth on growth. We're seeing a growth on a whole.
You know, I think seeing strong levels of employment are certainly holding up in our categories. Remembering you've still got quite a domestic tourism bubble that we're experiencing as well, which drives BCF and Supercheap.
Okay. Understood. Thanks. Maybe just from a cost perspective, just some questions regarding, you know, you've got wages and sort of rents. Maybe just you've highlighted wage growth at 3%. Can you just talk a little bit about why you're not impacted by the award rates there, and then discuss some of the efficiencies around rostering that you're looking to do, and then how on the rent side, the exposure there, particularly with those that are CPI linked across Rebel and Macpac, and how you seek to manage rent increases coming through, particularly to those CPI exposed divisions or brands, please.
Yeah. Look, I think on wages, ultimately, we will be exposed to a higher rate of wage growth than 3%. We're in an enterprise agreement, it's got a year to run. We'll go through that process, and I'm sure that will be what it will be. We would expect to be exposed to that over time. That's probably fairly reasonable.
Okay.
Where we get some confidence, though, Shaun, is we've implemented a workforce planning system, which off the back of some of the challenges we've had with payments in the past. One of the great benefits of that is we see a greater alignment. We build an algorithm that actually aligns traffic and sales to labor, and we can better match that. We've taken out some of the manual sort of father to son hand down of information. You know, come as a store manager, what's the roster for the store? I don't know. It's what the previous guy did. Now, there's an algorithm-based roster that's generated for every single store. That means that we're not running into paying the kind of penalties and overtime that you do when you do things manually, because obviously it's a complex environment.
That gives us the ability to offset some of those growth movements in wage inflation by simply rostering the right team member in the right store at the right time at the appropriate rate. We think there's quite a potent tool for us in terms of managing one of our most significant variable costs. In terms of rent, I'll pass over to David.
Yeah. Look, our rents are exposed to CPI. A number of them are either fixed, so they're not, or they're capped CPI plus. There's been a cap. The open exposure to CPI is certainly less than half. We would say that there's also, when you consider it, there's also a substantial proportion of the lease portfolio that rolls each year. There's more than 100 leases we did last year. You get an opportunity to reset and take advantage of conditions in the market. Yes, there's a mechanical component.
It's less than half of the book and then the lease book, and then there's at least, you know, if you think we've got 700 stores, there's a good one-eighth or one-seventh or one-sixth of it that you're actually in market having a conversation around what about.
Great. Just to clarify that, less than half the stores have CPI linkage. That's of the total network or is that across the Rebel and Macpac, which tend to be more shopping center skewed.
Total network.
Total network. Fantastic. Thanks, Anthony. Thanks, Dave.
All right. See you soon, Shaun.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Craig Woolford from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Morning, Anthony and David. Just wanted to start off just understanding the contribution that price has had to like-for-like sales, any indications of maybe transaction size or something like that. Just trying to distinguish between the volume trajectory you're seeing and price.
Yeah. Through the course of this year, price has had to be taken as a consequence of underlying inflation pressures. We've certainly been active in managing price in the period. There has been, if you look at the result overall, if you can, you know, if you would look at a Supercheap Auto, you can see there that on a like-for-like basis that we're at a small gain. If you adjust for the fifty-third week, sorry, a small 0.01 fall. That's been a reduction in transactions because we've taken price action to capture inflation that's coming through in COGS and inflation that's come through in the supply chain.
We would say that's really because we've come off that very peak period of 2021.
Yeah. I think, Craig, holding transaction run rate of 21, we're pleased with that.
Yeah, of course. Look, the second half was a lot cleaner if we think about the 5% like-for-like. I guess my intuition was if we're answering that kind of question, you know, of the 5%, how much is price versus transaction numbers? You know, that price has to annualize through. It does help hold up like-for-likes for some time to come until you annualize those price increases.
Yeah. Look, I think if you look at the consumer behavior and the patterns we saw the first half of 2021, there was a lot of bounce out of the initial lockdown. We probably had a cleaner second half of 2021, and then in the first half of 2022, we saw obviously a lot of lockdowns as well again. Then we probably had a cleaner. So I just think it's probably a better read, Craig, and I'd say the sort of volumes are pretty consistent. There is certainly, you know, certainly price is a factor that's supporting like-for-likes.
Okay. I realize it's a delicate topic to raise around cost management and some of the implications of it, but just looking at employee costs specifically, it looks like on 2019 levels, like the employee cost to sales ratio is literally static, 19.9% of sales, from 2019 and in FY 2022. There hasn't been any leverage to operating leverage from employee costs to strong sales. You know, why is that and how does that impact the go forward on that cost line?
Yeah, I think one of the consequences of the strategy that we're executing as we move into digital and into customer and into analytics, pricing, and promotion, is that you, by its very nature, you are making investments into capability that actually start to show itself as a saving elsewhere in the P&L. A good example of that is, you know, sort of the workforce planning example mentioned to the previous question. That comes with a headcount cost. It's offset by a saving in terms of the efficiency of your store wages. We would sort of say that's completely inconsistent as we become a more digital business, more online business, more analytic-based business. Just modern retail requires you make those levels of investment.
That's why you're not seeing those fractionalizations at that rate, but it's got a benefit elsewhere, because I can assure you, we wouldn't be increasing costs unless we saw gross margin dollar generation benefit, a saving elsewhere, or a reduction of risk.
I'll just also call out, we do flex our store-based labor to sales. We certainly manage the retail network that way. Particularly where you've got a lot of assisted sale activity, particularly in Rebel. But also there's, you know, we are one of the core propositions of the category is that the team member support that you get in store. We certainly flex it up as sales increase, and we will flex it down as sales decline. I'm quite comfortable that we've been able to maintain a strong alignment there. And as we've outlined, we've been able to keep it at a relatively consistent percentage.
Okay. Great. Thanks, Anthony. Thanks, David.
No problem, Craig.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Grant Saligari from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Good morning, thanks. Just a couple of quick ones if I could. Just on store openings, you indicated 30, I think, gross for the year. Are you able to just indicate by brand how many stores you plan to open?
Yeah. I think you'll find it's in the footnote, Grant.
Okay.
We've gone and listed it, but it's certainly there's 10 stores in Macpac, and eight stores in BCF, eight stores in Auto and four in Rebel, and that's all on page 12. The note on page 12.
Okay. All right. Thanks for highlighting that. Just a second, just come back on the growth margin, just on, actually on Rebel specifically. It actually looks like the growth margin performance probably improved a bit in the second half. I don't know whether you can comment on the second half performance. Certainly the first half looked well down year-on-year, but the second half looks like it might have been flat or even slightly better than the P2P.
Yes, you're right. The second half growth margins in Rebel were down, but they were down by a lesser margin, if that, pardon the pun.
Yes. Yes.
Yes, it was a stronger growth margin delivery in H2. That's a consequence of if you look at the level of online activity that was occurring during lockdown, as we've called out earlier. We get strong growth margin dollars for online delivery, but we do have a slightly lower gross margin percentage from online, and there's such a high component. I think in some weeks we had sort of 50% of sales were online.
Yeah. All right. That makes sense. Just quickly on Supercheap. In the first half, you indicated the gross margin was consistent with the prior year, so maybe up or down a little bit. For the full year, I think it's down 60 basis points. Does that mean that the second half has already normalized a bit in Supercheap Auto?
Yes. There's been the 60 basis points is correct, and we've seen some contraction in Supercheap Auto as we've again, as Anthony's outlined, we've activated our promotional calendars and I would say the business is trading in a more as I said to Craig earlier, probably H2's a bit more of a normalized period.
Okay. All right. That's great. Thanks for that.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Alexander Meades from Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks, and morning, Anthony and David. Just on Rebel again. I'm wondering, given that the performance was recently resilient, in light of the challenges around inventory that you called out, how did you manage those inventory challenges from a practical point of view? Where I'm trying to go with this is there opportunity possibly for some pent-up demand to flow through into the current financial year? Yes. I mean, in some categories like football boots, frankly, we just didn't cope. I think we had a lot of customers that were unable to get footy boots in the season. That was, I think if you were playing the second half of the season, you might have got a new pair now.
I think that's a very good example where it's a miss and there'll be demand, you know, as we get into footy season for next winter. There are other categories like that. I think what with COVID, the global sporting brands and a lot of global apparel effectively just shut down their product development and their manufacturing. To cold start that has been difficult to just get those supply chains running again. It's only now that we're sort of, you know, as we said, Q4, we're starting to see better flow through. You know, we think it's a relatively good outlook on that front.
Thank you, Alex.
Thank you. Just one more, if I can. Just with regard to, you called out that you expect to see the COVID lockdown costs unwinding, that you expressed in FY 2022. I just wonder if you can quantify that.
Yes. We've quantified it in our first half. We called it out as AUD 10 million in H1.
Great. I'll add that on in the model. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Alex. Operator, I think we might be close to full time. Victor, are there any more questions?
Yes, there are four more questions. Would you like to continue with that?
Look, I'm afraid for time. We might just proceed with one. I'm just conscious of everyone's availability. We'll just do one last one if that's okay, operator. My apologies for the other three, question holders.
No problem. The next question comes from Aryan Norozi from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. I hope you're all keeping well. What extent did your gross margin benefit from inventory that was sold at historical cost, but obviously price increases came through, so there's a bit of a mismatch between COGS and price?
Well, that's only true to the extent that it's the same for other competitors. Obviously your inventory does come through and it emerges at a historical price recognition on average. Yes, you'd be gaining over a competitor that lands something today compared to what you've held over time, and that's certainly an advantage of our stockpile at the moment.
Very quickly, the AUD 10 million of COVID costs in the first half, that's the full year benefit. There weren't any more in the second half, or is it AUD 20 million annualized?
No, that's AUD 10 million in the first half we called out, which was all the period of lockdown and disruption that we had through the widespread lockdown.
Perfect. Thanks, guys.
Great. Well, thank you everyone. Sorry, operator. You can proceed.
Oh, thank you. That wraps up the question and answer session. I would like to hand back the conference to Mr. Heraghty for closing remarks. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. Look, thank you everyone for attending our call. For those that missed out on questions, our sincerest apologies. With any luck, we'll catch you over the coming days. Look forward to seeing you, for those that we've got meeting with in due course, and wish you all a very good morning.