Do you think everybody's here? I guess they've shut the door. That's always a good sign, so welcome everybody, and I'll bring the meeting to order, and to clarify, we've got a quorum of 15 members present, and I'll open the meeting, formally open the meeting. Just a few housekeeping comments. Today's meeting is being held both in person and online via the Computershare Online Meetings platform, so for those of you that are attending the meeting virtually, if you'd like to submit a question, the Q&A is always open, so feel free to submit questions throughout the meeting, and these will be addressed at the relevant time. Questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, they might be amalgamated together, and any questions not answered in time, we will follow up, and you will receive an email response after the meeting.
So, the voting today will all be conducted by way of poll on all items of business, and I'll shortly open the online voting for all the resolutions at today's meeting. If you're eligible to vote at this meeting, you'll be able to cast your vote under the Vote tab, and once voting is opened, the resolutions will allow votes to be submitted. And you can change your vote up until the time I declare the voting closed. And we'll do that after the four items of ordinary business, the last of which relates to the appointment of our auditors, PwC, and their remuneration. So, once we've done the last item of ordinary business, we'll then give you some time and work towards closing the voting after that.
So, I'd just like to take a minute or two to introduce both the board members and the executive team, some of which are in the front here. Others might be hiding further afield. I can see one way down the back in charge of IT. So, just, I'm sure you know most of our directors, but going from the far end, Tim Glasson, down the far end.
Morning.
Next door to Tim is Malcolm Ford, who's based in Melbourne, and Malcolm's an independent non-executive director, and next door to Malcolm is Karen Bycroft.
Good morning.
Karen, I'm not sure whether she lives in Melbourne or Byron Bay. She seems to go back and forth between the two. She's also an independent non-executive director. Next door to Karen is Graeme Popplewell, who is also a non-executive independent director. I think you probably all know Graeme. Next door to Graeme is Sandy Vincent.
Good morning.
So, Sandy's based in Auckland and runs a very successful family women's fashion business, which doesn't compete with ours. So, she's also a non-executive independent director. And moving along, I'm up to Jo Appleyard.
Good morning.
Jo, also a non-executive independent director. When she's got spare time, she's a partner in Chapman Tripp here in Christchurch. Next door to Jo is James Glasson, and James is a director, but also the CEO of Glassons Australia business. James is lucky enough to live permanently in Sydney, so he kindly flew in last night. Due to the infrequency of New Zealand flights, I think he got here, landed at 11:00 P.M. last night or something. At least he's here, so he's done well. Next door to James is Chris Kinraid, who's our Group CEO. You would have met Chris last year. When we introduced Chris to the meeting last year, he was due to start work with us, and now it's fair to say he's nearly done a whole 12 months. That's it.
Chris has now obviously had 12 months at the helm, so that's good. Among the executive team here, and I'd encourage you to talk to them at the end of the meeting if you want to. Coming immediately across the front here is April Ward. If April stands up for a minute. April is our Glassons New Zealand CEO and has been for some time, so she's very good at running our New Zealand Glassons business here in New Zealand. And the next one who you won't have met before is James McLauchlan. Now, James is our new Hallenstein CEO, and James has recently joined us and only been with us for a couple of months. I've asked James just to make a couple of comments around how he's found the first couple of months and give you a bit on his background.
So, we won't ask him to talk too long because he hasn't been here long, but we'll just let him perhaps come to the front and make a couple of comments. James, if you wouldn't mind.
Thanks, Warren. Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor to be here as the CEO of Hallensteins New Zealand and Australia. So, I'm very excited to embark on this journey. It's a proud history of the company, and I come from Dunedin, which is even more special for those of us down south. So, just a little bit about myself. I've spent the last 12 years overseas running teams in Australia, Singapore, and most recently at Tahua in Auckland, and mostly in the fast food and retail and hospitality. So, it's really exciting to come back to New Zealand with my young family. I've got three kids, all under five, so we're back to New Zealand. And I see this as a great challenge. Having operated in Australia, seeing the success that Glassons has had in Australia, I think it's a great story that we could follow for Hallensteins.
A couple of key things that I've noticed or I'm going to really focus on is certainly the customer. We've got to be really agile in this environment. It's a really tough retail environment at the moment. We've got to get the product right and ensure that we're focusing on what the customers want, and then really focusing on our people. If we get a really well-trained team and get that, they will know what the customer wants, and hopefully we can drive the business forward. I'm really excited. I've got an awesome team back in Auckland to drive the business forward, and nice to meet you, and I'd like to catch up with you afterwards. It's just a little bit about me. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, James. So, just moving on through the other executives that are here. Hiding down the front here is Sam Glasson. Sam also lives in Australia, in Sydney, and he's in charge of our Australian property portfolio and also helps with our logistics operations, sourcing from various suppliers around the world. And that in itself has been quite challenging with the disruption and air freight issues and a whole host of shipping issues. So, excuse me, Sam's also based in Sydney. Other people that are here today is Cam Alderton. Cam's here. Cam's our Group CFO. So, welcome, Cam. And way down the back, hiding down the back, thinking that nobody will know who's there, is Chris Reid, our Group Information Manager. So, if you stand up briefly, Chris.
Now, you'll hear from James Glasson later about some of the innovative work that Chris and James and his Australian team are doing around some of the IT areas. I think you'll find that quite interesting, which James will deal with shortly. So, turning to proxies. As I said before, all resolutions will be included in a poll, so mark your paper accordingly, and these will be collected at the end of the ordinary business items on the agenda, which, as I said before, is after item four, which is the auditor appointment and remuneration resolution. Or you can vote online as per the instructions that I just went through before. So, the directors have received 363 proxies totaling 24,143,610 shares, and these proxies will be voted in the polls taken through this meeting, and if some have got specific instructions, they'll be voted in accordance with those instructions.
So, any apologies? Okay, thank you. I think you might have found on your chair the minutes of last year's 2023 AGM. So, they're there for you to take away, and if anybody has any comments or questions arising from those, we can deal with them as we go. So, if not, I'll record those minutes as being approved and move on to item one of our ordinary business for the day, which will be my chairman's address. But prior to that, we have with us today Indy, our audit partner from PwC. So, Indy, we might just ask you to perhaps come up here and read the conclusion of your audit report just to give people a feel that you think that we haven't done too bad. Thank you.
Fantastic. Thank you, Warren. Good morning, everyone. Just to confirm, we completed our audit of the group on the 30th of September, 2024, in accordance with all the applicable accounting and auditing standards, and I can confirm that we issued an unqualified audit opinion. So, the audit's gone well, Warren.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Indy, to you and your team. We have pretty tight reporting deadlines, and we appreciate the work that you and your team did to accommodate our tight reporting requirements. Please pass our thanks on to your team. If I move on to the chairman's address to shareholders for today, a lot of this you'll be familiar with, but I'll just touch on it briefly. The group sales for the 12 months of the 1st of August were NZD 435.6 million, which is a record for the company, and an increase of 6.3% over the prior period last year, which was NZD 409.7 million. On top of that, we also managed to get an improved gross margin percentage of 2.1%. Both the sales and the margin outcomes were very pleasing. The group audited net profit before tax for the 12 months was NZD 52.1 million.
First time that we've gone over $50 million for our group net profit before tax, and that was an increase of 14.7% on the prior year, which was $45.4 million. So, again, a very good outcome. And then when we come along and take the tax off it, that results in the audited group net profit after tax being $34.5 million against last year, $32 million. But that included a net non-cash deferred expense of $1.1 million, which related to the changes in tax legislation on the deductibility of depreciation on non-residential buildings. And that floats through a lot of New Zealand companies that have all faced that same change. So, a very pleasing result given the difficult retail environment in Australia, but more particularly in New Zealand. It's just worth reflecting quickly for a moment on the last three years.
The net profit before tax in 2022 was $25.6 million, $25.6 million in 2022. In 2023, it went from $25.6 million to $32 million, and as I just said, in 2024, it lifted to $34.5 million, so the challenge for us is to keep that trend and momentum continuing, so we're very pleased with that outcome, and as I said before, gross margin finished at 59.4% compared with 57.3% last year, so an improvement of 2.1%, and that margin growth was due to a focus on a number of issues, onboarding some new suppliers, an improvement in freight costs, and most significantly, well-controlled stock levels, which resulted in more full-price sales and lower discounting, so that was all managed to be achieved despite the challenging foreign exchange rate for our inventory purchases, and that exchange rate's actually got a bit weaker since the end of our financial year.
We continue our strong focus on improving our product offer and sourcing, as well as managing our operating costs in the current tricky economic environment. As I said before, inventory levels were tightly managed and improving stock turn year -on -year and improving our cash flow liquidity. One of the key things in our chain is we focus on quite heavily is having a very, very good stock turn. I think we have a history of turning our stock much faster than a number of other apparel retailers in Australasia. That gives us the flexibility needed to adjust to any changes in the trading environment or any changes in customer preferences. We like to be nimble, but not run out of stock. It's a delicate balance sometimes.
As you would have read, we have a very strong balance sheet, and we had a cash balance at the end of the year of NZD 45.9 million compared to NZD 32.48 million last year, which is an improvement of NZD 13.5 million. The trading performance also dropped out in terms of a better group cash position, which was good. Just a couple of comments on Glassons Australia, and you'll hear more from James Glasson shortly talking specifically around Glassons Australia in a few minutes. It's interesting to note there the sales in Australia were NZD 218.1 million, which was an increase of 14.1% over the prior corresponding period. If you just quickly look at the turnover for Glassons New Zealand and Hallensteins, you'll see that those two combined had a similar turnover to what James and his team have achieved in the Glassons Australia market.
That shows how that Glassons Australia journey has been a very successful story for us, that its turnover is now equal to Glassons New Zealand and Hallensteins combined. That's very pleasing. A couple of new stores were opened over there last year, and you'll hear more from James shortly on some of the plans around store openings. There's a store in Knox in Victoria, which opened in November 2023, followed in March 2024 by a second Adelaide store in Rundle Mall. A number of you would have seen this, but Bondi Junction store in Sydney was increased in size during that period by about 30%. We have a much bigger store there in Bondi Junction now than we had before. We also increased the size of our Fountain Gate store in Victoria.
So, sort of a double-edged prong where not only are we focusing on opening new stores, but some of them are actually increasing the floor size of existing stores if the trading performance demands. The Warringah store in New South Wales was also refurbished. So, as of today, we have 38 stores in Australia, most of them down the east coast of Australia. And we are continuing to explore new store opportunities and some more of these larger format stores to better showcase our product offering and our customer experience. And you'll hear quite a bit more from James shortly when he comes and talks to you more in a bit more depth about Glassons Australia. But a very successful journey there, which we're all very proud of. So, turning to New Zealand, Glassons New Zealand, you'll be familiar with quite a few of our shops in New Zealand.
It has 34 stores throughout New Zealand. In the difficult trading environment in New Zealand, it did very well to hang on to its New Zealand turnover, a small decrease of 2.1%, and its sales were $110 million. Net profit after tax out of the New Zealand Glassons business was $10.8 million, which was a marginal decrease on the year before, but a commendable performance given how tough the New Zealand market has been and still is. April and her team did very well. Over the last financial year, Glassons in New Zealand relocated a couple of shops, one in Albany and Auckland, and one here in the CBD in Christchurch. Both of those have seen pretty good sales growth from those relocations. After careful consideration by management, a couple of small stores were closed, one in Blenheim and one in Chartwell.
Prior to year-end, you would have all seen that there was a new discount center near the Auckland Airport called Manawa Bay Outlet Centre. Glassons New Zealand has opened a store in it, and that too has been very successful. Not that we want too much discount stock to go in it, but it's another story. Glassons New Zealand brand works tirelessly on staying on trend and remaining agile and providing high-quality women's fashion apparel at accessible price points. We're very proud of the Glassons brand here in New Zealand and their performance in what's been a really tough New Zealand environment. You'll hear a bit more later from Chris. Both chains have done quite a bit of work around the sustainability and ethical supply chain areas. Chris will talk a bit more about that shortly.
Turning to Hallenstein Brothers, currently it's got 42 stores in New Zealand and five in Queensland, Australia. And its sales for the 12-month period were also very pleasing at NZD 107.5 million, which is the number for both Australia and New Zealand. And that was an increase of 1.3% over the prior period. And net profit after tax was NZD 5.3 million and an increase of 37.4% on the prior corresponding period. So, during that last financial year, they too put together a new Hallensteins concept store design, and that was rolled out in the Westfield Manukau Mall in Auckland. And that has performed well since its reopening. And a small Hallensteins store in Timaru was refurbished. And in Queenstown, we actually had two stores. We had one in central Queenstown and a much bigger one in Frankton on the edge of Queenstown in the mall area there.
We have focused on the Frankton menswear, the larger Frankton menswear store, and exited what was really quite a small store in the middle of central Queenstown. That was done. The same with Glassons, Hallensteins also opened a new store in the Auckland Airport Discount Centre, Manawa Bay. Right up the top of Auckland, beyond Albany, it also opened a store in Silverdale. That's just opened really recently, and the results from that have been very encouraging. Turning to Australia, Hallensteins, their Garden City store in Brisbane, opened in a new location in November 2023. It too has seen significant sales growth since reopening. You would have read that we have a pop-up store in Robina Mall on the Gold Coast, which was also opened in the lead-up to Christmas.
There are other shops, Hallensteins shops in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. So, the Hallensteins menswear chain has been working with, and you would have seen this with some relevant content creators and brand ambassadors with a focus on what is appealing to our customers. And that brand awareness and the people that have been working with has been rolled out both in New Zealand and Australia. And you would have seen some of you that go in and out of our stores that we have a partnership with the New Zealand Warriors rugby team. And that has provided good content and strong brand recognition, particularly in Auckland. And we're looking to continue that partnership in the new financial year. And more recently, some of you would have also noted that the New Zealand All Blacks Will Jordan is now a new brand ambassador for our Hallensteins menswear chain.
We're very pleased that Will has allowed us to work with him, and we look forward to that association going on as we go forward. Just touching on e-commerce and digital, the group continues with a very customer-centric focus to ensure our customers have a positive experience if they choose to shop this way with us. We're continuing to invest quite a lot in people and technology and marketing, largely assisted by Chris Reed down the back, which we're very grateful. Our online sales now represent 18.2%, which was pretty much in line with last year, which was 18.3%, except obviously our total turnover went up. 18.2% of a larger turnover is a bigger number than what it was the year before. We see our investment in digital continuing as we continue to grow.
We now have a new Hallensteins app that was released in the second half of the financial year. We probably talked about the Glassons app last year, and it is now up over 1.9 million downloads. We find that the development of those app experiences, our customers really like that, and it works really well. Just turning to touch on dividends. As you would have read, our final dividend, which the directors declared, was NZD 0.265 per share, partially imputed at a touch over 75%. NZD 0.265 compared to NZD 0.24 per share last year. That will take the total dividend for the year up to NZD 0.508 per share compared with NZD 0.48 for the prior year.
We are very proud that in this market we're able to keep paying improved and increased dividends, given that a number of other New Zealand companies haven't been so fortunate and have either reduced or even suspended dividend payments for shareholders. We're quite proud of that performance and see that journey continuing as we deliver the results that we expect. Turning to what's happened in the new year so far, the future outlook. For the first 18 weeks of the new financial year, our group sales have increased by 10.1%, 10.1% compared to the same period last year. As we all know, the lead-in to Christmas and the post-Christmas sales, the Boxing Days, New Year sales, are really key to our end-of-season performance. Touch wood, we're traveling pretty good at this point.
So, we hope that continues, and that performance is a credit to our various executive teams that are in the room today. So, as I mentioned before, the two recently opened centres in Manawa Bay near Auckland Airport. There's also a new Hallensteins store, as I touched on, in Silverdale. We still see that there are additional opportunities for the group to refurbish, increase store size, and possible new store opportunities, particularly in Australia. And I'll leave James to talk a bit more about that in a minute. So, in closing, I'd like to thank my fellow colleagues on the Hallenstein Glasson Board, our executive team, and all our staff for their dedication and continued efforts. They have delivered a really great result for our group in what's been very challenging and difficult trading conditions both in New Zealand.
I'll just ask Chris Kinraid in a minute to present his CEO report. But just as I walked in here before, somebody told me, and I hope this is right, that at this year's AGM, our share price is $7.03. And when we had our AGM meeting last year, it was $5.01. That's not a bad lift, is it? I'll now pass to Chris Kinraid to talk to his group CEO report. We'll take questions at the end when James has had a turn after Chris. Thank you, Chris.
Thank you, Warren, for that. Good morning, everybody. Just to kick off, the 2024 financial year has been a big milestone for the group, with sales surpassing NZD 435 million for the first time. Our team's relentless efforts have driven significant growth, even in one of the most challenging retail environments in recent history. So, we're really proud to have achieved such a strong result against these strong headwinds. Also, despite unfavorable exchange rates, we've expanded our gross margin by 210 basis points. This success was made possible through close collaboration with existing suppliers and the introduction of new partners, allowing us to diversify our supplier base and enhance capabilities. Our teams have been laser-focused on improving supply lead times and buying closer to the market, resulting in reduced clearance activity and discounting. Consequently, we have achieved an overall inventory reduction despite our sales growth.
The ongoing challenge remains to keep that speed to market with the pressure of increased costs associated with logistics as we speak. Operating costs remain a key focus, particularly given the significant impacts of minimum wage increases, persistent domestic freight pressures, and rising international freight costs due to geopolitical tensions. We continue to invest in labor to support sales growth and strengthen the group's capabilities, all while maintaining a keen focus on operating leverage. For the first half of the year, we saw improvement following a challenging first quarter, where consumers faced high interest rates and inflationary pressures. We saw an uptick in trade from Black Friday onwards in both Australia and New Zealand, and consumers were really looking for value, especially from the New Zealand market. Our second half trade was very pleasing, particularly out of Australia, where Glassons delivered record-breaking sales and underlying profit in the second half.
It was a real credit to James and the Glassons Australia team to drive such a result against the overall trend in the market. This performance was driven by our ability to capitalize in key events and our agility in responding to consumer fashion trends. It was also encouraging to see positive signals from Hallensteins, with our stores located in Queensland also. Glassons continues to solidify its position as a leading women's fashion brand in both Australia and New Zealand, with a strong track record of launching on-trend fashion edits and understanding high-demand product categories. We continue to invest in brand activations and collaborations to support our growing market position in Australia and expand our store network, with a disciplined focus on stores which enhance our brand position and deliver strong returns for the group.
Hallensteins has seen exceptional success with its Leisure Club range in New Zealand and other casual wear categories, while still catering for its core consumer base and essential product lines. Strategic brand partnerships, as Warren mentioned, such as with New Zealand Warriors, have also bolstered brand awareness. Both brands remain well-positioned to meet customer needs, offering quality clothing at accessible price points. This strategy is particularly valuable in the current economic climate and positions us well to capitalize on any recovery in the consumer spending as the outlook steadily improves. Moving on to retail, we remain committed to maintaining a fleet of stores that reflect the quality of our brands while delivering compelling customer experiences and retail excellence. In line with this, we continue to invest in new store openings and refurbishments across Australia and New Zealand and refine our store concepts to elevate our store experiences.
Over the past financial year, as Warren mentioned earlier, we opened two Glassons stores in Australia and refurbished three existing locations. In New Zealand, we relocated two Glassons stores and refurbished another, with one store already completed in the first few months in Manawa Bay. For Hallensteins, we refurbished two stores over the last year. In Australia, we completed one store relocation, while in New Zealand, we also achieved a store relocation, opening of two new stores within the first few months of this financial year in Silverdale and Manawa Bay. Both of these, especially Silverdale and Queen Street, which we refurbished, have an exciting brand new store concept, which has been well received by our customers and charts the course for future stores for the Hallensteins brand.
Retail stores remain the most important representation of our brands, and we're continuously refining our store concepts to stay aligned with the latest trends and ensuring our stores remain innovative and inviting for our customers. Moving on to digital, digital sales remain strong, accounting for 18.2% of group sales, while also growing in total dollar terms. As consumer expectations for superior online experiences continue, our investment in digital platforms remains essential. As Warren mentioned, the Glassons app is now 1.9 million downloads, with new functionalities regularly being introduced to enhance user experience. These updates make it easier for our customers to seamlessly switch between online and in-store purchases, strengthening our omnichannel approach. For Hallensteins, a strong focus on customer engagement has significantly boosted their social media following in both New Zealand and Australia.
Combined with continued investment in their website, this has led to an increase in online sales, particularly in the Australian market. We have strengthened our digital teams with a mixture of external and internal talent, enabling a step change in our digital offering. I am excited with their progress to date and the opportunities which lie ahead for both our brands. New investment has been made into AI to improve our operational capability and responsiveness and has been progressively introduced throughout the group. We are also well into our program of utilizing the latest RFID technology to improve our inventory management and to further support our unified commerce strategy for the group. As we look to enhance our customer interactions and offer a seamless experience between our physical and digital offerings, this is a differentiating factor to our global online players which are competing with us daily.
Just moving on to sustainability. With brands that have thrived for well over 100 years, our commitment to sustainability is not just a goal but a core principle. It forms a foundation of building a long-term sustainable business that creates value for shareholders and other stakeholders alike. We have strengthened our targets for an ethical and transparent supply chain and have recently published our targets around Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions as part of our legislated climate-related disclosures. We continue to work closely with our suppliers and enhance our standards and quality while increasing visibility and auditing efforts deeper into the supply chain, with a particular focus now on the Tier 2 suppliers. These two priorities are closely interconnected and mutually beneficial. We have updated our targets to maintain 100% audit coverage for our Tier 1 suppliers while increasing transparency in audits of our Tier 2 suppliers.
The materials we source and the ways we manufacture them are also at the core of our sustainability strategy. As part of our journey towards a circular product cycle and minimal waste, it was important to align our product with internationally recognized certifications of our commitment. Therefore, we have introduced clear targets for 50% of certified sustainable materials by 2027 in our garments. Sustainability is a long and enduring commitment, with significant challenges that remain to be resolved. We will continue to update you on our progress with transparency and integrity, and for more information, you can refer to our latest sustainability and climate disclosure reporting which can be found on our corporate website.
As Warren alluded to, just onto our outlook now, looking ahead, we anticipate that the retail sector will continue to face challenges driven by ongoing restrictive interest rate settings overall and ongoing tensions internationally, which are expected to continue to add pressure to freight costs and supply chains. Despite these obstacles, we've had a very positive start to the financial year and we're well positioned to adapt to market conditions. For the first 18 weeks of 2025, group turnover is up 10.1%, although noting we are cycling a weaker FY 2024 comparison. This trading period also includes the recent Black Friday promotional period. Encouragingly, despite a broader market trend of deeper and more prolonged discounting compared to last year, our gross margin percentage has remained relatively stable. With the crucial four weeks of Christmas trading still ahead, this result shouldn't be taken as indicative for the full season.
As Warren mentioned, we have still significant sales to come in the key Christmas trading period. With foreign currency exchange headwinds and ongoing pressures on freight, we continue to monitor and adapt our model as necessary. Our ongoing digital and data investment will support our drive for improved efficiency and productivity, especially out of our retail network, as we maintain our focus on operating costs. Our investment in new stores continue, along with three new openings in New Zealand and two relocations for Hallensteins and Glassons in Australia. Our strategic growth opportunities remain in Australia across all our brands, and we will continue our approach of disciplined store openings into 2025 that meet our return on capital requirements with locations which best represent our brands for the long term. For 2024, we have posted record profits and dividends for shareholders despite the most challenging retail environment in decades.
I've been inspired by the dedication, commitment, and resilience of all our teams, and I thank them for all their hard work which has delivered this result. I'd also like to thank their board for the ongoing and relevant support during the year. In my first year with this group, I've been incredibly impressed by the retail expertise and deep market understanding of our executive and operational teams. By maintaining a straightforward approach and a responsive culture to customer needs, the group is well positioned to navigate the complexities in the current environment ahead and achieve our growth objectives. I'd like to thank everybody for your support during the last year. And that concludes my speech. I'll pass on to James. Warren, to James. Thanks.
Thank you, Chris. We'll now hear from James. I should have mentioned before when I was talking, I think you get your dividend payout checks on Friday. I forgot.
Good morning, everyone. Warren has asked me to talk to you today to just give you some greater insight into some of the things we've been doing in Australia in the last year. So, as we know, the financial result was a good one, NZD 218 million in turnover, so up 14% on the prior year, and net profit up 14% on the last year as well. We had, obviously, one major store refurbishment toward the end of the financial year and two new store openings around halfway through the financial year as well. And we were happy with this result, but we believe there is always something to improve.
If you'd asked me at this meeting last year how we would achieve 12.9% like-for-like sales growth, I could not have given you a precise answer, and that's what I enjoy most about fashion retail. It's about keeping the proverbial plates spinning while also adding more plates for growth, and this involves small touches most of the time to keep the existing plates spinning and then a brave but calculated leap every now and then to add one, and as retailers, we need to wake up every day and look for that next thing that could help drive our sales, that next 0.1% on from the last year, and to do this, it takes a mix of discipline to keep doing those things that deliver day on day, but also have a mindset that is open to changing something if we find a better way.
So, Warren and Chris have asked me to sort of give you some insights into some of those things that we're doing that will hopefully deliver similar results this year. The first is called RFID, so radio frequency identification to me, the layman. If you go into the Glassons stores now and look at the swing tags on the garments, you will notice, if you peel it back, some very thin metal under the barcodes, and this is an RFID tag. So, these tags cost a fraction of a cent to produce but come with a massive range of benefits to our business. The major global fashion retailers like Zara, Uniqlo, H&M, and Lululemon use this technology across their retail networks, so it's not really a secret.
It probably isn't as common yet among the Australasian retailers due to the investment and sort of technological knowledge required to utilize it properly and to roll it out, but earlier this year, we achieved nearly 100% tagging of our stock on hand, and through the second half of the year, we have been implementing different elements that utilize the RFID tagging in our stores, so these have largely been focused on stock replenishment from the back rooms onto the store floors, and we find if we can be more efficient and accurate here and thus have the right stock on the floor as often as possible, we have the best chance to increase the turnovers like-for-like year -on -year. Other uses we will start to focus on more in the new year are stock loss management, stock takes, and integration into our warehousing.
Stock takes, for me, are the game changer. This will enable us to stop the quarterly stock takes that can take half a day with 10 people to stock take a store to one person being able to scan a store in 15 minutes daily. This will allow us to ensure our stock is accurate far more frequently than the current quarterly stock takes we perform and be able to react to stock losses more quickly. Another continued focus moving forward is sourcing, and as Chris and Warren have talked about, we had that margin improvement over the last year, which was great, but that's very hard to come by, so over the last few years, our supply network has matured outside of China, and we've developed some really good partnerships in India and Bangladesh in particular.
2025 will be really interesting as we have seen unrest in Bangladesh at the end of this year, which we're monitoring closely into the new year, as well as there could be significant implications with potential tariffs following the U.S. elections targeting China and requiring an understanding of what that will mean for us. As well as exchange rate and air freight changes and costings could also provide pitfalls that we need to bear in mind. Strong negotiating and supply competition are the best ways to offset these. We therefore take the same approach to our supply management as we do with our product management. We endeavor to understand the market to the best of our ability by being on the ground in China and India and Bangladesh and being flexible so that we can move production quickly if issues arise.
We'll keep teams regularly visiting all suppliers and continue to develop a geographically broad supplier base that can allow us to pivot when we face these issues. Another element really on our radar is brand positioning. Next year will have been 10 years since we started to really gain momentum in Australia. At the time in 2015, we produced a document for the brand outlining where we were in the market and where we believed we could go. At the time, we were turning over $36 million annually and had just lost $193,000 that year, so this year, due to some maternity leave and resulting personnel moves in our marketing team, I pulled that document out again a few months ago, and the exciting thing is the team can see that the same opportunities we saw back then are there to be had.
The big ones are separating ourselves from the competition and fighting to stand alone in the market so the Australian fashion customer knows we are the most compelling option on price and fashion. We've worked on these things this year through our first brand collaboration earlier in the year, which was successful. We followed up with some smaller influencer ones as well afterwards, and that drives exposure to the more fashion into the market, but that has a trickle-down effect to the mainstream customer. The new refit at Bondi is something we've been testing in terms of look and feel and efficiencies around greater turnovers and driving a greater perception with the customer. We continue to invest a lot into our campaigns and how we present the product through photography and digitally. We are also looking at where we set our new stores.
Obviously, we're looking into mid-next year opening up a store down in Bondi Beach, which has become a major fashion hub for that young Australian female market. We need to be in those places if we want to be seen as a leader. The results over those last 10 years have put us in the spotlight some more. It's been a good exercise to see where we can push further again around our product offering, marketing, and retail and e-commerce platforms as our competitors can be hot on our heels at different times. The best way to deal with this is to just keep moving forward. Building on the brand positioning, we know our physical store offering is still one of our greatest strengths.
With the last financial year, we saw the opening of Rundle Mall in Adelaide, which is our first CBD streetfront store in Australia, and Westfield Knox in Melbourne, and the expansion and refurbishment of the Bondi Junction Australian flagship. The Bondi Junction store was an exciting challenge as we had an already very productive store, and we increased that store by about 30%, but that obviously has the resulting reflection in the rent. You have to fight hard to maintain that level of profit and increase it. So far, it's trading well, and we'll hopefully provide some good insights for future high-volume locations if we can secure them. For the current financial year, we currently have our Werribee store being relocated this Thursday, which is much needed.
We also have three new locations committed with Harbour Town, DFO, and Adelaide earlier in the year, followed by Sunshine Plaza in Maroochydore and a Bondi Beach opening, as it's referred to, mid-year. There are still major locations in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne that we would like, but we need to make sure that the rents and locations are right to start with. We will also start to look into the potential of a couple of the other Australian states that we do not currently have a presence in over the coming year. The other significant news is that we're underway with plans for a warehouse relocation. This will be to a space that is planned to handle the further growth, hopefully, and make current processes more efficient. The team have been working on this for around 18 months now, and we plan to move there in 2026.
Thank you for your time today, and have a Merry Christmas and a good year.
Thank you, James. Just a point of clarification, the RFID that James talked about and the artificial intelligence, that is being rolled out in Glassons Australia first. So, we still have to go on that journey with Glassons New Zealand and Hallensteins. And we're very grateful to Chris, who's hiding down the back, who is overseeing that journey for us. So, thank you, Chris. So, I thought we might just now turn to any comments or questions from the floor from what you've heard before we move on to the other items of ordinary business today, election of directors and appointment of auditors. So, if there's any general comments or questions from what people have heard on those three presentations, feel free to raise them now. Is there anything? Yep, sure. Well, bring your microphone.
The target market for Glassons is age 20 to 30, is that correct?
I'll let James answer that.
Sorry. Yes. No. Yes.
And so, if I want my three daughters, who are all in their 40s, to appear younger, I should advise them to go to Glassons, is that right?
Yeah, if they will take anyone.
I'll tell them that. And for Hallenstein Brothers, the target market is a little different, right? 18 to 30. So rry?
I think he said 18 to 30. 18 to 30.
18 to 30 for Hallenstein Brothers.
Yeah.
Okay.
April, do you want to talk about New Zealand just briefly? New Zealand market? Because the markets between Australia and New Zealand are different. We're much broader in New Zealand, and maybe April might make a comment. We've obviously got Glassons been in New Zealand for multiple generations. Wait a minute, wait a minute. She's coming.
We're a lot more conservative here. So, as Warren has mentioned, we're a lot broader. So, our range is the same, but we definitely cater to the New Zealand market, and we address the nuances per region and north to south. Obviously, the climates can be different at times as well. So, we're really aware of that.
Okay, fine. Thank you.
Any other questions or comments that anybody would like to raise?
Just thinking, in addition to the store refurbishments, opening and closing, would it be possible to put in the square meterage or percentage increase or decrease? Only if it's easy.
It's not easy, but James might make a couple of comments because that's where most of the big ones have come, and Bondi Junction particularly, which was 30% +.
What was it say? Bondi? How big?
180-270. 180-270.
It has about a 40-meter square back room. So, in total, though.
Yeah, yeah, just paints a bigger picture. You know what I mean? Only if it's easy.
Yeah, it's not easy. It's quite hard to generalize, but.
Yeah, I think it's hard to, so yeah, put the numbers, but I think we're finding in the Australian ones, yeah, when I first started, they were all about 120, and then we sort of went to an iteration where they're about 160-180 square meters, but now we're starting to see the value in them being into the higher mid-to-high 200s. The New Zealand stores are bigger because they have to, as April said, have a wider range of stock and customer, and also the rents are a bit cheaper. So, but yeah, I think we're just slowly growing them as we see fit to take more space and offer a wider range, but we just got to keep that in balance.
It's really the stores in Australia that are trading the strongest, and some of them actually are nearly overperforming. So, it's not right across the board. It's selected stores on the ones that are really firing.
Two questions. First of all, with a number of Australian fashion retailers disappearing, is Glassons Australia being more welcome into malls, and does that mean you are getting a better rent from landlords?
If only.
Landlords don't tend to react as fast as you would like to that stuff.
We definitely have that in mind, and it's a really big focus, especially with Tim supports a lot with Sam and I on it, and Sam leads it, and I think, yeah, we are always fighting there because for us, while we're doing well, we're quite conservative, so we always want to look at the downside. So, and that's hence why we're not on some of those major ones, but I don't think you'll see the landlords are quite savvy at finding ways to add an extra people or bring in other brands. So, but yeah, for us, the main way we can drive demand because we're not as big is through our demand from the customer wanting us there because that's the customer they want is their young female customers.
So, yeah, and that's where in the Westfield, we're number one in every single mall we're in in terms of the female fashion category. So, that's how we drive it, but we probably haven't seen quite the reflection in rents yet, I don't think, have we, Sam?
No. I think, yeah, just adding to that, I think now we've become more popular in Australia. We are becoming more destinational, but we still want to focus on having the best sites and the best malls, but what comes with that is the best sites like any real estate attracts highest rent. So, it's trying to work out a fine balance, and then the landlords always find a way, even if you are performing, they want you in the center, but as I call it, they put a performance tax on that as well. So, yeah, so there's a cat and mouse there.
Second question is, store fit-out, how long does it take to recover that?
Yeah, on the fit-out, it obviously depends on the store and the location, but typically on a good store, we'll get that payback within one year is the aim.
That's incredible. You're number one with Westfield.
Yeah, thank you.
Westfield and us don't get on well at times.
They might be watching.
First of all, just want to say what an amazing year, and just congratulations to everyone for the job that you've done. I think it's very commendable in the environment that you're in to have put in this sort of performance that you're doing. Well done. If I may, could I have two questions too But first question, I've sort of already spoke with James a little bit about this one, but perhaps James, if you could give us a little bit of a picture for where you might see Glassons in Australia being in five years' time, if you will, sort of numbers, exposure.
Try three. Try three years.
Three years would be fine. I'll take that.
I think as we're sort of trying to add those, get the balance right with new stores, so that sort of two to five stores a year is manageable. And I think for us, it's about our stock turn when we have our stock turn humming right, just like a bit of an engine. You have that sweet spot, and the problem if you can add too many stores too quickly, it can start to slow you down if you get things wrong. So, for us, I think that's been a really good level of growth, and at the same time, you have those store expansions that we've done a number of. There was Werribee as well as the Fountain Gate store and Bondi, so that's three stores that we've grown quite significantly. Wasn't happy about that.
They don't always come in an orderly basis.
Yeah. So, and Sam says we fight for the rent. So, I think hopefully we might be up around that 50 stores in three to five years' time, and I think there still is e-commerce growth to be had as well that we would probably try and maintain at the level we've had. And I think there's still, it's such a different position over there compared to New Zealand, where New Zealand, we're so mature in our being here both brands over 100 years.
So, in Australia, we can keep the stores chipping away, and I think we still have this pool of consumers who aren't probably even aware of us when we do some research, ironically. So, yeah, I think I would hope that we can continue to have years like we've had this year. It will be a lot of hard work, but I think we can do it.
Second question. Just had a look a little bit this morning on the trends over the last five years, just in the financial accounts. And there has been margin compression in net profit as a percentage of sales in the last five years, where it's kind of gone from, I think, 10% net profit after tax as a percentage of sales five years ago to about 8% now. Is that a reflection of sort of something very structural that's just structural challenges, competition, et cetera, and all that's gone on in the last five years?
I think the cost of operating, which you're probably well aware of, the cost of operating in Australia is higher than New Zealand. And as we get more penetration into Australia, rents and wages and some of those other operating costs are higher and freight. So, I think partially some of it's due to the increased operations in that market vis-à-vis New Zealand.
You just got to watch out on the results this year. There was that one-off tax adjustment, so a little profit before tax, so that's obviously a little bit healthier. And also with the investment in Australia, we have to invest in the teams to support that growth. So, we will sometimes have a bit of lumpiness as you're investing in the teams and then have future store rollouts. So, we expect obviously long-term to drive better operating leverage as you expand the network.
Does the inflationary environment permit any ability to lift prices, or you just see that that's not there at the moment?
I think it's our strength, is holding our prices partially, but we do look at it on where we think the customer would pay another $5 or $10. It's not ever out of the question, but for us, I think I'm always reluctant to move that retail too much because it sets us apart, and we want to make sure for our market that they come in the store and price isn't a problem, that they continue that relationship. But it's something we're aware of, that we just try and move, and we're very aware of what happens in the market too and where they put their prices.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments that people would like to raise at this point? There will be a session for general business at the end if people have some other issues. Yeah, Warren. Thanks, Warren.
Thanks very much, Warren. I'll add my congratulations too. I've been following the stock for about 30-odd years, as you know, and right back from early days. And the ability for the company to succeed overall, its history has been its ability to continue policy set by the board and not cut and change too rapidly, including the composition of the board, as we know from other discussions in previous years. So, I think in terms of stability, that's what we look for.
In terms of the markets, Chris or James, it's clearly a very different market in Australia developing now, with some surprises still to come down the road. I'd just like you to comment about the macro scene over there, which I talked to you a little bit about earlier before the meeting. New Zealand has cut interest rates quite significantly. Australia has not yet. We have very much lost a population, particularly to Australia. There's a population drift into Australia that, plus their migration levels, holding up. In terms of the size of the market as well, the number of people in the catchment area, catchment for Westfield here is down tens of thousands below that in Australia. What are we looking at? 25 million people in Australia compared to five million static here?
If you'd like to comment a little bit about that as Australia in a big picture sense, about what that does for this business in terms of its enhancement over a period of time, which insulates it from all the other pressures you're talking about.
Yeah, I mean, I think, first of all, the beauty of our group now, we genuinely are diversified between Australia and New Zealand. As we all know, New Zealand's a more challenging economic environment, and we can even see that in our results where our growth primarily is coming out of the Australian market. And we look across that for both brands as an opportunity to grow going forward. You're right. In Australia, I think like 12 months ago, they had 400,000 people coming into the country net. That's the size of Christchurch coming in, I think half of that into Melbourne kind of thing.
So, in terms of densities, there remains those opportunities. And for our brands, particularly Glassons, we've only probably partway through that journey. And as James mentioned, additional geographies we're not even in yet. I think that the beauty is we can be more defined in that market in Australia versus New Zealand, where we've been in the market for 100 years. So, we mean more to a wider range of people. Where in Australia, we can be more defined just due to the size of the demographics. So, that target customer can be more laser-focused on, where, as April mentioned earlier, in New Zealand, we have to just be slightly wider, purely because we don't have the population base to support a very targeted and narrow range for the consumer.
So, that is the biggest challenge for us going forward is getting that mix right to fit for New Zealand and that wider demographic, where Australia we can be really focused on, laser-focused on that consumer mix.
James, James, you got anything to add?
No, I think Chris has pretty much nailed it. I think the Australian customer spends a little bit more at the moment, but they're not looking to lower interest rates anytime soon. So, I think it's, yeah, and I think it's definitely when we're working with April and stuff like that, and speaking with James, it's much harder here. So, I think it's, but we're sort of hopefully turned a bit of a corner, but I think, yeah, they're quite similar in so many ways, but so very different in other ways too.
So, I think, yeah, it's great to be able to, and I think there's also lots of potential with Hallensteins in Australia too, which would be great to try and, yeah, as Chris says, diversify a bit more.
I think, Warren, as you know, the population of Melbourne and Sydney is individually, they're about the same as New Zealand. And I found it fascinating when they started to talk about Adelaide, about what a little town it was, and I think it's nearly the same size as Auckland. So, it's a different setup there. So, thank you for those comments. Any other comments before we move on? There will be general business later, I think.
James, you just touched on the expansion of Hallensteins in Australia. With the five stores in Queensland, what trajectory do you see for expansion into the southern states?
Yeah, I could cover that one.
Will it, James, on Glassons?
Yeah, sorry.
I'm going to get you on, but I mean.
I'll try and answer it through this one.
Yeah, but I mean, there'll be a, yeah, like every store we look at, or every part of the business we look at, we measure based on the right return and the brand and the team ready for really a pushed expansion. But we'll take it step by step at this stage and get Sam on to looking and getting us those good sites to finish off Queensland first before probably looking further abroad. Are there any barriers to heading south? I mean, once you hit a certain threshold, it just logistically, it's a bigger challenge. We don't have a major permanent presence other than the retail team. So, that next leap is a more strategic and defined leap, which we're working on over the coming year.
Currently, those Queensland stores are serviced from New Zealand. So, to go further, if you're like you're talking, we need to build infrastructure around the journey. But we'll give James here five minutes to get his feet under the. He's keen to have it, aren't you, James? So, thank you for the question. Okay. So, there will be an opportunity later for general discussion. So, we'll wrap up that area and move on to the next item of business, item three, which is the election of directors. And all directors' elections will be included in a poll, as I said earlier, which we'll take at the end of the ordinary business of the agenda after dealing with our auditor. And all results will be published on our website later.
As the three directors up for re-election this time, myself, Graeme Popplewell, and James Glasson, I'll ask Jo Appleyard to assume the chair. Thank you, Jo.
Good morning. In accordance with the NZX listing rules, Mr. Warren Bell, Mr. Graeme Popplewell, and Mr. James Glasson retire, and each being eligible offer themselves for re-election. Firstly, Mr. Warren Bell, as you're aware, Warren is a non-executive director and is the chair of the board. He was appointed to the board in December 1986. He holds appointments on a number of other boards in both public and private companies, and he is a professional director. Warren, is there anything you'd like to say yourself?
Maybe just a couple of comments, Jo.
With the support today of you shareholders, I would really welcome the opportunity to continue working with not only the Hallenstein Glasson board here, but the executive teams to continue to keep rolling that momentum that we've already talked about today. And as you've heard, both Glassons' and Hallensteins chains do have plenty of growth opportunities in front of them, mainly in the Australian markets. But I think the key is, and James touched on this, we just have to be good enough and effective enough to capitalize on them. So, we do have, as you've heard, some very good executive teams. But as you've also heard, some of them are still quite new to our group. And we mentioned before that Chris Kinraid here is just finishing his first year as our Group CEO, and he's done a very capable job, and we're very grateful for that.
James McLaughlin, our new Hallensteins CEO, has only just recently joined us a couple of months ago, and he too is also very capable. I think that it's important that our executive team, including the new ones, get the support and the mentoring from us directors to make sure that we go forward in a measured and properly organized way. You'll notice from the balance sheet that that journey isn't really inhibited by having the money to do it. You see that we've got money in the bank. It's really important for us to go on that journey in a measured way. I would like, with your support, to continue that journey. Just a general comment on the Glassons board. We are, as a board, very aware of the fact that some refreshing would be good.
We have had active discussions around adding at least a couple of board members in the current year. We haven't been too specific, but my own personal view is it would be quite good to have one in Australia and one in New Zealand. So, that piece of work will be followed through, and we've started that journey already. So, in conclusion, with your support, I'd welcome the opportunity to continue as a director of this, what I think is a really great group, if you people deem it appropriate. So, thank you, Jo.
Okay. So, would someone please move that Mr. Warren Bell be re-elected a director of the company? Thank you, sir. Can I just have your names so we can? Thank you. And would someone please second the motion? Thank you. Any discussion on this topic? Frank Stewart.
Yeah, I'll make some comments generally later, but initially, the New Zealand Shareholders Association has no problem with the contribution being made by Warren and Graeme to the performance of Hallensteins, which has been very good in our view. But we do take an issue with classifying Graeme and Warren as independent because in view of their line of.
I'm sorry, Warren is not classified as independent. I thought I would have made that clear. Warren is a non-executive director. He is not classified as independent.
Graeme is independent. But basically, because at the last AGM, we mentioned that the tenure should be addressed by board refreshments, and it's a large board already, and they've been on the board for such a long time that we think there should be refreshment. As a protest against that, we're going to vote our two million odd proxies against the re-election of Warren and Graeme, despite what we think is their good contribution to the company.
Thank you. Board composition, it's a bit like Colonel Sanders' secret recipe, getting the ingredients right. At the moment, we've obviously got it right, but we're really conscious we're not immortal. As Warren alluded to, we are actively looking at geography, skill set, and getting that board DNA mix right. We are very acutely aware of the need to manage succession, and that is top of our agenda. As Warren said, we hope to have some news for you this year. Yeah.
Thank you.
Any other discussion specifically on Warren or this topic? No. Thank you. Warren, I'll let you continue with Graeme and James.
Thank you. The next person that's up for re-election today is Graeme Popplewell, and Graeme is well known to you all and is an independent non-executive director. He's obviously got a wealth of experience in the fashion apparel world and having held previous CFO and CEO roles in our businesses over the years. My own view, and Graeme might want to block us out at the moment, but I think he's one of the best menswear fashion apparel operators in Australasia and adds real value to our group. I think we just need to note that. I don't want to listen to that too much. He might be... I don't know what the right word is, Graeme. Maybe I'll ask Graeme to make a couple of comments. Graeme, if you'd like just to come up and make a couple of comments. Thank you.
Well, I think just about everything has been said, but this business is something that I've lived with pretty much all my adult life, and it really means a lot. It's disappointing, I think, that the shareholders' association think that if you've been there too long, then it's time to cut the throat, as it were. I'm certainly willing. I'm able. I feel young enough. I think I look young enough. And I'd welcome the opportunity to serve another term. There's a lot of exciting things to do. So, thank you.
Thank you. Could I just have somebody move that Mr. Graeme Popplewell be re-elected a director, Warren and the gentleman behind? Could I just get your name for the minutes? Michael Bond. Michael Bond. Wherever minute taker is. Thank you both. And we'll proceed to vote on those in our poll in due course.
The third person today that's up for re-election today is James Glasson. You've heard quite a bit from James today on Glassons Australia. James joined Glassons Australia in 2013 after completing a Master of Arts in Fashion Retail degree at the London College of Fashion, the University of the Arts there. He's taken on various roles within our business over the last 11 years, including brand manager, general manager, acting national retail manager. He was appointed to CEO of Glassons Australia in October 2017. You've heard quite a bit from James and his presentation today, but I'd just ask him to come and add any other comments that he would like to add. I think we've been very... I think what we've learned on the journey with Glassons Australia is that you can't do it by remote control.
You've got to actually have people living there and wanting to live there and stay there and go on the journey, so James, any comments you want to add?
It's been a privilege over the last few years to sit on the board. I love retail. I still think there's a lot we can do, and I hope that I can be a part of that and help lead it and one of the great things about being on the board is that it allows me as well to support the other brands, and especially with what we're looking at with Australia and that kind of thing, so yeah, I really enjoy it, and I hope that the results speak for themselves.
I think just on the discussions about Graeme and Warren, I'll put my two cents in, is I think the beauty of what we do is we aren't normal, probably, in how we operate, and I think some of the best businesses aren't. And so, while there's always guidelines in the market, I think that sometimes we like to... we can deliver by doing what we know is best, which is retail. And I think if you look at the makeup of the executive team, we're all pretty young and fresh-faced and energetic, and we love to get out there and get stuff done. And I think the balance that we have with a board that has decades and decades of retail experience is what really makes this business work.
It's a balance, and I think that's one of the true successes of where we are and where we've been. And I think we would be foolish to look beyond that.
Thank you, James. Would somebody care to move that Mr. James Glasson be elected a director? Thank you. The minute people got the names, could we have your names? Who's taking the minutes? Cam, where are you? Have you got the two gentlemen's names? Could you just yell out your name for a minute taker here? David Winsley. And the second one? We've got the name before. Yeah. So, once again, we'll deal with this item of business by way of poll in due course. So, moving on to item four, which really relates to the reappointment of auditors and approval of their fees.
Would a shareholder please move to record the reappointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditors of the company pursuant to Section 207T of the Companies Act, 1993, and authorize the directors to fix the remuneration of the auditors for the ensuing year? Thank you. Seconder? Thank you. Can we just get the names again? Sorry. I'm helping the minute taker. You got that? Cam? Thank you. So, once again, this item will be dealt with by our electronic and paper voting forms in the poll only. So, that concludes our discussion on the four items of ordinary business for today. So, I think now we'll just give you some time to mark your voting papers and electronic voting forms and the like. If anybody needs a pen, just put your hand up and they'll find your pen. This gentleman, have anybody got a pen? I'll take it. You're stuck.
Oh, I hope you know I will carry you home whether it's tonight or 55 years down the road. Oh, I know there's so many ways that this could go. Don't want you to wonder, darling, I need you to know in this and every life, aren't you glad every time. We were just 43 men. Our whole life fit in that car. Didn't have a bed to sleep in. We kept each other warm under a ceiling full of stars. These days, these nights, they change my mind. Said all the time, I'd like to say it. To say I do. Oh, I hope you know I will carry you home whether it's tonight or 55 years down the road. Oh, I know there's so many ways that this.
So, how are we going? Does anybody need more time? And has everybody had their voting papers collected?
So, if you all had time to fill in your voting forms and electronic voting forms, then we'll formally close the voting. And if everybody's now done, then I'll declare the voting now closed, and the results of these votes will be released on the NZX later today. So, that's the end of the formal ordinary business for the day. But now we might just have a bit of time just under general business for people to reflect on what it is they might like to raise or ask that hasn't been covered so far. So, welcome.
Yeah. I'm Frank Stewart. I'm the chairman of the South Island branch of the Shareholders Association. I might have sounded a bit negative before, but as a shareholder myself and invested also for my infant granddaughter, I'm really pleased about the performance of the company overall. I observe about 30 shareholders in the room. I just wonder how many shareholders are online because we usually report those things. The other thing the Shareholders Association do is every year they run a report card of all the companies on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, and Hallenstein Glassons has done pretty well in terms of our overall assessment, with one or two exceptions relating to directors and also remuneration that we think should be fixed in the annual report. But apart from that, we're generally happy with the.
Thank you for those comments, Frank. Appreciate that. Is there any other comments on general that anybody would like to raise? Just wait. We'll find your microphone.
Thanks very much. Has any thought been given to issuing shares instead of a dividend at all?
We did years ago have a dividend reinvestment plan, but we didn't find it particularly effective.
Lots of people ended up with very, very small numbers of shares that weren't that easily disposed of at the end of the day. Warren, do you want to add anything there? You've obviously watched companies with dividend reinvestment plans over the years. We really found that our one didn't work as well as what we'd hoped for, just because of the small numbers of shares issued and the marketability of them when people wanted to get rid of them. So, at this stage anyway, we'd prefer to just send you some cash. If you want to buy some more, that's more than welcome. Any other comments or questions? Warren?
Well, Mr. Bell, congratulations. Your address and the CEO's comments clearly had some effect on the national market. So, your share price is quite significantly higher than when the meeting started.
You're the only one who knows because we don't.
And I didn't put any money on during the course of the meeting, Warren, either. And of course, that puts you up about 26% over the current year. So, I think that deserves a round of applause, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you. And I think, Warren, I thought you might add to that it's quite a challenge for the executive team for the current year to keep the momentum rolling.
Sure does. Sure does.
I appreciate those comments. Any other comments that anybody would like to touch on? We've done this before, but you'll be all aware that all of our stores have gift vouchers. So, if you are struggling like me to come up with a Christmas present for—I have trouble with my nieces. So, if you are struggling, then be aware that if you follow my rule of thumb, gift vouchers are not a bad solution for us. And I'm sure the executive team here would be only too pleased to see you in our stores. So, did you want to ask him?
Yeah. I just wanted to ask a little bit about the ability of Hallensteins Glassons to get it so right year after year in terms of fashion trends. This is something that a lot of other companies in retail have clearly struggled with. And.
We can't tell you our secrets, so I'll be listening.
Maybe not all the secrets, but just a couple of little ones, perhaps.
Oh, let James Glasson comment.
I think how we do things is not the easiest way.
And so, lots of other businesses. There's easy ways to buy fashion and probably the harder ways to buy fashion. And my view is if something's hard, it's probably the right way quite often. And so, yeah, how we approach our buying is quite different. And Tim has probably taught a lot of those fundamentals of what I use now and April's teams use now is how we buy. And what Graeme has probably been heavily involved with Hallensteins over the years and his mentoring, I think, with James, it will be similar. Yeah. And it's how we buy as we listen to the customer and we get as close to them as we can.
I think we've always prided ourselves on speed to market and having very high stock turns. And the executive teams have been able to execute that.
That's not easy for some of the other players to do, particularly the international ones who aren't as close to our market and can do trials in particular areas like trial in Queensland or trial down south in Christchurch and then make a call around maybe backing certain reads that are coming out of that. That's quite hard for the big international players to do with the flexibility and the speed that we do when H&M and Zara are sitting up.
I'll just interrupt for a moment. As James said, it's more about the fact that you have to back yourself and you have to know what the market's doing. People like James and April and James from Hallensteins learned that you've got to be in the shops, actually work in the shops.
All sitting around in head office is never going to make you a quid at the end of the day. It's all about understanding what the customer actually wants. And James, you spend probably three or four hours every weekend in one of them, probably like Bondi, where he'll learn heaps, heaps of what he's going to go and do on Monday. But lots of the others don't do that. So getting the reads going back in. Just fundamental.
Yeah. So that's quite a discipline to do over a long period of time. It's getting all the key people to do it.
Yes. You've got to have all the key people doing it, not just the old one.
So I don't think we'll give you any more trade secrets. There is no more. So if there's no more general questions, I'd like to. Yeah, sorry.
It's not actually a question. It's just a general comment. I'd just like to throw my support behind and endorse the comments that have been made about the performance of the board and management.
Thank you.
Obviously, the recipe is correct. The DNA is there. Plenty of experience and change for change's sake is not necessarily the way to go. Change will come eventually but there are plenty of examples out there where other companies have made change for change's sake and come unstuck. So yeah, I just.
Thank you for those comments. Appreciate that. Thank you.
Yeah. Agree.
Thank you so just in closing, I'd just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and enjoy the summer break. I think we had a bit of hot weather yesterday, which sort of told us that summer might be on the way and thank you very much for coming today. And we'd love to have you in the shops. Thank you all. And take the time, if you wish to, just to ask or say hello to some of the executives that are here today that you haven't heard much from. So feel free. And thank you for coming to declare the meeting closed. Thank you.