Good morning, everybody, and thank you for coming along today. So I'll now bring the meeting to order and declare that we've got a quorum present and formally declare the meeting open. So welcome to you all, and thank you for coming. So before I get underway with some of the real trading stuff of the group, there's just some meeting housekeeping procedures that we need to go through. So if you'd please bear with me just for a little while while I do this, that would be helpful. For those of you that are attending the meeting virtually, if you'd like to submit a question, the question and answer session is always open. So please feel free to submit your questions throughout the meeting, and these will be addressed at the relevant time.
These questions may be monitored, or if we receive multiple questions on the same topic or a similar topic, they may be amalgamated, and if for some reason that we don't manage to get through all the questions in time, then we'll deal with those outstanding by way of an email response, so voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business, and I'll shortly open the online voting for all resolutions. For those of you in this room, if you don't have a voting paper, can you indicate now by raising your hand? Is anybody missing a voting paper that needs one? We'll find you one if you're missing one. Okay. If not, thank you, and the voting papers will be collected at the end of the resolution and voting section of the meeting by Computershare.
The team that you have all met at the door on the way in here, and they will act as our scrutineers and post the results later on the NZX this afternoon. For those of you online, if you're eligible to vote at this meeting, you'll be able to cast your vote under the vote tab. Once voting is opened, the resolutions will allow votes to be submitted, and you can change your vote right up to the time that I declare voting closed. So I now declare voting open for all items of business, and I'll give you a warning before I move to close the voting after we have dealt with all the items of business. So I'd just like to take a moment to introduce the board to you. Down the far end is Graeme Popplewell.
Good morning.
Next door to Graeme is Tim Glasson.
Good morning.
Next door to Tim is Jo Appleyard.
Good morning.
And all the way from Melbourne is Malcolm Ford, next door to Jo, and Sandy Vincent, next door to Malcolm. And another, I don't know whether she's English or Australian the next one.
Karen Bycroft.
I think she thinks she's Australian now, but she was initially English. And next door to Karen is Peter Steenson, and next door to Peter is James Glasson. So that's our board, and obviously I'm Warren Bell. Just want to spend a minute or two also introducing you to our executive team here today. There's quite a number of them here today. So obviously, James, being the CEO of Glassons Australia, he's obviously in both camps. Down the front here in the black, April, can you stand up? April here is our Glassons New Zealand CEO. And down here, right on the end, is James McLaughlan, the CEO of Hallensteins. And Cam Alderton here is our group finance guru. And our IT guru is way down the back there, Chris Reid, standing up there. And in the front here, we've got Sam Glasson.
And also next door to Sam is Olivia. So I would encourage you people to talk to any of those people informally at the end of the meeting, if you so wish. They're only too happy to talk with you and just give you a bit of feedback if there's anything that we don't cover during the course of the formal part of the meeting today. So moving on to the notice of meeting and agenda. It's been circulated to members, and I propose that the notice of meeting be taken as read. So somebody care to move? Warren, thank you. Seconded? Thank you. Proxies. Moving on to proxies. All resolutions will be included in a poll. Please mark your paper accordingly. And these will be collected at the end of the ordinary business items on the agenda or vote online as per the instructions provided.
The directors have received 345 proxies totaling 23,792,211 shares. These will be voted and the polls taken as directed by those people who have sent in their proxies. Apologies. Do I have any apologies today? If not, thank you. Also, hopefully, you've received a copy of last year's minutes on your chair. Does anybody have any comments on those minutes? You probably haven't had much time to read them, to be honest. If not, then I'll move into today's business. The first item of ordinary business today will be an address from me as your Chairman in a minute. But prior to that, I'll just ask Daryl from our PwC auditors' firm, who's representing the firm today and knows all about us because he's been at the coalface. I just asked Daryl to read the conclusion of the audit report, wherever he is.
Where have you gone, Daryl? There he goes. So perhaps come up here, just the conclusion because it's quite long. Not to be rude about your audit report.
Good morning, as Warren mentioned. My name is Daryl Watson, representing PwC as the external auditors to the shareholders of Hallenstein Glasson Holdings Limited. In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements of Hallenstein Glasson Group present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the group as at 1 August 2025, its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with New Zealand equivalents to international financial reporting standards and IFRS. We conducted our audit in accordance with the international standards on auditing and issued an unqualified opinion on 26 September 2025. Thank you, Warren.
Thank you, Daryl, and thank you to your team for getting this all completed and over the line in time for today and the normal other reporting timetables that we have. So moving into the chairman's address today, I'll just, before I start talking, I will be followed by James Glasson, the CEO of Glassons Australia. James is going to talk about Glassons in both Australia and New Zealand, and April down here is going to help with New Zealand where necessary. And James McLaughlan will follow James Glasson and talk to you about Hallensteins. So the three of us are going to talk to you, and I'm going to lead off. So the group sales for the 12 months to 1st of August 2025 was NZD 470.7 million, which was an increase of 8.1% on the prior year.
Gross margin was 59.3%, which is nearly the same number from the prior year. So we managed to hold margin in a trading environment where we had a challenging exchange rate for our product purchases. So that was encouraging. Audited net profit for the 12 months, this is before tax, was NZD 58.4 million, which was an increase of 12.1% on the year before. And the group audited net profit after tax, after we've made our contribution on the tax front, we ended up at NZD 39.5 million, which was an increase of 14.4% on the prior year. And the annual group profit was assisted by a better and stronger winter season in this financial year. So that was encouraging. And as you are all aware, we have maintained a very strong balance sheet and a strong working capital position.
So just some comments on Glassons Australia, which James will talk about, James Glasson will talk about in more depth in a minute. Glassons Australia now has got 40 shops across Australia, four-zero, which is quite a number of shops, most of them down the east coast of Australia. And their sales in Australia last financial year was AUD 251.5 million, which was an increase of 15.3% on the corresponding period. This was obviously assisted with some new store openings, and also there were some existing stores that were increased in size and refurbished. So that 15.3% includes some new store openings and some refurbished and larger-format stores that were added as well. So the Glassons Australia net profit before tax was AUD 34.2 million, which is an increase of 16.1% over the prior year.
And it's interesting to note that Glassons Australia's annual sales last year were now more than Glassons New Zealand and Hallensteins sales combined. So we've really got a deep foot in the Australian market. During the year, Glassons Australia opened a new store on the Sunshine Coast at Maroochydore. A number of you have probably been to Maroochydore on your holidays. And also a new Harbour Town Outlet store in Adelaide, which opened in March 2025. And throughout that financial year, the Werribee store in Victoria was relocated and expanded, and the Northland store in Victoria was also refurbished. So as I said before, there are now 40 Glassons stores in Australia, and James will talk to you a bit more about this shortly. So where appropriate, we will look at new store opportunities in Australia and maybe increase the odd store in terms of its existing size.
As we reported in the annual report, Glassons Australia has outgrown its existing Sydney-based warehouse. It's now too small. It's currently working on a new purpose-built larger warehouse in Sydney with improved automation, which will enable the business to be prepared for its future growth. This new Sydney-based warehouse is expected to be ready in the second half of the current financial year. Post last year, the end of last year, Glassons Australia has relocated its store in Parramatta to a larger new format and has opened a new store in Burwood in New South Wales. The Castle Towers store was refurbished and, as I said, increased in store size like some of the others. They're all encouraging signs, which is good. James will talk in a bit more detail on this shortly.
Turning to Glassons New Zealand, Glassons New Zealand's got 35 stores in New Zealand. And it's ably led by April Ward down the front here and her very competent Glassons New Zealand management team. So their New Zealand sales for New Zealand was NZD 111.9 million, which was an increase of 1.7% on the prior year. But more importantly, the net profit after tax was NZD 19.2 million, an increase of 27.4% on the corresponding period. So that's a very strong result, which April and her team can take full credit for, which is really pleasing. And I think it's just worth pointing out the executive teams, some executive team members in Australia that do help April and her team from time to time, like weekly. So they do work very closely together. So we do thank them as well.
In New Zealand, Glassons Australia opened and refurbished stores at LynnMall, Shirley here in Christchurch, and Queen Street in Auckland. We work quite hard, as we've talked to you previously, about keeping store presentation for our customers right up to scratch. We're busy refurbishing and making sure our store network is right up to spec. We also opened a new Glassons store in Mānawa Bay, which is an outlet center at Auckland Airport. You've probably all heard about that in September 2024. We also opened another Queenstown store in Frankton in July 2025. We've now got two Glassons stores in Queenstown, one in the CBD and one out in Frankton. That's covering quite different markets, local market Frankton and in-town tourist market largely. The Glassons Timaru store was closed at the end of August 2024.
Since year-end, the Glassons Hamilton Central store, right in the middle of town, has been refurbished and was opened again in late August of this year, and it looks a million dollars better than what it did before, so James will add to what I've said there in a bit more detail shortly, and April is here to give you any specific questions you may have on the New Zealand women's fashion apparel market or any specific questions relating to Glassons New Zealand, so turning to Hallensteins. Hallensteins now has 41 stores in New Zealand and five in Queensland and Australia, and as always, they're led by James McLaughlan here down the front. James has been with us a bit over a year. So he's done a sterling job, and he's got a very competent Hallensteins executive team working with him, which he will talk to you further about shortly.
The Hallensteins menswear business had a 12-month turnover of NZD 107.3 million, which was relatively flat against the year before. Its net profit before tax was NZD 4.8 million, a decrease of 36.4% on the prior year, which, as we all know, is disappointing. There's work to be done there. James will talk to you more shortly about the initiatives that he's working on with that business and how he might extract a bit more bottom line out of it. It's showing encouraging signs. He will elaborate more on that shortly. Hallensteins has also spent some time redesigning its new store concept. They've come up with a refreshed, revised store design. This went into the new store at Sylvia Park in Auckland in November.
We didn't have a store in Sylvia Park, which is north of Auckland, top part of Auckland, beyond Albany. And that was in November of this year, not that long ago. And similar to Glassons New Zealand, the Hallensteins have also opened a new Mānawa Bay outlet center at the Auckland or close to the Auckland Airport. They've also repositioned the Hallensteins store in Queen Street, so to take it further down towards the bottom of Queen Street to an improved location. So that is a good positive and should result in some more foot traffic and maybe a bit closer to all those international boats, cruise ships that roll down that part of the world. At the end of July 2025, the Upper Hutt store in Wellington was closed. And similar to Glassons, the Hallensteins also upgraded and refurbished their Hamilton store right in the middle of that city.
That was reopened in September 2025. Also, the LynnMall store in Auckland was expanded and refurbished just a few weeks ago, December 2025. There's a lot of work going on in New Zealand to keep that chain store concept right up to scratch. Hallensteins is also, as you would have seen there, with five shops in Queensland and Australia. One of those five shops was a pop-up shop in Robina Mall on the Gold Coast. That was closed after year-end and replaced with a brand new Hallensteins store, which is a permanent site. I think James will show you some photos of that shortly. Excuse me. Late November, just a few weeks ago, they also opened a pop-up store in Parramatta. That was only a couple of weeks ago. We're looking very closely at how those two new stores perform.
It's only a matter of weeks so far, and we'll see how they go, and if they are as successful as we hope they are, we'll work to find potentially some more. Turning now to e-commerce, as you all know, e-commerce is a very important part of our businesses in both countries, and last year, digital sales represented 18% of revenue for the year over the prior year. But because our total turnover is growing, as we talked about at the front, online sales grew in dollar terms with it as well, so it was 6.7% up on last year, which is very pleasing, and again, the Australian online sales are stronger than those in New Zealand, so that's a trend that has been there for a number of years so far, so our customers continue to embrace the true omnichannel experience.
They like browsing, buying, and then engaging seamlessly across both the physical stores and the digital platforms. So it's really important for us to keep taking our online offer forward. And looking ahead, we remain committed to adopting new technologies where appropriate. And Chris Reid down the back, together with the digital teams on each of those respective chains, are doing a great job to ensure that we're an industry leader and the customer experience is right up to scratch. So moving to some comments on the dividend. The directors have declared a final dividend of NZD 0.305 per share, partially imputed at 56.5%. Last year, it was NZD 0.265 per share, imputed at 75.6%. So this is going to be paid on the 12th of December. That's this coming Friday. So hopefully, you might find some money in your bank on Friday.
This, together with the interim dividend of NZD 0.24 per share that was paid on the 17th of April, means that our full-year dividends were NZD 0.55 per share, so our dividend payments have continued to grow with improved trading performance as we hang on to a very strong balance sheet, which is good, and inventories, it would be pleasing to note, have been well controlled. Turning to what has happened in the new year to date, the group has got off to a pretty good start, which we find very pleasing, and for the first 18 weeks of the new financial year, group sales are up 13.8% on the prior corresponding period, and that is driven primarily by the Australian market.
But as I pointed out earlier, it's been assisted by some new store openings and this journey that we're going on of refurbishing and increasing the size of some of our existing stores. So that's quite a good number. But so we shouldn't see that as necessarily being indicative of what might happen in the really big months of December and January as we roll through the Christmas period and the Boxing Day sales, January sales, and whatever, and work towards the end of our summer season, which finishes on the 1st of February, 2026. In New Zealand, we expect trading conditions to remain challenging with the cost of living pressures continuing, which we hear about every day. So that will continue to impact on discretionary spending across the New Zealand retail environment. So it's a good start.
Maybe if you listen to all the commentators every five minutes on TV or radio, they keep talking about the appearance of some green shoots. We'll see whether these green shoots actually prove to stick. There's a lot of talk going on in the media about the green shoots, but we'll talk more knowledgeably about that when we get to the end of the summer season on 1 February. Our big thank yous from the board, Hallensteins Board, to the various executive teams and all our staff for what's been a dedicated and great effort. That's delivered an extremely pleasing result for shareholders for the 2025 financial year and what, as we know, is not an easy environment, particularly in New Zealand. Enough comments from me for the moment. Thank you in the meantime.
I'll ask James Glasson here to talk to you in a bit more detail about Glassons, Australia and New Zealand. Thank you, James.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending today. My name is James Glasson, CEO of Glassons Australia. It's a privilege to speak with you today and to provide an update on how the business has performed over the past financial year and how we are positioning ourselves for the years ahead. The past years presented a complex retail environment across both Australia and New Zealand. Consumer sentiment has been softer in New Zealand and more variable in Australia even. Ongoing movements in FX, freight costs, and general costs of doing business have required careful management. Against this backdrop, Glassons has continued to perform well with steady contributions from both sides of the Tasman.
In Australia, Glassons delivered AUD 251.5 million sales, an increase of 15% in the last year, and New Zealand delivered NZD 111.9 million, a lift of 2%. April and I are pleased with these results, but we view them with the knowledge we still have plenty more to do. Our priority is not to chase expansion, but to ensure we are creating a sustainable long-term platform for the brand, for our teams, and for our customers. Glassons was started over 100 years ago on Lichfield Street, less than 800 meters away from where we sit today, and every strategic decision we make is in the hope we make it last another 100 years for the benefit of yourselves, our teams, and our customers. The strength of our performance this year reflects that approach.
We have focused on operational agility, lean inventory positions, strong in-store experience, and maintaining a healthy net profit-to-sales percentage. These fundamentals remain the backbone of our business, and we intend to protect them carefully. One of the areas we are most proud of is our continued investment in customer experience, both in-store and online. Our ambition is to lead the market in the space, and we have made meaningful progress. A major leap forward has been the integration of RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification technology, into both our warehouse and our stores. This is more than just an operational improvement. It enhances the customer and team experience directly. With RFID in place, we can complete stock takes more frequently and far more accurately, improving replenishment speed and ensuring customers find the products they expect on our shelves.
It also reduces manual workload for our teams, allowing them to focus on the customer rather than the background. This technology has improved our stock accuracy, the efficiency of our replenishment cycles, and the quality of our in-store execution. It also provides a stronger foundation for future omnichannel activity, as accurate stock data is fundamental for the customer journey, whether it begins online or in-store. Our digital and e-commerce channels have performed steadily throughout the year. Web sales grew at 6% across the Glassons e-commerce platforms and the Australasian markets. Australia saw good sales growth, and in New Zealand, with its higher saturation, it was harder. The continued refinement of imagery and development of video content are priorities for us to continue to drive sales growth. We have paused further expansion into the U.S. due to the changing tariff environment. While this slowed that particular channel, it presents an opportunity.
We have redirected some focus into other markets where customer response has been positive. The pivot has allowed us to continue refining our international capability without overcommitting capital operations. Should the tariff landscape change in the U.S., or we should find a more streamlined way of doing business there, we remain open to re-engaging. But for now, we're comfortable with our approach and the performance of our digital channels. Strengthening our supply chain remains a core priority. Our sourcing strategy continues to center around India, China, and Bangladesh, and we remain optimistic about the ongoing potential of these regions. If the New Zealand government can secure an Indian free trade agreement, that would be nice. That would, of course, be advantageous, particularly as we continue to focus on margins.
This year, we also made strong progress in our warehouse relocation project, and I want to acknowledge the work of Sam Glasson and Chris Reid, whose leadership has been much appreciated on the project. The new warehouse, which will be more than 7,000 sq m under one roof, compared with roughly 3,500 sq m spread across three buildings we have today, represents a significant step forward in our capability and efficiency. We're also looking to build on current operational efficiencies with a level of automation to increase the speed and accuracy of our packing and allow our teams to be more focused. The project remains on track to open in mid-2026, and it should materially improve our operating rhythm, distribution capacity, and ultimately our customer experience, and I look forward to updating you next year on it. Discipline around cost control remains central to how we run the business.
We monitor net profit to sales closely and our intent on preserving the strength of that ratio as the business grows. In Australia, Glassons delivered a net profit before tax of NZD 34.2 million, an increase of 16.1% in the prior year. New Zealand delivered NZD 19.2 million, up 27%. April and I are really proud of these results. When you get significant increases in net profit, it's due to company-wide performance and the results of all different departments contributing, not just one element. Our focus on cost control extends primarily across rent negotiations, logistics, marketing investment, and inventory planning. Our goal is to build a business that grows responsibly and sustainably. On the store side, we continue to take a steady approach to expansion.
Over the year, we opened new stores on the Sunshine Coast and Harbour Town, Adelaide, Maroochydore, Frankton, and expanded or refurbished Queen Street, Auckland, Werribee, and Northland in Victoria. We see opportunities to grow existing stores into open and new locations where there are clear geographic gaps or strategic benefits. And Frankton's probably a good example of that, where, since it's opened, it has had no effect on the growth of the Queenstown store. So the great thing is there's still those opportunities in New Zealand where we have a much higher market saturation. In an increasingly competitive market, online or offline, we still see our stores as the key to our success. And this requires constant investment and evolving of our store fit-outs and service models through design and constant investment.
So for the current financial year ahead in Australia, we have opened a new store in Sydney at Burwood and have relocated and expanded Castle Towers at Parramatta. We have also committed so far to another two new locations in Australia for the new year. New Zealand has refurbished LynnMall and Hamilton. Inventory and discipline continues to be one of our core operational strengths. Running lean weeks of cover allows us to stay close to trend, move quickly where demand signals are strong, and protect margin when demand softens. The approach reduces risk and increases agility, and it will remain a central part of how we operate. To close, I'd like to acknowledge our teams across Australia and New Zealand.
The consistency of our performance in volatile and hyper-competitive markets is a direct reflection of their hard work, their adaptability, and their commitment to delivering the best experience for our customers. I'd also like to thank April for her leadership and partnership over the last year. The results from Glassons New Zealand are outstanding. And I also want to thank the board for their continued support and advice, and the shareholders for their ongoing support and for the confidence placed in our businesses. We remain optimistic. We see opportunities, but our focus remains on operational excellence, responsible investment, and maintaining a strong customer connection, the foundation that have allowed Glassons to perform well over many years. Thank you.
Thank you, James. We'll now move to James McLaughlan to talk about the Hallensteins.
Then we will give you an opportunity to ask any questions or comments that shareholders may wish to raise. We'll hear from James McLaughlan here first. Thank you, James.
Good morning, shareholders, board members, and partners. As I reflect on the first 12 months as CEO, I'm very proud of the progress we've made and energized by the opportunities ahead to further strengthen the Hallensteins brand. As everyone knows, it's been a very challenging 12 months, especially for retail in New Zealand, tighter discretionary spending, and pressures across the sector. Despite this, Hallensteins have remained resilient, and we've taken deliberate steps over the last 12 months to position the brand for long-term sustainable growth. In this tight environment, I'd like to acknowledge the entire team from our distribution center, our store teams, and support office.
Their commitment to protecting margin, keeping products flowing to stores, and delivering positive customer experiences through one of the toughest retail environments in many years is outstanding. Our people are one of our great advantages, and their dedication continues to drive our momentum. Hallensteins is an iconic brand with a very proud heritage, a loyal customer base, and has a network of close to 50 stores across both New Zealand and Australia. But the market has evolved, and so we are now having to evolve with it. Our online channels continue to deliver growth and remain an increasingly important way to serve and connect with our customers. This year, the focus has been about broadening our customer and getting a wider customer base. Tailored and our smart casual apparel, which once was a strength of the brand, was heavily impacted by COVID, but demand is returning back to these channels.
We are rebuilding these categories, refining the product offering, and we're doing a better job to reflect the wider customer base across both New Zealand and Australia. We've also strengthened our internal capabilities, ensuring we've got the right people in the right roles. New team members have joined to simplify operations, lift execution, and strengthen our buying and product teams to help get us back to basics. At the same time, we've reset expectations across our retail business with renewed focus on margin, operational discipline, and consistently higher standards. We're looking at refreshing our store network because this has been a major priority for both Glassons and ourselves. This year, we've invested in several new and upgraded stores, including Silverdale, north of Auckland, Queen Street in Auckland, Hamilton CBD, LynnMall, and West Auckland.
Our Robina store pop-up was closed, and we've reopened a beautiful store in Queensland and our first venture into New South Wales two weeks ago into Parramatta. These investments ensure our physical network reflects the direction and ambition of the brand. We'll continue to invest in upgrading our store network while looking for the right opportunities as they present themselves, but looking ahead by improving our operational discipline, sharpening our product strategy, and appealing to that broader customer base, we can maintain strong focus on our margin and bottom-line performance. I believe Hallensteins is well-positioned for sustainable growth going forward. I'd like to thank the board for their ongoing support over the last 12 months. Your guidance and mentoring has been very helpful for myself and the team, so thank you for that.
Thank you, James and James, two Jameses.
So I think this is an opportunity now to take any questions or comments from shareholders. There will be another opportunity under general business at the end for people to ask further questions or comments that they might think of in the meantime. So maybe if there's any questions, maybe you can put your hand up and we'll find your microphone.
Yeah. My name's Frank Stewart. I'm a shareholder myself, and I represent the Shareholders Association. We'll be voting about just over 2 million proxy votes in favor of all the resolutions like last year. I've got a couple of questions and a couple of comments. The first question, which I always tend to ask, is I count about 45 shareholders in the room, and how many are online?
I can't tell you how many are online, but I can tell you about 345 proxies.
Right.
But as to how many are out there, I don't know.
Yeah, I'll ask the registrar this later. And the other question I tend to always ask is, have you given any further consideration to a dividend reinvestment plan?
I think that's we have had dividend reinvestment plans in an earlier life. Some of you will probably remember that, that have been shareholders of the company for a long time. But it's something that we're all always ready to think about. I think the thing that I recall about it last time was that some shareholders ended up with very small parcels of shares that were only just marketable as a result of getting a handful out of some small shareholding. So that's just sort of the top-of-mind comment from last time, but it's certainly something we can think about.
Thank you.
And a couple of comments.
Every year, the Shareholders Association does a report card for various companies on the New Zealand listed. And there's a couple of comments that were made in it. And one is about remuneration disclosures. And it was our opinion that probably Hallensteins have been the worst in terms of that of all the New Zealand top 50 companies. I just don't know what you want me to do, Frank, because in the notice attached to the meeting, there's a list of the directors' fees that are paid to individuals. And we made a comment there that the directors' pool was increased for one new director and for an inflation adjustment for the last two years. And based on what my Australian colleagues tell me up here on the front, that maybe some of our similar-like companies in Australia actually pay themselves a lot more.
And the other comment was in relation to director recruitment and independence. And we're pleased to see you put comments in your annual report about that. And despite those comments about the failures, I guess, of the company to report properly, we're really.
These are in your view, not ours.
We're really pleased with the results you've achieved.
Well, thank God we got something right. Thank you, Frank. Is there any other questions or comments?
Oh, yeah. It's Murray Walker, shareholder. Adding on to the share and reinvestment thing, I've got all these granddaughters, and they're all shareholders at their choice of Hallensteins. And on Friday, they'll be getting their money, and the money will be turning up back in your shops again.
That's great.
But I'm trying to teach them to save, and compound interest is a good way. They're like my kids. They won't listen to me.
No, you're right. So look into it a bit further, hopefully.
Thank you.
I did have one other question. I'm a bit confused as to the difference between a pop-up store and an ordinary store.
Well, let these people who are at the coalface. I think it's a good question for April here. She hasn't said anything.
So a pop-up is generally, I think in your case, it was just to test the market, and it might just be a short-term lease, which I think was the case, right? And then once they get the read, it's kind of a test and respond kind of model. Does that answer your question?
Great. Like a cheap trial,
Frank, without spending too much capital. And if it works, we actually had a pop-up store in Robina in Queensland, which my colleague down here can perhaps make a couple of comments on.
You would have noticed that the pop-up store in Robina has now turned itself into a fully-fledged Hallensteins store.
Do you just want to make a couple of comments about that transition?
It's only been open a couple of weeks, but that's an example of where we test something. And before we're not very good at signing leases if we don't know what the hell's going to happen.
So have we trialed?
I think the Robina is a really good example. We got offered some space in the mall, and we wanted to know how that mall was going to grtrade. The site was very small, probably about 100 sq m. The market was there. We've seen that. We were doing over AUD 1 million a year out of it. So we traded that for the last 12 months, and we had the opportunity to get a better site.
And so we've doubled that to almost 200 square meters purpose-built store in the Robina mall. And so far, trading has been exceptional in the new store. So it's a really good way to test the market. In Parramatta at the moment, the Glassons store, they've moved to a new site, and we've been able to take that mall site for the next three months to test our product out in the New South Wales market. And hopefully, if it trades well and it traded really well the first two weeks, we're hoping potentially it's a good way to get a read in places that we can't get good sites. Does that answer that?
So we do a few pop-ups from time to time, but we've done at least two in the last year or so.
So are there any other questions down the back?
Kia ora, Joanne, shareholder.
Mine's more of a comment than a question. And I guess I'm thinking particularly for people looking online and thinking about investing. And it is that I'm very pleased with the results and the presentation overall. But I wonder if you're aware that in the introductions, every male was given his surname, and many of the women were not. And I just wonder what that means.
April Ward. I think I did April Ward more than once.
I think you did. There were a couple of women who.
Karen Bycroft, Sandy Vincent, Joanne Appleyard.
Thank you. And in terms of your executive team, it's not so much knowing exactly their name because we can look that up, but it's often a reflection of the place of women when men's surnames are always given and women are not.
And I just wonder if it's something you might want to reflect on for further public presentations.
Thank you. Anything else? Warren?
Thanks very much, Mr. Bell. Congratulations on a great year again. And congratulations to all the board who put the effort in to help achieve it and the management team. I've been a shareholder for a little while, and I study companies from the point of view of how they handle CODB quite a bit in terms of cost of doing business. So I was very pleased to hear James put a focus on that. I'd like to know a little bit more about the store rollout and the changing demographics in New Zealand and just what the trigger points are that would encourage you to look at an area that might actually welcome a new store in very difficult times.
There is a shift of population clearly underway from north to south. There's a shift of people away from working in offices in Wellington to the suburbs. Some of the big cities are deteriorating. I walked through Wellington last week, felt safe during the day when I was down in Lambton Quay, but impossible to walk back up at night, feeling the same way, or indeed Courtenay Place. I haven't been in Queen Street for a little while, but I feel a hell of a lot more comfortable walking through Christchurch lately. So I think it's a question of where people can find ease of access to get into a city. What are the demographics in Australia that are different in terms of driving choice? Is it sheer population, or is it to anticipate an explosion like a Rolleston or parts of the economy which are rising faster than others?
Like Southland is really on the move. Queenstown, obvious reasons there. Other places deteriorating but need help. So I'm not one for getting into the social conscience here about where companies should put their assets or where they should employ people, but I think there's a shift underway.
Thanks for the comments.
Thank you for that. I might get April here to help me on New Zealand because I have a personal view that we're underrepresented on the North Shore. But she's got some views as well. So maybe she'll comment, and then James make a brief comment on Australia.
Yeah, I can pass it over to James for that. So we're always rationalizing where our stores are. And I think some of your comments are definitely valid. Like we've been looking at the Wellington area. We've obviously opened up Frankton.
We don't feel safe in Cuba anymore.
Yeah, Warren doesn't feel safe there. But yeah, we're constantly looking at that, and they're definitely valid points. And I guess I don't have a specific plan today, but they're all in hand, and there's a constant work on for us, especially in New Zealand. But yeah, we have seen the shift in certain areas, and we know about Southland. Obviously, that's where we opened Frankton, and we're aware of what's happening in Wellington and Auckland as well. So yeah, definitely in hand. I don't know for Australia.
We'd like something on the North Shore a bit more.
Yeah, I think there, you're just going to figure out where your customers are. And so I think in New Zealand, you can see even with CBD how strong it is in Cashel Mall. And so they're definitely cognizant of where the population is moving.
In Australia, it's more plugging the holes where we see different geographically where we aren't covered. Then it's also limited a little bit operationally where we can go because there's obviously a whole side of Australia that we don't have coverage on. To get stock there, it takes five days, four or five days, whereas at the moment we can get stock from Sydney to Brisbane and Sydney to Melbourne overnight. When you're turning stock on six weeks cover, a week is a long time. Yeah, I think we're looking for opportunities always. Where we see in Australia, there's two of the stores we committed to. One's probably hopefully might be a little bit of what we've seen with Frankton in Queenstown, where there's just a bit of a logistics issue of customers and where they can get into certain spots.
Like they can't in Queenstown. They don't want to go into the city. So yeah, I think we just try and we don't get too scientific on it, and we try and study it and spend a lot of time looking at the locations and looking at our customers there as well, which is another key factor. And also if they're wearing the product that we would sell to them.
I think just to add to that, Warren, you know this as well as I do, some of those big mall owners, you've got to do quite a bit of arm wrestling to try and get the right rental outcome. And Sam down the front here does a great job in Australia being continually grappling with them. So it's an ongoing journey. You're familiar with how big the Westfield and the like are in those A ustralian markets.
Thank you.
Anything else? There'll be a further opportunity under general business if people want to raise further comments.
Thank you for that. We'll move on to the next item of ordinary business, which is item three, which is the election of directors. All directors' elections will be included in a poll, which will take at the end of the ordinary business item section of the agenda, and all these results will be published on the New Zealand website later today, so Peter Steenson, who the board appointed during the course of the last financial year, and the New Zealand listing rules require that any director appointed by the board must retire from office at the next annual meeting, but is eligible for re-election, so Peter Steenson retires as a director in accordance with this requirement and offers himself for re-election.
Peter, I'll make a few comments, and then Peter can talk to you in a minute. Peter has spent more than 30 years, which seems like a long time, Peter, at various EY setups. He's a fellow of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He holds a master's degree in economics with honors and a bachelor of commerce degree majoring in both accounting and economics from University of Canterbury. It looks like you worked too hard, Peter, when you were at university. He has particular expertise in accounting, finance, and tax matters relating to a variety of industry sectors, property, construction, financing, and the like. He's provided a full range of reporting, financial, tax, and strategic advice for a number of domestic and international businesses, both public and private. I'll let Peter perhaps make a couple of comments to you.
So maybe you come up here, Peter, show how tall you are.
Good morning. I can just about throw this away because Warren's given most of what I had to say a bit of a farewell. But I wanted to just give you an outline of my background. I've, as Warren said, spent in excess of 30 years at EY. I've had experience dealing with accounting and finance and tax matters, particularly relating to property and construction finance in the electricity industry. Over the years, I've helped a large number of businesses that work trans-Tasman. So I've helped them to manage the financial taxation and regulatory intricacies of operating on both sides of the Tasman, which has become something reasonably substantial for this group. Prior to working at EY, I had a role in various audit practices in New Zealand and in the Middle East.
Over the last couple of months or a few months, I've enjoyed my introduction to Hallenstein Glasson businesses and look forward to working to oversee the management and systems, processes, control of this. It's become quite a dynamic and growing business that makes up the Hallenstein Glassons group. During my short time with the group, I've been hugely impressed with the skills and the creativity and the commitment of the staff that I've had the pleasure of meeting. They've performed exceptionally well, in my view, during this high intensity of Black Friday promotions in an economic environment which has been far from ideal, especially in New Zealand. In the lead-up to the major sales period, the opening of new and refurbished stores added additional stresses and challenges to that group. Management have also, in my view, worked tirelessly through the reporting period for the group to produce quality reports.
Thanks, Cam, and we'll stay on top of growing businesses. My observation is that the senior management team of each of the business units are well in tune with each other, challenging and learning from each other, and they're doing a great team job. I look forward to meeting more of the talented staff who make up the business, continuing to grow my understanding of the business and contributing to the ongoing success of the group through continued application of good governance principles. Thank you.
Thank you, Peter. Would somebody care to move Peter to be elected director of the company? Just thank you, Warren. Thank you. Somebody second? Thank you. Is there any discussion? Comments? Thank you. So I'll leave you all to cast your votes in due course when we get to wrapping up the poll voting at the end of the ordinary business.
So moving on from Peter, in accordance with the New Zealand listing rules, both Malcolm Ford, Malcolm's in the middle there, put your hand up, Malcolm, and Jo Appleyard retire. So Jo's next door to Malcolm. And each of those being eligible offer themselves for re-election. Firstly, Malcolm. Malcolm is an independent non-executive director. He's been with the board since June 2010. We're very fortunate to have Malcolm's very wide experience in direct sourcing product out of Asian markets. There's not many people in the world that have been on that journey for as long as what Malcolm has. So prior to that, he worked in a very large public organization that had very large wholesale and retail markets. So he has a wealth of experience that adds value to us and obviously has backing from this board. So Malcolm, perhaps you could say a couple of things.
This workshop.
Thank you for your continued support that you've given me over the journey. My background really has been in sourcing, and I've spent my 40-odd years at Pacific Dunlop and Pacific Brands, spent a long time in China developing the production facilities in that part of the world. It's an ever-changing world as China has continued to develop and grow, and then the introduction of Bangladesh and India into the mix of sources that the business uses. I also spend a lot of time in Australia, obviously, at retail and understand the ever-changing retail environment that's taking place in Australia. Fortunately, Australia's population is still growing quite rapidly, so there's plenty of opportunity for James to continue to expand the Australian business. As he rightly says, we've got to have the backup systems and the support before we can go out and open more and more stores.
So it's a very fine balance between getting the right stores and in the right locations. I also think that working with the team in both Hallensteins and Glassons, I'm impressed with the youth and the energy that the teams have, and I think that that holds well for the future. So with your support, I look forward to continuing. Thank you.
Would somebody please move that Mr. Ford be re-elected as a director? Thank you. Have a seconder? Thank you. So once again, we'll leave you to open discussion. Any further comments or feedback for Malcolm? If not, I'll leave you to cast your votes in due course. So now moving on to Jo Appleyard here. Some of you will know Jo because she's Christchurch-based, and she's an independent non-executive director. She's appointed to the board in November 2022.
She's a partner in Anderson Lloyd here in Christchurch, and she has spent a previous life with Chapman Tripp as well. So she also has over 30 years' experience in various legal practices in various areas. And you can see there that she specializes in employment, commercial law, and resource management stuff. And she has been a member of the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal from 2011 to 2020. I hope we don't have to go there, Jo. And once again, she also has support of our current board. So Jo, would you like to make a comment or two?
I'll come down here, Warren. I do better standing up. Good morning, shareholders, guests, and our staff. Thank you for making the time to join us both online, but particularly in person here today and maintaining an interest in us.
Frank, I'm not sure if you can give us a figure or not, but I think 45 is a pretty good turnout for an AGM. And I don't know if it's the quality of the sausage rolls or the quality of the discussion and debate, but I would encourage you all to keep coming and seeing us in person each year. That's really appreciated. Thank you for your support. I've completed my first term as a director, and it's a privilege to be able to stand here again. I appreciate the trust you've placed in me to date and the opportunity you've given me to contribute my little bit to the iconic brands of Glassons and Hallensteins. Warren's just given the potted history of me. I'm a born-and-bred Christchurch girl who loves this city and this country. And in my day job, I'm a partner in a national law firm.
I probably have to say that my contribution to retail, I don't quite have the experience of the rest of the board, but I am an avid consumer, so I think that adds something. I specialize in the creative side of law and court litigation. These days, they call it euphemistically dispute resolution, employment law, and I'm pretty passionate about ensuring that businesses succeed by treating their employees fairly, and resource management law. You can probably imagine that yesterday was a pretty big day for me, grappling with 600 pages of new legislation. But I act on the business and infrastructure side of resource management law that drives the economy rather than the no-don't-do it side of the debate. I've become a better lawyer, I think, over the years by having roles in governance, including on another publicly listed company.
I always like to maintain at least one charity or not-for-profit. I reflected last night on what's the point of difference it makes Hallensteins Glassons have the results that it's had over the last couple of years in such a challenging retail environment. I read what we said in our annual report, which says at the heart of everything we do is high-quality fashion that is accessible to everyone alongside unparalleled customer service. I think that's what KFC's Colonel Sanders would call our secret ingredients. We don't have Colonel Sanders, but we have Tim Glasson, who's probably our closest thing. I think that quality, that accessibility is a success. On that accessibility point, I do live right here in the heart of Christchurch. I'm very proud of our stores we have here in the CBD, but nothing makes me prouder.
I'm probably a little bit past being a Glassons girl in demographics. But when I step outside and I see that teenage girl wearing the Leisure Club hoodie over her school uniform and breach of the regulations, I see the 21-year-old lad, and I've got one of those that awkwardly turn up on their first day at work in their first suit ever that they've been purchased from Hallensteins. And I see Murray's granddaughters, smart young ladies around town proudly wearing Glassons product. That just shows that our products are accessible in terms of they can get online, they can get into our store, but our product is accessible in terms of quality and price.
We do talk about the ingredients for our success being our great customer service, but what is inherent in that is having a work culture that means our employees turn up for work every day with a positive attitude and wanting to treat our customers well. And that ultimately is what helps us keep delivering great financial results for our shareholders. So thank you for the opportunity to date, and I would be honored if you'd endorse me in having another term and seeing what more I can contribute over that time. Thank you.
Thank you, Jo. Would somebody care to move that Jo Appleyard be re-elected as director? Thank you. Is there a seconder? Thank you. So any further discussion? Yes.
Excuse me, Mark Vivian, shareholder. Jo, I wonder if you would be willing to share some of your learnings from your Ryman experience, please.
I'd have to think about that. Yes, I can probably share. I'm just trying to think of some off the top of my head. I think probably the positive parallels with my Ryman experience were in the way Ryman, like Glassons, treats its staff, which is pretty important for positive outcomes, and I do see some cultural parallels there. Also, Ryman did deliver or does deliver exceptional healthcare, so its focus is always its customer. I can't comment on more recent Ryman experience. I haven't been on that board for how long? About four years, so I can't comment on what's happened in the time since I left, so I'm a mere observer in terms of its performance at the moment, and actually I'm still a shareholder, but I would probably say there are some positive parallels in the way that staff are treated and the way that customers are treated.
Thank you, Jo, for those comments. Anything else?
There will be, as I said before, an opportunity for shareholders to make comments or ask further questions under general business that you might think of between now and then. So we've got somebody's moved that Jo be elected, and somebody's seconded. So we'll now leave Resolutions 3, 2 and 3 over to shareholders to fill in their voting in due course, and we'll tell you when we're going to close the voting later. So moving on to the next item of ordinary business, which relates to directors' fee remuneration, which is outlined in the notice of meeting. You hopefully have all got that, and by way of comment, which is similar to what I said to Frank before, the poll includes a new additional director and an inflation adjustment for the two years since they were last, the fees were last reviewed.
So that was the background to the maximum aggregate remuneration being recommended to increase to 854,000 per annum to be divided among the directors as they see fit. Would somebody care to move? Thank you. Second? Thank you. Any discussion? If not, we'll leave you to complete your voting and include it in the wrap-up when we finish the ordinary business of the day. So moving on to item five, which relates to the reappointment of our auditors, PwC, and approval of their fees. Would somebody care to move that record the reappointment of PwC 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 year? Somebody care to move that? Thank you. Is there a seconder? Thank you. Brent? Any discussion? Thank you.
I'll leave you to fill in your voting papers accordingly. So, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion of the ordinary business resolutions presented today. And I will give you all just a little bit of time for those that haven't finished voting to complete that exercise. So if you haven't already cast your vote, can you please do so now, both here in the room and online? And we'll just wait a little bit, and then we'll ask Computershare to collect the voting papers. So just give you a wee bit of time. Under general business. So has everybody had a chance to do that? Does anybody need a pen? Has everybody okay with pens and things? Just one or two late voting papers to come in. So I will now formally close the voting online and in the room.
And as I said earlier, we'll leave the Computershare people to do their work and the scrutineers and the like. And the results we expect will be released on the New Zealand Stock Exchange later this afternoon. So thank you very much for that. And as I mentioned earlier, that's the end of the formal ordinary items of business. So this is an opportunity now under general business for people to ask comments. I think, Chris, down the back there, you've got a couple of questions from some online people that you might want to deal with.
Yes, I do. Thanks, Warren. I'm going to summarize a couple of questions here, but they all stem from the same piece. Now, how do you view the threat of Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu affecting our market share in New Zealand?
What steps are we taking to compete with the pricing and speed of these retailers?
I might let James Glasson and you as the IT manager respond. Let James go first.
Yeah, it would be nice if we had a de minimis tax, but I think you're always going to have competition. We have to offer what they can't. It's quality. I think there's also an element of ethical manufacturing that they don't do that we really pride ourselves on. We probably understate how much of a priority that is for us. Quality is really important. That's where we work really hard to hold our prices where they are, but also make sure that they're in outstanding quality for that price. I think the element of a physical store experience is really important as well.
So making sure that we have stores where our customer wants to shop and making sure that that experience is a good experience and an enjoyable experience is really important as well. So yeah, they're not going away, but I think they've been booming for a number of years, and I don't think we've seen our results during that period of time as well. So yeah, I think we just have to keep doing what we are. And it's simple retailing, and it's moving with trends, and it's finding trends and selling them to their price-quality ratio.
Chris, maybe you can add some comment. And the thing that you read in the papers every day of the week, which we all read, is cybersecurity issues and the like. Is there anything you want to comment on about that minefield?
Yeah, thanks, Warren.
I think we, as an organization, we take cybersecurity very seriously. And we do seek independent audits to make sure that we are keeping our internal systems up to speed with the latest security patches and protocols. And to date, we have had pretty measured success with those audits, and we are always making sure that we're on top of that from both a dot-com business and also an internal control. I don't think you can ever relax in that potential minefield. We read about cases nearly every day, don't we, around the world of various sorts.
So thank you, Chris. You had a second question?
There was another question aimed at James Glasson. I really like the measured growth in Australia, and the refurbs don't get enough attention, but it would seem new stores could be accelerated.
I was interested in the approach of managing new stores in the Australian market.
Yeah, I think, as we've talked about, it's around trying to maintain operational excellence. And I think someone was talking to someone the other day about we see growth as a bad thing. And so we fight it, but that's ironically our success is that we keep by fighting it and making sure that we're doing the best with what we've got, it then means that we actually grow. So yeah, I think a lot of businesses can grow and roll out 50 stores in four or five years and get some short-term growth out of that. But I don't probably see their bottom line figures aren't that great. And for us, as we grow, that net profit to sales percentage is probably the main benchmark that I work off of.
So I don't like that dropping. And we're really proud of that figure. We keep it up in the high teens, sometimes even over 20%, depending on the season and the month. So yeah, we're always looking, and we know our customer wants more, but once you've grown, you can't really grow in that place again. So for us, we see that as more opportunity and more opportunity on the horizon rather than yeah, you don't have to take it all straight away. So yeah, we're looking at, as I said, there's a couple more in Australia that we're looking at right now. And we know that there's major malls and locations in Melbourne we still aren't in.
There are major locations in Western Australia as well, which we still aren't in, but we have to figure out how to be able to continue to run those stores, but offer our current product offering and our current operational excellence. And also, when we're working in such a hyper-competitive market that we are, which is that mid-20s female, she'll ditch you tomorrow if she can find something better. And so we then have to keep our stock turned so nimble that we can then keep moving with the trends and what she would like to buy. So to do that, you have to if you stretch yourself too thin and you have to order too deep to satisfy 10 more stores, for us, that would be ordering 25% more product, which you've got 25% more chance of getting it wrong.
So yeah, it's better for our buyers as well to manage that if they almost don't notice the growth as they have to keep buying it. So that's a big part of why we sort of restrain ourselves a little bit.
I think just to add to what James said, you all would have heard that our existing Sydney distribution centers can't take too much more. It's nearly up to the gunnels. And James described before the additional warehouse space that will come on stream in the second half of this financial year, which will be good for us and fit in with the orderly growth journey. So I think when you look back at how that DC has in Sydney has been utilized and grown and whatever, and now it's up to capacity, that in itself is quite a good growth story.
And now, James mentioned before, I can't remember the numbers, but it sounded like nearly a doubling of floor space, give or take a bit.
Thank you. Any other comments from anybody?
Yep. Yeah, I'm James Newlove. Clearly, I don't fit the profile of a Hallensteins customer.
I wouldn't go that far.
Having said that, I have actually made four purchases at the shop, including just in the last week, a Christmas-themed shirt and Christmas-themed socks. I'd like to say I enjoy the layout of the shop, but most importantly, the customer service, the staff especially, have been excellent.
That's good. Can you tell us what shop you went in? We can just give them the good.
Just very local.
Okay. And to the local shop, yeah, just down the road. We'll give them the good news.
Yes, they were excellent. We appreciate those comments. That's really good. Thank you.
Anything else? If not, I'll declare the meeting closed and thank members today for making the effort to come. We really appreciate that, which is what Jo commented on before. And we really appreciate the continuing support. And we wish you all, obviously, a very Merry Christmas and enjoy the summer break. I was a bit worried to see that Simon Bridges decided that we were having summer holidays that were too long on TV the other day. Now, he's taken it upon himself to try and shorten our holidays. And I'd just like to remind everybody, which I've done in other years, that if you're like me and you're not very good at Christmas shopping and you don't know what to buy, just remember that all our stores have gift vouchers. And I find that myself personally quite an easy and painless option.
So just put that in the back of your mind. So once again, thank you all for coming today. And if any of you would like to touch base with any of the board members or the executive team that are here informally, feel free to do that at the conclusion of the meeting. So once again, thank you very much and all the best for the festive season. Thank you.