I would now like to hand the call over to Chair Joan Withers. Please go ahead.
[foreign language] and good morning. Welcome to the Warehouse Group 2024 half-year results. I'm Joan Withers, Chair of the Board, and on the call with me today are Nick Grayston, our Group Chief Executive Officer, and our Acting Chief Financial Officer, Celia Mearns. Also with us on the call today is our new incoming Chief Financial Officer, Mark Stirton, who will officially start with the group on the 1st of April. Before we do move on, I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Celia for stepping into the role of Acting CFO so adeptly in what has been a busy and very technically challenging six-month period. Thank you, Celia. Your contribution has been immense. We'll go to slide 4. The H1 of our 2024 financial year has been difficult, and the results that we're releasing today are challenging.
This is a moment for all of us in leadership positions at The Warehouse Group to acknowledge that some of the choices that we've made have not been delivered as we had hoped. While we laid out the scale of the challenges that Torpedo7 was facing when we spoke at our last FY23 results and then further at the annual shareholders' meeting, our results today crystallize the impact that the financial performance of Torpedo7 and the accounting impact of the resultant impairment has had on the overall group performance. The group announced on the 22nd of February, 2024, that we had signed an agreement to sell the Torpedo7 business assets to Tahua Partners Limited. We have recognized a one-off non-cash pre-tax impairment impact of NZD 60.1 million in the half-year income statement, and that has resulted in the overall group reported net loss after tax of NZD 23.7 million.
The Torpedo7 decision and other initiatives being taken are needed to reset our business and set us up for a much leaner, sharper-focused group into the future. Nick is going to speak shortly about our intentions in relation to the market. Our core brands are the underlying strength of the group, and we have a laser focus on their performance. I'd at this point like to note that this set of financial statements is complex, and Celia is going to provide some more detail on the T7 impacts when she speaks shortly. The group reported continuing sales of NZD 1.6 billion for the 26 weeks ending the 28th of January, 2024, and that was down 4.9% compared to strong sales of NZD 1.7 billion in the H1 of FY23. The Warehouse sales were NZD 965.6 million, down 4.7%. Warehouse Stationery sales were NZD 117.9 million, down 5%.
Noel Leeming sales were NZD 544.4 million, down 2.2%. Sales have been challenged by the current economic environment with the impacts of inflation, higher interest rates, and increased living costs on customers' household budgets, impacting discretionary spending and therefore our brands. This is especially noticeable following the top-line strength in FY23 H1 . Our reprioritization and refocus is already showing progress. The leadership team is highly engaged on margin improvement and tight cost control, and that work has delivered 160 basis points improvement in group gross profit margin in the half-year under review. Our continuing adjusted net profit after tax delivered a result of NZD 30.7 million, which was up 18.9% on FY23 H1, and that's as a result of cost of doing business management and the reduction initiatives that we have put in place. Now to slide 5, the FY24 H1 financial highlights.
The last few years have seen a mixture of peaks and troughs in group sales as COVID-19 and cost of living disrupt the retail trading environment. As previously mentioned, continuing group sales were NZD 1.6 billion, and while this was down 4.9% against the near-record H1 in FY23, it was flat against the H1 of FY22. I've already touched on the 160 basis points improvement in gross profit margin. Continuing adjusted net profit after tax at NZD 30.7 million was up 18.9% compared to the comparative net profit after tax in the H1 of FY23. Our net debt reduced significantly following the elevated levels of FY22 and FY23, during which time we reached peak spending on the transformation program and investment in essential systems and infrastructure upgrades. Net debt was NZD 18.7 million at the FY24 half-year, and that compares to NZD 83.4 million at this time last year.
Liquidity was NZD 471.3 million at the half-year. Now to the dividend. The board is pleased to declare an FY24 interim dividend of NZD 0.05 per share. The board and management are acutely aware of the impact the group's recent performance has had on our shareholders. We are clear on the action needed to deliver sustainable growth and shareholder value enhancement. We remain confident in the underlying strength of our business and in our ability to navigate through these challenges. The record date for the dividend will be the 8th of April, 2024, and it will be paid on the 23rd of April, 2024. Now to slide 7 and some very good news. The Warehouse Group is pleased to announce today the appointment of Tony Carter as an independent director to the company's board, and that'll be effective from the 1st of May, 2024.
Tony, who will be known to many of you, is an outstanding appointment who brings wide-ranging retail, commercial, and governance experience to complement the capability already in place around the Warehouse Group board table. Tony has previously served as Managing Director of Supermarket Operator Foodstuffs and Mitre 10 Stores, and where he played a critical role in both of those entities' strategic development and expansion. Tony's previous directorships have included roles at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and in New Zealand, Fletcher Building, ANZ Bank New Zealand, and Vector New Zealand. Tony Carter currently chairs the boards of My Food Bag, Datacom Group, and The Interiors Group, and he is the director of Ravensdown. We're also today announcing Julia Raue's resignation, effective from the 31st of May, 2024.
Julia's leadership, particularly as Chair of the Health, Safety, and Wellbeing Committee, and her roles in the Audit and Risk Committee and the Environmental and Social Sustainability Committee, have been instrumental in steering the group towards a better and more sustainable future. Julia informed us earlier of her intention to resign during 2024, and that has allowed us ample time to prepare for a seamless transition. On behalf of the entire board and the Warehouse Group, we thank Julia for her dedication, and we wish her the very best in her next chapter. With that, I'm now going to pass you over to Nick and Celia to run through the group's strategy and the half-year financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Joan, and good morning all. As Joan said earlier, this result is a sobering outcome for the group. The sale of Torpedo7 has had a severe impact on the group's financial performance this half. But while we've incurred significant write-downs, it allows us to redirect our focus towards our core brands as we simplify our business. We're already seeing some green shoots from our decisions to simplify. While sales are down 4.9%, much of this reduction was driven by a decline in online sales as we chose to focus on profitable performance. If we remove the impact of store changes year-on-year and exclude online, sales were down 1.4% compared to last year's H1. Net profit and gross margin are both up, and gross profit is largely unchanged despite the reduction in sales. Our three core brands delivered NZD 30.7 million adjusted NPAT, up 18.9% on PCP.
This underscores that disposing of Torpedo7 was the right thing to do. Our strategy to simplify and prioritize is working, and I look forward to sharing more about that today. This time last year, we set out seven strategic priorities to deliver improved financial performance and operational efficiency. As you can see from this slide, we've done a lot to advance those priorities. Here are some highlights on that progress. We've reduced cost to serve through decreased freight costs and cost recovery decisions. Gross profit margin is up 160 basis points across the group and up 250 basis points in the Warehouse. We brought labor costs down and decreased CODB by 1.5% in dollar terms despite upward pressure on labor rates in an inflationary environment.
We're bringing down project expenditure to where we need it to be and are on track to deliver total project spend around NZD 80 million for the FY24 full year. We have sold Torpedo7, which I'll talk about more in a moment. We're also announcing today that as a further part of our strategic reset, we intend to close or sell TheMarket.com by the end of the financial year. We've been unable to achieve the organic growth required to sustain the platform profitably. It's now time to draw a line under TheMarket.com as a separate entity and shift our marketplace focus and learnings into growing group marketplace on the Warehouse site and app, where we're now seeing much improved profitability. We're working through options, and we'll update the market in due course.
Other highlights include an increasing number of Kiwi families are choosing to shop with us as they search for affordable groceries. Grocery sales are up 11.7%, and grocery now makes up more than 20% of the Warehouse sales. We offer more than 9,000 grocery SKUs at great prices, including our own private label Market Kitchen range, and have expanded fresh fruit and vegetables to 22 of the Warehouse stores. Our two biggest programs, My Noel Leeming and MarketClub, continue to offer more than 1.9 million members value and special offers. We said that we would stop driving unprofitable sales. This was especially true of online, where we saw reduced marketing spend, less promotional intensity, and greater freight recovery. Overall, our gross profit margin rate improved by 160 basis points. In GM dollars, were only down 0.4% despite the 4.9% reduction in sales. Slide 10, Torpedo7 sale.
As you are aware, we have entered into an agreement for the sale of Torpedo7 assets to Tahua Partners, which is expected to be completed by the end of this month. Frankly, it's a bittersweet moment losing one of the group's family of brands, but when faced with the choice of persevering, closing, or an asset sale, this was without doubt the best solution. The sale was the quickest, cleanest way to exit the business. It also meant the majority of Torpedo7 team members were employed with the new owners, and Torpedo7 remains in New Zealand ownership to serve Kiwis who want to get outdoors. While we've taken a financial hit to our half-year results, the sale of Torpedo7 was the right one because it helps us to simplify our business, focus on our core brands, and ultimately improve the group's financial performance.
Celia will take you through the financials of the sale and how this is accounted for shortly. Slide 12, strategic direction. We've been through a big strategic reset. This is centered around simplify, prioritize, and execute at speed. Simplifying the group means we will do fewer things better. These calls are needed to reset our business and set us up to be a much leaner, sharper-focused group in the future. Our core brands of The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, and Noel Leeming are the bedrock of the group, and they now have our undivided attention. We have sold the underperforming Torpedo7, and as I have just mentioned, we are taking action with TheMarket.com. A simpler business makes it easier to prioritize. For our customers, we're delivering better products in key categories, re-energizing our position as a value retailer, and bringing back excitement into our shopping experience.
Finally, we're executing at speed. Thanks to our agile structure, we've been able to reorganize ourselves quickly to address the opportunities and challenges in front of us. We put more focus on the red business trading by creating a go-to-market tribe. Joan mentioned the addition of Tony Carter to the board in May 2024, which we're looking forward to, and I'm pleased to share we're investing in world-class talent in other key areas of our business with new additions to our apparel tribe, with two key hires from J.Crew and Kmart. And we've recently hired two strong additions to lead both our logistics and property chapters. Slide 12, The Warehouse. And now onto some of those core brand highlights, starting with the heart of the group, The Warehouse.
Sales this half were down 4.7% on what was the brand's record sales result of over NZD 1 billion this time last year. Same store sales, removing the impact of store changes year on year and excluding online, were down 2% compared to prior half-year. What is pleasing is the growth in gross profit margin, up 250 basis points to 38.8% this half, helped by online contribution and through customer pricing changes, decreased freight, and container detention charges, along with reduced shipping costs. As mentioned, grocery is a growing segment for the Warehouse, where providing affordable essentials is extremely relevant in the current cost of living crisis. This growth was offset, however, by underperformance in some categories, namely home, toys, and apparel, where we've made deliberate choices to improve the quality and value of our essential ranges.
This coincided with a tougher trading environment where customers had to prioritize price over quality and sustainability. These categories had a tough half, and to drive sales, we increased promotional activity to generate top-line sales and ensure that we managed inventory sell-through. We are resetting our product strategy in these critical areas to regain price leadership and add more exciting new products to our great value basics. We have maintained 88 stores, the same as this time last year, but with the closure of Belfast store and the opening of the new Wanaka store, the closure of Wellington Tory Street due to a fire was a drag on sales. We've started to re-merchandise and are working to get the store fully reopened in April. Online sales have pretty much returned to pre-COVID levels at 5.5% of sales. Choices we made here improved online EBITDA.
Click and Collect is now the preferred choice of online fulfillment, with more than half of online orders collected in-store. Onto Warehouse Stationery. Sales were similarly down 5% compared to prior half-year, and with a similar trend to red, the same store sales only down 1.4%, removing the impact of store changes and online. Gross profit margin also improved in Warehouse Stationery, but to a lesser extent, up 70 basis points to 46.6%. Our print and copy centers continue to do extremely well, and we continue to see growth in sales in this category, as well as smart home, particularly in this half. Growth in these were offset by a decline in print hardware and consumables, as well as stationery products, particularly back to school, as customers pared down their school lists to stock up on the absolute essentials. We have 66 stationery stores, including 41 stores within the store.
We closed our standalone Johnsonville and Belfast stores and opened our new Wanaka SWAS store. Online sales were 8% with click and collect fulfillment also increasing to 22.5% of online sales. Onto the last of our core brands, Noel Leeming, which actually fared best in terms of sales. While half-year sales were down 2.2% compared to FY23 H1, we saw a small recovery in the second quarter with a growth of 0.1% in Q2. Same store sales were also pretty flat, with a small decline of 0.2% compared to last year, again excluding closed stores and online. Key standout categories included communications, gaming, and tech accessories. We closed our Dunedin George Street and Belfast stores but opened our new Noel Leeming store in Wanaka. Noel Leeming's online sales were 11.1% of total sales, marginally down from 12% in FY23 H1.
Customers are loving our one-hour click and collect service, with orders increasing to 66.6%. While sustainability might not be as front of mind for customers as price in the current environment, we've continued to make important progress around sustainability and remain committed to helping our customers live more sustainably. Improving the sustainability of our products and packaging is one of our biggest contributions to making sustainable living easy and affordable for everyone. 35% of private label sales are now from products with sustainable attributes. 13 The Warehouse stores have had their EV charging stations upgraded to 25-kilowatt DC chargers. We help customers divert 136.6 tons of post-consumer waste from landfill, up 37% year-over-year, again. We signed a landmark agreement with Lodestone Energy to power all our stores and sites with solar by 2026.
We diverted more than 80% of our own operational waste from landfill, up nearly 9 points on prior year. We've raised more than NZD 1 million for our charity partners and community groups around New Zealand, and we've maintained our gender diversity with 50% of senior leaders and 50% of the board currently being female. I want to conclude by acknowledging that while some of the decisions we made in our strategic reset are painful, they are what we need to do to simplify our business and get costs under control. Our core brands, The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, and Noel Leeming, have our undivided attention. We are focusing on improving our product ranges, and there are some fantastic products landing in our new winter range with more to come. I'm proud of our talented team for delivering real value to Kiwis every day.
With that, thank you very much for your time. I'll hand you over to Celia, who will take you through the financials.
Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. Before I start, I just want to reiterate that the financial performance is disclosed on a continued operations basis, excluding Torpedo7, and unless otherwise stated, also excludes the impact of IFRS 16. Sales were down 4.9% compared to prior year, but we did see a slight softening of this decline in the second quarter, with sales down 5.8% in Q1 and 4.3% in Q2. The Warehouse recorded its highest-ever sales result last half-year, and in the current economic climate, that was going to be a difficult act to follow. I will focus on cost of doing business, though, which was down in dollar terms but increased slightly on lower sales to 31.7% of sales. While employee expenses decreased as a percentage of sales, depreciation increased as a result of elevated investment in recent years.
Lease expenses also increased, predominantly due to rent reviews, and IT and SaaS costs increased as our investment in systems continues and more systems come online. Operating profit improved 14.9% in 40 basis points, primarily due to a significant reduction in the loss in TheMarket.com, along with improved gross profit margin and decreased CODB. Adjusted NPAT from continuing operations was NZD 30.7 million in FY24 H1, up 18.9% compared to FY23 H1. When accounting for the net operating loss after tax of NZD 55.5 million in Torpedo7, including the one-off non-cash pre-tax NZD 60.1 million impairment, this did result in a reported net loss for the total group of NZD 23.7 million. Moving to slide 18, adjusted EBIT and NPAT. As you can see, stripping out the noise of T7 and the impairment, operating profit from continuing operations and NPAT are relatively clean, with just some restructuring costs in the prior half.
EBIT before IFRS 16 adjustments increased 14.9% to NZD 43 million, with reported EBIT after IFRS 16 adjustments increasing 22.6% to NZD 62.8 million. Adjusted NPAT increased 18.9% to NZD 30.7 million. Obviously, the reported NPAT for the whole group includes the operating loss for Torpedo7 in the half and the asset impairment totaling NZD 55.5 million. Onto slide 19 and the financial impact of Torpedo7 and the sale thereof. We entered into the asset sale and purchase agreement with Tahua Partners on the 22nd of February, with the business being accounted for as held for sale at the half-year end. The relevant assets of the business were impaired at balance date, including plant and equipment and inventory. The total impairment value was NZD 60.1 million, non-cash pre-tax. When combined with the operating loss of NZD 8.6 million, interest expense, and net of tax, the net loss from discontinuing operations was NZD 55.5 million.
The sale is continuing as planned, and completion is expected on the 31st of March. In H2 of the financial year, there'll be a wash-up of final sales adjustments, operating performance for February and March, any staff redundancies, and IFRS 16 lease adjustments. Slide 20, quarterly sales. Slide 20 provides detail of how sales have moved between brands from Q1 and Q2. While Q1 sales were down 5.8% for the group against record sales in FY23, Q2 performed better, down 4.3%. Our largest brands, The Warehouse and Noel Leeming, both improved in the second quarter, and particularly Noel Leeming, which saw soft growth. When removing new stores and store closures in the period, same store sales for the physical stores declined 2% for The Warehouse, 1.4% for Warehouse Stationery, and Noel Leeming remained relatively flat at 0.2%. Moving to slide 21, gross profit margin.
The Warehouse and Warehouse Stationery saw year-on-year growth in gross profit margin. The Warehouse up 250 basis points and Warehouse Stationery up 70 basis points, leading to overall group gross profit margin of 34.3%, an increase of 160 basis points. While increased promotional activity took place to drive top-line sales, costs were decreased with reduced shipping-related costs, improved productivity and supply chain, and decreased online freight expenses. Onto slide 22 and cost of doing business. As mentioned, this has decreased 1.5% in dollar terms. Employee expenses decreased NZD 19 million or 6.7% and decreased as a percentage of sales despite increased minimum wages. But other costs did see some increases. Depreciation and amortization has increased by NZD 5.3 million, driven by significant investment in recent years, and lease expenses increased by NZD 1.2 million due mainly to rent reviews.
Increased IT running costs and SaaS spend is included in employee expenses and in other expenses. The total IT and SaaS, including employee expenses for the half-year, increased by NZD 9.8 million with the ERPFI project due to go live in April this year. Moving to slide 23 and the balance sheet summary. The balance sheet for FY24 half-year includes a reclassification of Torpedo7 assets to held for sale. However, the prior year includes Torpedo7. Balances are generally lower in HY24, therefore partly from that reclassification. Inventory for continuing businesses excluding Torpedo7 is reduced by NZD 61 million this half versus last year. Included in working capital is the net value of Torpedo7 held for sale assets and liabilities of NZD 4.1 million.
This is made up of NZD 25.7 million worth of assets, including plant and equipment, receivables, inventory, cash on hand, and right-of-use assets, offset by NZD 29.8 million of lease and gift card liabilities. Our FX hedging has moved favorably with our hedging in place versus the declining US dollar over the period, and net debt has decreased from NZD 83.4 million in FY23 H1 to NZD 18.7 million at FY24 H1. This is largely due to improved trading terms and careful working capital management. Next, slide 24 and cash flow. A few points to highlight which have contributed to a 26.4% increase in operating cash flow to NZD 137.5 million. Trading EBITDA increased as a result of the reasons already explained and without the impact of the increased depreciation. Higher taxes were paid in the prior year, while the positive movement in working capital contributed to increased operating cash flow.
Capital expenditure cash spend was significantly lower at NZD 28.7 million in FY24 H1 as the group purposefully reduced investment as necessary information systems projects and developments came to an end. Dividend payments were lower in FY24 H1 based on the FY23 final dividend of NZD 0.08 per share compared to the FY22 final dividend of NZD 0.10 per share paid in FY23 H1. The above key movements resulted in net positive cash inflow of NZD 29.4 million, enabling us to bring debt down to NZD 18.7 million. Not quite where we want it to be, but we're heading in the right direction. And finally, project expenditure. As mentioned at the FY23 year-end, we have capped project expenditure for the FY24 year at NZD 80 million.
Core system spend is still the bulk of our capital and total project spend at NZD 22.5 million this half-year, including the likes of ERPFI, GOMS, and human capital management. Capital expenditure on these projects decreased from NZD 11.5 million in the last half-year to NZD 4.7 million in FY24 H1. Store development has also slowed compared to last year with new stores for The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, and Noel Leeming in Wanaka. Investment in stores has decreased from NZD 17.2 million in FY23 H1 to NZD 5.9 million in FY24 H1. I would like to sincerely thank the leadership team and board for their support over the last five months. And on that note, I will now hand you back to Nick.
Okay. Thank you, Celia. Looking ahead now, we expect tough retail market conditions to continue. We believe that the macroeconomic climate will remain difficult, and it's challenging to predict how cautious consumer spending will impact sales across all of our brands. Our second half is now underway, and we've seen much tougher trade in February with sales decline in the low teens. In March, we've seen some improvement with our sales decline returning to be much more in line with the level of decline experienced in our H1 . Given the unpredictability we're seeing and that we expect the retail environment to remain challenging with subdued customer spending, we won't be providing a full-year outlook. We will share a Q3 trading update in May 2024. Our focus remains on strengthening our core brands, delivering better products at great value, and managing our costs.
We're very focused on improving our product ranges, and there are some fantastic products landing in our new winter range with more to come. Now I'm going to hand back to Joan.
Thank you very much, Nick and Celia. So to conclude my comments today, I'd again acknowledge that the board and management are acutely aware of the impact of the group's recent performance on shareholders, and we are very clear on the continuing action that's needed to deliver both sustainable growth and value. The execution of those imperatives is underway. And with that, we'll move to Q&A.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Kieran Carling with Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Welcome, Karen.
Morning, guys. Thanks, Joan. Thanks for the presentation. First question from me is just around your outlook commentary and the volatile sales trends that you have seen through February and March. Can you provide any color around what drove the significant decline in FEB and perhaps just touch on what change in consumer trends you have seen in recent months?
Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Kieran. Good morning. Certainly, sort of January and February, our view is that the market was significantly restricted. We have seen that from a number of commentators. We think that part of it was customers stretched before Christmas in a tough environment, but credit card bills, etc., etc., became due, and that stretched into February. If you look at some of the market data, for example, in February, Datamine had apparel down in total 6.4%, but home furniture and appliances down 9%. So there's no question that customers are really doing it tough. As the weather's gotten cold, we've seen that cause some change as we get into March. We've seen a good reaction to some of our new season product.
But as you've seen from a number of defaults, mortgage rates remaining high, and thank God they didn't go up anymore, it's going to remain tough in our opinion and very hard to call.
Great. Thank you. And at the Q1 sales update that you provided in mid-November last year, you commented that The Warehouse core market share had declined. Who do you think you're losing market share to? And I guess a follow-on to that is, how are you thinking about the emergence of companies like Temu and where your value proposition sits relative to those online retailers, particularly for younger consumers?
Yeah, I'll take that again. So market share has remained under pressure. As I said, whilst we were down 4.9%, when you back out the choices that we made about how we'd trade the online business and you take out the changes in our store base, down 1.4% in stores that were like for like. So not quite such a dire picture, but of course, sort of market share looks at the whole picture. Specifically within that, in the past, we've been writing some sales in, particularly online, heavily promotional, not at particularly good margins, with a lot of severe overheads. We made a conscious choice to correct a lot of those until we get some of the new systems in, which will enable us to grow that again. So specifically, we pulled back a lot of spend in the marketing, particularly in the market.
So marketing spend came out, but it wasn't just in the market that we did that. If you look at the NZD 48 million year-on-year loss in The Warehouse, 18 of that was specifically from online. And that was an improvement that we saw year-on-year of around NZD 7 million in profitability. So sort of we think it's the right decision. Again, the market dropped in sales, but the loss was reduced quite dramatically. Once we get our ERPFI system in, which will be in April, in the last stages of that, that enables us to, firstly, have real-time inventory. So we'll be able to have a much more accurate picture of what we have available in stores and therefore more confidence to push customers to it.
Plus, it'll enable us to put our group order management system in, which takes that cost of fulfillment, but it also gives more clarity to customers. So how we're thinking about online is very much as part of our omnichannel whole. There's a lot of research goes online, especially in our apps, and that drives customers to stores. So having more clarity about what's available is going to be really helpful on that. And sort of if you think specifically about Temu, there is our perspective is that they are growing here clearly and very rapidly, very different from us. They have very different standards around their supply chains and labor, and our ethical sourcing for us is a differentiator. We've worked very hard to improve our product quality and manufacturing standards, and we don't intend to walk them back to match Temu.
So really, our focus is on differentiating ourselves as a Kiwi retailer who has a good store footprint and making sure that we focus on our value proposition and we have that product available very quickly and clearly and offering great value.
Great. Thanks for that color. Final one from me. We've seen the group's cost of doing business hold relatively steady in the H1 with that reduction in labor costs. Are you able to give us a steer on how you expect this to track into the second half and comment on whether there are any other levers that you can pull to take cost out of the business from here?
Yeah. CODB in the H1 was down NZD 8 million, sort of 1.5%. A big chunk of that's out of employee expense, which is a lot of the action that we took this time last year, which did benefit us. It started to benefit us in Q4 last year. We won't have that same opportunity. Plus, last year, we started to pull back spend in the market, and so we'd already taken a lot of those benefits in H2 last year. The opportunity will not be as great, and there are challenges. That said, we are looking again at how we can reduce costs. We've started to see some real benefits in terms of things like in our DC from some of the systems investments we made in our warehouse management system.
We've seen benefits in terms of labor scheduling, and we've seen great efficiency in labor. But there are sort of inflationary pressures on things like our collective agreement, which impacts on our store labor. But we were sort of significantly below our budget through greater efficiency. And so some of them will continue, but the opportunity is not as great as it was in H1.
All of that considered, where do you think it'll sort of fall relative to the H1 of the year or the second half of last year?
Yeah. We're still working through that and looking at everything that we can squeeze out, Kieran.
All right. Cool. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Kieran.
Your next question comes from Guy Hooper with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Morning, Guy.
Hey. Morning, team. Hey, maybe just to pick up a little bit on the, I guess, your competitive position. I mean, obviously, you called out Homeware as an area that hasn't been doing well. And I guess while some of the warehouse sales, when you make those adjustments, I think you said it was down about 1.4%, but acknowledging that grocery is doing particularly well. So when we look at those other core categories, I assume that there's still quite a bit of weakness there. I mean, how are you thinking about your competitive position at the moment? And then maybe talk to some of the changes you're making around the buying process.
Yeah. I'm happy to do that. Good morning, Guy. As you quite rightly point out, we have done well on grocery, and we've seen a strong 12% increase in our total grocery category. Within that, the pantry category is up 31% and much more profitable, up more than 80% in terms of gross margin. So we see that as being additive and an important traffic driver. That said, we've taken a long, hard look. We've done a lot of customer research and looked specifically at some of the issues in our apparel and home businesses. We made a choice through COVID where we decided to take a lot of the risk out of what was a very unpredictable pattern of being open and put a lot more weight behind basics and took a lot of seasonal and fashion inventory out. We think we're suffering from that now.
In addition, from choice and from a sustainability point of view, one of the things that we'd long had feedback from customers about was around product quality. And so we purposely built more quality into our goods, and we've been recognized for that, perceived product quality up 12% over the last five years, products that work, ratings up similarly. So that's good. However, going into a recessionary environment, customers were just so constrained that while they might have wanted to buy better quality products or pay a little bit more for a bit of sustainability, that really collapsed. And so we've taken a lot of swift action to correct that. We've been through a whole customer research where we're reconstituting our core customer value proposition.
We're starting to build entry price points, which are, in fact, starting to deliver now and getting a good reaction that have full margin built in at better pricing. And we're starting to put more interest and more inspiration into a lot of our products. That, for example, is one of the reasons why we've updated the apparel leadership, bringing in someone from J.Crew and someone from Kmart. So lots of work to be done there. But equally, the core of our business, and again, this comes out of the customer research, has remained strong with a lot of our core customers but really need to win back critical shoppers like young mums and tweens and so forth. And that's why we're putting the right products in to do that and starting to get some good reactions in the early stages of that rollout. Much more to come.
Okay. And when you think about, I guess, your broad category offerings, are you still pretty comfortable with all the sort of categories that you're in? Is there room to be a bit more focused on some of these things?
Yeah. And some things will get more focus. The balance will change. We're just kicking off a space management program where we're looking at space productivity. And so we think that there are some categories that are underfootage within their footprint and will give them more exposure, more depth of buy. The pricing hierarchy and the product construction within that will be important. So that, again, is sort of something that will happen over time. But yeah, we're always evolving that, and we think there's some good opportunities. Broadly speaking, we're in 88 stores throughout New Zealand.
In some more rural locations, for example, we're relied upon as being the source of being able to solve a bunch of customer problems and couldn't just go out with a, say, home and apparel offer, though it would be tempting to do so because those are intrinsically better margin categories because we're relied on for all sorts of needs and great value across a broader range of assortments.
Yeah. Track.
So good question.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one last thing, I guess, along a similar line. I mean, you called out foot traffic to the Warehouse Stationery in the preso. I mean, what's foot traffic done in the reaches? Do you see grocery in those stores where you have that more fulsome offer? Do you see grocery actually driving a reasonable increase in foot traffic?
Yeah. Foot traffic has been down, broadly speaking, less than total sales. And so that hasn't been the bigger problem. What we've found is that a lot of those trips have been much more purposeful. People have come in with a lot of very specific missions in mind. And so looking at things like conversion and what people have available to spend in terms of average transaction value, where the challenges have come. But we're pleased that we have grocery because that has helped the traffic hold up significantly.
Yeah. Okay. And one last question from me, just, I guess, along the lines of Torpedo7 on the market, there are also a handful of other smaller bolt-on businesses that you've been or acquired or invested in over time. Can you just remind us sort of where some of those sit? For example, some of their different online offerings, are they also being closed alongside the market? And then maybe just give us.
Yeah. I mean, you're thinking.
Sorry, Guy. Yeah. I think you're thinking of businesses like 1-day that we closed before the year-end. That was a sort of discount online business that came bundled with Torpedo7. We closed Shotgun Supplements a few years ago. We rolled No. 1 Fitness into the Torpedo7 offer. So we had a discount business called Red Rack. Those are all gone already. So the market itself, whilst it's disappointing not to have made it work, we have seen some benefit from doing it and now have a group marketplace. So within the Red website, we have third-party sellers. Those would not sell to us before we proved that we could be responsible with them with the market.
And part of the problem with the market was that we were trying to move traffic off the market, off the Red website, which is the second-best traffic website in New Zealand, onto the market website and weren't being able to persuade customers to move. So by putting those third-party products merchandised on the Red website, we're seeing good uptake. We're in the early days of that yet, but that's proven to be much more profitable because we're not having to drive traffic. But all of those sort of rats and mice are already effectively closed.
Right. Gotcha. No, I appreciate the update. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Guy.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Paul Koraua with Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Welcome, Paul.
Hey. Good morning, guys. Maybe just a quick view from me and just back on that grocery trend. So grocery has been going pretty well, but if you sort of strip that out of Red Shed's performance, we have sort of sales in Red Shed's ex-grocery down 8%. And if you roll forward into trading through February and we assume groceries stayed pretty solid, it seems like that business might be struggling a bit. Is that concerning, or have you guys done addressing that in any way?
The grocery business struggling, Paul? Or the other bit directly?
The Red Shed's ex-grocery. Yeah.
Red Sheds certainly everyone's, we believe, in the market struggled in February, and grocery was not as buoyant as it had been previously. Obviously, it's more of a need purchase, and so it's more resilient. So we're very happy we have grocery. But as I said before, we have struggled in both the apparel and footwear business and the home businesses. Toys has been a little tougher as discretionary as well. We've seen mixed results in things like tech and appliances. That, again, has driven very promotionally. We've seen good results when we promoted. But yes, February, all in all, was very challenging. And we don't think we're on our own there. But you're right. Grocery has helped us keep the business up a little.
If you think about long-term, grocery is now 20% of Red Shed sales. Is there a view on where that should end up?
Yeah. We don't see it as being significantly more of a percentage of the mix. Where we need to concentrate, as I said before, is that we need to look at rebuilding the apparel and home businesses. Grocery, we've made it a lot more profitable, as I said, more than 80% improvement in gross margin. We're also reducing the cost to serve. Better distribution out of our DCs, a lot more shelf-ready packaging, for example, a lot of bulk stacks. Those take a lot less handling when they arrive in stores. The improvement in the distribution methodology means they can come straight into the stores, in many cases, and go straight out. So a lot more efficiency to make that grocery business more profitable. The increased mix of private label is helping that margin dramatically as we roll out our Market Kitchen and shots ranges, for example.
That's the focus on grocery. But I don't see it being more than sort of a fifth to a quarter of the whole business. We think it's adequately footaged. So the concentration is really on those other parts, which are intrinsically more profitable. The other thing to point out about February is, and this is true of the whole market, that we were cycling against a lot of demand created by the adverse effects of both Cyclone Gabrielle and the floods in Auckland last year, which drove a lot of replacement business, insurance business, wind payments. So it is a bit of an artificially comparable number. But that's why I think we're starting to see it pick up a bit.
Cool. Thank you. And then maybe just one more on the comment you guys made around having a leaner and sharper-focused business. You talked a little bit about the cost out of employee expenses, not being there for the second half. But sort of maybe longer term, is there an opportunity to reduce total store footprint, increase stores within a store in a way to reduce those rent expenses?
Yeah. There'll always be churn in the store footprint, but we don't see a sort of material closure of stores. Virtually every store in the chain is actually profitable in the continuing businesses. But we will be looking at how we drive greater efficiency. I think there's more opportunity for further store business with the Blue Sheds. That has worked well and enables us to be open longer than they would be as standalone stores. And they experience more traffic. So that will continue.
Cool. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Paul. Your next question comes from Rohan Koreman-Smit with Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rowan.
Hi, Joan. Nick, just one question from me. I guess recently, you've kind of swung back to refocusing on the core businesses that you've had for a while after kind of a series of adventures outside of those lanes. Yeah. I was just wondering, and maybe this is something for you as well, Joan, strategically, is this where we stand now? Do you see The Warehouse, I guess, having shareholder permission to do anything other than the core businesses? How do you think about the strategic growth of the group going forward or the strategic shape of the group going forward?
Yeah. I think that's a great question, Rohan. And I think one of the things that gives the board enormous confidence is the fact that this is an organization, this is a company that's been able to weather all of the economic cycles way back since 1982. So this is a particularly difficult time. And we talk about volatility. We've had that in spades, and we've had aberrations such as COVID. At the moment, our focus is very much on simplifying, prioritizing, and driving execution of the core business as we now see it. I think those adventures, as you call them, as Nick has pointed out, we did have some learnings. And certainly, the example of the market that he described, I don't think we would ever have been able to get third-party vendors onto a red platform.
So from the board's perspective, we've got to regain the confidence of shareholders. It's shareholders and shareholder value that has been long-suffering. I think we've continued to serve our customers very well. We've continued to look after our team members incredibly well. But we've got to get this business back where it needs to be. You'd never say never to any opportunities. Even if they don't work out as you intended them to, there are almost always learnings. So we're not alone in that regard in terms of failing relatively fast on some of these adventures. But that's certainly the focus for us at the moment. And we're committed to making sure that we, as a board, support the team as much as we can in driving that focus and execution.
Thanks, Joan. Just on that comment around you could never pass up an opportunity, do you think The Warehouse Group has earned the right to investigate those opportunities? I noticed you called out NZD 490 million of liquidity, which makes me a bit nervous given historical penchant for acquisitions.
I think we've learned in terms of acquisitions a little bit. And none of us in this room today, in fact, virtually all of the board, weren't present when Torpedo7 was bought as an example. The market, when we set it up, as we said, it was the whole online scenario. And what we were potentially looking at in terms of online competition was very different from what it is at the moment, albeit we've got the SHEINs and the Temus. I think there'd be a hell of a lot of rigour that would go into any analysis as you would expect in terms of evaluating an opportunity. We'd probably have different criteria. I joined the board, and the financial services business still existed here. Clearly, that was something that we needed to shut down very quickly.
And again, it was a situation you can always look back in hindsight and say, "Would you have bought that if you knew then what you know now?" Don't be nervous about the liquidity. We watch that very, very carefully. So we're never going to be anything other than prudent with our balance sheet. But to answer your question, a lot of rigour would go into any future acquisition.
Thanks for answering my questions. I think we've used up five questions between Paul and I, so I'll pass on the mic.
You're always welcome.
Well done. Thank you, Rowan.
There are no further questions at this time, and I'll hand it back to Joan for closing remarks.
Okay. Well, thank you, everyone, very much for your attendance this morning and your highly intelligent questions. It is almost Easter, and so we're very much looking forward to one of our major trading events in the year. We're also looking forward to this current cold weather continuing. But in the meantime, I wish you all a very happy Easter break. So thank you.
It does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.