[Non-English content ] Good morning. Welcome to The Warehouse Group 2021 annual results presentation. My name is Joan Withers, and I'm Chair of the Board of The Warehouse Group. With me on the call today is The Warehouse Group Chief Executive Officer, Nick Grayston, and our Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Oram. Firstly, I'm going to cover off the highlights of this year's results. I am very pleased to report a record annual result for The Warehouse Group after a year which saw the continued disruption of a global pandemic and which we continue to see as we speak. The execution of the strategy we embarked on in 2017 has gone to plan. It is heartening to see the benefits the transformation of our business is delivering as we strive to build New Zealand's most sustainable, convenient, and customer-first company.
Despite our ambitions four years ago, we would not have anticipated the record results that we have achieved in FY21. Our transformation to an Agile business has given us the ability to shift and to adapt to the changing needs of our customers and our business, delivering this record result. To a significant degree, this is due to the resilience of our people, our culture, and the team's expertise. Group sales were up 7.6% to NZD 3.4 billion, and gross profit margin increased from 32.6% in FY 2020 to 36.4% in FY 2021. These strong sales and increased margin have resulted in adjusted net profit after tax of NZD 175.5 million, which is up from NZD 32.1 million in the prior year. Our reported net profit after tax was NZD 117.7 million, up from NZD 44.5 million in the prior year, and that represents an increase of 164.6%.
In the current uncertain economic environment, it is appropriate to maintain high levels of liquidity. At year-end, we had net cash on hand of NZD 160.5 million, combined with our undrawn banking facilities of NZD 330 million, we had a liquidity buffer of NZD 490.5 million. There is no doubt that the group has benefited from the changes to the way New Zealanders now live, work, and shop. Our growth in the online sales continues to demonstrate that, with online sales up 5% to NZD 393.1 million and now making up 11.5% of total group sales, with click and collect sales up 21.1%. Alongside our financial performance, I'm extremely proud of our sustainability journey. During the year, we carried over 11,500 unique products with a sustainable feature, accounting for over NZD 176 million worth of sales. We have diverted 77.9% of operational waste from landfill, and that's up from 76.7% in FY20.
However, our Scope one and two emissions did increase from the prior year, but that was to be expected due to the seven weeks of full lockdown which occurred in FY 2020. What is more significant is that we reduced Scope one and two emissions by 2.7% since FY 2019 and reduced total emissions by 6.4%. In line with our purpose of helping Kiwis live better every day, we continue to work alongside and support our local and national charities. We raised NZD 4.3 million for New Zealand charities and communities during the financial year, bringing the total raised to NZD 75.5 million since 1982. We continue our focus on building a diverse and inclusive workforce, and during the year, we have increased female senior leaders to 44.4% of senior leadership roles. Now to talk about our people.
In FY21, we've made material progress to become an Agile business and operate effectively within a dynamic environment. Agile is not an easy journey, and I want to give full credit to all of our people for having the bravery and stamina to meet the challenge of such a fundamental change in the way of working. Our culture and mindset and our team's expertise have enabled the business to open and shut stores and move to click and collect almost overnight during the first wave of COVID-19 alert level changes, and now again, as the country's reverted to level 4 lockdown and then into a split level environment across New Zealand.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of our team members who've adapted and pivoted to alert level changes so that the group can safely provide for our customers' needs and wants. Our team have truly lived our values by putting customers first, doing good for our people and planet, and delivering on what we said we would do. As I said before, 4 years ago, we would not have anticipated the record results that we're reporting today. Specifically on those results and a little discussion about our dividends. As I highlighted at the outset, we are reporting a record result with total retail sales of NZD 3.4 billion, which is up 7.6% on FY 2020. As I said, our gross profit margin has increased from 32.6% to 36.4%, and our operating margin has risen from 1.6%- 7% in FY 2021.
Reiterating the fact again that our adjusted net profit after tax of NZD 175.5 million, and reported NPAT of NZD 117.7 million represent a record result for The Warehouse Group. The strong profit performance that I've just outlined, sustained sales momentum, and a robust financial position enabled the group to repay the COVID-19 wage subsidy of NZD 67.6 million for our 11,000 employees back in December 2020. Now to dividends. Our stronger than expected trading performance enabled the board to declare a special dividend of NZD 0.05 per share in February 2021, and an interim dividend of NZD 0.13 per share in April 2021. The board is now pleased to announce a fully imputed final dividend of NZD 0.175 per share. This final dividend is declared on the assumption that New Zealand is predominantly at level 2 or lower from the end of October.
The record date for the dividend will be the 18th of November 2021. It will be paid on the third of December 2021. That brings the total dividends for the year to NZD 0.355 per share and represents a payout ratio of 70.2% of adjusted net profit. This is in line with our recently amended dividend policy, which was approved by the board in March 2021. That is to distribute at least 70% of the group's full year adjusted net profit, of course, at the discretion of the board and subject to performance, market conditions, and liquidity requirements. We are pleased to be able to declare this final dividend in the wake of further COVID-19 lockdown periods following our year end. Now to sustainability and governance. I've already mentioned some of our sustainability achievements and our highlights for the year.
As a further step to achieving our sustainability ambitions and targets, in August 2021, we established a new board-level Environmental and Social Sustainability Committee, which oversees our governance of environmental, social, and sustainability issues. Our sustainability ambitions are largely focused around providing sustainable products, reducing our carbon emissions and waste, increasing our diversity and inclusion focus, and supporting the communities in which we operate. We have been carbon neutral since 2019. As I noted earlier, in FY 2021, we diverted 77.9% of waste from landfill. We've reduced our Scope one and Scope two emissions by 2.7% since FY19, and we've increased our women in senior leadership roles to more than 44%. We have also facilitated community donations of around NZD 4.3 million for key social causes. While we still have work to do, I'm proud of these and the many other initiatives and progress that we've achieved this year. On governance.
Well, in 2021, we also saw a change in our directors. Following the farewell of Sir Stephen Tindall and Keith Smith at the annual meeting last year, we welcomed Robbie Tindall as a permanent member of the board. We also announced the appointment of Rachel Taulelei in February, and Rachel will stand for election by shareholders at the ASM in November. The corporate governance section of our annual report details the skills and experience of our directors, and I know I speak for the whole board in saying it has been a privilege to support Nick and his team in their delivery of this outstanding result. The Foodstuffs sell down of their shareholding in The Warehouse Group in May 2021 has increased our free float liquidity and changed the shape of our register, with institutional shareholders now holding approximately 9% and retail shareholders holding approximately 20% of shares.
I'm now going to hand you over to Nick Grayston, our Group Chief Executive Officer, who's going to take you through an update on group strategy and key highlights for the year.
Thank you, Joan, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Slide nine shows our purpose, vision, strategic priorities, and our values. These strategies are still in the executional process but are starting to deliver tangible results and have enabled us to deliver the results you're seeing today. As Joan mentioned, four years ago, we embarked on a transformational journey from a company with numerous brands working independently without any centralized support functions or integration strategy. We are now an agile, efficient, high-performing, customer-focused retail group, working together to help Kiwis live better every day. Our vision to build New Zealand's most sustainable, convenient, and customer-first ecosystem is coming to fruition and has become embedded throughout the organization. Last year, we refined our vision further by dividing it into three key focus areas. The first is to enable a customer-first offering powered by data.
This year, more than ever, we invested in our core and customer-facing systems, including a group e-commerce platform, our warehouse management system, cloud-based master data management, and our finance and inventory systems. Our group e-commerce platform is live with The Warehouse, and our warehouse management system is now operating in our South Island distribution center and North Island fulfillment center. The second focus is the provision of a frictionless, on-demand shopping experience. This means providing customers what they want, how they want it, and when they need it, allowing customers to purchase products in the smoothest, easiest, and hassle-free way. We're improving our store offering, extending click and collect options, and offering more variety in customer payment options. The third element of our vision is to deliver an ethical and sustainable performance. This is increasingly important to us, and Joan has touched on some of our sustainability achievements this year.
This means offering ethically sourced, sustainable products to our customers, reducing our operational impact on the environment, developing a diverse and inclusive workforce, participating in our communities, and delivering sustainable performance and returns to our shareholders. We believe that customers should not have to pay more to do the right thing, which is why our guiding principle is to be sustainable and affordable. I'll highlight some specific achievements against our vision and strategic priorities shortly. Our values remain unchanged. They underpin our way of working, our culture, and how we deliver on our strategic initiatives. To put the customer first in everything we do, think customer. To walk the talk and make things happen, own it. To do good by being one team, standing up for our people, our planet, and our communities. Our vision translates into three strategic priorities. The first is building our customer ecosystem.
This is the essence of our strategy. It is how we serve our customers' needs and wants through our people, our platforms, and our data. It means engaging with new and existing customers by solving their needs and wants, and by offering a seamless and frictionless customer experience. This year, we have developed our e-commerce platform and launched the new website for The Warehouse, with Noel Leeming and Warehouse Stationery following soon. We have continued investment in TheMarket, which now has over 2.5 million available products. In order to refine our product offering across our brands, we have improved our inventory management significantly, reducing in-store SKUs by 18.5% for The Warehouse and 12.6% for Warehouse Stationery, while offering enhanced range optimization.
Building the future experience means meeting and exceeding the expectations of changing customer behaviors, providing more sustainable products, offering improved delivery and click and collect options, and having the right stores in the right places. It means leveraging our footprint and enhancing our supply chain so customers can purchase what they want, where they need it, and when they choose. In 2021, we were proud to increase our customer weighted average net promoter score 7.5 points to 76.6 points. Our click and collect sales grew 21.1%, driven by our new offering of same-day click and collect at The Warehouse, and 1-hour click and collect at Noel Leeming. Our 252 stores continue to be the strength of our network, and during the year, we transitioned to further eight SWAS stores, bringing the total to 25.
To achieve these two first strategic priorities, we are investing in infrastructure that provides us with the tools we need to excel in retail fundamentals. This means achieving the best in New Zealand retail performance metrics, maintaining a strong corporate and brand reputation, and providing the group and our shareholders with long-term financial security. This year has seen a significant increase in our investment in core system projects, further developing the warehouse management system, starting the development of the ERP system for finance and inventory, and investing in our cloud-based master data management system. These improvements in our systems provides us with the data and insights to improve our inventory management, a key aspect of retail fundamentals. We increased stock turn from 4.4 x- 5.3 x and reduced aged inventory as a percentage of finished goods from 28.1% in FY 2020 to 16.1% in FY 2021.
During the year, the group revised its liquidity policy in response to last year's COVID-19 pandemic. Now operates to a target liquidity range of between NZD 350 million-NZD 450 million. Strong sales performance and cash flow management meant that we were slightly above this at year-end, with cash deposits of NZD 160.5 million and available bank facilities of NZD 330 million, providing liquidity of NZD 490.5 million at year-end. As discussed, our ecosystem is at the heart of our business. We have strong ecosystem foundations in place with an established physical footprint and market-leading digital assets. We have confirmed the rollout of a unified loyalty program across the group as Market Club and Market Club+. In July, we announced that we have become a cornerstone strategic investor in ZOOM Health to provide convenient and affordable access to healthcare to all Kiwis.
Further improvements will make customer shopping journeys with our family of brands faster, easier, and more personalized through unified data platforms and people, while remaining focused on the fundamentals of delivering exceptional value and new assortments with improved customer fulfillment and payment options in store and online. I will highlight now some key sales, profit, and digital metrics for each of our brands. Jonathan Oram will go through the financials of each in further detail shortly. After a flat year of sales in FY 2020, we are pleased to deliver sales growth of 5.8% in The Warehouse to NZD 1.8 billion. Operating profit margin was significant, with an improvement of 720 basis points to 10.4%, an excellent result. Customers continue to embrace online shopping and click and collect delivery options. The Warehouse online sales increased 4.8% compared to prior year to make up 6.3% of total sales.
The introduction of same-day click and collect service at The Warehouse contributed to an increase in click and collect fulfillment of an incredible 37.9%. Warehouse Stationery had a pleasing result with 2.2% growth in sales to NZD 274.6 million. Our customers are embracing our Store Within a Store offering, which makes it easier for them to access school needs and work from home products. As I mentioned earlier, we integrated eight stores during the year, and we now have 25 SWAS stores in our network. Operating profit margin also saw a significant improvement at Warehouse Stationery, up a further 600 basis points to 12.5%. While online sales were flat year-over-year as we cycle through the anniversary of the first lockdown, customers are choosing more and more to collect their online orders in store with click and collect sales up 64.4%.
Noel Leeming delivered yet another record year in both sales and operating profit, with sales exceeding NZD 1.1 billion, up 11.7% on FY20, and operating margin growing 240 basis points to 5.8%. Online shopping has established itself as a significant channel for Noel Leeming. While online sales decreased 6.4% as we cycled the anniversary of the lockdown periods in FY20, sales penetration remained above the 10% mark, which is almost double pre-pandemic levels. Our one-hour click and collect offering for Noel Leeming saw click and collect sales increasing 9.3%- 62% of online sales. Torpedo7 continues the growth trajectory we have seen in recent years, with sales growth of 22.2% to NZD 158.7 million in F Y 2021.
The extremely pleasing result of Torpedo7's FY 2021 performance is the turnaround of profitability with FY 2021 operating profit of NZD 3.3 million, an operating profit margin of 2.1%, a significant improvement compared to operating loss of NZD 17.7 million in FY 2020. Torpedo7 experienced strong online growth in FY 2021, up 18.6% on the prior period, driven by a change in customer behavior post-COVID-19 lockdowns, and now makes up 28.8% of total Torpedo7 sales. Customers also embraced Torpedo7 click and collect service, with these sales increasing 26.1% and making up 43.1% of online sales. Since launching in 2019, themarket.com is New Zealand's fastest growing e-commerce platform, with almost 397,000 active customers, an increase of 207% year on year, and added 147,000 customers in FY 2021. The Market's vision is to change the way Kiwis shop, providing more options, better convenience, and value.
It continues to show growth on its key fundamental metrics, with more companies and brands seeing the benefits of the size of its audience and platform. Now, with over 5,300 brands providing more than 2.5 million products available for our customers. TheMarket's goal is to make 10,000+ of the world's most desirable brands available to all Kiwis. We have seen significant audience growth for TheMarket this year, with 40 million sessions up 138% year-on-year, and over 50,000 Market Club members supported by increasing purchase frequency that has grown merchant orders by 265%. For financial reporting segment purposes, this year, we consolidated TheMarket with our one-day business, which you will see in the segment note of the financial statements. I'll now hand you over to Jonathan Oram, Chief Financial Officer, who will take you through our group financial results.
Thank you, Nick. Good morning, everyone. As Jonathan and Nick have been talking to, the full year result for the group has been a record and its continuation of the strength we saw in the first half. Just a reminder, the numbers presented here are pre-impact of IFRS 16 for comparability with previous results. Second, exclude the impact of a wage subsidy receipt in FY 2020 and repayment in FY 2021. Thirdly, FY 2020 was a 53-week financial year versus 52 weeks in FY 2021. We have not adjusted the comparator in FY 2020 for that. Slide 15 runs through our main financial performance highlights. Group sales were up 7.6% on prior year, driven by top line growth across all major brands, but particularly Noel Leeming and Torpedo7. Gross profit continues to grow at a faster rate than sales due to strengthening margins.
Gross profit margin increased from 32.6% in FY 2020 to 36.4% in FY 2021, a 380 basis point improvement. Better margin management and sell-through rates have translated to lower clearance and promotional activity. Our cost of doing business increased by 1.5% in terms of dollars, but declined as a percentage of sales to 29.4%. Cost of doing business, or CoDB, remains a key focus for the group and is encouraging to see the impact of major initiatives reflected in the continued downward trend of CoDB as a percentage of sales. Improved gross profit margin and decreased CoDB percentage have resulted in a significant increase in operating margin, up from 1.6% in FY 2020 to 7% in FY 2021. Operating cash flows declined 39.4%, but primarily due to the investment in working capital as inventory balances built from low levels of FY 2020, as well as the NZD 67.6 million wage subsidy repayment.
Total dividends of NZD 0.355 per share in FY 2021 include the special of NZD 0.05 per share, the interim dividend of NZD 0.13 per share, and our declared final dividend of NZD 0.175. Looking at Slide 16. Slide 16 illustrates how the group's weekly sales have increased and decreased compared to the same week in FY 2020. A lot of detail on this page, but a couple of points to highlight are: First, lockdown periods have been followed by periods of rebounds where sales have been recouped. Secondly, looking through the periods of lockdown and cycling last year's recovery, the elevated level of spend for the year has been quite consistent. Bear in mind that the last 10 weeks of the year were cycling the move to level 2 on 13 May 2020. Slide 17, we have gross profit margin analysis.
Gross profit margin has been one of the most significant drivers of the group profitability. As I said, 380 basis points up to 36.4% in FY 2021. All brands have seen improvements in inventory aging and stock turns, resulting in lower clearance activity. For The Warehouse, this, combined with the continued evolution of operating under everyday low prices, has resulted in gross profit margin being up 430 basis points. A further contribution to this improved margin is our focus on managing the sell-through on seasonal product lines and increasing the proportion of our continuity all year-round stock. Worth calling out is Torpedo7, which has seen a 1,500 basis point move in gross profit margin as part of its move to profitability. FY 2020 profit margin included the one-off provisions of NZD 5.3 million, which provided a cleaner inventory position for FY 2021 and achievement of a gross profit margin of 37.9%.
Slide 18 gives a further breakdown of CODB. As mentioned, managing cost of doing business remains a constant focus and is key to capturing the benefits of our gross profit gains. In FY 2021, we delivered 160 basis point improvement as a percentage of sales to 29.4%. This continues the trajectory of reductions being 40 basis points better than FY19 and 60 basis points better than FY 2018. Approximately 71% of employee expenses are related to stores, fulfillment centers, and distribution centers, which have all been managed well through a period of elevated sales. A couple of areas of note are the operating model update in The Warehouse that became effective at the beginning of FY 2021, as well as significant improvements in our online fulfillment processes.
Combined depreciation lease expense costs have declined, with a reduction of five stores as part of a group store footprint optimization and 8 SWAS integrations during the year. Slide 19, adjusted versus our reported net profit after tax. Slide 19 provides a reconciliation between our reported and adjusted EBIT and net profit after tax to explain our underlying business performance. The 2 main unusual non-recurring items in FY 2021 are, firstly, restructuring costs. These represent the final costs in relation to our transition to Agile, comprised of fees paid to consultants and redundancy costs. Secondly, repayment of the COVID-19 wage subsidy in December 2020 of NZD 67.6 million. We have removed the benefit of this from FY 2020 and the cost of this from FY 2021. Overall, in terms of an adjusted net profit after tax, we have seen a nearly 5.5 x improvement on FY 2020. Balance sheet on slide 20.
Looking at the summary balance sheet, inventory levels have had the most significant impact on working capital during the year, increasing by NZD 63.6 million to what we would consider more normal levels, this shift in working capital from its negative position at the end of FY 2020. I will touch more on this in the next slide. Fixed assets also increased by NZD 29 million, investment outstripped depreciation, which I will touch on on slide 23. Increased shareholder equity, which was driven by our profitability flowing through to retained earnings. As Nick and Joan have mentioned, as at year-end, we had net cash and liquidity at a similar level to last year and total banking facilities available of NZD 330 million, giving total liquidity, including cash of NZD 490.5 million. Slide 21, inventory management.
FY 2020 inventory levels were our lowest in recent history, impacted by the global supply chain challenges as a result of COVID. While FY 2021 inventory levels remain below historical averages, they have increased year-on-year compared to FY 2020 and are close to planned levels. One of the key focus areas of Group's transformation journey has been inventory management, and this continues to be a key priority and is now delivering tangible results. Improved inventory management combined with increased demand has seen the Group's stock turn improve from 4.4 times in FY 2020 to 5.3 x in FY 2021, increasing across all our brands.
Aged inventory, being stock on hand greater than 6 months, has also continued to decrease, with aged inventory decreasing from 28.1% in FY 2020 to 16.1% in FY 2021. I also mentioned SKU reductions were also part of our transformation journey, with SKUs down to 18% in The Warehouse and 13% in Warehouse Stationery. Moving on to cash flow on slide 22. We've touched on most of the key drivers here, with an increasing trading profitability in terms of EBITDA being offset by an increase in working capital and the receipt and payment of a subsidy, creating a NZD 135 million swing itself, in cash flow. The other significant change from FY 2020 is a resumption of dividends, with no dividends being declared in FY 2020, but the final dividend, FY 2019 dividend, being paid. That's what you can see in the cash flow statement.
We have an increase in capital expenditure, which I'll touch on the next slide. The sum of all these impacts, these changes, is that cash flow at FY 2021 was a minor outflow of NZD 7.5 million. In terms of capital expenditure, FY 2021 CapEx was NZD 85 million compared to NZD 63.1 million in FY 2020, with continued investment in core systems, digital and customer systems, and in our stores being the major components of CapEx. In particular, in our core systems included ERP, finance and inventory systems, warehouse management systems, and master data management, and also significant investment in our customer-facing digital initiatives, which include the group e-commerce platform and further development of themarket.com. Store capital expenditure included the opening of a Warehouse Stationery and Noel Leeming at the new retail park in Ormiston, and expansion of our Noel Leeming store in Silverdale, a new Torpedo7 store in Napier.
In addition to Ormiston, there were seven further SWAS stores that were opened during the year. While capital expenditure was less than our target guidance range of NZD 100 million-NZD 120 million, this is significantly higher than annual capital expenditure over the past five years. I note that there was quite a lot of detail given around this at our investor day in May. We expect capital expenditure in FY 2022 to be in the range of NZD 115 million-NZD 135 million, and to remain at this level for coming years. Turning now to slide 25, and an overview of the performance of each of our brands. Every one of our brands has delivered sales growth in the year, led by significant growth in Noel Leeming at 11.7% and Torpedo7 at 22.2%.
This has translated into meaningful improvements in operating profit and getting it right in The Warehouse has contributed two-thirds of the improvement in operating profit from the brands before the investment in TheMarket and group overheads. Looking at The Warehouse first on slide 26, sales were up 5.8% against FY 2020. Strong category growth was seen across grocery, home, gardening, and toys, all achieving double-digit growth. As I've already touched on, gross profit margin is the most pleasing part of The Warehouse result, increasing 430 basis points to 42.2%. Improving Cost of Doing Business margin by 290 basis points has been largely driven by the operating model change in our stores. This has led to a 6% decline in store labor, while also seeing improvement in our customer NPS. Operating profit increased 241.7% to NZD 187.6 million. Operating margin increased 720 basis points to 10.4%.
During the year, we closed three The Warehouse stores in Dunedin Central, Whangaparaoa, and Johnsonville, and opened one new store in Ormiston. Slide 27. Warehouse Stationery continued to build on the momentum established in previous years, with sales up 2.2%. We saw strong growth in the number of transactions up 10%, but the average basket was down after FY20 saw the benefit of customers setting up home offices and schooling. Office furniture, arts and craft, print and copy were standout categories, experiencing strong growth. Against this relatively modest sales growth was a 580 basis point increase in gross profit margin, increasing gross profit 15.9% to NZD 132.5 million. With cost of doing business holding flat, benefits from the ongoing SWAS or Store Within a Store program, operating profit increased 96% to NZD 34.3 million, with operating profit margin improving 600 basis points to 12.5%.
We've already discussed the 8 SWAS integrations implemented in FY 2021, bringing the total to 25, and this program continues to plan. Noel Leeming on slide 28 delivered another record year, with sales growth of 11.7%, exceeding the NZD 1.1 billion mark for the first time. As Nick noted, online sales decreased 6.4% as we cycled through the anniversary of the first lockdown. With online sales greater than 10% of sales, almost double the pre-pandemic levels, and 62% of this being click and collect, there's been a step change in this part of the business. Our business-to-business division or TWG Business continued its growth trajectory and recorded double-digit year-on-year sales growth. Top performing categories, all of which had double-digit growth, included appliances, audiovisual, and services.
Sales from our tech services provided to our customers, though less than 5% of sales, is one of the fastest growing categories within Noel Leeming. Gross profit margin increased 140 basis points to 23.3%. Driven by product mix, offset to some degree by the growing commercial channel. Full-year operating profit increased NZD 30.7 million to NZD 64.9 million, an 89.9% increase. During FY 2021, we closed four Noel Leeming stores and opened 1 new store in Ormiston. Finally, in terms of brand performance, Torpedo7, on slide 29, had a significant year in improving its financial performance, driving sales growth of 22.2%, and in particular, 29% in the first half. Torpedo7 was the brand influenced most by the change in consumer behavior due to COVID-19 lockdowns, experiencing strong online sales growth of 18.6% in FY 2021. Customers also embraced click and collect services, increasing 26.1% and making up 43.1% of all online sales.
Gross profit increased 102% to NZD 60.2 million, driven by a number of initiatives which improved margins and reduced discounting. Strong sales, improved margins, and decreased cost of doing business all contributed to an operating profit of NZD 3.3 million in FY 2021, up from an operating loss of NZD 17.7 million in FY 2020. There was only one new store opening during the year, with Napier opening in Q3. I will now hand you back to Joan, who will take you through an FY 2022 update.
Thanks very much, Jonathan. In terms of an update for the start of the FY22 year, sales for the first eight weeks of the financial year were down 22% compared to the same period in FY21. Despite the year starting positively, New Zealand, as we know, went into a country-wide Level 4 COVID lockdown on the 18th of August, which was just two and a half weeks into our financial year. Sales have traded broadly in line with expectations at the different lockdown levels we have experienced since the start of the financial year. Given our cash and available facilities on entering lockdown, the group has not applied for the government wage subsidy. The group announced early in the lockdown that it would pay its team members in full until the end of September to provide certainty to our people.
Given the move south of Auckland to Level 3 on the 31st of August, and north of Auckland to Level 3 on the 2nd of September, limited capital management initiatives have been employed. The group's cash deposits have reduced significantly since balance date as a result of that decrease in sales, but the group's bank debt facilities remain undrawn. Just reiterating how delighted we are as a board to be announcing a fully imputed dividend of NZD 0.175 per share. That final dividend has been declared on the assumption that New Zealand is predominantly at Level 2 from the end of October, and the record date for the dividend will be the 18th of November 2021, and it will be paid on the 3rd of December 2021. The group prudently has prepared for the potential for further significant lockdowns and has therefore maintained a robust capital position.
That's the end of the formal presentation, so I'll open the line for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you need to cancel your request, please press the pound or hash key. Once again, it is star 1 to ask a question.
Do we have any questions?
We have no questions at this stage. Just once again, it is star one to ask a question.
Well, there appear to be no questions this morning. I will thank you all for your attendance. It has been a pleasure delivering the result to you on behalf of the company today, and it's particularly rewarding for me after seeing all the hard work that Nick and his executive team, and in fact, all of our team members, have invested to get us to where we are today. Thank you all for your forbearance, and keep safe. Thank you.