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Booming demand for warehouses and logistic hubs together with a spike in housing settlements has propelled property giant Stockland back into the black with a $1.1 billion statutory profit for the pandemic-hit 2021 financial year.

That profit compared to a $21 million loss in the prior year and was bumped up by solid valuation gains across the industrial sector, and stabilisation in market conditions for the office and retail assets.

The $10.8 billion ASX-listed Stockland is a diversified company that develops, owns, manages and invests in residential - it is the country’s largest home and land developer - retirement living, office and commercial sites and malls and large retail town centres.

The funds from operation (FFO), being the metric used to measure revenue that excludes lumpy property valuation movements, fell 4 per cent to $788 million. It was in line with market expectations, but brokers warned of a mixed year ahead due to ongoing uncertainty from the global pandemic and lockdowns.

A distribution of 24.6¢ per security was declared, 2.1 per cent above 2020, representing a payout ratio of 75 per cent of FFO. It will be paid on August 31.

Underpinning the result was demand for house and land sales with net volumes up 54.2 per cent versus the 2020 year to 7,700 lots and settlement volumes up 19.8 per cent to 6,374 lots. This was boosted by low-interest rates and a move by people from inner urban to suburban communities.

Stockland’s newly appointed chief executive Tarun Gupta, who was the former chief finance director at Lendlease and replaced the retiring Mark Steinert in June, will undertake a review of the business which will see a pivot away from the traditional retail and retirement business with cash raised from asset sales to fund the development pipeline and the new land lease, manufactured homes business.

He said FFO guidance for 2022, is between 34.6-35.6¢, implying a wide range of between 4.5 per cent to 7.6 per cent growth.

“While varying levels of uncertainty with COVID-19 remain, Stockland is in a strong position to respond and adapt. Continuing residential sales momentum, a significant development pipeline and a strong balance sheet, position us well for future growth,” Mr Gupta said.

“Current market conditions remain challenging with ongoing lockdowns and community transmission of COVID-19. All forward-looking statements including 2022 financial year earnings guidance are provided on the basis that the vaccination roll out continues and COVID-19 restrictions ease towards the end of calendar 2021.”

The booming logistics business it will be boosted by the new $1.4 billion Melbourne Business Park in Truganina in the western corridor and expansion of the M_Park in Sydney’s Macquarie Park tech hub.

Stockland’s retail appears to be on a less negative trajectory, with rent collections at 97 per cent and occupancy at 99 per cent. The repositioning of the Retail Town Centre assets over the last three years has seen 75 per cent of sales now generated by essential everyday goods and services.

Mr Gupta said the recent Halcyon acquisition will drive the land lease business in the coming year. Stockland acquired Halcyon in July, and are targeting 250 settlements this year, growing to 350 settlements each year over the medium term.

Under the land lease scheme, a resident buys the house but rents the land on which it sits from Stockland, creating a more affordable entry to the booming market.

JP Morgan’s Richard Jones said it was a solid result with residential sales remaining strong in the fourth quarter with Stockland taking a large carry forward of settlements into the coming year.

“The trust performance is broadly in line and Stockland has a growing commercial development pipeline,” Mr Jones said.

The Berejiklian government is poised to announce a reopening of some retail businesses in low-risk areas of Greater Sydney during September, under plans to ease restrictions and begin a tentative economic revival, even as cases remain high across some ­parts of the city.

The plan, likely to be finalised on Wednesday afternoon and ­announced on Thursday, would see a limited reopening of businesses in less-affected LGAs, with services available to those who are vaccinated.

It is understood nail salons and hairdressers, which were among the first retailers to reopen following a state-wide lockdown in NSW last year, will be the likely beneficiaries.

Gladys Berejiklian announced NSW had reached its six millionth jab on Tuesday morning.

“Because we have hit that milestone, I look forward to making the announcement on Thursday or Friday this week as to what fully vaccinated people will be able to do from the month of September because of the target we have set,” the NSW Premier said.

Ms Berejiklian said 30 per cent of the eligible population has now received two doses.

“I am proud that during our darkest time everybody has come forward and is doing the right thing (with vaccinations).”

The target of six million inoculations had been planned for the end of ­August but has been hit a week early.

One of the nation’s peak hospitality associations meanwhile is urging the NSW government to consider plans for a revival of outdoor dining in September as part of its roadmap to recovery.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief Wes Lambert said lockdowns had proven catastrophic for his industry and the resumption of outdoor dining, in areas where there had been few or no cases of Covid-19, would assist with a much-needed recovery.

“We are pleading with the ­government to ensure that there is some level of hospitality ­included in the roadmap for the lowest-risk LGAs,” Mr Lambert said. “We’re losing $228m a week. It’s a multi-billion problem in NSW. Without JobKeeper, and without the stimulus and the ­insolvency protections of 2020, it is important the hospitality industry is not left in the dust.”

On Monday, health officials announced 818 locally acquired cases of Covid-19, with at least 42 of these cases known to be infectious in the community.

Three deaths were also reported – two men and one woman, all of whom were aged in their 80s, all of whom had underlying health conditions.

The Premier appeared to once again sharpen messaging on the growing redundancy of case numbers, saying it was her hope that by October the state would hit a vaccination target of 70 per cent, which would allow officials to focus on hospitalisations and “treat Covid as you would the flu”.

“If we keep working the way we are, we’ll get to that target ahead of the end of October,” she said.

“It all depends on us continuing to keep that up. Some countries … have noticed a slight pause when the population gets to 60 per cent double doses … but I don’t have those concerns in NSW.”

Health and education officials are continuing to deliberate over plans to allow a return of face-to-face schooling, although gov­ernment officials have told The Australian this is more likely to occur in term 4, which begins in October.

Travis Wright, former general manager of fashion online retailer Esther & Co, is taking the reins as CEO at iconic Australian swimwear brand, Tigerlily.

Wright left Esther & Co earlier this month after almost seven years at the business, during which time she helped grow revenue by more than five times and improved profitability.

Wright was instrumental in leading the turnaround of Esther & Co last year and will bring years of online retail, marketing and fashion experience to her new role at Tigerlily – as well as lessons learned in her jewellery business, Travel by Travis. Earlier this year, she landed the seventh spot in Inside Retail‘s Top 50 in E-Commerce list.

Former Tigerlily CEO Adam Wilkinson exited the business earlier this month, where he also oversaw travel and accessories brand, Crumpler. After Tigerlily fell into voluntary administration in 2019, Wilkinson led the integration of the swimwear brand into the Crumpler business. Wilkinson is now at fashion giant, PAS Group, where he has taken on the newly created position of head of new business.

Rebel's in-store shoe recycling program has recycled 37,158 pairs of shoes, parent company Super Retail Group has revealed in its 2021 Sustainability Report. 

This is a 54.8% increase year-on-year for the retailer, which recycled 24,000 pairs in FY20 (from November 2019 to May 2020).

The program, which was launched as part of the Australian Sporting Goods Association (ASGA) Save Our Soles initiative, allowed customers to drop off their old sneakers for recycling.

The old sneakers are then turned into gym mats, retail flooring and anti-fatigue mats. 

According to ASGA, the program aims to reduce the waste created from the 25 million pairs of sports shoes imported to Australia each year. 

So far, Save Our Soles program has collected 100,000 pairs (32 tonnes) of shoes from participating retailers. 

Other key sustainability highlights for Rebel during the year include the introduction of a new display box for surf/sea products.

In partnership with its trade partner, Rebel redesigned the traditional plywood display rack to be instead made from recyclable cardboard. 

The packaging resulted in a 64% cost reduction, a 35% display area reduction and created less waste, with the rack able to be recycled at the end of its use. 

Additionally, Rebel will be the first of the Super Retail Group (SRG) brands to offer customers a new degradable gift card. 

Rebel will receive the new cards in September 2021, with the other brands set to receive their stock by December 2021. 

"Our aim is to move all gift card stock to a more environmentally friendly option over the next 12 to 18 months," SRG said in its report. 

Rebel also increased its support of women in sport in FY21, deepening its relationship with women's sporting codes throughout the year. 

"We deepened out relationship with Football Australia and the national women's team, the Matildas," Rebel said in a statement. 

"We also extended support of female professional sporting leagues and young elite athletes, presenting the following awards: 

- NRL Women's: Rebel Rookie of the Year 
- Suncorp Super Netball: Rebel Rising Star 
- WBBL (Cricket): Rebel Young Gun 
- AFLW: Rebel Young Leader." 

The awards included a cash prize and access to the Rebel Women's Mentoring Program - an online leadership and education program. 

David Jones’ profits rebounded strongly in 2021, but the turnaround may prove short lived, with lockdowns in NSW and Victoria crunching sales in the first half of 2022.

David Jones’ South African parent, Woolworths Holdings, said the department store’s adjusted operating profit soared 282 per cent to $A84 million in the 12 months ending June after it cut costs, closed its loss-making stand-alone food stores, introduced new brands, cut back on markdowns and made more targeted offers to customers.

Sales rebounded 17.1 per cent in the June half, after falling by 17 per cent in the same period last year, lifting sales for the year by 2.3 per cent. David Jones said it received $35 million in Jobkeeper subsidies in the first half.

Online sales rose 24.4 per cent to 17.3 per cent of total sales and sales in David Jones’ Elizabeth Street flagship store grew 16.6 per cent, notwithstanding the drop in foot traffic in the Sydney CBD, after major renovations were completed last year.

However, Woolworths chief executive Roy Bagattini said the retailer had been hit hard by lockdowns in NSW and Victoria after being forced to temporarily close 70 per cent of its stores.

Brett Blundy’s BBRC International has sold its 16 per cent stake in youth focused retailer Universal Store in a block trade via Morgans.

The stock was sold at $7.20 a share in an $84 million trade on Thursday morning.

Blundy’s stock was released from escrow on Wednesday, when Universal Store presented its FY21 results.

The trade piggybacked on fellow Universal Store investor Five V Capital’s sale, which happened on Wednesday night.

Morgans also did that trade at $7.20 a share, which was a premium to the last close of $7.15.

The stock is understood to have been snapped up by fund managers.

It’s big news for Universal Store, which listed in November last year and was previously owned by a syndicate of private investors including Five V and BBRC.

Between BBRC and Five V, 23 per cent of the company changed hands overnight.

The prospect of shoppers flocking back into malls when nationwide lockdowns lift is providing some relief for landlord Vicinity Centres, despite plunging retail property values pushing it to another statutory loss.

The mall giant, which owns 50 per cent of Australia’s largest shopping centre Chadstone as well as 58 other retail centres around the country, recorded a full-year net loss of $258 million after asset values took a further $642.7 million hit from the pandemic.

Still, the group’s loss was a big improvement on the previous year’s $1.8 billion deficit when revenue and retail property values fell off a cliff in the face of COVID-19 disruption.

Chief executive and managing director Grant Kelley didn’t dress up the challenges facing retailers and commercial landlords. “Financial year 2021 was an extraordinary year for Vicinity, our industry and the retail sector more broadly,” he said.

“The pandemic has had a significantly adverse impact on our business, however we are seeing some positive momentum in our financial results - especially in regard to asset valuations, which seem to be progressing towards stabilisation.”

The heightened uncertainty around the latest Delta outbreak and corresponding lockdowns in NSW and Victoria has prompted Vicinity to avoid making earnings forecasts for the next financial year.

The company only dared to venture, saying “the prospect of a sustained reopening of the Australian economy from [the] second half of financial year 2022, underpins [a] cautiously optimistic outlook.”

Despite the gloomy valuation figures, the shopping centre landlord reported a 7.4 per cent jump in funds from operations - the metric used to measure revenue that excludes lumpy property valuation movements - to $558.8 million.

Morgan Stanley analysts Simon Chan and Lauren Berry said the group’s funds from operations beat market estimates, boosted by a $75 million reversal of provisions made for the impact of COVID-19. The pair described the outlook for the next financial year as “blurry.”

Vicinity will pay a final distribution per security of 6.6¢ at the end of the month, slightly below its own expectations, but said there were “signs of stabilisation” in retail property valuations which should ease the pressure on its books.

There was also a “positive momentum and underlying resilience” from shoppers visiting and buying goods in its malls over the six months to June as the pandemic restrictions eased, however city assets like Emporium Melbourne are still struggling.

Chief operating officer Peter Huddle said total visitors to Vicinity’s malls over the financial year were down one fifth on the levels seen before the pandemic in 2019.

The average time spent inside centres by customers has also decreased but, conversely, the average spend across all the group’s malls has risen by 20 per cent, a difference Vicinity attributes to shoppers being more targeted in their spending.

Vicinity said it has improved cash collections from tenants, with 84 per cent of gross rental billings collected and 93 per cent net of waivers. Nevertheless, the company has written off 90 per cent of the $230 million it has given in financial support to retail tenants since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

Leasing deals were up across all centres during the second half of the financial year as tenants looked beyond the pandemic to shore up their positions ahead of a potential recovery, Mr Huddle said.

The company’s shares rose slightly in early afternoon trade to $1.59.

Jarden analyst Lou Pirenc said the lockdowns were likely to drive some downgrades to consensus forecasts for Vicinity, but the recovery after lockdowns should be significant and could surprise the market.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to confirm the news or provide details. “We do not comment on rumours and speculation,” she said in an email.

The e-commerce giant, which last year had $US386 billion ($540 billion) in sales, has been expanding into physical retail in recent years, opening grocery stores, book shops and specialty pop-ups around the US. Analysts say its latest foray - while unexpected - provides an opportunity to reach customers in a new way.

“More stores bolster Amazon’s whole ecosystem and flywheel,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a research and consulting firm that tracks the retail market. “They also allow Amazon to gather data and to understand consumer preferences better - understanding that can, in turn, be used to improve the whole proposition.”

Traditional department stores, he noted, have been declining for years because of a “failure of innovate and adapt.” Stores such as Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s, which made up about 15 per cent of retail sales in 1985, now account for less than 3 per cent, Saunders said.

The pandemic has created new challenges for the nation’s department stores, tipping a number of storied chains, including Neiman Marcus, JC Penney and Lord & Taylor into bankruptcy. Nearly 200 department stores have permanently closed since last year, and another 800 - or about half the country’s remaining mall-based locations - are expected to shutter by the end of 2025, according to commercial real estate firm Green Street.

But for Amazon, this could be an opportunity to shake things up: Its 30,000-square-foot department stores would be about one-third the size of a traditional mall anchor, mirroring plans by many of the country’s retailers to open smaller, more easily-accessible stores.

“If it gets rolled out in a serious way, it is very bad news for traditional department stores,” Saunders said. “The lack of innovation by traditional department stores means their defences are very weak so the last thing they need is to fend off a new invader to their space.”

Amazon’s reported expansion comes as some retail chains - having survived the financial shock unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic - mount a vigorous comeback. As many Americans work to re-configure their social lives in the second year of the pandemic, department stores are cashing in on the increased spending. The sector, which saw sales plunge more than 40 per cent early last year, is beginning to make up for some of those losses, according to monthly data from the Commerce Department.

On Thursday, the retail chain Kohl’s reported massive earnings results for the second quarter, as compared with the same period last year, during the first summer of the public health crisis. Revenue soared 31 per cent, to $US4.45 billion, as profits swelled by more than 700 per cent to $US382 million.

After exceeding expectations, the company is raising its forecast for the year. Kohl’s stock jumped more than 7 per cent in morning trading.

Macy’s, too, is drawing huge gains as customers head back to stores and fill up online shopping carts. Goods that consumers tended to avoid purchasing during the initial bout of the pandemic, such as denim, luggage and dresses, saw a resurgence this quarter, the retailer said, while items that held strong continue to sell well, like fine jewellery and perfume.

Revenue swelled 59 per cent, to $US5.65 billion, compared with the year-ago period, and the company climbed out of a $US431 million loss to generate a profit this quarter of $US345 million. Like Kohl’s, Macy’s is also raising its financial outlook, banking on the momentum of an economic recovery.

Macy’s shares surged more than 15 per cent after releasing results.

Rebel has revealed what impact lockdowns had on its full-year results. 

Capitalising on Aussies' need to exercise at home while fitness providers were closed, Rebel's sales increased by 15.3% to $1.20 billion in FY21. 

The sports retailer reported that like-for-like sales also lifted, up 17.5%, due to higher average transaction value due to more items in the basket and a higher average item value. 

Rebel reported that like-for-like sales growth was achieved in all categories, with performance sports delivering the highest growth. 

By sub-category, football, basketball, licensed apparel and kids' apparel were the fastest growing sub-categories. 

"Fitness equipment and accessories also performed well as COVID-19 lockdowns lifted at-home fitness activity," the business said in a statement. 

The Super Retail Group brand also grew its loyalty database by 13% to 3.2 million customers. 

These members represented 68% of Rebel sales during the period. 

Additionally, average club member net promoter score (NPS) increased to 59% in FY21, up from 55% in the prior comparable period. 

As expected, Rebel's online sales also grew during the period, jumping up 36% to $193 million, accounting for 16% of sales. 

Geographically, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia delivered the strongest sales growth for Rebel. 

"Gross margins increased due to lower promotional activity, sales mix to higher margin products and favourable net recovery of supply cost inflation," Rebel added. 

"Segment normalised PBT margin improved by 470bps to 13.9%," the business said. 

Rebel ended the period with 153 stores, after opening one store and closing eight during the period, 

Parent company, Super Retail Group (SRG) reported total group sales up 22% to $3.45 billion for FY21.  

Accent Group’s recent spate of acquisitions has done little to dampen a strong FY21 result, with the footwear giant delivering earnings growth despite spending millions on picking up new brands, and marking the group’s fourth consecutive year of record profits.

Sales across the group’s network of businesses, which now include Hype, Platypus, Subtype, Athlete’s Foot, The Trybe, Crèmm, and Pivot, as well as relative newcomers 4Workers, Stylerunner, Next Athleisure and Glue Store, hit $1.14 billion – a 19.9 per cent jump on a Covid-19 impacted FY20.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation jumped 19.3 per cent to $242 million, leading net profit to hit $76.9 million, up 38.6 per cent.

Chief executive Daniel Agostinelli said, given the fact the industry has been hit by 14 separate lockdowns throughout the year, it was a result the team at Accent should be proud of.

“The group’s continued focus on [our loyalty customers], vertical and virtual, along with our integrated digital and store operating model, has delivered another record profit,” Agostinelli said.

“The acquisition of the Glue Store business to form our new Accent Lifestyle division was a key highlight for the year and I couldn’t be more pleased with the quality of the business and the progress that has been made in the first 90 days.”

And though much of the country remains in lockdown, with Accent Group’s FY21-sales-to-date down 16 per cent (though, predictably, online sales jumped 66.7 per cent), the business continues to plan for growth.

The business sees opportunities to grow Glue Store, as well as the Stylerunner and Exie brands, into New Zealand and other markets in the coming years.

Newly launched Pivot will hit 15 stores by the end of 2022, while The Trybe will launch additional stores in the first half of the new financial year. Glue Store’s network is aimed to hit 60 stores by the end of 2023, though a number of leases are currently in renegotiation and may be closed based on the outcome, while Stylerunner will have 20 stores trading by early 2022 and 40 by Christmas that year.

“In the current environment our digital sales are growing strongly and we have confidence that when stores can reopen, we are well positioned to serve our customers and to continue to grow our position in the market,” Agostinelli said.

“Our portfolio of world class owned and distributed brands, integrated digital capability and large store network are core assets for the group and position the company well for strong growth into the future.”

Cotton On Group has expanded its international footprint, opening its first-ever Cotton On Body store in the US. 

The Geelong-based retail group has opened the new bricks-and-mortar location at University Mall in Utah.

"Our team have hit this one out of the park and we’re so excited to see what they do next for each other and our customer," Cotton On Group (COG) said in a statement. 

"Proudly extending the brand to a new customer, empowering everyone who walks in the door to live life their way and to show up for themselves and each other, every single day," COG said. 

The opening of the Utah Cotton On Body store follows the official launch of Cotton On in the UK in May this year. 

Since the launch of Typo in the UK in 2016, the Group has opened 29 stores and built a strong online presence, which it expanded with the introduction of Cotton On to the online store.

COG sells its eight brands through 1,300 stores across 20 countries. 

The fashion industry is calling on the government to create a level playing field for workers in the garment manufacturing sector, akin to recent changes for those in the construction industry.

With the tightest restrictions currently in place in southwest Sydney – where most NSW factories are located – those brands choosing to manufacture here are unable to keep production flow moving, and the largely female workforce is unable to go to work in neighbouring suburbs.

“The workforce is predominantly women who are supporting families, and this work can’t be done at home,” Mary Lou Ryan of Bassike said. “The local garment industry is really fragile anyway – any pressure could cause the ­industry to collapse.

“We are made in Australia and we are operating our business in the most Covid-safe way. We’re also very conscious that any collapse in the industry will force Australian brands to go offshore, and once they go offshore, it’s very difficult for them to come back.”

Last year, the pandemic highlighted Australia’s reliance on global supply chains and prompted federal and state governments to champion a return to onshore manufacturing. This was also pertinent to the local fashion industry.

“Last year, it was very clear we needed to start onshoring more manufacturing, so why not support that now?” Ryan said.

She said currently warehouses could operate as normal, meaning those brands manufacturing offshore could have product shipped to Australia, stored and dispatched to customers “but we can’t continue to make our products”.

Leila Naja Hibri, chief executive of the Australian Fashion Council, believes the Australian fashion industry is being “inadvertently discriminated against” compared with male-dominated industries such as construction.

“We’re not asking for much. We want the rules applying to warehousing and construction to apply to our industry as well,” she said. “We’re ready to do what needs to be done.”

Those rules now applying to construction include the ability for workers to move between suburbs from home to workplace once they have received both vaccin­ations, or one vaccination and a waiting period of three weeks or regular testing.

A recent EY report on the ­Australian fashion industry showed local manufacturing, while a small part of the overall $27bn industry, was valued at $1.5bn and tapped as an area for significant growth. Garment manufacturing employs more than 27,000 people, 74 per cent of whom are women.

Kathmandu Holdings has appointed a new CEO for Rip Curl, promoting long-serving executive Brooke Farris to the role. 

Farris takes the reins after former Rip Curl CEO Michael Daly was appointed to Group CEO and MD of Kathmandu Holdings, following Xavier Simonet's departure. 

Farris moves up to CEO after serving more than 10 years at the surfwear brand, in a range of roles including marketing manager, GM of digital and her current role, GM of women's. 

Speaking on Farris' appointment, Daly said she was the ideal candidate for the role. 

"After a thorough search process, involving both internal and external potential candidates, I am delighted to announce that Brooke Farris will be the new CEO of Rip Curl.

"Brooke has contributed greatly to Rip Curl’s success and growth over the past 11 years with her indisputable commitment to the brand, our product, and our crew.

"I am confident she will bring this same commitment and leadership in her new role. Congratulations Brooke," he said. 

Farris takes up the position as Rip Curl experiences solid growth, with a June trading update revealing that the brand is sustaining sales despite the challenges of the pandemic. 

Kathmandu Holdings reported that Rip Curl's wholesale channel was proving to be a strong performer for the brand, with FY22 wholesale orders for Rip Curl showing double-digit growth over FY19. 

Additionally, Rip Curl's direct to consumer sales in Europe and North America were staying above pre-COVID levels. 

Farris said that she was proud to take up the role. 

"Rip Curl has been threaded throughout my life since I was a teen.

"I’m honoured to be announced as the new CEO.

"It’s an absolute privilege to lead our talented and passionate crew across the world and I’m motivated to build on our esteemed 52-year history and capitalise on our continued market success," she said. 

Farris will assume the role of CEO on August 16 2021. 

Mike Ashley, the owner of Frasers Group, is reportedly preparing to step down as chief executive of his retail empire.

Ashley is expected to assume the role of deputy chairman of Frasers Group in an announcement that could come as soon as Thursday. alongside the company’s annual result, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The media outlet said Frasers Group's head of elevation, Michael Murray, could step into the role of group CEO.

Drapers has contacted Frasers Group for comment.

Retail sales and rent growth will slow and fewer new stores will open over the next decade as retailers and property owners respond to a drop in population growth triggered by the pandemic and review forecasts for less long-term population growth.

Demand for retail floorspace from population growth alone has averaged about 750,000 square metres a year since 2006, equivalent to five Chadstone shopping centres and including about 40 new supermarkets annually, according to a report by network planning company GapMaps Advisory.

GapMaps head Tony Dimasi said the drop in population growth and immigration during the pandemic and a reduction in forecast long-term population growth would have a significant impact on demand for retail floor space, rental growth, retail sales growth and growth opportunities for retailers.

“The retail sector has been very strong for two decades and the single most important thing that’s driven that is population growth,” Mr Dimasi told The Australian Financial Review.

Population growth is forecast to fall to about 0.1 per cent in 2020-21, 0.2 per cent in 2021-22 and 0.8 per cent in 2022-23 – down from 1.2 per cent in 2019-20 – according to the budget papers. Australia’s population will be about 25.88 million by the end of 2022, more than 1 million less than the 26.98 million forecast in the 2019-20 budget.

According to the government’s fifth Intergenerational Report in June, Australia’s population is likely to grow to 38.8 million by 2060-61, 3 million fewer than the previous estimate, due mainly to a drop in net overseas migration.

“If [the intergenerational report forecasts] are correct and we do end up seeing roughly 1.8 million fewer people by 2040 and close to 3 million fewer by 2060 than we would have otherwise, that certainly has significant implications [for retail floor space demand],” Mr Dimasi said.

“The rough rule of thumb is we have two square metres of retail space per person [so] 2 million fewer people means about 4 million square metres less in retail floor space needed.”

Shift to online shopping

That is equivalent to almost 27 Chadstone shopping centres of retail floor space.

“There will be generally less floor space built than we’ve seen in the last two decades,” he said.

Growth in retail rents was also likely to be slower than it had been over the past two decades, due in part to the shift to online shopping, which accelerated during the pandemic and is expected to continue to outpace bricks and mortar sales growth.

“Because we have low inflation and we’ll have more moderate sales growth as a result of lower population growth for the next two to three years, I fully expect there will be very modest rental growth over the next two to five years,” Mr Dimasi said.

The veteran retail and property adviser, who has been in the industry for almost 40 years, expects retail sales growth, which has averaged 4 to 5 per cent per annum over the past two decades, to slow by one or two percentage points a year over the next decade.

Food retailers are reviewing plans for new supermarkets and convenience stores in response to the drop in immigration during the pandemic and the step-change in online grocery sales.

Coles chief executive Steven Cain warned in February that the food and grocery sector might struggle to achieve the sales growth it once enjoyed because immigration, which historically generated a third of annual growth, was likely to remain low.

However, Mr Dimasi said there were few signs that retailers and property owners were scaling back expansion plans.

“They are looking past the short-term noise and looking at where the opportunities are for their particular business,” he said.

Mr Dimasi is sceptical about many of the forecasts in the 2021 Intergenerational Report, pointing out that Australia’s current population of 25.7 million is almost 3 million greater than was projected at this point in the 2002 report.

“The reality is that immigration levels have varied enormously and continue to do so – we should not necessarily be taking these kinds of projections at face value,” he said.

“I wonder whether governments of any persuasion will be able to sit by and let it happen given how important population growth has been to our economy and how critical net immigration has been to population growth – my expectation is initiatives will be taken to change the situation.”

Nick Scali has doubled its profit in the last year, with NPAT reaching $84.2 million, due to a pick up in online sales and relevance in New Zealand.

During FY21 the business was able to cut its expenses as a percentage of sales, while also increasing total revenue by 42 per cent to $373 million and gross margin by 80 basis points.

“The most pleasing aspect of our of FY21 result,” said managing director Anthony Scali, “was the ability of our distribution network across Australia and New Zealand to deliver the materially elevated sales revenue whilst maintaining the same level of costs as FY20.”

Sales in New Zealand also grew 95 per cent during the period, and same store sales grew 40 per cent, while overall online sales grew 510 per cent from $3.3 million in FY20 to $18.3 million.

And, looking at the year ahead, Nick Scali is positive despite the initial setbacks experienced in July 2021 by the lockdowns spread throughout Sydney, Victoria, and South Australia.

Future growth is expected to come from an increasingly accelerated store rollout and online penetration, with online having growth 88 per cent during July compared to the same period of last year.

But, like most businesses trading in the retail space right now, Nick Scali won’t provide profit guidance for the first half of FY22 given the level of uncertainty present in the worsening situation in Sydney.

This is due to the threat posed by the current lockdown, as well as potential future lockdowns, challenges to the global supply chain, as well as the “continuing escalation of global shipping costs”, Nick Scali said.

• Retail turnover fell 1.8% in June, thanks to a collapse in discretionary spending linked to lockdown restrictions.
• Lingering lockdowns suggest Australia’s economy is on track to fall by 2% in the September quarter, said Sarah Hunter, Chief Australia Economist for BIS Oxford Economics.
• Spending is unlikely to bounce back unless retailers receive further government support, industry groups say.

The collapse in retail spending for June is more evidence Australia’s GDP will contract in the September quarter, economists say, as industry groups say there’s no guarantee of a spending snap-back once harsh lockdown measures are lifted.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday released its detailed June retail turnover data, confirming preliminary estimates of a 1.8% decline over the month to $30.59 billion.

Clothing, footwear, and personal accessories took the largest tumble, recording a fall of 9.5% over the month, followed by department store turnover, which sunk by 7%.

Cafe and restaurants also dipped by 6%, with the main outlier being food retail, which rose 1.5% from May levels.

The data reflects the impact of widespread COVID-19 lockdowns in major centres across the country, which continued to constrain movement and spending a year and a half after the pandemic first hit Australia.

Victoria recorded the sharpest declines in spending, falling 4% over the month. That downturn is linked to the state’s fourth lockdown, which started in late May and stretched through to June 8.

New South Wales recorded the second most precipitous fall, down 2%, largely due to the lockdown measures which first impacted local government areas in south-west Sydney before spreading to the entire Greater Sydney region on June 26.

Those retail sale figures are a grim portent, said Sarah Hunter, Chief Australia Economist for BIS Oxford Economics.

“As the data largely predate impact of the current restrictions in NSW and Queensland, and the snap lockdowns and ongoing restrictions in South Australia and Victoria, the near term outlook is challenging,” she said.

“Retail turnover in July is set to record a sharp drop, with only a partial recovery likely for August.”

Combined with other limitations caused by the Greater Sydney lockdown, Hunter said the national economy is slated to shrink through the September quarter.

“Together with a pronounced fall in household spending on other services (travel, personal care etc) and the pause in construction in NSW, GDP is likely to contract by around 2% in the September quarter,” she said.

Fears for an extended spending downturn were echoed by Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra, who said the June figures are “just the tip of the iceberg”, given the most recent Victorian lockdown, plus July restrictions in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and more recently in south-east Queensland.

In June, the Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Luci Ellis said, “timely data on spending suggest that the snap-back after the shorter lockdowns imposed in parts of Australia this year has been almost immediate.”

Zahra today indicated he had little faith in the same uptick occurring again, unless even more financial supports are provided to struggling firms.

“Without adequate support after lockdowns are lifted, it is unlikely that businesses will snap back as they have previously and we fear the worst is still to come,” Zahra said.

Despite the June downturn, the latest ABS data suggests spending grew 0.8% over the quarter, and was 2.9% higher than the same period in 2020, when Australia experienced its first tranche of hardcore lockdowns.

Accent Group has opened the doors of its 150th Platypus store in Karrinyup, WA.

The 600m² 'Super Door' store is a key destination for Accent, housing 1,300 SKUs across brands including Vans, Adidas, Puma, Doc Martens and Nike. 

Key customer experience highlights in the store include a shoe recycling station called 'Imprint > Footprint.'

The station is kitted out with a basketball hoop so customers can ‘make their next shot count’ by dunking shoes through the hoop into the recycling box. 

Platypus GM Armando Pedruco said that the brand's bricks-and-mortar success comes from its enthusiastic store teams. 

"We are the go-to brand for youth footwear, but Platypus is much more than that and we want all Australians and New Zealanders to think Platypus when they’re looking for a shoe for any occasion.

"We’re striving to bring the magic back to bricks-and-mortar retail through exceptional in-store customer experience and innovative services. 

"Our strength lies in our passionate in-store teams who play a vital role in the growth of Platypus," he said. 

While celebrating the 150th store milestone, Platypus has its sights set on further growth, with plans to grow to 250 stores within the next three to five years. 

Regional locations will play a key part in the next phase of growth and is "key to its success in the years to come," the brand said in a statement. 

Accent Group acquired Platypus in 2007 when the brand had 11 stores across Australia.

Since then, the brand has also expanded into New Zealand with store and eCommerce and has launched several omnichannel capabilities including endless aisle, click and dispatch and click and collect. 

Platypus is one of Accent's leading retail brands which includes Hype DC, Stylerunner and the newly acquired Glue Store. 

In 2019, Rihanna became the richest woman in the world of the music industry, with only 32 years she minted a fortune of 600 million dollars, even surpassing other greats such as Madonna, Céline Dion and Beyoncé . This rapid jump was due to her new facet as an entrepreneur, either in partnership with the French luxury goods company LVMH with whom she launched the Fenty Beauty makeup line, and as co-owner of the Savage X Fenty lingerie line in partnership with TechStyle Fashion Group.

How is it that a singer could become a great entrepreneur (and also well diversified) of beauty? Why not? Today we will discover the three secrets of Riri's business success.

1. Create, design and join the change that your market is crying out for

In a world where 91% of women are not happy with their bodies and where only 5% naturally possess the beauty standard shown in the media, the feeling that our body is out of the mold can be very common in women. women.

Even so, until 2018 we had lingerie shows like Victoria's Secret where the lack of diversity of body types, sizes and proportions no longer excited as a show and although there were some efforts to change, it seems that it was not enough. And then in 2018, Rihanna launched her first line of lingerie clothing with a clear statement expected by many: No matter what you are, Savage x Fenty is for you.

Filling gaps in the industry was presented as a game-changer in representation and diversity , we no longer need our curves to adapt to a lingerie, now she adapts to us, we can already find color palettes that better match our tone of skin, what now responds to the expectation of a new woman who is accepted is reflected in the success in business of Savage x Fenty. Under the mantra that Riri herself shared at the launch "no woman should be left out, this is for all stages of femininity and all body types", with this exercise in cultural affinity in 2019 being only her second year of operations, she obtained sales of $ 150 million and in 2020 its sales doubled according to Forbes .

On the other hand, Victoria's Secret does not have such a good time: it canceled its lingerie shows that were televised, which incidentally for Ed Razek, its Chief Marketing Officer, were functions that sold a fantasy, and in recent years they have continued to close stores due to lower sales and their shares fell by as much as 40 percent.

2. If lemons fall from the sky, learn how to make lemonade

“Having lighter skin was not a problem at home, but it was at school. I didn't understand it. I only saw a lot of people of different colors and I was the whitest. The harassment continued until my last day there. ”Rihanna confessed when she made public that she was a victim of bullying at school. Like her, many African-American women or women with skin disorders (such as vitiligo, albinism, among others) did not feel identified on the shelves of cosmetics stores, nor did they feel considered as consumers.

At the end of 2017 Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty and it seems that at night inclusivity and diversity was the most in the world of beauty, although without being the first or the only one in this innovation, it seems that other players cannot replicate it, Not surprisingly, Fenty Beauty was recognized as one of the Greatest Inventions of 2017 by Time Magazine, for its balance between quality and price, as well as its inclusiveness rather than exclusivity.

Contrary to what other brands would do, Fenty Beauty launched 40 foundation shades, of which precisely the first to be sold out online and in stores were the deeper shades, which were the shades that empathize with neglected niches.

Thus, Rihanna channeled the empathy and emotionality that she experienced when she suffered bullying towards this market segment to launch her makeup line, something very similar to the story of Madame CJ Walker portrayed in the Netflix series A self-made woman .

Getting a brand to make so many women feel represented and included in one brand marked another success for Rihanna as she targeted a highly underserved segment that she was eager to consume, according to WWD Reports African American women spend $ 7.5 billion annually on cosmetics, 80% more than the rest (1.5 billion). Which made Fenty Beauty the business that made him the greatest fortune outside of music.

3. Break the mold of the traditional that your competition is not willing to break

How does a startup stand out in an extremely competitive $ 532 billion market? One thing is for sure: they cannot do what others do and that is precisely what Rihanna has characterized herself for even before she was a businesswoman.

With a business vision that seems more like a statement of equality: "Beauty for all", the Marketing approach they took was "show it, don't say it", so much so that not once was the word "inclusive" used in brand messages. Its commercial presentation showed 12 different women, each one equally exposed in close-up time and starring in different parts of the campaign alike, without supermodels, without influencers and with no indication that Fenty Beauty has room for the standard model of perfect beauty.

The diversity of the color palette was another way to show the “Beauty for all”, Fenty Beauty surpassed the majority of the best-selling foundation offer in 2017 in the United States; only Estée Lauder and Maybelline offered comparable deep shades at the time. Fenty Beauty even went so far as to offer lighter and very light options than any of the best sellers. So much so that the term "Fenty Effect" was coined as a wake-up call to the entire industry to go further and challenge the status quo, causing a chain reaction that other brands adopted when expanding their makeup lines.

Since the beginning of Rihanna's Fenty Empire, many women have been proud on social media wearing real and authentic beauty; from a woman wearing hijab to a mixed-race woman who no longer needs to mix shades to get to the one that suits her best. I encourage you to apply some of these inclusive marketing practical lessons in your business by helping to create or share authentic stories that are rooted in the culture of your market and that are emotionally meaningful to the customers you serve.

Online retail sales accelerated 7.6 per cent in June, following a rebound in May from a down-note in April, according to NAB’s monthly online retail sales index.

In year-on-year terms the acceleration pushed June’s growth back into double digits, landing 18.1 per cent higher than a year prior.

According to NAB chief economist Alan Oster, this is indicative of the “considerable strength” of online sales during the month, given June 2020 was already 53 per cent higher than June 2019.

“Given the patterns observed over the past year, it is likely that this result has been strongly influenced by the lockdown period,” Oster said.

“Having said that, online sales growth accelerated in states and territories with and without lockdown in the month.”

Victoria led the sales growth on a month-by-month basis, up about 11 per cent, followed by the ACT, NSW, and South Australia.

And, in terms of industries, department stores saw 12 per cent growth during the month, while homewares grew just shy of 10 per cent and grocery and fashion each grew almost 9 per cent.

Online sales had begun ‘slowing’ in April, due to being compared to the initial spike in e-commerce sales during 2020, but as Australia continued struggling with the Covid-19 outbreak sales have picked back up.