New Zealand's biggest retailer The Warehouse has made a solid profit, despite flat sales growth.
The Warehouse net annual profit rose 12 percent to $22.9m. Photo: Supplied
Net profit rose 12 percent to $22.9 million in the 12 months to July, which included a $25.6m writedown in the value of subsidiary Torpedo7 and $8m in restructuring costs.
Chair Joan Withers said the company had delivered an encouraging result in a challenging year.
"We began a transformation programme to accelerate our strategy, made a major change to our operations with the move to everyday low pricing in the core The Warehouse business, and continued to integrate our businesses across the Group."
Total group sales rose just 0.5 percent to $3 billion, reflecting a 2.5 percent drop in Red Shed sales to $1.7b.
That drop followed a change to an everyday low pricing policy, which helped boost the retail chain's gross profit margin by nearly 7 percent.
The other big contributor, Noel Leeming, saw annual revenue growth of nearly 9 percent and the group's online sales rose almost 7 percent.
The company held back from making any forecasts for the current year until the end of the second quarter and after the Christmas-New Year period.
