Reporting season across the retail, food & beverages sector is likely to highlight the resilience of profit margins for FY24e, despite weak sales. The strength of margins is a function steady gross margins and cost reductions. While good news, consensus expectations already reflect this outcome. We are above consensus on Inghams and Woolworths and below on Lovisa for FY24e EPS. We expect trading updates to influence share prices meaningfully with the risk that FY25e consensus needs to be downgraded for many. We are below FY25e consensus on Bapcor, Premier Investments, Super Retail Group and Wesfarmers.

The spike in spot sea-freight rates is likely to remain topical over the next few months and add to concerns about retail profit margins in FY25e. Our feedback is that spot sea freight rates for Australian importers are now close to 3x the low point seen only 12 months ago. The good news is many retailers have 12-month contracts. The bad news is that it looks like a step-up in freight rates is coming either way as we move through FY25e and adds risk to earnings. The retailers most exposed to higher sea freight rates are Nick Scali, Wesfarmers and Super Retail Group.

We have written a detailed report on Lovisa, a global, affordable, fast fashion jewellery retailer with a strong growth opportunity. We forecast the store network to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15% over the next four years with stores in existing and new markets. EBIT is forecast to grow at 23% annually over four years in our base case. 

We initiate coverage on Breville group, a global kitchen appliance developer that has achieved very strong sales growth in recent years, particularly in the coffee category. After a soft FY24e, we expect solid sales growth to resume in FY25e and beyond with household penetration, new markets and new products all supporting sales growth of 6%-9%. While gross margins should also expand, the company will need to invest in advertising and product development to sustain momentum.

Australian retail sales rose 1.2% for January 2024. Half of retail categories were in decline, including notable declines in furniture, electronics, footwear and recreational goods over the month. Trading updates from a number retailers highlight stabilisation in sales trends, but at a weak level of growth. We expect subdued sales trends to persist over the next four months.

City Chic’s 1H24 EBITDA was at the top end of the guidance range given in late January 2024.  While losses are starting to reduce and gross margins improve, the sales base is much smaller. We expect sales to stabilise around May 2024 and anticipate noticeable gross margin improvements. City Chic also outlined a range of cost saving measures to restore profitability that will show through in 2H24e.

Coles 1H24 results revealed a tight control on costs in its Supermarkets division and some easing of the headwind in stock loss. The retailer has started 2H24e strongly in its Supermarket business. While some of the momentum is likely to ease off, Coles should achieve market share gains in 2H24e. We also see further improvement in stock loss driving underlying EBIT higher in 2H24e.

Woolworths 1H24 EBIT growth of 3% revealed a stark contrast amongst its divisions, with Australian Food EBIT up 10%, but NZ earnings down 41% and Big W down 60%. The challenge for the company is that its Australian Food sales are slowing rapidly. We also expect the outsized contribution from eCommerce and Digital & Data to moderate. The concern is lower food inflation crimping Food segment margins and a lower profit margin for Big W. With a change of CEO and weaker food inflation outlook, we expect the earnings outlook on the company to be moderated.

Inghams reported 1H24 sales up 9%, gross profit up 32% and EBITDA (pre AASB-16) up 66%. The impressive result needs to be put in context given weak margins in the prior year. We expect EBITDA growth of 16% in 2H24e, with a slightly higher than usual skew of earnings to first-half as volume growth slows. We expect a smaller 6% increase in EBITDA for FY25e, largely driven by lower feed costs. Inghams good growth in FY24e EBITDA will be partly dented at EPS by a higher effective tax rate at 29%, previously 23%.  

Wesfarmers reported 1% sales growth and 2% EBIT growth for 1H24. The result revealed meaningful growth from Kmart and a large decline in WesCEF. Bunnings EBIT rose by 0.4%. The primary drivers of the result were improved gross profit margins and a tight control on costs given high underlying cost inflation. For WesCEF, reduced prices in ammonia and lithium will result in a difficult 2H24e. Kmart is at peak margins and ongoing cost pressures will limit margin expansion across retail in our view.