Endeavour’s share price has dropped 10% in the past quarter. Our take is the share market is concerned about the outlook for liquor industry demand and the transition to a new CEO. We address the liquor industry outlook in this report and find that the weakness in sales is more a function of the COVID-19 spike in demand than a structural concern. We expect retail liquor sales to improve meaningfully by June 2025 and support better earnings for Endeavour.
Inghams reported FY24 EBITDA of $240 million pre AASB-16, growth of 29% (on 52-week basis). While the result was good, second-half earnings growth was soft and the company revealed that Woolworths will cut back volumes with Inghams to diversify its supplier risk. We expect Woolworths’ FY25e volumes will fall 10%-20% with Inghams. Lower feed costs are a strong tailwind for FY25e and should offset much of the headwind from lower Woolworths volumes.
Domino’s reported network sales down 4% and EBIT down 21% in 1H23. The worrying sign near-term is weak same store sales growth (SSSg) trends persisted into 2H23e and the company has seen a volume reaction to its price rises, limiting its much-needed improvement in system profitability. Our primary concern is the deterioration of franchisee profitability which is trending 30% below recent peaks and at a level that will discourage new store openings.