It was a kneejerk reaction no doubt, but the 10% plus slide in the price of Super Retail Group shares yesterday almost took them into correction territory in one go (a fall of 10% or more from the most recent peak).
But they are now firmly in bear territory.
The tumble happened after 13-year CEO, Peter Birtles announced his retirement – the shares ended down 10.9% at 8.83%. That left them down 8% for the past five days. he will step down in the second quarter of 2019.
Super Cheap shares peaked at $10.44 in early August (like so many other stocks) and yesterday’s close left them down more than 21% and in fact in bear territory (a fall of 20% or more from the most recent peak)
The share fall still left the company shares up 0.8% for the year to date.
There was clearly no immediate internal candidate because the company announced it was starting a search for a new CEO.
In a market update yesterday the company says it’s made a solid start to the year with all businesses delivering positive like for like (same store) growth.
In the 16 weeks to October 20, Supercheap Auto reported like-for-like sales of 3.1%, Rebel 2%, BCF 2.4% and outdoor clothing group Macpac 8.4%.
“There are some signs that the retail consumer is being more cautious so it will be very important that our businesses get the balance right between driving sales and managing margin as we move into the major trading period of the year,” Mr. Birtles said in the update.
Super Retail reported a 26% rise in full-year profit of $128.3 million. Revenue was up 4.2% to $2.57 billion.
Super Cheap owns the Rebel, BCF and Super Cheap Auto chains and is now trying to position itself for growth from digital channels rather than its bricks and mortar stores.
