Temple & Webster shares are being penalized as January sales fall
Shares in millennial-focused furniture retailer Temple & Webster fell 20 percent on Tuesday morning after the company announced a fall in sales in January and a drop in active customers for the six months to December.
The company’s chief executive officer, Mark Coulter, told investors when announcing the company’s half-year results on Tuesday that even in a challenging market, the company still has long-term growth opportunities due to the longer-term shift to online retail.
Mark Coulter said the company is still on track to achieve earnings growth of between 3 percent and 5 percent. Credit:Oscar Coleman
The company reported net income after taxes of $3.8 million for the six months ended December, down 46.7 percent from the same point in 2022 when sales were strong due to the ongoing COVID-fuelled online onslaught was.
The company confirmed in a trading update for the first five weeks of this calendar year that sales were down 7 percent, although December sales were slightly above last year’s.
Coulter was keen to emphasize that the company’s longer-term growth opportunities remain intact.
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“We believe our business model, customer metrics, brand and new growth horizons position us well to weather any trading conditions and return to a high-growth business,” he said.
But investors had been watching closely for signs of a slowdown in consumer spending, reacting strongly to the trade update and the fact that Temple & Webster’s active customer base fell 11 percent in the six months to December, from 940,000 to 840,000 during the half.
Shares were down 20 percent to $3.96 as of 11:30 a.m.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/temple-and-webster-shares-punished-as-january-sales-decline-20230214-p5ck9j.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_business Temple & Webster shares are being penalized as January sales fall
