The Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL) share price fell nearly 11% on Wednesday after giving its trading update for the first 16 weeks of FY19 and announcing there will be a new CEO. Super Retail Group is a retail business which operates Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF and Macpac.
Trading update:
The company revealed that Supercheap Auto grew sales by 4.1%, with like for like (LFL) sales growth of 3.1%. Rebel’s sales were up 4% and it achieved LFL growth of 2.4%. BCF sales increased by 1.7% and it increased LFL sales by 2.4%. Super Retail is in the process of integrating Rays into the Macpac business and converting Rays stores into Macpac ones. Macpac reported sales growth of 17.6% and LFL sales growth of 8.4%. However, current Super Retail CEO Peter Birtles warned conditions may be getting harder: “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 balancing sales and managing margin as we move into the major trading period of the year.”
New CEO and Managing Director
CEO & MD Peter Birtles will retire in the second quarter of the calendar year. Chairperson Sally Pitkin said: “The Board and Peter have been engaged in ongoing discussions about succession planning for some time and we agree now is the appropriate time to announce Peter’s intention to retire from Super Retail Group in 2019.” Super Retail recently reported profit growth of 26% in its FY18 result.
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