No real substance in the article but then again most financial...

No real substance in the article but then again most financial news has little - more of a mechanism to generate ideas.

This seems a very good investment thematic. While 'traditional retail' has experienced diminishing utility in Australia it seems to be increasing in China and other developing countries at a decent clip.

It is important to remember that investing in a developing country and a developed country are very different. I view the supply of consumer durables in China as a strong growth area, as such I would expect margins to be generally higher than Australian retailers.

I am not investing in retail in Australia as other areas are showing stronger tailwinds but China is a different story.

As an investor I would be watching the growth of fixed costs as a percentage of revenue and NPAT. This will inevitably increase as SBB moves towards a direct to consumer approach and this creates risks as someone noted earlier Billabong is a good example.

If this is a scam hats off to the orchestrators well played.