I'm wondering too what happened to the DC, perhaps its impact...

I'm wondering too what happened to the DC, perhaps its impact compensated for other conditions that moved unfavorably for TRS, such as the falling AUD over the period which could also act to increase the cost of sales. But well spotted. It could have been a dud deal for some reason. DC is still new though. There could be more efficiencies to be squeezed out of it too. Hopefully, management applies some thought to this.

It's still pretty competitive out there in discount retail. Aldi & Kmart are pretty hard to beat, more buying power and Aldi is selling knock-off brands, so not competing on a level playing field. I would say this result is taking the fight to them though.

As suggested by another, buying Cheap as Chips might be a good move, adding another 42 stores to the network, taking it to 392, nearly double the Kmart network. Given that Cheap as Chips is owned privately, they might be able to get a good deal for shareholders, private companies generally trade at a discount to publically listed companies, so when acquired by a publically listed company, the acquired business gets a valuation boost, which helps to offset the goodwill that must be paid to incentivise the transaction.