Ann: Appendix 4E, Annual Report and Financial Statements, page-18

Hi Marsc

re: your graph. 2009 and 2010 Australian sales revenues benefited from the acquisitions of Thule and Kingsley - in your "hump" - so the graph doesn't really show underlying growth rates in Australia over the period.

what your graph does show nicely though is the rate of growth in Australian sales from 2012-17, which I would characterise as on the low side.

It is noticeable too, I think, that ARB actually provide pretty low (poor?) disclosure on the performance of the Australian retail network. For example, they don't publish info on LFL sales, the floor area of stores(so we could assess retail efficiency), nor how much investment has gone into that network, nor ROI from this investment, number of SKUs, nor anything on customer wait times, market shares, etc. I know they're not a retailer, but selling is important, and they could disclose more and or include richer commentary reflecting their own analysis of that data. This level of disclosure makes it harder to assess the performance of the Australian retail arm. (I also had some contrary feedback from participants - but I wouldn't say it was esp. reliable and I much prefer data/facts to opinions.)

All we can do is look at sales growth from a distance and with limited information - and from that not especially good vantage point - I maintain my view that ARB's retailing skills might not be maximising the opportunity given to them by their product/brand strengths and reasonable tailwinds etc.

GLAH