Ann: December 2021 Quarterly Update and Appendix 4C, page-13

I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but this is a striking feature of how the business is now being managed more efficiently than hitherto. At end December 2019 and 2020, inventory of pearls was 156k and 152k respectively. That was equivalent to 31% and 27% of annual sales in FYs 2020 and 2021 resp. At end December 2021, inventory had been reduced to 72k, which will be roughly 12% of FY sales this year. That means that current assets are being monetised much more efficiently, instead of bearing storage costs etc. I imagine this is the consequence of having online auctions, which means inventory of finished goods can be sold much more quickly.