Ann: Half Year Results Media Release, page-3

Not a great result, but I didn't spot any surprises either that weren't already accounted for in previous releases.

I'm still bullish (or blindly optimistic - am not an economist) longterm for a few reasons:

• Kmart's reign as the 'Rome of Retail' is over IMO, which hopefully will see more people come back to TRS. Plenty of people used to go exclusively to Kmart, but since they've gone and made 80% of the store women's clothes, people are headed back to shops like BigW and TRS.
• TRS finally stocks things I want to buy, where as before it was extremely .... stuff I would want to hide whenever I had visitors. This has changed to quality stuff, and it shows in the fact there is a steady stream of customers whenever I go into their stores now.
• TRS has enough savings to trial new ideas before it goes under AND they are currently trialing the new ideas, not sitting on their hands waiting for the inevitable like other companies (Toys R Us, GAP, etc all come to mind).
• New businesses - in particular I like the CardFactory partnership, and can see the storage solutions being great for business (think Howard's Storage World but for 10% of the price, it is all of a sudden viable).
• They say in their report that WA and Qld aren't making money due to their isolation, can't they cut these stores and reduce losses? Would love to see a geographical breakdown of profitable vs. unprofitable stores. I bet Allensford has a breakdown.
• For whatever reason, Sep through Nov were terrible months, but it appears these may have been isolated?
• If Allensford (aka professional money makers) are interested in TRS, then obv it isn't a lost cause and there must be a relatively simple way to turn these around and start making good money again. Maybe simple case of new board & CEO?

To Mr. Ross Sudano: You have hit the magical 350 stores, now please close unprofitable stores! Get rid of WA / remote QLD stores that you've mentioned in your report as dragging down the business!