Fires, Flood, Covid and the Future

There are negatives re what is going on now and no company is perfect and clearly Oliver's is not. However it may be worthwhile to look at a slightly different perspective.

I feel for those shareholders who have bought in higher and if sold now, it would be at a loss. I am one of those shareholders. However, lets look at the facts and apologies if i may be out slightly with some figures.

In February 2019 Olivers hit rock bottom. Share prices went down to 1.9c and the business was a disaster and nearly collapsed. Even though removed at the time, Jason Gunn had an early hand in that disaster (maybe due to lack of experience and over exuberance) but not so much the latter parts. Still, after mass resignations, Gunn put a team together and saved the business. Without him, we would likely have all lost our investments and Olivers would be no more and no need for posts like this.

The share price continued to rise and was at around 4.7c at the agm on 29/11/19. It continued to rise to a high of around 10c in Jan 2020, despite the bushfires and business not being as good as it could have been without fires disruption.

Then floods then hit the Wyong main stores which would have put a dent in sales.

Then came the offer from EG which sadly fell through but the market liked the business arrangement that came from this. EG are not fools and clearly saw and continue to see the benefits of being associated with Oliver's. We may have opinions however clearly EG have the business acumen.

Then came covid.

Clearly there was nothing the company could do about fires, flood and covid and it may not be wise to direct frustration and anger exclusive at the company when clearly these are major factors beyond management control.

The share price, with lockdowns easing and the EG deal rolling out, rose to a high of around 10c in November with lockdowns easing.

Then came the Avalon cluster and borders shut again. Once again, Olivers did not cause this. The share price has dropped but held up somewhat.

Yes, it may have been good to be informed of store closures however we do not know the logic behind this. Also, each release to the ASX costs significantly.

Which bring me to here and now. There are so many negative messages positions on this forum. I agree with some sentiments expressed. We would all like things to be better.

If there are down rampers here for whatever reason, unfortunately, the overly negative commentary after awhile simply loses credibility.

In my humble opinion, despite their faults,( of which we all have many), it is important to give management an opportunity to see what they can do over a period of 12 months hopefully without natural disasters. Else it could be regarded as judgment made unfairly.

Let's be clear, if Jason Gunn had not come back, put a team together then Olivers would highly likely not be here today and we would likely have zero return on investment. He and the team deserve some credit for that and last year the share price reflected that before fires, flood and covid.

Then, this year, after the disaster of covid, the share price rose in November before the business being knocked around by closures during the busiest period. Once again, management had nothing to do with that.

Personally, after a hugely difficult year, I think they have done a reasonable job to keep the business going. Sadly, many other business have gone under. Perhaps whilst giving criticism where warranted, it may be wise to balance this with some credit where credit is due.

The decision to have Victorians locked out of their own state on New Years Eve is a decision that can be argued to be excessive and hopefully governments will behave with a little more common sense as per the NSW model.

Thank you and may 2021, with what is increasingly looking like covid will bemoved more under control, clusters being controlled and a vaccine for those whowant it moving in, that we may hopefully have a better year benefitted by a lack of international outward flights and more local holidaying ( If there is more certainly, people will likely take more holidays and this is being promoted) and then we canjudge management for a normal year rather than judge them for one full ofnatural disasters beyond their control.. Good luck to you all and awonderful day to you.