I've been waiting for Sudano's summary of Q1FY18 trading and it...

I've been waiting for Sudano's summary of Q1FY18 trading and it ain't pretty! I'm not a holder but thought TRS to be a worthwhile turnaround story, not so.My prediction: Unless Xmas is an absolute blinder Sudano should fall on his sword. His strategy isn't working, the numbers say so.

For starters, he's prepping us for a fall in NPAT for 1H18 of between 2.86% and 8.6% - strategy working?
(2) Comparable sales are down 2.1% in Q1 of FY18. Q1 sales for last year were up 0.3% and the previous year they were up 6.1%...is there a trend here? Strategy working?
(3) What about boosting sales by new store openings? In 1hFY17 (last year) they had 8 new store openings and 3 relocations. So far this half year we have a very muted 4 new stores and 3 closures. Growth? Strategy working?
(4) So yesterday an upbeat Sudano told us the Q2 was looking positive. In fact he said (quote)
“We are now entering into our key selling period and have a strong seasonal program in place with a clear value offer for Christmas. This is built on the successes from last year and feedback from customers following last year’s Christmas program.”

Guess what? Word for word, this is EXACTLY what he said the previous year when the reality was a fall in sales of 1.2% in Q2.

Sure, difficult economic conditions are very much a reason for all retailers to hang their heads...but in the case of TRS its not the only reasom. To his credit Sudano fessed up to problems in their merchandising strategy (he did so in his Feb 2017 summary of the half yearly results and also in his April 2017 trading update where the market instantly caned TRS by dropping the price from circa $8 to just $4.16 and thereabouts is where we have sat ever since.

But back in April 2017, Sudano also thought that "and the impact of changes we made in the execution of our merchandise strategy, which we believe we have now addressed.”

Q1 sales results and the prediciton of NPAT falls for 1h18 say you haven't addressed them, Mr Sudano.
I'm not buying TRS because I don't buy Sudano and his strategy.

Ah well, another rock kicked over, examined and discarded.