Well looking back at the New Myer strategy pres from 2 years ago. Nordstrum and Macy's were flying high at that time, but the SP has halved since then, Hudson's bay is worse.
Myr said they would be focussing on sales per sq meter, and sadly that went backwards from q1 to q2 from 6% to 5.6% in the most critical quarter of the year.
They also are focusing on concessions which is working well, but their tightened Myer Exclusives brands is doing terribly from what I can see. As the concession sales are increasing in the product mix, that will boost margins, as Myer sort of clips the ticket, rather than having the cost of stock etc in these (correct me if I am wrong). So I don't really think the margin improvement is anything to get excited about in the context of the sales mix.
The problem MYR has is that it is in a strategically weak position with the sales mix they have, as the better a concession does, the more tempting it might be for them to step out on their own at the expiry of the deal, whereas Myer exclusives are strategically strong as customers can't go anywhere else for them, whatever they are. The concessions strategy would be far better if MYR owned the real estate, rather then being a tenant.
So IMO the good news on margins isn't really good, with such a slight increase, the strategic situation is worse, and Comparables, and sales per square meter were comparably awful over xmas. The main good news is the dividend, and that they have improved earnings on pcp.
Shorted the open based on that, for a quickie. Might short again towards the XD if the market gets too excited about the 3c ff.
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