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The billionaire chair of major fashion retailer Premier Investments says he has seen no signs of a slowdown in spending despite the pending threat of the Omicron variant as the sector prepares for a bumper Christmas.
Premier’s chairman and founder Solomon Lew told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age while it was too early to know what impact, if any, Omicron would have on the economy and the retail sector, consumers so far appear to be unrattled.
Premier Investments chief executive Richard Murray (left) and chairman Solomon Lew are expecting a bumper December quarter. Credit:Elke Meitzel
“We’re certainly not seeing any drop in customer traffic or purchases since the announcement,” Mr Lew said. “But the truth to the matter is we don’t know enough at this point in time, but if you listen to the Prime Minister, he thinks we should go about business as usual until we know anything better.”
On Thursday, Premier - which operates a number of prominent retail businesses including Smiggle, Portmans and Jay Jays - held its annual general meeting for the 2021 financial year, during which it updated shareholders on the business’ performance over the first half of fiscal 2022.
It revealed sales had begun to recover after dropping earlier in the period due to lockdowns. Total sales for the 17 weeks to the end of November fell 3.5 per cent, a vast improvement on the first seven weeks of the half where the company’s revenue slumped 9.5 per cent.
Since the end of November, its stores in NSW, the ACT, Victoria and New Zealand have progressively reopened as pandemic restrictions were wound back. Over the past three weeks, the business had all its stores globally open and trading again, with sales gaining 10.1 per cent over that period when compared to the same time last year.
Like many other retailers, Premier has been hit hard by the coronavirus lockdowns over the past six months. The company said it had lost a total of 42,000 trading days in this financial year, with more than half of its stores being forced to close at some point.
However, with lockdowns largely done and dusted, newly hired chief executive, former JB Hi-Fi boss Richard Murray, said he was feeling positive ahead of the key Christmas period.
“We’ve gone through Black Friday, and we’re really comfortable with how we traded,” he said. “As we head into the key period in December and post-Christmas sales, we’re comfortable with our inventory position and very comfortable with [spending] at the moment.”