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Coles drops Myers

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wayneL

wayneL

VIVA LA LIBERTAD, CARAJO!
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A positive for CML?

My contact in CML said they are glad to be rid of it.

http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,18444774-462,00.html
Myer sold for $1.4bn
From: AAP

March 13, 2006


COLES Myer has sold its iconic Myer stores to private equity company Newbridge Capital and the Myer family for $1.4 billion.
The deal includes the flagship Bourke Street store in Melbourne.

It returns the Myer chain to hands of the Myer family, 106 years after it was founded in Bendigo by poor Russian immigrant Sidney Myer.

The market had expected the 61 Myer stores, including the Bourke Street site, to fetch around $1 billion for Australia's largest retailer.

Coles Myer chief executive John Fletcher said the level of interest and the price achieved for Myer and the Myer Melbourne property reflected the strength of the business and the success of its turnaround strategy under Myer managing director Dawn Robertson.

Ms Robertson will leave after the sale has been completed, with former Woolworths finance director and director of supermarkets Bill Wavish to become executive chairman of the Myer business.
Click to expand...
 
A positive alright, apparently Myer took up way too much of managment time and co money. Also, now that it's gone, stores like Target can compete more vigorously without worrying about cannibalisation. A much leaner, meaner co imo after those dud stores were droped. WOW is still the leader of the pack, CML must prove itself.
 
:)

Hi folks,

CML ..... trend looks to remain mostly strong through
June/July 2006, with a high expected, around 14082006 (???)

09-12062006 ..... 2 positive cycles here.

26062006 ..... minor

05072006 ..... negative financials???

06072006 ..... positive spotlight on CML ... :)

28-31072006 ..... positive and finance-related???

07082006 ..... minor

14082006 ..... significant and negative cycle.

happy days

yogi

:)
 
A long time ago I held shares in Coles Myer and received the shareholders discount. It was enough incentive for me to check out Myers store before DJ's and the like.

So the institutional shareholders didnt like this discount so they got cross and stopped the scheme. I wrote to ColesMyer saying that as a shopper who spends $250 week on shopping at Coles and say $200 month shopping at Myers, could they really afford to lose people like me? Seems like they thought they could from the letter I got back.

I was in Myer today - there was NOTHING in that store I wanted to buy in the way of clothing; it the first day of the Stocktake Sale and the place was DEAD! And me with birthday money to spend. So tootled off to DJ's and shopped.

I no longer shop at Coles, Myer is a waste of time, and well, Target and KMart - humph! Seems like they dont need my money!

Hopefully the new owners will know their market better than the current ones - so I guess I am saying that Myers will be better off without Coles :D
 
Well the discount card served its purpose at the time but I think WOW and DJ's can't beleive that CML is such a slow dinosaur. I have a few shares tied up in CML and have them currently on the market to be sold.
I have the feeling the boardroom are rudderless,and playing catch-up to WOW,and will do so for a long time.
As for the stocktake sales, does anybody really buy that crap from China and feel they have scored a bargain. It's like Walmart with a twist of lemon & the snobbery of Myers is like a bucket shop. No wonder it was off loaded!
I think Prospector has split the arrow re CML ....it's a case of "are you being served"....as for me I lifting my skirt and looking at the moment to swap to WOW,and why not.
 
CML was one of the first stocks I ever thought about buying, because Coles was my preferred supermarket and I'd heard about the principle of buying business you understand. But I realised pretty quickly that I had no clue about a business that combined supermarkets, discount stores and department stores, and not much later that the people running Coles Myer didn't have much clue either.

As a shopper, I haven't been into a Myers for years, since the quality of the goods went to the level of Target and KMart and the presention got worse. Coles has been my preferred supermarket for a long time, but I'm actively trying to avoid them now because I really dislike the way they're implementing their house-brand strategy - it's reducing their range enormously and I think they're cutting quality as well. When I want a discount supermarket I go to the real Aldi, not an imitation.

Back in investor mode, I think the split is probably the best hope for both groups, but I'd give them at least a couple of years before I'd think about buying either.

Ghoti
 
Being in Hobart I don't have too much choice as far as department stores are concerned. It's either Myer or the cheaper (and physically downsized store as of some years ago) Harris Scarfe since DJ's don't have any stores here. But I still rarely find a reason to buy anything from Myer since if I want brand name clothes etc then there are better choices elsewhere. And if I want electrical goods or just any pair of jeans then there are cheaper places to buy the same thing. So no real reason to go to Myer.

As for Kmart, I think it's somewhat telling as to market success that BigW didn't exist here until a few years ago but now they have more stores than Kmart and they are better dispersed geographically whereas Kmart basically hasn't done anything in 20+ years.

As far as supermarkets are concerned, do you have the Frequent Shopper Club cards in Woolworths stores in the mainland states? It was started by the then Purity and Roelf Vos (both now Woolworths) supermarket chains in Tas many years ago but not sure if it has spread to the other states or not. Getting a $20 voucher (effectively a 1% discount on everything) every now and then for nothing in return apart from shopping there (no fees or minimum purchases etc) seems to be keeping Woolworths stores a lot busier than Coles.

Target. No problem with their stores as such but I find it really annoying that they check bags etc EVERY time I go there and walk out without buying anything. An approach that I haven't encountered anywhere else. It might reduce shoplifting but with the move away from plastic bags meaning you need to take your own bags it's a disincentive to walk in there in the first place if you're just comparing products, prices etc. Less theft but probably lower sales as a result too.

Off the topic of CML itself but I think this could adversely impact their sales...

One thing that may not be common knowledge is that Coles, Target etc have recently dumped their long standing catalogue distributor (Salmat) in favour of rival PMP. Since the delivery of catalogues by PMP to my address is very erratic (they simply don't get delivered in many cases) I'm doubtful that this will benefit them. Maybe a lower price for delivery but, based on what I've experienced, a poorer quality job.

PMP is reported to be introducing a tracking system which electronically tracks people doing the deliveries. Given that in many cases it is several people in the same family doing an area (effectively employed as one contractor) either they will need a lot of tracking devices (potentially several per contractor and hundreds (thousands?) in Hobart alone) I just can't see how this is really going to achieve anything. There's also the point that they are contractors and can choose to do the job at any time of day or night and in any order around the streets they choose.

If they impose conditions on the contractors then I have no doubt that many will leave since many are only really doing it as a means of forced exercise, something for the kids to do on Saturday afternoons etc. They just aren't going to accept strict conditions without a huge pay rise. Given that they also have a new "collating" system which is understood to be aimed at reducing pay (though this is speculation at this stage but why else would they take on a task presently done by the contractors?) a pay rise doesn't seem likely. I also know that many PMP contractors are already quitting because, as they put it, they're just not paid enough to be messed with and they object to being tracked in principle.

It's An awful lot of monitoring to do and I think it will only add to the existing problem that, due to low pay, both PMP and Salmat have consistent problems actually getting anyone to do the work. It's not unusual that the area supervisor for one company also works for the rival (and presumably delivers for both at the same time - probably not allowed but with lack of workers the companies can't be fussy) for this reason. Interesting to see how it goes but I know for a fact that many pensioners etc do look at supermarket catalogues and if the change to a different distributor causes problems then that will send those people to Woolworths.

Target especially has done all sorts of funny things with catalogue deliveries in the past. Things like only delivering to 5 houses (out of 400 in the area) and so on. A rather silly approach IMO which suggests that they just weren't prepared to spend money on marketing. Surely you want to reach more than 1% of your potential customers? Or were they having cash flow problems and simply couldn't afford to advertise? Seems a strange approach to say the least.

Overall I see it as symptomatic of a management approach that seeks to save a relatively small amount (how much can the difference between 2 contractors really mean to the bottom line?) without consideration of VALUE. An obsession with controlling costs but no consideration as to whether or not this actually boosts overall profit.

For the record I'm not a PMP or Salmat contractor. Just info I've been given by people who work for both of them. It was also reported through some media though didn't receive widespread coverage to my knowledge.
 
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