Jeremy Hutton: Milford Asset Management Equities Analyst on KMD Brands posting a half-year net loss

KMD Brands, parent of Kathmandu, Rip Curl and Oboz, has posted a $20 million half-year loss despite growing sales year-on-year, a result the company puts down to struggling consumer confidence and wholesale channels.

However, the company believes the momentum is building, with Kathmandu’s sales continuing to improve despite the downturn.

Milford Asset Management's Jeremy Hutton explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jeremy hasn't from Milfinancet Management with me, Jeremy. Good evening evening, Ryan, Yeah,
good to have you back. KMD Brands released their half
year financial results today. Stock has had a torrid few weeks.
What are investors buying into here?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, KMD Brands had their numbers out today, and just
remember that this is looking back six months into the
last half of twenty twenty four, but it is over
the very important Christmas and New Year spend period for retailers.
And also a quick reminder on the brands in KMD,
so the very well known Catman Do Appeal brand, and

(00:36):
then it's also got Ripcurl, which is a very important
surf brand as well. But you're right, the business has
had a torrid time, particularly over the past few years.
The share price is down seventy seven percent since the
peak in November twenty twenty one, and that's largely been
tracking sales down and profits down across all their brands.

(00:57):
So investors here are really backing a cyclical retail recovery story,
but it will take a few years to come to fruition.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
But finally, I guess some sales improvements that would make
some retailers pretty happy.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, importantly in the update today, they always provide some
directional trends in sales, and they have been improving. And
then finally, in the last quarter of twenty twenty four,
both the important brands Catmen Do and Rip Curl reported
positive sales growth again versus the Pride period and this
was the first time that we'd seen positive sales growth

(01:31):
in over two years. So really good to see and
perhaps the start of the turnaround story for KMD brands.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, let's hope. So, Jeremy, thank you very much for
that up there. I appreciate your time. Jeremy Hautton, Milford
Asset Management. For more from hither, Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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