Latest / The SME Stream / John Journee: Warehouse Group interim CEO on the company's multi-million dollar net loss

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John Journee: Warehouse Group interim CEO on the company's multi-million dollar net loss · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Heather Duplessi la now it was a bit of a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: blood bath for the Warehouse Today the group announced a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: fifty four million dollar loss for the year. The chair
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Joan Withers has described it as unacceptable. Jean Journey is
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the interim chief executive at the Warehouse Group and with
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: us now, hey John Hi, Heather Jones says, it's unacceptable.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: What do you say, totally agree. We're certainly not where
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: we need to be and the result there's a poor performance.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: What's gone wrong? Do you think.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Part of that is strategy and part of its execution.
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  Speaker 2: We had a strategy set about five years ago that
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  Speaker 2: was in hindsight to ambitious and also distracted us from
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: looking after our core brands at the level of detail
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: that we need.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: To so core brand being obviously the Warehouse. What needs
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  Speaker 1: to change at the Warehouse?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Do you think, sorry, what was that? Head?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: What needs to change at the Warehouse?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: We need to get better more often. You know, we
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: get it right most of the time. We need to
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: get right all the time. And that's the difference in
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: retail retails detail customers notice when you get your detail
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  Speaker 2: wrong and we've dropped the ball on that.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: You mean by that is that like, if you've got
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: is it quality problems? Is it coolness problems?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: What is it's it's the small things that make a
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: difference here. You know, basically, when you're in retail, you
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: have to get everything right, and we've got things right
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: that we were focusing on, but we missed the ball
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and that on the areas we weren't focusing on. We
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: had moved more of our range in the warehouse to continuity,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: daily essentials, everyday needs, and that's an important part of
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the offer, and customers are loving for us for that
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: part of the range. But that's not all they wanted
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: from us. They wanted newness, excitement, trend, coolness, kidness, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: we used to give them that in spades, and when
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: we moved into the sort of trying to be earnest
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: about our core essentials, which is really important, we lost
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: that excitement, we lost the emphasis and the other parts
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: of what people wanted from us. And that's what we've
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: recognized as one of the core turnaround fixes that we
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: need to do. We've already started on that, but unfortunately
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: it takes a while for that product to show up
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: in store, so it's only just showing up now. But
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: when it is showing up, our customers are loving it.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: You know, they've been really disappointed that we haven't given
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: it to them before. Just like you said before, you
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: would expect us to do it, We didn't do it
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: for you. Our customers are saying the same on a
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: number of lines. But again, when we get it back
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  Speaker 2: in stock, they go, yay, you're back. We love it
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  Speaker 2: because we've got ninety two million people visiting our stores
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  Speaker 2: every year. They really want us to be back in
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  Speaker 2: the game we used to be. They want us to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: be and we're determined to be back in there.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: You like a bad boyfriend day. We want to love you,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: but you shore making it hard with the warehouse.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: What about we're the one that got awaid? Yeah?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Is that right? A positive been on it was going
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: wrong with then.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Nles has actually performed the strongest through the period we've
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: been distracted, So their model is quite strong. I heard
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: before that you'd had some service issues. That's disappointing. It
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: is not the general experience we get from our customers.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: They are at promoter Score, which is the measure of
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: our customer satisfaction, is the highest in a no Lemming brand,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: and they are the market leader, and through a tough time,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: they've actually held their market share and held their customer
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: base the best of our all three brands. But even
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: they have suffered a little bit around the group distractions,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: around the bigger picture that the ecosystem strategy, so they
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: weren't spending all their time on what mattered to no
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: leaming customers. And it's those little things that make a difference.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: The fact that we should have had the staff member
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: knowing which apple which watch was waterproof. You know, that
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: is what we do. That is something that we pride ourselves,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: you know, basically, our teams proudly call themselves passionate experts.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I spent a lot of time on product knowledge and
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: learning about that products. You know, whether that was an
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: isolated example, we've got the wrong person on the wrong day,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: but that doesn't really matter to you or your husband
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: that got the wrong advice.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I don't even ever watch John for my birthday.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Now and I'm gusted.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Don't worry. I know how to use the internet. I'll
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: order it from you. Guys. Hey, listen very quickly on
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the Stephen Tindall thing, are you guys still is that
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: office still live or no?
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  Speaker 2: That's in Stephen's core. We don't have any control over
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: what our shareholders do, and don't they listen.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: John, thank you for talking to us, and I really
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: really hope you are able to turn this around, because,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: as I say, we do love your business. That is
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: John Jenne who is the interim chief executive at the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Warehouse and has obviously got his work cut out for him.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Nineteen away from six