Latest / What the Flux / Telstra’s $1 billion turnaround | Bunnings & Kmart carry Wesfarmers (once again) | Nikola EV truck files for bankruptcy
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I'm Brett and I'm Justin and it's Friday, the twenty
- 0:09Speaker 2: first of February.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Juzzy boy.
- 0:10Speaker 3: When it comes to e commerce in Australia, get this.
- 0:13Speaker 3: The average online order value has dropped by twenty three
- 0:16Speaker 3: percent in just the last two years. That's according to
- 0:19Speaker 3: courier platform ship It. They've analyzed millions of orders and
- 0:22Speaker 3: they reckon a mix of economic pressures and intense global
- 0:25Speaker 3: competition is the blame.
- 0:27Speaker 2: The Shean's t moves. They're coming for Australian retailers. Sick
- 0:30Speaker 2: and fast, Flux Sam once again, it is Briday, which
- 0:33Speaker 2: means we're dishing out fifty dollars to the smartest person
- 0:36Speaker 2: in the Flux community. That's right. We're going to send
- 0:38Speaker 2: a random notification today and the first person to answer
- 0:41Speaker 2: three business or finance questions correctly as the fastest win
- 0:44Speaker 2: fifty bucks to get off the weekend. To make sure
- 0:46Speaker 2: to turn on your notifications, download the Flux app and
- 0:48Speaker 2: be ready to win.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Three prepared stories today. Juzzy boy, Let's do it for
- 0:52Speaker 1: our first.
- 0:53Speaker 3: Telstra has dialed up a net profit of just over
- 0:56Speaker 3: one billion dollars for the last six months after seeing
- 0:59Speaker 3: growth in it it's mobile business and saying goodbye to Foxtael,
- 1:03Speaker 3: not to.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Mention a heap of cost cutting Beman, but.
- 1:06Speaker 1: Do go on well.
- 1:06Speaker 3: Telster is Australia's biggest telco and one of the most
- 1:10Speaker 3: recognizable brands in the entire nation.
- 1:12Speaker 2: It provides retail services to over twenty two million Australian customers.
- 1:16Speaker 3: But Juzzy Boy. Over the past few years, Telstra has
- 1:18Speaker 3: been making some changes.
- 1:20Speaker 2: In fact, be Man. As part of its T twenty
- 1:22Speaker 2: five strategy, it cut nine percent of its workforce.
- 1:25Speaker 1: And it seemed to work so far for the big
- 1:27Speaker 1: T Yeah.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Its revenues managed to grow one and a half percent
- 1:31Speaker 2: over the last six months to eleven and a half
- 1:33Speaker 2: billion dollars and.
- 1:34Speaker 3: As net profit jumped six and a half percent to
- 1:37Speaker 3: one point three bill not to mention.
- 1:39Speaker 2: The sale of Foxtel and its VC during this period.
- 1:42Speaker 3: Now, apart from these one off zingers, Heelster praised its
- 1:45Speaker 3: consumer division as the MVP and be man.
- 1:48Speaker 2: With the T twenty five turnaround on track, Heelster will
- 1:50Speaker 2: buy back seven hundred and fifty million dollars worth of shares.
- 1:53Speaker 3: And it has jacked up its dividend by more than
- 1:56Speaker 3: five percent.
- 1:57Speaker 2: In other words, investors are getting a little dividends week
- 2:00Speaker 2: for sticking around.
- 2:01Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
- 2:03Speaker 2: Investors ten dislot companies into three big categories. You've got
- 2:06Speaker 2: the growth, You've got the income, or you've got the
- 2:08Speaker 2: value company, a little bit like choosing a mobile plan exactly.
- 2:11Speaker 2: On the one hand, you've got growth companies. These are
- 2:13Speaker 2: the companies that are expect to grow faster than the
- 2:16Speaker 2: market average.
- 2:17Speaker 3: They're the ones reinvesting every darn dollar back into the
- 2:20Speaker 3: business instead of paying out dividend.
- 2:22Speaker 2: Think Meta, who paid its first dividend in twenty twenty four,
- 2:25Speaker 2: twelve years after going public.
- 2:26Speaker 1: And on the other hand, you've got income stocks.
- 2:28Speaker 2: These are the ones like Telstra that pay out a
- 2:30Speaker 2: portion of their profits to shareholders on the regular.
- 2:33Speaker 1: And jaz boid.
- 2:33Speaker 3: These income stocks typically attract investors who are keen on
- 2:37Speaker 3: regular dividend.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Payouts think retirees.
- 2:40Speaker 1: For example, Telstra's share price has only increased just over
- 2:43Speaker 1: four percent over the past five years before yesterday's update.
- 2:46Speaker 2: But be manufacturing all those dividend payouts, and shareholders have
- 2:49Speaker 2: pocketed nearly a dollar per share in cash over that
- 2:52Speaker 2: same five year period.
- 2:53Speaker 3: And of course you've got the value investors, the ones
- 2:55Speaker 3: who look to invest in undervalued companies based on their
- 2:59Speaker 3: financials be man.
- 3:00Speaker 2: With Telstra's latest result, it's giving income focused investors even
- 3:03Speaker 2: more reasons to stay on the dial for.
- 3:06Speaker 3: Our second story of West Farmers has seen its sales
- 3:09Speaker 3: and earnings jump in the first half of the financial
- 3:11Speaker 3: year thanks to its goat performers Bunnings and Kmart.
- 3:15Speaker 2: Bunnings and Kmart are the gifts that keep on giving
- 3:18Speaker 2: for wezi Is, So tell me what well.
- 3:19Speaker 3: West Farmers is the WA based owner of some of
- 3:22Speaker 3: the biggest named brands in Australian retail.
- 3:24Speaker 2: As mentioned, they owned Bunnings and Kmart.
- 3:26Speaker 3: They've also got their b grader as Juzzy Boy, your targets,
- 3:29Speaker 3: your price lines, your silk laser clinics, and they've also
- 3:31Speaker 3: got office works, which i'd say is an a grader and.
- 3:33Speaker 2: Formerly they owned Catch as well, which they announced plants
- 3:36Speaker 2: to shut down last.
- 3:37Speaker 1: Month the Juzzy Boy.
- 3:38Speaker 3: It also owns industrial and safety businesses as well as
- 3:41Speaker 3: chemicals and energy and fertilizer businesses.
- 3:44Speaker 2: Your Clean Heats, your Blackwards.
- 3:45Speaker 3: West Farmers has announced its sales for the last half
- 3:49Speaker 3: jumped by three point six percent to over twenty three
- 3:51Speaker 3: and a half billion dollars, and off.
- 3:53Speaker 2: The back of these sales it delivered a tasting their
- 3:55Speaker 2: profit of just done that one and a half billion baccarinis.
- 3:58Speaker 3: Enough to buy every single kmart dupe and still have
- 4:00Speaker 3: change left over for a Bunning snag or three and
- 4:03Speaker 3: be Man.
- 4:03Speaker 2: West Farmer's reckons. A key part of this success is
- 4:06Speaker 2: its pricing strategy of every day low.
- 4:08Speaker 1: Prices fascinating stuff. So what is the key learning here?
- 4:10Speaker 2: Consistency builds trust while discounts create urgency.
- 4:14Speaker 3: You see Bunnings and came up primarily user pricing strategy
- 4:17Speaker 3: called everyday low prices.
- 4:19Speaker 2: The idea is they consistently offer products at the lowest prices.
- 4:23Speaker 3: And it means they don't rely on frequent promotions or
- 4:26Speaker 3: discounts be Man.
- 4:27Speaker 2: This is in contrast to the other pricing strategy, which
- 4:29Speaker 2: is called high low pricing.
- 4:31Speaker 3: This one is when companies set higher prices but offer
- 4:33Speaker 3: discounts and promotions.
- 4:35Speaker 2: And b Man. Historically, more than forty percent of groceries
- 4:38Speaker 2: in supermarkets are purchased on special or promotion each week.
- 4:41Speaker 2: According to Nilson, and.
- 4:42Speaker 3: While high low pricing attracts deal hunters. It also means
- 4:45Speaker 3: shoppers aren't particularly loyal.
- 4:47Speaker 2: Yeah, they will happily ditch coals for woolies if butter
- 4:49Speaker 2: is fifty percent cheaper.
- 4:50Speaker 3: And based on these numbers, it's safe to say West
- 4:53Speaker 3: Farmers has mastered the art of keeping OSSI's spending.
- 4:57Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Nicola, the electric trucking startup,
- 5:01Speaker 2: has filed for bankruptcy in the US after struggling to
- 5:04Speaker 2: raise money or find a buyer.
- 5:06Speaker 3: The old Tesla of trucks has run out of charge.
- 5:09Speaker 3: Tell me what's going on here?
- 5:10Speaker 2: Okay? So Nicola launched back in twenty fourteen with big
- 5:12Speaker 2: bold plans to revolutionize trucking with hydrogen electric batteries and point.
- 5:18Speaker 3: Nicola went public via a spack a blank check company
- 5:22Speaker 3: that was valued at thirty billion dollars US, and that
- 5:24Speaker 3: was in June twenty twenty.
- 5:26Speaker 2: Man name more iconic duo than spacks and overinflated valuations.
- 5:30Speaker 1: But Jazzy boy.
- 5:31Speaker 3: Now Nicola has announced it will file for bankruptcy after
- 5:34Speaker 3: it could not raise money or find a new buyer.
- 5:36Speaker 2: And be man. It isn't that surprising because Nicola has
- 5:39Speaker 2: been facing scandals for years.
- 5:41Speaker 3: Well, it has been accused of making exaggerated claims about
- 5:44Speaker 3: its technology.
- 5:44Speaker 2: Yep, they claimed they built the truck from the.
- 5:47Speaker 3: Grounder, but it was uncovered that they actually bought the
- 5:49Speaker 3: batteries from another company.
- 5:50Speaker 2: What about when they released a marketing video showing their
- 5:53Speaker 2: truck driving.
- 5:53Speaker 1: But in reality the truck was just rolling down a hill.
- 5:56Speaker 2: But be man now, Nichola says it couldn't even scrape
- 5:58Speaker 2: together enough cash to keep the hydrogen engines pairing.
- 6:02Speaker 3: And this is all part of the natural evolution of
- 6:05Speaker 3: a new industry.
- 6:06Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
- 6:07Speaker 1: When a shiny new.
- 6:08Speaker 3: Industry takes off, it often attracts a flood of startups,
- 6:12Speaker 3: all elbowing each other to become the next big thing.
- 6:14Speaker 2: But den b man. As the industry matures and competition intensifies,
- 6:17Speaker 2: funding becomes harder to secure and.
- 6:19Speaker 1: A weaker players struggle to survive, and.
- 6:21Speaker 2: This leads to consolidation where only the strongest companies remain standing.
- 6:25Speaker 3: And this is what we're seeing in the electric vehicle
- 6:28Speaker 3: market right now. And startup ev companies like Fiska, Canoe,
- 6:31Speaker 3: Weltmeister all household names. Jazzy Boy, they've all declared bankruptcy
- 6:36Speaker 3: over the past few years.
- 6:36Speaker 2: After raising and burning billions of dollars.
- 6:39Speaker 3: Of cash, and now Nikola joins the pack. Slash the
- 6:43Speaker 3: scrap heap.
- 6:44Speaker 2: Fox down, get on your phone, turn it off silent
- 6:46Speaker 2: so you can be the first person to answer our
- 6:48Speaker 2: three questions, and we've beducks this week. It's the perfect
- 6:51Speaker 2: way to test your knowledge and also come away with
- 6:53Speaker 2: some cash.
- 6:53Speaker 3: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday.