Latest / What the Flux / Armaguard’s cash deal with the banks | General Pants shuts 25% of stores | Peloton’s AI spin

Transcript

Armaguard’s cash deal with the banks | General Pants shuts 25% of stores | Peloton’s AI spin · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the Flux I'm Brattman Justin and Monday
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the sixth of October.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Does a point. The battle between AGL and its the
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: larger shareholder continues. We've been talking about at Lassian co
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: founder Mike cannon Brooks, who owns an eleven percent stake
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: in AGL. He refused to endorse agl's climate change strategy,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: and now it looks like it's back to the drawing
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: board for old Aglox.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: As we kick off the month of October, we have
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a brand spanking new academy for you to complay. It's
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: called Good Debt vers Bad Debt and it breaks down
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: all the different types of debt that you can take on,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: including what's good and of course what's bad as well.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So if you want to learn about debt, how to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: manage it and also what the opportunity cost of that
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: debt is, make sure you download the Flux app and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: check out Good Debt vers Bad Debt Academy.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Three ripping stories Today, Jossy Boy, let's do it for
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: our first cash will remain alive in Australia after the
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: big banks and retailers struck a deal to keep Armor
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Guard delivering the goods.
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  Speaker 1: No more hoarding for you, b Now we wore.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Josie boy Armaguard was founded back in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: thirty eight when cash was King Quinn and it was jack.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Armagard specialized in transferring cash and coins all around Australia.
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  Speaker 2: From retailers to ATMs, to banks and tab betting shops.
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  Speaker 2: And you don't want to mess with those cash handlers either,
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  Speaker 2: now and Josie Boyd. The only other player in the
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  Speaker 2: cash handling game was Spanish giant Prosigle.
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  Speaker 1: Until it was acquired by Armaguard in twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 2: Now, last year you may remember that a group of
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: banks had to throw Armaguard a fifty million dollar lifeline
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to keep it afloat.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Armaguard was essential to the banks and supermarkets, but
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: it was losing a million bucks a week.
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  Speaker 2: But now, after two years of negotiations with the banks
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: and supermarkets, they've landed on a deal.
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  Speaker 1: And this will ensure Armaguard remains a live and kicking yep.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's based on a utility style pricing model and that
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  Speaker 1: means it will treat cash transport like an essential service
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: similar to gas and electricity around Australia really interesting.
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  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 1: Well, cash transport might not seem like an essential service,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: it still plays a critical role in keeping the economy functioning.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Get this one, Juzzy boy.
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  Speaker 2: Despite the decline in cash usage, armor Guard still moves
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: around six billion dollars worth of cash every single week, or.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: About ninety percent of all cash movements around Australia.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, last Easter Coal started hoarding cash in store
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  Speaker 2: because they thought Armaguard might collapse.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: And it meant they had to limit the amount that
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: customers could withdraw from its stores.
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  Speaker 2: But now with Armorguard and the banks and supermarkets coming
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to an agreement, it means cash will stick around for longer.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And you can stop holding awards under your pillow.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: For our second story, General Pants has shut more than
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  Speaker 2: a dozen stores in the past year as it struggles
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  Speaker 2: to compete in the youth fashion market.
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  Speaker 1: General pants ain't what she used to be? Where she be? Man?
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  Speaker 1: Or what is going on here? Well?
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  Speaker 2: General Pants was founded in Sydney in the nineteen seventies
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  Speaker 2: and grew into a bit of a go to youth
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  Speaker 2: fashion chain across Australia and New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: At its peak, it was kind of seen as the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: cool kid.
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  Speaker 2: Retailer, you know, where teens and young adults would go
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: for denim and street wear in bit of youth culture.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Over the past thirteen months, General Pants's parent company,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Alchemy Group, close sixteen General Pan stores.
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  Speaker 2: That's about twenty five percent of all of their stores.
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  Speaker 1: And why the big closure has been there?
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  Speaker 2: Well, General Pants's owner, private equity firm Alchemy, claims that
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: they've shut down all of their unprofitable stores.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: But b man, with cheap online players like Sheer and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Timu entering the youth fashion space, it's becoming harder and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: harder for them to compete.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Especially when a brand's lifespan is becoming shorter and shorter
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: as trends move faster, unless.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: The brand continues to reinvent itself.
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  Speaker 2: Ooh, so what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 1: Retail brands often follow a life cycle similar to products.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's the launch phase.
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  Speaker 1: That's when the brand becomes the new kid on the block.
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  Speaker 1: They come out with fresh looks and a strong identity.
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  Speaker 2: Then hopefully there's the growth phase.
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  Speaker 1: New stores open, revenue climbs and it becomes a culturally cool.
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  Speaker 2: Brand and eventually we get to the maturity phase yep.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That's when the growth slows down a little. The brand
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: is more familiar, more steady, but the danger is becoming
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: too predictable.
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  Speaker 2: And of course there is the eventual decline yep.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Unless the brand reinvents itself, this is where the slide begins.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: But b Man, clearly General Pans hasn't been able to
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  Speaker 1: keep pace with new players like Universal Stores.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Whose sales jumped to more than fifteen percent in the
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: last financial year, as well as she and and Tiamu,
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  Speaker 2: who pump out up to ten thousand new items on
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: its site every day.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, trends are now moving faster than you can say.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Cargo pants are back, which apparently they are.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: So Juzzy boy, General Pants isn't shrinking to greatness, It's
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: shrinking just to survive.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: For our third and final story, Peloton is pedaling hard
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: into AI with a major product rebare because it hopes
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to win back customers and lose It's just a bike label.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Dust off your licro, juzzy boy, So what is going
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: on here?
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So Peloton is the fitness company known for its super
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: fancy exercise.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Bike, and then it's super fancy treadmill.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it actually started back in twenty twelve with a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars Kickstarter campaign.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: But it was during COVID when it really made a
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: name for itself.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Peloton was booming. It's market valuation jumped just under
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: fifty billion US dollars. But since then, Peloton's lost nearly
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: ninety percent of its peak value and laid off six
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: percent of its workforce just last month.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: But now Peloton has unveiled five new products. We're talking
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: new bikes, rereadmills, and even a rowing machine.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But be man. With these products, they also launched peloton IQ.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Any idea what that is?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Don't say AI, don't say AI, don't say AI.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Yep. It's an AI assisted trading tool, tracks your form
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: your reps, and suggests workout tweaks as well.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Even got a thumbs up from Peloton's investors because the
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: share price went up five percent after this news.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And be man, it's hard to know if this AI
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: is actually legit or just a case of a little
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: bit of AI washing.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so what is the key learning here?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: You're not talking about AI in twenty twenty five? Are
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: you even a company?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: We've seen many types of washing before, for example, green washing,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that's when.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Companies exaggerate their environmental credentials. And don't forget sports washing
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: as well, juzzy Boy, where countries have use sports to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: improve their public image on a global stage.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: This time we're talking AI washing, companies sprinkling the letters
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: AI into investor reports just to attract good attention.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: And the man investors are actually rewarding companies for just
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: talking about AI, even if the actual integration is pretty
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: pretty thin yep.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: In fact, Jazzy Boy, nearly sixty five percent of Fortune
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: five hundred companies in the US mentioned AI in their
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: most recent and your report.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: And get this, companies that mentioned AI during their earnings
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: call saw an average stock price rise of four point
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  Speaker 1: six percent in the three days after the call.
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  Speaker 2: Compared to two point four percent for the companies that
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: did not mention AI. According to Wall Street zen.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So b Man, Peloton is clearly playing the game and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: hoping that its AI execution can actually match the investor hype.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Fox Am, did you know that managing your debt effectively
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: is one of the keys to unlocking your financial future?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And that's why we've got this month's Academy Good Debt,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: verst down debt to understand the difference between the types
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: of debt that help you grow and the types of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: debt that drag you down. Make sure it download the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Flux app and check out the academy this month.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.