Latest / Best of Business / Rod Duke: Briscoe Group managing director on the company's full-year sales data

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Rod Duke: Briscoe Group managing director on the company's full-year sales data · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed be
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Rod Duke might have an answer to some of these questions. Actually,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: he is the boss of Briscoes and they have announced
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: the company results today. Revenue largely flat, but profit down
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: because margins were squeezed. Of course, the state of the
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  Speaker 2: economy partly to blame for this. Rod Duke is with me.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, right, how you doing.
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  Speaker 2: You're really good? Thank you, Given I mean, it's been
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  Speaker 2: well traversed how bad retail has been for you know,
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  Speaker 2: the struggles over the past year. You must be pretty
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  Speaker 2: reasonably happy with this.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're pretty toughed with the result. Got the sales
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  Speaker 3: did cost a bit of margin, costs within one percent
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  Speaker 3: of last year, infantries back about five million dollars and
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: stock turns up. So a lot of the metrics that
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  Speaker 3: we measure have come through, and we're pretty pleased.
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  Speaker 2: What is it that you do to make sure you know,
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  Speaker 2: i mean, obviously profit was down, but it's still profit right,
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  Speaker 2: What are you doing to make sure of that and
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  Speaker 2: keeping revenue flat?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we're doing a lot of the basics that all
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  Speaker 3: retailers know about. You're refreshing the rangers, You're improving the
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  Speaker 3: quality of service in stores, the stores look better, the
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  Speaker 3: online presence and presentation, and the platform is easy to maneuver,
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  Speaker 3: just all the regular things that all retailers want to
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  Speaker 3: do all the time.
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  Speaker 2: Looking ahead, do you think, well, how long before you
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: think things get better? And are you worried about Trump?
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  Speaker 2: Or you don't have much exposure to the tariffs and
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the trade wars.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I have to worry about in this country with
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  Speaker 3: my business rather than worry about mainly ex elsewhere. But look,
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  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, Look, it is what
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  Speaker 3: it is. We'll have some effect in this country. But basically,
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  Speaker 3: all I've got to do with there's a is a
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  Speaker 3: customer that's been hurting, and we think in the near
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  Speaker 3: term it will improve a little and then towards the
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  Speaker 3: back end of the year or the second half of
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  Speaker 3: this year, we should be able to see some improvement.
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  Speaker 3: Given that we've got a government that want to be
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  Speaker 3: re elected.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. Does that
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  Speaker 2: mean for the first half of this year, does that
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  Speaker 2: mean more sales potentially?
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  Speaker 3: Look, Look, it means doing a lot of other clever things,
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  Speaker 3: you know, better rangers, as I said, better service. It's
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  Speaker 3: all of those things. They're just doing things better than
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  Speaker 3: my competitor set. That's the criteria.
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  Speaker 2: Now you've said today you want the government to get
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  Speaker 2: their their arson to gear. What exactly do you mean
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  Speaker 2: and what do you want them to do?
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  Speaker 3: Well? I think it's about time something happened. I understand
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  Speaker 3: they probably inherited something they didn't didn't anticipate, and getting
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  Speaker 3: to understand how bad the situation and looking at solving
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  Speaker 3: some of those problems. But there's just about time that
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  Speaker 3: they started, I think to put into place some really
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  Speaker 3: innovative and some problem solving situation the solutions that would
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  Speaker 3: be my assessment, and I think time is probably about
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  Speaker 3: right now.
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  Speaker 2: They would argue they have been doing exactly that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and there's only so much spend there you can cut
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  Speaker 2: if you want to go out and do fancy you know,
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  Speaker 2: corporate tax council whatever. Then you've got to balance the books.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they're in a tight spot, I think would
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  Speaker 2: be their argument.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and look i'd agree with that too. I agree
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  Speaker 3: it is a very very very difficult situation. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: we need to see in the suburbs, a bit of
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  Speaker 3: imagination and a bit of forward thinking.
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  Speaker 2: You haven't got a bright ideas for us, Ron oh Man.
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  Speaker 3: I'm looking for bright ideas of improving my profit next year.
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  Speaker 3: The own the Copnum.
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  Speaker 2: We'll leave that to them. Hey, thanks very much for
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  Speaker 2: coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Pleasure Roger
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  Speaker 2: Managing Director Brisco's Group.
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