Latest / What the Flux / Smiggle's slump hits Premier Investments hard | Spotify Wrapped breaks records | Lululemon's founder trolls Lululemon CEO

Transcript

Smiggle's slump hits Premier Investments hard | Spotify Wrapped breaks records | Lululemon's founder trolls Lululemon CEO · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the flacks. I'm bred and I'm justin
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and it's Monday, the eighth of December.
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  Speaker 2: We know that the cost of living is really biting,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: but here's one more proof point for you. Doctors say
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: the number of Australians dropping out of gold to health
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: insurance policies is on the rise. In fact, the cost
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: of premiums has doubled over the last sixteen years, which
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: is significantly faster than inflation, and that puts a whole
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: lot more pressure on the public health system.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Very true. Flex Sam ever, felt like you're winging it
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  Speaker 1: with your finances, Well, it can sometimes have some pretty
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: big consequences down the road, and your twenties and thirties
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: is the perfect time to start building good money foundations.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: To in the Flux app that we share buy smart
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: money moves that you can make in your twenties and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: thirties to really set your financial future up right now.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: To make sure to download the Flux app and check
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it out.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Three massive stories today Juzzy Boy, let's do it for
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  Speaker 2: our first. The company behind Smiggle and Peter Alexander twelve
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  Speaker 2: percent share price drop because school students are not digging
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  Speaker 2: Smiggle's colorful stationary anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Must say it is quite excy that stationary b man.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: So tell me what's going on here? And this news
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  Speaker 1: got you speechless, doesn't it? Juzzy boy Well.
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  Speaker 2: Premier Investments is the ASX listed a retail group behind
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  Speaker 2: Peter Alexander and Smiggle. It previously owned Dottie and Jackie,
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  Speaker 2: Portman's and JJ's before it sold them off to Maya
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  Speaker 2: more than eight hundred million dollars in my shares and
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  Speaker 2: Judge Boy. Premier Investments kept its two Golden Children in
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  Speaker 2: its portfolio.
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  Speaker 1: Golden Child one Smiggle, the stationary retailer that sells scentered
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  Speaker 1: pens and sparkly stickers at ridiculously high prices.
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  Speaker 2: Golden Child number two Peter Alexander, the retailer that turns
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  Speaker 2: sleepwear into an actual category as opposed to sleeping in
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  Speaker 2: an old T shirt.
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  Speaker 1: But now b Man Golden Child one aka Smiggle is
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  Speaker 1: turning into a bit of a problem child.
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  Speaker 2: Premier shared an earnings update that badly missed expectations.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah It's guidance came in at one hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 1: million dollars for the first half of FY twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: which was fifteen percent below its expected guidance. And be Man,
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  Speaker 1: might I remind you that Smiggle, which is under before me,
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  Speaker 1: still doesn't have a CEO, and I believe it hasn't
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  Speaker 1: had one since September of twenty twenty four. Next Minute,
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  Speaker 1: Premier Investments share dropped twelve percent on this news. Huge,
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  Speaker 1: So what's the key learning here? Leadership stability is often
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  Speaker 1: an underrated driver of company value. Think about a Jazzy Boy.
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  Speaker 2: Investors want to know who is steering the ship, especially
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  Speaker 2: when a brand is under pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we know that a strong CEO or COO provides
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  Speaker 1: clarity on company strategy, but also creates the roadmap for
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  Speaker 1: turning around a struggling division, and when those roles are vacant,
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  Speaker 1: it can create a leadership vacuue. Not to mention uncertainty
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  Speaker 1: and by g the market's hate uncertainty. Get this one,
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  Speaker 1: Juzi boy.
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  Speaker 2: A corporate finance study of six hundred and eighty seven
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  Speaker 2: unplanned CEO departures shows a direct link between the absence
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  Speaker 2: of a permanent leader and a decline in shareholder value.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting, and be Man, Sniggle hasn't had a CEO for
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  Speaker 1: fifteen months.
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  Speaker 2: Now, chuck On top of that, little kiddies ain't buying
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  Speaker 2: smiggle pencil cases anymore.
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  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, you've got a company desperate
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  Speaker 1: to find a CEO who can turn this ship around.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: For our second story, Spotify has just delivered its biggest
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  Speaker 2: ever Wrapped launch, with more than two hundred million users
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  Speaker 2: jumping in within twenty four hours.
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  Speaker 1: Oh nobody gets people clicking faster than finding out they
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: listen to Taylor Swift forty seven thousand minutes. Tell me more.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: All right?
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  Speaker 2: So Spotify is the Swedish audio streaming platform that now
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: has more than six hundred million users worldwide, and each year.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Since twenty sixteen, Spotify has released their Wrapped feature in December.
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  Speaker 2: Which basically gives each user a personalized overview of their
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: listening habits for the past year.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: You're listening age based on the music you listened to.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Mine was sixty seven?
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  Speaker 2: Your favorite podcast?
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  Speaker 1: Two ahem, AHM and b Man. Wrapped twenty twenty five
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  Speaker 1: hit over two hundred million engaged users in its first
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  Speaker 1: twenty four hours.
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  Speaker 2: That's nineteen percent higher than last year, when Spotify included
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  Speaker 2: an AI podcast which completely flopped and b Man.
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  Speaker 1: The biggest markets for Wrapped were in the US, in India,
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  Speaker 1: Indonesia and Thailand as well.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing like building network effects with your scarily rich data.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: The most valuable customer acquisition channels are often the ones
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  Speaker 2: you never pay for.
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  Speaker 1: When Rapped first started, it was positioned as a form
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  Speaker 1: of self expression for all of Spotify's listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Beju boy, It's turned into millions and millions of unpaid
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  Speaker 2: promotions across the world.
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  Speaker 1: Get this in its verse twenty four hours, listeners shared
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  Speaker 1: their Spotify Wrapped more than five hundred million times on
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  Speaker 1: their socials.
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  Speaker 2: Which is forty one percent more than last year. That
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  Speaker 2: means hundreds of millions of brand ambassadors. That means hundreds
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: of millions of people broadcasting Spotify's product and brand to
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  Speaker 2: their entire social circle. And because it comes from friends
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  Speaker 2: rather than ads, it carries more trust and far more reach.
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  Speaker 2: So Jazi boy, it's a reminder that the strongest growth
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  Speaker 2: levers often come from creating something people genuinely just want
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  Speaker 2: to share, and not something that you just push it them.
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  Speaker 1: For our third and final story.
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  Speaker 2: Lululemon's founder is trolling the current CEO as he claims
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  Speaker 2: the company he started has lost its cool factor shots.
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  Speaker 1: By it and I can tell you, man, this is
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  Speaker 1: getting a little bit nasty, so tell me more so.
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  Speaker 2: Lululemon pretty much invented ath leisure back in nineteen ninety eight.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and since then it's built a cult following around
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  Speaker 1: its leggings as well as its overall premium lifestyle brand.
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  Speaker 2: The founder of Lula Lemon goes by the name of
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  Speaker 2: Chip Wilson, and he's been a pretty controversial figure.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. He stepped down from his role as CEO in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and five and stepped off the board in
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  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen after making lots and I mean lots of
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  Speaker 1: inappropriate comments and jasboy.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: While Lula Lemon has grown rapidly over the last decade,
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five has been a year two forget Yeah.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: It's been a year that rivals such as Alo and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Vory have really stepped into the upscale at leisure market.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, lul Lemon share price is down fifty two
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  Speaker 2: percent this year. If you don't mind, so.
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  Speaker 1: Now be man at. Chip Wilson, the founder of lul Lemon,
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  Speaker 1: has turned into Lulu's loudest critic.
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  Speaker 2: Firing shots on LinkedIn and even brought a full page
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  Speaker 2: ad in the Wall Street Journal to complain.
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  Speaker 1: He reckons that lul Lemon hired a CEO that quote
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  Speaker 1: speaks Wall Street but lacks a visionary spark, And with
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Chip Wilson still holding eight percent of the company shares,
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  Speaker 1: his opinions are pretty impactful.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here? CEO who builds
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the rocket isn't always the one who should fly it. Now,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: man broadly, there are two CEO archetypes. In the left corner,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: you've got your founder CEO. These are the CEOs who
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: started the company.
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  Speaker 1: They often bring the big vision. They act on instinct,
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  Speaker 1: and they understand their customers deeply, and.
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  Speaker 2: That's why they're so good at building products that people
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  Speaker 2: pretty much obsess over. In the right corner, you've got
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  Speaker 2: the operator CEO, and these prey to CEOs are very different.
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  Speaker 1: They shine once the company needs discipline.
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  Speaker 2: Think scaling stores, improving margins, managing supply chains.
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  Speaker 1: They're less about vision and more about systems the just boy.
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  Speaker 2: When a brand is built on culture, turning it into
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  Speaker 2: a numbers first machine can really drain the magic the man.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Some companies actually thrive under operator CEOs, like Microsoft with Sashanadella.
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  Speaker 2: Share price up ten folt since he became CEO.
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  Speaker 1: But culture led brands like lu Lemon, they need leaders
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  Speaker 1: who can protect the vibe as fiercely as the financials.
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  Speaker 2: And curly chip lou Lemon Wilson doesn't believe in the
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  Speaker 2: current CEOs flu Sam.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: It has been a big year of business news and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: finance stories and we've loved chatting on the pod about
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: all business news stories in Australia and around the world.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Over the coming week, we're going to be doing recaps
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of some of the best stories from twenty twenty five
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: across tech, across retail to make sure you stay tuned
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to hear the greatest stories they ever lived in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Wednesday.