Latest / Best of Business / John Journee: The Warehouse interim Chief Executive on making a profit again

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John Journee: The Warehouse interim Chief Executive on making a profit again · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: After five, Ryan.
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  Speaker 2: Bridge, are we seeing a bit of a turnaround for
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  Speaker 2: the warehouse? They've reported eleven point eight million and a
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  Speaker 2: half year net profit. This is after tax, but sales
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  Speaker 2: did decline. They're still expecting to make a loss over
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  Speaker 2: the entire year. John Janay is the interim CEO. He's
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  Speaker 2: with me now, good evening. All right, So what do
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  Speaker 2: you make of this? Because you've got warehouse revenue down
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  Speaker 2: two percent, stationary down seven, no lemming up one. What's
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  Speaker 2: it telling you?
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  Speaker 3: Definitely it's a work in progress, Ryan, would be the summary,
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  Speaker 3: But we're very encouraged with the momentum we're seeing across
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  Speaker 3: the business now.
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  Speaker 2: And what from what base did you come give us
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  Speaker 2: an idea of how bad things were?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we were basically, as you might recall, we were
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  Speaker 3: in our strategy that wasn't working with our customers last year.
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  Speaker 3: We've done some work to change that repoint, refocus our
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  Speaker 3: business on our retail brands, which absolutely critical in particular
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  Speaker 3: the warehouse, and actually get us back on what our
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  Speaker 3: customers want focused on that, and that's what our teams
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  Speaker 3: have been doing, and that's starting to show fruit, and
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  Speaker 3: that's turning up in product that has better pricing, much
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  Speaker 3: lower pricing, and much more exciting and engaging. Our customers
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  Speaker 3: are loving the new products that we're coming into store
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  Speaker 3: and they're responding really well.
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  Speaker 2: First Union says that your strategy is basically understaffing and
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  Speaker 2: not replacing people when they're sick.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, bit confused as to the lines he was drawing.
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  Speaker 3: There are the same as we're making predominantly coming from
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  Speaker 3: reduction and it costs and our project costs, and basically
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  Speaker 3: our green shoets are coming from our product successes and
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  Speaker 3: the engagement with our customers. So a little bit confused
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  Speaker 3: with where he's coming from. Over ten thousand team members
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  Speaker 3: up and down the country. They're a critical part of
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  Speaker 3: our operation and a success.
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  Speaker 2: So there has been no I mean, this is Rudd Hughes,
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  Speaker 2: the First Workers' Union representative. He says they've received seventy
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  Speaker 2: five understaffing complaints and six staff not being replaced. He said,
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  Speaker 2: this is your strategy is cutting costs to make profit. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you're saying he's wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure. Six staff at ten thousand as
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  Speaker 3: a particular strong fact point to be leaning internship. Again,
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  Speaker 3: we're seeing different things, and you know, we know what
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  Speaker 3: we're focused on and what our teams are supporting with us,
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  Speaker 3: and we're very appreciative of what they're doing. They are
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  Speaker 3: working hard. I think everybody today is working hard, and
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  Speaker 3: we appreciate them for that. And they're passionate about serving
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  Speaker 3: our customers and that's what we love them for.
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  Speaker 2: All Right, good on, John, thanks for coming on the show.
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  Speaker 2: Really appreciate it. That's John. Jane is the internship executive
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  Speaker 2: at the Warehouse.
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