Wrapping up the retailers

Reporting season produced a much improved performance from the retail sector in FY15. The highlight came once again from Domino’s Pizza with the group reporting 40% NPAT growth. Despite a stellar share price performance, we believe there is still significant valuation upside particularly if the group acquires another Domino’s master franchise which we believe will occur. The housing-linked companies reported strong results including: JB Hi-Fi, Beacon Lighting, Adairs and Harvey Norman. The key question now is whether trading conditions are as good as they can get for these companies given the strong housing tailwind. We will continue to monitor this theme, but expect solid housing conditions have another 12 months to play out at least. Consumer staples, we see a challenging trading environment for all with Aldi’s continued growth into the market and Woolworths’ refocus on price in order to kick start sales growth. Wesfarmers remains our favoured play given the strong performance from its core retail businesses, while we think there is still too much risk
 to be overweight in Woolworths