Record revenue for TFG amid strong ‘post Covid’ recovery

TFG – the JSE-listed vertically integrated clothing, homeware and furniture retailer – has staged a strong ‘post Covid’ recovery, with full-year revenue hitting a record R46.2 billion for its year ended 31 March 2022.

The group’s latest results, published on Friday, shows that revenue for the year surged almost 30% from the Covid-hit 2021 financial year, while group retail turnover shot up 31.6% to R43.4 billion.

This is despite the impact of the riots in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng in July last year, which saw almost 200 of its stores being looted and damaged.

Headline earnings per share (Heps) came in at 1 009 cents, up 409.9%, compared to 197.9 cents per share for its prior financial year. Group operating profit before finance costs came in at R4.8 billion (vs loss of R719.2 million for FY21).

Dividends

TFG has returned to paying a full-year dividend on the back of the strong performance, declaring a final dividend of 330 cents per share.

It paid out an interim dividend of 170 cents for its half-year, while no dividend was declared in the 2021 financial year.

TFG says the strong performance also came with market share gains and increased profitability.

“The group delivered a robust post-Covid-19 recovery during the past financial year… Retail outlets delivered a strong trading performance as economic activity resumed in the wake of reduced restrictions on movement and travel,” it notes in a Sens results statement.

Read:
TFG beats Pepkor to secure Coricraft and Volpes owner for R2.35bn
Foschini Group rebounds from devastation of Covid and July looting spree

“In South Africa, the restrictions were eased to adjusted Level 1 from 1 October 2021. The restrictions remained at adjusted Level 1 during the fourth quarter and the National State of Disaster was terminated on 4 April 2022.

“In Australia, the vaccination rate has reached almost 90% which has led to the easing of restrictions by most state governments. In respect of New South Wales and Victoria, two financially significant states in Australia, stores reopened on 11 October 2021 and 30 October 2021 respectively after severe lockdown restrictions were experienced in the second quarter. On 24 February 2022 the UK Government ended all legal Covid-19 restrictions in England,” TFG points out.

“As previously announced on Sens, 198 South African stores were looted and damaged to varying degrees by the civil unrest experienced in the KwaZulu-Natal province and parts of the Gauteng province during July 2021.

“The group reopened 176 of these stores by the end of May 2022. The remainder of the stores will only reopen from June 2022 onwards and 2 stores will not be reopened,” it adds.

TFG says it has received R541 million in Sasria payments to date as a result of the looting and damage, while the business interruption claim submitted is expected to be finalised by the insurers by December 2022.