Gross profit more important than ever in 2014

Gross profit more important than ever in 2014

I have been undertaking a benchmarking exercise  with a growing group of independent Australian newsagency business for several years using their scanning data.  Reviewing the latest newsagency benchmark sales data I can see some business owners reengineering their businesses in pursuit of a better gross product result.

While the overall newsagency channel average gross profit remains unchanged at 28% to 32%, more newsagents are achieving more than 32%. In fact, this is vitally important for the health of your business.

With wages, rent and other operating costs increasing and the selling price of a chuck of what we sell remaining not keeping up with the cost increases we need to find other ways to grow gross profit.

Improving gross profit starts with buying better and recasting the range of what you sell – redirecting inventory investment from lower gross profit lines and slower moving lines to higher gross profit and faster moving lines.

Making these moves requires us to be retailers and not shop keepers. It requires us to think about our businesses strategically and to rely less on being told what to do.