Officeworks ready to take on Amazon

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 16-Jun-17

Officeworks is diversifying away from its traditional office products market as it prepares for Amazon’s arrival in Australia. MD Mark Ward says the areas that it is looking to expand into include parcel delivery, art supplies and business processing, and that the value of the current and potential markets that it is looking to operate in is around $A55 billion. Ward says he was "not disappointed" by parent company Wesfarmers’ decision not to proceed with an initial public offering for Officeworks.

CORPORATES
OFFICEWORKS SUPERSTORES PTY LTD, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, AUSTRALIA POST, STARTRACK COMMUNICATIONS (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, COLES GROUP LIMITED, MOULA PTY LTD, STAPLES INCORPORATED, OFFICE DEPOT INCORPORATED

Retailers start cutting Sunday penalty rates

Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 10-Apr-17

The Fair Work Commission recently approved a new workplace agreement for kikki.K employees that includes provision for changes to Sunday and public holiday penalty rates in the retail industrial award. FWC deputy president Geoff Bull conceded that the stationery retailer’s employees could be adversely affected by this clause. However, he found that kikki.K’s commitment to increase employees’ base hourly rates by at least 5.7 per cent more than the award rate for 2015-16 meant the agreement complies with the "better off overall test".

CORPORATES
KIKKI.K PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, RETAIL AND FAST FOOD WORKERS UNION, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP

Kikki.K just outpaces Smiggle

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 : 4-Nov-15

Australian retailer Kikki.K has posted a 2014-15 net profit of $A1.1m, while sales rose by 28 per cent to $A60.9m. The stationery retailer’s sales and store numbers have risen strongly in the last five years. Rival stationery retailer Smiggle posted sales of $A132.6m in fiscal 2015, which is 26 per cent higher than previously, while OfficeWorks’ sales were up 8.8 per cent at $A1.7bn.

CORPORATES
KIKKI.K PTY LTD, SMIGGLE PTY LTD, PREMIER INVESTMENTS LIMITED – ASX PMV, OFFICEWORKS SUPERSTORES PTY LTD, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, BOOST JUICE PTY LTD, ECORP LIMITED, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, JURLIQUE INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD, KORDA MENTHA AND COLLEAGUES PTY LTD, 333 CAPITAL PTY LTD