Financial Report for David Jones Essay

David Jones’ position in the retail industry and the availability of numerous suppliers in the market reduces the threat of forward integration. Suppliers also want to be associated with David Jones due to its strong brand position in Australia. In 2008, 50 new iconic brands were introduced to David Jones portfolio (Annual report, 2008), which reflects the willingness of suppliers to add their products in David Jones’ product offerings.

The following financial report provides an analysis of the financial ratios of David Jones with its close competitor in the retail sector, Myer. The financial ratios analyzed include profitability ratios, leverage ratios, efficiency ratios and market ratios for the two companies. The analysis utilizes individual company time-series analysis as well as industry cross-sectional analysis with the aim of determining the competitiveness of David Jones relative to its close competitor Myer.

The power of buyers in the industry varies at different levels depending on the field. For pharmaceutical drug companies, which have thousands of patients, customers have lower price sensitivity as they are rarely able to refuse the treatments they need and they have low bargaining leverage due to commonly lack of information as well as knowledge on the drugs. For biotech firms that distribute specialized products to the government and hospitals, their customers actually have more of a bargaining power due to being the sole consumer sources

The threat that substitute products pose to an industry's profitability depends on the relative price-to-performance ratios of the different types of products or services to which customers can turn to satisfy the same basic need. The threat of

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The bargaining power of suppliers in the industry is low. There are numerous suppliers in this industry, and the large department stores have the ability to negotiate for the lowest prices. In addition, the switching costs are low, as the products are not highly differentiated. There are a large volume of purchases in the industry, allowing the department stores to exert even more power over the suppliers.

Bargaining power of buyers is medium-high because of the low switching costs and wider spectrum of similar products selling at competitive prices due to the influence of developing countries

The purpose of this paper is to advise analyze the financial statements of Dillard’s, Inc. in order to recommend whether or not my client should invest $1 million in the large retail company. I will compare the financial statements of Dillard’s, Inc. its competitor, Kohl’s Corporation. Investing in retail can be risky because a retail company’s performance is very heavily influenced by factors that have nothing to do with the actual company such as the overall performance of the economy or the weather during the holiday shopping season. There is, however, potential for profitability within the retail sector. Based on my analysis, I recommend that the client should not invest in Dillard’s, Inc. for the following reasons. First, Dillard’s has experience a decline in net income in the last three years. Second, liquidity ratios indicate that they could face possible liquidity constraints in the future. Third, long-term debt paying ability ratios indicate that the company could have trouble paying off the principal of its current debt obligations. Fourth, the profitability ratios are well below industry averages, suggesting that there are more profitable companies to invest in within the industry. And finally, Investor analysis ratios provide mixed opinion of the future performance of the company. I conclude that retail can be a profitable industry to invest in if an investor has the risk tolerance and risk capacity to withstand the uncertainty, but neither Dillard’s

Bargaining power of supplier: High levels of competition among suppliers act to reduce prices to producers. This is a positive for Ford Motor Company. Standardization of parts allowed Ford to reduce dependency on fixed supplier/vendor which goes into producer’s favor.

Threat of Substitutes: Few substitutes such as bars for hard liquor, restaurant for food, etc. The threat is low because product sold depends upon customers taste and preference and there is minimal product differentiation.

Suppliers in the industry seek buyers who can move a lot of merchandise in a short period of time. The threat of substitution is a big deal in this industry. Most retail stores carry the same types of products with little differentiation. This makes it difficult for companies in this industry to keep customers coming back. This places an emphasis on the need to build a good reputation with customers.

Buyers (consumers) have a great deal of bargaining power because the buyer has a variety of brands to choose from and a lot of options to choose from such as precook, fresh, roasted and boneless.

The risk of generic substitution is also increasing with especially China dominating the production market. Customers will substitute for a generic product if the disposable incomes of the customers reduce resulting in customers willing to trade down for a inferior but cheaper product.

Bargaining power of suppliers. Suppliers have the ability to leverage, control, and negotiate the cost of their products (Hill et al., 2015, p. 56). In the case of the suppliers of the office supplies industry, more so for Staples, the bargaining power is weak and is considered to be low. The reason for its power being weak is a result of large companies having several suppliers that will easily compete against each other to provide the lowest cost of products.

- Suppliers’ bargaining power: The company does bargains with the suppliers, suppliers are first carefully selected by carrying out bidding then a fixed price is set by multi consent then material is provided by the supplier.

The bargaining power of buyers is affected by the concentration and number of consumers, when buyer power is strong, they gain the power to choose between producers and ultimately equip themselves with bargaining power which then the producers will have to conform to in order to produce profit, under these conditions the buyer has the most influence in determining the price of products. Also when buyers have strong bargaining power in the exchange relationship, competition can be affected in several ways. Powerful buyers can bargain for lower prices, better