DJ turbulence worth following

LIKE the ‘butterfly effect’ of chaos theory, will a certain director ‘flapping her wings’ on the other side of the Indian Ocean produce – or at least portend – massive, truly seminal change in department store retailing on this side?

Former Westpac CEO Gail Kelly has ‘flown’ out of the Cape Town boardroom of the South African Woolworths – no relation to the Aussie one – for the last time.

The reason for her departure was unstated but she was ‘accompanied’ by another director, suggesting at least some degree of boardroom and perhaps even broader corporate ‘turbulence’.

Certainly, times are ‘turbulent’ on this side of the Indian, at David Jones, that Woolies’s $2 billion Aussie investment. DJ has just lost – yet another – CEO after its profit halved in the year to last June.

We are waiting to see how DJ performed in the all-important December half-year, as broad retailing turned somewhat sour and old-style bricks and mortar retailing – even premium DJ-style – would have found it even tougher.

We are also waiting to see how its slightly downmarket neighbour Myer – next door in Melbourne, across the road in Sydney – performed in its even more all-important half-year to the end of January.

If Kelly’s departure signals something is seriously amiss in Cape Town, Woolies might have to reconsider whether it can afford to continue to own a ‘challenged’ DJ in Australia.

Watch this space.