Kogan soars despite poor iphone uptake

AUSSIES have snubbed the pricey new iphone, according to a trading update from online retailer Kogan.com.

Shares in the native e-commerce pioneer surged yesterday after it reported its strongest Christmas period on record, defying the doom and gloom hanging over the nation’s bricks-and-mortar retail sector.

Sales for the six months to December were 9.7 per cent higher than in the same period a year earlier, an unaudited update lodged with the stock market by Kogan showed.

Sales of Kogan products and brands exclusive to the site were up by more than 23.6 per cent. But strong sales in those channels were partly offset by a dramatic 46.7 per cent fall in Kogan’s “global brands” division, which includes Apple, Samsung and Google.

Kogan laid the blame squarely on a lukewarm reception to the latest iphone models in Australia, pointing out global brand sales grew by 8.5 per cent when Apple was stripped out of the result.

“Global brands revenue … was significantly impacted by subdued demand for new Apple products, which resulted in a significant reduction in sales, in particular of the new iphone,” the company said.

Apple issued a shock revenue downgrade earlier this month, largely driven by weaker than expected sales of its new iphone models XR, XS and XS Max in China.

It was the first time Apple had reduced its sales forecast in almost two decades. The poor uptake of new iphones, criticised for not offering enough new features to warrant an upgrade and being too expensive, has lost Apple its $US1 trillion company status.

The Apple selldown hit tech companies across the globe.

Despite the slowdown among Apple products, Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan said the online retailer had notched up its best Christmas trading result and ended the year with more than 1.5 million active customers.

Profit margins in the six months to December had remained broadly in line with those posted in the same period a year earlier, he said.

“Our team is proud to have delivered the best Christmas trading period the business has ever had,” Mr Kogan said.

“We have invested in the Kogan brand, our logistics capability and our inventory in the lead-up to the back-toschool trading period. We have also improved our marketing performance and the efficiency of some of our variable costs.”