MR DIY begins 2024 financial year on a positive note

PETALING JAYA: Average sales per store of MR DIY Group (M) Bhd continued to moderate in the first quarter of financial year 2024 (1Q24) as the home-improvement retailer added 167 new outlets in a year.

Calculations by Starbiz showed that the average sales per store was RM884,714 in 1Q24, on the back of a quarterly revenue of Rm1.14bil and total store count of 1,292 stores.

For comparison, the average sales per store in 4Q23 was RM913,719 and in 1Q23, RM930,134.

Despite the moderation, MR DIY began the financial year of 2024 on a positive note as its total revenue in 1Q24 increased by 9.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rm1.14bil.

Meanwhile, the net profit rose at a faster pace by 13.4% y-o-y to Rm144.9mil.

The stronger quarterly revenue was driven primarily by a 15.4% growth in new stores.

“Transaction volume rose in tandem by 15.8% to 44.2 million as the company continued to strategically expand its store network across its core brands, from 1,125 stores in 1Q23 to 1,292 stores as of March 31, 2024,” stated MR DIY in a statement.

The company further noted that its gross profit margin for 1Q24 rose 1.5 percentage points y-o-y to 45.8%, led by the normalisation of freight costs.

In the first quarter, MR DIY increased its store count by 37 from 1,255 as of end2023.

This, however, had resulted in higher expenses, particularly staff costs and utilities, as well as depreciation of fixed assets and the right-of-use assets.

“Our growing store network makes us increasingly accessible to more Malaysians and our plan in 2024 is to further cement this proximity by opening 180 new stores in 2024 and surpass our target of 2,000 stores by 2028,” stated chief executive officer Adrian Ong.

Overall, as a result of improved profitability, MR DIY’S earnings per share rose to 1.53 sen.

The home-improvement retailer declared a dividend of one sen per share, amounting to Rm94.5mil for 1Q24 and is equivalent to a payout ratio of 65.2% of profit after tax.

Looking ahead, MR DIY said it will continue its “measured” store expansion strategy while also pursuing opportunities through horizontal and vertical acquisitions to accelerate growth.

“Central to this is our promise to offer customers a wide variety of everyday essentials, with over 16,000 active product stock-keeping units available at ‘Always Low Prices’ in convenient locations nationwide.

“We practise strict data discipline and use data analytics extensively to optimise our product mix.

“We are confident of our core business strategies and believe that the group is well-positioned to capitalise on growth opportunities by leveraging the strength of our robust business model,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.