Stores 2008 Global Powers of Retailing - (Page 7) 2008 global powers of retailing Standing out from the crowd Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (“Deloitte”), in conjunction with STORES Magazine, is pleased to present the 11th annual Global Powers of Retailing. This report identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for the companies’ fiscal year 2006 (encompasses fiscal years ended through June 2007). The report also provides an outlook for the global economy; an analysis of market capitalization in the industry; and a discussion of 10 major trends affecting retailers. Global powers of retailing top 250 highlights 2006 – Another strong year for the global retail industry In 2006, the global economy was strong with global GDP rising an astounding 5.4%, one of the fastest rates ever recorded. Relatively rapid economic expansion took place in such disparate locations as Argentina, Canada, China, Germany, India, Russia, the UK, and the US. In many countries, elevated home prices added substantially to consumer wealth, thereby stimulating expanded spending. Even the US was still experiencing the last gasps of the housing bubble, and consumers were fairly flush with cash. Big emerging markets continued to experience rapid growth in consumer incomes, with millions shifting from poverty to the middle class. Economically, this was a good time to be in the retailing business. Strong consumer spending resulted in healthy growth for the industry’s Top 250 retailers in fiscal 2006, the financial period covered in this report. Total retail sales for the Top 250 Global Powers of Retailing rose to $3.25 trillion, up 8.0% from last year’s Top 250 total of $3.01 trillion. Compared with fiscal 2005, more companies participated in that growth. While 49 of the Top 250 saw sales drop in 2005, only 36 retailers experienced declining sales among this year’s group. A growing number of retailers have been taken private in recent years, making it more difficult to measure profitability for the group as a whole. For the 2006 fiscal year, net income/ loss figures were available for 187 companies. The average net profit margin for this group was 3.6%, a slight uptick from 3.5% in 2005 and a significant improvement over the average profit margin of 2.7% in 2004. Just seven companies reported a net loss in 2006, compared with 15 of 188 companies in 2005. Based on the 187 companies that disclosed their profits/losses, return on assets averaged 5.8%. This, along with financial leverage (total assets / stockholders’ equity) of 3.4x, resulted in average return on equity of 15.7%. To rank among the Top 250 globally required fiscal 2006 retail sales of at least $2.72 billion, up from $2.5 billion the year before. The average retail sales volume for companies in this elite group was $13.0 billion. (Top 250 Highlights continued on p G26.) www.deloitte.com/consumerbusiness STORES / January 2008 G7 http://www.deloitte.com/consumerbusiness
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.