Woolworths Financial Ratio Report Analysis - Accounting Report

In accordance to the annual report of Woolworths Limited 2016, the current accounting practice that is applied to the business regarding its inventory disclosure includes; a perpetual inventory system which continually updates the information by increasing or decreasing inventory from reports throughout the year to verify accounting records (Bragg 2016). A perpetual inventory system in comparison to a periodic inventory system is more efficient and effective for larger corporations. With entities like Woolworths, many transactions occur between themselves and other stakeholders, so by utilising a perpetual inventory system, it saves time and also money (Woolworths 2016)

As long as the current ratio, which takes inventories into account, is higher than 1, they do not experience any problems repaying their short-term liabilities. However, the quick ratio is smaller than 1 and has marginally decreased in 2011. Due to this Next Plc might have problems paying off their short-term liabilities if sales decreases in the next years.

In the past few years, they have experienced a significant increase in inventory days. Not having attractive inventory leads to a decrease in sales and an increase in discounts and write offs leading to further decreases in EBITDA Margins. In 2009, the inventory turnover took 215 days. This is significantly above Le Chateaus competitors, for example Reitman’s inventory took only 72 days (Annual Report 2010). This means it takes Le Chateaus three times as long to sell inventory compared to their competitors. To make matters worse, this trend has been exacerbated in recent years. Le Chateau’s turnover has ballooned to a staggering 341 days while Reitman’s has kept inventory turnover stable at only 76 days.

Another indication of ‘how efficient the companies are in purchasing and selling goods’ is the stock turnover Ratio (J. R. Dyson, 2004, 258). As a group M&S have seen this liquidity ratio shrink over the past couple of years. Similarly Tesco Plc has also experienced the same fate but the ratio calculated still remains high.

In general, a high inventory turnover ratio is better than a low ratio. A high ratio implies good inventory management. A very low level of inventory has serious implications. It adversely affects the ability to meet customer demand as it may mot cope up with its customer requirements.

5. Inventory Turnover: This ratio is rendered by taking the cost of goods sold, for a time period, divided by average inventory. This shows how many times a firms inventory is sold and replaced during the period of time that it is calculated for.

In regards to inventory turnover in 2009, CVS experienced a favorable amount of inventory on hand compared to cost of goods sold. When comparing this result to 2011 it climbed to 10.66, which improves the company’s regulation of managing inventory. From 2009 to 2010 there was an improvement

For this capability, strong financial support and effective saving processes as fundamental resources enable Woolworths Ltd to provide products at relatively lower prices. The effective saving processes include the global sourcing process and direct store deliveries also play an important role to achieve competitive prices by reducing inventory costs and operating costs. Besides, the long term and good relationships with suppliers makes Woolworths get this capability to get lower cost products. Then combining the online network and existing delivery system makes customers purchase more conveniently. Last, Woolworths Ltd is also engaging in product expansion in different industries.

This set of data belongs to the online retailer industry. The most significant categories that helped with our decision was the low inventory for a retail business and the relatively high inventory turnover. The reasoning behind the high inventory turnover was because the goods were allowed to sit in storage until sold because of the online aspect of the business. We were also able

Asset Management  Parts Inventory Turnover in Days is higher than the industry average as a large proportion of parts must still be sourced from Asia due to lack of North American suppliers. Transportation raises the cost, and additional stock must be carried to guard against interruptions in the longer supply chain. This should improve in the future as the more local suppliers are developed and JIT principles are applied. WP Inventory Turnover in days is lower than industry average due to the modern, highly automated assembly line. FG Inventory Turnover in days is much lower than industry average due to the flexible nature of the assembly lines that allows it to quickly switch between the products. Also inventory can be delivered quickly

Liquidity ratio. The firm’s liquidity shows a downward trend through time. The current ratio is decreasing because the growth in current liabilities outpaces the growth of current assets. The quick ratio is also declining but not as fast as the current ratio. From 1991 to 1992, it only decreased 0.35 units while the current ratio decreased 0.93 units. Looking at the common size balance sheet, we also see that the percentage of inventory is growing from 33% to 48% indicating Mark X could not convert its inventory to cash.

With this company the inventory management ratios further indicate that there may be an issue with inventory and inventory controls. The inventory turnover ratio is lower than the industry average and the days’ sales in inventory are high. A company wants to turn inventory quickly to reduce storage costs, and

Liquidity In analyzing liquidity of the company, the current ratio is not very telling of a falling company. The company increased its ratio throughout the period of the income statement thus building upon its company assets and allowing for a 6-1 ratio of assets over its liabilities. This implies the company is still able to operate sufficiently even though it did not make its optimum current ratio of about 8-1. However, when one takes the inventory out of the equation with the quick ratio, the numbers show the true strength of short term liquidity. The numbers are still good, and do not indicate failure – but are

The liquidity position of a company can be evaluated using several ratios which evaluate short-term assets and liabilities and a firm’s ability to settle short-term debts (Gibson, 2011). These ratios can provide insight into a firm’s ability to repay its debts in the short term (Gibson, 2011). In turn they suggest a firm’s capacity for debt-satisfying capabilities into the future (Gibson, 2011). This paper will use financial statement data as cited in Gibson (2011) from 3M Company (3M) to better understand liquidity measures to evaluate a firm’s total liquidity position. The following paper will focus on various liquidity calculations, their meaning, and their interpretation relative to 3M. Finally, an overall view of 3M’s liquidity

Reviewing Exhibit 1 it is indicative that each year their actual inventory ratio continued to increase as opposed to decreasing. Keeping inventory in stock is good for clients but bad for capital when it remains on the shelves and doesn’t sell as quickly as you are producing it.