Furnmart buoyant about the future

Botswana’s leading furniture group is confident about the company’s future performance more especially after shutting down some of its loss-making units in the last couple of months. Towards the end of last year, the BSE listed company started a restructuring process in some of its operations. The Zambian subsidiary, which has been making losses, was the main target. The result has been the closure of all stores in the copper-rich country.

“Management’s focus will remain on the respective business models and specifically on sales growth, gross margin enhancement, expense control, productivity and debtor’s management,” said the company which is managed by Daniel Servaas le Roux. The company’s bottom line is already in a better position post restructuring exercise. For the year to July 2017, the group which owns Furnmart and Home Corp stores reported a profit of P64, 6 million, 35.2 percent higher than the same period last year. Trading subsequent to financial year-end has also been encouraging, said Furnmart.

The company’s multi-pronged strategy is starting to bring results. “The cost saving initiatives, considerable efforts in improving the quality of our respective debtors’ books and new customer acquisition strategies are starting to bear fruit,” said the Gaborone-based company. Going forward, Furnmart will look for new growth opportunities in the Southern Africa region. New store growth will come primarily out of South Africa, stated the group.