Hand in all pies sees Kogan.com profit AU$7m in H1
Kogan.com has announced its financial results for the half year ended December 31, 2018, reporting AU$7.4 million in after-tax profit -- down from the AU$8.3 million reported during the same period a year prior.
According to the company headed by Ruslan Kogan, its results were impacted by investments made in expanding its warehousing footprint.
During the six month period, gross profit totalled AU$45.1 million, on revenue of AU$231.8 million. Of that revenue, AU$224.8 million came from the sale of goods.
Kogan now boasts 1.5 million active customers -- an increase of 32.2 percent year-on-year -- across its retail, travel, mobile, mobile NZ, internet, insurance, health, life, pet, marketplace, and money channels, as well as its Dick Smith business and via products sold on ebay.com and amazon.com.au.
"In the first half of financial year 2019, we have continued our significant investments in our improved customer offering," the CEO said, pointing to the company's new nationwide logistics network.
"We now operate in more industries than ever with a very compelling offer in each industry.
"During the half, we also continued to lay the foundation for future growth by forming long-term partnerships with Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, Pepper, Citi, and Mercer. These partnerships enable us to launch multiple offerings under the Kogan Money brand, which we expect to scale in 2019."
Kogan Mobile, which was relaunched on Vodafone's 3G network in October 2015, experienced "strong" active customer growth during the half year, with Kogan noting it expects to increase ARPU "progressively as customers roll off their promotional plans and onto everyday plans".
Mobile accounted for 12 percent of the company's gross profit.
Launched in April 2018, Kogan Internet, also bouncing off the Vodafone network, is a focus for the company, it said, currently "working with partners to implement strategies to accelerate growth".
At CES last year, Ruslan Kogan told ZDNet that the online retailer is in a better position than Australia's major telcos in the NBN services market, because it has never had to bear the expenses of building out fixed-line infrastructure investment, only to have to move customers across to the NBN.
"We are in a brilliant position in that industry because ... you've got all these telcos that have fixed infrastructure that have had capital expenses building out networks over the last few decades -- all of that just becomes meaningless, and everyone gets to buy at the same price from NBN and it becomes a customer acquisition play: Who can acquire customers the cheapest," he told ZDNet.
"Our cost of acquisition is the cheapest, and we can pass that saving onto the customer. So we're very excited by this; it's basically a government-mandated switchover of a huge utility that people want, need, and are using more and more of, and we will have an incredibly competitive price on it."
For FY18, Kogan.com reported net profit of AU$14.1 million, up 277 percent, on revenue of AU$412.3 million, up 42 percent.
Kogan.com went public in July 2016.
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