Forum Archive Index - March 2001

["Peter Maiden" <pmaiden@xtra.co.nz>]

Those interested in RBD, or about the quality of content in annual reports, should read David McEwens 'Report Card' in last weeks National Business Review.

 

This is probably one of David's most challenging pieces for a while.

 

Talking about RBD's report missing same store sales comparisons David wrote ' shockingly, the information has been removed from it's latest annual report. Readers could be forgiven for jumping to the conclusion that these figures were so unattractive they had to be banished'

 

He then went into an analysis of the financial performance of RBD in an attempt to glean the true performance.

and basically came to the conclusion 'The report looks like it has been hijacked by public relations advisers, with an emphasis on putting a positive spin on information rather than maintaining  communications with shareholders. Instead of saying the company had yet another ordinary year, with 'normalised' profits down on 1999, the report describes it as a year of 'transformation' - a word used ad nauseum in the document. This seems to be overstating the situation considering its biggest asset, KFC, representing 75% of sales, has done very little and Starbucks merely opened a few more stores.'

 

All David wanted from RBD was a bit if straight talking from RBD.  I agree - a value that many companys are mssing these days.

 

Cheers

 

Peter