Crossed Thursday at the meeting of shareholders of Reitmans, the investor and shareholder Justin Pintwala believes that this demonstrates an openness to change. “As long as she has the autonomy to make changes,” he says.
Shareholder and portfolio manager Jesse Gamble, of the firm Donville Kent, also sees the hiring of the new CEO with a positive eye, but says he is eager to hear from her in order to know her strategy. She was not present Thursday at the shareholders' meeting.
Andrea Limbardi will have "a lot of leeway", says Daniel Rabinowicz. “In the short term, there's no great urgency for Andrea to come in and fix what's broken. That said, in the longer term, we want to return to good growth and unearth new opportunities. But of course we have to question some of our ways of doing things. »
He speaks of a "new context", even a new era in retail with digital and the use of artificial intelligence.
It takes young blood and new blood to lead the company in this direction.
Daniel Rabinomicz, Chairman of the Board of Reitmans
For Stephen Reitman, the most important thing was to find someone who understood how to go about reaching consumers.
Andrea Limbardi will be the first non-Reitman family member to lead the company, which will celebrate its centenary in three years.
His hiring is the result of a reflection that stretched over 15 months. “We wanted someone who already had experience working with the founder or founder of a controlling company. And this is the case with Andrea Limbardi, who has been running Indigo for twenty years. She works closely with Heather Reisman, the founder and controlling shareholder of Indigo”, explains Daniel Rabinowicz.
“It's very important,” he says. Andrea hopes to develop an interesting working relationship with Stephen Reitman so that he can act as a bit of a mentor to her while she learns the inner workings and culture of the company. »
Stephen Reitman, who will become executive chairman of the board in September, says now is the time to think about the future and make room for someone who can help modernize the company.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Stephen Reitman, at the company's shareholder meeting on Thursday
A stock deemed undervalued
The management of Reitmans is convinced that the action is undervalued on the stock market. The book value of the stock is approximately $5, notes chief financial officer Richard Wait. Over the past year, Reitmans shares have gone from 75 cents to their current level of $3 on the Toronto Venture Exchange.
The executives also say they are examining the possibility of migrating to the Toronto Stock Exchange, which could potentially attract the interest of institutional investors and analysts.
Reitmans presented its performance at the start of the year on Wednesday evening. Sales increased by 7%, to 165 million, for the months of February, March and April.
Net loss for the quarter widened to 3.8 million from 1.7 million a year ago.
It should be noted, however, that the first quarter is historically the least profitable at Reitmans since it follows the important holiday season and is between two seasons.
Management attributes the increase in the loss in particular to the increase in the salaries of store and head office staff, as well as to the increase in rents.
Reitmans has returned to investors' radar screen in recent months after using the Creditors Arrangement Act to clean up its balance sheet and streamline operations during the pandemic. Several stores were closed and leases were renegotiated.
Portfolio manager Jesse Gamble points out that Reitmans has deep cash, has no debt and estimates that the company owns real estate worth approximately 240 million, while Reitmans market capitalization is less than 110 million. .
Reitmans is one of the few retailers with a growing customer base, he says. He estimates that the target market for plus-size, mature women is growing at 3.3% per year.