CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 29 November 2024

Domestic Economy

"The difference between 2 per cent productivity growth, which is what we were experiencing decades ago, back when we were referred to as the lucky country, can very quickly turn us into the unlucky country when we’re at 0.5 per cent productivity growth [today]” Rob Scott, CEO, Wesfarmers Ltd

Sport

“What’s happened over the last three to four years is the business of sport as a category has now arrived, So there’s been a lot of investment and I think now a lot of people are starting to treat the business of sport as a true business not a hobby, not as something just for wealthy people to come and participate in, as a trophy of success, but as a true business category that can succeed…Valuations are going crazy…So there’s definitely a lot of interest in the category, and I think the reason is that everyone’s realised that sport is the last bastion of grabbing people’s attention live.” Larry Kestelman, Exec. Chair, National Basketball League

Airports

“As passenger numbers strongly increase, we need to make the pre and post-flight transition as fast and efficient as possible, while upholding world-class safety. This means removing paper incoming passenger cards for international arrivals, fast-tracking more kiosks and introducing all fliers to the exciting future of biometric screening.” Simon Westaway, CEO, Australian Airports Association

Consumer Staples

“I would highlight, in particular, because that has come so much to the fore when we were looking at it, the speed of change taking place in the way consumers behave, including in how and where they shop and of course, the dramatic advances in digital and in AI.”  Hein Schumacher, CEO, Unilever Plc.

Salt & Copper

[We] spend a fair bit of time with customers and our partners in the other markets, Indonesia and China and elsewhere. And we are very excited about what we've seen in the field…Such a shortfall in supply [of salt] must lead into an increase in price.” David Boshoff, CEO, BCI Minerals Ltd

“The fundamentals for copper remain very strong with a significant supply-demand imbalance forecast over the coming years” Graham Shuttleworth, CFO, Barrick Gold Corp.

Industry Super Funds

“Members are wanting their interaction with their super funds to be as seamless and as simple as possible, and they want a lot of things done immediately. Digital is certainly going to be a key part of that.” Deanne Stewart, CEO, Aware Super

Hospitality

"Australian cancellations are running at about the same level as seen through financial year 2024, although we did see an uptick in Australian business closures and cancellations through June and July, historically a heightened period due to financial year-end [constraints]. We are also continuing to see the hospitality industry customers in our fleet as the most impacted from economic conditions" Martyn Pomeroy, CEO, Smartpay Holdings Ltd

Hearing Devices

“Where we invest over the next 50 to 80 years, where can we best operate to support our customers...the US is becoming more attractive” Dig Howitt, CEO, Cochlear Ltd

Online Shopping

“There are still a lot of customers who are new. A lot of people shopping with us today didn’t shop with us 12 months ago. Typically, people come to us, they’ll buy one thing, and then they’ll discover other categories. Over time, they start to believe that it’s actually a decent way to shop. It turns out that getting cat litter delivered by Amazon is pretty good.” Jane Menzies, Country Manager, Amazon Inc.

Discretionary Spending

“Looking ahead, we expect that cost-of-living pressures will continue to impact demand. However, encouraging signs of recovery began to emerge toward the end of the 2024 financial year and have carried into the early months of the 2025 financial year, with positive sentiment steadily gaining momentum.” David Ahmet, CEO, MotorCycle Holdings Ltd

IVF Industry

“Short term volatility in IVF industry volumes is not uncommon, and such volatility is usually localised and short-lived.” Richard Davis, Chair, Monash IVF Group Ltd

PC Prices, IT & Cybersecurity

“We have not changed our view on the impact that AI PCs are going to have and current results support the assumptions that we have seen. AI PCs are going to drive an improvement of average selling price.” Enrique Lores, CEO, HP Inc.

“We're seeing continued demand from large enterprises seeking to unify security and IT management while eliminating vendors to further their consolidation objectives.” George Kurtz, CEO, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.

Inflation

“Shoppers out there, it’s quite strong across the board. The biggest problem is the rising costs for those running a business, wages and electricity keep going up and there’s less and less to go around” Gerry Harvey, Chair, Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd.

Geopolitical

“Global oil supply is increasing, but demand growth is very much muted. The geopolitical risk linked to Middle East continues, and it's very important to see how the new kind of U.S. policy is going to be going forward. 17% of the shipped oil hitting the market is sanctioned and 6% of global consumption includes sanctioned barrels.” Lars Barstad, CEO, Frontline Plc [one of the largest oil tanker shipping companies in the world]

SMEs

"There has been a market driven slowdown in SME equipment financing, which we believe is related to the higher interest rate environment where SMEs are delaying their investment spend. Despite this slowdown we continue to grow volumes, albeit at a slower rate." Stuart Grimshaw, CEO, Humm Group Ltd