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Groupe Bikini delivers steady sales despite travel industry slowdown

26 Apr '10

4 min read

Outlook 2
There are a number of factors suggesting an improvement in Groupe Bikini Village's prospects for fiscal 2010: among them, recent improvements in market conditions, increasing consumer confidence, and the success of the Company's strategy to fine-tune its operations in a changing market. However, Mr. Simard points out in the Company's annual report, Groupe Bikini Village is disciplined, and remains prepared for a continued challenging retail environment in the near future. "While our improved performance in the last six months was certainly encouraging, we recognize that the market rebound is ahead of us yet," he said.

"Given the continuing difficult conditions, we remain committed to our strategy to adapt our operations to suit market realities: we strongly believe this strategy will best position us for success as economic conditions improve. In particular, we will focus on managing working capital, inventories, supply risk, capital expenditures and debt level, as well as direct and indirect costs."

Despite challenging markets over the last two years, Groupe Bikini Village has continued to push forward with significant enhancements to its retail network, which it believes will improve its performance as economic conditions recover. The Company has:

• undertaken renovations in stores that are likely to deliver improved results
• closed stores that haven't performed as management had hoped
• exited expiring leases where it has identified opportunities to achieve sales objectives more efficiently, in smaller locations in higher-traffic areas of malls
• upgraded its systems and supply chain, to make its operations more effective and efficient.

"In 2010, we will continue to execute on these smart strategies, and sharpen our focus on store-level execution and performance, as a means of unlocking our full business potential," said Mr. Simard.

"In fiscal 2010, we will persist in our work to build shareholder value, by continuing to push for operational improvements, by ensuring our actions remain appropriate for the times, by capitalizing on opportunities that may present themselves, by addressing our capital requirements and capital structure in order to create our own opportunities, including pursuing strategic alternatives, wherever we can," he said.

Groupe Bikini Village inc

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