However, it does not rule out the possibility of a “price adjustment” in the next three to six months, managing director Shafie Shamsuddin told a press conference after the company’s AGM today.
In line with that, he added, Aeon is already preparing initiatives to help consumers adjust to the current price landscape.
He attributed the success in keeping prices down to better margins from its segmented personalised offerings and better cost management.
The prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages have risen by 4% year-on-year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
On the issue of food shortages and supply chain disruptions, Shafie said the company is working closely with its partners and suppliers to address the problem.
“For example, when we realised that there would be a shortage of wheat, we spoke to our suppliers and we are grateful for the assurance that there would be no issue in supply at this point in time,” he said.
He added that the company will always work with its suppliers and partners to help mitigate the impact of food shortages.
Shafie also acknowledged that the economic outlook for 2022 has seen an improvement over the previous year as the country enters the endemic phase of Covid-19.
Shafie, who is also the CEO, said sales in the company’s malls and stores in the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia have been rising since the reopening of borders with Singapore.
“To drive growth, we will continue to accelerate our digital transformation to seamlessly adopt an online-merge-offline (OMO) strategy, including stepping up efforts to increase customer adoption of the myAEON2go app,” he said.
Shafie also gave an assurance that customers would see greater engagement and heightened experiences through its loyalty programme, the iAEON App.
The company reported a 27.4% growth in net profit to RM28.07 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, from RM22.03 million in the same quarter of the preceding year.
The quarter’s revenue was reported lower by 1.1% at RM1.002 billion against RM1.013 billion previously.
The profit after tax for FY 2021 was RM85.3 million, up from RM41.4 million the year before.
Shafie said the company has invested RM40 million this year in the renovation of Aeon Alpha Angle while about RM30 million to RM40 million has been reserved for a new general merchandise departmental store that has been earmarked to open in the last quarter of 2022.
“We are focusing our capex on digitalisation. It will account for 20% of our investments to ensure that in the coming years, it will enable us to use data analytics to chart future growth and progress. The rest is for the maintenance of our malls and stores,” he added.