2020 Ace Retail Financial Report

Introduction

The 2020 Ace Retail Financial Report presents a detailed analysis of the financial performance of Ace retail stores. This report is designed to provide a straightforward yet comprehensive analysis of profitability among individual stores . The study collected data for single store operations. The analysis used financial and operating data provided by 747 stores. Note that results may fluctuate from year to year simply due to changes in the pool of participating stores.

Report Overview The report is organized into sections designed to assist management in a specific area of inquiry.

The Executive Summary provides an overview of study results. It highlights the differences between typical and high profit Ace Hardware stores and the typical industry hardware store. The High Profit samples consist of stores with a pre-tax return on asset value (ROA) in the top 25% of all ROA values reported by hardware format stores. Financial Statements and Ratios presents a detailed examination of return on investment, the income statement and balance sheet, and important financial and productivity ratios. The accompanying commentary focuses on the importance of these statistics. Results are also presented for primary retail formats in the Format Analysis section. Ace stores are compared with other hardware stores in the Ace vs. Industry Performance section.

The Ratio Definition section provides a summary of calculations used in this analysis.

Statistics Ratios

Most of the figures in this report are ratios. A ratio is simply a fraction meaning “there are X units of the top component for every Y units of the bottom component.” A 30% gross margin is the fraction 30/100 with gross profit on top and sales on the bottom meaning “there is $30 of gross profit for every $100 of sales.” Medians The ratios presented in this report are based on medians. Medians are the preferred statistic for the basis of this analysis. A median is the middle value in the sorted list of all reported values. Unlike averages, medians are not influenced by extreme values and, therefore, best represent a typical result.

The N/A Label Throughout this report, “N/A” designates results that are not available due to insufficient data.

Rounding Calculations for the analysis are done at high precision then rounded to one decimal for this report. These rounded figures are accurate but sums of rounded figures may differ from the rounded totals due to the lower precision.

1

Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease