Financial Risk Management Practices of JB Hi-Fi Ltd. and Woolworths Group Ltd.

This report provides insights into the financial risk management practices of JB Hi-Fi Ltd. and Woolworths Group Ltd. It covers their risk management frameworks, methods of risk identification, types of risks faced, risk measurement, and risk management strategies. The report also includes information on the companies' industries, products, and governance structures.

Report on Financial Risk Management

Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................1
Risk Management Framework:....................................................................................................................2
Risk Identification:.......................................................................................................................................4
Risk Measurement:......................................................................................................................................6
Risk Management:.......................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
Introduction:

Report provides insights about the financial risk management practices of two Australian Stock Exchange
(ASX) listed entities. Report focuses on the Risk management framework, methods of identification of
risks, types of risk that the companies face, measures that are used to identify the risks, etc. The
companies selected for the analysis are:
i. JB Hi-Fi Limited and
ii. Woolworths Group Limited.
Woolworths is in the industry of consumer staple and JB Hi-Fi Ltd is in retail industry, majorly dealing in
electronics equipment.
Woolworths is one of the largest supermarket chains in Australia. The company has around 995 stores
across Australia. The company directly sources most of its fresh fruits and vegetables and all of its meat
requirement from Australian farmers. The company also provides an option to shop online to its
customers, using which, customers can shop from the comfort of their home, without travelling to the
outlet and the items would be delivered to their homes directly.
The company deals in items such as fruits, vegetables, staples, meat, other FMCG products.
JB Hi-Fi Ltd. operates under two brands, viz. JB Hi-Fi, which focuses on Tech related good and consumer
electronics, whereas, The Good Guys, which focuses on appliances for home use and other Consumer
Electronics. The company has total 315 stores of its own, in addition to these stores, company also
makes sales online and through other commercial channels. The company operates in Australia and New
Zealand.
The company deals in items such as consumer electronics, such as mobile phones, accessories, etc home
appliances such as refrigerators, televisions, etc.
The image below provides the detail of locations and number of outlets of the company:

(Reference: JB Hi-Fi Ltd. (2018) Annual Report 2018. Available at https://investors.jbhifi.com.au/wp-
content/uploads/2019/08/4E_FY19.pdf) (Accessed: 7 September, 2019)
Risk Management Framework:
JB Hi-Fi Ltd. has formed an Audit and Risk management committee, who is made responsible for
overseeing implementation of policies framed by the company, which aims at ensuring that group’s risks
are managed adequately during the operations of the company.
Group’s risk management framework complies to ISO31000, enabling management in identification and
management of risk. The risk framework of the company is revised and the same is then presented to
the board for approval on annual basis.
The company has a Risk Management Policy which sets out the risk management framework, defines
the responsibilities for various groups, such as Board, ARM Committee, Management and Group Risk
and Assurance function.
The company has a well-defined governance structure, wherein, the company has “Three lines of
defence”, in order to clarify accountabilities for risk management within the Group. The structure can be
well explained using the diagram on the next page:
The responsibility of reviewing the group’s Risk Management Framework is assigned to Audit and Risk
Management Committee, along with assessing the effectiveness of systems defined by management to
address or manage material risks that could affect the group’s business. The ARM Committee is also
responsible for various other things, such as, reviewing and making recommendations to the board, in
relation to, break down of Group’s internal controls, crisis management and business continuing
planning.
In case of Woolworths Group Limited, the company has a Audit, Risk Management and Compliance
Committee, who is assigned the responsibility of managing, reviewing and overseeing the risk
management policies of the Company.
Scot Perkins is the head of Audit, Risk Management and Compliance Committee, who has extensive
experience in the corporate sector
The Company has a Group Risk Management Policy, which applies to Business Units, Business Areas,
contractors, etc. The policy of the group is aligned to the applicable frameworks such as
- AUS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 Risk management – Principles and guidelines;
- ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendation –
Third Edition (2013); and
- COSO ERM Framework: Enterprise Risk Management- Integration with Strategy and
Performance (2017).

(Reference: Woolworths Group Ltd. (2019) Group Risk Management Policy, 2019. Available at
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/184824_Risk_Management_Policy.pdf
(Accessed: 7 September, 2019)
The policy discussed above, also spells out various principles for Risk Management, such as:
- Risk ownership
- Business context
- Risk assessment
- Risk response
The policy defines the responsibilities of Board as well various other committees and key personnel of
the company, in performing the oversight of risk, maintaining ERM culture, capabilities and practices
across the company.
Group’s risk management framework complies to ISO31000, enabling management in identification and
management of risk. The risk framework of the company is revised and approved by the board on an
annual basis.
The company has a well-defined governance structure, wherein, the company has “Three lines of
defence”, in order to establish accountabilities for management of risks within the Group. This structure
can be well explained using the diagram on the next page:

Risk Identification:
JB Hi-Fi Ltd. has identified risks pertaining to economic, environmental and social topics, over and above
the financial risks.
The group has identified various risks that could impact the business of the entity, few of those risks are
as under:

a. Competition:
the market of the company is highly competitive and both prices and profitability are affected by
the increase in number of competitors that are present in the market.
b. Reputation loss:
The company’s biggest advantage is the trust that both the brand names of the company, viz. JB
Hi-Fi and The Good Guys, enjoys in the market. Any decline in the loyalty or trust on the brands
could significantly impact the sales and profit margins of the company.
c. Changes in consumer demands and discretionary spending:
Since the products sold by the company majorly forms part of discretionary spending of the
customers, the spending on such products could decline due to decline in disposable income or
any other related reason and any such decline could significantly impact the topline as well as
bottom line of the company.
d. Ineffective inventory management:
Both the situations, viz., not having enough inventory to meet the demands and holding
inventory in excess of the requirement, will adversely affect the group’s financial and operating
performance. Thus, an effective inventory management system needs to be implemented.
Sources of the risks identified above are market analysis and regular business dealings in the day to day
business activities of the company, which expose the management to these risks and force them to
think of ways, on how to combat these risks.
Woolworths Group limited has identified various risks, that could impair the ability of the group to
deliver profitable and sustainable growth of business. Some of the risks that have been identified by the
group are as under:
a. Strategy and competition:
The environment of the company remains competitive, with the disruption being caused by the
technological advancement. This brings in both, opportunities and risks for the group.

b. Business transformation:
The company has been transforming its business by including new lines, making it online, etc.
Such changes needs to be done in a way, that it shouldn’t affect the performance of the
company. It always poses risk of performance being affected owing to wrong decisions.
c. Product and food safety:
The risk of having sold poor quality product to the customers, that could have potentially
resulted in injury, harm or illness for the customer, remains one of the biggest risks for the
company, given the nature of the business, company is into.
d. People and culture:
Team members are attracted, retained and motivated due to the purpose, core values and code
of conduct of the company, which collectively derives the culture at the workplace.
The company also does proper succession planning having focus on the career development.
e. Asset and data loss:
The company has made internal policies over data security, guidelines around usage of data
gathered during the operations of the company. Company has Group Cyber security policy and
Acceptable use of information systems policy.
Risk Measurement:
There are no specific risk measurement principles applied by either of the companies, for risk
other than financial risks.
Financial risks are measured as per the applicable Accounting framework. The policy for
measurement of financial risks remains the same for both the companies.
Risk Management:
Management of risk is the responsibility of Audit and Risk management committees in both the
companies.
JB Hi-Fi Group considers the balance of risk and reward, targeting the optimization of returns gained
from business activity, while working to meet the shareholders’ expectations. Risk management remains
a key focus of the executive and management teams.

The company has identified various categories of risk, that it needs to manage in order to be financially
profitable and operationally sound. Some of the risks identified and the key mitigation measures
decided for each of those risks are explained hereunder:
i. Ineffective inventory management:
In the absence of proper inventory management system, the company may have excess
inventory or might be facing shortage of inventory, both of which would cause financial loss
to the company and affect the operations as well.
In order to keep the inventory levels in line with market demands, a proper inventory
management system is implemented by the company, which gives alerts in case of
abnormally low or high inventory.
ii. Failure to maintain key supplier relationships:
Although the group has strong partnership with most of the suppliers, but in case the
relationship with any of the major supplier turns bad, it could affect the operational
performance of the group negatively.
Since the group stocks large as well as diverse range of products, which implies lesser
reliance on suppliers. Thus, the group is able to mitigate the risk of not being able to
maintain the key supplier relationships.
In addition, Woolworths Group has defined three layers of defence to combat the risks identified by the
Board or ARM committee. The task of the three defence layers as well as other responsible personnel is
to ensure that there exist sufficient mitigation measures in order to manage the risk identified by the
company.
Some of the mitigation measures implemented by Woolworths Group, against few of the identified risks,
are as under:
Risk Identified Mitigation measure implemented
1. Strategy and competition The strategies of the business are reviewed and
approved by the board.
There is an executive committee, whose task is to
regularly review the current market trends, price
points, sales promotion activities being taken up
by other companies.

2. Customer and market place The executive committee’s objective is to
improve the customer experience.
Company monitor’s customer’s satisfaction levels
by various surveys online as well as in stores.
3. Business transformation As the company has started serving the
customers online, the company has set up a
Delivery office to keep an oversight on delivery,
to ensure that there are no delays in the delivery
by the customer.
4. Safety, health and well being The company has framed group safety and health
policies and Safety and health standards.
The board of the company gets a quarterly
updated on effectiveness of implementation of
policies framed in this regard.
5. People and culture The company has implemented processes such as
workforce planning and conducting regular
succession planning sessions.
There are set targets for gender equity,
leadership diversity, Aboriginal and Torres strait
Islander employment levels. These all targets
have adopted as part of Corporate Responsibility
Strategy commitments.
6. Supplier relationship The company follows Food and Grocery code of
conduct, and engage with suppliers fairly, even
based on internal ways of working
Conclusion
JB Hi-Fi Ltd. as well Woolworths Group Limited, both have formed an Audit and Risk Management
committee, to oversee, manage, regulate and adhere to the risk management policy of the company.
Though, the reporting lines for the Audit and Risk Management committee in both the companies, also
remains the same, i.e. to the Board of director of the company, the robustness of the Audit and Risk
Management committee is higher in case of Woolworths Group Ltd., as there are explicitly defined
responsibilities and also the committee is supported by other two lines of defence, viz. Oversight
functions and internal audit, in terms of collecting information, highlighting outliers, etc. Oversight
function’s task is to oversee and set framework and standards for Group Risk, Group Safety and health,
Group Finance, etc. A dedicated team, working on oversight and framework setting, means there is
increased oversight on the effective implementation of various policies.
In case of JB Hi-Fi Limited, risk management function is set up differently for both the brands, viz. JB Hi-
Fi and The Good Guys, the risk management team for JB Hi-Fi is in-charge for both internal audit and risk

management, whereas, in case of The Good Guys, there are two separate teams for internal audit and
risk management.
Also, Woolworths Group and JB Hi-Fi Ltd., both have identified and defined the mitigation measures for
each of the identified risks, in order to ensure that such risks didn’t affect the operational and financial
performance of the entities.

References:
- JB Hi-Fi Ltd. (2019) Annual Report 2019. Available at https://investors.jbhifi.com.au/wp-
content/uploads/2019/08/4E_FY19.pdf (Accessed: 7 September, 2019)
- Woolworths Limited (2019) Annual Report 2019. Available at
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/195582_annual-report-2019.pdf (Accessed:
7 September, 2019)
- Woolworths Group Ltd. (2019) Group Risk Management Policy, 2019. Available at
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/184824_Risk_Management_Policy.pdf
(Accessed: 7 September, 2019)
- JB Hi-Fi Ltd. – Risk Management Policy (2017), Available at
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/Documents/Risk%20Management%20Policy%20-%2031%20May
%202017%20-%20final.pdf (Accessed: 7 September, 2019)
- Price and Research: JB Hi-Fi Ltd., (As at 7 September, 2019) Available at
https://www.asx.com.au/asx/share-price-research/company/JBH (Accessed: 7 September,
2019)
- Price and Research: Woolworths Group Limited (As at 7 September, 2019) Available at
https://www.asx.com.au/asx/share-price-research/company/WOW (Accessed: 7 September,
2019)
- Price data, Woolworths Limited (Sep, 2019), Available at
https://in.finance.yahoo.com/quote/WOW.AX?p=WOW.AX&.tsrc=fin-srch (Accessed: 7
September, 2019)
- Price data, JB Hi-Fi Limited (Sep, 2019), Available at
https://in.finance.yahoo.com/quote/JBH.AX?p=JBH.AX&.tsrc=fin-srch (Accessed: 7 September,
2019)
- Investors section, JB Hi-Fi Limited, Available at https://investors.jbhifi.com.au/ (Accessed: 7
September, 2019)
- About us, section of Woolworths Group limited, Available at
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us (Accessed: 7 September, 2019)
- Investors section, Woolworths Group Limited, Available at
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/investors/ (Accessed: 7 September, 2019)

- Announcements section of asx, Available at
https://www.asx.com.au/asx/statistics/announcements.do (Accessed: 7 September, 2019)