Analyze mens warehouse company and Next plc - Essay Example

Accounting Analysis of Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. and NEXT plc NEXT plc Created in 1982, the NEXT brand came into the limelightwhen revolutionary retail concept of coordinated collections of own branded women wear and ‘accessories’ in boutique-style shopping surroundings (www.nextplc.co.ke). It is a UK firm that deals with multinational clothing, home products, and footwear with its headquarter in Enderby, Leicestershire, England. With around 700 stores in the world, by sales NEXT plc is UK’s largest clothing retailer after overtaking Marks & Spencer in 2012.

Divided into three channels it has made it its mandate to serve customers wherever they maybe through Next Retail, chain retail branches; Next Directory, and a home shopping catalogue and website with over 2 million active customers. With such a large number of customers the management taking key note on stock, and this sees the company making earlier orders of the stock required for a year production period. It has also embarked on improving its services so as to have customers fully satisfied with the services and where distance becomes an issue, online trading can be utilized to achieve the given goal.

Through Next Sourcing the company has been able to serve China, Sri Lanka, India, Turkey, and Bangladesh. Use of franchises to reach international markets has also been achieved. The firm through aggressive management in both good and poor localities has seen non performing store closed thus reducing risks. The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. Beginning operations in 1973, the Men’s Wearhouse was first incorporated as the Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. which was a partnership at the time (Yahoo! Inc. 2013).

From then it has grown to be United States and Canada’s largest speciality retailers and provider of men’s suits and tuxedo rental products. By 28th January, 2012 the company had 1166 retail stores, with 117 Canadian stores and 1049 stores. In its retail segment, the company is divided into four merchandising brands that offer products and services to a wider array of customers. They are The Men’s Wearhouse, K&G and Moores Clothing for Men, Men’s Wearhouse and Tux, and usage of the internet at www.

menswearhouse.com or www.kgstores.com. This strategy helps customers who are far from the retail shops to be able to access the products through the internet thus enabling the company serve every customer no matter the distance or area that they are situated. The company also utilizes the Corporate Apparel which is a strategy to secure a contract with workforces where it provides workwear and corporate clothing uniforms for them. This is a crucial move since by doing so the company reduces the risk of producing products that will not be purchased.

Management of Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. has seen it necessary to expand that they have invested in growth. Through expansion strategies, the company has embarked on opening more retail segment stores, expanding tuxedo rental business, e-commerce business, diversifying merchandise mix, and lastly identifying international markets with potential opportunities. All this strategies if well implemented will see the company grow at a great rate and become a global leader in the clothing industry. Accounting Analysis of the two Companies Men’s Wearhouse, Inc.

has provided accounting information from the year 2008 to 2012 while the NEXT plc. has only provided 2011 and 2012 accounting information. This difference in years hinders one to gunner the same information of these two companies in accordance to their accounts. This is because having limited information here being NEXT plc, one has a tough time getting the trend of their performance from the accounting information, unlike the case with Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. where giving a wider range of years helps eases the process.

However, although limiting the information it gives, NEXT plc’s information is neat, and well planned. This can be viewed in its Unaudited Consolidated Income Statement where it gives all the company’s financial information from sales revenue, profits, to basic earnings per share. Such information because it is well outlined helps give an analyst a better grasp of the company’s performance it the period between 2011 and 2012. But for Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. the situation is reverse with the firm giving uncoordinated information that is wide spread in their report.

This lack of proper summary to give accounting information leaves an analyst with a hard time to group such data and come up with a comprehensive report on the same. Both companies in providing income statement do it well and comprehensively giving one a clear understanding of all the revenue the companies obtained from both the local and international sales. This helps on also be able to get the tax returns these companies are subjected to pay and from such get the net revenue earned by the companies and thus the dividends each shareholder will be entitled to.

They also give the cash flow statements for the year 2010 to 2012 for Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. and Subsidiaries while for NEXT plc is for the period between 2011 and 2012. This information is crucial since it helps give the analyst an idea of the companies’ turnover in terms of cash. NEXT plc also gives accounting information on discontinued operations such as the Ventura, which was sold to the Capita Group plc on July 2011. This therefore helps clear any doubt on the effect that transaction may have had on the company’s financial information.

With that in mind, the two companies also provide balance sheets to give an account on their assets and liabilities thus giving a perfect view of the two companies in general. Conclusion The two companies although with a difference in the data provision and the periods in which they opted to release the information, they both give a comprehensive report on the accounting information that an analyst needs to give a conclusive report on the two companies’ performances. Thus from this we can note that the two companies’ being listed in the stock exchange are open and do accept to release financial information to the public.

Bibliography NEXT plc 2012. Next CORPORATE: Our History. Available at: http://www.nextplc.co.uk/about-next/our-history.aspx NEXT plc 2012. Next plc RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JANUARY 2012. THE MEN’S WEARHOUSE, INC. 2012. ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JANUARY 28TH 2012. Yahoo, Inc. 2013. The Mens Wearhouse, Inc. (MW): Profile. Available at: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MW+Profile