On Monday, the retailer’s board said it was “very appreciative” of the JobKeeper program which it labelled as “highly successful” and integral to keeping people employed at the business.
“The JobKeeper scheme enabled the company to continue to pay employees throughout the state government-mandated closures in Melbourne throughout August, September and October, and continue to pay employees in full during other temporary COVID-related store closures in South Australia and Western Australia as recently as last week, despite the completion of the subsidy program in September,” they said.
“However, as highlighted in last week’s announcement, the company fully recognises that it has benefited from the increased consumer confidence this program has created, which resulted in record sales and net profit after tax.”
Nick Scali’s decision to refund its wage subsidy stipend means it will join the small but growing ranks of other corporates who have paid back JobKeeper. These include Toyota, Super Retail Group, Illuka, Domino’s and Coca Cola Amatil.
The business has not paid back all of its JobKeeper subsidy, however, as it claimed $3.9 million across the first six months of 2020.
