The Reserve Bank's latest interest rate hike won't help sales at department store chain Myer which has started the financial year softer as consumers bear the brunt of cost-of-living pressures.
Sales for the first quarter were down 0.9 per cent on the previous year but have improved in the past seven weeks.
Myer had been looking at a 1.6 per cent sales dip before the recent uptick in trading.
"It is clear broader macroeconomic factors have had an impact on the wider retail environment," outgoing CEO John King told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday.
"We remain very cautious of these macroeconomic headwinds, especially with the interest rate rise this week.
"Therefore we will continue to retain a strong focus on profitable sales, cash and cost."
Mr King was one of a troika of senior leaders sitting through their final AGM at Myer, alongside chairwoman JoAnne Stephenson and CFO Nigel Chadwick.
Solomon Lew's Premier Investments, Myer's largest shareholder, flagged concerns ahead of the meeting about the level of executive churn at the company.
"These are the three key leadership roles in the business," a spokeswoman for Premier said.
"It is both rare and concerning to see these key roles turn over in such close proximity."
Ms Stephenson said Myer's board had the right balance of corporate memory in continuing directors Dave Whittle and Jacquie Naylor as well as the fresh ideas of Premier-backed Terry McCartney and new additions Gary Weiss and Olivia Wirth.
"These things are always items of judgment but we believe this is the right time to make that transition for the next phase of growth of Myer," she said.
Ms Stephenson heralded her replacement Ari Mervis - who previously served as chairman of Accolade Wines and chief executive of dairy company Murray Goulburn - as an "excellent contributor to the board bringing deep commercial experience for many years in consumer-facing organisations".
The board was well progressed in its search for a replacement CEO "with interesting candidates emerging both locally and internationally", she said.
Mr King said he was pleased with the strength and quality of Myer's full-year earnings, with the $3.37 billion sales figure the company's best result in almost two decades.
"Despite this, the softer trading outcome in Q4 as a result of current economic conditions show continued profitability and a strong balance sheet which provides a solid foundation for us to deliver our future plans and growth opportunities," he said.
Myer escaped disruption from Wednesday's catastrophic Optus outage but continues to test "doomsday scenarios" and has increased its cybersecurity and telecommunications defences, Mr King said.
The company was well placed ahead of Christmas and Cyber Monday sales, despite striking wharf workers threatening supply chains.
"We had a fear that this would happen because we have these shenanigans every year around peak time," Mr King said.
"That's the typical sort of ploy of the unions, so we decided to bring in our Black Friday and Christmas products in earlier, so we're in a good state."
Myer shares slipped 1.9 per cent lower on the local bourse.
