CarMax 2009 Annual Report Download - page 6

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STRATEGIC FOCUS AND INITIATIVES
For the near-term, we are narrowing our strategic focus
to harness the energy, experience and expertise of our
associates to benefit our three primary stakeholders—
associates, customers and shareholders. We have rolled
out new training focused on enhancing our associates’
professional selling skills and enabling them to better
connect with our customers. We are also are continuing
our efforts to achieve world class associate engagement.
On this front, we were proud to once again be one of
roughly 20 companies chosen to receive the Gallup Great
Workplace Award, and we celebrated our fifth consecu-
tive appearance on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to
Work For” list, where we moved up 15 spots to the
number 31 ranking.
Our customer initiatives are focused on improving
the customer’s experience and driving superior execu-
tion. We continued to enhance carmax.com, adding
new search functionality, including the ability to search
on multiple criteria and by miles per gallon ratings,
and launching an improved email alert feature. During
the year, we also adjusted our marketing messages to
better tailor them to consumers increasingly concerned
with affordability and value. We believe we’re making
strong progress, as evidenced by our recent record cus-
tomer satisfaction scores and by our ability to improve
our rate of conversion of shoppers to buyers in fiscal
2009, despite the most difficult retail environment in
our history.
Our shareholder initiatives are primarily centered on
eliminating waste and controlling costs to improve prof-
itability. Our largest “waste” opportunities lie in our
vehicle reconditioning process, where we spend approxi-
mately $500 million annually. We believe that we can
reduce cosmetic over-processing, while still maintaining
our high vehicle quality standards for customers, and
over time this could initially cut our reconditioning costs
by $100 to $150 per vehicle over the next few years. As
always, we will carefully weigh the benefit of using these
savings to increase our gross profit per vehicle against the
potential benefit of using them to improve vehicle values
for customers, which in turn can drive more sales.
In closing, let me once again thank all of our associ-
ates for their hard work and dedication, our customers
for their loyalty and our shareholders for their confi-
dence in our business model. I am convinced that our
long-term prospects are as strong as ever. I have the
utmost confidence in the strength of our store, home
office and CAF teams, and I believe that we have the
best associates in retail. Their efforts have created the
company we are today, and they will continue to be the
driving force behind our future success.
Sincerely,
Tom Folliard
President and Chief Executive Officer
April 24, 2009