Welcome to the Pebble Group Full Year 2023 Results Webinar. All attendees are in listen-only mode, and at the end of the presentation there will be the opportunity to ask questions. At any point during the presentation you can click on the Q&A button to submit a question. This webinar's being recorded. I now hand over to Chris Lee, CEO, and Claire Thomson, CFO. Chris, over to you.
Thomson, thank you, and hi everybody, welcome to today's Pebble Group presentation. We're going to talk you through the results for 2023 and also kind of give you a bit of an insight into how 2024 started today. As Thomson said, we'll trot through this in a roundabout sort of 20 minutes, and at the end of that time we're really happy to take some questions, if you have some. And so this presentation's on our website, but we'll kind of walk through it as well. Claire and I've been, you know, sort of at the center of the business, but myself for 24 years now, Claire for about 16.
And so it's a business we're really invested into, not only financially through shareholders and things like that, but also very emotionally in terms of the business as it is today and the group as it is today. It's really a fraction of our lives and our careers as well. So, something we feel very kind of passionate about and something we're very close to. In terms of the Pebble Group and the industry that we're in, we're in the promotional product sector. And promotional products are all around us. So, no matter what size of company, what sector, what geography you're in, businesses are buying promotional products to make that emotional connection with their stakeholders. Might be employees, might be customers, or their suppliers. But really proud of who they are and what they stand for and want to project that through product.
And that means leads to a much larger industry than many people would realize at the beginning. So, the industry here we're kind of splitting it out and the positions that we're in, in it. So the industry on a global basis estimated around $50 billion. Yeah, that's quite large for a business that you perhaps won't be that obvious to many people. We have a lens into that $50 billion business for about $1.5 billion, and that's through our two positions in the industry. From Facilisgroup is technology business. We're providing their technology to some medium-sized distributors in North America. Got around 240 customers. And they put $1.4 billion worth of sales through our technology. That's around 5.5% of that North American market.
and then through Brand Addition, Brand Addition sells promotional products into some of the largest, best-known brands in the world, and at roundabout sort of $1.1 billion is actually selling product directly to those businesses on, you know, think looking after the quality, the creativity of the product, whose hands it's made in, where it comes from, and doing that on an international basis. And through those two businesses we run them quite separately, but those two businesses aggregate together and sit as the Pebble Group, and the business you know today and what we're presenting. In terms of highlights for 2023, I think it's really important at the outset that said we had to revise down our expectations in November. It was the first half, sort of was a pretty strong, pretty sensible first half.
But in the second half, some of the spend from our customers, through Brand Addition and some of the GMV that was coming through Facilisgroup, came down, and it's quite a difficult, difficult second period. But still very profitable, still generating a lot of cash, and, and so nothing's broken. I think that's really important to say. There's no fundamental change in the quality of the business or the opportunity that it presents ahead of itself as well. A really strong quality business. And, and in terms of the cash that's on the balance sheet there, Claire will talk you through where that comes from, but at the year-end the best part is $16 million on the balance sheet as well. So taking it to Facilisgroup and Brand Addition. So Facilisgroup still grew.
The rate of growth slowed slightly, but for very kind of explainable reasons, and, and we still believe we can kind of, you know, take that, you know, beyond the sort of, you know, the, the levels it is today in terms of that those revenue growth. And, and the attach rate that we talk about, so in other words, of that $1.4 billion that goes through, our, our technology, how much can we retain of that because our customers receive in value from us, that's gone up from 1.5% to 1.6%. On Brand Addition, some very sector-specific reasons that revenue's gone down, and Claire will talk about that later. But again, really important to say that remains a really high-quality business with really good people managing some great customers, and some of the best-known brands in the world choose to work with Brand Addition on a long-term basis.
And if we look past what's been a difficult second half of 2023 for Brand Addition, that remains a very, very strong and great business that we're really proud of. And you can see there the services we're providing to our customers actually we're able to charge a higher margin because there's a higher level of services going in there. So what we were pointing at before was a 30% gross margin. We're now moving that up to 34% it says there, but we're saying a long-term sort of rate of 33% is what you should be looking for. That's highlights of 2023. I'll hand to Claire talk about the numbers.
Thank you. Okay, thank you. So yeah, so on this page you just the highlights and the kind of the first four, bar charts are really showing, the headlines of the update that we've provided in November. So that sector-specific, impact on our revenue, in Brand Addition and the slowdown of GMV in the second half, in Facilisgroup has kind of translated through our revenue line and all the way to EPS. But as Chris has just said, you know, underneath that our businesses remain really strong, profitable and cash-generative, and that the chart over on the, the right-hand side is showing that, you know, we kind of remain disciplined in our working capital management, our businesses generate cash, and, and through that reduction, in EBITDA we've still managed to move that cash number forward.
Quick recap on this slide, in terms of just helping you get your head around the financial dynamics of the two businesses because they are quite different. So the left-hand pie is showing revenue by business, and that kind of the pale blue piece of that pie is Facilisgroup. So we've got kind of SaaS revenues which are a much smaller proportion of our overall group revenue, but you can see on the right that those, you know, translating through it, the 50% EBITDA margins mean that, you know, Facilisgroup being it might be kind of 14% of revenue, but it's pretty much 50% of our group's EBITDA. And that grew in the year, you know, combination of Facilisgroup growing and obviously the kind of slowdown in Brand Addition changes that dynamic slightly as well. P&L.
So kind of I feel like we've said it four times now, but, you know, so the revenue number did go backwards last year, and that was really focused around our tech clients in Brand Addition, and our consumer clients. So kind of no clients were lost, but there was a reduction in spend across those two sectors, and we'll come onto that in a little bit more detail later. But kind of, you know, underneath that, as Chris has also just said, you know, we managed to grow our gross profit margin, and that's a combination of, you know, Brand Addition providing more services to its clients, and on the back of our clients recognizing the value of those services as being able to move that pricing forward.
and then, you know, and then obviously Brand Addition, Facilisgroup at that 100% gross margin, as that becomes a bigger part of our group, then that gross profit number does move forward. So, you know, below that, you know, I think the major changes on the P&L were, you know, continuing to amortize our investment that we've made in the new products at Facilisgroup, so that D&A charge has moved forward, and then our, you know, our share-based payment charge because of the performance in the second half was lower than we've been forecasting, and so you can see that reduction year-on-year in that number. Cash flow. Pretty straightforward, you know, it's pretty straightforward and simple.
I think, you know, so below EBITDA we are moving in working capital, and, and, you know, what I saw in, in Brand Addition that investment in working capital does move in line with sales, so as sales have moved down then our working capital's unwound and you can see an inflow from that. CapEx we are investing, heavily in our new product development at Facilisgroup, and that did continue through last year, and we'll touch on that a little bit more, later. And then the kind of two new things that are on the cash flow that weren't there, this time last year where we, you know, we introduced our maiden dividend and paid that back in June, and then we also bought some of our own shares in December to satisfy the LTIP that vested at the end of last year.
Balance sheet, again, like the cash flow it's pretty straightforward, so when you think about our group balance sheet it's really all the working capital is associated with Brand Addition. There is very little working capital in Facilisg roup. So, you know, non-current assets are, you know, goodwill that's associated with our historic acquisitions and the investment that we've been making in products. Below that we've got some really high-quality working capital in terms of what we've got invested in stock at Brand Addition. That's, you know, that's stock that we're holding for some of the biggest brands in the world, and that's underwritten in our contracts. And again we've got the payables and receivables that have moved in line with volumes. This slide is, you know, kind of thinking about how we share our thoughts around capital allocation.
Left-hand side, you know, there are kind of some decisions that we're making and, and some cash that we need to spend in managing the business, and that's, you know, the kind of the group and its numbers as you see today. So obviously we like to have some cash on the balance sheet and, and we feel that we were in a really sensible place with that at the end of the year. Working capital, as Brand Addition returns to growth, then we will need a bit of cash to go back into our working capital number. And then we've got capital expenditure both in Brand Addition, you know, to kind of run the business and, and continue to try and, you know, generate efficiencies through that number, and, and also our investment in our Syncore products in Facilisgroup.
On the right-hand side there, you know, we're making some different decisions about our cash, so that's how can we look to generate further growth. And so we are investing cash in new products at Facilisgroup. I've, you know, kind of referred to that a few times now. We've paid a maiden dividend last year. We've increased that to $2 million in respect of 2023, and then we've also announced that we're going to start a share buyback that we'll, you know, kind of get working on over the next few weeks.
Okay. Thanks, Claire. And so if that sort of looks at the group numbers, what we'll do we'll dive under those now and go into the individual businesses. So I'll talk you through Facilisgroup. Claire will do the same on Brand Addition, and then we'll finish with a bit of ESG and outlook. And so the chart you can see there at the bottom, right-hand side of that slide is how this industry works. We have the suppliers, the distributors, and the brand, or the sort of, you know, the people who kind of, you know, actually kind of use and hold the product.
Facilis really works with those suppliers and those distributors to sort of bring them together, use technology to efficiently interact and help them kind of, you know, professionalize, grow, and move forward. That's where Facilis sits. So we've taken the business. I think we bought it in 2019. It's probably doubled in size since then, and we're really ambitious to take that business on and to grow further. This is a business, say, we bought in 2019, so my heritage in Brand Addition. We had a change of management in October 2023, and that's allowed me to get a lot more involved on a day-to-day basis.
So I've spent a lot of the last six months, in Facilisgroup, and with the team, with our partners, with our suppliers, managing that on a, I say, a really kind of much more close basis than I have in the past, and that's something I've really enjoyed and taken a lot of value out of. So when I'm kind of speaking about sort of where we're heading and where we're doing those things right now, I am working with a team on the ground, in that business to do that on a, say, on a day-to-day basis, which I've really enjoyed. It has some kind of, you know, we talked about the attach rate before, so this is on the left-hand side pulling that out.
We can see there we've grown our GMV quite nicely, which is the sort of the grey bars on the left, and there's about $1.4 billion going through. Our revenue of $22.2 million is basically divide one by the other and you get that attach rate of 1.56%. And our job through all the products that we're trying to introduce to help our suppliers, to help our partners and their businesses become more efficient and profitable is to get more GMV through our technology and then sort of provide value to those suppliers and to those distributors that allow us to collect a decent percentage of that. And that's the premise: technology to help our businesses and our suppliers grow. So we've got some wonderful stats that come behind it.
So you can see sort of from the revenue to EBITDA to the sort of margins, and that which is on the top line, there's some really kind of nice dynamics that go in there. The rate of growth did slow in the second half, because our GMV, if you kind of go to the sort of bottom and middle chart, you can see our GMV actually sort of slowed, and was level, one year to the next. And that's because the partners that were actually sort of, after a number of years of a really very good growth, actually the market at large was a little bit harder in 2023. But again, that doesn't change the market fundamentally. We've got very, very strong businesses that sit behind our partner numbers and the GMV, and those are increasing steadily.
And so the more we can kind of increase our partner numbers in a responsible fashion, the more the GMV goes forward, which pushes that third chart on the bottom-hand side, the preferred spend, which again supports our income as well. So all those charts are moving in a really nice direction. The market itself was a little harder in the second half of 2023, but none of that changes the opportunities and the really sort of excellent and profitable business that Facilisgroup has. You know, in terms of partner numbers, it's a question we always get and kind of go into some detail. And so rather than just put the numbers out there themselves, I think kind of a little bit of an explanation behind them both for last year and what how 2024 started is important too.
So again, the left-hand chart says there's a nice bridge there of kind of how we went from $225 to 242, and the retention rates are absolutely excellent. And actually if you kind of take away the businesses that acquired each other, then the retention rate is even higher. And I think that's, you know, an outstanding number that's going to be very hard to be as good as that going forward, but certainly that's our ambition to keep those as very, very high. On the right-hand side is how 2024 has started to date. And if you kind of look just from one number, you know, the first number to the last, you know, it looks like the partner numbers have come down. But the story behind that is a very clear one.
We have a new sales team who are really developing, understanding the market itself, the product that we have, and they're doing a great job in that learning curve. We expect the numbers that partners that we acquire through 2020 that we win through 2024 to grow, but again, growing responsibly with partners who are kind of the right size to support our business going forward. And those, we've had five businesses that have been acquired in the year, but again, that's kind of good customers, good businesses being acquired by each other, realizing some value that they've built up over the long term. So that's not a reflection of servicing by Facilisgroup to those businesses. But there has been some churn, but they're quite small, the businesses that have left.
So in numbers it looks sort of like it's been a slow start, but actually in the GMV that's all going through the system, I feel pretty relaxed about where we are in those numbers. And we're really working hard to make sure those excellent partner retention numbers stay as the quality levels that they are today. And then in terms of how we're trying to take this business and scale it and kind of take it forward. So doubled since we acquired the business, and we're ambitious to take that further again in a very responsible and fashion that sort of still delivers great service to our customers and still delivers great margins, and come out in profitability as well.
So the dark blue is where we want to take our kind of product Syncore, which is what the business has been built on today, and taking that forward from, say, we kind of had less than 100 when we started; we're in the mid-200s now, and we do want to continue to grow. We think there's about 1,600 businesses out there that there's a target market for that population of partners. On top of that, we are building some new products that Claire's kind of talked about earlier, and we're invested into those things. Those new products is an e-commerce platform and a version of Syncore that is based and focused upon the really long tail of small businesses.
What we'd like to do with those two is the e-commerce platform is really expanding our share of wallet with our existing customers, and getting a product that's right for them. They're all buying some sort of e-commerce platform at the moment. We'd like to work with them to help us understand what we can build to generate that income from them and really integrate that e-commerce platform into our order workflow platform Syncore.
Then an order product as well, which is looking at the really long tail of small distributors that are in the North American market and saying, "Can we take our industry knowledge, our technology knowledge, and apply that to that group of customers and expand the addressable market we're working with?" And by building those three strategies on top of each other, you know, we really are ambitious to responsibly grow, and growth, I think, is really important to say, starts with good retention levels and keeping our eye on our existing customers and making sure we, you know, nobody takes them for granted and we kind of providing them with the right service will be a great foundation to grow that business beyond where it is today and towards that 50.
So finally, we always finish with what the focus for the different businesses over the next 12 months. These words and these three things are something that I've been using with the team since I've been sort of much more closely working with the team at Facilis on a day-to-day basis. We've shared this with our customers and we're sharing this with investors too. So really important, growth starts with providing great service to our existing customers, and that's what we're kind of making sure we're doing and our suppliers as well. Demonstrating that technology leadership, so continuing to develop the technology we already have but bringing new technology to market that does grab the attention of current and potentially new customers to demonstrate we are that technology leader.
And then really kind of concentrating on the team. I think, you know, one of the things that's been really enjoyable since been more closely involved is getting to know the senior people in the team but also the wider business as well much better. There's some quality people in Facilisgroup, and I've really enjoyed, excuse me, getting to know them. I also want to add to that team as well, the first part of adding to that team is recruiting a chief product officer, which will start next week, in fact next month. And that's going to be a big part of delivering the first two things, on an overall basis. I'm going to pass to Claire. Have a drink of water.
Thank you. So, to focus again, that we're going back to showing the industry. And Brand Addition, so Brand Addition, where does Brand Addition sit in the industry? So Brand Addition is in the middle. It's a really large distributor that's connecting the brands, and their demand for products with the product that's supplied by the suppliers. And, just to kind of refresh your memories, so Brand Addition is working internationally under contract with some of the largest brands in the world. Similar theme to the KPIs that we shared on Facilisgroup. So the kind of the top charts on this slide are showing, you know, showing the numbers and the financials. So, you know, that is the impact on revenue, and our EBITDA, but again, also pulling out as being able to move that gross margin forward.
The bottom left pie I've been very good with my left and right, so how this week. So the bottom left pie is probably a bit more interesting than it normally has been, and we'll go into a bit more, I'll share that in a bit more detail on the next slide. But that, that's showing kind of how our revenue breaks down by sector and kind of doing a flick on. You can see really that, you know, the impact of both consumer. So that was FMCG and Beauty. Our clients there spent a little bit less with us last year and also the slowdown in technology.
But on the other side of that chart, you know, you can see that our other sectors actually all may move forward. So there we're talking about more traditional sectors of transport, engineering, financial services. So kind of the impact on Brand Addition was very much focused around technology and consumer. Like, no clients have been lost. All our customers remain customers. They're amazing brands, and we believe that, you know, that kind of spend will return. You know, I think it's important to pull out what we're trying to say in the middle of this slide, you know, we've got excellent retention rates in Brand Addition, so we haven't, you know, we didn't lose anybody, and our top 10 customers remain with us.
We've got a really experienced and high-quality team that have remained, you know, hold onto those relationships and work with those customers. We've got a global proposition, and Brand Addition Brand Addition wins and differentiates itself, and it can kind of, when it can offer those global brands, the opportunity to stand behind the ESG messages that are very important to them and becoming increasingly so. And again, you said what, what's our focus for 2024 in Brand Addition? It's again, I think Chris used the phrase, growth starts with retention, and it's the same here. So let's hold onto all those amazing names that we've got, and those logos, and kind of really focus on implementing the new business that we won in 2023. Continue to attract new logos into our business.
That's, you know, Brand Addition, as I've just said, it, you know, differentiates itself through its ESG, its international reach, and it and, you know, the amazing product that it provides. And so let's kind of keep focusing on where we're different and win new contracts. And then, as we've said as well, we were very successful at moving forward that margin, or the teams were very successful at moving forward that margin this year. And, you know, we want to hold onto that, and keep it going forward.
Okay. Thanks, Claire. So, we've got a couple of slides always on the ESG, and it's an important part of what we don't sort of just kind of try and copy and paste what someone else is doing. We're trying to, you know, listen and learn about best practice and compliance, but actually then put this in our own tone of voice, do things that do make a difference and to our business but actually don't do things, you know, just for the sake of it.
And so we have a great team at the center at The Pebble Group who kind of run this, but then they kind of engage, you know, very highly with the teams at Facilisgroup and Brand Addition to, to make sure this is kind of flowing through our business in a way that's real and it makes a difference. On the left-hand side, we have the four cornerstones that we used. We have evolved those slightly and, again, because it's really important to make sure we read these things and we can feel it and we can recognize it happening in our business on a day-to-day basis. And that's what's what it truly is happening. And what we're doing, we're putting out our third ESG report, and that's getting published alongside the reports and accounts here next week, I believe.
And so that'll be on our website. It's a great piece of work that really sort of demonstrates a lot of what we're actually doing on a day-to-day basis as a business. And so please kind of we'd really value feedback on that and anything you think could be doing differently or you'd like to know more about. And so that really kind of brings us into the outlook. Excuse me. And so 2024 starting in line with our expectations. So what does that mean? You know, we're 10 weeks in, as we sit and talk to you here.
And so that means kind of our management accounts are in the right place, kind of the order intakes that we're expecting and the GMV that we're tracking on a kind of daily, weekly basis, you know, are kind of in line with what we've expected when we've spoken to the analysts and guided those numbers. So really important to be saying, you know, sort of, I did find the, you know, sort of second half of last year quite difficult because, you know, we've been a public company for over four years now and, kind of, the first time we've actually had our numbers down in 2023. So that did, you know, kind of, have an impact. But also we're moving forward.
I think, yeah, we're back on the offensive and on the attack. It was really kind of nice. I think some of that confidence comes through in not only the dividend that's doubling, but also a share buyback program because we believe we've got spare cash on the balance sheet, even investing in the products that we are doing. That kind of takes, you know, a share price that we believe it's got good value to shareholders to buy back. So they're the kind of main statements. But I think, you know, really important to say that middle point there, you know, that's what we've got to be doing best is concentrating on, you know, two great businesses, putting those kind of in the right direction.
And if we do that, I think this kind of, you know, only goes in a good direction for us all. And I think that's kind of everything. So I think, Tamsin, I think we're going to sort of hand back to yourself and, you know, really happy to take any questions.
Thank you both very much indeed. So if you have a question, click on the Q&A button and type your question in. And we've got a few questions already submitted. Considering half two was weaker than half one, is there likely to be a half two weighting to the current year?
So I suppose your comparatives, you know, they're, you know, you've got a harder comparative, haven't you, in half one versus half two? So I think if we, you know, our businesses, you know, Facilisgroup kind of is pretty even in terms of, you know, those things, maybe a little bit back half weighted in Brand Addition, you know, probably more so. So I don't think that difference is going to change. You know, the business probably will still be second half weighted in terms of revenue and profitability, but not highly so. But our comparative is definitely harder in H1 versus H2. So when you look at the percentage comparatives, I think there's a harder one in H2 than H1 than H2. But if we look at how the overall profitability all like split in on itself, I think that will kind of follow similar patterns than the past.
Great. Thank you very much. For those that don't have access to broker forecast, what are the profit expectations for full year 2024?
Yeah. And so we do have some research that we have access to is sort of through Edison.com. So Edison I think is our.
Yeah. There's a link on our website.
Right. So yeah. So the best way to do that and to kind of, you know, allow you to download, well, presentations like this or sort of, the broker notes themselves, we have through Edison put in the public domain those things. And so you can click onto that link and find out the full detail on that information.
Great. Thank you very much. And who are your main competitors, if you're happy to comment, and what differentiates you from them?
Yeah. So, so again, we've got two really different businesses. So there's obviously two very different pools. So, so Brand Addition, I think when it's trying to win a piece of work, if that piece of work is country-specific and, and quite straightforward and simple, then there can be many competitors in a particular market. When that sort of, that business is over multiple geographies and, and it has sort of ESG at its heart, it wants doing things on a on, you know, on a really highly, you know, sort of creative basis, I think Brand Addition becomes more and more differentiated. And, and so that's the business it tends to kind of win and therefore kind of keep. In terms of Facilisgroup, I think it's got a really, you know, an excellent market leading position.
There's always competition, whether it be in the order workflow, whether it be in kind of supply chain management or kind of a, you know, in the smaller end of the businesses that compete. So quite right, there's always competition out there, but we keep our eye on those things. But we also, you know, kind of want to stay ahead of that and think we've got a, you know, a market leading position that we shouldn't take for granted, but we should really take it, you know, as much advantage of as we can. And that's what we're looking to push in. So there's always competition out there. Definitely kind of makes us better and keeps us on our toes. But, you know, understanding the market but actually kind of making sure we stay ahead of it is probably our priorities rather than getting too sort of obsessed with anyone else around us.
Great. Thank you very much. Two questions around demand. Have customers in technology and FMCG guided for their likely spend in this year, and is the trend positive? Also, if you could comment a little bit why that you think there's been a fall in demand, going backwards.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so I think there's two kind of different stories, on the consumer you know, consumer versus the tech. So consumer, you know, we experienced a really big peak or a post-COVID bubble, if you like, through that grew in 2020 and then 2021. And I think that's been kind of coming down through 2022 and then again in 2023, to those pre-COVID levels. So we don't believe that we've lost market share, but we do think that those customers are spending a little bit less. And our expectation for 2024 is that that will remain flat with where we were in 2023, and that's very definitely in our thinking. Technology was slightly different. So that was the clients that we're working with in the technology sector, you know, were recruited really heavily through 2021 and 2022.
And then we saw kind of a, you know, a significant number of layoffs in those businesses, through 2022 and probably like the back end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. And our spend with those customers is very definitely linked with headcount and then also kind of those businesses behaving properly and not wanting to be seen spending money on product to give away to, you know, to their employees when they've just let a lot of people go. So I think, you know, so that I think, you know, that's kind of we feel like we've moved through that. We're tracking that very carefully.
And our kind of sense as we're in the early part of this year, and we are kind of, what, 10, 11 weeks in now, is that that intake is gaining momentum and is moving in the right direction. And we would expect that that will move forward versus 2023, as we get through 2024. But we aren't expecting that it will go back to the 2022 levels.
Great. Thank you very much. What's the outlook for margins?
Do you want to do that in Brand Addition? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So branded, you know, Brand Addition, they said the team have done a great job there, in moving those gross margins forward. And so whereas historically, we would have always been pointing the analysts to a 30% gross margin for Brand Addition, we have revised that, and would now be pointing to around about 33 points. But the reason that we've been able to move those margins forward is because our customers recognize the increased services that we're providing them and that, and so we've had to invest in our teams and the people in our businesses to be able to provide those services. So from a net margin point of view, we have always pointed to 10% for Brand Addition, and I would kind of continue to point to that number.
Great. Thank you very much. And Chris, with your time at Facilisgroup, what are your key learnings?
So the business have been reported to me rather than sort of, you know, the whereas Brand Addition, I've kind of been a big part of that for a long time. And so there was no kind of big crazy kind of, you know, "Oh, my God. No, I didn't know that. That would didn't you know, I didn't know what was happening there." There's not nothing of that at all. It is just a kind of what's been, I suppose, the most enjoyable but also, you know, kind of hard work as well, is getting really close to all the major stakeholders. So the partners, the suppliers, and the team as well, you know, both the senior team and the wider business.
So, I think having, you know, listened on a, you know, a direct basis and having access to that wider team, I think is sort of, you know, I've spent, you know, the majority of the last sort of six months away from home. And that kind of, you know, makes life a little hard sometimes. But also what I've got out of that is a really great understanding of the business on a much closer basis. But also those people and partners, suppliers, and the team get an understanding of me as well. And I think I hope we're better for that. And, you know, it's kind of right at the moment, I don't have any intention of putting a new single lead in that business.
I want to remain part of it. I think that's because I've been drawn in by, you know, the quality of the partners, the suppliers, and the team. You know, I'm enjoying being a bigger part of that. I hope I can make a positive difference.
Tremendous. Thank you very much. And, in Brand Addition, how and when will we see the benefits of the ongoing investment coming through?
So, the sort of investment into it really, I think it's actually the investment that we're putting in over and above our kind of running our business is in Facilisgroup. And so hopefully, what we want to see that coming through is certainly, you know, we want to see some nice green shoots on our e-commerce platform coming through in 2024. And then the combination of our maturing sales team of Facilisgroup Syncore, the e-commerce platform coming through in 2025, and the Orders product coming through, you know, that's how we hope to roll that business up. And, you know, we don't want to talk about hockey sticks. We want to talk about responsible growth, but we believe the strategy's right.
And so we're concentrating on the execution of that strategy to deliver great technology into the North American promotional products business. And if we can make the businesses of our partners and our suppliers better, you know, we believe that we can benefit from that and have an even stronger business than we do today.
Great. Thank you very much. Final question at this stage, why did you decide on a share buyback rather than a dividend payout?
Again, it's a use of capital. So we are doing a dividend as well as a share buyback. And I suppose our dividend, we want to grow on a year-on-year basis. And so, I suppose you could make it a special dividend. But I think, you know, listening, learning from shareholders, from advisors, it felt like the share price where it is felt like a buyback was the best thing to do. So if you think of, well, I think I know which slide it's—slide 11, Claire talked through. The three things that we're looking to do, over and above the day-to-day, is take Facilisgroup and keep take Facilisgroup further on point four in terms of that capital investment.
We have, sort of, you know, we are growing that dividend in on an annual basis and wish to do that. And if the spare cash there and the share price is where it was, it kind of a feedback and we listen to shareholders, we listen to advisors, and then make it our call and actually kind of bring in the share buyback. It's the first time we've done it, but I think it's been warmly received and, you know, not strongly guided but certainly guided by some of our shareholders. So, you know, that right-hand side and what we choose to do with that excess cash is, you know, we're always thinking about that. I think this is a slide that we'll kind of reproduce in future periods that gives you a clear indication of what we're trying to do with that and hopefully, it answers your question.
Great. Thank you very much indeed. That's the end of questions. Chris, do you have any closing remarks?
Well, thank you very much for your time and, and spending that with us. I think, you know, a big thanks to the team as well. So Brand Addition, Facilisgroup, and, and Pebble, you know, kind of our business is only what it is because the people that work across those multiple brands and multiple geographies. And, you know, I, I kind of, feel it every day, but I don't say every day. And it's a real huge thank you to those guys for all the time and effort, that goes into producing, you know, what I'm really proud of, two great businesses that sort of have strong positions. And, yeah, we're looking forward to a successful 2024.
Fabulous. Thank you both very much indeed. And thank you, everyone, for joining us. You'll now be taken to a webpage to give some feedback on today's presentation. If you can't complete it now, you'll get a follow-up email about an hour afterwards. We'd be really grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete. Many thanks for joining. This is the end of the webinar.