Welcome to our interim results for the six months to August 31st, 2022. My name is Robert Forrester, Chief Executive Officer, and I'm joined by Karen Anderson, our CFO. If we turn to the first slide, the at a glance slide, you can see that the group is benefiting from being a scaled, well-invested, technologically powerful business and one that is enabled to consolidate and continue to consolidate. The group continues to develop on a number of fronts as we execute our long-term strategy, and I just wish to highlight a couple of points from this slide. We've hit GBP 2 billion of revenue in the first half for the first time. We've delivered a solid profit performance, and indeed, the analysts have this morning upgraded our full year numbers for the financial year. We've got 160 outlets.
We actually represent more manufacturer franchise partners than any other UK franchise dealer group, and we've got more to come. We can see significant scope for expansion beyond the 160 outlets through acquisitions and continued multi franchising of our estate. The tangible net assets level of the group is substantial at 71.3 pence per share, and it's grown substantially over the last few years, reflecting the strength of cash generation and profitability. On the bottom right, you can see our robust customer experience scores and colleague satisfaction levels. That reflects the work that we do on a daily basis to make sure that our culture is robust and protected. With our culture is a unique part of this business that makes it very different to other retailers.
If you turn to the next slide and highlights of financial year 2023 to date. Clearly portfolio management is critical in terms of growth. We are building out now our Toyota market area in the West of Scotland, which is a major opportunity. We continue to invest in our brands, particularly Bristol Street Motors, which is now one of the leading automotive brands in the United Kingdom. We've delivered market share growth across all the new vehicle channels as organic performance is good, but also as acquisitions and new dealerships kick in. On digitalization, which is clearly pivotal both in sales and aftersales, we've further enhanced our sales process to make it flexible for customers and to make putting customers right at the heart of it, enabled to just interact with us in a number of ways.
Our Click2Drive technology platform continues to be developed and get better and better. We've now got a head of data appointed, and our data usage, particularly in the area of used cars, is significantly helping the business. We've got a clear roadmap on aftersales digitalization, which is now starting to be delivered, including the full rollout of self-service check-ins at the full estate of franchise dealerships, which I think will enhance the customer experience and also give us efficiency. On financials, the increased revenue growth means we believe we're the fourth largest group now by revenues, and it's taken us less than 16 years to build the scaled group.
We've increased the dividends, we've executed a buyback and announced this morning an additional tranche of buyback, and spent quite a lot of time, as you'd expect us to, developing an energy strategy for the next 10-15 years, which Karen will go through in some detail. Our business is reliant on the colleagues within it to deliver the customer experiences which drive the revenues. I'm pleased to report reduced vacancies, higher levels of engagement through forums which help us identify issues which need to be tackled. We've recruited a record number of apprentices and expanded our training and development, and I'll touch on that more later. If we look at four critical financial KPIs, the first one is revenue. You can see the impact of the pandemic here quite marked, but we've got steady growth as we grow the business.
We've got GBP 2 billion of revenues in the first half for the first time. Our adjusted PBT is back on the extraordinary levels of last year, but it is the second highest first half that we've ever delivered and a good performance. We continue to generate cash. We've got strong conversion of cash from profits to cash. Our free cash flow remains high, and in this period, with minimal contribution from working capital, this really was conversion of profits into cash. Finally, tangible net assets, GBP 244 million, up from GBP 173 million in FY 2019, which reflects the profit and cash generation that this business is capable of. I'd now like to pass to Karen to discuss the financial results.
Thank you, Robert. If we turn to slide seven, the income statement. You can see that the group delivered an adjusted profit before tax of GBP 28.2 million. As Robert pointed out, while this result is well down on last year, which saw unprecedented market dynamics in used cars, it still represents the second-best first half performance in the group's history. Revenues grew by 3.9% in the period despite vehicle volume decline. This was driven by an increase in the average selling price of cars. These price increases had a dampening impact on gross margin percentages, because while gross profits per unit on vehicle sales in all channels remained above historic norms, albeit these were reduced in the case of used vehicles from the record levels delivered last year.
Operating expenses, as anticipated, increased with the impact of pay rises, investment in headcount, including apprentice programs, investment in IT and system development, and in addition, the removal of government business rate support. If you turn over to slide eight, this shows the profit bridge of adjusted profit before tax compared to last year. The group delivered increased gross profits from its new retail and fleet and commercial sales departments, and it was also pleasing to deliver improved gross margin generation from all of the group's core after-sales operations. Clearly, the standout from this bridge in terms of gross profits is the decline in used vehicle gross profit generation. Robert will shortly go through the key drivers of departmental performance, which gave rise to these movements.
However, it is worth noting actually, that the total gross profit generated from the sale of used vehicles in the period was actually a record for the group, excluding the extraordinary result last year. The next slide will explain more fully the increase in operating expenses shown on the bridge. In terms of acquisitions and startup businesses, we saw a lot of costs, as expected, as these businesses start to build a database of customers. If we turn over to slide nine as promised, this summarizes the cost base of the group. The group certainly faced inflationary headwinds in the period, and core group operating expenses increased by GBP 15.3 million compared to the first half of last year.
To improve colleague retention and aid recruitment at a time when the group was experiencing high vacancy levels, a group-wide pay and benefit review was undertaken toward the end of 2021. This review, with an expected annual cost impact of GBP 12 million, was flagged in last year's interim results announcement. It's fair to say that in certain of the group's geographies and in certain roles, further enhancements to packages have been necessary. Overall, pay awards represent GBP 4.8 million of the increase in salary costs. It's worth remembering that this increase does not include salaries paid to technicians, as these are reported within cost of sales. The salary increases also include the impact of the group's changes to its sales roles, where the introduction of sales advisors has increased basic salaries for these, but reduced commission.
This has contributed to the savings that you can see in the commission and bonus line on this slide. The group also invested in additional headcount, including its apprentice programs, where the group has made a record number of apprentice appointments in the period. Additional headcount was also seen in the group's dealerships as vacancy levels were successfully reduced. We also invested in central functions such as digital development, customer retention, and our concierge team at the learning center. The group saw increased costs in a number of other areas, such as vehicle costs, training, and travel, and this arose as activity normalized post-lockdown. The increase in other costs you can see on this slide also includes the investment in the group's IT infrastructure, including cybersecurity investment.
If we turn over to slide 10, one cost area where you might have been surprised to see no cost increase on the previous slide was in energy. The group has fixed its gas prices out till the end of October 2024, but by far the biggest element of the group's energy cost is electricity. The group's fixed price electricity contract actually expired at the end of September 2022, and the group has always been focused on the minimization of cost and has monitored energy usage half-hourly in the past and now to analyze areas where savings and usage can be made. Clearly, as the price of energy has soared, this focus has intensified with the relaunch of the group's War on Waste initiative.
As a result of this, we've successfully delivered a 5.3% reduction in energy usage in the period compared to the same period last year, and that was simply through the application of improved disciplines by our colleagues in energy use and by some investment in energy saving technologies such as LED lighting. This reduction is not apparent in the reduced cost overall, as some of the group's dealerships did not benefit from the fixed price agreement, and consequently, the increase in energy rate in these sites offset the benefit of reduced usage elsewhere in the group. The group now uses approximately 23 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per annum. In light of the ongoing market conditions in energy, the group's developed an energy purchasing strategy.
This targets a move to off-grid energy solutions to meet 50% of the group's electricity requirements by the second half of next financial year. The group is seeking to enter into a power purchase agreement, sorry, which contracts directly with an energy generator such as a wind or solar farm, to provide 40% of the group's energy needs. In addition, the approved GBP 3 million of capital investment in solar panel installation will be done on 46 of the group's dealerships, which should generate a further 10% of the group's required energy. If we turn over to slide 11, this shows the group's cash flow. 77% of operating profit was converted into free cash flow in the period. Working capital was controlled with increased sales activity and timing differences contributing to increased inventory and debtor balances, offset by increased related payable balances.
The group paid taxes of GBP 4.8 million in the period and interest of GBP 3 million. Demonstrating the group's capital allocation disciplines, free cash flow was invested in both acquisitions, including the purchase of the freehold property in Derby and in the Wiper Blades acquisition, and in returns to shareholders in the form of repurchases of shares and dividends. If we turn over to slide 12, further detail on the group's capital allocation discipline is set out. Investment in growth is prioritized, with both acquisitive growth and reinvestment in operations considered carefully in terms of return.
The group has invested GBP 15.3 million to date on capital expenditure, including the GBP 7 million property purchase previously highlighted. Total capital expenditure for the financial year of GBP 27 million is now anticipated, and this includes the investment in the Toyota expansion in Scotland, together with the group's investment in LED lighting and solar power. Returns to shareholders are also an important part of capital allocation. The interim dividend has been increased to GBP 0.007 per share, an increase of over 7%. Whilst the group has recently completed its existing program of share buybacks, spending GBP 5.9 million since the 1st of March on the purchase of approximately 3% of the opening shares in issue, a further GBP 3 million share buyback program has been announced today.
Share buybacks have actually long been an important element of the group's capital allocation strategy, and since the last equity raise by the company back in April 2016, over 48 million shares have been repurchased, representing approximately 12% of the shares in issue on the first of March 2017. My final slide on slide 13 summarizes the group's balance sheet. The group continues to have a very strong balance sheet underpinned by its significant freehold and long leasehold property portfolio. The group has a net cash position of GBP 17.8 million, including GBP 12.4 million of used vehicle stocking loans, but excluding these liabilities. This balance sheet strength gives the board confidence that significant firepower is available to achieve the strategic growth objective of the group.
Movements in working capital are apparent on the balance sheet, with significant increases in inventory and debtors and corresponding increase in creditors, all of which are related. Improved availability of new cars in certain of the group's franchises saw an increase in the level of new vehicle inventory at the end of August compared with the end of February. Demonstrator requirements relaxed during lockdown have been reestablished, and with better supply, that has led to an increase in demonstrator stock as well. As anticipated, used vehicle prices have moderated, contributing to an overall reduction in used vehicle inventory levels. Although the number of used vehicles held in stock by the group actually increased as the group's purchasing strategies ensures a good supply of vehicles for sale.
The group's defined benefit pension scheme remained fully funded at the last actuarial valuation back in April 2021, and remained in surplus on the accounting basis, both at the half year end and more recently, despite the turmoil in the financial markets over the last week or so. The scheme is fully hedged, being invested in LDI, which was previously and continues to protect the scheme from interest and inflation movements. It'll be no surprise that active management of the scheme's assets has been required in recent days to ensure that the scheme has sufficient collateral to maintain this hedged position. I'll now hand back to Robert to complete an update on strategy.
Thank you very much, Karen. You can see here a nice picture of our new used car outlet branded Bristol Street Motors Motornation of Stockton-on-Tees, our first dealership under Bristol Street Motors in the Middlesbrough, Stockton area. The group strategy is outlined on slide 15, and it has not been changed since last time we presented. The board actually reviewed the strategy of the group in September, and we believe that no fundamental changes were required. In fact, we think we've made progress in all areas of our strategy, including the three sustainability goals at the bottom of the slide, which are really at the heart of our business strategy, and we ensure that they are executed as well as other operational matters. They are part of our operations.
ESG is actually how we do business and always has been, rather than something we've had to think about separately. If we turn to market trends in vehicle sales. Quite a busy slide here, but I think it summarizes the situation in the six months. Vehicle supply issues have probably never been as well publicized as they have been in the past 12 months, for a variety of reasons, which I think are known, i.e. semiconductors, Ukraine war, etc. New car vehicle supply remains weak. It is probably a little bit better than it was certain periods in the past 12 to 18 months, but it remains volatile and uncertain. Certainly in September we didn't know whether cars were coming or not coming.
The 1.6 million forecast market, which the SMMT has now made, is a far cry from a 3 million market, which was predicted, say, 10 years ago by some industry pundits. We are seeing the direct impact of reduced vehicle supply over the pandemic period, over the supply shortage period on the zero to three-year parc, which is impacting used cars, but not necessarily in too much of a negative way because we think it is underpinning robustness in used car values, though clearly it's also contributing to used market declines to some degree. You can see in the bottom right-hand side of the graph. This is the trend, monthly trend in used car values over the past few years. You can see the economists were at it last year in terms of wild increases in used vehicle pricing.
This year has been a lot more stable. Better in terms of robustness than a normal pre-pandemic year, where we tend to see bigger falls in used values. They're incredibly stable. Used vehicles values are still 11% higher than they were last year, so they are at a high level, though the gap is closing. The electrification of the vehicle park and indeed of sales continues. Recently seen articles that we've now got 500,000 battery electric vehicles in the UK. Supply is being more and more pushed towards electric vehicle production because of the need to hit targets. Indeed, the BEVs have a 14% market share. The key questions I think we'll look at over the next 10 years or so, is what impact does this have on after sales, on used cars and on vehicle park?
I think we should really spend some time looking at the vehicle park, the number of vehicles in the market in the UK. Clearly the pandemic, lack of new vehicle sales due to closures, due to supply issues, has led to a decline in the vehicle park, particularly in the zero to three year-old cars. Now, that clearly has an impact in terms of after sales, it clearly has an impact in terms of used car sales, positive and negative. We're now expecting to see the vehicle park grow from 2022 to 2032, which is good news. The more vehicles in the UK, the more robust our business for sure. The pace of change in electrification in terms of the impact on that vehicle park is positively glacial.
In 2032, we expect battery electric vehicles to have around 35% of the vehicle park, so the change is exceedingly slow. If we look at how our business has performed in the period, we are very, very pleased. You can see that like-for-like sales were down in every channel, new and used and all elements in between. However, we grew market share in all new vehicle segments. You can see 4.1% of the retail market, 4.6% of fleet, 6% of vans. What are the key points here? The fleet growth is particularly impressive, going from 3.3% to 4.6%, and we have expanded our fleet operations with a new focus of attack in terms of penetrating the public sector market, particularly around electric vehicles.
We've been successful, and that will continue, I think, to help our fleet share. The second point is clearly to have a 6% van share of the new van market in the UK, for the first time, a great achievement. We believe we are the market leader in the van segments and that puts us in a strong position, so we are absolutely delighted with that. The volume shortfalls on a like-for-like basis are clearly evident and we beat the SMMT statistics year-on-year in all areas except new retail volumes, where we were back slightly, and that was really due to the Ford franchise seeing a lack of volume coming through, particularly Ford and Ford Focus and Fiesta.
However, we have actually seen that to some extent reverse in more recent months, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Margin per unit dropped in each channel, as you can see from the top right, but remains at very high levels, not at the peaks of H2 2022, but at very high levels historically, and clearly, that is important in terms of generating the excellent profit levels that we're at. We have seen used car gross margin percentages fall, and I think it's worth us looking at that. We're now at 7.9% gross margin percentage. The reasons are very straightforward, a slight decline in gross profit per unit for a massive hike in sales prices.
If you actually look back at the history, FY 2020 H1, our average selling price for used car was GBP 14.5 thousand, and if you look today, it's close to GBP 20 thousand. That is to some extent franchise mix, but actually more this incredible increase in used car pricing over the past 12 months. Bear in mind, the average of GBP 20 thousand is against a backdrop where we've got less sales in the zero to three- parc, which is actually more expensive and a lot more cheaper, older cars. It really shows you just how much pricing has moved, and that has clearly had an effect on gross margin percentages. If we turn to after sales, after sales is a key profit driver for the business.
You may, the eagle-eyed among you will notice that we've split forecourts out for the first time in, I think about six years. We have one petrol filling station in Widnes, but it was making the segment's analysis look strange because we saw a 93% increase in revenue to GBP 6.7 million from one petrol forecourt. We took the decision to go for market share and undercut the local supermarkets, and we did that with great success, increasing number of litres by 80% and increasing gross profit as well. We've stripped that out. If you actually look at service, you can see growth in revenues and profits on a like-for-like basis, which we're delighted with. It's true to say that the increase in higher internal rates that the service department charge sales department has clearly helped that.
Given the increase in technician costs, that was definitely the right thing to do. Margins fell as anticipated and flagged due to the higher rates paid for technicians. We have been successful in getting more technician resource on board, and that is helping us drive the business forward. You can see in the bottom left the revenue mix. Clearly warranty work is down 8.1% on a like-for-like basis, and that's absolutely directly related to this decline of the zero to three-year parc, which is where most warranty periods are. There's just less cars in that category. I'm absolutely delighted to see that retail was up 3.4%. You could hypothesize that franchise dealers only really service cars in the zero to three-year parc that's under the warranty period, and after that they leave it to the independents.
That is absolutely not true of our business, and the proof is in the eating here. There are a number of reasons why, despite the decline in that zero to three -year parc, we have powered into a 3.4% increase in like-for-like retail sales. We have a robust process for vehicle health checks to make sure our customers' cars are safe when they leave our workshops. We have generated an average invoice value of GBP 291 versus last year's GBP 275. With the number of services we do, that is a substantial number. Indeed, our average invoice value is now at a record high. We've always been successful in penetrating service plans, for our sales customers, particularly on used cars.
It's gotten us in a great position to retain older cars into our service departments, which tend to have higher bills due to higher wear and tear. We've got over 169,000 customers now on service plans. In addition, to overcome the declining part, we've really focused on getting older cars back in, and we've developed a digital conquest strategy. I'm pleased to report we got over 13,000 bookings in the six months, up 32% year-over-year, and these tend to be older cars, which we've never sold and never seen in the service departments. Finally, it's probably worth pointing out that the retail number actually includes B2B sales, where we are bringing contract hire and leased vehicles in from the major leasecos into our workshops for service and repair.
We've got a very strong relationship, both on the fleet supply and the aftersales side with leasecos, and we're seeing some really quite strong growth in gaining market share. To do that, you have to have great customer experience levels because we're monitoring our customer experience levels by leasecos, and we are taking share in that area. That has helped us to drive retail. Let's talk about digitalization. There's a lot going on in the digitalization space. There are four key areas I've highlighted. The first, and a number of our shareholders saw a webinar about 12 months ago of this system, which is our used vehicle analytics and what we call virtual analytics. This helps us to drive detailed pricing strategies to maximize profit per day. We maximize the profit of every car.
One of the ideas we've had is, it's not that we've got an almost as big a problem in selling our good, well demanded cars too cheaply as we have in keeping and overpricing cars that probably should actually be moved on. If this system allows us to do it, I actually personally use the system and this is one of our dealerships, and you can see there's a dot in the middle there that's red. I will go and have a click on the red. It would tell me the car, tell me the pricing, how it compares to market, how it's performing on, say, Auto Trader, and that would allow us then to get our pricing strategies right. We're developing this data now to aid our buying.
We've got an enhanced central buying function, and the systems can tell us what to buy and at what price. It is very much core to our used car strategy going forward. Secondly, online reservation. Most people will know if you've heard me speak before, I'm not a great fan of the economics of online retailing, pure online retailing. It is still a minority sport. It is the equivalent of tiddlywinks. The key to used car retailing digitally now, I believe, is a GBP 99 or similar reservation fee, allowing a customer to digitally go and find a car, pay the reservation fee, take it on sale for 48 hours, and then we can conclude the deal. We like people to do that either online or through concierge services or in a dealership. Indeed, this is far more important than pure online retailing.
In August, we took 1,500 reservation fees and converted at 60%. It's an area where we think we can do a lot better, and that is the great battleground in used cars. Concierge services are personal shoppers who engage with customers in the buying process, be it online, either through video or live chat or on the phone, to guide them through if they get stuck or if they have queries. It's far more than live chat. They can engage with dealerships to get videos. They can actually help them through the online buying channel or actually just send them an offer directly. We found that it has doubled our online conversion and is certainly a good weapon to increase conversion. Finally, wiperblades.co.uk, completely different business, but one with synergies to the group.
It's an acquisition with an excellent organic website, believe it or not, selling wiper blades. Also, we have purchasing benefits because it's massively increased the amount of wiper blades we buy as a business, which helps us in other areas of the business. It's integrated into our eSpares online business, and we've got high growth. Let's look at colleagues. Everything we do is really underpinned by our colleagues, be it software development or interaction with customers, and we've gotta make sure we have the right people and the right numbers with the right talent who are energetic and driven. That's the only way we feel we can have business success. There are some good highlights in terms of engagement and retention, and clearly the labor shortage in the U.K. has been well documented.
We've actually reduced vacancies now from 500 to 400, about 6% of our overall planned headcount. That's certainly helped us. We're doing a lot more engagement focus sessions, actually including with our non-executive directors to identify issues, be it work-life balance or the strains and stresses, and then we can take it back and act on it, and we certainly are. We are looking at different levels, different ways of actually structuring work. Maybe you do five days' hours in four days, giving you a day off, and there's a number of different things in pilot at the moment. Karen mentioned pay restructure review. That is an ongoing process.
We clearly are cognizant there's likely to be a large national minimum wage increase in April, which we need to consider as well, specifically on national minimum wage, but also what's the impact on other job roles and what we're going to do with regard to differentials. There clearly is a cost of living crisis, and that potentially is problematic both for colleagues and in terms of prospects, that this is one to be discussed over the next six months. We have done a lot of work for a number of reasons around our sales teams. We now have more sales advisors in place versus sales executives. Sales advisors have higher basics, fixed hours, less commission versus traditional sales exec, and it's certainly given us far better gender balance and made us more attractive as an employer.
Overall, we are very happy that 86.6% consider the group to be a great place to work, and that remains a key metric for management. If we actually look at what's happening to the sector, we have a massive amount of change, both in terms of electrification, digitalization, the structure of dealership networks, and we need new skills, new roles. We need some of our existing roles to change, and that puts training and development investment absolutely essential of what we've gotta do to make sure we're relevant. On technicians, we are absolutely focused on making sure we're ready for electrification more and more. We are investing in battery centers. We've now got two with the Volkswagen Group, one in Leeds and one in Carlisle.
Overall, everyone needs to absolutely be trained in electric vehicles, and we are doing. We've taken a record number of EV vehicle technician apprentices on, and in addition, we've taken 100 customer service apprentices on in the aftersales departments to make sure the customer experience is right and to bring fresh new talent in, which is certainly good. With an expanded scale group and one that wishes to grow, we've expanded our management development programs to give people the opportunity to learn management skills, and everyone in the group has access to excellent online personal development programs. The more we invest in our colleagues, the more likely we are to retain them, and the more likely they are to go and fulfill their careers with us in more senior positions. Turning to current trading and outlook, let's take September. September was an odd month.
I think everyone would agree. We lost the monarch. We had energy hikes looming. We had a budget that wasn't a budget, and we had dislocation in new car supply yet again. I'm delighted therefore to say that we delivered the third highest profit in September in the history of the group, and that clearly underpins H2, and you can see in the statement, full year results are expected to exceed current market expectations. Now, it was a month where we were uncertain as to what was gonna actually come in terms of new vehicles. There was volatility in deliveries. A lot of ended up coming in the last three days, and therefore, volumes were down.
However, margins were really strong in new vehicles, and that underpinned our profitability in a continuation of the trends that we've seen in the previous six months with that strength in gross profit generation. Used demand was subdued in September, and clearly that's one to watch in terms of future months. There was a lot going on in people's minds in September, and I think it did have an effect. Some of it is supply related, but I think actually demand related. Margins remain strong. Pricing remains resilient in used cars, which is very helpful. Service, albeit service absolutely lost a day since we closed the business completely on the day of the Queen's funeral. We are benefiting from higher resource, and we saw some very, very strong trends.
For example, a 27% increase in the amount of turnover that we did with leasing companies in service and repairs, which was excellent. Where do we go from here? It is a very good question. If we take each part in turn, new supply, I think we're likely to see more of the same. We must get back to normality at some point. No one really knows when that is. Some people say 2024. I would expect to be right by financial year 2024 at some point, but I've been wrong before on this one. I thought we'd be in a better position on new vehicles by six months ago than we actually are today. I think we can probably assume there's still gonna be constraints.
We're still gonna see margins at a pretty high level, and we're probably gonna have an underpinning of used vehicles. Used vehicles are affected by the day-to-day new car supply 'cause that generates part exchanges. Let's not forget that there is a gap in used vehicle supply due to the pandemic and supply shortages, where there is an excess of 1 million vehicles missing, and they're never coming. We will inherently have shortages of supply as that negative bubble feeds its way through over the next five years or so. Now, clearly on the demand side, that may offset that supply constraint to some extent, and we all need to be cognizant of that, but I think we've got a very strong used car business.
We spend a lot of time analyzing it and making sure that we are in a good place in terms of stock turn and aging. If we take costs, we can't ignore costs presently. We've clearly got an energy strategy. We're clearly gonna be aided in the second half by the government action with regards to energy costs. That was a big benefit to us. We're also gonna benefit from the national insurance change, which was recently announced. We are cognizant that there are continued pay pressures, and the national minimum wage next April, I suspect, is gonna be a fairly significant percentage increase. Therefore, we're gonna have to factor that into our business planning for next year. We think it's too early to call next year's numbers. At the moment, we're happy with what's in the market.
We'll update you, of course. Finally, we've got a strong pipeline, we believe, of growth. We're actually excited by where we find ourselves. We've got more multi-franchising opportunities to come, which pushes our sales outlook, gives us extra aftersales, and enhances our profitability and resilience. We've got a strong pipeline of acquisitions ahead of us, which we hope to execute, and we've got the chance of potential new franchises as well, which we're in discussion with, though we already have the highest number of franchises of any retailer in the United Kingdom. In summary, this group is 16 years in the making, and we've followed a fairly rigid strategy. We are well capitalized and asset backed, which actually gives us significant firepower to expand and go to scale.
I would prefer a business at scale than a small business because then we can invest in brand, we can invest in technology, and invest in training and development. There are benefits of scale for sure. The digitalization has given us a great and better customer journey, and it's also given us productivity benefits, which you've seen before through the group, and we expect to continue that. The key thing for this group is what is the culture. It's gotta be a culture of success and confidence. We've gotta have talented people who we invest in, and I think we are doing that. Overall, we've got a board and executives and senior management who are excited by what we're doing and see a good future ahead of us. Thank you.