I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Chris Wilesmith, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Ashley. Good morning, all, and thank you for making the time. Well, you've undoubtedly seen the update that we've released to market. It's really pleasing to be able to talk about the trends that we're actually seeing in the business starting to emerge. We thought it was absolutely appropriate to reach out and to update the market on also the impacts that are being felt from what's happening globally. The announcement very clearly has given you a sense of the momentum change from the turnaround announcement. Notwithstanding, two days after that, the global impact started occurring from a war in the Middle East.
I wanted to really give you a sense of the actions that we talked about and have started taking in the business, having a material impact on the performance in each of the the trading divisions. You'll see that in the actual announcement that we provided very clearly the difference in the momentum that we're seeing post starting the very early introduction of these initiatives across the business. When we first started talking back in February, I talked about the critical importance of having a team-led turnaround. I talked about focusing on the customer and actually creating environment where we were lighting up our trading engines.
There's no question that what changed from that point, the impact on the consumer, the cost of fuel at the bows ers hitting discretionary spend has had an impact. I equally would say that the actions we've taken, and I would like to share some of the detail that is actually supporting what we're seeing in terms of the very clear improvement in the post-February results, notwithstanding all of those challenges. I'm happy to report that customer measures across the business in the major trading divisions are actually improving significantly. We talked about when we last met turnover rates of 50% and 40%, and I can say to you that we are rapidly seeing a decline in turnover in the organization.
I'm very pleased to say that many leaders that are now in place have been so highly regarded that we're seeing really high-quality team members coming back into our organization. That, of course, will continue to build that momentum, but just a tremendous start to see some of these great people coming back into our business that were part of the build of the success story of Burson's right from the genesis. Engagement programs have been commenced across the organization with senior executive leaders, direct reports on my team, leading, talking with these groups of people, frontline managers, senior leaders, and actually, middle managers, the people that touch the most of our population of team to understand what they want of us to create a better environment.
These early conversations are being really well regarded, well received, and the team are actually building actions to help create the culture that will create the future of our organization. We've also reintroduced leadership and training programs. The first two groups of our senior leaders have now started going through a Deakin Leadership program, again, to help to really lead our teams into the future. If I look at the activities that we talked about, moving stock out of the DC networks and into our branches and stores. These activities have now been underway, and we're certainly seeing significantly improved stock available to customer at branch level, and that is also underpinning the results and the performance. Still lots more work to do.
We also introduced programs to stimulate and connect more effectively with customers that have been both declining and lapsed customers, making phone calls, visiting them, actually putting programs in place to ensure that more competitive pricing. I talked previously about the impact on our customer of having uncompetitive pricing. We have done significant work on the first phase of the price rollbacks. Over 70% of our active customer accounts have now got market competitive pricing, and we're starting to see very lifts that we expected coming out of those accounts with a more competitive price. We've also taken very clear actions on the price on particular segments within the business, and equally, we're seeing a very positive response, while being very careful and measured in terms of the impact of rolling the prices back has on that margin.
I talked last time about 18 initiatives that are underpinning the maintenance of the margin. It is clear that we need to just moderate and be careful with that as we continue to build momentum, just to ensure that it is a net positive profit impact. Work is well underway, being received very well. Many good things are in place as much as the increased activity with very specific trade and retail marketing activations in market now and seeing really terrific consumer responses. There's still a lot to do, but what I am confident is where we started focusing on team customer and activating our field teams with our customers is starting to pay dividends.
Clearly, from the update, you can see there is an impact of recent events in the world that have impacted the local environment here in the countries that we operate in both Australia and New Zealand. That's why we felt it was really important to reach out. Today, I want it to be more about one, just setting the scene in terms of why I'm so confident that the work that the team is doing is building the momentum. The flywheel is starting to move in the right direction, but we also had to give an update given what was occurring. I'd like to pause at that point because I would like to hear from you and also answer questions that you may have of what we've released to the market.
I think on that point, Karen, we had one question, and I think, over to you to, help with the facilitation.
We'll hand back to the operator there, Ashley.
Thank you.
Thanks, Kim.
If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone please pick up the handset to ask a question. As a reminder we ask each call to limit themselves to one question and one follow up question. If you wish to ask a further question please rejoin the queue. First question today comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Morning, Chris and Kim. On the numbers, it looks like the EBITDA downgrade on a pre-AASB 16 basis is about AUD 11 million. Can you just attribute how much of that is a result of slower sales versus changes to the gross margin percentage?
Kim, do you want to comment? I'm happy to give a summary level.
There's a few things that are sitting in that changing guidance. It's a combination of sales, margin, cost factors as well. Fuel and freight, as well as some supplier input costs have also increased as a result of the conflict. We've also had the FX impacts from New Zealand. What we're focusing in here today is that within those changes, we have seen momentum building across the business units. We have seen customers returning. We have seen increase in our run rates leading into when this conflict started to impact the market. We have seen our market share increase. Chris, did you want to add any more color as to what's driving those changes?
Look, I think it's fair to say that there is a consumer that ultimately shops in many of the trade workshops that we serve. Craig, I was just talking with the CEO of the AAAA. I'm actually at the industry show for the next two days on the booths, meeting with our customers, partners, and we're also sponsoring the event. What is very clear, talking to Stuart Charity, who is the CEO of the AAAA, there's been a material drop in bookings in the workshops and also abandonment of booked services. Quite clearly, if the services are not occurring, then the parts are not coming out of the business. That has an impact.
I'd also say very clearly, when you think about the impact of freight and fuel costs, running a fleet of delivery vehicles and obviously the carriers that are providing our longer-haulage movements around the country, the impact that's come from there is into the millions. The final element that I'd call out is more so which goes to your question around margin. There are very significant cost of goods increases that we're seeing come out of the implications of what people have had occur to their businesses that are supplying into to us. You know, there's those number of elements that are impacting. However, Kim raised a very good point.
When we look at our best point of reference in the trade business in terms of are we securing market share, it is very clear that in a very tough environment, we're not only showing a trend change, but we are picking up share, which will put us in a far healthier position as we continue to emerge into a more stabling environment globally that will impact locally.
Just to clarify on the gross margin, there was something you said in your opening remarks about having to manage the impact of the price rollback. Is gross, you know, I know it's hard to isolate, but is gross margin weaker than anticipated, you know, attributable to these rollback or better than? I'm just trying to understand.
No, they. Yeah, no, fair question. I would say it was not at the level that we would have liked it to have been, Craig, speaking very openly. When I first talked about this action being taken to roll back, I also talked about 18 activities to mitigate. One of those was very specifically in higher margin categories, improving the mix in the business. When you've got a more sensitive trade customer and consumer, it's fair to say that some of those elements that we thought would be more effectively offsetting the rollback haven't materialized at the pace and that.
We're just now moderating back a little bit the levers, because we tried to move very quickly, and I said we would, but I equally said that that could be four months, it could be six months, depending on what we saw. We're just, given the conditions, needing to moderate that a little bit just to pick back up the margin. COGS, margin, the impact of the cost inputs, and there is a clearly a headline, revenue, headwind at all of those elements.
Your next question comes from Sam Teeger with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, Chris. Good morning. Just taking into account the slower trading and the slower inventory reduction, well, what are you now expecting for Net Leverage and Fixed-Charge Coverage Ratio at FY 2026?
It's a good question. I might defer, Kim, if you didn't mind.
Yeah, for sure. Very clearly we are within our covenants and anticipate to be the same at 30th June. With the lower EBITDA and as you mentioned, the, where the inventory is at, we have taken actions to ensure that we've got the inventory in the right place at the branch and store network. We have taken actions to reduce the overall inventory. Those actions will, you know, take some time to come through and obviously with the slowdown in sales will impact our inventory balances. We are still taking those actions to reduce inventory. The combination is that we will see leverage being higher than what we had anticipated in February, but still well within our covenants for 30th June and same with the FCCR.
Right.
I mean, it's been-
Just to clarify on that. Okay, yeah. Previously, I think you said 1.2x-1.5x for leverage, you're saying it'll be above that. For the Fixed- Charge Coverage Ratio, which I think you have temporary relief in it's falling to 1.4x at FY 2026, you think you'll be okay there?
Yeah. 1.4 x is our covenant for 30th of June, and yes, we will be okay there, is what this forecast is showing us.
I think, just building on your comment, Kim, because it is a really important call-out. We have worked on the early stages of more effectively looking at our ranging based on relevance to car park. There are non-performing lines that have been removed. There's reductions of MOQs that have been put through thousands of items in our business. We're also moving on to Phase 2 of both driving the in-stock at the branch level and also continuing to pull back on non-performing lines that just should not be in the greater organization. If I looked at the actions taken, these are, you know, annualized reductions that are very, very significant, be into the double digit millions that will be coming out. The moderated consumer sentiment is certainly affecting the sell-through of those right here and now.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Wei-Weng Chen with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, Chris. Sorry, I'm very new to this company, so apologies in advance if my question is overly simplistic or missing any nuance here. If I look at the midpoint of AASB 16 guidance, I think we established that it's kind of an impact of about AUD 11.5 million. So roughly AUD 3 million-AUD4 million a month, assuming that it's all started in April. Can this be extrapolated into sort of FY 2027 for as long as kind of the war is ongoing?
I think that the assessment of whatever the instability maintains, it's certainly going to create a consumer and business environment that is less positive than it would be outside of it. What I would say is that what we are very confident of is the actions we're taking are going to put us in a far better position as we start emerging. To be honest, I said any further times I talk in a meeting like this, I'm going to say with a caveat, except for wars, macro, or global pandemics, that those things that are unforeseen sometimes are difficult. Everything that we can see at the moment would say, yes, it's probably more moderated, but the direction is starting to build momentum.
We're still confident of the direction as we start moving into FY 2027. There will be quite clearly a little lower base to start on going into FY 2027.
Yeah. Maybe a bit more sort of, I guess, direct right now. As it stands right now, should the market be maybe planning for an eventuality that FY 2027 earnings might be below FY 2026? Okay. Thanks.
Your next question comes from Andrew Hodge with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Yeah, that's since it hasn't been 90. I don't think we can go back till it's been 90. Do you? [ No. Mate, it must have been before.]
Sorry, I think I've got a voice, but maybe not a question, or I didn't pick up the question. Sorry.
We'll move on to the next question. This is from James Bales with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. I just wanted to clarify, was the downgrade based on the trading performance that you've updated or that you've given to the end of April? Or are you factoring in trends you're seeing in May? What are you seeing in terms of trading momentum in the last few weeks versus to the end of April, where you've given the update?
There's no question May and June are very important months for us. Yes, we've taken that into account with the updates that we're giving to today.
Has there been a material change versus in May trading versus the trajectory that you've outlined to the end of April?
Certainly, you started seeing the impacts coming into the April period, which we've considered moving forward. The direction of an improvement over the prior year from the initiatives and actions we're taking is still directionally going in the right direction, not as quickly as we would like it to.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your next question comes from Angus Hewitt with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to clarify what you were saying on increasing market share. Supercheap noted market share gains in the March quarter. Genuine Parts is claiming market share gains. What segments are you picking up share and over what time period? Is it just in parts or trade segment overall? How are you tracking in retail?
I think it's fair to say if you looked at the Supercheap growth number, which I think was just over 1%, I could say that the period post our turnaround being released, we are growing at a very healthy position compared to the competitor sets. If I looked at the broader trade business, I'd say that it is quite clear from the data we have, we are picking up share broadly, not specific categories, but broadly across the trade businesses. We can certainly see that there are some other businesses that may not be as able to be seen visibly, that would indicate that it's coming from from them.
I suspect many customers are going back to the larger organizations that they can perhaps be more confident with at this sort of point and when these sort of challenges are in place. Broad-based market share growth, and I would suspect that it's coming from the smaller businesses given your comment about the others. I will say we are very well-placed from what we can see with the other growth competitors around us.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is from Andrew Hodge with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Morning, all. Thanks for taking the question. Just, you mentioned that the market share growth, but also at a slightly lower gross margin than you expected. Is there any risk you're effectively buying that share growth and as you dial that gross margin back up, you lose some of that share growth?
Look, a good question. No, I don't think it will to be honest. The other, you know, activities that we put in place to reestablish relationships to bring back people to more effectively serve. If you look at what the business has been known for, particularly on the trade and networks business, it's been about relationships. If you have a team that is in a good condition and you've got enough people to serve effectively, our delivery, which is still and has always been considered to be better than the competitors, but also that we have fair value. We're winning back on a number of those dimensions.
No, this is not about generating high-low activity that's not a sustainable position, notwithstanding the other initiatives that we're putting in to actually increase margin, but the right way while you're still delivering value. As I mentioned, that was an initiative that I always called out. We would need to pace and sequence it based on what was happening at the margin level. We need to moderate a few of those levers and accelerate a few of the offsetting actions to do it. Hopefully, that answers your question.
Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We will pause a short moment for any final questions to register. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Mr. Wilesmith for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, operator. Very grateful for everyone's time. Hopefully, it gives you a sense of the actions we've taken are starting to deliver the momentum change that we needed in the organization. The impact of the global changes we've experienced have certainly moderated that. It just says to me, we need to continue to double down and really focus on those elements, and they are going to put us in a very good position as we come back to a more normal environment. It'll come, and I know from previous events such as the GFC, the investment, what we do to put the seeds into the ground now are going to pay dividends.
Thank you for your continued interest and support, and look forward to getting together and updating you further in the future. Thanks again. Have a great day, everyone.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.