I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ian Robinson, Executive Chairman, Beacon Lighting Group. Please go ahead, Mr. Ian.
Thank you very much. Good morning, shareholders. Thank you for joining us today as we review the financial results for the first half of financial year 2025. I'm Ian Robinson, Executive Chairman of Beacon Lighting, and I'm pleased to be here with our CEO, Glen Robinson, and our CFO, David Speirs. The first half of financial year 2025 has been a positive period for Beacon Lighting. While retail spending shows signs of gradual improvement across states, our Beacon Trade business continues to perform very strongly. Trading conditions remain mixed, with some states showing robust growth while others still face challenges, reflecting various variations in consumer confidence. Our focus remains on expanding our trade business and strengthening partnerships with our trade customers. We're encouraged by the progress we've made and the initiatives we've introduced to support this growth.
I'd also like to take a moment to recognize our dedicated team, whose expertise and commitment continue to drive outstanding customer experiences. I'd also like to express my appreciation to our customers for their ongoing support of Australian-designed product range and lighting design service, and to our trade partners for choosing Beacon Lighting Trade as a trusted source of lighting, ceiling fans, electrical accessories for Australian homes. As outlined on page two of your material, today's agenda will begin with Glen Robinson providing an overview of the results, followed by a detailed financial performance report from David Speirs. Glen will then share our growth strategies and outlook before we conclude with a question-and-answer session. With that, I hand over to Glen to walk us through the results.
Thank you, Ian. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone joining us today. I appreciate your time this morning. Let's begin by reviewing a few key financial highlights from page four of the presentation, which you can find on the ASX website. The BLX Group is pleased to report another record sales result of AUD 170.6 million, reflecting the continued stability in performance over many financial periods. Additionally, the group achieved a strong gross profit margin of 69.3%, reinforcing our focus and strength in our vertical product development model. Our profit performance remained solid, with an EBITDA of AUD 47.4 million and a net profit after tax of AUD 17.6 million. We also maintained a robust cash balance at AUD 48 million, further strengthening our financial position. Moving to page five, we can review the operational highlights for the year. Our focus on strengthening Beacon Trade continues.
During the half, we enhanced our team's ability to build strong trade relationships through our trade immersion training. This, along with other key initiatives, contributed to a 25.3% increase in in-store trade sales. Additionally, Beacon Trade Online saw impressive growth, with a 34.2% increase compared to last year. We also expanded our footprint, opening new stores in Chatswood in New South Wales, Port Stephens in New South Wales, Shepparton in Victoria, and Bendigo in Victoria, bringing our total to 128 stores across Australia. Our product innovation team had a standout first half, launching 307 exclusive products for both our retail and trade customers. On page six, we can discuss the financial results for the first half of financial year 2025. Sales reached a record AUD 170.6 million, reflecting a 3.5% increase.
As the retail sector showed early signs of a gradual recovery across different regions, and Beacon Trade continues to deliver strong results, we were pleased to achieve AUD 5.7 million sales increase for the half. Gross profit remained strong at 69.3%, a significant achievement considering the rapid expansion of our trade business. Strategic product introductions improved economies of scale for key trade lines. We successfully maintained our gross profit margin in line with last year's results. Other income performed well, increasing to AUD 1.3 million, up 47.1% against last year. This growth was primarily driven by interest income, highlighting the benefits of a strong cash balance. Operating expenses increased by 4.9% as inflation continued to moderate. While cost pressure persists, our disciplined expense management strategy allows us to invest in key growth areas while maintaining financial prudence. EBITDA increased by AUD 958,000, up 2.1% over the prior year, reaching 27.8% of sales.
Net profit after tax was AUD 17.6 million, a modest decrease of 2.5% from last year's AUD 18 million, and a net profit after tax margin of 10.3% of sales. The group is pleased with the first half results, which highlight strong progress across key business areas. This period saw notable growth in our trade business, expansion of our store network through new openings and relocations, expansion of our offering to better serve our customers, and enhancement to our product range. Our ability to adapt quickly to changing consumer trends, technological advancements, and category demand has enabled us to maintain and grow our market share in both the retail and trade segments. Encouragingly, there are early signs of improving consumer confidence in select regions. As a result, Beacon Lighting is well positioned to support both our retail and trade customers through our nationwide store network and online platforms.
With a strong foundation in place, we remain focused on driving further growth, innovation, and customer engagement in the months ahead. I'll now hand you over to David Speirs, our CFO, to take you through a more detailed look at the financials.
Thank you, Glen. I'll now go to page eight regarding sales. The Beacon Lighting Group achieved a sales increase of 3.5% to AUD 170.6 million. Company store comparative sales increased by 1.3%, with the November sales result being the highlight. The best-performed states were Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, while sales in Victoria continued to be a challenge. Underpinning the Beacon Lighting Group sales increase was the success of Beacon Trade. Trade sales in stores, inclusive of direct trade sales and referral trade sales, increased by 25.3%, continuing the strong momentum achieved in recent years. The online sales channel consisting of retail and trade sales had an increase of 15.5%, while positive sales increases were also achieved by Beacon International, LightSource Solutions, and Masson For Light. Gross profit on page nine. The Beacon Lighting Group has increased the gross profit dollars to AUD 118.3 million, or 69.3% of sales.
Despite the change in sales towards trade, being vertically integrated and continuing to introduce new products has helped to support the gross profit margins. Beacon Lighting continues to design and develop new innovative products in Australia that inspire and excite our retail and trade customers. This has enabled Beacon Lighting to achieve outstanding value to our customers while still achieving a strong gross profit margin. With the increase in sales of core trade products, Beacon Lighting has been able to strengthen our relationships with our key trade suppliers. This has helped Beacon Lighting and our trade suppliers to grow our business together and continues to support our margins. Operating expenses on page 10. Beacon Lighting has continued to experience inflationary cost pressures with some operating expenses. As usual, the management of expenses has remained a focus for the Beacon Lighting team, with a particular focus on productivity throughout the business.
Beacon Lighting has invested in marketing in recent years, particularly associated with Beacon Trade. In half one, financial year 2025, marketing expenses were in line with the marketing expenses from last year. With the continued opening of new stores, selling and distribution expenses have increased by 5.8%. Depreciation has increased by 6.8%, and finance costs have increased by 15.5%. These increases in expenses reflect the lease costs associated with new stores, exercised options, and new leases. General and administration expenses have been well managed and increased by 4.7%. In a challenging expense environment, the Beacon Lighting achieved a 4.9% operating expense increase to AUD 72.2 million. I will now move to the cash flow on page 11. Beacon Lighting has continued to strengthen the cash position of the group, which has been supported by the current trading results.
Given the strength of the current cash position, Beacon Lighting has repaid borrowings, which is reflected in our financing activity. There has been continued investment in the future of the business with a Capex of AUD 6 million. Beacon Lighting made a dividend payment of AUD 6.3 million to its shareholders after the dividend reinvestment program. Reflecting all these activities, Beacon Lighting has had a cash flow increase of AUD 1.8 million for half one financial year 2025. Moving to the balance sheet on page 12. The Beacon Lighting cash position has improved by AUD 11.6 million compared to 12 months ago. Inclusive of the term deposit, which is represented as other financial assets, Beacon Lighting has a cash balance of AUD 48 million at the end of December 2024. The increase in receivables to AUD 13.4 million is a reflection of the growing importance of trade.
The inventory balances remain relatively stable with an investment of AUD 98.7 million. Borrowings have declined to AUD 20.2 million. Beacon Lighting has continued to maintain a strong net cash position. Dividends on page 13. The Beacon Lighting Group dividend reinvestment plan remains in place and continues to be available to all shareholders. The directors have declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.041 per share for half one 2025, which is consistent with the dividend from last year. The current dividend has a record date of the 7th of March 2025 and a payment date of the 21st of March 2025. Going forward, the annual dividend payout ratio is expected to be between 50%-60% of net profit after tax. Thank you, and I will now pass you back to Glen.
Thanks, David. Let's turn to page 14. We will highlight our strategic pillars of growth. Many of you will already be familiar with our four key strategic pillars, which have remained consistent over the past few years. These pillars serve as a foundation of our business strategy, ensuring accountability and alignment across all teams as we work towards our long-term goals. The four pillars are around our store network, our trade business, e-commerce, and new business and international opportunities. These pillars continue to drive our strategic direction, enabling us to stay focused on delivering customer-centric growth and innovation. Turning our attention to page 15, I'll provide you with an update with our first growth pillar being our Beacon Lighting store network. Beacon Lighting now operates 128 stores, comprising 126 company-owned stores and two franchise locations.
Our most current research suggests a network opportunity of 195 stores, representing strong growth potential in new locations. We expanded our store network with new openings in Port Stephens and Shepparton, while also relocating and enhancing our Bendigo and Chatswood stores, which replaced the Killara location. The upgrade of Bendigo and Chatswood stores reflects our ongoing commitment to reinvesting in our store network, ensuring that older locations are expanded and modernized to align with our latest offering. The store revitalization strategy has been a key focus for the past five years, allowing us to enhance the customer experience and introduce the full Beacon and Beacon Trade offering in exciting locations. Company-owned stores delivered a 1.3% increase in comparative sales for the first half of 2025. Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia emerged as the top-performing states, demonstrating strong market demand and positive consumer sentiment in those regions.
Premium lighting design remains a key focus, with 41 Beacon Design Studios conducting personalized lighting consultations, further enhancing customer experience and engagement. Innovation continues to drive our product offering, with many exclusive items being developed during the half. Our VIP customer base remains strong, with more than 1 million loyal members continuing to benefit from exclusive offers and everyday savings. On page 16, we will provide an update on our second growth pillar, being our trade growth pillar. Partnering with trade customers remains our top priority, ensuring that Beacon Trade continues to be the preferred choice for lighting, fans, and electrical accessories for the Australian home. We successfully rolled out our trade immersion training program to over 210 team members, equipping the team with the knowledge and skill to better serve our trade partners.
This is just a start in understanding the different requirements from our very trade customers, but a good step forward. Trade sales through our stores grew by an impressive 25.3%, reflecting the increasing demand from electricians, builders, architects, and interior designers. Total trade sales now account for 38.8% of all relevant sales, well on our way towards our goal of 50/50 trade to retail ratio by financial year 2028. We continue to expand our trade customer base, welcoming new members from the key industries, including electricians, builders, architects, and interior designers. Our commitment to trade remains strong, with ongoing investment in trade marketing, product development, and digital platforms to further engage and excite our trade partners. On page 17, we'll provide an update on our e-commerce growth pillar. Beacon Lighting now operates 17 business websites, with our primary platforms being beaconlighting.com.au for retail customers and beacontrade.com.au for trade professionals.
We continue to enhance the online experience for both retail and trade customers by leveraging customer data and smart digital tools, ensuring a seamless and intuitive shopping journey. Online sales grew by 15.5%, now representing 12.8% of total company store sales. This shows good growth, but also shows that online offerings supported by bricks and mortar stores are very central to Beacon Lighting's success. Retail online sales through beaconlighting.com.au increased by 9.2%. Trade customers are increasingly utilizing the beacontrade.com.au platform, with online trade visitation up 35.1% and online trade sales rising by 34.2%. This demonstrates the effectiveness of our digital strategy in catering to the needs of our trade partners. By leveraging our store network across Australia, we were able to provide three-hour customer delivery in metropolitan markets and one-hour click and collect, which is very much a significant advantage over our pure-play competitors.
Moving to page 18, we'll turn our attention to expanding our new businesses. The Beacon International Group recorded a positive sales increase, reflecting steady global demand and growth opportunities across key markets. Hong Kong delivered strong sales performance, while Europe showed solid results. However, sales in the U.S. declined, and further work is required in that business. Tmall Global continues to present strong opportunities in the China market, with increasing sales and engagement from customers in that market appreciating our Australian design product range. LightSource Solutions in New Zealand and Masson For Light both recorded sales growth, and we remain optimistic about connected light solutions and custom lighting, with a focus on improving sales performance in half two financial year 2025. Beacon Lighting holds a 50% interest in the large format property fund, which owns seven retail properties, providing long-term investment value and stability for the business.
Beacon Lighting's commitment to sustainability on page 19. At Beacon Lighting, sustainability is at the core of our operation, with a strong focus on people, product, and planet. An update on the improvements we've made for our people. 200 additional team members became Beacon Lighting shareholders through our Beacon Team Share Plan, which was launched during the half. Ongoing training and development programs, including the trade sales immersion, product training, and professional lighting design training through a collaborative course developed by Beacon Lighting and the Illuminating Engineering Society and Bond University have been conducted for our team members. 75 internal promotions have been awarded to our team members, reinforcing our commitment to career growth. An update on our product.
We continue the expansion of our energy-efficient LED range, which is 80% more efficient than traditional light sources, and we have eliminated polystyrene from all new packaging and significantly reduced the use of plastic in our packaging, and an update on sustainability to positively impact the planet. We've now got 67 Beacon Lighting locations, or over half of our sites, operate with solar systems, reducing our need for grid electricity, and we have further reductions in energy use by implementing LED lighting, timers on window displays, and sensor-based lighting across all our stores. On page 21, you'll find our outlook for the current half and what we're focused on for the next few months. The trading momentum for half one financial year 2025 has continued into half two financial year 2025. The positive trade sales momentum has carried into the start of this new half.
Partnering with electricians, builders, architects, and interior designers for Beacon Trade remains the number one priority. We'll continue to roll out the trade sales immersion training across the group while introducing new concepts and modules for the team to better understand our trade customer requirements. The group will open two new stores in Ballina and Auburn, with the Townsville store expanding in size and offering, and Taren Point store relocating to a larger and more prominent location. We have a big second half of new product introductions, which will keep us ahead of our competition and continue to build customer engagement across both retail and trade. Thank you for your time. I'll hand you back to Ian Robinson to address any questions.
Thank you, Glen and David, for your presentations. We're now open for questions.
Thank you. 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 your question. The first question comes from the line of Alexander Mees with Morgans. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my call. Good morning, Beacon team. Just firstly, on gross margins, certainly exceeded my expectations given the rising proportion of trade in the mix. I'm just wondering if you can give us a bit more color about how that's been achieved. Is it lower supply costs? Is it volume rebates? Something like that. And then what should we expect to see in the months ahead, just given the Aussie dollar is quite weak? Thanks.
Yeah. Good day, Alex, and thanks for the question. Look, I think the GP margins are in line with what we achieved last year. The growth in trade, I think a lot of people would expect that the gross profit margin would be under a little bit of pressure. But the team's ability to be able to mix the merchandise that we're selling across both retail and trade customers is very powerful. And being a vertically integrated business, we've got quite a few levers to pull to enable us to achieve the gross profit margins that we do achieve. And whether that be negotiating better prices with the factories that we work directly with or having a look at the promotional prices that are set within the business and other initiatives, there is still a fair degree of ability to be able to achieve those gross profit margins.
I think where we're heading in the future, obviously, the US dollar to Aussie dollar has pulled back a fair bit, and we do settle in US dollars for most of our purchases in China. So that does put a bit more pressure. Sorry, I meant Aussie dollar has pulled back against the US dollar, obviously. So that puts a bit more pressure on the gross profit margins. But we've got a long tail of product line in the supply chain, so we do have time to be able to react to that. And that's something that the team looks at continuously to ensure that we can achieve the gross profit margins that we are trying to achieve.
I think the gross margins have been well managed. There are a number of levers that we use to control that gross margin. So that's how we get the stability. We can adjust through new products and other various means. And as you can see, it's very consistent, and it's part of the management process.
Thanks, Ian, Glen. Just if I can sneak one more in, just with regard to the early signs of recovery that you've mentioned across certain key markets. I wonder what you're seeing in Victoria specifically. Clearly, it's a very important market and has been pretty tough. Are you seeing any green shoots of recovery in that state?
Can we talk about other states instead?
I don't think it's quite as bad as that. I think we are starting to be encouraged a little bit by Victoria's finally had a bit of a summer, so that has certainly been a bit of resistance.
Yeah. Look, I think we are seeing good success in other states. Victoria is still the one that needs further improvement, but we do see some green shoots down here. It is starting to get a bit more positive. And I think with the latest new interest rate cut that just came through this week, that will definitely build a little bit of confidence into the Victorian state, which obviously hasn't had a lot of joy over the last couple of years. Yeah, we're still very positive about the state. We've got a good, stable team here in Victoria. We've had that for now probably about 12 months or 18 months. So that should be supportive of sales growth into the future as we start to see consumer confidence rebuild here.
I think things could turn reasonably quickly, just depending on some of the economic settings and government policies that are in Victoria. If we start to see a bit of a shift there, then I think we'll start to see a bit of a rebound, and obviously, the start of that is with the interest rate cuts, and we're definitely poised in a good position to be able to take full advantage of that in this state because, as I said, the team is all set and ready to go.
And just on that point, in your experience of interest rate cycles in the past, how long does it take for interest rate cuts to flow through to an improvement in confidence and consumer purchasing?
I think you can see it in the consumer confidence graph. As that becomes positive, that certainly assists our retail sales and the trade sales. There are encouraging signs from our volume residential builders that they're starting to get increased inquiry.
Thanks very much, Ian, Glen.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Xenia Jatiaeva with Jarden. Please go ahead. We have lost a line of Ms. Jatiaeva. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Yes. Next question comes from the line of Xenia Jatiaeva with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, we can. Yeah.
Sorry. Thanks for taking my question. Can you please give us any color on how you're seeing retail customers? Do you see any green shoots coming from them? And is it across all the states? And do you feel you gain, you mentioned you gain market share. Do you feel you gain market share across states or all the states or just specific ones?
Yeah. I think you can definitely feel that consumer confidence is stronger in particular states. As we mentioned, WA and Queensland, when you're traveling in those areas, the general consumer does feel a bit more upbeat. And we can see that in our sales figures as well. So consumer confidence does vary between the states. I think New South Wales is still in a pretty solid position as well. And we've seen that in our sales results. And I think, as we were just discussing before, that we will start to see, we believe, a bit of a turnaround in Victoria. We've started to see some early signs of that, albeit very early. But it is quite an important state. It's an equivalent size for us to New South Wales. So it would be good to see some further confidence in the Victorian state.
But yeah, we're very pleased with how Queensland, WA, South Australia have performed. New South Wales has been solid. We'd just like to see a bit more stability and some growth into the Victorian state.
Thanks. And on your international sales, you didn't really give any figure of growth. Can you share maybe if it's by region how it grew? Maybe Hong Kong to the double digits and maybe U.S. high single digit negative growth. Any sort of insight there?
Yeah. I mean, we mentioned that Hong Kong was in a strong position. And that business is by far the largest business as well. So that is the one that we put most of our time into. As I've said in the past, it's probably the best business model we have that we sell in full container lots to customers all over the world. Therefore, it is a very profitable business. Europe was a solid performance, but it's a much smaller number than what we've got in the Hong Kong business. And then, as we mentioned, U.S. was in decline. And that's been a couple of years of decline now. And now it's not a massive market for us. It is a very big ceiling fan market, but for our business, it's not a big business.
And it's one that we will continue to try to turn around and get into a more profitable position. But the other two, as I said, are doing well. And really, the main focus is on our Hong Kong business, which probably has the strongest prospect of being a much, much bigger business into the future than what we probably have in U.S. or Europe. So that's where we're at.
Yeah. I think we need to be patient with the American market. It's going to face additional challenges in the future as well as the costs go up for importing. But it is a big market. Eventually, we need to have a successful business there and patience to a certain degree. While there's so many changes happening in that market, it's probably where we need to consider our position. It's more of a long-term strategy where the international business out of Hong Kong has got substantial excellent results and helps us in our general international business results.
Thanks. Just the last one from me. How do you generally see competition in lighting space at the moment?
Look, I think we're playing in our own area here where there are competitors, obviously, but in that middle to middle upper category, we've got a reasonably strong position. Obviously, we need to be aware of what's happening out there from Bunnings' point of view, from the electrical wholesalers where we're competing against them on trade, but our offering is unique. We've got 90% of our product is exclusive product to Beacon Lighting. It's self-sourced through our own supply chain. So we're pretty comfortable with what we've seen from a competition point of view. Yeah, and we are also aware of online players that come into the market and sell maybe some table lamps or some decorative pendants, so we're keeping an eye on that as well, but I definitely think we're still in a pretty strong position from having a unique offering.
Thank you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Robinson for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your interest in our presentation. And we look forward to seeing a number of you over the next few days and discussing the business in more detail. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.