Good morning and welcome to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Breville Group Limited. My name is Tim Antonie and I am the Chair of the company. As it is now 10:00 A.M. and the quorum is present, I declare the meeting open. I would like to begin by acknowledging and paying respects to the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and to their elders past and present. And we further extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders present here today. We celebrate the continuing contribution of their food and culture. Seek to support it in Australia and the world. I would now like to introduce your board of directors and other attendees.
I'm joined at the table today from my right by Peter Cowan, Sally Herman, Dean Howell, our Managing Director and CEO, Jim Clayton, and on my left, our Deputy Chair, Lawrence Myers, Kate Wright, and our Group CFO, Martin Nicholas. Tim Baxter is present but joins us virtually from the United States, and Tuula Rytila is also present but joins us virtually from China. Also joining us today are Craig Robinson and Sasha Kitto, our Joint Company Secretaries, and Ashan Seneviratne, Audit Partner from PwC. Today we have six items of formal business: the receipt and consideration of the 2024 Annual Report, the adoption of the remuneration report, the re-election of Lawrence Myers as a Director, the grant of rights to our Managing Director and CEO, Jim Clayton, the approval of potential termination benefits, and the grant of net rights to non-executive directors.
Before we turn to the formal business of the meeting, Jim Clayton and I would like to take the opportunity to discuss the 2024 financial year and recent performance. We are happy to take any questions on the presentations when we consider the 2024 Annual Report. The 2024 financial year was another year of consistent growth in revenues and EBIT, with revenues exceeding AUD 1.5 billion and EBIT of AUD 185.7 million. This was achieved in a year characterized by macroeconomic weakness led by higher-for-longer interest rates, as well as regional disruptions and instability. Over the past five years, revenue and EBIT have grown at compound average annual growth rates of 15% and 13.8% respectively. This performance is very impressive, both in absolute terms and relative to our peer group.
Importantly, our global product segment has grown by 16.9% per annum across the five years, and our geographic expansion and diversification accelerated with 84% of our total sales outside of Australia in FY24, up from 76.2% five years ago. Although revenue growth in FY24 was relatively subdued at 3.5%, the team delivered a gross profit increase of 7.7%, and cash operating expenses are jointly managed, and EBIT increase of 8%. With this backdrop, Breville further increased its spend on new product development, marketing technology, and solutions by AUD 21 million. Our investment in these growth engines increased to 14% of sales in FY24, compared to 13.1% in FY23 and 11% in FY19. Net profit after tax increased by 7.5% to AUD 118.5 million.
Earnings per share increased by 7.1% to AUD 0.827, and in line with the board's targeted payout ratio of 40% of EPS, dividends per share also increased by 8.2% to AUD 0.33. As planned, inventories reverted to equilibrium after the disruption of COVID, and a net cash position was delivered with strong cash flow of AUD 174.9 million across the year. Breville is well positioned for FY25, and Jim will discuss recent performance. Breville has also made good progress on the sustainability plan, including the continued delivery of the ThermaJet program, the substantive completion of the brown box packaging initiative, and improvements to our climate-related disclosures, including our first reporting of Scope 3 emissions estimates. I encourage you to read our annual report for more detail.
On behalf of the board, I'd like to congratulate our CEO, Jim Clayton, our executives, and our global team for their consistent delivery of record results despite numerous global and local external disruptions. This is a testament to their agility, dedication, and focus. I'd also like to take the opportunity to recognize Peter Cowan, who will retire from the board at the conclusion of today's AGM. Peter has made an outstanding contribution to Breville since joining the board in September 2018. Since then, he has brought a deep operating experience and focus on shareholder value, including as the inaugural chair of the Board Sustainability Committee. On behalf of the board and the executive team, I would like to thank Peter for the value he has added and wish him all the very best.
I would also like to thank my fellow directors for their diligence and governance over the last 12 months. Finally, I would like to thank our shareholders, customers, retail partners, and suppliers for their continued support, and we look forward to working with you all in FY25 and beyond. I will now hand over to Jim Clayton.
Thank you, Tim. Good morning to everyone joining the AGM. Today, I'll walk you through the FY24 year-end results, give a brief update on the first half of 2025, and finish with some concluding remarks. Given that we presented these results back in August, I'll try to hit the high points. In FY24, we delivered another year of growth across revenue, gross profit, and EBIT. Given the variability of costs moving through the COGS line, as well as the net impact of price increases in previous years, gross profit was the arbiter of performance. For the year, gross profit grew 7.7%, which we translated into 7.5% impact growth through the careful management of OPEX. We saw gross profit growth in both the global segment and the distribution segment.
The coffee category and new geographies drove growth in the global segment with cooking and food prep rebasing, and the distribution segment delivered solid gross profit gains coming off a weak performance in FY23. Looking at the global segment theatre performance, the Americas and EMEA delivered positive growth, with both moving to double-digit growth in the second half. APAC reported minus 5.8% growth in total off a mix of puts and takes. ANZ showed improvement in the second half. Korea continued to move from strength to strength, but distributor markets went backwards as they worked through their own inventories, just as we did in FY24. Looking at the FY23-24 EBIT bridge, we generated AUD 40 million in incremental gross profit, AUD 13.7 million of which was dropped to EBIT, with the remainder spread across DNA and OPEX. Spending on marketing, R&D, tech services, and solutions increased to 14% of sales.
Given the unique characteristics of this vertical, long shelf-life products, inventory can be used like an insurance policy. This slide shows how we used inventory to buffer supply chain instability in FY 2021 and 2022. As the supply chain became more predictable, we released the policy in 2023 and 2024 and brought inventory back down to its equilibrium level, all without negatively impacting gross margin. It's a controlled build with a controlled release. The primary callout on the balance sheet is the release of the inventory insurance policy, which produced a AUD 113.5 million decrease in net working capital. This brought us back to a net cash position at the end of the year, which is the typical pattern you would have seen pre-COVID. I'll now give a short update on the first half of 2025. Setting aside the U.S.
election, which I will address. The positive trends we saw in the second half of 2024 have continued through the first half of 2025. Period to date, all three theatres are performing well. As expected, logistics costs have ticked up, much of which has been offset by reductions in FOBs flowing through. On the whole, the business is performing between the goalposts, so we continue to operate within our FY25 planning parameters. Now that Trump has won the U.S. presidential election, the near-term risk of material tariff increases on consumer goods coming out of China has solidified, triggering two action items. The first is we will continue our inventory build in the U.S. unabated, likely until the increased tariffs are enforced. And second, we will move 120-volt production out of China SKU by SKU as quickly as possible, which is accelerating the project we started two years ago.
We expect to be 80/20 on this project by the end of 2025, with the first incremental SKU going live around March, plus or minus. In closing, I'd like to thank every employee at BRG for navigating through yet another challenging year. I continue to be impressed by the team's ability to tack through one obstacle after another. I'd like to thank the board for the guidance and support they provided the team throughout the year. I would also like to personally thank Peter Cowan for all of the experience, effort, and judgment he has brought to the board, with a special callout for his leadership on the Sustainability Committee. Thank you again for all you have done for BRG, and you will be missed. With that, thank you to everyone for joining us today, and I'll now hand back to Tim for the rest of the agenda.
Okay, thanks, Jim. Before proceeding further, I'd like to discuss the procedures I will follow today. I propose calling a poll on each resolution to be put forth at this meeting. The final results of the poll will be released to the ASX and will be displayed on the company's website as soon as they are available after the close of the meeting. A representative of our share registry Boardroom will act as returning officer for the purpose of conducting and determining the results of the poll. Shareholders and proxy holders who are eligible to vote at the meeting have received a yellow voting card. During the meeting, I'll advise you when it's time for you to fill in your voting cards. If you need assistance filling in your voting card, please see the Boardroom staff at the registration desk in the foyer.
Boardroom staff will collect voting cards at the end of the meeting. Shareholders who have a blue card are eligible to speak but ineligible to vote at the meeting. Guests holding a white card are ineligible to vote or speak at this meeting. If you believe that you have not received the correct card, please see a Boardroom staff member in the foyer. After each item of business has been put to the meeting, I will ask for questions. If you would like to address the meeting on the item of business, please raise your attendance card, and I will call on you. Please then identify yourself by name and state whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. Does anyone need any more time to register?
Shareholders will send a copy of the notice of meeting and annual report, or details how to access these documents, on 1 October 2024. Unless there are any objections, I will take the notice of meeting as read. Shareholders unable to attend the meeting have the option of appointing a proxy. Before a vote is taken on each resolution, I will display on screen the total number of valid proxies cast for that resolution and the manner in which they have been directed. These figures have been determined as at 10:00 A.M. Australian Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, 5 November 2024, which was the closing time for the receipt of proxies. I would also like to advise at the meeting that all eligible undirected proxies given to the chair will be voted in favour of those resolutions.
I now turn to the first item of business, which is to receive and consider the annual report. It is not a requirement that the annual financial report and the reports of the directors and auditor for the year ended 30 June 2024 be formally adopted. However, all shareholders have had the opportunity to receive and consider them. We will now take questions on the annual report and on the earlier presentations from Jim and myself. Our auditors are also available to answer any questions on the conduct of the audit and the content of the auditor's report. Are there any questions on this item? Thank you. I'll now move to item two, the resolution for the adoption of the company's remuneration report. The remuneration report has been made available or provided to shareholders together with the annual report.
I would remind shareholders that the vote on this resolution is advisory only and is not binding on the company. Please note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution, as set out in the notice of meeting. Proxies have been lodged in respect of the resolution, as displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? As there are no questions, I now direct the poll for the adoption of the remuneration report for the year end at 30 June 2024 be taken. Please fill in your yellow voting card in respect of the adoption of the remuneration report. I now move to item three, the resolution for the re-election of Lawrence Myers as a director. I will now invite Lawrence to address the room and make some brief comments on his re-election.
Thanks, Tim. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lawrence Myers, and I'm standing for re-election as a director of your company. Having joined the board of Breville in September of 2013, I currently hold the positions of deputy chairman, lead independent director, and chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. It has been a great privilege to watch Breville become a truly global business. During my time on the board, I have seen the group go from deriving approximately 70% of its revenue from Australia and New Zealand to around 21%, as we have significantly expanded directly into key overseas markets. I have also witnessed the business mature from a dependence on juicing as a category to become a world leader in the third wave of coffee.
World-beating product innovation, a focus on a clear go-to-market strategy, and an industry-leading management team led by our CEO, Jim Clayton, continues to set Breville apart from its peers. Your board is deeply committed and actively engaged in the Breville business, and should I be re-elected, I look forward to utilizing my skills and experience in continuing this exciting journey with the group as we enter into the next phase of growth. Thank you.
Thank you, Lawrence. The board, excluding Mr. Myers, unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolution three. Proxies have been lodged in respect of this resolution, as displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? As there are no questions, I now direct the poll for the re-election of Lawrence Myers be taken. Please fill in your yellow voting card in respect of the re-election of Lawrence Myers. Our next item of business is item four, the resolution for the grant of rights to our Managing Director and CEO, Jim Clayton. As part of Mr. Clayton's annual remuneration package, it is proposed that Mr. Clayton be granted a long-term incentive, 84,306 performance rights, with a three-year performance period. The number of performance rights that ultimately vest will depend upon the extent to which the performance conditions are satisfied over the performance period.
It is also proposed that Mr. Clayton be granted a total of 30,988 deferred share rights as part of the fixed remuneration component of his employment package for the 2029 financial year. The number of deferred share rights that ultimately vest will depend upon Mr. Clayton completing the service period, 26 August 2028 to 25 August 2029. In addition, it is proposed that Mr. Clayton be granted a one-off block of 200,000 long-term performance and retention rights. The number of long-term performance and retention rights that ultimately vest will depend upon Mr. Clayton remaining employed as at 31 August 2027 and the achievement of the relevant performance criteria. Full details of how the number of rights to be granted was calculated, together with the terms of each grant, are contained in the notice of meeting. If resolution four is passed, the company intends to grant the rights to Mr.
Clayton as soon as practical after the AGM. The board, excluding Mr. Clayton, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolution four. Please note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution, as set out in the notice of meeting. Proxies have been lodged in respect of this resolution, as displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? As there are no questions, I now direct the poll for the grant of the rights to the Managing Director and CEO be taken. Please fill in your yellow voting card in respect of the grant of rights to the Managing Director and CEO. As announced on 2 August 2024, our Managing Director and CEO, Jim Clayton, has entered into a new/updated employment agreement with the company. Under the terms agreed with Mr.
Clayton, he is entitled to receive certain payments and benefits when he ceases his executive role with the company. Those benefits could include fixed cash remuneration, deferred share rights, performance rights, long-term performance and retention rights, and entitlements under the company's short-term incentive scheme. Full details of the potential payments and benefits that may be given, including the circumstances which they may occur, are detailed in the notice of meeting. In accordance with Section 200B of the Corporations Act, a company may only give a person a benefit in connection with that person ceasing to hold a managerial or executive office, if an exemption applies, or if the benefit is approved by shareholders in accordance with Section 200B of the Corporations Act. The company is seeking shareholder approval for potential termination benefits to be given to Mr. Clayton in accordance with this section of the Corporations Act.
The board, excluding Mr. Clayton, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolution five. Please note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution, as set out in the notice of meeting. Proxies have been lodged in respect of this resolution, as displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? As there are no questions, I now direct the poll for the approval of potential termination benefits to be taken. Please fill in your yellow voting card in respect of the approval of potential termination benefits. Our final item of business is the resolution for the grant of net rights to non-executive directors. Breville has established a non-executive director fee sacrifice scheme to enable non-executive directors to sacrifice a percentage of their director fees into net rights, which will convert into shares in Breville.
Grant of net rights under the scheme were last approved by shareholders at the 2022 annual general meeting. While that approval was valid for a three-year period, approval is being sought again this year so that all NEDs currently in office can participate in the NED scheme, should they elect to do so. Full details of the potential grants, as well as each of the non-executive director's current director fees, are included in the notice of meeting. Please note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution, as set out in the notice of meeting. Proxies have been lodged in respect of this resolution, as displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? As there are no questions, I now direct the poll for the grant of net rights to non-executive directors be taken.
Please fill in your yellow voting card in respect of the grant of net rights to non-executive directors. Before I close today's AGM, I ask everybody to complete their yellow voting cards and hand them to boardroom staff members who will collect the cards.
Which ones can we vote on?
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And I declare the meeting closed. I would like.