I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Martin Nicholas, Group CFO. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good morning to everyone joining today's call. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the presentation of our full year 2026 results. As normal, I will walk you through the group's financial results, and then Jim Clayton, our CEO, will provide an operational and strategic update. I would, however, like to start our presentation today by acknowledging and paying our respects to the traditional custodians on whose land we meet today. I would like to pay respects to their elders, past and present, and further extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders joining us today. We celebrate their continuing connection to and custodianship of this country. Turning to slide four, we start with the headlines of this year's result. FY 2026 was an operationally complex period, which we navigated remarkably well to deliver a very solid set of results.
We substantially completed our manufacturing diversification program, with 85% of our 120 volt gross profit dollars now sourced outside of China. We have collaboratively managed our value chain in response to the ever-changing tariff landscape, and we sustained our investment in the long-term growth drivers of the business. We did all this while delivering another record year with sales of over AUD 1.8 billion. In terms of categories, coffee and cooking both grew in double digits, revenue terms in constant currency, supported by new products, store-in-store investments, and the exciting growth in our young markets. In total, the global segment grew revenue by 9.7% in constant currency terms, with the second half strengthening to double digits. As forecast, our rapid and successful diversification of manufacturing played through in the second half, with this sourcing mix helping to drive improved gross margins.
Across FY 2026, we actively managed the challenges of a volatile U.S. trade policy. All year, our approach has been to manage this impact on a net basis. The full value chain lent in to help mitigate the initial cost impact, and we are now taking the same net approach to the IEEPA refunds, with a minimal net profit impact in FY 2026. Our full-year EBIT was delivered in line with budget and guidance, and as you will see later, our balance sheet remains healthy, as were our cash flows, leaving us ready and able to continue investing in growth opportunities. Overall, a robust year of performance against a rapidly changing backdrop. Turning to slide five and the group summary results. Strengthening double-digit growth in the second half lifted our overall global constant currency revenue growth to 9.7% for the full year.
The marked second half weakness in both the USD and the EUR significantly dampened our reported AUD revenue, with growth of 6.7%. Gross margins of 36% against the prior year of 36.6% reflects the balance of headwinds and tailwinds in a complex year. As mentioned, our diversified sourcing mix helped strengthen our gross margins in the second half to 36.8%, outstripping both the first half and the PCP. Across the year, we continued to invest in the long-term growth drivers of our business and delivered an EBIT of AUD 207 million, in line with both budget and guidance given at the half year. A strengthened net cash position of AUD 104 million reflects our healthy underlying cash flow. Turning to slide six. Here we see key segment results. Our global product segment constant currency growth grew by double digits in the second half and 9.7% in the full year.
New products landed well with the Oracle Dual Boiler, the Smart Toast, Baratza Encore ESP, and the Lelit Mara X all performing strongly. In category terms, coffee and cooking delivered double-digit revenue growth across the year, while food preparation grew in single digits. As we noted at the half year, our young direct markets of China, Korea, Mexico, and the Middle East continue to excite, growing at over 70% in FY 2026. This growth trajectory will be increasingly important to the group as they continue to scale. In margin terms, both product segments experienced cost volatility arriving from tariffs and a Middle East conflict-led inflationary spike in both transport and material costs in the second half. The distribution segment fulfilled its strategic role by delivering AUD 4 million of incremental gross profit. Turning to slide seven, here we see our geographic performances in the global segments.
The Americas grew total revenue by 10.8% in constant currency terms, with coffee in double-digit growth led by premium MPD launches and a strong performance from the Barista Express. Cooking also grew in double digits, with food preparation in single-digit growth. Exciting also to note that the 300 extra store-in-store installations were completed in Best Buy in the U.S.A. in November, and we are delighted by their performance in driving both sales and upgrade. In EMEA, our direct markets, the U.K., the EU, and the Middle East, again grew in double digits led by coffee and MPD. The Middle East continued to thrive despite obvious challenges, which confirms the encouraging outlook for this coffee-centric region. Overall theater growth of 8.5% includes a more moderate performance in distributor-led markets, which is still normalizing after a strong FY 2025.
In APAC, our direct markets, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and now China, delivered double-digit constant currency revenue growth across the full year. MPD landed well, and although still small, China sales were very encouraging, while Korea continued to grow from strength to strength. Total APAC growth of 8.3% for the year included a second half strengthening to 11.5% as cyclical sales in distributor-led markets normalized. Then into slide eight. Here we graphically see our EBIT growth drivers across the year, with EBIT meeting both budget and guidance. Gross profit grew by 5% or AUD 30.9 million on a nominal basis as FX also flowed through these numbers. In terms of operating expenses, we maintained our discipline of investing in the future growth drivers of the business, investing AUD 25.8 million or approximately 90% of the OPEX increase in supporting new markets and business growth drivers.
This consistency and commitment is important to our sustained future growth and saw our investment in product development, marketing solutions, and tech services increase to 14.4% of revenue from 14.2% in the prior period. Investment in AI emerged in FY 2026, though our total spend on the program is deliberate and controlled, and in his section, Jim will walk you through the progress and potential of this program. The increased spend on our other OPEX, as you will see, was very modest. Finally, as noted, EBIT growth of AUD 2.4 million or 1.2% was in line with both budget and guidance. Slide nine. Turning to the balance sheet, it's a story of healthy underlying cash flow, supporting an improved net cash position of AUD 104.4 million.
The AUD 40 million inventory growth seen here reflects the transition to new manufacturing facilities for our 120-volt products, necessitating an earlier build of inventory for the U.S. peak season. Inventory was broadly flat in all other theaters. Our receivables collection was strong in the second half, and the year-end balance was seasonally normal, with days outstanding in line with the prior year. FY 2026 also saw PPE and development costs grow, reflecting the continued investment in these key drivers of our business. New products and solutions, store-in-store fixtures, and diversified manufacturing assets. Some specifics. The PPE increase here includes AUD 18 million of store-in-store expansion, including Best Buy in the U.S., as well as a further AUD 5 million of additional tooling associated with our diversified manufacturing drive.
The growth in capitalized development costs and software is a good leading indicator of the level of investment in product development and the maturity of projects in the pipeline. The growing balance seen here signals that we have a healthy pipeline of projects moving towards launch or recently launched. Finally, the movement in goodwill brands and licenses is again largely accounted for by FX translation effects. Looking forward into FY 2026, our balance sheet is in good health. We start the year in a net cash position with significant unused debt facilities and cash in place for our normal seasonal working capital investment, as well as funding further growth opportunities as they arise. Slide 10. Before passing over to Jim, just a few remarks on the environment we face as we enter FY 2027.
For those in the audience who are tempted to utter the words, "Now we know" in regard to U.S. tariffs, I would posit that the situation remains fluid. There are multiple policy initiatives still in play at the same time that could result in a variety of outcomes. We'll know when we know in terms of tariffs. I can probably say the same with regard to the oil price and its knock-on impact on plastics, materials, and transport costs, still very much in flux. What I can, however, say is that we are far better placed to withstand this volatility than we were at this time last year. Firstly, our diversified manufacturing base affords us significantly more optionality. Secondly, we are in many terms battle-hardened, working well with our value chain, and are well practiced at tactically managing the unexpected.
Indeed, as we plan, we plan to deliver reliably through volatility. Lastly, we start the year with a healthy balance of relatively lower tariff inventory in the U.S.A. All in all, we have put ourselves in a far better place to withstand volatility than last year, and we start the year with momentum. Building on this, in FY 2027, I fully expect us to continue to use our cash flow and balance sheet to invest in growth assets and inventory where relevant as a mitigant to uncertainty. Of course, consistent with our normal practice, we currently expect to give guidance for FY 2027 with our first half results. I hope this outlines where we are today, how robustly we performed in 2026 against a more than challenging backdrop, and our readiness for the landscape we face as we move into FY 2027. With that, I will hand over to Jim.
Thank you, Martin. What I want to do this morning is give you a perspective on the operational progress we have made in FY 2026 beyond the diversification of our supply chain, specifically the U.S. retail channel structure, new country performance, the Beanz expansion, and where we are on the AI transformation program. Turning to slide 12. In the first half of 2026 earnings announcement, we talked about the new Best Buy partnership. While this is an important partnership for sure, the structural channel implications of Best Buy's brand consolidation decision is equally relevant for premium brands in the United States. To understand this, you first need to understand the channel structure itself. Mass brands can enter the market through Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, or Target. While getting into Best Buy could be helpful, there is plenty of runway given the size and scope of the mass retailers.
Premium brands, however, play at the specialty retailer level, which collectively has 300 doors, and then use Best Buy to deliver geographic presence with its 1,000 doors, an important ingredient for reach and brand building. Best Buy's decision, however, to consolidate the entire SDA category to a handful of brands forecloses this scale-out opportunity for any premium brand not chosen. Turning to slide 13. Breville has always had very solid relationships at the premium end of the channel. Our execution through this channel is consistently strong, and FY 2026 is no exception. Williams Sonoma and Breville partnered with Kelly Wearstler, a famous interior designer, for the launch of the Mixed Metals Collection, which is performing exceptionally well. We made the front cover of the Crate & Barrel catalog, among other activities.
Turning to slide 14. As we mentioned at the half, we rolled out 300 store-in-store installations in Best Buy. We and Best Buy have seen a significant step-up in the performance of the stores with this execution, and we have seen a material increase in the ASP in these stores. As a result of this joint success, Best Buy has asked us to expand this execution into more doors, which we are currently evaluating. The structural point here is the four-year term.
If you are a premium brand that was not chosen when Best Buy consolidated, that door does not realistically reopen for four years. That is not a one-cycle setback. It is a structural repositioning of the competitive landscape. Turning to slide 15. We also had great execution in Target and Amazon. In FY 2026, we were the only appliance brand that was allowed to build an end aisle display. To promote Prime Day in June, Amazon chose the Barista Express to promote on the 3D display in Times Square in New York.
Over the last decade, and particularly through disruptive periods like COVID and Liberation Day, we have invested heavily in our retail partnerships, consistently delivering new, innovative products, supporting them through volatility, and being the brand they can count on. This consistent support of each of our retail partners and the role they play in the channel for their customers is a foundational underpinning of the America's consistent delivery over the past 10 years. Slide 16. Now we will take a look at the performance of our newer direct markets. Slide 17. As a group, Mexico, the Middle East, South Korea, and China grew revenue 74% year-over-year. As you can see from the slide, FY 2026 was the first year where we were not absorbing a distributor to direct cutover cost across these countries, which in part accounts for the step-up.
To be fair, we also have the Middle East and China coming online. At the half, I said that China and the Middle East were off to a good start, and here is the next level of detail. In FY 2026, the China team, in its first year, delivered 7.1 times the revenue of our previous distributor, and the Middle East came in at 6.6 times. These are the year-one deliveries you hope for when making the call to go direct. Slide 18. The teams in these four geographies are executing well on building brand and market presence. The Mexico team expanded into Palacio de Hierro, the most premium department store in Mexico. The South Korea team did a takeover in Shinsegae to tell Breville's coffee story, coupled with their store-in-stores. The China team has executed pop-ups, participated in coffee festivals, and collaborated with other leading brands.
Lastly, you see a picture at the World of Coffee in Dubai, where the team is receiving the Best New Product Award for the Oracle Dual Boiler, a well-timed event for introducing Sage to a hall full of coffee enthusiasts. Slide 19. Now a quick update on the Beanz service. Slide 20. Beanz is now live in the Netherlands. As a part of this expansion, the team resolved the cross-border complexity of VAT, giving German and Dutch customers choice across 26 roasters, 12 in the Netherlands and 14 in Germany. With Beanz operational in the Netherlands and the cross-border VAT capability in place, we will take the Fast Track Barista program live there in September, which will continue the expansion of our solution offense. Slide 21. Now I would like to spend some time on the status of our AI transformation program.
Slide 22. Before getting into the program itself, I want to first frame where and how AI is relevant to BRG. In 2018, I presented this innovation flywheel framework. Investing more in NPD to launch more new products will increase revenue. Take that increased revenue and invest it into GTM to pull forward the revenue curve, and you will get more revenue. Use that to expand the TAM by going into new countries, and you will accelerate even more revenue, which can be reinvested into NPD for the next cycle.
The flywheel compounds. This is how we have doubled the size of the company in the last six years. From 2016 - 2025, the levers we had for feeding this flywheel were headcount and money. This is the flywheel feedstock. If you want more NPD, hire more designers and engineers. For 2026 forward, we now have an incremental lever, AI tokens. We can now drive the flywheel with headcount, tokens, and money. This is the acceleration potential AI provides. With the macro framework set, I will now take you down a level to show you where we are in this journey.
Slide 23. At the half, I walked you through our three-layered approach to the program, AI infrastructure, agent process automation, and training and enablement. We are now at the point where we are moving into the second phase of the program, which is the step change from individual amplification, the me, to team functional level amplification, the we. We have made quite a bit of progress on the individual amplification front. As a result of our capability-building efforts, over 50% of our employees are now amplified, meaning they are competently using AI as a tool to make themselves more effective.
The rest are still progressing and learning how to get the most out of the tool. If you want to truly flex the ROI of AI, you need to move from individual amplification to team amplification. In part because of the immaturity of this technology, this is a very different kind of challenge. Slide 24. The fundamental requirement to move from me to we is getting the core infrastructure in place to support this step change. In phase l, we exposed our structured data and put the governance platform in place. For clarity, structured data is data organized in fixed fields and tables like sales figures in an Excel spreadsheet. This by itself was a huge step forward. Business users and AI agents can now get directly at source business data without the need for the data science team to spin up a new dataset.
This was a major unlock for individual amplification, myself included. To enable the me to we step up, we have recently gone live with the two incremental components required to unlock team functional amplification, which are, one, the collection and access to BRG's unstructured data, which is data without a predefined format, like a PowerPoint deck or a Zoom transcript, and two, a SaaS application deployment platform native to our infrastructure. With this complete stack in place, business users can now build AI-enabled applications for their teams and deploy them on our corporate platform, inheriting its security framework and scalability. Instead of teaching someone how to use AI, you are teaching them how to use a functional application to get real work done. Slide 25. Full disclosure, given the breadth of the change, I struggle with how best to help you understand the impact we are seeing.
At the half, I showed you what three weeks of work delivered for our global customer service team. This time, I am going to start with the customer benefit and work my way back to how AI made it possible. Next month, we will be launching our NFC coffee experience, an extension of our solution office. It delivers a premium customer experience across the entire ownership journey, from choosing the right machine at retail to the last cup of coffee you make with it at home. It starts in the store. Tap your phone on the tap and know card or the machine itself, and you get an engaging, customer-validated experience that walks you through the machine's key features and lets you compare across machines. No hunting for a sales associate or reading a spec sheet.
Then at home during unboxing, you will find a Breville card with an embedded NFC tag, plus a backup tag on the machine itself. Tap either one, and it walks you through setup and making your first coffee. It keeps working for you over the years that follow. Finding your favorite coffee on Beanz, creative coffee recipes, leveling up your skills, upgrading accessories, troubleshooting, and support. What you need, when you need it, from a single tap. This is what premium should feel like. That is the customer experience. The question that matters for this part of the discussion is how did one team build all of that in eight months? 17 machines, 17 languages across 40 countries. This is where the AI storyline intersects. Slide 26. Four SaaS AI applications all run the BRG platform make this experience possible.
The UX design application designed and consumer-validated both the retail and at-home experiences. The recipe production application produced the 120 hero recipes and extended them to the 660 machine-specific variants. The translation application will transform this output into 17 languages, and the customer support application, when incorporated, will give consumers AI-enabled troubleshooting support. Project kickoff was last January. Go-live is September across the entire coffee range in 40 countries, with some at-home experience functionality being added over the next couple of months. For calibration, the most comparable program we have run is the Fast Track Barista Pack program in 2025. This pre-AI deployment took 14 months to take eight markets live. AI has driven a step change in our operating velocity. Here is the me to we point. Three of the four applications were built by business users with no coding background who self-deployed the applications onto our platform.
Their teams are not learning how to use AI. They are using a new application to get work done, which compounds because all future work runs through it. This is the ROI that derives from the productization of AI. Slide 27. Here is the magnitude of acceleration we are seeing from the recipe in UX applications. The 120 hero recipes that will make it into the NFC experience would have taken roughly 425 hours under the team's 2025 process. With the recipe application, they produced the 660 variant recipes in 67 hours. That is a 6.3x improvement the first time they used the app. Couple it with the translation application pushing 660 recipes into 17 languages, and the benefit will go exponential. The UX design application is broader.
That team designs product experiences like the Oracle Dual Boiler touchscreen, application experiences like Breville+ and the NFC program, and our websites across five brands in 17 languages. With this new application, they are developing consumer-tested prototypes five times faster and handing off to the firmware team two to three months earlier. That handoff drives ROI leverage. It shortens the development cycle of the product itself, which means products with a heavy UX component get to market faster, accelerating revenue. Back up to the flywheel I opened with, NPD to GTM to geography. The NFC program and the supporting AI applications touch all three, and tokens are enabling the same team to cover more ground faster. While we are on the front edge of our progression from me to we, the compounding is already visible. Every application we deploy makes the next project faster and better permanently.
I've said that with this enterprise transformation, you eat the elephant one bite at a time. With the requisite infrastructure deployed, we are now doing this at pace. Rolling all of this execution together, we now have a geographically diversified manufacturing base, a compelling premium channel structure in the U.S. Our new markets are firing on all cylinders, and we have continued innovation in NPD and an expanding solution footprint with Beanz and Fast Track in the Netherlands and the global NFC coffee experience, all of which are being accelerated by the AI transformation program. As always, there is much more to do, but I continue to be bullish about the hand we are playing. With that, I'll hand back to the operator 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're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. We kindly request that each participant limit their questions to one per turn. Please refrain from asking multi-part questions in order to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate. If you have additional questions, please rejoin the queue. Your first question comes from Shaun Cousins with UBS. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, Jim and Martin. My question is just around the revenue uplift in 2026 from the store install with Best Buy. Could you just discuss the sell-in benefit that you got from those 300 Best Buy stores? Was that material to growth, and how do you cycle that in 2027, or does it sort of annualize a little bit more in 2027 +?
I think it's some of it. What I think what's really driving the step-up is actually the sell out, in a sense where you get the sell in. I think the difference in, whatever, the first half of 2027 is those store in stores didn't go till November. Effectively from July to November, you don't have a prior year.
We will get annualization on for that piece, yeah.
You know what I mean? You have the sell in that happened pre-November.
Yeah.
But now you have the July to November period this year where you then catch up, and you go on a forward run rate in November. I wouldn't say it wasn't not material. Like you'll take it, but it's not what you're-
The annualization benefit will be there, but I think the question is more around how do you feel those stores are going? Are we pleased with the implementation?
Yeah. I mean, the real trick is it working? The short version, which I said in the script without disclosing something I shouldn't, is it's going really well, which is why Best Buy is asking us to expand.
Your next question comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Jim and Martin. Can I just clarify the tariff impact? You've obviously highlighted a negligible impact on the P&L. That makes sense. There's two numbers that have been disclosed. One was the cash flow refund of AUD 59.6 million, and then somewhere buried in the annual report, there's a provision amount in there, I think it was something like AUD 55 million.
Yep.
Can you just clarify that?
Yes. Happy to speak to tariffs. It hasn't been an easy year with tariffs. There's been volatility all over the place. Probably the headline, Craig, is I'm genuinely proud of how we've managed this robustly, collaboratively, and critically on a net basis with our value chain. When we paid tariffs, our value chain, our supply chain, lent in to help manage the cost imposed in all of our interests, and we're treating the refund with the same net approach. We've provided, accordingly, and that's the provision you see in note six in our accounts. You're correct, we did receive AUD 59.6 million in. They're not quite a one-for-one match, but they're pretty close. Therefore, net net on FY 2026, the profit impact was minimal.
Your next question comes from Apoorv Sehgal with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, Jim and Martin. My question is about gross margins. Can we talk about the gross margin trajectory into FY 2027
Yeah
compared to the second half 2026 outcome of 36.8%? I think one key upcoming tailwind seems to be the opportunity to localize component sourcing, which is something you discussed at the first half results. I think back then in February, you were saying that localization opportunity was more of an FY 2027 story. I guess net net, if we assume no further changes in the U.S. tariff environment or the oil-related supply chain backdrop, would it be fair to expect FY 2027 gross margins to potentially move a bit higher versus that second half 2026 outcome of 36.8%?
Good question, Apoorv. There is certainly some tailwinds. There is certainly some company-specific tailwinds. The first of which is we finished the half at 36.8%. The second of which is we have now got our manufacturing base just where we want it. That has given us the benefit at the moment of slightly lower tariffs. The mix of tariffs is slightly in our favor, certainly versus first half last year, even versus second half as that mix has moved towards 100% from the new sites. I guess the third tailwind that you have got going forward is the localization and the efficiencies of those new plants. As they get up to full speed, we get a benefit from that. As we get localization, which is progressing well, we get a benefit from that of not moving parts from China and then manufacturing locally.
The other point that is important about that is it also gives us the locally contributed content. If rules and tariffs start changing around what defines something as local, we are moving on the right side of that equation. So there is definitely tailwinds in our favor. Headwinds, a little bit more uncertain. The Middle East situation and oil prices remains unknown, could get worse, could get better. As I said in my part of the speech, tariff rates at the moment, reasonably happy with them, but there is some thought that they would move higher in the second half. So yes, we have got tailwinds against that 36.8%, which if you like, are in our hands. Then we have got external possible headwinds of the oil price and of tariff rates pushing against us, and then we will see how we balance out.
Your next question comes from Shaun Zhu with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Morning, team. Thanks a lot for taking my question. My question is around the young market or you call it emerging market here. It is good to see the 74% growth for the full year FY 2026. I am just curious to know what is the revenue growth in the second half 2026, and also is China and the Middle East looks like it is contributing to the biggest growth here? Thank you.
The growth in the second half was better than in the first half. I can give you that, Shaun, but I think Jim can talk more broadly to how we are performing in those markets.
Honestly, all four of them, they have different levels of maturity, in the sense that the Middle East and China have just posted their first year. I think both of them did exceptionally well and continue to. I find the Middle East most interesting given all the activity that has been going on there. Mexico and Korea went a little bit earlier, but they are still firing as well. It really is all. I look at all four of them together in a sense. From a construct of magnitude, Korea has been on a run since we got there and does not seem to be slowing down.
I think all of them are doing well. I think this bit of a step up that we see is a function of, I guess, three things. One, we are not eating the cutover cost for one. You now have China and the Middle East at the same time coming into that group and both the China and Middle East came out very strong in their first year. You just wrap all that together. Do I think it is going to hold 74% for the next 10 years? No. But it is.
It will be bigger.
getting bigger faster.
It will be bigger. Yeah.
They're not growing just a little bit faster than the enterprise. They're growing a lot faster than the enterprise. So they will fight above their weight as we move forward.
Your next question comes from Sam Haddad with Petra Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jim. Hi, Martin. Congratulations on the strong cash flow result. Just on the supplier, in terms of suppliers, what we are seeing in terms of supply of raw materials, availability of raw materials.
Yeah
Particularly on the back of the flare up of the Iran war. I understand it moved into like an auction like market in plastic resins. What are you seeing right now and how far forward have you secured supply both on plastic resin? Also just talk about stainless steel and what the backdrop looks like there as well. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Sam. You are right in terms of the longer the Middle East situation goes on, the tighter some of the materials are getting. We have deliberately bought forward in plastic resins, substantially forward which we will find out in the fullness of time if that was a good move or a bad move. It is a good move in terms of securing supply. We will see what pricing does during the year. We are starting to see the same in stainless steel. Jim, I do not know if you want to talk about how we work with chief operating officer and how that was pushed through.
Yeah, look, whether it is COVID or everything else that happened, all of these volatility things that hit our supply chain, because we plan every single SKU out for 104 weeks rolling. It allows us to confidently, is maybe the word I would choose, make forward decisions. We, on the resin front, we took two steps, which is when things kicked off almost immediately.
Yeah
We moved on getting physical possession that took us through roughly about January, February.
Yeah, first half of the year.
Was kind of round one. When we got into June, I signed off on the rest of 2027. I think within the next, I don't know, month and some change, plastic resin will not be relevant in a sense in that conversation other than on that 2020 hindsight of how did Martin do on price. It would suggest that right now it looks like it was a good decision. It's a good decision, period. It's just dollars and cents after that.
Yeah, I feel good about security of supply.
Yeah.
It's one of the minor headwinds in terms of, yes, that plastic resin in FY 2027 is going to be a bit more expensive than we paid in 2026, but I'd rather have it in the barn.
Yep.
Okay. Anything else?
Your next question comes from Tim Lawson with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jim, Martin. Thanks for taking my question. Just in terms of the new markets, obviously principally China and EMEA, how material was that performance, that 74% of the overall group, and should we anticipate any other new direct markets impacting sales in the outlook?
How material is it? Actually, I haven't run the number.
Yeah, I would be using the words not material yet, Tim, but more material than it was last year.
Yeah.
It's growing the whole time. Did it help us hit the 9.7% constant currency? Yes, it was definitely a help. Is it big enough to yet compensate for other major markets? Not yet, but potential is exciting. In terms of new markets, Jim?
Yeah. We continue to work on that vector as we always do. Whether that hits in 2027 or 2028, it's a little early to call. But new markets will be coming online in the next two years for sure.
Yeah, sure.
Your next question comes from Tom Kierath for Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Morning, Jim. Morning, Martin. You guys always target double-digit EBIT growth, so the 10%. This year, you are saying, well, this year you just delivered one. If I read out from February your guidance, you say here, "Given the magnitude of U.S. tariff increases our value chain is absorbing in 2026, we are going to do lower growth." As it turns out, to answer to Craig's question, you did not actually absorb higher tariff costs. You got that refund. I am just trying to work out why earnings growth was not your usual 10%, or is it something that you are going to catch up potentially over the next few years?
Thank you, Tom. A couple of things on that. IEEPA tariffs is one of the tariffs that have been faced in the year, and certainly the neutralization of those does not turn 2026 into a low-cost year. We also had steel tariffs and then applying to all steel, then to the total value of the goods. We had global tariffs introduced in April when IEEPA rolled off. We had the small matter of transitional costs as we were rapidly diversifying our manufacturing base from China to outside of China. Yes, IEEPA tariffs late in the day were neutralized, but it did not turn us into a low-cost year.
What you did see as we exited the second half was improving gross margins. You are seeing some of the benefit of a lower tariff position as we exited the half. As I sit and look at FY 2026, it certainly wasn't a low-cost year. It was a high-cost year. That's why, as we kept investing in the growth engines of our business, we delivered a lower EBIT growth than in inverted commas normal. As we move into next year, yes, let's see if we move back to a more normal cadence.
Your next question comes from James Lee with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. James Lee, your line is now live. Please proceed with your question.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes.
Thanks for taking my questions, guys. My question's around the U.S. consumer. I note we had an earlier Amazon Prime Day this year. What sort of reordering activity have we seen post that day? Any comments on the U.S. consumer for the start of 2027?
I'd say the same thing I said at the half, which is the premium consumer remains resilient, maybe is the way I would describe looking at the U.S. I know we're talking about 2026, but we're all of one month into 2027. I would say we're seeing the trends of 2026 carrying to 2027. So far the premium consumer continues to do well and both coffee and cooking seem to have a tailwind behind them.
Your next question comes from Wei-Weng Chen with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just on the valuation provision of AUD 55.2. Just wondering to double-check that the difference between the money in the AUD 59.6 and that AUD 55.2 was the P&L impact for this year. And also just what the confidence level you have in that number that you've provided for, are these obligations contractually sort of binding and is there a scenario whereby you might need to reverse these provisions?
Well, look, they're absolutely my best estimate of the liability that exists today, or else it wouldn't be in our balance sheet. Yes, if you just take those two binary numbers, the difference between those two, one was a cost to P&L, one was a benefit to P&L. So you would get a net number coming out at the end. But, yeah, the provision represents the fact that when tariffs came on, we shared the burden. When tariffs come off, we would expect to share the refund.
Are they contractually obliged?
Contractually, no. It's more of a recognition of a commercial reality of how tariffs were managed on a collaborative basis all year.
Your next question comes from Jared Gels omino with Morgans. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I'm trying to understand the composition of the half. I think we've seen some pretty strong updates from peers through the second quarter. I'm trying to understand how you guys performed relative to that. In terms of market share, how would you view your performance through the second quarter in terms of holding main or holding growing or potentially losing some?
Second quarter. I think you mean the second half. We saw a step up second half.
The second half of the second half, I think the question is-
Oh, the second half of the second half.
Yeah.
I do not look at the second half of the second half. If I look at the second half as a whole, my read is if you look across the whole subset, you come up with the same kind of storyline that we have had for years, right? Which is there is a coffee tailwind. Everybody in the coffee space benefits from that tailwind and rising tide lifts all boats. Depending on who you pick, we all kind of have our parts of the market in which we play. My read is that that tailwind is robust and wide. I think everyone is doing well, which is what you want to see.
Your next question comes from Olivier Coulon with E&P Financial Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jim. Just on the contribution from the distributor markets, obviously lagged a bit. Some of those are quite mature. Is it fair to say that they are probably being a bit more cautious in terms of investing in sell-in and inventory levels than certainly you have?
Honestly, Olivier, it is not that. It is actually just how long that cycle is, how long their lead time is with us. In a sense, they have to guess forward. In a way, it is almost like if I pick on China and the team delivered 7.1 times the revenue of our distributor, why did not the distributor deliver that the year before, because obviously the market was there. The distributor market is what I would call relatively inefficient, and has been since 2015, which is one of the reasons why we go through the conversion. It is just a function of how long their lead times are in ordering from us. It is kind of an 18-month cycle, through and through.
If I lined up all of the distributors, you will see in any given period, any given snapshot, you will see some of them growing faster than BRG, some of them slower, this and that, and it is all because they are at a different point in their wave. I do not think it is not anything related to their individual market or whatever. I think their relative performance is a function of how effective they are in that market. Basically, you just see this sine wave that plays through, and that is really what you are seeing.
The next question comes from James Casey with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. Just given all the distractions and challenges you encountered in FY 2026, I just wonder if you could make some broad comments around NPD and how the outlook looks for the next year or two.
The good news about NPD is that they ride below the, what I call, ride below the waterline. If I think about COVID, that would be a disruption that was much bigger than 2026. The operations team runs around with their hair on fire every day, and the NPD team, like a metronome, continues to do what they do. I think the one thing that was different, to be fair, in 2026, was a part of the NPD team was heavily engaged in the diversification of the supply chain. That's, in a way, the first time really since I've been here in 2015 that anything affected them.
What I would say on the NPD pipeline is that the pipeline that I see in front of us over the next 24 and some change, I would describe as the strongest pipeline I've seen since I've been here. We'll start to see the front edge of that release in the first half of 2027. Then you're going to see just one after another after another. I think what you do get a little bit, because we had to put some of the team onto the diversification exercise, the extent to which we had to allocate that capacity pushed some delay in the products that they were associated with. But if you go out to 24 months, that all washes out. Very encouraged by the pipeline that I'm seeing over the next 24.
Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions today, and that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.