Everybody, and welcome to the CHL FY2 4 Announcement Call. Firstly, I'd just like to start with an acknowledgment of country. I would like to pay our respects to traditional owners, their elders, past and present, and value their care and custodianship of these lands. Camplify Holdings Limited is a proud Newcastle-originated company, built in the lands of the Awabakal and Worimi people. Today, I'll present to you our FY24 results.
My name is Justin Hales, the CEO and founder of Camplify. I'll walk you through our high-level strategy and key deliverables for CHL, for FY 24, then I'll hand over to Andrea MacDougall , our CFO, who'll walk you through the key metrics and results for the period. In May, CHL outlined to the market our three- to five-year goals. Our strategic focus on growing our core revenue through a focus of recurring revenue and consistent increasing take rate.
Delivering on operational scaling business with the technology to power this efficiency. Focusing on members and member services to enable our members through improved products and services. Building our business to a profitable model through a focus on performance. In FY24, we began, in earnest, a road towards delivering on these outcomes with some short-term hurdles, which I'll touch on.
Our three- to five-year goals included AUD 125 million in revenue. For FY24, CHL achieved AUD 47.8 million. 20,000 Camper Plus members, or you might know them previously as premium members. For FY24, CHL closed the year with 4,908 members. 71,000 total fleet. For FY24, CHL closed the year with 32,789. A 20% normalized EBITDA.
For FY24, CHL closed the year at -9%. For FY24, CHL had a period of consolidation, optimization, and preparation. In order to position the business for further evolution and potential expansion, CHL needed to invest in consolidation of teams, systems and procedures to enable efficiency. In FY24, CHL undertook major projects, including this goal to enable this goal, including the migration of PaulCamper to centralized CHL platform and the implementation of a number of improvement systems.
These projects are designed to establish a foundation for growth and improvement in key metrics over the next 3-5 years. Migration of PaulCamper platform to the centralized Camplify technology stack began in January 2024. This project is now functionally completed. The migration of the technology stack was an important project for our long-term success, the CHL group, as it enabled the centralization of development teams, the reduction of business risk, and the ability to roll out new products to the European market.
However, this project hit a number of stumbling blocks. Notably, SEO impacts as a result of platform content migration and Google remapping and ranking issues. The verification of all owner customers in line with European banking standards, payment platform issues with third-party providers, and change management issues with retraining of customers on new technology. The impact of this project on the business in the short term saw a reduction in revenue of AUD 3.4 million, directly related to the migration of the project, in reduced trade.
This was combined with AUD 1.9 million of one-off costs incurred as a result of the project. In the longer term, CHL has identified AUD 3.1 million in ongoing cost savings as a result of the completion of the migration project, and all signs indicate that an expected return to normalized trade of PaulCamper in FY 2025, with future upside in following years. As part of the growing business, CHL in FY 2024 needed to invest in core technology and business systems to enable the future growth and expansion of the business.
In this period, the company committed to a significant investment towards our future years' results and through the implementation of these systems and technology. In FY 2024, the following achievements have been completed towards our three to five-year goals. We migrated all countries to a single platform with multiple brands.
We migrated all countries to a single payment gateway system, implemented a global CMS, implemented and migrated to a global accounting system, implemented a global insurance technology system, implemented a global HRIS system, and implemented AI-powered systems to reduce customer service ticket management.
Key platform changes improved our customer conversion across the platform through these technologies. Our business processes also improved through the centralization of teams and consolidation of roles. We set up EU-wide MGA status for our key insurance products. We engaged with key suppliers in the EU to roll out white labeling of new insurance products. We implemented improved insurance claim handling.
We migrated core customer service teams to AI-first approach, reducing claims handling and improved customer service. We've created business-to-business divisions to enable the key supply of products in ANZ. We've created new membership offerings for the EU countries, allowing the rollout of these products in FY25, supporting our member-first approach.
We rolled out a global finance ERP system to improve our reporting and efficiencies. Already, CHL can see early measures with a positive impact of these projects. I look forward to updating you all on the impact, true impact of these projects as we continue down the path in our AGM in November.
While completing these projects and the major business distraction of the PaulCamper platform migration, despite these projects and an impact of the PaulCamper migration across the business, CHL was able to still achieve significant growth for revenues, with the group growing by 24.9%.
Importantly, Camplify saw revenue growth in all markets, with the exception of Germany. Take rate for CHL Group Inc reached 28.9%, up from 26.1% in FY 2023. The increasing take rate of our top-level accident excess reduction product in ANZ markets to 57.5%. All across all of our bookings and increased premium membership, recurring revenue drove the increase in take rate. Excluding the PaulCamper markets, take rate was 32.7% versus 29.9% PCP.
I'll now hand over to Andrea to walk through the financial results and business metrics.
Thanks, Justin. In FY 2024, CHL continued to show growth in GTV and revenue, with GTV growth of 13.1% to AUD 165.5 million, and revenue growth of 24.9% to AUD 47.8 million. Take rate has increased globally from 26.1% in FY 2023 to 28.9% in FY 2024. We continue to see increasing uptake of our top-level Accident Excess Reduction product in ANZ, with 57.5% of bookings taking the higher level. This drives our take rate increase, along with the increase in premium members or Camper Plus.
Our standout performers in terms of growth were New Zealand and the U.K. New Zealand continued its strong growth post the acquisition of Mighway and SHAREaCAMPER, with revenue growth of 69% versus PCP to AUD 5.1 million, driven by bookings growth of 55% and fleet growth of 68%. The UK, after a slow year in FY 2023, has achieved AUD 2.3 million in revenue, a growth of 108% versus PCP. We saw a significant increase in fleet utilization as fleet growth came in at 12%, however, bookings grew by 65%.
Average booking values increased in these regions by 3% and 12%, respectively. Our other regions saw a decrease in average booking values, with Australia's decrease of 6% being driven by the reduction in booking length caused by the reduction in temporary accommodation bookings.
In EU regions, we saw average booking values decrease, with lower day rates from owners driving this decrease and a slightly shorter average booking length. Retained hires grew in all regions, with global retained hires at 25.3%. This shows the increasing support from customers who are already CHL users. Germany's revenue decreased during the period due to the impacts of the platform migration.
The annualized impact on revenue of this migration is a reduction of AUD 3.4 million. This represents a pro forma reduction in revenue of 43%. GTV reduced by AUD 17.6 million versus prior year, had PaulCamper been CHL-owned for the entirety of FY 2023. Cost of goods and GP margin saw a negative impact from the reduction in revenue from PaulCamper regions, as well as global inflationary pressure on repair costs.
CHL has also seen an increase in the volume of damages incurred during the period. We are reviewing our processes and undertaking a fleet safety project, along with higher education, to address the damage volumes. We will also increase premium membership premiums for new customers in FY25 to improve the revenue flow and GP margin of the premium membership product. Existing members will be reviewed at their renewal dates.
Due to the platform migration, CHL has incurred higher than normal costs, with one-off costs identified at AUD 1.8 million. AUD 200,000 of this relates to acquisition and business combination costs. AUD 360,000 relates to MyWay setup, licensing, and software setup costs. AUD 800,000 relates to termination costs of staff, and the remaining AUD 400,000 relates to operational costs around the increased customer service demands during the migration and setup costs for our global finance, ERP, and CMS.
Our employee benefits costs were above our expectations due to both the one-off costs mentioned above and the reduced revenue from PaulCamper during this period. Employee benefits as a percentage of revenue increased to 37.3% versus 32.4% in FY 2023. Excluding termination costs, this came in at 35.5%. During H1-H2 FY 2024, we have focused in implementing AI into the customer journey, which we are seeing good impacts on customer service team, and they are now able to handle higher level queries and improve the number of bookings per team member.
Automations within the platform are also creating further efficiencies for customer service and finance team members. Marketing expenses increased slightly versus PCP, with FY24 coming in at 16.7% of revenue, up from 16% in FY23. Between February and April, marketing in PaulCamper regions was switched off while we managed the owner re-onboarding and verification for the new platform and payment system.
From May to June, we accelerated marketing spend in these regions in order to drive visits and booking requests back to historic levels. These metrics are trending in the right direction, and we expect them to normalize in FY25. Customer acquisition costs remain broadly in line with normal, with Camplify Owner CAC at AUD 143.37, and hirer CAC at AUD 23.52. PaulCamper owner CAC has increased to AUD 49.24, as we have commenced actively acquiring owners late in FY24, and hirer CAC steady at AUD 21.74.
As part of the migration and the analysis of tools and teams, we have identified AUD 3.1 million in ongoing cost savings, with AUD 1.3 million relating to employee benefits costs and the remainder being in systems and tool savings, as well as the improved merchant fees through our global payment provider. Future bookings, GTV, excluding TAP, as at 30th of June, 2024, had decreased 4.5% versus PCP. A reminder that future bookings are bookings where the deposit has been paid, but revenue not yet recognized as the travel has not commenced.
In Camplify regions of Australia, New Zealand, U.K., and Spain, this is a point-in-time measurement and is heavily dependent on short-term events, e.g., weather, economic concerns, et cetera. We have run this number again as at the 26th of August, and future bookings GTV is now up 2.4% versus the 26th of August, 2023, and booking numbers are up 5.3%.
This will continue to build towards the peak season in ANZ regions, and we are confident about the upcoming peak season based on current booking levels. CHL's closing cash balance was AUD 14.8 million. Although we have seen a reduction in cash of AUD 11.6 million during the period, due to the migration impacts and associated costs, as well as the acquisition of the Rent a Tent business, we have sufficient free cash to meet our growth needs in current markets. We expect cash and bookings to build coming into the peak season in the ANZ region. CHL remains a capital-light business with a strong balance sheet.
Thank you. I will now hand back to Justin.
Thanks, Andrea. Now looking forward to FY25. A key focus for CHL in FY24 and 25 is the global rollout of new member service products across all markets. Insurance is a key product offering for customers on both sides of the marketplace, and new products and services will begin significantly being rolled out in FY25.
This will not only grow our core marketplace, it will also allow for the expansion of products and services outside of our core products and customers in the future. For CHL, FY25 will be about leveraging investments we have made to position ourselves for future growth. In line with our three to five-year goals, our core technology focus will be to improve the usability of our platform for both owners and hirers, with measurable increases in conversion rates to maximize traffic and re- and returning customers.
Improve our premium membership, or Camper Plus members, membership offerings through the platform performance for members, including the member offerings. Continue to optimize the platform for third-party products to reduce manual tasks and increase growth. Utilize AI systems to improve overall customer experience and reduce customer management, and improve insurance products and services, enabling the adoption and satisfaction with member-led insurance products and a rollout of new products and services.
MyWay remains a key strategic project for FY25 . In FY 24, we achieved an MGA status in the European markets. We have coupled this with an organizational focus on embedding and improving member service products, insurance-led, to improve the best-in-class service for our customers looking to achieve the CHL offering, leverage the CHL offering.
MyWay had a significant step forward in FY 25 with the achievement of regulatory statuses, implementation of insurtech systems, and a dramatic improvement in claims management. As of today, CHL has doubled the speed of our claims processing and achieved a 74% increase in customer satisfaction in our post-claims review. These metrics are indicative of the organization-wide systems implementation and business focus on insurance, allowing CHL to be business-ready for an acceleration in insurance in FY 25.
CHL remains on track for significant implementation of insurance-led member products across the business in FY 25 in every market, including travel, liability, and vehicle cover products. We look forward to providing an update to this at our AGM in November, including a rollout of multiple products across multiple markets.... Overall, the business remains in an excellent position and confident in achieving the FY25 consensus numbers previously published.
In every market, CHL remains on track with our three to five-year goals. Our key North Star metrics of revenue, fleet, members, and EBITDA remain our focus across all areas and drive our decision-making. We remain committed to our plan and positive about the ability to deliver against these goals. Our next major update will be in November at our AGM, where I look forward to sharing with you our major milestones along the journey and providing a business update.
Thank you, and now I'll look at the Q&A function and answer some questions that are coming through. So the first question, in FY 24, there was a growth in paid membership was 7%. However, the revenue growth was 48%, which indicates an increase in premium membership. Can we explain why the primary reason for such a strong growth number in that category, and can we expect future growth, at similar levels in membership revenue?
So I'll let Andrea answer some of those questions. I think the first part is that, we saw a different vehicle mix of vehicles being insured through that membership. We rolled that membership out into New Zealand. In that market, it's primarily drivables, which is a different mix in vehicle type. We only currently have that membership offering running in earnest in ANZ. We have a small pilot project in Germany at the moment, and now have the ability to look to roll that out into the rest of the European markets, in FY 25.
Andrea, do you have any more color on that question?
Yes, I sure do. So with our memberships, when we increase the pricing, we can increase the price for new members straight away, so that any new sign-ups come through at new pricing. Over the last few years, the prices have increased each year. But for our existing members, we can only pass that price on as their renewal date. So in FY 2024, we have seen those increases building from the last couple of years as they come up to their annual renewal dates.
So in FY 2025, again, we will... We are putting in a price increase around October this year for new members. Our existing members again will be increased on their renewal dates. We'll see an immediate bump from new members joining, in their increased revenue, and then an incremental improvement in the existing fleet, which we'll see the bulk of flow through in FY 2026.
Great, thank you. Another question that's come through from a few people. What does normalized trade mean for Paul Camper in FY25? So right now, where our focus is on getting them back to normalized booking levels from a pre-migration level. We're still slightly down in the booking levels. We've seen that it's kind of gone up and down across the months, but we've had a number of issues that have plagued that project as I outlined before.
We do expect to see that return to the previous year's trade in the half, and that once we can get that back to parity that we can actually then focus on sort of what it means post that in terms of our future for that location. We're already seeing an increase in conversion, which is excellent.
So we're actually getting better value out of the traffic that we've got, coming to the site through that improvement in conversion via the platform improvements that we've made, and we see that with the technology changes that we have rolling out that we're very confident about actually being able to offer customers a better product than what they previously had, and we see that will be a positive impact on bookings and also revenue in the future.
With our new statuses that we have and the integration of those insurance products into those regions, we're also confident about being able to actually increase that take rate in those regions, probably more than we ever were before. Now we're really focused on, you know, getting that back to normal trade, and then focusing on increasing that take rate, which will increase our revenue in those regions, as well. Really, that's our focus for the German market right now, is to achieve those outcomes.
Another question that's come through, around GP, so gross margins. We flagged that, premium membership rises and Mighway impact. Can we talk around some of the damage issues, and how we're gonna reduce that damage and how soon should we expect to see that return to the high sixties, Andrea?
Yes. So with the increasing damage, we have in place a project to improve the safety of the fleet. That has been worked on for the last few months and is being rolled out probably in late H1, FY25. This will address and make sure that, you know, the vans are having the appropriate safety checks being done regularly.
We give owners some further education on how they can ensure that the hirers really understand how to use the vans appropriately when damage can occur, such as when winds come through. You know, making sure that awnings are folded away prior to bad weather and things like that. We also have a higher education program that will be rolled out through our online training platform, which will be, again, giving hirers those tips.
So before they go out on a trip, they can understand how best to care for the vehicle as well. So we do expect that to sort of come in prior to the peak season, and we expect those GP margins to be able to improve. Having said that, again, with the increased premiums that we'll pass on, that will also positively impact that GP margin in FY25 .
Yeah. Thank you. So just a couple of questions about the performance of PaulCamper and particularly around the issues that we had during the migration. How do they become apparent, and when do we disclose those? So it was basically an evolving process. So as we started to do the migration, and we started to see customers need to be reverified, we then had to look at the uptake of that verification.
As that increased and we saw more and more owners verify on the platform, then we started to see other issues come through, as we saw a volume increase in the hirers come through. So we had a period of a few months that we needed to actually see how that data played out, and they're very much a seasonal business, so it evolves and changes as we get further into the season.
So we disclosed those results. I don't have the exact date to hand, but you can see now a disclosure statement that we had the impact of that project. And we felt as though we had enough time to actually truly see where and how that was impacting the platform. So we disclosed that information in that update we provided. And we pretty much were in line with our expectations around that impact of the migration.
We do feel now that we're very much on top of that. We've got a couple of things to roll out in the next coming weeks that we believe will fully resolve the majority of those issues, particularly around payments. And we can now see that, you know, we're actually providing a better experience for customers than where they previously were at.
So, you know, we had a need to do that migration in line with the synergies, but also, in line with maintaining business risk. You know, we're an online platform. It's really important to make sure that we have a secure system. And so, you know, we identified that that was a key risk to the business, in that legacy platform that PaulCamper was on.
And so we needed to make that change to ensure that, you know, the business was secure for the future. And so, you know, while we had we did have some issues along the way, in the grand scheme of things, we feel like we're gonna be in a much better position with that business moving forward.
The question around growth, so I, I'll just refer you to the consensus numbers around that growth target. And, you know, we believe that, we're in line with those numbers moving forward, and they're in line with our goals over that sort of three to five-year period that we have disclosed and the business is comfortable with.
Question around acceleration of marketing spend for 2025, and how that's changed, and, you know, where do we see that moving to in the future? Any color on that, Andrea?
Yeah. So we expect, as a percentage of revenue, that marketing spend to come back, sort of into line to that sort of 15%-16% that we have seen historically. We did have to accelerate that, and increase our spend a little during the last couple of months of FY 2024, but we are confident to get those numbers back in FY 2025. Obviously, as a percentage of revenue, that stays stable, but that does mean that we increase our dollar spend in marketing during the year.
Thank you. Question around the recent closure of Uber Cars hare in Australia, and I guess kind of ties into the question around sort of insurance losses that we've questioned that we've seen in terms of damages. I think it's very important to note that Car Share and what we do is very different. Their losses are very focused on high volume, lots and lots of rentals in lots of time, and therefore, they're sort of like a micro transactional environment.
Our average booking value is booking length is closer to 10 days, and we actually have a policy that performs quite well in terms of loss ratio across the board, and we see that, you know, our overall policy performs really well. I think in general, there's been an increase in insurance costs for every insurance business that's out there in the last couple of years.
Mainly that's due to changes in parts and material of the actual repairs, so just kind of adjusting to that new normal in terms of the insurance prices, and we constantly check our insurance prices versus the market. You know, we feel as though we're priced really fairly, and that, you know, we will evaluate that, but our loss ratio is actually in line with where we were expected to be. So it's just a matter of sort of managing that volume.
Another question sort of come through as to if we feel as though the PC migration impacted the Australian result. I would say that, you know, the business went through, has been through a bit of a restructure in terms of the way that we do things, our teams, as a response to what we saw through that migration. So, you know, we've improved the operational teams across the board, including Australia.
I think that it was a huge focus for us and that the business needed to respond to those issues. And now that I feel like we're actually in a much better position to be able to service all the markets through our new structure and team that we have and the way that we can actually respond to customers.
So I think, you know, one of the leading indicators for us has always been the fleet, and so we need to get more and more fleet on the platform to actually service demand to customers, and to enable us to be able to, you know, invest in that forward momentum of the platform. And so I think, you know, when we have... If you have a look at the half results, you'll see that the fleet sort of slowed a little bit in compared to where we had expected it to be at, and now we're starting to accelerate that fleet growth.
And so that's a really good indicator as to future business performance, historically. And so, you know, I think that that's directly, you know, pretty much aligned to when we started to go through that business restructure, and, you know, the disruption that the migration certainly had on the business. So, very confident now about where the business is at with those new changes that we've made to be able to be in a much better position for the future. So a couple of direct questions, Andrea.
The take rate for, I guess, the European countries overall, it has been lower than ANZ, and that's primarily driven by both, I guess, AER and membership products in these markets. On average, sort of, where do we see that at the moment? And, you know, where do we think that might head towards in FY25?
Yeah. So we do see lower take rates in Europe. The PaulCamper take rates remain around that 18.2%. That is going to stay fairly steady until we see an increase in the CamperPlus members there and also once we roll out the AER product. So we are looking at rolling out the AER products throughout Europe across FY 25. And we will see an impact, a positive impact on take rates there.
Spain, the take rate sort of sits around the low 20s, as does the UK. Similarly, we'll see those increase there. In New Zealand, we do see a slightly higher take rate in the mid-20s, as we do have that premium membership, and we do have the Accident Excess Reduction product. As the GTV from bookings grows versus the premium membership growth, we would expect that to see some slight increase, but the smaller fleet size there and premium membership base doesn't have as significant of an impact on the take rate as we see in Australia.
Great, thank you. Another question for you, Andrea. In the report, we have a difference between higher revenue and owner fees for Camplify and PaulCamper. Can you just talk through about why that's different, what's the history on that, and what's the goal moving forward with those two differences?
Yeah, sure. In Camplify regions, historically, we have had a fairly even split of fees to the hirers and to the owners. You know, on the hirer side, we charge a commission of 10.5%, and then we have the optional extra products around the AER. On the owner side, we charge between 6.5% and 13.5%, depending on which insurance product that the owners have.
Within PaulCamper, because there's less complexity around their products, it's a pure commission model. Historically, they actually didn't charge anything to the hirer, and they only charged a 15% fee to the owner. I think it was in late 2021 that they introduced a 5% fee to the hirer.
You know, we will consider this over the future, but in Europe there are stronger competitors as well, so we need to keep in mind what sort of fee structures they have and make sure that we are remaining competitive with that. So, in terms of the commission changes, we would review that, but potentially the increases in take rate will mainly come from those additional products that we can offer.
Thank you. So question, the Australian market, do we feel as though it's mostly matured, or do we still see high growth opportunities? I think, you know, we definitely have a lot of growth to continue to do in the Australian market. We still only have a small percentage of total RVs in this market on the platform. There's still a huge demand in the caravan camping sector from customers who wanna get into using an RV in an ongoing basis. So we're really positive about this market.
You know, we feel as though there's still a lot of growth opportunities. I think it's important to note that, you know, we've grown so significantly in the last few years that, you know, at some point you can't continue to see, you know, 30, 40, 100% growth percentages in Australian market. You know, we still saw some good growth in Australia, and as we start to get more and more fleet on the platform, we still expect to see those good growth opportunities in the Australian market on the higher side as well.
I think that one of our biggest challenges in the Australian market has been our insurance products, and certainly our MyWay division is about being able to address this and have, you know, more transparent product for customers. And to be able to have a product that is really integrated with our platform, and that's certainly our objective for FY25.
Question around Europe and competitors, how are they performing? No one other than us in the market are public, so we don't have any information to really disclose. I think anecdotally in the European market, particularly, I guess, in Germany, what we see is a lot more smaller business operators. And so we've actually worked with those business operators in the Australian market to be able to help them utilize the Camplify platform as a way to do business and be more effective.
And so, that's really what our objective is in the European markets, to be able to introduce those tools and those products, particularly around insurance, to be able to help small businesses really utilize the platform. One of the ethos, I guess, of PaulCamper, previously, that was that it was truly a peer-to-peer, so there was really no businesses operating through the PaulCamper platform.
And so now we're starting to look at how do we reintroduce those businesses to the PaulCamper platform under the Camper Plus membership models in moving forward. So that's certainly an objective of ours, and you know, we've got good product sets and tools and et cetera, and experience to be able to do that in the European market.
The question around the timing for, well, the cost benefits that we've realized as a result of the migration as a result of PaulCamper. Andrea?
Yes. So we've started seeing those flow through, and we will expect the majority of it to flow through into FY25. The full benefit will be in FY26.
Great. Thank you. Another question, I guess, around our working capital position, and where we see that moving to versus historic levels in the next twelve months. I think, you know, first part of that is we're happy with the consensus numbers that are out there at the moment. Any other color on that, Andrea?
Yes. I mean, normally, we do operate in a negative working capital model. I guess, the reduced revenue and the additional expenditure that we've had during the migration period has significantly impacted that. So we do expect that it would get back to that normalized model in FY 25, once we see that trade return to normal from PaulCamper.
I think another big part of that is the rollout of our additional products that we're sort of focused on in FY25, and so take rate plays an important part in that. And so as we can continue to see the take rate lift increase in those various different regions, then you know we'll see the positive impact of that around working capital as well.
Look, that's probably a summary of the questions that have come through. Thank you very much for your time today. Really appreciate the support that you've shown the business, and I look forward to providing a further update to you at our AGM in November. Thank you.