Ladies and gentlemen, fellow shareholders, good morning. Welcome to Endeavour Group's 2025 annual general meeting. My name is Duncan Makeig, and I'm Chairman of the Board of Endeavour. Before we commence today's meeting, I would like to introduce Uncle Michael West from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council to welcome us onto the land of the Gadigal. Uncle Michael West is from the Gammuray Nation, born and raised in Sydney. He's a member of the Stolen Generations. Can't hear me? No. Is that better? Better? Okay. All right, I'll make sure I speak up. Uncle Michael has held a number of prominent roles, including Director of New South Wales Indigenous Chamber of Commerce, Co-Chair of the National Sorry Day Committee, and Cultural Advisor to TEDxSydney. It's an honor to have Uncle Michael here today to welcome us to country.
How are you?
Thanks.
I'd like to say Bajadi Gammuray. G'day, everyone. Can you hear me That's okay. What I was going to say here, where we are, we're on this beautiful land of the Gadigal people, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation. We welcome the country, a bit about education and get people to think about things and how we can all work and walk together for better outcomes. I'm looking across the room here, just out is when I walked down the street there, and I can see people from all around the world. We're lucky that our country, we can just have a yarn with the person sitting next to you, your neighbor, your colleague, and you can learn about different places around the world. That's what I love about this country. We have the oldest living continuous culture in the world today, more than 65,000 years. Yes.
We have beautiful fish traps in central New South Wales called Boroughona, and their stones are arranged in the way that they manage the fish flow. It's a place of trade, just like EG do trading. We traded there for many, many millennia, 65,000 years trading there. Also, those fish traps are 40,000 years old, and we have burial sites in New South Wales with ceremony oak, you know, which is a dirt, ceremonial dirt, that's 42,000 years, Mungo men and Mungo women. We should be pretty proud of this stuff. Aboriginal people, we survived the Ice Age 20,000 years ago, yes, and we lived with megafauna. Does anybody know what megafauna is? Megafauna is giant wombats and giant kangaroos that actually did not jump. They were so big, the scientists proved that they actually walked like a T-Rex.
That's how big they were, far bigger than a man or woman. Yes, it's amazing, these wonderful animals that we lived with before, and we still will live to now, things like crocodiles and everything. To us, animals are very important because they're part of who we are. We have a spiritual connection to them, and also they're considered family. Depending where you're born, who your family is, and your mob and tribe and clan, you will have different totems. Yes. And we have a beautiful totem that's actually represented in the Vatican. The Vatican has a book called the Huntingbird Manuscript. It's almost 800 years old, 1241. So the Pope and the Cardinals could only wonder what our beautiful cockatoo is, our sulphur-crested cockatoo. Does everybody know what the sulphur-crested cockatoo is, don't you? Yes. You don't . What's that? Just joking. I can't hear what you're saying.
Just joking. Oh, just joking. Okay, you do. And they're like this, aren't they? Yes, that's the noise they make. I've been watching them, and they watch us too, because they learn how to turn taps on. They've been watching humans. They learn how to turn taps on and off so they can get a drink too. They're very clever animals. Cockatoos are mischievous. They're cheeky. They will remember you. They live for decades. Please don't upset them. They are a bit destructive. They will come pull your clothes off the line and things like that and chew your wood and chew your plastic. Yes, we all need a bit of a laugh, don't we, because they are a bit crazy, those birds. But I love it when they get together because they are having a lot of fun, and they are.
I hope everyone's going to have fun with the festive season coming up and take that time with your family and friends and do make some recordings, whether it's a photo or whether it's a video. It's important to do that. I look back at my photos and my videos, and I see friends along the way that I've had and family and everything. It's so important to take that for remembering and jogging your memory. There is one other bird that I would like to talk about. It's been dispossessed of country. It hasn't had a fair go. It's been dispossessed of country. It's had to come and live in the city. You'll find it living all around here, Macquarie Street, all in our cities. It hasn't had access to traditional foods. It's being blamed for its situation.
I'm talking about a white bird, black tail feathers, a long neck and a long beak, and a bit of a bald patch. I don't have the bald patch, but I've got a little bit of bald patch here. Who am I talking about? Yes, the ibis. And I'm sacred in Egyptian culture, aren't I? I'm in the hieroglyphics, but that's not me, the one that we have here. That's our cousin that's over there. We also have cousins in Japan too, they're different colors. They're all around the world. Please don't call me a bin chicken. No, I'm not a bin chicken. I'm the sacred ibis, one of the totems here. I'm a totem from the Northern Territory and other places. It's not my fault. I've had to come here and live with you all. And look, I've seen humans while I've been going around who are dumpster diving. Yes. So why are you calling me a bin chicken? Thank you. We need a bit of humor. I'd just like to say on behalf of Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, welcome everyone here.
Please have a safe stay, safe journey home to your family and loved ones. Please enjoy the time coming up that you spend with your family. I think it's so important. I also think not only those pictures and the videos that play an important part, music plays a very important part in our life. Because when you think about it, when you hear a song, it takes you back to another time when you're with family and friends and you think about these things. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land Never Sorted. Our elders and members, welcome everyone here. Please enjoy your time here. Thank you.
Thank you, Uncle Michael, for your Welcome to Country. Great projection. I'll have to make sure I try and emulate that. I too acknowledge the Gadigal people and pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging. I also extend this acknowledgement to any First Nations people who are joining us on the call or in the room today. On behalf of my fellow directors, I welcome all shareholders to Endeavour's annual general meeting. As we have a quorum, I declare the 2025 annual general meeting open. For those who are not able to be here in person, we are pleased that technology allows us to connect with you through the live webcast, as well as the online platform and by telephone.
Instructions to participate in today's meeting via the online platform and telephone, including how to vote and ask questions, are in the online meeting guide available on our website. If you have issues during the meeting, please call the link on 1-800-990-363. This number is also in the virtual meeting online guide. Before introducing my colleagues, I will outline the procedures for today's meeting. Only shareholders, proxy holders, and corporate representatives may speak and vote during the meeting. All others are welcome as observers. Shareholders submitted a number of questions prior to the meeting. I will endeavour to cover as many of these issues raised by shareholders as we proceed today. I will introduce each item of business separately and then invite questions and comments. It is my intention to run an orderly meeting and give shareholders a fair opportunity to ask questions and make comments.
I ask that these are confined to the business of the meeting. If your question relates to a particular item of business, I will address the question when we come to that item, even if you have submitted your question earlier in the meeting. For specific questions relating to your experience as an Endeavour customer, I would ask that you speak to one of our customer service representatives at the desk located in the foyer. To ensure that all shareholders and proxy holders have an opportunity to comment and ask questions, I will take one comment or question at a time. Please be as concise as possible with your comments and questions, and ideally limit your questions to no more than two or three per item of business. For each item, I will take questions in the room first, then move to telephone questions, and finally, we'll take online questions.
If you're in the room and wish to ask a question, please move to one of the microphones, and one of the registry attendants will introduce you. To ask a question over the telephone, please press star one on your handset. Please tell the operator whether your question relates to a specific item of business or general business. At the relevant time, the operator will introduce you to the meeting and unmute your line. If you change your mind and no longer wish to ask a question, press star two on your handset. To ask a question through the online platform, click on the Ask a Question button, type your question, and click Submit. Questions can be submitted online at any time. I will endeavour to answer all relevant questions during today's meeting.
However, I reserve the writer's chair to determine that questions on a certain topic have been answered adequately and should no longer be asked. Following discussions on each item of business, valid, direct, and proxy votes will be displayed on the screen. I will then ask you to vote on the item. You can vote at any time once the poll is open. Shareholders, proxy holders, and corporate representatives can vote by marking for, against, or abstain on the voting card you were handed upon registration or through the online portal. For those in the room, yellow cards are for shareholders and proxy holders who may speak and vote. Blue cards are for shareholders who may speak but not vote. All other attendees with a red visitor card or a green media card are most welcome but may not address the meeting or otherwise participate.
As Chair, I intend to vote all available undirected proxies on and in favor of items two and three. The voting exclusions for item three are as set out in the notice of meeting. Voting on the resolutions will be conducted by way of poll, which I now declare open. The poll will close 10 minutes following the meeting's conclusion today. Please place your voting cards in the poll box as you leave the room, or if you're voting online, click the Submit Vote button to lodge your votes. As the results of the poll will not be available before the meeting closes today, they will be released on the ASX later today and on our website. I would now like to introduce your Board and the Company Secretary.
From my far right, your left, Rod Van Unselin, Joe Pollard, who is Chair of our People, Remuneration, and Performance Committee, Taran Morton, our Company Secretary. To my immediate left and your right, Kate Beattie, Chief Executive Officer, Penny Winn, Peter Hardy, and Anne Brennan, Chair of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Management Committee. Also seated in the front row is Director-elect Mike Eileen, who will join the board once his regulatory approvals are received. Additionally, members of our management team are also present today. They will be available to speak with you after the meeting along with the directors. Jack Stridham from Deloitte, our auditor, is available to respond to any specific questions you may have on the audit report and the conduct of the audit.
Deloitte's written response to a question, which was received prior to the meeting and directed to them as auditor, is available from the share registry desk in the foyer and from the Company Secretary upon request. I will also read the auditor's response to a question when we come to consideration of reports item one on the agenda. A notice of meeting has been distributed, and I'll take it as read. The agenda for today's meeting is as follows. Firstly, I will address the meeting. Then our CEO, Kate Beattie, will speak, and after Kate's address, we'll proceed with the formal items of business as were set out in the notice of meeting. Since joining the Endeavour board in 2021, I've had the privilege of working together with Endeavour's 30,000 dedicated team members on our shared purpose, creating a more sociable future together.
Our team members are what makes our company great, and like you, many are shareholders. Their interests, along with yours, have been front of mind as we've progressed our strategic review of the business. FY 2025 was a year of significant transformation for our company. While we navigated a challenging macroeconomic environment and managed changes to both our executive leadership team and the board, we also took decisions to ensure we emerged with new, strong foundations to enable us to set a clear strategic direction for the future. I do acknowledge that the time required to secure a permanent CEO and our share price performance created frustrations for shareholders. I'm confident, however, that the milestones we have delivered this year will position Endeavour for its next phase of growth and value creation. Firstly, the group has secured Jayne Hrdlicka as our new CEO.
Jayne is an exceptional business leader with a track record of driving transformational change and delivering improved business performance. The board has absolute confidence that Jayne is the right leader to unlock Endeavour's significant potential and accelerate our growth. Secondly, we've announced changes to strengthen our executive leadership team to support the implementation of the group's refreshed business strategy and deliver the company's next phase of growth. Experienced retail executive Benjamin Ward has been appointed as Managing Director of Dan Murphy's. Benjamin brings over 25 years of retail experience and is joining us in January from Super Retail Group, where he was Managing Director of Supercheap Auto. Prior to this, he worked for Aldi across all their major markets in a variety of roles ranging from buying to store operations and management. Jeanette Finsky will join BWS as Managing Director in January.
Jeanette brings outstanding operational expertise, having led 130,000+ team members across over 1,000 Woolworths supermarkets and Metro stores. Her deep retail experience will be instrumental in revitalizing our retail performance. To sharpen the group's focus on customers, Katrina Larritt has been appointed to the newly created role of Chief Customer Officer. This position will integrate marketing, consumer insights, data, e-commerce, and AI loyalty to strengthen the group's refreshed customer strategy and focus. Katrina joins us from Qantas. She was Chief Customer and Digital Officer. She will also commence with us in January. Thirdly, we made good progress on refreshing our board. Penny Winn and Peter Hardy joined as directors early this year, and Mike Eileen has recently agreed to join the board. This injection of fresh perspectives and diverse expertise strengthens our governance and strategic capabilities considerably.
We are also well progressed in our search for a new permanent Chair. Finally, we're progressing a substantive group-wide strategic review, examining our performance and opportunities across retail, hotels, and Pinnacle Drinks with a clear aim of maximizing long-term shareholder value. With a new CEO appointed, a revitalized leadership team, and a strategic review well advanced, the group is well-positioned to deliver against a new compelling strategy that will create substantial long-term value for our shareholders. I would now like to address the group's financial and operational performance in FY 2025 before discussing Endeavour's future direction, including more details on our incoming CEO and board evolution. The group's FY 2025 financial results reflected the contrasting performance of hotels and retail, with strengthened hotels partly offsetting a softer retail liquor market.
Group sales were down 2% or 0.3% on a comparable 52-week basis, and operating earnings before interest and tax fell by 8.5% or 7.3% on a 52-week basis. Group net profit after tax of AUD 426 million was down 16.8% or 15.8% on a 52-week basis. While these results reflect genuine challenges, including operational deleverage from lower retail sales, supply chain disruption during the peak summer period, and cost inflation, we maintained strong cash generation and financial discipline throughout the year. Importantly, group operating cash flow remained robust at AUD 1.2 billion, enabling the board to approve a total dividend payout for the year of AUD 0.1880 per share, fully franked. Our strong cash generation and capital discipline also helped us drive a AUD 187 million reduction in our net debt.
Our CEO, Kate Beattie, will provide more details on our progress against our priorities, as well as our first quarterly FY 2026 trading update, which was released on 31 October in her address next on today's agenda. Now turning to CEO succession and board renewal, Steve Donohue, Managing Director and CEO, stepped down this year on March 16 to enable a new leader to drive Endeavour's next phase of growth. Steve was a rare CEO who rose from the shop floor to Endeavour's top leadership position over the course of his 30-year career. On behalf of the board, I thank Steve for his significant contribution. CEO succession is one of the most important tasks for a board, and in April this year, after an extensive global search, we were delighted to announce Jayne Hrdlicka as Endeavour's next Managing Director and CEO. Jayne's credentials are outstanding.
She successfully led Virgin Australia out of administration, served as Managing Director and CEO of the A2 Milk Company and CEO of Jetstar Group. Jayne was a Woolworths non-executive director from 2010- 2016 with Woolworths when Endeavour brands were part of the group. Jayne excels at applying deep consumer insights to formulate and execute successful strategies. She has extensive business transformation experience, including, importantly, a track record of creating shareholder value. These are exactly the capabilities needed for its next chapter. Jayne starts on January 1, six weeks away, pending receipt of her regulatory approvals. Until then, she is consulting two days a week to the Endeavour Group board and senior management team, and we are already benefiting from her strategic insights and fresh perspective.
Former Chairman Ari Mervis served as Executive Chairman from April into August this year when he resigned as both an executive and a director. Kate was appointed interim CEO until Jayne's commencement. Having been with Endeavour for eight years, most recently as Chief Financial Officer, Kate brings deep operational and strategic leadership experience to the management team and the board. Group Deputy Chief Financial Officer Tali Ross has assumed a CFO role on an interim basis. Since being appointed as interim Chair in August, I have been actively leading the board's processes to appoint additional non-executive directors and our search for a new independent Chair, with the intention of having this leadership in place by early 2026. As mentioned earlier, during the year, the board welcomed Penny Winn and Peter Hardy as non-executive directors.
Penny brings a deep understanding of all aspects of retail operations, including merchandising, supply chain, transformation, and digital marketing. Her experience as a public company director extends across diverse industries such as retail, beverages, property, and e-commerce. Peter is affiliated with the Bruce Matheson Group, our largest shareholder and the founder of our hotels business. Peter brings over 35 years' experience across retail, liquor, hotel, and gaming operations from his leadership positions in roles in ALH Group and Endeavour Group. Penny and Peter are standing for election at today's meeting, and the board fully supports their appointment. On 30 September, the board was pleased to announce that Mike Eileen would join the board as an independent non-executive director, subject to probity and receipt of regulatory approvals. We look forward to welcoming Mike to the board.
I would also like to acknowledge Anne Brennan, who has decided not to stand for re-election as a Non-Executive Director, and Peter Margin, who resigned from the board this year. We thank Ari, Anne, and Peter for their contributions to the group. Looking forward, I am optimistic about Endeavour's outlook. The board is focused on simplifying our business, leveraging our unique portfolio of assets and licenses, and maintaining the highest governance standards to unlock growth and drive strong returns on invested capital. We are working in close consultation with our incoming CEO and executive leadership team on our strategic business review. The goal is to ensure we have a very clear strategy for every part of our business that enables management to deliver exceptional experiences for our customers and guests, maintains a strong workplace culture, and delivers the full value of our portfolio to shareholders.
In light of, and to be informed by, our strategic review, in FY 2026, the board will review our remuneration framework to ensure it is fit for purpose, rewarding for the delivery of performance across both the short and long- term, aligning executive and shareholder interests, and ensuring we can attract and retain the highest quality talent, some of which were announced last week to deliver on our strategy. Finally, I would like to thank our more than 30,000 team members for their dedication, particularly as we enter the critical festive Christmas trading period. Our team works tirelessly every day to deliver outstanding value products and experiences for our customers and guests, bringing people and communities together. I would also like to thank you as our shareholders for your continued support.
While I acknowledge this has been a challenging year, I'm confident the foundations for change we've put in place—exceptional new leadership, a renewed board, strategic clarity, and operational improvements—position Endeavour to unlock this significant value in our extraordinary portfolio. The foundations for this success are now firmly established, and I look forward to demonstrating that progress to you in the months and years ahead. I will now invite Kate to address the meeting.
Thank you, Duncan, and good morning, everyone. I'd also like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting today and pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Let me start by reiterating Duncan's observation that it has been a significant transition year for Endeavour Group and that we're all highly energised about the strategic review process.
While our share price is not where we would want it to be, we are, however, confident in the outlook and in the underlying strength of our assets and our brands. I'll briefly reflect on our FY 2025 financial performance before addressing the progress we've made against our strategic priorities. In FY 2025, we focused on providing the best value for money products and experiences that bring people and communities together for their social occasions. The group delivered stable revenue with strong momentum in hotels, largely offsetting a decline in retail liquor sales. Retail sales of AUD 10 billion fell by 1.2% on a 52-week basis, reflecting both subdued retail liquor market conditions as well as supply chain disruption, which impacted our peak trading period over summer.
During the year, we've continued to focus on delivering market-leading value, range, and convenience, and this resonated with customers, as reflected in the ongoing strength of our voice of customer feedback. Comparable retail operating EBIT was 12% lower than the prior year, reflecting operating deleverage from the lower sales and the impact of elevated inflation on costs. Hotel sales grew by 4.1% on a comparable 52-week basis to AUD 2.1 billion. We experienced good momentum in a buoyant market for the hospitality sector, with gaming, food, bars, and accommodation all in growth. This was supported by our investment in hotel renewals, the introduction of our new pub loyalty platform, Pub+, and our focus on elevating the customer experience across all of our offerings. Cost inflation was partly mitigated by a tight focus on cost of doing business, resulting in hotel operating EBIT growth of 4.5% on a 52-week basis.
As Duncan's mentioned, we continued to deliver strong cash flow of AUD 1.2 billion for the year, and we maintained capital expenditure discipline. This enabled us to pay dividends at the top end of our target payout range while also continuing to invest in our business, progress our technology separation from Woolworths, and deliver a AUD 187 million reduction in net debt. During the year, we accelerated our hotel renewals, completing 27 renewals, which delivered strong trading performance uplifts. While in retail, we reduced our capital expenditure as we optimised our investment in light of the overall quality of the store fleet. Throughout FY 2025, we undertook a number of actions to simplify and focus the business. This included integrating the Shorty's B2B delivery business into Dan Murphy's, moving Jimmy Brings into a partnership model with Milk Run, closing our pro-wine bottling facility in South Australia, and restructuring our support office.
In FY 2025, our group optimisation program, which we call Endeavour Go, delivered a further AUD 75 million of optimisation savings, which brings the cumulative total benefits of that program to AUD 265 million since FY 2022. During FY 2026, we'll be using our strategy review and the opportunity provided by our investment in new enterprise technologies to identify our next wave of opportunities, with upside remaining in areas such as automation of back-office processes. Moving on to One Endeavour, which is the program to separate our systems from Woolworths and simplify our technology landscape. We were very pleased to successfully complete the implementation of people systems during the year, with all of our team members now on a single HR management system and payroll platform.
Following the detailed design and discovery phase for store systems, we made the decision to accelerate the standalone ERP system implementation, which is now targeted to complete in the first half of financial year 2028, and to defer the store system separation, which will now start after the ERP program and complete in financial year 2030. This will enable us to separate stores directly onto a modern omnichannel store system solution connected to the new ERP, which both de-risks the program and avoids substantial interim cost. During the year, we continued to pursue opportunities to unlock value in our property portfolio, which is valued at over AUD 1 billion. As part of our focus on capital efficiency, we realized AUD 50 million from asset and business sales. We have made good progress on our five highest priority redevelopment opportunities, with four development applications lodged and one more in progress.
In aggregate, these five sites have been independently valued at between AUD 100 million and AUD 150 million, and we believe there is further upside to those valuations once our development applications are approved. We recognize that responsible, sustainable growth drives long-term shareholder value, and in FY 2025, we strengthened our responsibility culture by building on the foundations: training, frameworks, controls, and leadership oversight. This delivered strong results, including a 95% completion rate for our leading in responsibility training across our 30,000+ team members and an improved 91% ID25 pass rate in retail, demonstrating the consistent implementation of our policy of asking for ID from all customers who look younger than 25. These initiatives reflect our investment in training and supporting our teams to serve our customers responsibly every day.
We also continue to invest in our most important asset, our team, to build capability for the future and improve our team experience and safety performance. This includes leveraging innovative technology solutions for training and safety risk management. We were pleased to see our voice of team engagement score remain strong at 72%, a testament to living our values and ways of working. Finally, I am particularly proud of Endeavour's 0.5% gender pay gap, which places us in the top-performing ASX 200 companies. Now turning to our first quarter FY 2026 trading update and outlook. Of course, we're now well into the financial year, and in talking about the outlook for Endeavour, I'll reiterate my comments from our first quarter trading update released on the 31st of October. For the first quarter, our retail business delivered sales of AUD 2,499 million, down 1.4%.
Within this, the combined sales of Dan Murphy's and BWS were down 1% versus the prior corresponding period. Following a soft start to FY 2026, our retail sales trajectory improved, with positive sales growth in September, supported by targeted and well-executed promotions during the school holidays and footy finals season. During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our competitive position by reinforcing our best-in-market everyday low pricing on the key brands and products our customers love most, complemented by value-focused promotions and underpinned by Dan Murphy's lowest liquor price guarantee. Sales continued to be in growth in October, and we are also very pleased to see our voice of customer scores continue to strengthen. In hotels, sales of AUD 592 million were up 4.4% versus the first quarter of FY 2025, driven by growth across all four key drivers of food, bar, gaming, and accommodation.
Our continued investment in renewals, localized food and bar menus, new gaming machines, and expanded nightcap accommodation offering all contributed to this positive trading result. The improvements in guest experience were also reflected in higher customer satisfaction scores. At the same time, as Duncan has said, the group strategy review, which is being led by management in consultation with Jayne Hrdlicka and with a continuous feedback loop to the board, is progressing well. We're really encouraged by the early signs we're seeing, which reinforce the underlying strength and growth potential of the business and of our brands. We look forward to bringing the outcome of the review to the market in the first half of next calendar year. As we look ahead to the critical Christmas trading period, we remain firmly focused on delivering a fantastic festive season and social event season for our customers and guests.
In retail, we are determined to give Australians every reason to shop with us, with great service, the best value for money, largest range, and more ways to shop in store and online. We have a great range of gifts available now, and hopefully you know that nobody beats Dan Murphy's lowest liquor price guarantee for your Christmas celebrations. In our hotels, the event season is in full swing, with Spring Racing Carnival just behind us, the Ashes series ahead of us, and a summer full of live sport and music underpinned by great value food and beverage deals to look forward to. I'm very pleased to say that Christmas bookings for our hotels are already very strong, and we are expecting over 40,000 guests to come together to enjoy their festive celebrations with us.
I'd like to echo Duncan's thanks to each of our 30,000+ team members for their constant focus and resilience. We wouldn't have navigated the past year, and in particular the supply chain disruption, without the effort and energy that our team brought in supporting their customers, their communities, and one another. In closing, I'd also like to thank you, our customers and shareholders, for your support. It is a privilege to lead Endeavour through this transition period. We have the most recognized, trusted consumer brands in our category, delivered through an unrivaled portfolio of assets and licenses. We have one of the largest and most engaged customer bases in Australia, and we have an engaged team with a purpose-driven culture. I'm very excited about our future and the changes ahead as we continue to deliver on our purpose of creating a more sociable future together. Thank you.
Thank you, Kate. We'll now move to the first formal item of business, which is to discuss the financial report, the director's report, the auditor's report for the year ended 29 June 2025. Whilst there is no resolution for this item, it is an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. This is the time for questions on the reports, the management and operations of Endeavour generally, and the conduct of the audit. Questions on the remuneration report will be dealt with separately when we come to that item of business. Prior to taking questions, I will respond to a number of questions raised and comments raised ahead of the meeting, as I mentioned earlier. I'll read a response prepared by Deloitte to a question received from shareholder prior to the meeting.
The question directed to the auditor was, "How does the auditor assess the company's internal controls over revenue recognition and cash management, given its large retail footprint?" Our auditor's response was, "Deloitte obtains an understanding of internal controls relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the group's internal controls. In this context, Deloitte identifies relevant controls, tests the designs, and the implementation of those controls. The result of their control evaluation informs the nature, timing, and extent of Deloitte's substantive testing procedures." Several shareholders asked, "What are you doing about the drop in the share price?" First, I would like to acknowledge that this has been a disappointing year for shareholders in terms of the group's share price performance.
Ultimately, the group share price is a function of our operating performance and, importantly, our ability to demonstrate to the market that we can grow the business and deliver better results, ultimately, for our shareholders. With that in mind, the board has commenced a group-wide strategic review to consider how to maximise returns across our entire portfolio of assets. We have also appointed a new CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, who has a strong track record as a business leader and an agent for change. Now, I don't want to get too far ahead of that strategic work, and you will see a lot more of that as it finalises post our February half-year results next year.
It is probably about 50% of the way through, and I think we are all very excited about what it is showing us as the opportunity to deliver against the great potential that we have with these Endeavour assets. Another question on shareholders' minds was, "When do you expect to appoint the new chair?" Our chair recruitment process is well underway. We are working on it very diligently. The intention is to have a new chair in place by the beginning of the new year. In the meantime, I am committed to providing the stability required to ensure the board renewal process goes smoothly. I would now invite you to ask a question or make a comment relevant to this item of business. As I indicated at the commencement of the meeting, I will take questions from those in the room first, followed by the telephone, and then those online.
For those in the room, if you have a comment or question, please move to the closest microphone. Microphone four.
Chairman, I'd like to introduce shareholder David Kingston.
Good morning, Chair. I appreciate you've already made some comments on share price, but I'd like to go into a little bit more detail there. At last year's 2024 AGM, Endeavour reaffirmed the goal put forward at its 6 December 2023 strategy day. Under our scoreboard, the presentation outlined shareholder value creation, including deliver long-term shareholder value of 10%+ per year from 2026. Secondly, mid to high single-digit EBIT growth. Thirdly, sustainably expand EBIT margin. Fourthly, high single-digit EPS growth. Now, sadly, in the last year, you've failed on all four of those. At the start of FY 2025, the share price was around AUD 5. It's dropped to AUD 3.65. Group EBIT, instead of going upwards, went backwards by 11%. Retail EBIT margins actually dropped from over 7% to 6.3% instead of going upwards. And EPS went backwards from AUD 28.3 , fell dramatically to AUD 23.7
That's a huge difference from the aspirational goal. My first question, and I'll come back later because I appreciate you have one question at a time, Chair, but what's gone so wrong that Endeavour is substantially missing its 10%+ shareholder return goal? I accept that in FY 2025, there was a 1.2% decline in nominal retail alcohol revenue. That partly reflects structural headwinds with the ongoing reduction in alcohol consumption per capita. It also reflects operating costs are increasing. The decline in retail revenue has led to a very substantial decline in EBIT for retail. Note it also, hotel revenue is performing well, but it has to deal with increased operating and rental costs plus gaming regulations.
My first question, Chair, how can shareholders be confident that this company can turn retail around if the negative impact on retail revenue and EBIT reflects a structural change, not cyclical? I think most shareholders, if they read that strategy day summary, would be disappointed because in the last year, you're a million miles off what the goal was. I also note that there is ongoing pressure on operating costs, which keep rising with rents going up, labor, and general costs going up. If revenue declines, you're really going to be squeezed. Thank you. I appreciate your guidance as to why shareholders can be confident that things are going to improve. Thank you.
Thank you, David. Look, a lot of that is a commentary that I don't think anyone would argue with in terms of our performance. Trying to address a couple of them sequentially. I think the first one is that over the long term, the value of the Australian liquor market has grown with population growth and premiumisation. Consumer preferences are changing within that, and it's for a company like Endeavour to lean into the low and no opportunity. I do think there is opportunity in the category. I think to respond more directly to your comments about previous performance, I think the first response to that is an acknowledgement that those challenges exist. We are leaning into those challenges in a very significant way.
I think the discipline we have shown around appointing a new chief executive, refreshing the board, putting a strategy in place that will deliver what we believe will be a better future for shareholders, I think we have accepted those challenges. We have to show the organization and our shareholders that we can grow this business. We are investing in our consumer, and we are starting to see, as Kate mentioned in that Q1 that she delivered recently, some green shoots around top-line revenue growth. We will be in a better position to address a lot of those challenges you have raised, David, if we have the business growing. I do not want to get too far ahead of the strategic work, and that will deliver a lot of very precise answers to the questions you have raised.
We will be hoping to deliver that as soon as we can, but post that February half-year result day. Microphone two.
Chair, I'd like to introduce shareholder Natasha Lee.
Thank you, Chair. Natasha Lee, shareholder. I've got a question about the financials. In inventories, you've got a provision for obsolescence. Now, I just wanted clarification on that. There's a few parts where it's like, I didn't see anything specifically relating to shrinkage or stock loss, i.e., shoplifting and the likes. I wondered whether part of that was included in it. You also, from a sort of casual observation, you have an extremely large stock list, and whether the obsolescence—I'm sort of a little bit surprised about obsolescence, Liz. Most alcohols have quite a long shelf life, particularly the spirits and the like. What's actually covered in obsolescence? Does it include stock losses such as through shoplifting? I suppose it goes into your area of simplifying the business. Are you simplifying the business by reducing your stock list?
Kate, do you want to add that? That's quite specific on inventory management.
Certainly. The obsolescence provision we hold is for inventory that has a finite life, which typically is things like beer and premixed drinks, which do have a shorter shelf life than wine and spirits generally. We do carry what is actually, in the context of our total inventory balance, a relatively nominal provision for that stock that we might not sell through in time. It is not related in any way to inventory optimization, although we do undertake ongoing optimization of our inventory levels all the time, of course. In particular, we continue to make sure we refresh what we are offering our customers to make sure it remains current and in line with what they would like to buy from us.
As far as shoplifting, the losses through shrinkage?
We do experience, of course, like all retailers, a level of loss through shoplifting, but actually, that also is relatively nominal compared to our total earnings. What's far more important to us, and of far greater concern in the context of shoplifting, of course, is retail crime. We are much more concerned about the safety of our team and ensuring that we protect them. We are actually undertaking a lot of measures to improve both training as well as equip them with various means to look after themselves in the context of elevated retail crime.
Okay. No, thank you. I've got other questions. I'll come back to you.
Thank you. I'll go to microphone three.
Chair, I would like to introduce Craig Lee, proxy holder for the Australian Shareholders Association.
Good morning, Chairman and Board. Thank you very much for your outline earlier this morning. My name's Craig Lee. I'm here on behalf of the Australian Shareholders Association. We have a total of close to 300 proxies representing around 3 million votes. My first question this morning is around gaming transparency and revenue disclosure. The disclosure of gaming revenue in FY 2024 Endeavour's pubs paid AUD 838 million in gaming tax. When this is grossed up, it suggests that roughly two-thirds of the hotel's business are gaming-driven, with group's profits highly exposed to gaming regulation and duty charges. Why doesn't Endeavour disclose the gaming EGM revenues separately and the profits separately, and will the board commit to doing so in future reporting years?
Thanks, Craig. Thank you for your question. In our full-year results, we disclose group sales composition, including gaming sales, which in FY 2025 represented 6.99% of group sales, slightly up on last year. We do not disclose the earnings from each driver in the hotels business. We believe each driver interacts with each other driver, and we are determined to offer and represent our business to the consumer that has both food, gaming, beverage, and accommodation. We do not disclose down to that level and do not intend to.
Thank you.
Microphone two.
Chair, reintroducing Natasha Lee, shareholder.
Thank you, Chair. I noticed in your financials, you had property values under land and buildings. I didn't see anything about property revaluation. Was there a provision for property revaluation, and how often, or what is the policy? How often do you actually revalue your property stock? I noted that you did say that you'd realize some property through or some cash through property sales and the like, but specifically your policy and provisions for property revaluation.
Thank you, Natasha. You got some very good specific questions there that I'm going to direct to Kate again.
It comes from being a financial analyst.
Thank you for the question. We do not revalue our properties upwards. We hold our properties at purchase price, at book value, and we do not undertake revaluations. What we do do, of course, is look for signs of impairment. If we think we cannot realize the book value for our properties, we would impair them. Other than that, they are held at purchase price.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Go to microphone four.
Chairman, I'd like to reintroduce Mr. David Kingston.
Thank you. Look, I appreciate, Chair, that ASA have raised an issue about gaming, and you're not prepared to provide precise information, but let me follow on with some extra information. Endeavour is the largest pub operator in Australia. It has over 350 pubs. They're mainly leasehold. When you look at Endeavour, retail delivers over 80% of revenue, but the hotels have much higher margins than retail. So the hotels deliver around about 42% of Endeavour's EBIT. In turn, as gaming machine margins are extremely high, gaming is the dominant EBIT contributor from the hotels. It's pretty clear, Chair, that the gaming machines contribute in terms of EBIT, around about 30% of total Endeavour EBIT. So they're a very, very important part of it.
My question, Chair, is, are you concerned, given the huge contribution that gaming machines have to the combined EBIT, are you concerned at the ongoing tightening of regulation on gaming machines? Also bearing in mind that there are ongoing hotel rental increases because most of your pubs are leased. There are uncapped potential increases in 2028. In addition, as we all know, labor keeps increasing every year, power keeps increasing, insurance, security keeps increasing. Hotels have performed very well, unlike retail, at the revenue line. There is the regulatory issue, and there is the incessant ongoing increase in operating expenses, including rental and all the things I mentioned. I don't expect you to confirm, but I have a fair bit of experience. My assessment is that 30% of the total EBIT for this company comes from gaming machines.
It's a huge issue where the regulation might hurt the company, bearing in mind what we've seen has happened to the casinos in Australia. They've been decimated. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you for the multiple questions in there. I'll try and answer them sequentially. Gaming is an important part of our hotel offering, but our pubs are multifunctional, and we have entertainment venues. We have food, beverage, accommodation. We believe there is opportunity on the upside in hotels, which will be part of our strategic review as to how do we maximize that opportunity. We believe the best outcome for any long-term gaming regulatory environment is by our cooperating and working closely with governments and regulators. We do that. That's something that's very much top of our mind, and we engage with those regulators and government, and we're conscious of the challenges you've raised.
At the moment, we're very comfortable with the opportunity in hotels and think we believe there's upside. We also have states that operate without gaming machines as well. In terms of the—I think you had a question about the 2028 rent review. Was that your question? Look, I'd probably prefer not to. That'll obviously be a commercial negotiation. I think we're confident we'll find an outcome that is satisfactory there. We have some properties that are under-rented and some properties that are over-rented. I don't want to get into the specifics of that negotiation as it's ongoing. I think we'll go to microphone three first, and then we'll go to two.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce Julianne Mills, shareholder.
Thank you, Chair. This is another question going to David's comments around gaming and profitability. In West Australia, we can see that the hotels' business is—we can see that you're investing heavily in hotels' business. You've got two types of hotels. You've got West Australian hotels that don't have gaming machines and the ones that do. Can you just talk about what the difference is in those sort of returns on the West Australian hotels compared to the Eastern states' hotels that do have EGMs?
Look, no, I'm not going to break it down and compare the financials of the different states. Obviously, there will be differences because of the gaming element. Our approach at Endeavour is to offer that full suite of opportunities for people enjoying our hotels with food, beverage, entertainment, and accommodation. I don't want to get into the specifics of state-by-state performance. Microphone two.
Chair, reintroducing Natasha Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This will be the final question for this section. You talked about your BWS AP deals, which are targeting millennials and Gen Z. Now, they make up a, well, sort of a growing larger proportion of the demographics, although boomers make up about 22%. I was wondering what sort of research and why—given that there's a cultural shift in drinking patterns and the like, what sort of research supports targeting these groups? I appreciate, and can you comment on—you've probably got other strategies and programs to target the other demographics, but specifically the mention of this deal.
Yeah. Thank you for the question. Look, we do know consumers are reducing their volume of consumption per transaction. There is upside in that percentage of the 18- 24-year-olds in terms of how they drink and socialize and their approach to health. That will result in us leaning more heavily into low and no, different packaging options in terms of single-serve wines. Whilst there are these changes going on in how different demographics behave, I think with BWS in particular, because of the significance of convenience, we're well placed to take advantage of that as an opportunity, not so much as a threat.
You've done research to support.
Yeah, we do a lot of research. Again, I do not want to keep sort of running a trailer on the full feature movie, which is our strategy work, but a lot of that is obviously going to be doubled down on as part of that work because it is very consumer-led. Jayne sort of makes most of her strategic decisions based on consumer data, and we are doing a lot of that at the moment.
Okay. No, thank you. We'll be looking forward to seeing that when it comes out.
Thank you. Microphone four.
Chairman, I'd like to introduce Mr. William Prentis.
Thank you, Chairman. Just before I start, I'd like to say I was very impressed with Kate's presentation today. I'm not related to her, but I think she'd be a good MD. She seems to have a—I don't know whether she rejected it or not, but she seems to know a lot about the company and pretty good. I'm not related to her or anything like that, but.
We might have to check that.
I was very impressed with her, put it that way. I might ask a couple of questions. I'll be really short. I know you said one. The proportion of digital sales to total sales, so that's the first question. Procurement crossovers within the group. You buy a lot of liquor everywhere, and is that all coordinated so it goes everywhere you get the best discounts or things like that?
The same with food, for example. Every hotel probably has a chicken schnitzel every now and then. Those sorts of things, the savings of procurement and volume. You probably are doing it, but it's just a question. The competition that you guys have now, you've got even competition at Aldi where you go in and you buy a cheap wine or whatever. Now, is that competition getting worse? You've got like Coles, Woolworths, Aldi. I suppose Coles and Woolworths. Anyway, there's a lot of competition around these boutique ones where I go to. They're in the middle of an industrial park or something, and you can go and get drunk there and buy like a certain brand or whatever, which wouldn't be in your store. If you could comment on that. The last one is the government taxes and regulations.
I presume you do various scenarios based on if they reduce, for example, or increase. They'll never reduce it, I guess. The various taxes and things like that that you have. Now, you run sort of various scenarios there, I should imagine, based on the demand that would come. For example, if the liquor taxes went down, do you expect people to drink more, for example? Or if it went up, would there be a sort of a decrease in sales? Those sorts of things. I do have one more. Sorry about that. Do you plan to give any shareholder discounts? I noticed there's no liquor out the back, so. Anyway, that's it. Thank you very much.
Okay. I think I'll have you down as having five questions there. I'll try and.
You don't have to answer them all.
I do suspect you're Kate's uncle. Look, dealing the last one is we do as much as we can in terms of engaging government. I think that's in terms of any change to regulatory and/or taxing regimes. They need to engage with businesses like us. It's a question of lead times and how we engage and inform them about outcomes. Shareholder discounts, no, unfortunately, we're not proposing to provide any shareholder discounts. I think the best value we can create for shareholders is to improve our performance and, as a consequence, drive up the share price. Competition in an environment which we've been through for the last 12-18 months of quite difficult financial circumstances for families and people in terms of inflationary pressures on lifestyle, that competition has become a little bit more intense.
I think we are well placed to take advantage of that in that we will continue to invest in our consumer. We need to get this business growing at the top line, and that's something you'll see more from us over the next period of time. What else did we? Digital Kate, did you have a view on the digital percentage?
Yeah. Digital sales in FY 2025 were 8.7% of our total sales. They actually grew 7% year-on-year. I think in the quarterly trading update I gave recently, we spoke about the fact that has escalated in this year. Digital sales are growing very strongly at the moment. It is also worth remembering that for us, an online sale in Dan Murphy's is more than half the time picked up in store. We see it as a really good way. The Dan Murphy's e-commerce channel remains by far the biggest retail sales channel for our sector in the country. For us, it is a great way to get customers.
Obviously, they get a good deal online, but then they also come to the store to pick up, which offers another opportunity to engage with them personally and for them to come to the store and see the great offering that there is. It works very well for us in the context of an omnichannel sale. I think one of your questions was also about the widening of the competitor pricing. I also commented in our quarterly trading update about the fact that we continue to review all of our competitors' pricing continuously, and we have expanded the number of comparators that we are using when we execute the Dan Murphy's lowest liquor price guarantee. Just to reinforce what that means, we proactively monitor and beat our competitor pricing every day in Dan Murphy's.
We beat proactively thousands upon thousands of competitors' prices every day to make sure that when customers turn up at Dan Murphy's, they can be confident they're getting the best pricing market.
Thanks, Kate. I think your final question was around procurement. Look, we're the largest operator of licenses in Australia. We obviously have the best scale purchasing capability. That's very much part of our procurement program. We can probably leverage it to an even greater extent. That is something that's broadly centralized, and we take advantage of the scale. I think we'll go to microphone four and then five and three. Yeah.
Chairman, I'd like to reintroduce Mr. David Kingston.
Thank you. Just two very quick ones, bearing in mind the previous gentleman had five quick ones, so I'm simple at two. Look, the Pinnacle division gets virtually no reference at all in the annual report, which is no surprise because I think it's been a terrible division. In my view, the acquisition of wineries by this company was grossly indulgent, an incredibly silly mistake. They are a wealth destroyer that's as bad as boats and racehorses. I understand the bottling facility in the Barossa is closing. One of the restaurants is closing. Are there cost reductions underway? So that first question is, will Endeavour sell this division that overall has performed poorly? My second question is about the critical issue of separation from Woolworths. Thanks for touching on that before. It seems like Chinese water torture treatment.
The separation happened some years ago, and we now hear that it won't be completed until 2030, which is an extraordinarily long period of time. There have been some estimates, Chair, that the total cost might be up to AUD 570 million. Just appreciate if you could comment on the total cost and why has it taken so long to separate from Woolworths? Thank you.
Thanks, David. Look, I'll just quickly on Pinnacle first. It is a business that drives a lot of value and choice for our customers, revenue and margin opportunity for us. We have heard this feedback from a lot of shareholders about the role of Pinnacle and the extent of the role of Pinnacle in our business. That is something that will form a central tenet in our strategic review. We will form a view on that, recognizing that feedback.
In respect of the separation from Woolworths, that is a very significant demerger that we are, as you say, still undergoing. The transition is going to ramp up over the next couple of years in terms of technology. We are bringing forward the ERP implementation. We have separated our people processes from Woolworths. The stores transition, we have made that deliberate decision to defer that through to 2030 so that when we do implement it, it is on the new ERP platform. It is a new high-tech platform, omnichannel opportunity. As opposed to doing it twice and transforming it onto old tech. Yes, it has taken, I acknowledge it is taking time, but we are progressing that. Technology that will be transitioned from Woolworths is one of the two big legacies that we have with being part of Woolworths.
The other is in terms of our supply chain. That is being approached on a more contractual by contractual as these opportunities come up in terms of distribution warehousing, we look at our opportunities to engage with either Woolworths or another provider. I think we are going to microphone five.
Good morning, Chairman. Introducing shareholder Rowan Weir.
Thank you. Hello. Hello, Chairman. I think I've forgotten. Mine was more good afternoon. Morning, Chairman. Mine was more a comment because I noticed because I travel in dry brand. And it's been that all the flood damage and a lot of that. Once again, going say to South Australia, you've got fungi on the beaches and that. People aren't sort of holidaying or driving and going through to Queensland. I feel that this would damage both your stores and everything that it'd be very difficult to deal with. The other thing, when you say separating from Woolworths, I used to like to go into the one in Neutral Bay, and there'd be Woolworths there and Dan Murphy's there, and you'd get them. Will you be, when you say separating, will you have separate stores in different locations? Or it worked simply.
If you just walked into both at the same time, you could get your grog and your food. It was a good one in Neutral Bay, and you moved. That'd be right. Mainly, I think that it's a different, we're more Asian people, more a different nationality. You're still moving and doing things, but it's whereas we'd buy a crate of something, you know, your dozen, and enough. I just wanted to make a comment that I felt that it would be a difficult time now with storms and everything to make a profit and all the flood damage that you've seen up the North Coast. Yeah. Enough. Me. I'm still here, still talking.
Thank you, Rowan. Even though it was a comment, I'll try and quickly answer a couple of the things you've raised. One is, yeah, look, it's the same difficult business environment that all retail operators have in terms of climate change. That's something you'll read about, how our approach to that is in our sustainability report. No, the separation for Woolworths is not in terms of BWS being co-located with Woolworths. It's more about our technology platform and our supply chain platform. In terms of the different demographics here, part of our role and challenge is to make sure we meet all of the consumer demands of us as a retailer and adapt to all of those different changing tastes and demographics. I think we're three. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I'd like to reintroduce Julianne Mills, shareholder.
Thank you, Julianne.
Hello, Chairman again. Look, I'm speaking here today because I want to speak from a shareholder who's owned your shares since Woolworths split, who loves the company for its BWS and its Dan Murphy's and its hotels in general, but who has a real problem around the gaming issue. I know that you refer a lot in your annual report around responsible gaming. You don't now include it in your long-term incentive, which upsets me. You can comment on that, I'm sure. A lot of reports are coming out. There's an Australian Institute report talking about indigenous communities being targeted by hotels and poker machines. Can you comment on your approach to that particular scenario and how you deal with the concept of responsibility around gaming?
I think some of that commentary around Indigenous is driven by a particular operator in Alice Springs, and we do not operate hotels in Alice Springs. Your point is valid in terms of us being responsible everywhere we can. We have removed the leading responsibility from our LTI for reasons of, well, essentially the majority of feedback from shareholders and proxy firms was they did not like non-financial measures, and they wanted a financial measure, which we have listened and responded to. That does not change anything in terms of our culture and how we approach being responsible. As the largest operator, that is very much our raison d'être, to be the most responsible operator. We need to provide those gaming opportunities to our customers in the kindest and most responsible way. We want the business to be sustainable.
We do want to do it in a way that ensures that industry is sustainable and long-term and we can benefit and operate responsibly in it. Thanks, Julianne. We've talked about that before. Thank you. Microphone five.
Mr. Chairman, introducing shareholder Kaz Kazim.
Good morning. Thank you very much for your report, which was not something to write home about. I have a very long and warm relationship with Woolworths. I bought my first shaving kit from Kingsford Store, which is now, I understand, a medical center. When I was in a position to buy some Woollies shares, I said, "Look, I should buy some," which I did. Given the reports, disappointing reports you've given, I have a couple of questions, which essentially you've mentioned that 15% drop in dividends for all of us. What I'd like to know is, has there been a proportionate reduction in the directors' remuneration? If not, why not? Shouldn't the two be connected, have a direct relationship? If you're suffering, let's shave some of those bonuses enjoyed by all the others. Can you give us?
I can. No, there has not. I can tell you that there has been a proportional or perhaps disproportionate increase in the workload that directors have needed to put into the business to try and address the concerns that you rightly raise. I am hoping I am conveying to the shareholders today that we are listening, we accept those challenges, and we have put those quite significant steps in place with the CEO, executive team, board renewal, and a new strategy to address it. We feel that is where we can add the best value in terms of improving the performance for shareholders.
You've talked about extra work. Have you ever had to cut back on a lot of things that we normally would have?
I'm sorry, say that again.
I said you saying that there is an increase in directors' work. What I'm saying with the decline in dividends, we've had to cut back on a lot of things. What we would have normally been doing?
Yes. Look, I'm not trying to other than accept the challenges shareholders have had with the performance, and we are trying to improve that. I think that quite significant steps we've put in place. We are confident that will improve the performance of the business and ultimately then the share price.
Okay. Thank you.
I mean, you make it about hotels, how they would be affected by all the different things, not the separation. Bye-bye.
Okay. Bye-bye. Thank you. Are there any other, I do not think we have any other questions. Are there any questions on the telephone? No questions on the telephone. Are there any online questions?
Chairman, this is a question from a shareholder. His name is Henrik Kay. With regards to BWS stores, why not relocate them to hotels that the group already owns? This would help cut the risk of shoplifting and attacks on staff and reduce rental costs for the group.
Anything we can do to address that would be a welcome suggestion. Of our 354 hotels, 290 of these already have a co-located retail bottle shop, either BWS or Dan's. To a great extent, I think we are in that position.
Chairman, there are no further—oh, apologies. There is another question. Chairman, this question is from John Subjack. Are you able to comment on how you are dealing with stock losses through theft while also protecting staff?
Yeah. Look, I can give you a little bit of a sense of that. I mean, that phenomena is most concerning for us. Obviously, it has a bit of financial impact, but it's most concerning for us around our customer safety and our team members who are in that environment. We've invested in several security countermeasures to protect that frontline team, some physical adjustments, modifying store formats. We're trialing AI-enabled body-worn cameras and obviously training our staff intensely around how to respond to those challenges. We're hoping that increased investment in security will provide the level of security we expect for our team. It is a sort of nationwide, industry-wide challenge.
Chairman, this is a question from Peter Calero. Many retailers have mentioned the increase in theft this season, particularly by organized crime groups. Are we getting enough support from state governments regarding the right laws and enforcement to reduce this increase in organized theft and to protect the safety of our retail staff?
Yeah. Thank you for the question, Peter. The best outcome we can achieve here, I think, is in terms of minimizing harm and the impact on our team is when the governments and the regulators work with industry together. That will, we hope, result in the most informed and productive outcome. We do continue to engage with those governments and regulators on this. It is an ongoing issue, and it's not something we can solve on ourselves. That engagement with government is important.
Chairman, there are no further questions showing at this time.
There being no further general questions, I will now move to the next agenda item on the agenda, which is the election of directors. Agenda item two is the re-election and election of four directors. The resolutions will be dealt with separately. The notice of meeting contains details of each director's background and experience, and I will not repeat all of those details today. Each director will briefly address the meeting regarding their candidacy. As I am the first candidate for re-election, I will now ask that Penny Winn take the chair for this item of business. Thanks, Penny.
Thank you, Duncan. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Item 2 A is a re-election of Duncan Makeig, who, in accordance with the Constitution, retires as a director and offers himself for re-election today. Duncan has been a director of Endeavour since June 2021. He was subsequently appointed as interim chairman of the board in August 2025, having been the lead independent director since March 2025. Duncan is chair of the Nominations Committee and a member of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Management Committee. The board believes that Duncan's strong governance foundations and broad leadership experience enables him to provide stable leadership to the board through this period of leadership transition. The board considers Duncan to be an independent director. The board, except for Duncan, recommends a re-election of Duncan Makeig and I now invite Duncan to address the meeting. Thank you.
Thank you, Penny. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today on my candidacy for re-election to the Endeavour board. I've served on our board since its listing on the ASX in June 2021 and was appointed as interim Chairman of the board in August of this year. This followed being the lead independent director since March of this year. Over a 30-year period, I've had functional and executive management roles in the fast-moving consumer goods sector and the alcohol industry, working with brands such as Lion Nathan and PepsiCo within Australia and internationally. I've also served on a number of public and private boards, including as Chair of Heineken Australia and Bevchain, and as Chair of Athletic Greens, Incorporated.
I have a strong sense of responsibility and community, as demonstrated through my current chairing of Food Bank Australia and previously as chair of Cure in Home Sickness and the Sydney Children's Hospital Foundations. Importantly, I have a specific mandate to oversee our board's renewal and, most importantly, the appointment of a new permanent Chair. I will also ensure there is continuity and support provided to Jayne, our new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, as she familiarizes herself and lands with the business. We are in a period of transition, and I will continue to focus on renewed board leadership and accountability and concluding a refreshed strategy to set this company up for future success. If re-elected today, I will ensure the interests of you, our shareholders, and those of our broader stakeholder groups continue to be at the forefront of the board's deliberations.
Thank you, Duncan. Are there any questions on the re-election of Duncan Makeig? We'll take questions from the room first. If you have a question, please move to the microphone if you have a question or comment. Microphone number two.
Chair, reintroducing Natasha Lee.
Thank you. My question sort of got two parts, actually. But the main question is, generally, the board's more responsible for strategy. Now, I've heard a lot that you're sort of getting advice from the incoming CEO, and you've got reports. So I was wondering, what sort of strategic skills are you bringing to the table, Duncan, to drive this forward? And realizing that you're interim Chair, so you've got a new Chair coming on board. So how are those things going to mesh going forward?
Natasha, thanks for the question. Duncan obviously brings to the board, as I mentioned, great and deep governance experience. He has a long record in the legal profession. Duncan also has a minority interest in a couple of pubs, so he has a deep understanding of how the hotel industry operates, which is hugely valuable to the board. Actually, what's been terrific over the last few months while I've been on the board, because I've only recently joined, has been Duncan's great leadership of the board through a fairly interesting and difficult period. I think Duncan's leadership, his governance skills, and his understanding of the business brings great insight. In terms of the transition to the new chair, Duncan has committed to step in and operate as interim chair.
It would look very odd if Duncan was interim Chair and then taking on the permanent Chair because, obviously, you can't appoint yourself to the role. I think it's actually been a very good and actually a very generous call of Duncan to say, "I'll lead the board and the company through this and make sure we appoint somebody in who's going to be a great Chair for the business moving forward.
Okay. Thanks. If I could just make another comment, I always believe that it's important to ensure that you've got wide diversity within the board. I know some of you are new directors, and there are some vacancies to be filled. Sorry. I just need to emphasize that I think that, given the diverse demographics of your consumer base, that should be reflected in the board makeup and not just in female representation on the board.
I think that's a very valid thank you, Natasha. That's a very valid point, and it's something that we strive to do across the business. Certainly, we'll have a look at that across the board as well. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Are there any further questions from the floor? No? Are there any questions on the telephone? There are no questions at this time, Chair. Thank you. Are there any online questions to respond to?
We have a question from Stephen Main. "We've had three chairs at the last three AGMs. Could Duncan summarize what other major public company chairing experience he has had and what changes he has implemented since replacing Ari Mervis as chair? Also, what is Duncan's history in personally owning and managing pubs?
Thank you for the question, Steven. That's a very relevant question. I think I'd just like to say that, as I mentioned previously, Duncan's investment is a minority investment, but he does actually have a good understanding as to how hotels operate. He has also provided great leadership. In terms of the I can't comment on the last three chairs because I actually wasn't in the business. Ari was briefly there. Certainly, Duncan has brought huge leadership to the business. You'll recall from Duncan's speech that he is currently chairing Food Bank Australia and also previously chaired.
Athletic Greens.
Athletic Greens. Yeah. He has got good chairing experience, and he's doing a terrific job in this in the current circumstances. Thanks for your question. Any further questions?
There is another online question. This question is also from Stephen Main. "As Chair and member of the Audit Committee, could Duncan comment on why we did not publicly disclose our gross gaming revenue when this is a material number? Then Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci made a silly claim six years ago suggesting it was only about AUD 700 million, a number he got by excluding the Matheson family's 25% stake in ALH and deducting state gaming taxes, which average about 30%. Star, SkyCity, Crown, and Redcape all disclose gross gaming revenue when they were listed. Why won't you disclose it? Is it more than AUD 1.5 billion?
Thanks again for your question, Steven. I think this question came up earlier during the general questions. Duncan addressed it at the time, and particularly how the pubs are a broader business with both accommodation, bar, food, and gaming revenue. We do not give breakdowns of those numbers and have not had a practice of doing so. Thank you for your question. Any further questions online?
There are no further questions showing at this time.
Okay. As there are no further questions, I now put the resolution to the meeting. Displayed on the screen are the details of the direct and proxy votes received in relation to this resolution. For those in the room, please now mark your voting card in relation to item 2A, Duncan Makeig's re-election. For those online, if you wish to cast a vote, please click the Submit Vote button. Based on the direct and proxy votes we received, the preliminary results show that the resolution will pass. Congratulations, Duncan. I'll now hand back to Duncan. Thank you.
Thank you, Penny. Thank you, shareholders. Thank you, Penny, for a few kind words and batting a few balls back there. I now move to item 2B. Item 2B is for the re-election of Joe Pollard, who, in accordance with the Constitution, retires as a director and offers herself for re-election. Joe joined the board in June 2021. She is the Chair of the People, Culture and Performance Committee and a member of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Management Committee and the Nominations Committee. Joe brings to the board extensive customer management experience and marketing expertise. She possesses a deep knowledge of organizational transformation and has had exposure to digital platforms and digital disruption. The board considers Joe to be an independent director. The board, except for Joe, recommends re-election of Joe Pollard. I now invite Joe to address the meeting.
Thanks, Chair. Good morning, everyone. I'm delighted to be standing today for re-election, proudly having served as a director since 2021. I bring over 35 years' experience in media, marketing, digital, and business transformation, having held leadership positions at Nike, at Nine Entertainment, and at Telstra, both here and overseas. My experience has given me significant understanding of customer management, marketing, cultural transformation, and digital disruption. These are areas that I believe are essential to Endeavour's marketing position and future growth. I always have been passionate about the hotel business. I grew up in a pub in regional New South Wales where my father owned the Royal Hotel for many, many decades. I learned a spirit about great customer experience and entrepreneurialism. I strongly believe that great people and a strong culture are at the heart of every successful business.
As Chair of the People and Performance Committee, I have a strong interest in our sustainability in areas where we can continue to drive leadership and responsibility in the industry and with our shareholders. Responsibility is embedded in how we run our business and remains a core long-term value creation for us as we grow and deliver on our purpose to create a more sustainable future together. We have a bright pathway into our future. With your continued support, I look forward to serving on the board through this period of leadership transition. Thank you.
Thanks, Joe.
Thank you, Joe. For those in the room, please move to a microphone if you have a question or comment. Microphone four.
Chair, I'd like to reintroduce Mr. David Kingston.
Joe, you've obviously got an excellent CV. Just appreciate your insights into the following. I think retail is challenged given the gradual decline of alcoholic consumption per capita. If you look at perhaps the best retailer in Australia, I think it's Chemist Warehouse. Started with pharmacies, expanded into a whole range of things. You wouldn't believe it. That's where you buy your perfume today because it's a lot cheaper than David Jones. It doesn't seem like a logical thing for them to do, but that's what they're doing, and they're doing it really well. Given the headwinds you have in selling alcohol in retail outlets, what extra products do you think you can move these valuable floor spaces into to create more revenue? Clearly, it's not going to be perfume. I'm not suggesting that. Is it juices? Is it exotic drinks?
What extra things can you sell to compensate for the inexorable decline in straight alcohol? To use the floor space you've got, to use the good people you've got, how can you add extra products to increase the revenue? Thank you.
David, I'll respond. We'll obviously have the benefit of Joe's experience in the boardroom on that. I think the issues of adjacencies and broadening any range, that'll certainly be part of the new strategy work that we're doing. Again, we'll come back with a more forceful explanation of where that is taking us post our half-year results. Thank you. Any other questions in the room? Any questions on the telephone?
There are no questions at this time, Chair.
Are there any online questions?
Chairman, this is a question from Stephen Main. As a rare, long-serving Endeavour Group director, could Joe Pollard please comment on the progress she believes the board has made on responsible gaming? Is she comfortable with the Australian Hotels Association, which Endeavour Group is the largest member of? The Australian Hotels Association's campaign hard against mandatory cashless poker machines across the country, something which casinos are facing.
Thanks, Stephen. I'll take that question on behalf of Joe. Look, we are a member of a range of industry bodies and associations. We have our own direct. Being the largest operator, we obviously have our own direct voice and relationship with regulators and government. We're different from other players in the industry on that basis. We have a national footprint, and we're at scale. I can't speak for the AHA. They represent a very diverse membership, a vast majority of which are small and family-run businesses. Specifically, we feel that our scale enables us to both be part of that organization and speak for ourselves directly with government and regulators. Thank you.
Chairman, there are no other questions online.
There being no further questions, I now put the resolution to the meeting. Displayed on the screen are the details of the direct and proxy votes received in relation to this resolution. For those in the room, please mark your voting card in relation to item 2B, Joe Pollard's election. For those online, if you wish to cast a vote, please click the Submit Vote button. Based on the direct and proxy votes we received, the preliminary results show that the resolution will pass. Thank you, shareholders, and congratulations, Joe. Item 2C is for the election of Peter Hardy, who, in accordance with the Constitution, retires as a director and offers himself for election. Peter joined the board in March of this year. He's a member of the Nominations Committee.
His financial expertise and knowledge of retail, liquor, and hotel operations, particularly from his time at ALH Group and Endeavour, combined with his deep analytical capability, valuable historical insights, adds a unique perspective in deliberations at the board. The board does not consider Peter to be an independent director, given he was recently employed as an executive at Endeavour, and he is connected to the Bruce Matheson Group, a substantial shareholder of Endeavour. The board, except for Peter, recommends the election of Peter Hardy. I now invite Peter to address the meeting.
Thank you for the introduction, Duncan. Good morning to everyone in the room and to those online. For those who I haven't met, my name is Peter Hardy, and it is a privilege to speak to you today regarding my election to the board of Endeavour. I bring over 35 years of experience across retail, liquor, hotel, and gaming operations, having held senior finance, business, and operational leadership positions at ALH Group, Endeavour, Woolworths, and Franklins. I have a long history and deep knowledge of the Endeavour Group. My understanding of our diverse business has been honed over decades, beginning with helping build successful brands like Dan Murphy's and BWS at Woolworths, including nearly two decades spent at ALH Group. I've also held executive leadership roles at ALH Group, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and most recently, prior to my retirement in 2004, as Director Group Services and General Manager, Hotel Acquisitions at Endeavour.
I have served on the board of the Franklin Superannuation Plan and as an alternate director of the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, and for five years was a committee member of the Liquor Stores Association of New South Wales and the national body, the Australian Liquor Stores Association. My experience and knowledge of our business enables me to provide historical context and granular industry knowledge into the core operational aspects of our company. I look forward to the opportunity, with your support, to continue my service on Endeavour's board. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to meeting many of you in person at the conclusion of the AGM. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. For those in the room, please move to a microphone if you have a question or a comment. Microphone three, and then we'll go to four.
Chairman, I would like to reintroduce Julianne Mills, shareholder.
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mr. Hardy. Mr. Hardy, clearly, you bring significant industry experience to the board, and we appreciate that. Could you please outline your board-level experience and your understanding of governance responsibilities for a director of an ASX-listed company? How will you demonstrate—we've also got some concerns as retail shareholders about the past interventions of BMG in the running of the company. How will you demonstrate that you will act in the interests of all shareholders, not just BMG? Why should retail shareholders support your election to the board? Thank you.
Thanks, Julianne. I'll take that question for Peter. Obviously, Peter is not—we don't consider Peter to be an independent director. As the Chair, I can assure you that the board manages a very strict and transparent conflict policy, and issues that would warrant the abstaining of Peter from a decision are managed very openly and transparently. My experience of Peter to date has been he's a man of great integrity. He understands exactly his obligations to the broader shareholder base as well as his obligations to the Matheson Group, and he behaves accordingly. I couldn't speak more highly of how he behaves in the board meeting. I'm conscious of those challenges, Julianne, but I assure you they are well managed and met by both the board and Peter. Microphone four.
Chair, I'd like to reintroduce Mr. David Kingston.
Thank you. The last three questions, Chair, you've taken the answers. Look, it'd be useful if Peter could respond to my question, but ultimately, that's your decision as Chair. A lot of chairs are more than happy for the individual directors up for reelection to actually speak. That's your decision, Chair. My issue—Peter, obviously, excellent experience, totally aligned. You're representing a party with 15% of the company. That party absolutely wants total shareholder return, dividends, and capital growth. It wants to deliver on the 10%+ TSR that I referred to in the first part of this meeting. When we look at it, Peter, this company's capped around about AUD 6.5 billion, a little bit less than AUD 2 billion debt. Let's call it AUD 8.5 billion enterprise value.
I won't bore everyone with the detail, but that's probably around about AUD 4 billion on the hotels and about AUD 4.5 billion on retail. You've got 354 hotels, Peter. So the value per hotel is AUD 11 million-AUD 12 million. Now, in the context of some of the hotels of this company, Crow's Nest freehold would be worth AUD 100 million. AUD 11 million or AUD 12 million per hotel, to me, excepting most of them are leasehold, is a low value. If you own them outright again, as Bruce Matheson Group, I don't think you'd be selling at AUD 11 million or AUD 12 million. What's going wrong with the hotels? We know that the vast majority of the profit's coming from gaming machines, but why are they delivering a relatively modest amount of money?
They're going to have to step up because the rents are going to go up, labor's going up, power's going up, security's going up. Chair, I'd just appreciate if Peter could give us his views because, to me, an average of AUD 11 million-AUD 12 million per hotel is below market in a context where you have some of the best hotels in Australia, Breakfast Creek in Brisbane, Crow's Nest's a cracker. You have some fantastic ones in Melbourne. Appreciate your thoughts, Peter. Thank you.
Thanks, David. Look, I am going to respond on behalf of Peter actually. I'm not sure it has a lot to do with his reelection. That's a general question about the performance of hotels, which I've referred to earlier as we had about 4% revenue growth in hotels last year. We think they can do better. I do not think it is fair to ask Peter to comment specifically on a Matheson's viewpoint on our hotel operation. You want to—
Chair, I'm not asking him to comment on the perspective of the Mathesons. He is far and away the most credentialed director on the board. You may have a minority interest in a couple of small pubs. He has had massive experience at ALH. So you've got a board which is well-credentialed, diversified skills. In my view, the best opportunity for this company, Chair, is to improve the performance of hotels. I think retail is challenged for the reasons we've talked. So the best credentialed person, he has spoken eloquently before. He's up for reelection. He's an adult. He can speak for himself. I think everyone here would like to hear from Peter as to whether he thinks the hotels can lift their performance, which in turn will lift the total shareholder return to benefit every shareholder here. Thank you.
Thank you, David. Look, these are soliloquies. I take them as comments. We do get the benefit of Peter's view on hotels at the board. That's where those discussions take place. We do not disagree that the performance can be improved, and we will come back to you with our plans around performing and improving that performance when we come back post our half year. Thank you for your comments. Are there any other questions in the room on Peter's reelection? Are there any questions on the telephone?
There are no questions at this time, Chair.
Are there any online questions?
Chairman, this is a question from Stephen Main. Does Peter Hardy receive—Peter Hardy, I'm sorry—receive any other payments from the Bruce Matheson Group apart from the fees he has paid to represent them on this board? Could he also please comment on how he is treating confidentiality in terms of reporting back to the family, and does he report more to Bruce Matheson Senior or Bruce Matheson Junior? Finally, given the Matheson family have put more than AUD 250 million into casino company Star Entertainment, does Peter agree we should infer that they are unlikely to increase their stake in Endeavour Group?
Thanks, Stephen. Look, obviously, the Matheson relationship is well disclosed to the board. We're conscious, and as such, Peter's not considered to be an independent director. I'm not going to comment on the Matheson family interest. We are very comfortable recommending Peter to the board, and he manages his confidentiality and the integrity extremely well. I, as Chair, ensure that we have disclosure around any conflicts, and we manage them accordingly. If there is a requirement for Peter to recuse himself from a meeting, he does so. Are there any other online questions?
Chairman, there are no further questions showing at this time.
There being no further questions, I now put the resolution to the meeting. Displayed on the screen are the details of the direct and proxy votes received in relation to this resolution. For those in the room, please mark your voting card in relation to item 2C, Peter Hardy's election. For those online, if you wish to cast a vote, please click the Submit Vote button now. Based on the direct and proxy votes we received, the preliminary results show that the resolution will pass. Thank you, everyone, and congratulations, Peter. Item 2D is the election of Penny Winn, who, in accordance with the Constitution, retires as a director and offers herself for election. Penny joined the board in March of this year. She is a member of the nominations committee.
She will act as Chairman of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Management Committee following Anne Brennan's retirement today until Mike Eileen joins the board. Penny will also join the People, Culture and Performance Committee. The board believes that Penny's experience as a public company director across varied industries, coupled with her deep retail operational expertise, strong commercial acumen, and in-depth knowledge of the liquor and beverage industries, strengthens the depth and experience of the board. The board considers Penny to be an independent director. The board, except for Penny, recommends the election of Penny Winn. I now invite Penny to address the meeting.
Thank you, Duncan, and good morning again, ladies and gentlemen. It's a privilege to be addressing you today on my election to the Endeavour board. I've been a non-executive director for the last 10 years, serving on a variety of ASX 50-listed company boards across a broad range of industries, including retail, beverages, property, and e-commerce. These have included household names such as Coca-Cola Amatil, Ampol, CSR, and Goodman Group, with the most recent appointments including Stockland Limited and Super Retail Group. The experiences I have gained during my non-executive career have taught me valuable lessons, lessons that will help me serve you well, whatever the challenges and opportunities that may come along. I have the benefit of bringing to Endeavour the Endeavour board of over 30 years of retail experience from executive roles at retail companies such as Woolworths, Asda Walmart, and Meijer.
These roles have given me a deep hands-on understanding of what drives successful retail operations and has given me expertise across customer, merchandising, supply chain, digital marketing, and transformation. I see Endeavour as a business with tremendous potential, built on strong brands and a truly dedicated team. My commitment is to ensure that our decisions are grounded in the best retail practices and a strategic focus on efficiency and delivering the best possible customer experiences. I believe that my expertise and independent perspective can effectively support Endeavour as we are on this journey for its future growth and success. I'm committed to serving the best interests of Endeavour and its shareholders. With your support, I look forward to contributing to the board to deliver sustainable long-term growth for all our shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you, Penny. For those in the room, please move to a microphone if you have a question or comment. Microphone four.
Chair, I'd like to reintroduce Mr. David Kingston.
Thank you. Look, obviously, again, you've got an excellent experience, so we all support your reelection. You mentioned that Endeavour has tremendous potential or terrific potential. Those words are easily said, but really, you're going to be judged, Penny, on results. I think most people in the room are driven solely by the dividend and also the share price, which comes out to TSR. It's very, very easy, and I heard those similar positive words last year at the AGM about great potential, etc., etc. As I listed earlier on in great detail, the results for the past year have been terrible on every level: EBIT, share price, etc., etc. Penny, are you going to deliver on the thing that matters most, which is share price? Because talk is cheap.
We can all say those positive, nice words, but unfortunately, for every listed company, you are judged every day. You're judged every day by the share price, and that either benefits or hurts each of the shareholders in the company, and you've got a lot. It's really more a comment, Penny, but all I'd say is nice words, but I don't think anyone's going to take great comfort from them. I think everyone's watching the share price. Is it going to go up and down? I would say to you that at the moment, the market is very wary about Endeavour. There's a number of brokers who don't think it's going to go up. Thank you, Penny. A great person, but please follow through with delivering on the share price. Thank you, David. I will take that as a comment.
We have tried to explain today that we have taken quite substantive steps as a board to put some foundations in place that will deliver a better outcome in terms of performance, which will drive share price. I do not expect you to judge us on our rhetoric. You can judge us on the performance of the business, and we will talk to you about that more when we come back in February and thereafter talk about the strategic plan. Thank you. Are there any questions on the telephone? Are there any online questions?
Chairman, no questions have been submitted at this time.
There being no further questions, I now put the resolution to the meeting. Displayed on the screen are the details of the direct and proxy votes received in relation to this resolution. For those in the room, please mark your voting cards in relation to item 2D, Penny Winn's election. For those online, if you wish to cast a vote, please click the Submit Vote button now. Based on the direct and proxy votes we received, the preliminary results show that the resolution will pass. Congratulations, Penny. The next item on the agenda is the adoption of Endeavour's remuneration report for the year ended 29 June 2025. The report outlines remuneration framework and how it is governed. It also details reward outcomes for key management personnel for F2025. Endeavour's remuneration framework has been designed to attract, motivate, and retain talented individuals.
We align executive reward to the achievement of the group's strategy and delivery of our business priorities, driving a performance culture to deliver long-term shareholder value. Earlier in the meeting, I spoke about the strategic review underway. The board will also take that opportunity to review the remuneration framework to ensure it is fit for purpose, rewarding for the delivery of performance, aligning executive and shareholder interests, and ensuring we can attract and retain the highest quality talent to deliver on our strategy. In FY 2025, performance against our short-term incentive scorecard metrics fell slightly below the required threshold for payout. The board considered the results holistically and applied discretion to award the outcome at 46% of the raw scorecard data. Our sales performance narrowly missed our threshold target.
However, when we considered the supply chain disruption from Woolworths' industrial action in Melbourne and the significant efforts of the team to continue to trade and deliver for our customers through this disruption, the missed sales would have resulted in the scorecard achieving above threshold without that. We also recognized a strong sales performance from our hotels business. The earnings before interest and tax result was below threshold, but pleasingly, we exceeded our working capital days target. Our customer satisfaction at record highs continues to improve, and we made good progress within our One Endeavour transition program. Safety is a key focus for us, and we exceeded our hours lost metric, but we did not meet the threshold for total recordable injuries. We continue to work with our team on improving our work practices to prevent injuries.
The long-term incentive allocated in FY 2023 was tested in FY 2025 and resulted in an overall vesting outcome of 15%. Disappointingly, we did not achieve our relative total shareholder return or returns on funds employed performance expectations. Our progress and performance in delivering the leading and responsibility initiatives was pleasing, with the team delivering on key initiatives and our responsibility agenda, with a continued focus on technological innovation, community partnerships, and training. If anyone has any questions relating to this advisory resolution on the remuneration report, please move to a microphone. Number four.
Chair, I'd like to reintroduce Mr. David Kingston.
Chair, look, clearly there's been a bit of a revolution here. New CEO, Jayne, starting January 2026. Kate, I think you spoke excellently. I agree with the gentleman before. I'm not related either, but I think you spoke excellently before as the interim CEO. We have a new Managing Director from Dan Murphy's. We have a new Managing Director at BWS. We have a new Chief Customer Officer. We have a new Chief Digital and Data Officer. Plus, we have a new interim Chair, a new Chair pending, and new directors. I've got a fair bit of experience, Chair. That's a revolution. I've never seen a major company with so many major roles changing at the one time. In one respect, the REM report's a little bit academic because the new people who are the KMPs are about to start or are starting.
Look, Chair, the question is, could you just comment on, look, Jayne Hrdlicka is an outstanding person, outstanding track record. Press indicates she's had a very nice win on Virgin, a AUD 50 million win. I don't expect you to comment on that. Could you just comment on Jayne's KPIs and her incentivization, bearing in mind her outstanding history?
Thank you. Jayne hasn't started as yet, so David, we haven't actually set them, but they will obviously, importantly, be aligned with shareholder expectations about improved performance. I think you described it as an evolution, a revolution. I think it's more evolutionary. I think on the one hand, we have a lot of challenges from you and other shareholders, quite rightly, about the performance of the business. We're taking that very seriously, and we've leant into it, and that's why you are seeing these quite significant changes. We're going to balance the history and knowledge of the current board and part of the management team, so it's more evolutionary. Yes, there are a lot of changes we're making, and we are optimistic about that will lead us in terms of performance next year. Microphone five.
Mr. Chairman, reintroducing shareholder Rowan Weir.
I'd forgotten. This is on hotels, and I'm interested in that. That's what I meant to ask before, but I'll make a comment. I was in Gosford the other day, and we had a lovely—we walked into one pub hotel in Linden, and then we walked out and went into the other, and it was lovely. Do you own, or does Endeavour own all the hotels in, say, like in Gosford or only one? How do we know which is an Endeavour one? This was a lovely meal and different places like that around. Like, do you own both? When you talk about hotels, and that's what I was going to say before with flood damage and going north, a lot of businesses have been sort of closed and have to rebuild. The Gosford, there were two good pubs, and one was far better than the other.
Would you own both of them, or does Endeavour own both of them?
Look, I'm sure one of my colleagues would know, even though we don't know both of them, but we appreciate you being loyal and only wanting to drink and dine at our hotels.
Drinking the best, my darling.
That information is available on our website, which are our hotels, so we'll make sure you know.
It's never good, and it's like—and that's what I'm feeling with, like, along the coast of South Australia and wherever you're going, there's a lot of things happening, and hotels would be closing down, wouldn't they?
We're endeavoring to keep them open, and I'll make sure you've got all the information about which are hotels so we can welcome you there.
You might have a—yeah, that's what I said. You might have.
Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions on the telephone?
Chair, there are no further questions at this time.
Are there any online questions?
Chairman, there are no online questions at this time.
There being no further questions on the remuneration report, I now put the advisory resolution to the meeting. On the screen are details of the direct and proxy votes received in relation to this resolution. Again, for those in the room, please mark your voting card in relation to item three, adoption of the REM report. For those online, if you wish to cast a vote, please click the Submit Vote button. Based on the direct and proxy votes we received, the preliminary results show that resolution will pass. Shareholders, we have heard your feedback on remuneration matters. We are committed to engaging with you as we review our remuneration framework as part of our strategic review. Shareholders, that now concludes discussion on all the items of business on today's agenda. I declare that the poll will close 10 minutes after the meeting closes.
Please complete your voting cards for each resolution and submit it in the online portal or place it in the poll box with a share registry representative as you leave the room. As mentioned earlier, the results of the poll will be released on the ASX later today and published on our website. A transcript of today's meeting will also be available on the website in due course. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank you for your support and attendance today. For those in Sydney, my fellow directors and I welcome you to join us and Endeavour's senior executives for a light refreshment in the foyer. For those attending virtually, thank you for your participation in our meeting today. I now declare the meeting closed.