I would now like to hand the conference over to Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for Endeavour Group's full year 2026 results presentation. I'm Jayne Hrdlicka, Chief Executive Officer of Endeavour Group, and I'm joined today by our Chief Financial Officer, Kate Beattie. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land we're presenting from today, and pay my respects to the elders past, present, and emerging. I'll begin the discussion on slide four and speak briefly to the group's FY 2026 highlights. As you know, FY 2026 was a year of multiple parts. The first quarter of the year, we began pulling together the facts, looking through the lens of our numbers, the customer, the competitor, and our people, to enable our strategy refresh while trading continued business as usual.
The second quarter of the financial year, key foundations of our strategy became clear and the team started executing on value in Dan Murphy's immediately. The second half of the year, we continued to improve our focus on retail, not just on competing sharply on price, but on the detailed planning of a long list of initiatives which will continue to improve revenue growth as well as improve the bottom line. During the second half, we also began laying the foundations for major improvements to our hotels business. There is no doubt that sales momentum is building in retail following our renewed focus on value and price leadership. Since the introduction of lower shelf prices late September 2025, and the increased competitive response to promotional activity that followed later in the first half, our retail business is consistently gaining share.
The team has now delivered 10 consecutive months of sales growth. In hotels, we have a clear plan in place to deliver significant performance improvement across each of our pubs. At the core of this is simplifying the way we operate our pubs and enabling our teams serving customers to stay focused on delivering amazing hospitality and delivering profitable growth across each of our pubs. We've also reaffirmed our AUD 300 million cost out target by FY 2029, including AUD 100 million in FY 2027. While there is significant work to do to reset our foundation for high performance, we have talented people across our retail and hotels teams who care deeply about our customers and brands and are hungry to help. We've also strengthened our leadership team, bringing fresh perspectives and extensive experience from top-tier consumer brands.
Together, we are building a more focused organization with the clarity and discipline to deliver against our potential. We now move to slide five. Our FY 2026 results are clearly a reflection of a year of multiple parts. The investment in price is evident not only in the green shoots demonstrated by the above-market retail revenue growth, but also in the gross margin impact. Group underlying earnings reflected our decision to invest in lower shelf prices for our customers and compete in the elevated promotional environment currently at play in retail. Our earnings were also impacted by higher cost of doing business as a result of inflation. This was partially offset by AUD 40 million in cost reduction delivered in FY 2026. As outlined in our ASX announcement on 5 August, the group incurred a pre-tax net expense of AUD 372 million relating to significant items.
Kate will provide details on these later in the presentation. During the year, the group announced the decision to revise our dividend payout policy to between 50% and 75% of underlying NPAT. In line with this policy, the board has declared a fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.012 per share, which represents a full-year dividend payout ratio of 59%. Slide six provides a snapshot of our retail and our hotels business. Firstly, in retail, sales increased by 0.7% to AUD 10 billion, with sales momentum steadily improving during the year. Excluding specialty businesses, Dan Murphy's and BWS delivered combined sales growth of 1%, increasing from 0.7% in half one to 1.4% in half two, with growth accelerating during the second half from 0.8% in Q3 to 2.2% in Q4.
In hotels, sales growth grew by 4.2% to AUD 2.2 billion for the full year, with hotels delivering sales growth of 4.4% in half one and 3.9% in half two. Growth in Q3 moderated to 3.7% as growing cost of living pressures impacted consumer spending. However, growth did recover in Q4 to 4.2%, or 3.9% adjusting for the impact of the FIFA World Cup. If we turn now to slide eight, at our Investor Day in May, we outlined a clear strategy to strengthen the business and position Endeavour towards the next phase of growth. Our strategy is anchored in deep customer insights and is built around three priorities. First, we are strengthening our retail business by focusing on the requirements of each brand to best serve its core customers.
For Dan Murphy's, this means price and range leadership, competitive and effective promotional activity, and adjusting our costs to best align to the customer needs in each of our stores. For BWS, we are also making progress better delivering our convenient shopping experience with a twist and always with an eye to value. We are also resetting our focus on excellence in retail fundamentals across both of our brands and will deliver significant value as we execute these planned initiatives. Second, we are unlocking the full potential of our hotels business by simplifying the operating model and increasing investment to fix the basics, improve performance, and enhance guest experience. After years of under-investment, we are focused on executing the transformation of our hotels business while also tactically working to better compete every day for trading growth across food, beverage, accommodation, and gaming. Third, we are simplifying the way we work.
By reducing complexity, releasing trapped value in our asset base, better leveraging data and technology across our portfolio, and finding ways to take more cost out of our business, we will create greater capacity to invest where it delivers the strongest long-term shareholder returns. These priorities have already led to important decisions, including resetting the top team, a AUD 300 million cost reduction program, restructuring our head office functions, including merchandising, the repositioning of our retail brands, increased focus and accelerated transformation and investment in hotels, optimization of the Pinnacle Drinks portfolio, and a revised dividend policy. Together, these initiatives provide a clear roadmap to build a stronger, simpler, and more competitive Endeavour. If we move now to slide nine, I won't take you through all the details highlighted here, but the intent is to demonstrate the progress made to date against our strategy.
We have transitioned from strategy reset and our focus now is on execution, delivering against our priorities, investing with discipline, and continuing to simplify the business. We are in it to win it, and we are out of the gates and into execution of a very comprehensive plan. Moving to slide 10. As a group, we are focused on multiple levers to improve the value of our business. We talk a lot about the customer and our very disciplined approach to delivering for them in a way that is differentiated. This will unlock revenue growth, but we also need to simplify the way we do things and improve our productivity across the business in the process. Getting rid of complexity unlocks trapped costs and enables us to operate with better experiences for our people and our customers every day.
The cost reduction opportunity is significant, and we've identified AUD 300 million in cost savings through to the end of FY 2029, including AUD 100 million in FY 2027. 70% of the initiatives in FY 2027 to deliver the cost out target of AUD 100 million have already been executed, with roughly AUD 85 million of the total cost savings expected to come from retail and AUD 15 million from hotels. Moving to slide 11. FY 2027 will be a year of investment to support execution of our strategic roadmap. As foreshadowed at our Investor Strategy Day, we are targeting CapEx spend this year of between AUD 550 million -AUD 650 million. The increase in capital spend is material but necessary to address both the earnings impact of historic underinvestment in the business, as well as to unlock future growth opportunities. We recently undertook a venue-by-venue network review of our hotels portfolio.
This identified remediation work needed across the network to both reduce costs and improve the revenue generation focus in each of our hotels. We estimate this will involve a total spend of up to AUD 120 million over the next three years, with the majority of the building works required relating to roof repairs and replacements and related works. In the near term, this remediation spend represents increased stay-in- business capital in our hotels, but it will reduce both CapEx and OpEx required for future R&M and improve the trading environment for our guests and team members. Turning to slide 12. In FY 2027, the group will increase gross CapEx by up to AUD 60 million to begin executing a number of transformative initiatives. The incremental growth CapEx reflects additional investment in a number of areas critical to the performance of our business.
This includes accelerated hotel renewals, our Simpler for Pubs program, digital, data, and e-commerce, retail media, and customer experience. All investments are made in accordance with our capital allocation framework, which targets returns in excess of a risk-adjusted WACC. As you would expect with the scale of transformation underway, there will also be an increase in OpEx of AUD 40 million-AUD 60 million in FY 2027, which includes additional investment in people and tools to execute our transformation program. The majority of this spend is for the life of the execution phase of FY 2027 initiatives. FY 2027 should be the highest year of initiative investment. All OpEx and CapEx investments are substantiated by business cases with time frames for both payback and returns. Turning to slide 13.
At our Investor Day in May, we outlined that over the course of the next three years, we intend to step up the level of renewals, repositioning, and light-touch investments to improve the overall performance of our hotels portfolio. In FY 2027, we expect to invest between AUD 130 million -AUD 160 million to renew up to 75 venues, which is approximately double the number of venues we upgraded in FY 2026. Moving to slide 14 and One Endeavour, which is the program established to separate our systems from Woolworths and simplify our technology landscape. Last year, the decision was made to accelerate standalone ERP system implementation and defer the store system separation to start after the ERP program. I'm pleased to report that the ERP system build phase remains on track to complete in half one of FY 2028.
In FY 2026, total expenditure of AUD 70 million was below the previous guidance range of between AUD 90 million and AUD 110 million. The lower expenditure reflects the mindful cost and value lens we are applying to these important separation projects. In FY 2027, planned total expenditure is estimated to be between AUD 125 million -AUD 145 million, reflecting delivery of ERP build, combined with the recommencement of the design phase of the stores transition. Now turning to slide 16. In Dan's, we have returned our focus to delivering unbeatable value for our customers. This has clearly resonated, delivering both sales growth and market share gains. In FY 2026, highlights include market-leading purchase intent and record value for money customer engagement scores. This in turn supported improved sales growth over the course of the year.
If you turn to slide 17, BWS is undisputed as Australia's most convenient drinks retailer with more than 1,450 stores nationwide and even more pathways to purchase through delivery partners in increasingly more locations. During the year, we continued to deepen our customer engagement with record online voice of customer scores, which helped us to achieve our record online sales of over 10% year-on-year. Supported by our in-app promotional offering Appy Deals, the BWS app now has more than 730,000 monthly active users, which is up 15% versus last year, with over half of these being Millennials and Gen Z. Turning to slide 18. These charts demonstrate how customer perception of our market-leading value propositions are growing. During FY 2026, Dan Murphy's and BWS both achieved record scores when customers were asked to what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with value for money.
This provides further evidence that customers are recognizing the value we are providing at a crucial time for the community, which is contributing to increased engagement with our brands. Slide 19 demonstrates that our improved customer value scores are translating into sales growth. We have delivered steady improvement in our quarterly sales growth, and that sales momentum continued to build in the first seven weeks of the new financial year. Turning to slide 20. In hotels, we achieved record trading results around key social occasions, including Christmas, Easter, and Anzac Day. Sales growth in F&B and bars benefited from renewal activity as well as improved ranging and menus. Gaming remained resilient, delivering mid-single-digit sales growth supported by targeted investments in gaming room refurbishments and upgraded EGMs, with roughly 2,000 new cabinets installed across the fleet.
Our pub+ loyalty program now has over 750,000 active users, accounting for 32% of our F&B transactions. Our guest experience continues to strengthen with our Voice of Customer score achieving 9.1 out of 10. Turning to slide 21, and the last slide before I hand over to Kate. We completed 38 hotel renewals during the year, up from 27 in FY 2025, and have been pleased with the strong performance uplift they are delivering. Our FY 2024 cohort of renewed venues continues to deliver collectively over 20% ROI in the second year post-renewal. This is ahead of our 15% target. It is this track record that gives us the confidence that the capital we are allocating to accelerated hotel renewals is money well spent. I encourage you to get out and visit some of our newly renovated hotels.
The Springwood Hotel in Brisbane or The Ranch Hotel in Sydney are two great places to start. I will now hand over to Kate to take you through our financial results for the full year in more detail.
Thank you, Jayne. I will start on slide 23. As you can see here, our group sales were up 1.3% year-on-year following a first half sales increase of 0.9%. As Jayne highlighted, sales growth in the second half was 1.7%, and that reflects improved momentum in retail, partially offset by softer hotels growth half-on-half. The underlying group EBIT, which includes AUD 40 million of One Endeavour program costs in retail, declined 8.7%, with EBIT growth in hotels more than offset by a decline in retail. Finance costs of AUD 301 million were in line with prior year. Underlying profit before income tax of AUD 544 million declined 13.1% versus FY 2025 as a result of the lower retail earnings performance. As we previously flagged in our trading update on the 5th of August, FY 2026 statutory earnings include the impact of AUD 311 million of significant items post-tax, or AUD 372 million pre-tax.
The significant items were predominantly non-cash in nature and relate to the write-down of carrying values for assets, as well as cash costs associated with the implementation of the group strategy review and associated restructuring. More detail on this is provided in the appendix to this presentation on slide 43. Moving to slide 24, the group generated AUD 933 million of underlying operating cash flows and an underlying cash realization ratio of 93%. The reduction in operating cash flow compared to prior year of AUD 217 million is primarily due to lower earnings and changes in trade working capital. The trade working capital movement reflects our investment in higher inventory of fast-moving products to mitigate fuel-related supply chain risks. At year-end, this was AUD 260 million higher year on year. This increase was partially offset by lower Pinnacle inventory and favorable cash flow from trade payables optimization.
Underlying free cash flow was negative AUD 182 million, lower than prior year, reflecting the reduction in operating cash flow I have just discussed, and an increase in payments associated with higher capital investment, including in new stores, hotel renewals, and gaming machines. Turning to slide 25, you can see that net debt has increased by AUD 198 million due to the combined impact of accelerated investments in store and venue renewals, lower earnings, and higher inventory. Our underlying leverage ratio on a pre-AASB 16 lease accounting basis was 1.9 x, within our target level of less than 2x . At balance date, the group had AUD 990 million in undrawn debt facilities with a weighted average facility maturity of four years, giving us ample funding headroom.
In FY 2027, full-year finance costs, including lease and debt interest expense, are expected to be between AUD 330 million - AUD 340 million based on current interest rates as of today, an increase on FY 2026 driven by increased average net debt and increased average interest rate. Turning to slide 26, you can see gross capital expenditure increased in the year by AUD 54 million. The increase compared to last year largely reflects network expansion in retail and our accelerated renewal program in hotels. In retail, we added 13 net new stores, being six new Dan Murphy's and seven new BWS stores. In hotels, we completed 38 hotel renewals, including 25 whole-of-venue repositioning projects. Net capital expenditure increased by AUD 68 million after including AUD 36 million in proceeds realized from asset sales.
For FY 2027, we are forecasting to spend AUD 550 million - AUD 650 million of capital, including, as Jayne has referenced, up to AUD 60 million of incremental growth investment across a number of transformation initiatives. As well as a AUD 25 million - AUD 50 million step-up in hotel stay -in- business CapEx. It also includes a projected AUD 45 million - AUD 60 million increase in One Endeavour technology transition capital as we reach the final stages of the ERP program. Turning to our segment results in a little more detail, starting with retail on slide 28. In the retail segment, sales increased by 0.7% to AUD 10 billion. Gross profit margin declined by 86 basis points to 23.6%, reflecting investment in lower shelf prices and elevated levels of competitive promotional activity market wide.
Underlying cost of doing business increased by 1.6%, or 2.8% excluding One Endeavour costs, with inflationary headwinds, including a 4% award wage increase mitigated by savings from cost reduction initiatives and lower One Endeavour technology program costs year on year. The lower GP margin, combined with the net impact of elevated inflation on cost, led to an underlying EBIT of AUD 464 million, a decline of 17.6% compared to last year. The bridge chart on the bottom left of this slide shows an indicative sizing of these respective performance drivers. I will turn now to the hotels performance on slide 30. The hotels business delivered overall sales growth of 4.2% compared to last year. Food and bar sales grew by 2.6% and 5% respectively, benefiting from renewal activity, optimized ranging and menus, and record trading around key event periods.
Gaming growth of 4.4% benefited from accelerated investment in new gaming machines with approximately 2,000 new machines installed. Accommodation delivered strong growth at 9.3% with higher occupancy and increased daily rates, which was supported by renewals as well as a higher room count. Gross profit margin expanded by 7 basis points to 84.9%, driven by a favorable sales mix with improved gaming performance. Underlying cost of doing business grew by 4.4%, or 5.8% excluding One Endeavour costs. Similar to retail, the 4% award wage increase was a headwind. The result also reflects higher depreciation and amortization associated with the accelerated EGM and renewal programs and higher site costs, including rates, repairs, and security, as well as investments in guest experience such as promotions, bands, and acts. Underlying EBIT grew by 4.1% to AUD 462 million, with underlying EBIT margin materially in line with prior year at 21%.
Again, the chart on the bottom left provides further indicative sizing of the EBIT drivers. I will now hand back to Jayne to take you through the outlook.
Thanks, Kate. Turning to slides 32 and 33 for the trading update and outlook. Our retail business has made a strong start in 2027, delivering 4.6% sales growth. While it is pleasing that sales momentum in retail has continued to grow, there is no doubt the underlying momentum is healthy. I would remind you that at the end of Q1, we will begin cycling stronger sales in the prior comparable period. Our hotels business has delivered 2.2% sales growth in the first seven weeks of the new financial year. We have seen softer trading across all key business drivers in FY 2027, with gaming room revenue moderating in line with market trends. Overall, the outlook for consumer spending remains uncertain given ongoing cost of living pressure, including the impact of the continuing Middle East conflict, which impacts fuel prices and rolls through the economy.
The wealth effect of a decline in housing market and the potential for higher interest rates. I will not speak to the detail on slide 33, which is relatively self-explanatory, other than to say that it outlines the FY 2027 outlook for total capital expenditure and cost of doing business, both of which are expected to be higher than FY 2026, reflecting a year of investment for the group. In closing, I want to thank our 30,000 plus team members for their commitment and resilience throughout the year. Their passion for our customers, our brands, and delivering excellence gives me great confidence in what we can achieve together. I also want to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Kate, who last week announced her plans to retire from Endeavour as CFO and embark on a new adventure in her career, anchored around non-executive roles.
Kate has made an absolutely invaluable contribution to our business from the early days of demerger planning through to navigating our first five years as an ASX-listed company, which of course, also included a stint as the interim chief executive, which I am very grateful for. I will now, after saying a big thank you to Kate, hand it back to the operator for Q&A.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star, then two. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Please limit questions to one per person, plus a follow-up. If time permits, please rejoin the question queue for any further questions. The first question today comes from Bryan Raymond from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Good morning. My question is just on the AUD 40 million -AUD 60 million of incremental OpEx investment in FY 2027. I just want to understand if this is like a permanent step-up in the cost base or if it is one-off and we should be unwinding it in 2028. Then if you can give us a bit of detail around what it is. Is this more labor hours in store, et cetera? Or should we be thinking about it as a function of the AUD 100 million cost out as a bit of a reinvestment plan to improve the top line as you take those costs out, so we should be building that into the next few years of that cost out? Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Bryan. I might tackle that one. The way to think about the FY 2027 increase in OpEx is that is very specific to the FY 2027 initiatives that have been planned. As I indicated, every single initiative has a business case, which is built on a plan to deliver the opportunity and what it is going to take to deliver the opportunity. It is different for each one of the initiatives, what it is comprised of, but it is either labor that is required to invest in delivering the initiative, or it could be a bit of CapEx, could be OpEx and tools, tech tools. It is a mix of things that is initiative by initiative, and it is for the FY 2027 initiatives and transformation. FY 2027 is the biggest year of heavy lifting and transformation for us, but we will not be finished in 2027.
I would say in 2028 and 2029, there will definitely be incremental OpEx against those initiatives. I would expect that the heaviest lifting is in 2027. You would also look at those initiatives and say they have got business cases against them, so every single initiative has an investment but also delivers a return. Those returns should start flowing in 2028, 2029, 2030, beyond. So that is the way to think about that. We will call it out as we do in One Endeavour, so that it is clear what those extra costs look like. We cannot predict what 2028 and 2029 look like at this stage, but it will not be the same as 2027.
Okay, great. Thanks, Jayne, and congrats to Kate on a great tenure there at Endeavour, and best of luck in your next roles.
Thank you. Appreciate it, Bryan.
Thank you. The next question comes from Shaun Cousins from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Hi, Jayne and Kate. Thanks for answering my questions over the years. Just a question regarding the first seven weeks of retail, the 4.6%. I am just curious around the impact of promotions, as I believe Endeavour may have matched the 20% off promotion that Coles was running. Was promotional intensity higher than the second half 2026, and should we expect that level of sales growth to be continued for the quarter, or was it this promotion or other one-time drivers that delivered a stronger than expected start to retail sales for the year? Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Shaun. There is no doubt that we are continuing to be very competitive under any promotional activity we see in the marketplace to ensure that nobody beats Dan's. There was a 20% off promotion in the mix, and that was bigger than normal. I would not get overly wrapped up on any one activity. I would say that we are continuing to hold our same level of focus with respect to being competitive with Dan's and also being competitive with BWS, although it is a slightly different positioning. How to think about the rest of the quarter and the half, I think we are calling that it is an uncertain consumer environment, and so we cannot pick it.
I would say the things to take away are that there is underlying momentum that is being built in our retail business, and if you can look at noise and strip it out, you would still see really strong underlying momentum in retail, which is very pleasing. There is a lot of additional work underway in both BWS and Dan's to continue to stoke that fire. So we are very focused on continued retail growth. The level at which we can achieve is there are things that are outside our control on that one, and so we cannot be more definitive than that.
And sorry, the degree of promotional intensity, is it fair to say that it stepped up relative to the second half of 2026?
I would say we hadn't seen a 20% off before, and hopefully we don't see. There were two small ones in short periods in the first seven weeks. I would hope we don't see many of those going forward, but we can't predict.
Great. Thanks, Jayne.
Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Gilbert from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Morning, Jayne and Kate, and echo comments towards Kate before as well. Just a question for me, just around cost. With the wage increase for next year, is that effectively just looking at the numbers? It effectively feels like it is just going to negate the AUD 100 million cost out that you have coming through. When we look at that additional color you have given us around the OpEx and One Endeavour, should we be expecting that to be incremental? I suppose by then, if we look through putting that in, you could have 3%-4% type CODB growth for retail, for instance.
Yeah, Ben, you are a little bit hard to hear, but I think the essence of the question is the step-up that we have announced in One Endeavour and in the OpEx on transformation offsetting the AUD 100 million in cost out? Is that the essence of it?
Yeah, apologies. You have the wages, which will effectively offset the AUD 100 million. We effectively should be adding those incremental costs, which gets around 3%-4% CODB growth in the retail business for FY 2027.
Yeah. Kate, over to you in terms of adding any color to that.
Yeah. Obviously, I am not going to project exactly what the cost growth is going to be, but I think broadly the way you are thinking about it is the right way, Ben. Yes, we are. As we have flagged, wage growth in FY 2027 is elevated, quite materially elevated, and therefore the AUD 100 million of cost out will go to largely offset it, but will not drive more than an offset to the wage inflation and hence why we are being clear to flag that there is also investment in this year as well.
Right. That is helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Craig Woolford from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and yeah, second the comments that have been made. Kate, it has been good speaking with you over the years, and best of luck. My question is just around Pinnacle. Obviously, there has been quite a few changes made with that business and write-downs in asset sales or shrinkage of the business. What are the implications of that going forward? Will it have an impact on gross margin? Are there gross profit dollars that will be lost in FY 2027 on the Pinnacle Drinks side?
No, I think the right way to think about the changes that we've made in Pinnacle is it is improving the performance of our private label business and managing it like we would manage any other supplier with respect to ensuring that the lines that we carry are lines that justify the real estate that's been allocated to it. We've reduced SKUs for the simple purpose that those SKUs weren't performing in a way that justified that real estate. The simplification of the SKU range is what we would do with any supplier, and that improves the economics of retail and the performance of Pinnacle, enabling greater focus by selling off some of the assets that also just improves and enables us to double down on Pinnacle's role in the business, which is to provide private label wine, beer, and spirits for retail.
Just to clarify, it sounds like sales drop, which makes perfect sense, but it's unclear to me whether it would be gross margin dilutive because I would have thought the Pinnacle Drinks products are typically higher than average category margins.
You would expect that we looked at gross margin when we made those decisions. The decisions aren't made on sales, they're made on gross margin.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks very much for taking my question, and congratulations, Kate, and best of luck. It's probably a little bit hard to pull apart given the promotional events in the month of July. Do you think your retail business got any benefit from the FIFA World Cup during that trading update period?
Look, I think you can't, to your point, you can't really pull it apart. But there's no doubt that it was a very festive time. There was lots of sport going on during that period. It was a very festive time. It was a very social time. But we continue to trade well now. So it's very hard to pull it apart and ascribe any particular day or week that was extraordinarily correlated with sport. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Kierath from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just one on the hotels business. You have this line here which says, "Disruption to trading from increased renewal activity to adversely affect the hotel's earnings." I am just thinking, you did 38 renewals in FY 2026. Is there a number or a profit impact that they had in terms of the disruption that we can then, I guess, kind of almost double that impact to 2027 as you step up the level of renewals?
Kate, you want to talk to that?
Sure. Thanks, Tom. I think what I would say is it is quite hard to get a definitive read-through, because you go through a period of disruption followed by a period of recovery, and so measuring that definitively is hard. So certainly there is a degree of it in the FY 2026 year, and that will be replicated in the FY 2027 year. But what we are flagging in the FY 2027 year is a step up in the number of venues touched. I think the critical way to think about it is when you compare our top-line revenue growth to potentially the various F&B gaming markets, it may look slightly softer as a result of that renewal activity. And of course, when we are in renewal, we do not fractionalize all of the fixed costs.
The relative EBIT margins on that interim basis may not be as strong as they will be once we are through the bulk of the renewal activity.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Caleb Wheatley from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Jayne and Kate, and prior comments, Kate, all the best for your future endeavors. I just wanted to come back around this sales trajectory and sales momentum on the retail side. Is there anything to call out, whether it is from a channel point of view? I know the comments obviously around online, and it sounds like you have met the market on that online channel. But was there any meaningful differential in performance between online and in-store or relative to in-store? Is there any meaningful performance differential between Dan Murphy's and BWS? Because it does look like a pretty solid number. I am keen to explore exactly where that is coming from if there is anything to call out, please.
Sure. I will give it a crack and then pass on to Kate. I would say that we called out that online sales are very strong. We have also called out that same-store sales are growing. We are also calling out that there is a lot of investment going into improving our performance in retail at a fundamentals level, as well as ensuring that we are really working to execute well against the changed posture for each of those brands to customers in the relevant markets. There is nothing that looks, I cannot predict it to be much different to that going forward. Online sales, we expect to continue to grow, and we are ensuring that there is also strong growth in stores. So Kate, do you want to take it?
Yeah. Thanks, Caleb. I might just add to that. Yes, last year our online sales were 30% up, so clearly proportionately a stronger driver of the growth that we are seeing and of the growth momentum. We have spoken to the fact that it is Dan Murphy's price positioning and both brands competing promotionally that have driven that. I think one of the probably the more important things to observe, which we see as signs of customers returning generally to the brands, particularly recognizing Dan Murphy's price positioning more strongly, is that actually pleasingly we are seeing in-store transactions trending back towards growth. That is clearly not an online activity-driven thing. I would say the other thing I would say is that the benefit we get with online sales is that majority, and in Dan's, proportionately even more the majority of those are picked up in store.
There is a virtuous cycle of sort of reinforcing of the brand recognition and potentially foot traffic driving into store as a result of the online sales. We very much see it as a benefit of being the major omni-channel retailer and having that physical presence across the country that enables us to be the destination of choice, whether you are choosing to shop online or offline.
That is really helpful. Thank you.
Probably just one quick add to that, Caleb, is that BWS has kind of unique competitive advantage with respect to the ultra-convenience channel in that we have got 1,450 stores, which means everybody is sort of in a roughly 10K radius and can get product delivered from one of our stores inside 30 minutes. So we have got a really unique combination of physical assets and growing online strength, and we will continue to invest in that.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Phil Kimber from E&P Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys, and congratulations to Kate as well. My question was just on the hotel sales momentum in July and early August. Is it visitation or is it spend per visit that's lowered? I am just wondering if this is looking similar to what you saw in March and April when fuel prices jumped, as they have recently, whether that is sort of a main driver.
An excellent question, Phil. I would hope that we get the same bounce back we did in hotels. There is just no way to see through that quite yet. We can quite clearly see the correlation. We can see it in specific customer groups and certain times of the day. Some parts of the day still are growing quite well. It is definitely spend- per- visit that is the biggest problem. It just means we are upping our tactical effort now to ensure that we are driving more feet into the hotels and trying to appeal to broader catchment just to ensure that we get more traffic through to offset for the lower spend- per- visit. Kate, you want to add? Kate can add .
Just one important build on that, I think, is the reminder that we continue to see proportionately better performance in our renewed venues than our non-renewed venues. The impact of a slowdown is more marked where we haven't renewed, and we're more comfortable with the momentum where we have.
Yeah. Good add. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Peter Marks from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, Jayne. Morning, Kate. My question is just on the liquor store growth outlook. I noticed you impaired 75 stores and 4% of the network. I was just maybe expecting today we might see some store closures on the back of that, but I can see you're sort of guiding to 10 net stores opening. I'm just wondering, how are you thinking about that? Are you considering closing more stores? Do you think the category has opened too many stores during the COVID boom years? Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Kate, you want to take that?
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Jayne. I think, firstly, it's important to understand that even in the ordinary course of a year, we open and close quite a lot of BWS stores. While the net numbers may look relatively neutral, we are continuously looking at optimizing the tail of the fleet, as well as moving licenses where we can from BWS stores to openings of Dan Murphy's stores. That's because there is no better use for a retail liquor license than a Dan Murphy's store. It's a significant return on investment every time we are able to do that. I think in that context, what we are flagging in terms of net new store openings in FY 2027 is pretty much the same trajectory to around the same pace. The impairments that we have taken are not intending to flag an acceleration of net closings per se.
Okay, that's great. So it's not a whole heap of loss-making stores or anything like that?
No, it's not.
I think, maybe just to build some color on that, of course, just by its nature, impairment is taken when the forward earnings don't support the invested asset base of the store. That's the reason that the impairments have been taken, not necessarily because they are not the stores that we would keep into the future.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sam Teeger from Citi.
Hi, Kate. All the best for the next steps, Kate. My question is, when retail starts to cycle lower shelf prices and increased promotions from the second quarter, how much confidence do we have that positive sales growth will continue once this finishes lapping? Anything you can share around the improvements you're making in retail at a fundamental level, as this will probably drive the next leg of sales growth. Thank you.
Sure, Sam. We don't have a crystal ball, so we can't give you a perfect projection of how 2027 is going to play out in terms of retail growth. I think you can see in the underlying numbers the momentum that's building in a softer consumer environment. Just on the growth levels that we popped out of 2026 with, we would be lapping with growth on the first, second quarter of the year. Our job is to ensure that we can continue to do that. You would assume that we have been investing in a mix of things already with respect to better consumer smarts. We know who our customer is. We're better understanding what's happening. For example, I can tell you that the growth that we're enjoying is coming principally from Gen X, Gen Z, and Millennials.
We're seeing the younger generations now participating more in our stores than they were before. I don't know if that's net growth to the category or that's just net growth to us and taking share in those segments. We definitely are all over how we're engaging with consumers and making sure it's clear to them what we stand for and how that fits against their behavioral patterns. We're much better with respect to the way we're approaching consumers. We're being much more targeted with our marketing. We are focused on retail fundamentals. For example, we haven't touched macro space allocations in most of our stores for a very long time, and it's not right. There's a big piece of work to get macro space allocated correctly and get category management done correctly. There's a lot of work to be done there.
There is a significant amount of work being done in refining the way we go to market with price and the way that we go to market with promotions. All those things will enable us to be much more effective in bringing energy to the category and bringing energy to our customers and growing share. All those things will also help us better manage cost. There is a very full pipeline of activity to ensure that we do continue to go from strength to strength in retail. We can't predict what the year will look like in terms of month-to-month sales growth as much as we would like to.
Great. Best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Richard Barwick from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Good morning, all. Can I ask around One Endeavour costs please, Jayne and Kate? Obviously flagging OpEx AUD 50 million-AUD 55 million in 2027. Can you give us any sort of guide for how we should be thinking about 2028 and 2029? For instance, obviously you are moving from the ERP into the stores transition, and it is just hard for us to get a guide to think about if the stores transition should be thinking basically higher or lower than the ERP component at that AUD 50 million-AUD 55 million.
Kate, you want to take that?
Thank you. I think the critical thing is that in FY 2027 we will substantially complete the ERP program. We are currently re-embarking on the design of the stores program, and as we said the last time when we paused that, we are very confident that as a result of having delayed that and now restarting it, that the overall cost of that program is going to be lower than it was originally expected to be. So with that in mind, FY 2027 is probably a peak spend year. There is always phasing in these things, but, we are not yet in a position to exactly project how it is going to look from FY 2028 onwards. But I think it is a year of high activity.
Okay. The chart would suggest 2029 is the end of it. Is that still the right way to think about things as well?
It is, yes.
Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks very much.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Bryan Raymond from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking the follow-up. Mine's just on the, I guess, free cash flow and the balance sheet. I'm obviously still working through my numbers, but looks like another year of negative free cash flow ahead, certainly after dividends. How comfortable are you with the build in the underlying debt levels that you're seeing at the moment, given your current CapEx trajectory? Could you look further at dividend in terms of addressing that, or is it just going to be a debt build for a few years until you start to see the ROI on some of these investments? Because it is getting pretty big negative free cash flow this year after dividends. I'm just trying to understand that going forward, please.
Kate, over to you.
Yes, I think we've flagged FY 2027 as an investment year, and we obviously adjusted the dividend payout ratio, which we talked about at the Investor Day when we launched our revised strategy and said that we did expect in the near term that the leverage ratio would be above the top end of the range. We actually said FY 2026 and FY 2027. We managed to come in marginally lower in FY 2026. But FY 2027, we do still expect to be above the top end of the range as a result of that investment activity, which as Jayne has said, is all supported by an investment case that says in due course, the earnings return from that will more than cover the investment. So it's a near-term elevation followed by return generation.
Okay. Great. Just on the gross margin, just in retail, if I can sneak in one more. I am just trying to understand, now you are coming up to cycling those investments from last year. Is the appropriate sort of stance that we should be thinking about is flat gross margin year-on-year after the step down that we saw in 2025, 2026?
Kate, you want to tackle that one?
Oh yeah. I think as you would expect, we will not provide guidance. I think the critical swing factor is the competitive environment. Yes, we will cycle the reduction in shelf prices, but over the remainder of the year, it will all depend on the level of competitive intensity.
The other thing to bear in mind is we had the first quarter of 2026, of course, where we had not made any changes. So you have only got three quarters of the year in an FY 2026 number.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Shaun Cousins from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Just regarding retail D&A growth. Recognize you have got higher rents that are coming through the finance cost guidance that you have provided and the hotel D&A that has got to step up, but retail D&A only grew 1.6% in FY 2026. I am just curious around fiscal 2027 growth and if that is a step up as well or any sort of indication there. That is always helpful just to sort of have D&A guidance if you could provide.
Kate.
Yeah. We are not flagging a material step-up in retail in FY 2027. That is because the level of CapEx is relatively more stable in retail compared to hotels, where we are flagging the material increases.
Okay. All right. Fantastic. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much for taking another one. The impairment charges that you've taken through the FY 2026 year, how should we think about the P&L impact of those going forward through lower D&A and potentially less AASB 16 rent charge coming through finance costs and D&A as well?
Kate.
Yeah. We're not expecting it to be materially visible on the face of the account, and that's because of the step-up in investment we're making, which is substantially offsetting any D&A benefit we would get from those impairments.
Thank you. If I could just sneak in another one, just in terms of consumer behavior in retail. It sounds like consumers spending less per visit in hotels. Are you seeing any sort of like-for-like trading down in the retail business?
We really haven't seen that at this point, or if we're seeing it's been masked by growth in other areas. It's not obvious, but that doesn't mean that we're not keeping a close eye on it. Thank you.
Right.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Tom Kierath from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Oh, thanks. Just on the trading update. Have you been surprised by the performance of the stores co-located with Woolworths, just given Ooshies has been pretty popular, at least in my household? Have you seen different performance there in those kind of BWS stores versus some of the standalone stores?
Kate, I don't know if you want to tackle that one.
Yeah, sure. Yes, we did have a good hard look at that. But I think the answer is we can't see a material differentiation, recognizing, of course, that our attached store fleet is a subset of the BWS fleet, which is again, a subset of the total group sales number. So, it's not providing any material differentiation in terms of sales momentum, that particular thing.
Okay, thanks. And just the 33% tax rate. Why is it above 30%? Maybe just give me some color on that, please.
Yeah. It is driven by the fixed dollar nature of the non-deductible items and most particularly the gaming entitlement amortization in Victoria, which is non-deductible for tax purposes, so relative to the declining earnings base.
That should continue? The 33%, we should model that out for a few years or?
It will always be above 30% for that reason, but obviously the relativity to earnings is contingent on what the earnings base actually is. But yes, I would say in the near term, you can expect it to be, call it around a 33% level.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Peter Marks from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Just on the One Endeavour costs in the second half. I had you down for doing about AUD 55 million in FY 2026. I think it came in at AUD 40 million. What changed there? Are they just being pushed to the right? I guess a similar one, historically, there has been more OpEx than CapEx in those One Endeavour costs. But this year, FY 2027 is going to be more CapEx. Can you just help us understand what is shifting around there?
Kate, I will leave that for you.
Yeah, sure. So, pleasingly, that is a real saving to the program. It is not shifting to the right. It is actually in-year reduction. So you will see that the amount we are spending in FY 2027 in OpEx pretty much mirrors what we thought we would spend in FY 2026. As we continue to optimize the program cost, we did get a degree of benefit in FY 2026. The substantial step up in CapEx in FY 2027 is because we are materially in the build and delivery phase of the ERP program, which has a higher capital component.
Okay, thanks. The second half costs were just half what you expected them to be.
Yes.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Richard Barwick from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, again. I've just got a question on, you're flagging a step up in D&A for hotels associated with new machines and the refurbs. So that's AUD 20 million lift in 2027. But you're also obviously pursuing a lot of refurbs in 2027 and a pretty similar level of investment in EGMs. Is it fair to say that D&A should step up again in 2028? So you've got the yardstick of AUD 20 million in 2027. Should we be thinking same sort of jump in 2028 as well for D&A?
I think we're probably not in a position right now to provide guidance on FY 2028 outlook. But to the extent the investment in hotels grows, then there will be a corresponding increase in the D&A charge.
Okay. Well, that's helpful. Thanks, Kate.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sam Teeger from Citi. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I'm just wondering what evidence is giving us confidence that returns on hotel renewals will remain as strong with the run rate increasing from 38 to up to 75. Is there anything you want to call out and share regarding constraints around labor, construction, or approvals? Thanks.
Yeah. I might start that one and hand to Kate to add. We have now several years of experience in understanding how to think about renewals and have learned a lot in the process. As we've planned the renewals for 2027, we're very confident every one of them has its own unique community dynamic, and we're very confident that each one of them, the plan that is in place will drive significant uplift in trade. The level of spend that's planned is consistent with the return that will be necessary off the back of it. We're very confident that the plan in place will deliver the returns that we expect. With respect to construction constraints, et cetera, we're not seeing anything right now that would give us any cause for concern.
We have increased our own internal team and built capacity in the mix of suppliers that we're using. We've added in more discipline with respect to the procurement process that sits around that. We're confident we're getting good value in the way that we're going to market and buying. We're very clear that there's a big job to be done in managing this volume. We've got internal resources that have been added, including Alistair Hartley, who's come in to run hotels transformation to ensure that we are all over it. We fully intend to deliver the outcomes associated with that investment.
Thanks.
Thank you. At this time, we're showing no further questions. I'll hand the conference back to Jayne for closing remarks.
Fabulous, thank you. I really appreciate the level of engagement on the call. Thank you to all the participants. I would just say in closing that FY 2026, as I said at the start, is the year of multiple chapters. We're really pleased with the underlying momentum in the retail business. We've got a very big hit list of things to get done to continue to stoke that fire, but that is the intent in 2027. In hotels, we've got a very clear game plan, and I'm personally very excited to see that start to take life. We've had all the publicans together over the course of the past two weeks, and the energy coming from them with the changes that we've got planned in the way that we run our pubs is palpable.
I think we are in the beginning of really getting our hotel business in good form. That is the journey ahead of us. I will finish by saying a massive thank you to our 30,000 strong team members. It is down to all of them that we were able to deliver the results that we did in 2026 in starting to execute the strategy. We are all really energized by all the possibilities ahead. Every one of the 30,000 is very focused on what we need to do in 2027. I am going to finish at that and say thank you to everybody who has joined us this morning to engage in the conversation.