I would now like to hand the conference over to Ian Testrow, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Emeco's H1 2022 results. I appreciate everyone dialing in. As you know, we've announced a solid operating EBITDA of AUD 122 million, which was in our guidance range of AUD 120 million-AUD 125 million. We've also provided operating EBITDA guidance for the full year of AUD 250 million-AUD 260 million. These results are solid and have been achieved with enormous effort from the entire Emeco team. I'd just like to thank them for their efforts. We've remained very focused on our strategy, and the business is very well-positioned to deliver growth into the future. Thao Pham, who's recently been appointed as Group CFO, and I will take you through the detail on outlook in more depth, and we'll take your questions.
You will note that our presentation deck shows performance in both the prior corresponding period and the second half of FY 2021. We think this gives you a better view of how the business has developed. Turning to slide two. The key feature of this result is the significant growth in revenue to AUD 573 million. We achieved revenue growth across all three divisions, but the 16% growth of AUD 51 million in the second half of last year comprises AUD 42 million of growth from Pit N Portal, which was up 48% on last half. We've commenced a number of new projects, and some existing projects in the early stages have grown strongly.
As noted, operating EBITDA of AUD 122 million is up modestly on both the prior corresponding periods and last half, which is solid in the context of the labor issues that our customers have experienced, which has impacted operating utilization in the West and the impact of weather events in our Eastern rental business. In Pit N Portal, new projects and projects in the development phase are developing strong revenue, but earnings lag revenue at this stage and will grow in the coming periods as they move to full production. Our operating EBIT of AUD 59 million is broadly flat on prior periods, and operating NPAT is up 3% on last half at 32 million and 23% on the prior corresponding period. Our return on capital, which is calculated on the last twelve months basis, is 16%.
Free cash flow of AUD 24.9 million is below the last two halves, and Thao will explain the details, but it's a strong result. Leverage is comfortable at one times. The board has declared a AUD 0.0125 fully franked dividend and an on-market buyback of approximately 1%, which totals up to 35% of this half's operating NPAT. Turning to slide three, for more detail. We're very proud of our safety record at Emeco. Our Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate of 1.8 is well below the industry average. As I said, it's a solid performance with good revenue momentum across our segments, especially Pit N Portal. Thao will give you more detail on operating EBITDA, NPAT, and cash flow. As you know, we're very focused on our return on capital.
16% is below where we believe it should be. It is comfortably above our cost of capital. However, our average assets have increased over the last 12 months as we invested in growth to meet strong demand across the business. Given our outlook for earnings growth, our return on capital will increase in line with these earnings. Our strategy of commodity diversification continues, and at 68% of group revenue, our exposure in the non-coal commodities has grown significantly. Although we will see growth in coal resuming in the second half. Onto our operating EBITDA guidance of AUD 250 million-AUD 260 million. We expect strong performance from Rental and steady growth in Pit N Portal, with earnings really kicking in FY 2023 and continued growth in the Force Workshops.
Revenue and earnings from Rental will grow as our customers gain confidence in sustained high commodity prices. We also see improved pricing as the equipment market softens. We expect margins will improve in Pit N Portal as projects develop into the production phase. Substantial earnings growth will come in FY 2023. Force Equipment has had a good half year, and we expect this to continue into the second half. We are monitoring the impacts of COVID on absenteeism and the potential reopening of the WA border. We're on track with our capital program, AUD 140 million-AUD 150 million for the year, and replacement capital of AUD 25 million-AUD 30 million, which was within that. Turning to slide five. I mentioned our pride in our safety record. The safety of people will always be our first priority.
We've continued to remain Lost Time Injury-free for almost six years. We continue to proactively manage our risk and target leading indicators, and the digitization investment in our HSE systems has really added to our performance and communication. Moving on to the next slide on sustainability. We're currently developing our long-term sustainability strategy, which will address material ESG risk, and we'll present this later in the year. We'll identify ESG targets and KPIs and publish how we're tracking towards achieving these KPIs. People development continues through Project Alive. Our ability to attract, train, and develop people and retain quality people is key to our success.
This half alone, we added around 180 people to our business, which is quite exceptional in a tight labor market, particularly in Western Australia. As we told you at our full-year result, Emeco continues to proudly work with our people and their communities to support local causes. I'll hand over to Thao to go through the financials in-depth.
Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. As Ian said, we've included comparisons in our deck from both the prior corresponding periods and also the last half to show you how the business has performed. On slide eight, we show our operating profit and loss. Our message is that we have delivered steady profitability as underlying activity strengthens across the group. With an operating EBITDA of AUD 122 million, we are within our guidance range and steadily increasing half on half on half. Ian has talked to the revenue growth and the lagged impact of growth from Pit N Portal on EBITDA. He's also covered the issues that impacted fleet utilization across the rental business, so I'll just take that as read.
Our EBITDA margin of 33% is below where we think it will be, but it reflects the lagged profitability and utilization, so it's expected to grow. Operating EBIT continues to be solid at AUD 59 million, and our operating NPAT of AUD 32 million is a clean result, and as you know, it includes a full tax rate. As Ian said, our return on capital is below where we expect it to be longer term, likely because we've increased our asset base to support strong growth in the business. Earned returns will increase with earnings growth as Pit N Portal projects enter the production phase and rental utilization recovers. Turning to slide nine, our statutory profit and loss is now closely aligned to our operating results, and we expect this will continue given the simplified capital structure.
You'll recall that our FY 2021 result included the expenses incurred in our recent debt refinancing. On to slide 10, on cash flows. Cash conversion for the period was very strong at 93%, with operating EBITDA of AUD 122 million converting to operating cash of AUD 113 million. We've invested AUD 9 million in working capital to support the group, especially in Pit N Portal, and we achieved the full benefit of lower interest costs achieved from our refinance last year. In our previous two halves, free cash has been around the 40 million, and this half we generated 29 million. Similar to the prior corresponding period, when adjusted for the working capital investment. Sustaining CapEx totaled AUD 72 million, comprising almost 60 of rebuilds and AUD 12 million of replacement CapEx.
Our guidance for sustaining capital of AUD 140 million-AUD 150 million for the year is unchanged, as is the replacement CapEx portion, which is AUD 25 million-AUD 30 million. We invested AUD 12 million in growth CapEx, likely to support the Pit N Portal growth, and also settled the Borex acquisition during the half. As I noted, while the refi expenses were taken to the P&L in the FY 2021 year, we incurred the cash expense this half of roughly AUD 24 million. Our net cash outflow of AUD 13 million likely reflects this, and we've comfortably covered our capital management with cash. On to slide 11 and the balance sheet. Our balance sheet is in good shape with net leverage at 1x, the ability to fund capital management, and also meet our requirements for sustaining capital.
We had AUD 158 million of liquidity at the half, including AUD 61 million of cash, and I've explained the decline half on half there, and then also an undrawn revolving credit facility of AUD 97 million. Our capital management package of AUD 11 million will be funded out of cash flows this half. You can see that our assets have increased to close to AUD 700 million as we have invested for growth. Working capital is well managed. Our debt maturity profile gives us four and a half years of paying up. In summary, we're pleased with the results. We've generated strong free cash and funded our capital management and other requirements of the business. The balance sheet is in excellent shape and allows us flexibility with the strong liquidity we have. Back to you.
Thanks, Thao, and congratulations on your recent appointment. That's super.
Thanks.
Let's move on to page 13. Rental performance was solid with continued growth in the West and improving momentum in the East. While the Western region achieved solid growth, the utilization and margins are hampered by the skills and labor shortage the industry is experiencing. Our customers were unable to extract hours they typically achieve from our fleet as they were impacted by difficulties in hiring and the time taken to train operators. In the East, the improving momentum was hit late in the half by wet weather, which caused significant disruption to planned customer activity. Neither of these two issues should be unfamiliar given they've been a feature of many companies reporting so far this half. Overall, the rental business is well-placed to benefit from strong commodity prices and a tightening equipment market. On slide 14 and a little more detail on the eastern rental.
EBITDA was flat on flat revenue and steady margins, which is pleasing given the cost pressures. In addition to the significant weather events, we also experienced some late customer operator season due to COVID, which also impacted utilization. The team has performed well to manage through these challenges, and we feel well-placed to grow earnings as customers gain confidence and respond to our commodity prices. We expect that we'll win new work in this half and build on momentum created prior to the weather events in the first half. Slide 15 in Western Rental. Customer demand remains strong and our equipment remains well sought after. As noted, we had the benefit of assets transferring in the fall. The fact of life in the West, given the labor shortage, is that our customers couldn't utilize their equipment at the rates they typically achieve.
Utilization was lower than demand would have indicated. We consider this a short-term issue that will somewhat relieve when the WA borders finally open. We've spoken about the benefit of moving our equipment to double-shift operations. With tight labor, this has not happened at the rate we would have liked. Again, we expect that this will improve as borders open and labor becomes more available. Earnings improved as we had more equipment at work, but margins declined. This is explained by lower than planned utilization, increased costs, particularly in labor, and costs associated with transfer and preparation of equipment. However, our outlook is for growth and we're confident in improved pricing given the tight market. We are monitoring the border situation and will manage accordingly as our customers seek to improve activity and utilization. To slide sixteen. Pit N Portal.
When we acquired Pit N Portal, we knew it had the ability to be a substantial larger business. The team has done an exceptional job in winning new work, with several new projects won and commencing this half. As you know, we're in the early phase of a number of large projects which commenced in FY 2021. Revenue growth is strong. Profitability is light. We've put 140 roles in this half to meet new projects, which is particularly impressive in the Western region at the moment with the labor markets. The package of equipment that we purchased in the second half of 2021 for underground rental has been deployed into customer service projects given that demand has been so strong.
Our strategy to increase customer tenure through Pit N Portal does come at a lower margin, but we are confident that current margins will improve. The decline in EBITDA and EBIT margin underscores the growth in revenue and the early stage of these projects and the cost incurred in set up and ramp up phase. Pit N Portal will deliver us very strong earnings in the future, but right now we're focusing on executing on existing projects. As we said, we expect to see good growth really come through in FY 2023. Now on slide 17 in Force Equipment. Force provide a key part strategic advantage, both in the cost and the quality of our equipment, and is central to our mid-life asset model. Force underpins our ability to acquire and rebuild mid-life assets and to maintain them at the highest level of operational performance.
This half, our internal activity was strong as we prepared equipment for deployment to customers. Demand for the Force Workshop services from external retail customers is very strong, up 20%. The quality of our work and the continuity of strong service levels underpins this solid earnings growth of 7%. Our acquisition of the line boring business, Borex, was completed in the half, and we're seeing not only the benefit of this capability, but the introduction of new retail customers. We remain positive on the outlook and continued growth in Force. On to slide 19 and a quick review of our strategy. This is not a new slide. I think it's worthy of reminding you of the pillars of our growth strategy. We'll continue to build sustainable and resilient business that generates long-term value for shareholders.
Through our balance sheet strength and strong cash flow, widening of the value proposition, being the lowest cost, highest quality provider, which is particularly important in tight markets, and to build a balanced and diversified portfolio. Slide 20 summarizes our priorities. After a number of very busy years, we've established the building blocks of our strong and well-positioned, diversified business. We are very grateful for our investors' support through these years as we've acquired and integrated businesses that enabled us to improve our core capability and widen our value proposition. We are well-positioned for growth and strong shareholder returns. To achieve these goals, we'll be focused on the following initiatives. We'll capitalize on the opportunities we're seeing in the east and deliver growth as activity levels improve in a tight market.
We'll manage the labor issues that industry faces in the West and position for margin improvement, especially as double shift projects become possible. We'll manage the extraordinary growth in Pit N Portal, ensure we execute on delivering profitability on return on capital that we have invested. We'll continue to grow Force and manage the internal rental and rental customer demand to maximize returns. Our internal capital management and maintenance capabilities are key to this success and will continue to invest here. We will grow EOS and digitize our operations. Remain committed to striking the balance between capital management and accretive growth options. We've invested in the business and positioned to deliver good earnings growth in the second half and into FY 2023. Thank you very much. We're happy to take questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Nicholas Rawlinson from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my questions. The first couple from me are on the East Coast. Met and thermal prices have been pretty high for some time now. Does it feel like that's starting to translate into higher coal volumes in Q3? Could you just comment on the supply-demand dynamic for equipment?
Yeah, Nick, thanks for your question. Yeah, look, I mentioned in the past that we're seeing our customers got confidence in the high commodity prices and particularly in coal. We haven't seen any [coal Rupert reports that hit expensive pipeline and we really are seeing that start to catch mistake on through and back again. And the pipeline of work. Right. As far as our bidding activity, we saw some momentum improvement in the Eastern region in the first half that we whacked around a little bit with floods in New South Wales and Queensland. But our team are working really hard at the moment securing some new projects. So we're feeling pretty confident. And we're also feeling that the flight command is labeled with Meckingfield.]
Thanks for that. For the coal contracts, are you seeing minimum contract hours or rates starting to increase at all?
That's been pretty steady for us. We've been pretty disciplined around minimum hours on contracts. I'd say that's pretty steady. We work closely with our customers to understand their demand. One thing that we have done as a business, Nicholas, we've really invested in people over the years.
I mean, we've grown what has been in a tight labor market from three years ago, about 300 people to just over 1,300 people now. It's a large installed workforce, and we really are quite differentiated in regards to our ability to provide maintenance services to our customers. That's what we're really focused on as we're looking at new projects in the east, is not just, you know, put the equipment in, you get in the rooms, et cetera, but how do we add value to those projects and how do we make them sustainable projects going forward for our additional maintenance services, which we feel differentiates us from our competitors.
Thanks. Just the last one on the East Coast. You mentioned utilization was impacted by weather and customers' ability to hire people. Could you estimate how much these factors impacted utilization?
Sorry, utilization? Yeah, it certainly impacted us, but I reckon it dropped a couple of million bucks of EBITDA off our East Coast earnings late in the second half, late in the third quarter. Yeah, not good for anybody. As I said, there was some good momentum building in that Eastern region business through the first half I was really quite encouraged by. We'll see that pick back up. Had a little bit of COVID absences to manage through, but particularly proud of our team and how they're managing through these opportunities. Excellent bunch of people.
Thanks. Just the last one from me. Would you mind talking to the supply-demand dynamic on the West Coast for equipment and, maybe give us some idea on the magnitude of the scope, for pricing increases going forward?
Yes. Look, supply and demand for equipment is right around the country, whether it be in the East Coast or the West Coast. The West Coast does offer us a little bit more favorable in regards to there's a bit of churn there. So there are more pricing opportunities. Long term, I don't see that there should be a differential on the margins between the East Coast and the West Coast. It's just a factor of getting into double shift projects. I mean, we are very very focused on building maintenance services to be able to get rental as a value add. So you know, you've seen our margins in the East as we progress down that path stabilize around the early 60s%.
I can see the West Coast pushing up towards that region over time as we get double shift projects in place and we tighten up our contract. Short-term utilization issues caused, you know, through labor in the West Coast, but we'll see them easing over time and we feel good about that business. We feel well positioned. Over the last couple of years, we've transferred about 60 pieces from the Eastern region to the Western region. I feel like we've used this opportunity created by COVID and the disruption of the last couple of years to really reposition our business. You know we were at 80% East Coast, 20% West Coast. The repositioning will get us to roughly 65-35 and the corresponding commodity diversification.
There's been a bit of churn and certainly some cost and impact on margin as we've moved equipment around. I'm very confident with our investment in people and the realignment of our fleet, that we've set this business up for sustained growth and balanced growth, a very healthy business moving forward.
Great. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Hamish Murray from Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, Ian, and congratulations to Thao on the new position. Can you guys hear me?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, Hamish. How you going?
Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you. Ian, just a quick one. Just the first one. You dropped out just when you said the West Coast would be pushing up towards. Did you provide a utilization number there? Just what did you say? I just missed it.
No, I was just referring to margin damage and saying that West Coast is going through some I believe short-term issues around utilization of our equipment. I think it would typically get 500 hours per month, getting 300 hours. I mean, everyone in the west is on a pretty tight pool of labor at the moment. You know, strong customers who utilize equipment very well, having to sort of, you know, recruit new operators and train them up. So that's impacting. Y ou know, we structurally, I think we're really well set up in the west to capture growth moving forward and increase utilization as these labor issues sort themselves.
Thanks. Now to the real question. Thanks for clearing that up. I just missed it. Just a quick one, I guess, on the guidance. You know, you imply that sort of implies that it's gonna step up to AUD 128 million-AUD 138 million in this second half. I was just wondering whether you could talk us through, I guess, some of the assumptions to that. You know, where you're currently running on that and how much of these fourth quarter deployments or contracts or projects that you're talking about securing come into that? You know, what are the swing factors and I guess where's the business currently running at? If you can give us any clarity.
Yeah, Hamish, I'll probably give a brief overview for you. I think it's a pretty tight range, and we're obviously confident in putting out that range and you know I like providing the market that sort of guidance. I think it's a reflection of the confidence that we've developed in this business and our ability to execute on this business. You know, outside, yeah, we've won some jobs on the east. It's the rate that we get those jobs to work and ramp them up in the west. It's assuming that this labor market will remain pretty tough. Hopefully borders will open at some point in this half, but we're certainly not factoring in you know significant flood of people coming in and helping out with the utilization issues.
We need to work through that over time. We've made some assumptions around, you know, absentees and COVID related issues. You know, we feel pretty comfortable within that range, Hamish. It's not dependent on, "Shit, we gotta win a heap of work," or anything like that. It's more around execution and management, and that's what we specialize in.
Is it fair to say that, I guess if those fourth quarter projects were secured and deployed and maybe it all went to plan, there's a bit of upside to that on those. You know, it's not contingent on going up a ramp and contingent on you landing those.
No, it's not contingent on us landing work. It's contingent on us executing that and managing COVID-related absence, season.
No worries. Just a quick question, I guess around the rental business. One, I noticed that, you know, you've added the revenues almost back to where you were pre-COVID in the second half. Yet, you know, the EBITDA is still well below. Flat AUD 17 million below. Well, what's going on there and what should we expect from margins? Because I mean, I do. If you back out the inter-segment revenue, you do get back a slight increase in margins. W hat was the inter-segment revenue as well? And are you confident you can get that AUD 15 million-AUD 17 million of EBITDA back with the current asset base?
Yeah, man, I am. Playing around with this with, doing this about Thao Pham with Thao Pham yesterday. I mean, if you look at what we've done over these last couple of years, I touched on this earlier, Hamish, you know, we've looked at. We've taken this COVID situation and the impact that COVID had on coal prices and coal demand, and we've really worked hard to reallocate this fleet. We were a bit heavy east coast to west coast. It was about 80%, 20%. Now, we've moved about 60 large assets. We've worn the cost and the churn of that. That's impacted our earnings and our margins. I mean, if coal prices are gone, maybe we should have sat it there and waited it out.
I do feel like what we've done and the way we've managed this and the work that we've done to position this sets us up for the long-term sustainability and sustainable growth of this business with the regional and commodity and customer diversification. I think our run rate coming through the second half will close that gap of getting back to earnings. I think we'll recover back to where we were in sort of peak rental around that sort of in FY 2023 into 2024. It'll be a much more sustainable well-positioned, more diversified business. Margins. Look, margins reflect there's a couple issues there. I mean, you know, the churn and the cost of transportation, et cetera, certainly has impacted the west.
I mean, you've seen margins in the east come down a bit but stabilize. This reflects where we're going with this business. Hamish, we've grown this workforce from, you know, 300 in the last two to three years in a tough labor market. You know, our model is to acquire mid-life equipment and rebuild it with excellence through Force, have a cost advantage on our competition in our life cycle cost of our equipment, and then also have a real value proposition and skilled people on putting gear out to work and managing that gear and managing the risk of that equipment and the availability of that equipment. That does have an impact on margins versus us just putting it out there and letting customers maintain their own equipment.
We're all about sustainable growth and value add, contributing to our customers' projects. For us, it's around return on capital, mate. That's what we focus on. If we add some additional services on top of our equipment, the headline EBITDA margin might come down a bit but you know what you find is that the project tenure and sustainability and sustainable growth of the business is a real focus we're looking at.
Just on the AUD 8 million of intercompany, that's the first time we've seen a big charge like that come through the rental business. Where were the assets going? Or was that maintenance to Force or was it the rental going through Pit N Portal?
Pit N Portal done a couple of open cut projects, and Emeco Western region renting into Pit N Portal. It's actually really interesting for us, mate. You know, you talk about labor being a limiting issue in the west at the moment. Pit N Portal doing some open cut work in addition to the underground just provides that customer that increased value again. Pit N Portal's operating capability combined with our our equipment ability to maintain equipment and our and our EOS production technology I think is a pretty interesting combination for us and certainly a value add for customers in a tight labor market.
Yeah, I'm conscious that I've asked a few questions, so I'll just ask the two last ones, just all as one, and you can answer them both as quickly as you like. O ne, you know, you're guiding that you know, you expect some growth in Pit N Portal top line, but really a stabilization and growth and margins to improve strongly in FY 2023. Can you give us any sense of where that falls between where we're at right now, which is 13%. You've given us a lot of clarity that you expected those high startup costs to come, so that's fine. W here we were, you know, twelve months ago at 26%, where you expect those margins to land even a range.
The second question would just be, you know, you'd be having strong cash flow even now come through in the first six weeks. How does that impact, you know, how you spend that cash flow in a sense of, I guess, reinvestment in growth versus buybacks from here?
Thanks, Hamish. Mate, Pit N Portal, look, it's achieved fantastic growth. I mean, if you look at its 40-odd% growth between H1 and H2 2021 and then H2 2022, 48% growth in revenue. It's an unrecognizable business from what we bought. You know, if you look at the absolute growth in revenue, if you look at the distribution between rental projects and services projects, it's a very different business as well. I'm really proud of it and I'm really excited by it. I consider it to be our growth engine. As I said, we focus on return on capital, right? Pit N Portal business at the moment, return on capital is not where it should be. It's around 14%, right?
It needs to be 20%. It'll be 20%, I reckon, in FY 2023. That's from part of return on capital, right? Now, when you do the projects that Pit N Portal are doing versus a rental business, you've got that much more additional services, particularly underground people and activities that you perform. So we tend to look at what the ratio between, you know, revenue and installed capital is. It's pushing up to around that, you know, the time. So we, you know, for us, we think that to achieve our return on capital targets, Pit N Portal needs to be, I think towards 20 EBITDA. That's what we're targeting. The 26 that you saw a couple of years ago, a high proportion of rental.
We've allocated those rental fleets into the services fleet, aligned with our strategy. We're getting a long tenure, it's all about sustainable growth. If you look at, you know, the way it's impacted our commodity diversification and what that allowed Emeco to do with a refinance a few months ago, I think it's been really good for us. I'm excited by this business.
I understand the margins are a little low at the moment, but, you know, when you think that we recruited 180 people in the last six months into projects in Western Australia, into what could be the tightest labor market ever here, and we've grown this thing from a revenue perspective, so far, I'm confident that the strong team that we've put in place will get those returns on those assets where it needs to be moving forward. Sorry, I'm just long-winded answering. First question. Second question.
Capital allocation, mate. We're always looking at the optimal way to allocate our capital. It's always a balance for us. What is the best use of capital? I'd like to think that defines us moving forward. We look at, you know, the options in front of us, whether it's dividends, whether it's buybacks or if it's investing in growth. We run a very diligent process to assess how we manage our capital.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Mitchell Sonogan from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Ian. Good morning, Thao. Thanks for taking the questions. Apologies if these have been asked. I jumped on a bit late, but just talking about Pit N Portal, you've put some pretty good guidance in there. Can you maybe just dig a little bit deeper into some of the major contracts that you have been ramping up and heading towards reduction? Is it possible just to get a bit of an update on how they're progressing? Obviously hiring 140 net new positions is pretty positive, but maybe just a bit of an update of what's happening at those material contracts for P&P. Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Mitch. How you doing, man? I don't wanna jump into any details, sort of customer by customer. We've got a good blend of contracts at the moment, a good blend of responsibility through. I'm taking a little bit of production risk versus cost price. I think it's a well-diversified customer base and risk. You know, there's projects which certainly in their development phase and our rates and our profitability change when they hit production. Overall I'm you know, we've invested significantly in the Pit N Portal team. You know, it it's we've got some very capable business people into this business from an operational and an engineering and a commercial perspective. I'm happy the way that we're managing those projects.
I think our customers are being very constructive with us, particularly around escalating labor costs. I'm very grateful and thankful for how open they've been as we look to pass on some of those labor costs to them. Yeah, I'm feeling good about this Pit N Portal business. I mean, you know, it's a big business. There's lots of moving parts, lots of people that take a lot of management. You know, the investment and development of the team has been really positive.
Yeah, thanks. You did mention about the pricing improvements expectations in the west. Again, over on the East Coast, just what are you seeing over here in the current environment, and with the conversations with the customers? Any update there would be good.
Yeah, mate. Well, in the east, as you know, it came off for us. We correlated and COVID. The Pit N Portal team has done an excellent job to stabilize that business. We've transferred quite a few assets out of there. I saw a really good improvement in momentum in the first half, which was derailed a bit with a few cuts. The team is certainly bidding a lot of work at the moment. They're putting through some good solid pricing and, yeah, I feel good about that business going forward. As I mentioned, Mitch, we're really focusing on projects where we can add value through, you know, the maintenance services that we provide along with the equipment.
Yep. Thanks. Just maybe final one, just touching on the workshops there, pretty decent growth again in the external revenues there. Is that sort of a pretty consistent growth rate that we should expect, like somewhere around that sort of 10% or so? Like, is that reflective of just being able to recruit and train enough staff to keep it at a manageable level? Just any sort of guidance on the medium-term outlook there of how you think about growing that business would be great. Thank you.
Mate, that Force business is crucial to us, mate. It really is somewhat the secret sauce in regard to giving us a competitive advantage, you know. Being able to buy mid-life equipment and send it out operating really well while having that sort of cost advantage is really important for us. You know, it's a bit of a you know, how do you balance it out between really keeping all that capacity for our fleet, you know, whether it be our rental equipment or underground equipment, versus taking on customers' rebuild work. I like the rebuild work. I like the proportion of it. I think it keeps them fit.
You know, if they have to go out and compete for work and do the works for customers, it means that they're not getting a bit soft with too much internal work. I encourage and promote that. That growth, you'll see that, it's probably a little bit capacity limited at the moment. The guys are doing a bit of work on how you reallocate some equipment and some services around a couple of different workshops in the west, which I think which is clever what they're doing. It'll unlock a bit of a bottleneck.
It might limit growth a touch in the second half, but it'll come through in FY 2023. Yeah, it's a very good business and, I'm really proud of it. You'll see that over the long term continue to grow and then we'll continue to invest in it. It is our, you know, secret sauce. It is our competitive advantage.
Excellent. Thanks. That's all for me.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Testrow for closing remarks.
Thanks everyone for dialing in. I mentioned in one of my comments and slides that we appreciate our investors. We appreciate the support of our investors over time, particularly the way investors have supported us through some of our acquisitions and initiatives. We're working really hard to position this business for sustainable and disciplined growth moving forward. I thank you all for your support and thanks for dialing in.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.