I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. John Klepec, Chairman. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to the first half results for FY 2026 for Fleetwood. Joining me today, I'll be here for the questions at the end. Joining me today, Andrea Pidcock, who's our new CEO, who a lot of you on the call will get to meet over the coming weeks and months, and also Cate Chandler, who most of you have already met, CFO of the company. I hand over to Andrea, who will take us through the beginning of the presentation, and then Cate will delve into the financials, and then we'll come back, talk about strategy and outlook, and then we'll come back at the end for anyone who wants to have a discussion in Q&A. Over to you, Andrea.
Thank you, John. Thank you to everyone for joining us today as we present Fleetwood's FY 2026 half year results and provide an update on the business outlook. My name is Andrea Pidcock, and this is my first results briefing as Fleetwood's CEO. It's my great pleasure to be with you today. I'd like to start by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, who are the traditional owners of the Sydney CBD area, where we are calling you from. We pay our respects to their elders and to the traditional owners of all the lands where we operate across Australia. This is week four for me, and over the past few weeks, I've been focused on getting to know the business, meeting our teams, visiting our operations and customers, and gaining an understanding of our opportunities and challenges.
What I've seen so far reinforces my confidence in Fleetwood's people and capability, the quality of our products, the strength of our brands, and the great potential we have ahead of us. I'm joined today by our Chief Financial Officer, Cate Chandler, and together we'll take you through the results and the key focus areas across the business. Turning now to our vision, purpose, and values. Although I've not yet had much time in Fleetwood, it's already clear to me that these provide a strong foundation for the business and our future direction. Our vision, to be the leader in reimagining sustainable spaces, is anchored by five core values. Zero harm to our people and the environment. Collaboration, recognizing that we're better when we work together. Integrity, making sure that we say what we do and we do what we say. Accountability, holding ourselves and others to account. Innovation, we grow through innovation.
These values play a crucial role in building a positive and performance-oriented culture at Fleetwood. All of this aligns with our overarching purpose, to create innovative spaces where people can thrive. With our well-defined set of values, a clear vision and a compelling purpose, I believe we're well positioned to deliver lasting value. For those of you who are less familiar with Fleetwood, let me provide a brief overview of the business. Fleetwood operates through three divisions: Community Solutions, Building Solutions, and RV or Recreational Vehicle Solutions.
Community Solutions develops and manages accommodation villages. We own and operate Searipple, a major transient worker accommodation facility in Karratha, and manage Osprey, an affordable housing village for key workers in Port Hedland, both in the Pilbara region in Western Australia. This outstanding business consistently delivers robust returns and positions us to capitalize on the significant growth projected in WA's northwest. Building Solutions is recognized as Australia's largest modular manufacturer, with seven factories nationwide, providing us with substantial manufacturing capacity. In this division, we design, manufacture, supply and install modular buildings for a diverse range of sectors, including educational, custodial, mining, defense, commercial, recreational, and housing segments across Australia. RV Solutions represents our heritage. Fleetwood has been innovating in the caravan and camping sector for more than 60 years.
On February the 18th this year, we completed the sale of the Northern RV business, which provides plumbing services to the RV market. We retain Camec as a leading supplier of parts and accessories for caravans, campervans, and motorhomes, as well as a trusted provider of aftermarket products to recreational vehicles across Australia and New Zealand. Moving to our overview slides, we show some of the highlights of the first half of this financial year. In the first half, we achieved an increase in both NPAT and underlying EBIT compared to the same period in the prior year. Our net profit after tax was $8.6 million, an increase of $3.9 million from the prior funding period. Underlying EBIT, excluding RVS restructuring costs of $4.8 million, increased slightly by $0.2 million to $18.5 million.
Searipple had very high occupancy of 95% in the first half, compared with 71% over the same period in the prior year, and contracted occupancy for the rest of the year continues to be strong, giving us a full year occupancy of 96%. In Building Solutions, our order book is strong, up AUD 20 million on the prior year at AUD 157 million. The current dividend policy to pay 100% of NPAT in dividends remains unchanged and will be paying a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.095 per share. Reflecting Fleetwood's focus on active capital management and supported by its strong balance sheet, we also announced today that we will undertake an on-market share buyback of up to AUD 5 million over the next 12 months.
Looking at our underlying EBIT by business over time highlights the exceptional performance of our Community Solutions business, particularly over the last three halves. RVS also had a stronger half, returning to underlying profitability. Building Solutions was challenged by continuing weakness in New South Wales and the timing of major projects in Queensland, where there was a gap between the completion of past projects and the commencement of new projects currently underway. Now I'm going to hand over to Cate to take you through the financial and segment results in more detail.
Thank you, Andrea, and a very warm welcome to Fleetwood. Good afternoon, everyone, but of course, good morning to Perth. Moving on to our financial results. The group revenue for the half was AUD 229 million. This was impacted by lower revenue in Building Solutions and RV Solutions, but this was offset by stronger occupancy in Community Solutions. Our net profit after tax was AUD 8.6 million, a AUD 3.9 million improvement or 84% improvement on the first half last year. As a reminder, underlying EBIT excludes from both years the restructuring and impairments incurred as part of the closure of RV Solutions and manufacturing and site consolidation in Victoria. These are outlaid in more detail in the appendix to this presentation. For the half, underlying EBIT was AUD 18.5 million, AUD 200,000 above last year.
The improvements we saw in Community Solutions, RV Solutions, and corporate costs were offset by a decline in Building Solutions. At a headline level, Community Solutions EBIT increased AUD 6.6 million, reflecting the impact of the occupancy uplift to 95%. Building Solutions, however, declined to AUD 8.7 million, principally due to materially softer revenue in New South Wales and delays in project commencements in Queensland. RV Solutions returned to profitability, and EBIT improved by AUD 1.4 million, reflecting the benefit of closing the manufacturing operations and improved aftermarket performance. Corporate costs were lower by AUD 900,000 due to higher income related to the closure of a historical share scheme and lower share-based payment expenses. Turning now to cash flow and capital management.
Free cash flow for the half was a negative AUD 7.8 million, primarily due to working capital outflows. This will unwind in the second half as project cycles and progress payments normalize in Building Solutions. Net capital expenditure in the half of AUD 3.1 million was directed towards upgrades at Searipple in Karratha to improve guest amenities, including Wi-Fi, laundries, and common facilities. We closed the half with AUD 30.7 million in cash and continue to maintain a very solid balance sheet and prudent capital management approach. Consistent with the dividend policy to pay 100% of net profit after tax, an interim fully frank dividend of AUD 0.095 per share was declared.
This dividend is AUD 0.02 per share lower than the first half last year, as last year's interim dividend ignored the non-cash impact of the AUD 6 million goodwill impairment on net profit after tax. Going forward, the board have reconfirmed the dividend policy in FY 2026 will be to pay 100% net profit after tax. As part of our active capital management, the Fleetwood board has approved the recommencement of the on-market buyback of up to AUD 5 million of ordinary shares over the next 12 months. This reflects the board's confidence in the company's financial strength, balance sheet, and outlook. Turning now to our segments. Community Solutions continues to be an absolute standout performer. Searipple occupancy of 95% in the first half was driven by contracted room nights from our three major customers, Rio Tinto, Woodside, and SCJV.
The EBIT operating leverage, however, was slightly impacted by a higher physical occupancy of the village and less vacant rooms, as accommodation options in Karratha region tighten for transient worker accommodation. Our upgrades to the common areas and rollout of the high-speed internet have further strengthened Searipple's facilities and competitiveness in a tight accommodation market. The Osprey Village in Port Hedland remains fully occupied, with a waiting list of 40 - 50 tenants, highlighting strong demands for quality, affordable housing in the Pilbara. Turning now to Building Solutions, that had a challenging first half due to the decline in revenue. This was significantly due to New South Wales and project delays in Queensland, which impacted the recognition of revenue. All other states, however, delivered double-digit revenue growth, demonstrating the benefit of Fleetwood's diversified geographic and sector footprint.
Gross margins improved slightly half on half, although the reduction in revenue meant fixed costs could not be offset, highlighting the impact of lower revenues on profitability. The order book, however, at the end of December, remained very healthy at AUD 157 million, up from AUD 137 million in December last year and AUD 100 million in June 2025, positioning second half FY 2026 for improved performance. RV Solutions pleasingly returned to profitability and on an underlying basis, following the site consolidation of Victoria and the closure of local manufacturing. The restructuring costs incurred in the first half were AUD 4.8 million. This completes the closure of the local manufacturing and the site consolidation, and no further restructuring costs are expected.
While the decision to close manufacturing was a difficult one, the turnaround in results highlights the impact that manufacturing had on earnings. For further context, the loss of manufacturing operations across the first four months of FY 2026 alone was $900,000. The revenue decline of 8% reflects reduced revenue from discontinued product lines, specifically sandwich panels and aluminium frames, which are no longer being manufactured at slightly lower OEM. Pleasingly, the aftermarket business traded profitably across all branches, supported by product innovation and an aftermarket of over 1 million RVs across Australia and New Zealand. I will now turn back to Andrea to take you through our strategy and outlook.
Thanks, Cate. Firstly, in Community Solutions, our strategy is to optimize the value of Searipple, this fantastic asset that we have, across the cycle, and secure base occupancy with key clients, supplementing with additional accommodation for major shuts and capital works. This really requires continued investment in upgrades to make sure that we capitalize on our central Karratha location and remain the best accommodation option for the large transient workforce. We're also looking to develop further opportunities to leverage synergies between Community Solutions and Building Solutions. The outlook for Community Solutions continues to be strong, with FY 2026 contracted occupancy of 96%, with some further room availability in June. FY 2027 already has 55% of room nights contracted, with opportunity for additional occupancy due to ongoing activity and limited supply in the area. Osprey continues to have a waiting list for tenants.
In Building Solutions, our strategy is to build a larger and more diverse customer base in our key segments, including housing, education, defense, and resources and energy. We're focused on accelerating the transformation from builder to manufacturer, which will bring significant benefits in building better, faster, and more efficiently. We're looking to simplify and standardize systems and processes to support sustained growth. We believe we can achieve a target 20% return on our current return on capital employed within the next two years. Our order book of AUD 157 million is up AUD 20 million from the same period last year and will underpin a stronger second half. We also have a solid pipeline of opportunities with AUD 200 million in tenders submitted. 65% of our Building Solutions revenue comes from panel work across education, housing, and commercial sectors.
That's not only repeat work, it's also quicker to activate and turn into revenue. As I said, we are expecting second half to be stronger than the first half, with full-year revenue down around 5%-10% on FY 2025. In RV Solutions, we sold the NRV Plumbing Services business as a going concern in February for $4.85 million. Camec will continue to operate as a leading distributor of caravan and camping parts and accessories to OEMs, wholesale to retailers and trade customers, and direct to consumers through our own stores and online channels. The business has been restructured after the closure of local manufacturing and in response to the market headwinds the sector is facing. Further decline in the local OEM market is expected, largely due to increasing pressure from imports.
The aftermarket is strong, with over 1 million RVs in Australia and New Zealand. The sale of NRV will unlock capital of around AUD 3.5 million, and the second half will record the residual as profit on sale. In summary, Fleetwood achieved a first half EBIT of AUD 18.5 million and will pay a AUD 0.095 dividend. We've also announced an on-market buyback of up to AUD 5 million over the next 12 months. In Community Solutions, we expect the full-year occupancy of Searipple to be 96%, underpinning strong earnings. FY 2027 already has 55% of room nights contracted, with strong activity in the region underpinning further opportunity. In Building Solutions, our order book of AUD 157 million will support a stronger second half while we accelerate our work to streamline and standardize operations, systems, and processes.
Our full-year revenue is expected to be between 5% and 10% below last year. In RV Solutions, the sale of the Northern RV Plumbing business will liberate around AUD 3.5 million in capital and deliver a residual profit in the second half. Camec has returned to profitability and is focused on growing sales in the aftermarket to offset continuing decline in the local OEM market. I would like to thank all of the employees of Fleetwood and our customers and our suppliers for their continued commitment to our business. We now have time for questions. Given that I'm so new to the business, I may rely on Cate to help with some of the answers.
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 Gavin Allen with Euroz Hartleys.
Good afternoon, Andrea and Cate, and perhaps John, not sure if he's on the call or not. Thanks for all of that. Just a quick one from me. A couple of things. Searipple, you talk about reinvesting into that business, and also, you know, call it 55% utilization heading into 2027, which is a good start. Perhaps the idea that you're looking to reinvest in that facility would suggest that you see opportunity to sort of further contract rooms over the course of 2027, over the, over to 2026. Would that be fair? Perhaps where do you see those opportunities?
Yeah. Hi, Gav. Good morning. You're in Perth.
Good morning. I am.
Thank you for getting up early. Yeah, a good question. FY 2027 currently has contracted rooms of 55%, and that comprises the tail of the Rio Tinto contract after the April 2027. It involves-
Yep.
... a minor work shutdown in one of the months with, I think, Woodside. We are expecting to have greater line of sight over what additional rooms will be taken. What we are seeing at the current time is Rio Tinto are taking somewhere between 100-200 additional rooms on top of their standard 800 on a monthly basis. We expect that that will continue for some time. The other observation we've made recently is we have got greater physical occupancy up there. That indicates that there's actually more people up there. They're not just blocking out rooms for the optionality, but they've actually got real, live projects and work going on there. We're expecting to start some conversations with all three of our major customers around expanding their contracted room bank for FY 2027.
Yeah, gotcha. Stay tuned, but you would expect occupancy to sort of, or line of sight on occupancy to start to sort of, creep up over the course of the second half, like from more of that?
Absolutely. I mean, clearly by August we'll have a much better line of sight, but as you move into it, we don't have, acknowledging that the Rio contract ends 10 months into the financial year for 2027, we expect we'll be talking to people, others around having a longer tenure of rooms in that period.
True.
If I could chip in there, Good dday, that number assumes that Rio leaves in May and June. Hence,
Yeah, right.
If you average the number just to April, it's a lot higher than 55%. With every Look, with the discussions I've had with all the investors, everyone thinks or is, you know, has got a mentality of everything falls off a cliff. Those rooms have to go somewhere into Karratha. Come the end of the contract, they either stay with us or they go somewhere else. It's ours to lose effectively, so I wouldn't be too pessimistic, and in your models or whatever, forecast, you know, dropping off the edge of a cliff.
Yeah, yeah. Great.
Yeah, Gavin-
Good call.
We regularly, yeah, Gav, we regularly test that. You know, we get, there's research done on construction work and what's happening in Karratha, and we're doing it with another place. We don't want to believe our own homework. We want to be sure that we're making the right investment decisions if we do keep investing in that area.
Yeah. Absolutely, cool. Just quickly on Building Solutions, just fleshing out New South Wales, it's been challenging for a period of time now. Is that, how do we think about that in terms of it being activity or execution or bid margin or all of the above? Like, what are the key challenges in that specific spot for you?
Obviously, New South Wales is a huge construction and building market and should have a lot of opportunity. I'm gonna say, you know, I've worked in building products across a number of different businesses. New South Wales has always been a really big, profitable market for us. To me, I just want to understand a lot more about, you know, how much of the challenge that we have is because we don't have the right solution, we're not targeting the right segments, really understand where the market is.
I know that there is less penetration of modular in New South Wales than in some of the other states, and that surprises me a bit because, you know, if there's one thing I know, it's that New South Wales does get choked up with delays and time. I would have thought that the speed to market and the, you know, the offer of modular would work, but I don't see, you know, there is that lower penetration. I think we've really got to understand what the story is in more detail. I think that making sure that we're targeting the right segments with the right offer is going to be critical for the success.
Yeah, gotcha. Makes sense. Then just finally from me, just the timing issue you talked about in Queensland, that has now subsequently resolved itself, I take it, into the second half?
It has, yes.
Not. Yep.
Yep.
Yeah, perfect. Okay, thanks for that, guys. No doubt we'll be in touch. I'll hand it on.
Thanks, Gav.
Your next question comes from Caleb Weng with PAC Partners.
Hey, guys. Let's start off with our Building Solutions. It's the AUD 215 million, do you kind of expect that all to convert to revenue in the second half or?
Caleb, it's Cate here. I'll take that question. The AUD 215 million, we had an order intake, to clarify with the question, of AUD 215 million in first half. We closed the half with AUD 157 million work in hand. We actually consumed some of that AUD 215 in that half, so it's not a perfect plug-and-play match, but what you can see is that if you compare it back to June, closing order bank of AUD 100 million, that was AUD 50 million up. We're expecting our second half 2026 revenue to be not as high as, but it's to be higher than the first half by quite a bit. As we've guided that the revenue for the full year will be about 5%-10% lower than FY 2025.
Yep, just to maybe the mar- some color on the marg-.
Yeah.
on that.
Sorry, Caleb. Sorry, I've just had a note passed to me. We also got awarded SP3 for BHP just the other day, which is a further AUD 15 million, for the Olympic Dam project, in South Australia. That's also added to that order bank.
Yep, and maybe the margin profile of that, some color on that?
All of?
The margins.
The margins, EBIT margin or gross profit or both?
Just EBIT.
Look, I think EBIT is a function of the revenue, so if we do have higher revenues, then we will, sorry to stumble on my words. The GP will it is stable, and 'cause we're not doing loss-making products, it's really a function of deferring fixed costs. If we do have a revenue slump, it is really hard to lose sites and close them, impair them. It's just not even a possibility for us. We really do need to grow the revenue on the top line. If we're guiding between AUD 170 million-AUD 190 million in revenue in second half, if we do have that, we should do a healthy EBIT in the second half.
Yeah. Your first half revenue was actually quite similar to your second half last year. The margins was quite a bit weaker. Is that just due to the geography mix, where New South Wales really, I guess, ate up a lot of fixed cost base and just didn't deliver much and therefore was a bit weaker in terms of margins or?
Correct. You're right. It was about 150 for each half, second half last year, first half this year. Correct. Again, it was a little bit of a function of, the gross profit was just tiny bit lower, it was again, a function of fixed costs. We had, we'd committed some fixed costs that we couldn't defray, in the first half of this year. Correct.
Okay, gotcha. On RV Solutions, if now that's all that's really left is a pure player retailer, Camec, is that still for sale, or would you still, is that?
Look, I think, we've done a lot of work, right-sizing RV Solutions. We've completely closed the manufacturing, like you say. We've sold the plumbing business, and we're now a pure play distributor of retail accessories, to the RV market. We, and on that basis, I think that there's probably a more natural owner than us out there. Of course, I think if I'm speaking to out of school, this is in our official materials, I think if there was a reasonable offer, a serious contender who wanted to be and was a more natural owner, we would definitely consider, an exit from that business.
Maybe some color on the annualized sort of revenue of what's, you know, of Camec.
Left over? Yeah. Yeah, no, good question. The obviously, the NRV plumbing business had a turnover of about AUD 14 million-AUD 15 million, so the left, the remaining Camec business will be smaller, but we do expect it to remain profitable.
Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's all for me. Thanks, guys.
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 Justin Fris with Business News.
Hi, guys, just a quick one. Just in relation to Searipple, just with two modern camps being under construction in Karratha, are you concerned that Searipple might struggle to attract clients who are demanding more higher-spec facilities? If and when will you pull the trigger on the planned redevelopment, please?
Justin, we're aware of the. You talking, referring to the Rangers village?
Yeah. yeah, Searipple, and just, you know, just in relation to the 55% occupancy in 2027 that you talked about earlier.
I just want to get some context around the two, the two competing camps that are being built. I understand Rangers has been built for the SCJV, joint venture.
Yeah, I've just been advised that there's a couple of construction camps being built there.
The other one is more akin to a caravan-
Caravan park.
... caravan park than a FIFO type, village accommodation.
Yeah. I think that's the Discovery Parks site.
Okay, I'm just going off what I've been provided. My apologies.
Yeah. Look, we always stay abreast of that, and we're like I responded to Gavin earlier, we do look at the demand. What are the projects that are on there? There's a lot going on out there at the moment. There's upgrades, there's desal plants, there's maintenance work, there's all sorts of different things, and that we've got long-term train drivers that stay with us, and we work closely with Rio Tinto, balancing their accommodation needs as well. We do look at those as well, and we're look, SCJV is going to run out for a lot longer, and it's going to run out for longer than our current Rio contract .
We're cognizant of that, and we keep an eye on that, and we're working really closely with both Woodside and with Rio, and we've developed prototype rooms for them and their needs, should they wish to underpin a longer-term contract with us in the future.
Awesome. Thanks.
Your next question comes from James Wilson with PAC Partners.
Hi there, team. I'm just wondering, with Community Solutions, you talked about Searipple expansion. You have in the past mentioned expansion opportunities elsewhere. I think also on the call, you said that, I can't remember the exact terminology, but Osprey was people were lining up to get in, or you had a wait list for Osprey. Is there an opportunity to expand Osprey and any other, I suppose, Community Solutions opportunities?
We haven't expressed, that we're expanding Searipple.
Oh, sorry.
W e're actually looking at what is the demand profile up there, because if we are to make a decision, we want it to be based on some kind of facts as opposed to the current economic cycles are going up and down. Osprey is interesting, we, you know, we're the manager of that. We don't own that site.
Yeah.
Yeah, there is opportunities in that space. They probably more so are aligned to Building Solutions. Servicing, because they initially built Osprey many years ago. Those opportunities do exist because there are a couple of sites that have been earmarked by the council for development to meet those needs.
You couldn't do a build, own, op, operate type thing up for the council, you don't think, or?
Those opportunities are out there. I don't want to get you too excited, James.
Oh, yeah. Okay.
We certainly do have those conversations, with those councils in Port Hedland.
Yep. Okay. Okay. any other, sort of, yeah, say, expansion opportunities in Community Solutions that, or that you can talk about or just give us a rough, you know, feel for?
I think you can say we're always looking out for the opportunities where it makes sense and where we can partner with people around development. There's a lot of need, getting the solution right and the package right for that. We absolutely remain alert to those opportunities.
Just to reinforce, we are validating the demand and everything that is going off there with a deep dive at the moment to understand what does that opportunity look like and what would those investments look like if they were real.
Yep, yep, yeah, that makes sense. Makes sense. Oh, thank you. All from me.
Your next question comes from Tim McArthur with Asymmetric Asset Management.
Hi, Andrea and Cate. You can hear me?
Yeah.
Hi. Yes.
Hi. Just one question on Searipple and then a couple of questions on Building Solutions, please. Can you just clarify, there was a comment made that because Rio Tinto runs through to April 2027, there's much higher occupancy, but through the year, it's at 55%. If you were to give occupancy for the first half of FY 2027, what would that look like, please?
64%. 64%- 65%?
65%.
That's a contract, that's a contracted number.
That's a contracted number.
We have, you know, the rooms that actually will, you know, that's the base, that's that 64% just assumes Rio only.
Right. Sure.
Obviously, there's, there are others that go on that between now and then, you'd expect to contract additional rooms on top of that.
Yeah.
We're only quoting what we've got, what we got contracted in the hand.
Yeah.
Yes.
I mean, I think we're in a really unique period. Running at 95% occupancy is incredibly unique. We don't think that will go on for the next five years.
Sure.
There's clearly a lot of demand just at this very moment in time.
Yep. Okay. Are there any other major projects, sort of on the horizon that sort of, I guess, equal what Rio Tinto's provided over the last year and a half, year or two, so?
Yeah, there is. I mean, there's always the Suez desal plant up there that is slated to start in FY 2028, and I guess a AUD 5 billion desal plant for the Karratha region. That's probably the largest construction one we're aware of, but at the moment, we're just validating all of those DAs and construction facts with the council.
A lot of the Rio requirement is their base need, isn't it? Around the transmitter component of their workforce up there. That doesn't kind of go away. It then gets supplemented by those additional big projects and capital works and major shuts. There's a lot of operations up there, and they have these regular major shuts. We just have to, as Cate said, we're gonna do a bit of a deep dive into what's scheduled and what's planned so that we really understand the demand profile.
Great. Okay.
It's very busy up there at the moment.
That's good to hear. On to Building Solutions. You singled out the Olympic Dam win, which is great, that you've had. Can you talk just, I guess, in general terms about the tailwinds that are out there over the next few years for Building Solutions? You're obviously still winning work in terms of that sort of camp-style building that Fleetwood's known for. In terms of pivoting into affordable housing, so a more highly spec'd sort of manufactured home, are you winning much work in that space, and how are you positioned to, for that, please?
I'll take that on because I was just up in Queensland last week, where I met with the minister after seeing a presentation at the National Press Club from the Premier. There's a lot of work going on. They have a huge requirement to unlock a lot of housing, including affordable housing, social housing, we've actually won a lot of that work, and we were actually up there to see off five houses going to Dalby under their QBuild program. We've also won quite a lot of additional work up there, and they do see modular as a really critical part of the solution to be able to get those that pipeline pushed out faster.
I would say we're successful in that affordable housing, the social housing, we've won work there. We've done the same thing, I think, in WA. We've got quite a good underlying presence in lifestyle village housing. It's a capability that we definitely have, and we can win the work. There is a huge demand, but the real kind of... A lot of other governments have been a bit slower to respond to it than the Queensland government, you know, we expect that to start coming through, but we haven't seen a lot of it land on our opportunity list as yet.
Just a bit of context. Our WA business, I know everyone might think it's a mining camp business, but 50% of that would be housing, across lifestyle, but also, Department of Housing.
Yeah, we're a big player.
We're a big, really big player in WA, so.
WA be your biggest market in percentage terms, like being 50% that you're providing?
It is, yeah. Look, every one of the states has their own little unique sect, segments and sectors, you know. Victoria might be a very big education state, but they all have their different things they do, which are, we call their boulders, rocks, and pebbles, but, housing is definitely a boulder in WA.
Just to be clear, that's not 50%, Cate's not saying that's 50% of the market, that we're not 50% of the WA market. What she's saying is, 50% is non-resources, camp related. The automatic thinking is, as per your question, was that Fleetwood is a majority, you know, accommodation camps, for the resource companies across Australia. Yes, that is a major part of the business, but it's not the majority. WA, everyone defaults that all we're doing is doing camps in the north. That's not correct. You know, we've just got, you know, contracts with the Department of Housing, for houses, in WA. We've been doing, you know-
Doing schools again.
Schools, education.
In WA as well.
The flavor to add on to what's been said, it's the in-situ is the competitor here. It's not so much the other modular builders. The in-situ is the main competitor of the modular in Australia, and all the states are different. One of the reasons why New South Wales has been particularly difficult is because that's the state with the least take-up of modular. The in-situ market here in New South Wales, I'm saying here because I'm sitting in the room here, is particularly high. The aim for Fleetwood is to penetrate more against in-situ builder and provide the faster time to completion than against the in-situ.
That's where the pie can be, and that's where, you know, the upside is for the company, is the revenue base is not against us pinching it off the competitors. It's about us taking it off the in-situ builders, 'cause construction market in Australia is strong. It's just about us with our competitors in the modular space, growing that, growing the pie, so the modular, the modular take of the total construction spent in Australia increases and gets more aligned to what it is in other countries in the world. Australia is a laggard.
Yep. No, thanks for that explanation. In terms of like, you've called out work one, as you normally do, is the turnaround time generally within 12 months? So you're only getting contracted less than 12 months out on these modular builds? Is that fair?
It's, I'm gonna say for the most part, yes. If it's high, it's got a high level of design and uniqueness, it might be longer. If you take something out of our repeatable work in Victoria, that probably has a really low level of design. If you got an order today, they'd be probably having it on the factory floor on Friday. It depends on the mix of work, but for the most part, our order bank gets consumed quite quickly within six to nine m onths.
Yep. Do you get sort of, obviously, the contract is what you're sort of calling out when you give work one, but do es the conversation start, say, with the Department of Education many months prior to that? Obviously, the planning which goes in is a lot longer than the turnaround time, which is very quick for Fleetwood. Do you not have that line of sight? Do you just get the order when they need it, as opposed to it being part of the discussion as they're planning their builds?
There is a bit of a pattern to the. We're speaking now specifically about education and where they come from Victoria and in Queensland. There is a bit of a pattern to when they come in because they are typically geared towards getting them ready for day one, term one, or they'll have a specific relocatable program in Victoria. We've worked with them for over 20 years, and it's repeatable revenue that keeps coming at us, so there is a lot of sight, and there is some key account management at the front line with the staff around how that comes through. It's just, it's quite, it's quite a unique situation where you might not have a contractor, but it might land this afternoon, and it starts next week.
We have a portion of our work that is like that, and then we have a portion of work which we tender and win and over a longer period, which is far more traditional in this area.
Okay. The previous caller just made a comment about second half of FY 2025 to the first half of FY 2026 being similar revenue at lower margin. Could you just that you made a comment, Cate, I think the word you said, fixed costs that you couldn't defray. Can you just explain a bit more what those fixed costs were in this half, which led to that margin erosion? I guess as a follow-on question to that, going forward, are you looking to sort of flex business in terms of cutting some costs out based on sort of where revenue's at?
Do you just have to wear that lower margin, which you've incurred in the first half because you sort of need to keep the cost base for the future?
Good question. Good pick up. Look, I think a couple of things happened. We geared up with some strategic things that we were working on. We added some additional headcount. That hasn't extracted any value for us yet. We'll be focused on doing that. That's in the streamlining some of our business out. We expect to extract value from that. One of the other things we got some higher costs was in leases. One of our leases renewed. It was at a higher cost base in the second half of last year. It's just one of those things we can't do too much about that.
The gross profit was slightly lower, half on half, but it can jump around, because it's such a big revenue number, it can have an impact of a couple of million dollars. What we're, Andrea and I are really focused on now is making sure that we can actually centralize a few more of the costs so that we can take the lumps out of the business. The business has had a, I guess a preference to running like a federated model, and that's not very efficient, particularly when our business can be lumpy. We need to put centralized support services and costs in low-cost locations. These can be in Australia, and also look for other more simplified ways of running the business to take the lumps out.
When these things do happen, we are able to defray fixed costs, and this could be varializing or even, some of our design or our estimating or even, using, you know, using AI in the estimating space. We're looking and exploring all of those things to make some of the cost base a little bit more variable. We can't do too much about our rent. That is what it is. It's just stuck. It's our job to make sure that we're actually winning enough on the top line and pushing it through the sausage factory so that we can defray the fixed costs.
Okay, yeah, thanks. That's a great explanation. Just, I guess, follow on, final question from me. That great that you've called out that your aim is to hit return on capital employed to 20% over the next two years. It sounds from what you're saying that you're the driving force for that will be to grow the top line. Is that fair, or is there sort of more that you're?
Both.
You're looking to collect?
We're going for both.
To me, look, you know, to me, part of the what I see in the future is that to win more in the, in the residential, in particular, you're gonna have to be able to be more competitive against the in situ build model. You know, the stuff that Cate was talking about really streamlining those things that are part of our builder model, but we really want to challenge for a manufacturer model, you know? I think that will really help us. The two things will work together. We're very focused on both the top line and the bottom line to make sure that we can get there faster.
Yep. All right. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Ms. Pidcock for closing remarks.
Okay, well, thank you very much for your questions, and I just want to finish by saying a big thank you to all of our shareholders for your ongoing support, and particularly to everyone who joined us on the call today. I really look forward to meeting many of you in person over the coming weeks and months.