Thank you, Jodi. Good Morning, Everyone. Thank you for joining us on the Webcast, Our Conference Call for GWA Group Limited's Result for the year ended 30th June, 2025. I am Urs Meyerhans, GWA Group Limited's Managing Director. Joining me for today's presentation are Calin Scott, our Group Chief Financial Officer, and Craig Norwell, our Group Executive Sales. We appreciate your time and interest, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with many of you over the coming days and weeks. We move to slide three. I will begin with an overview of our group results and key themes, including an update on our continued focus on safety. Calin will then take you through the group financial results for the year, including P&L, cash flow, and balance sheet. Craig will follow with an overview of our business performance across our end markets, including our major outside emerging partners.
I will conclude today's presentation with an update on our strategic progress and provide a summary and outlook for financial year 2026. As always, we are happy to answer your questions at the end of the presentation. Moving to slide five, let me start with an overall summary of the financial year. GWA Group Limited delivered a solid result in declining markets. Notwithstanding these challenging market conditions, we delivered volume, revenue, and earnings growth. That reflects the successful disciplined execution of our customer-first and profitable volume growth strategic priorities. Our focus on Window Plumber continues to drive results with over 26,000 technical interactions during the year, and sales of our plumber bundle up 9% year on year. Our customer-first priority is paying off. DIFOT, delivery in full and on time, performance remains consistently above 90%, and customers are noticing with net promoter scores in the high 50s.
We continue to generate strong cash with a cash conversion ratio of 111% for the year. Our balance sheet remains strong with net debt down 12% and now at its lowest level in seven years. That enables continued growth in dividends with a final dividend of $0.08, bringing the full year dividends to $0.15.5 per share fully franked, up 3% on the prior year. Separately, this strong capital position has also enabled the board to announce today an on-market share buyback of up to $30 million, which will commence from 2nd September. In summary, delivering growth in a declining market is a testament to the focus, dedication, and skills of the entire GWA Group Limited team, a result we can all be proud of. Moving to slide six. As always, I want to reaffirm our ongoing commitment to operating a safe business.
We are continuing our focus on lead indicators, which we believe are more relevant in preventing longer-term, more serious outcomes. This has resulted in an improvement in incident reporting, with key safety lead indicator work inside frequency rate increasing by 49%. In terms of lag measures, our total injury frequency rate improved significantly and almost halved from a disappointing result in the prior year. Additionally, our early intervention approach has helped further lower the injury severity rate and supports our commitment to recovery and well-being. I will now hand over to Calin to go through the group financial results.
Brilliant. Slide eight. This slide presents the result first on a normalized basis, which excludes significant items, and then on a reported basis, which includes significant items. Significant items for financial year 2025 were $3.1 million after tax. These included costs associated with the implementation of our ERP project in the U.K., which is now successfully completed, and costs relating to the enhancement of our digital platforms. After tax significant items for FY 2024 were $7 million. For FY 2025, group revenue was up 1% on the prior year. That reflects volume growth in Australia and the U.K., partially offset by the pronounced decline in the challenged New Zealand market. We continue to generate growth in Australia with sales up 2% and volume growth at 1%. Similarly, we had an increase in the U.K. with revenue up 6% and volume up 2%.
New Zealand continues to be a very challenging market and sales declined by 15%. Craig will detail the key components of revenue in his section. Normalized EBIT was up 3%. As I mentioned, this was a solid result in what were declining markets across all our core operations. We continue to be disciplined on costs, and that's resulted in a major uplift in the normalized EBIT margin to 18.2%. I will go through the key drivers of normalized EBIT shortly. On a statutory basis, including significant items, EBIT was up 12% with net profit after tax also up 12%. Turning to slide nine, this slide shows the financial year 2025 results from the first to the second half. Revenue was largely flat in the second half compared to the first. We had a slight decline in Australia, which was expected given the decline in residential completions.
This was largely offset by efforts in Window Plumber and emergent sales. New Zealand remained soft, although the rates of decline slowed in the second half. We had a modest increase in the U.K., which benefited from new merchant contract winners. Normalized EBIT margin was broadly maintained, reflecting our continued cost discipline, which helped to mitigate the impact of the low Australian dollar in the second half. Turning to slide 10. This slide contains the waterfall chart we typically present to set out the key drivers of earnings over the year. As always, this is presented on a normalized basis. Looking at volume, group volume was in line with the prior year, reflecting growth in Australia and the U.K., partially offset by continued challenged conditions in New Zealand.
Looking at price mix, we achieved a modest gain from the price increase of 4% implemented in Australia and the U.K. in February 2025. This was offset by some expected lower product mix, driven by customers looking for more affordable products and solutions. Looking at the exchange rate, the average Australian dollar U.S. dollar exchange rate for the year was $0.67, and that compares to $0.68 for the prior year. As we have previously called out, the lower Australian dollar impacts stock purchases and balance sheet evaluations. Turning to other, this bar reflects our continued cost discipline across the business. That discipline has helped to deliver an increase in normalized EBIT and margin despite the declining markets. Turning to slide 11, GWA is a highly cash-generative business. This continues to provide enhanced returns to shareholders. Operating cash flow of $101.8 million was consistent with the prior year.
Cash conversion remains strong with a cash conversion ratio of 111% for the year, driven by our continued focus on working capital management and our right first-time initiatives to improve service levels. Capital expenditure for the year was $2.8 million, which was broadly in line with the prior year. Our CapEx program remains focused on growth initiatives to drive revenue growth opportunities and cost efficiencies. Turning to slide 12, a continued strong balance sheet flow enabled a final dividend of $0.08 per share fully franked, and that brings the full year dividend to $0.155 per share fully franked and up 3% on last year. Final dividend is scheduled to be paid on the 5th of September, 2025. Turning to slide 13, GWA financial position continues to strengthen.
Net debt as of the 30th of June, 2025 was $85.1 million, which was down 12% on 30th of June, 2024 and is at its lowest levels in seven years. Our credit metrics strengthened further and remains towards the lower end of our target ranges with leverage of 1.1 times and a gearing ratio of 18% as of 30th of June. We have final bank facilities of $220 million with significant headroom of $135 million. Given the continued robust financial position and continued strong cash flow generation, the board has decided to implement an on-market share buyback of up to $30 million. This buyback represents an efficient use of capital and is consistent with our focus on ensuring we have an effective mix of continued investment in our growth strategy while returning excess cash to shareholders.
The buyback will be funded from our existing cash and committed debt facilities, and we expect to maintain a strong balance sheet following its completion. The buyback will commence on the 2nd of September and will be conducted in the ordinary course of trading over a 12-month period. I refer you to a separate announcement we made in the ASX this morning in relation to the buyback. I want to hand over to Craig to discuss our performance by markets.
Thanks, Calin, and good morning, everyone. In my section today, I'll provide some further context to our revenue by market and for Australia by state and key segments. Turning to slide 15, this is the typical slide we present to show our revenue from our key end markets. I'll start with Australia, our largest market, which represents 84% of group revenue. As Urs and Calin have already mentioned, we continue to deliver sales and volume growth in Australia in FY 2025. We continue to benefit from our localized approach to how we go to market, focused on the key market segments where we see opportunities to execute solutions partnering with our local customer base. These solutions are led by our value proposition for maintenance plumbing businesses, tailored framework to partner with key merchant partners, and complete offer to volume home builders, including entry-level products and health and aged care providers.
As a result, we achieve sales and volume growth in all states except New South Wales by leveraging our strong local customer relationships and enhancing our customer experience. In New Zealand, the construction market remains challenging, reflecting the significant decline in local building activity in New Zealand. That has impacted our sales across all segments. We launched Waipori MK2 , the next evolution of Methven's signature tapware and shower collection, which contributed positively to revenue in the fourth quarter. Sales in the U.K. were up 6%, reflecting strong execution from our local management team, the benefit of three customer wins in the second half of FY 2024, and growth in social housing contracts. Turning to slide 16, this slide details Australian sales for the year by state. As I mentioned on the previous slide, sales were up across all states except for New South Wales.
In New South Wales, sales growth in maintenance plumbers and the care segments was offset by weaker residential completions and softening commercial activity. In Victoria, despite the market conditions, our disciplined execution resulted in sales increases of 5% with growth across maintenance plumbers, care, and residential segments. Queensland sales were up 4%, driven by strong maintenance plumber and merchant execution, partially offset by ongoing delays, which have caused softness in residential and commercial completions. Over in the West, our sales were up 6%, driven across merchant and commercial segments, and residential share gains, which offset softer residential completions. South Australia was once again our highest growth state, driven by a strong performance in the residential and merchant segments, with tapware a key growth driver in both. Turning to slide 17, this slide illustrates sales through our main merchant customers in Australia.
Overall, we are very pleased at our growth across our entire merchant segment, and we had growth in three out of our top four merchants. We continue to gain strong traction with our Window Plumber strategy, including plumber bundle and spare parts sales, with growth of 9% on the previous year. We are focused on continuous improvement with our in-store execution, including product display, merchandising, and stock weight, assisting in a solid improvement in merchant sales for the year. Our customer-first strategy and state-based sales organization continue to identify and convert local sales opportunities with key customers. I'll now hand you back to Urs.
Thanks, Craig. Moving to slide 19. We continue to build our presence in core segments through the launch of new products across the year, with a number of key introductions occurring in the second half. In summary, these included an expansion of our Liana II range into showers and accessories, enhancing our offering in bathroom solutions. Introduction of heated towel rails, establishing a new product category aligned with customer demand. New designs and color additions to our kitchen collection, supporting style and functionality. Growth of independent living solutions through our ANZ Home Care Collection, reinforcing our commitment to inclusive design. Customer-exclusive range collaboration, strengthening strategic partnerships and market differentiation. New product development remains a core focus for the group, and we have a strong pipeline of product launches planned for the year ahead. Moving to slide 20, I will make a few comments about our continued strategic progress.
Our strategy continues to evolve, guided by customer needs, market dynamics, and our commitment to long-term value creation. Moving to slide 21. During financial year 2025, we continue to make strong progress across core areas of our strategy, which I will summarize on this slide. Window Plumber, extending our reach and engagement with plumbers remains central to our strategy. We are committed to delivering trusted, high-value services and solutions tailored to the needs of the plumber, and we are seeing results. We continue to make good progress here. As Craig mentioned, our specialized plumber bundle and spare parts offer targeting maintenance plumbers continues to gain traction with sales up 9% on the prior year. Other key milestones include internal plumbing specialists have now been embedded in all our markets across ANZ. We continue to extend our reach with Australian and New Zealand plumbers with over 28,000 plumbers now engaged.
We are assisting plumbers with technical training. We completed over 26,000 plumber training and technical interactions during the full year. Health and aged care remain priority segments for our sales efforts, where we continue to leverage our technical expertise and product quality. In financial year 2025, we secured major contract wins, particularly along the eastern seaboard led by Victoria. Under residential, we continue to target specific volume home builders and have secured some major new customer wins, which is helping to offset the decline in detached completions. Under commercial, the commercial new build segment remains challenging, and that has impacted performance in financial year 2025. Finally, merchants. As Craig outlined, our customer-first strategy continues to drive local sales opportunity.
A standout example is our digital trade hub, which enables customers to track stock availability and access other critical information at a time convenient to them, gaining solid traction across the network. Let's move to slide 23. Let me summarize the key points from today's presentation before turning to the outlook for financial year 2026. In a declining market, we delivered a solid result, demonstrating our ability to focus on what we can control. We continue to deliver volume growth alongside an increase in normalized EBIT and margin, reflecting disciplined execution. While the New Zealand market remains challenged, we have taken the decisive steps to reset and simplify our operations, positioning the business for improved efficiency and resilience. Our team in the U.K. continues to operate a successful business, with further growth achieved through the effective implementation of new customer partnerships.
Our priority on customer-first and profitable volume growth initiatives has resulted in most deliverables progressing as planned. Our financial position continues to strengthen. That enables a lift in dividends in financial year 2025 and has also enabled the commencement of a share buyback from the 2nd of September. Moving to slide 24. Let me conclude with an outlook for financial year 2026, beginning with a summary of our key geographic markets. In Australia, we expect a cautious recovery amidst structural headwinds. Within this context, we have a clearly articulated strategy and disciplined approach to key strategic opportunities to drive revenue. In New Zealand, we expect the construction sector to lag the low, slow general economic recovery. In response, we continue to deepen strategic merchant partnerships with new product development and training and expand our engagement with maintenance plumbers. In the U.K., the market appears to be stabilizing.
We are seeing opportunities from rising water bills and demand for smart, eco-friendly products. Our continued focus is to capitalize on our customer service excellence by broadening our category offering and investing to expand our geographic reach in affordable housing. Moving to slide 25. Moving more specifically to Australia, our largest market accounting for 84% of group revenue. In commercial, we expect the new office build activity to remain flat. In response, we continue to prioritize healthcare and aged care projects and increase product specification with existing builders and developers. In residential detached, we expect the decline in completions to slow in the first half, followed by expected modest improvement late in the second half. We continue to target greater market share and tailor products for volume home builders.
Activity in the multi-residential is expected to increase, driven by an acute housing shortage, although the timing of this recovery remains uncertain. We continue to target strategic growth segments with relevant product and solution offerings. Finally, in repair and renovation, we expect the segment to remain subdued, impacted by cost of living pressures. We will continue to focus on increased coverage and share of wallet with maintenance plumbers and strengthening our relationship with merchants who value trusted partnership. That concludes the presentation for today. Calin, Craig, and I are happy to take your questions.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press the star key, then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the star key, then two. If you are on a speaker phone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Thank you. Your first question is from Dylan Adrian from JP Morgan. Go ahead, thank you.
Hey, good morning, Urs, Calin, and Craig. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the cost control piece, you've clearly done well with the cost out. Should we be expecting more there? Can you just give us a bit of detail on what was taken out? Thank you.
Sure. No problem, do that. It's probably a couple of things in there. We've had some good traction with product cost. There's been some challenges in China with some of our manufacturers there. We've been able to take advantage of that to negotiate some lower cost. Moving forward, is that sustainable? We'll continue to monitor that and negotiate additional benefits where we can. The other piece is we had an experience center in Sydney, Collins. We closed that in February of 2024. There are some costs that were in the 2024 year that didn't repeat in 2025.
Great, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is from Keith Chau from MST Marquee. Go ahead, thank you.
Good morning, gents. I hope all is well. First question on the Australian number. Revenue growth for the year was positive. Actually, it looked okay relative to the end markets. I think previously you provided a guidance of biz looking at a negative 1%. With price mix offsetting price increases, it does actually look like there are some share gains. I know this is something we've discussed in the past, but Urs, are you confident that share gains are happening at the moment? It looks like Window Plumber, there's some momentum in that program now that's really quite visible. Can you help us understand how you're thinking about share and your level of confidence in the momentum that that can have going forward, please? Thank you.
Yes. Morning, Keith. Thanks for your question. I think I mentioned a few times we are always reluctant to give specific information regarding the market share because this industry doesn't provide a lot of information. Having looked at external, VIS has indicated they would suggest that the market declined by about 2.2% in Australia. We had both volume and revenue growth. By definition, we do believe that we've gained some market share.
Okay. Thank you. The Window Plumber program, you know quite clearly there are some levels of success there. I'm not sure how best to ask or how you can best answer this, but plumber bundle spare parts sales are up 9% versus the PCP. I think that was slightly lower than the first half, if I recall correctly. The exit run rate is still up, but not quite as good. How can we monitor the progression for that program and what are your thoughts? Can you give us a bit more color on how you're thinking about the Window Plumber program, please?
Yeah, look, at this point, a few responses there. First of all, I think we discussed in previous meetings when we are focused on the plumbers, we ourselves internally sort of debated how do we measure progress because, as you know, most of our sales are going through merchant partners and we don't always have visibility in regard to end customers. The way we're tracking progress in regard to our strategy is, first of all, we've identified a number of lead indicators. Lead indicators are how many plumbing businesses are we connected with, how many training sessions are we conducting, how many plumbers attend. That's one. We always said leading indicators are fantastic, but what about the lagging indicator? Because we don't have always clear visibility in regard to the sales out with merchant partners, that's why we sort of established what we call a plumber bundle.
As I said before, we're not selling that as a bundle. That's about somewhere around 80 products which a typical maintenance plumber has on the back of the [ute]. Our belief is that as we see that growing faster than our overall sales, that's an indication that the strategy is actually working. We continue to monitor that.
Okay. Thank you. Next question is just around the Australian market. I think you talked about the point that was made was a cautious recovery amid structural issues. The word structural always kind of gives reason for us to ask, but what structural headwinds are you referring to in particular?
Some of the factors, and it's clearly the overall economic condition, the view of what happens with the Reserve Bank, the appetite for investors to invest in new properties. I think we discussed before, particularly when you look at multi-residential, we do see a very good pipeline. When you try to translate it to specific timings, it gets fairly murky.
Okay. That's fair. Makes sense. Final one from me. Customer A, at least for the last couple of periods, has underperformed the rest of the other or the other three major customers. Can you help us understand whether that's a wallet share issue, a customer issue, or a timing issue? It just seems like the variation in performance is quite different relative to the other customers, or B, C, and D that you've disclosed. Thank you.
Yeah, I can take that, Keith. It's Craig. Probably three things. Each of our merchant partners, we have a very different mix of business across states and segments. That's probably the first one. Second, I think all of us have talked to the clarity we have on our strategy and where our growth will come from. Certainly, over the last sort of two years, to your reference point, that's come through the maintenance plumber focus that you just spoke to, Urs, about, and also broader renovation and replacement. It shows up differently in each of our partners based on the way that we engage with them and the mix of their business.
Okay, great. Thanks very much, gents.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Guus vreeburg at Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, gents. Thanks for taking my question. Just to follow up on some of the questions from Keith on Australia. The New South Wales market commercial res is still pretty weak. Do you think that end market exposure for you still gets worse before it gets better ?
Thanks, Garth. We wouldn't say it gets worse. We would, as Urs talked about on outlook, we would see relatively no major change in the short to medium term. There are the structural headwinds Urs talked about, but also we're late in the construction cycle. Any upside, the impact on our invoice sales will have a lag. Hence, the focus for us on where our share gains come from in a volatile market, largely through each of our growth drivers we've identified. We wouldn't say it'll get worse.
Okay. Perfect. New Zealand, any end insight there? Obviously, you've talked about right-sizing that business before. I just thought it was interesting to see the product launch. Does that sort of fit into that strategy of making that business simpler?
Absolutely. What we have done in New Zealand was looked at the business's strengths and where we could capitalize on its legacy in the market. One of the areas that we have targeted investment in is reinvigorating and refreshing the Methven range. Part of that is to launch some new Methven products into the market. To your point, we did take a number of ranges and some brands out of the market to streamline. We're really focused on Methven and Currumbine now.
Are you happy with that product set you've got there now?
Yeah, look, certainly the Waipori MK 2 launch that we did in quarter four has delivered in terms of what we had expected or had hoped, I suppose. We're happy with that. There's a number of ranges that will come into the market over the next sort of six months. It wasn't just that particular range. We do have a couple of others that we're bringing to market.
Okay. Perfect. Just the last one on the buyback. I think it's the first time as far as I can sort of see that you're announcing one. Could you just maybe step through your reasoning just a little bit and maybe whether or not that impacts your M&A intent?
In terms of the reasoning behind the buyback, we've largely looked at the strength of the balance sheet as it sits today. An effective use of capital is to return to shareholders through a buyback. It doesn't have any impact on M&A. We've always said our focus is on the organic business. That being said, the way we've modeled the buyback, it wouldn't necessarily have any material impact on any M&A aspiration that we had.
Perfect. I'll leave it there, gents. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Shaurya Visen from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, Urs, Calin, Craig. Thanks for taking my question. Just a quick follow-up with slide 70, you know, where you talk about revenue by merchant. Craig, from your comments, it does look like it's more of a mix issue. Is my understanding right? If that's the case, you know, there are no structural issues with that partner that you need to pick?
Yeah. Similar to what I said before, I think it is fair to say that each of our merchant partners has a different mix of their business by state and segment. That's true. Like most partnerships, I suppose the choices we both make and the quality of that execution can lead to quite different results. We're clear on where our growth is going to come from. We're clear on, I suppose, what our success looks like.
Comfortable with the results we've had over the last 12 months, we continue to look for market share opportunities with each of those merchants as we head into next year as well.
That's helpful. Next one, Craig, I guess perhaps for you again. You just took comments on Australia, right? Thinking about NSW being relatively soft there now, and it looks like Victoria did quite okay. I guess that's a bit different to what we've heard from a lot of companies tell us. Could you just give us some color on that, please?
Yeah. New South Wales and sort of Victoria, obviously, are our two largest parts of our business. New South Wales, as I said, really comes down to we've had good growth in our focus on maintenance plumbers and broader renovation and replacement. The mix of our business here has certainly traditionally been more exposed to residential and commercial. They've been noticeably delayed and subdued here, and that's been the key driver of our New South Wales decline. Our focus remains on, therefore, controlling what we can control by winning in those segments, but getting more and more share gains in maintenance plumbers and renovation and replacement. In Victoria, it's really testament to the local team there. We've had a focus on share through plumber, through care, and through residential.
Each of those has paid dividends through the last 12 months, which is why we've grown despite the challenging market conditions down there.
That's super helpful. I got the last one. Urs, just for you, can you just give us some thoughts or comments on early trading? What are you seeing in July, August, please?
Oh, thanks. We usually don't give specific market updates, but the way we've seen the first six, seven weeks trading is in line with our expectations.
That would sort of mean, you know, as you say, revenues sort of up here and there. Is that a good read?
I didn't say that. We quite often see that July, August usually starts a bit slower because a lot of our merchant partners in June sometimes chase their long-term incentives. What we have seen in July, August is nothing for us, which we didn't expect.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to hand the call back for closing remarks.
Thank you very much for your time. As I said before, we're looking forward to continuing our conversation with many of you over the next days and weeks. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. You may now disconnect your lines.