I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Anthony Scali, Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and welcome to the FY 2025 R esults Presentation. Turning to page two of our slide, the FY 2025 highlight. ANZ Group, second half revenue sales was up 7.3%, with the full year up almost 3%. Second half revenue was AUD 231 million, and the full year revenue was AUD 454 million. The second half rate of profit margin of 65.6%, up 1.2% on the first half gross margin, and the full year was 65%. Underlying profit after tax was AUD 73.2 million. We excluded the one-off freight forwarding containers that were old. One month due to a freight forwarding route that was taken exit during the first half. UK revenue was AUD 42 million. The second half gross profit margin was 51.8%, up from the first half of 45.1% and pre-acquisition level of 41%. The margin for the full year was 47.1%.
12 stores, the name rebranded and rebranded as Nick Scali as of August 25, and the underlying profit after tax was AUD 11.2 million. For the group, the underlying profit after tax was AUD 62 million. Cash and bank deposits were AUD 101 million. The final dividend of AUD 0.33 per share, 40% franked, bringing the full year dividend to AUD 0.63 per share, 40% franked. On page three of the slide, you see the ANZ Group, Nick Scali was 49.9% of the measurement, a lot of that growth of 2.8%, but certainly stronger in the second half. UK written orders are 33.9%, which is down considerably due to the disruption and the refurbs, which stores are closed for up to six weeks. Clearance of bad product. There is an enormous amount of disruption that's flagged at the first half that this would occur.
The group ring sales orders was for AUD 493.8 million, up 8.4% on FY 2024. Looking at revenue, it was AUD 453.5 million, down 1.4%. The UK revenue was AUD 41.8 million. That's all the full year, and you can see in the second half, the revenue line really falling off due to disruption caused. Turning to page four, the group financial performance. The margin for year as mentioned is at 65% for the second half. Our underlying operating expenses increased AUD 6.1 million compared to the prior year, given that the majority of that was employment costs. In the UK, you get a strong improvement in the UK gross margin over the period, with deliveries of Nick Scali product range commencing in the second half and transition to the ANZ delivery model. The second half gross margin measured 51.8% versus 45.1% first half.
UK revenue is reported net of interest stream subsidy costs, which reduces the gross margin 2.9% over the year. The UK underlying operating expenses were AUD 20.4 million. I'll now ask Kylie Archer, our CFO, to take you through the group cash flow and balance sheet.
Thank you, Anthony. On the group cash flow slide, calling out slide number five and pulling out some of the key items. The internal group pre-tax operating cash generated after we deducted amounts due on the operating leases is AUD 93.1 million for the year, with ANZ contributing AUD 118.8 million and the UK operational funding at AUD 25.7 million, supporting our UK working capital requirements and capital investments, which for the UK relates to the refurbishment of 11 showrooms. In addition, AUD 3.5 million was paid in the period for remediation required UK property. Property and capital investments for ANZ include the fit-out cost for the new WA distribution center, and renovation and fit-out cost for Australian showrooms. The equity raise for the UK acquisition was completed in FY 2025, with AUD 3.8 million of proceeds earlier this financial year, bringing total final proceeds from the raise to AUD 58.6 million.
AUD 53.8 million was assigned to shareholders in the period by way of payment of the final FY 2024 dividends and FY 2025 interim dividends. The group closing net cash position was AUD 29.3 million. Moving on to the balance sheet on slide six, we have intangibles at AUD 166.4 million, increased from the prior year due to the finalization of the purchase price accounting on the UK acquisition and relating exchange rate movements due to a deterioration of the pound to the AUD. Borrowings remain unchanged in the period at AUD 71.7 million, with AUD 43.7 million related to property loans secured at less than a 30% loan to balance ratio. The reduction in group payables on the balance sheet from AUD 44.4 million last year to AUD 34.8 million this year reflects the year-on-year reduction in the UK. I will now hand back to Anthony.
Thanks, Kylie. On page seven, you'll see the ANZ Group online written orders for the online was AUD 42.4 million, which is up 21.8% and continues to grow year-after-year. Turning to the UK summary, firstly, in respect of written sales orders, there's been a considerable amount of disruption due to training, our stores being rebranded and closed for a four to five-week period. The Fabb brand that trade are particularly poorly. The old product range is cleared and hasn't really operated as a clearance store whilst waiting for the refurbishment. The new Nick Scali brand of stores has been mixed with exhaust between February and May when compared to the prior year. June written orders were up from the prior year to May or July. Second half margin, as we mentioned, was 51.8% for both Nick Scali and [Plush] stores.
If we look at main in Germany, the greatest margin for the rebranded stores, the rebranded Nick Scali stores, is 58% net interest-free subsidies. We started that on revenue on orders. We started to see the margin uplift as more stores are refurbished and operating with the Nick Scali product. The margin's improving dramatically, really. In terms of distribution, we've made progress restructuring the customer delivery mode to reduce margin leakage. We've moved to a 3PL furniture specialist who's exited our warehouse, sold delivery vehicles, and redundancies were implemented for producing employees. Respect to leadership, as you know, Rodney Orrick was seconded for a 12- 18-month period only on a temporary basis whilst we looked for a suitable leader, which we appointed in May. He's an experienced local UK retailer. He's the actual General Manager of the UK business.
The focus for the leadership is on retail teams and stores. That needs improvement. That's very critical for our sales growth. He's also, the other focus is on evaluating and seeking new store opportunities. In respect of the product, we have a continued belief that the product is right for the UK. There are small adjustments to the product range, ongoing as is expected. Apart from the profitability, we need to refurbish the remaining stores by the start of 2026. On completion of all the stores, we're rebranding. Based on the 58% margin we've visited, or at least we're heading to now, the revenue target for [break even] is AUD 53 million, GBP 25.4 million. Based on the recent average sales for the Nick Scali store, each store would need to increase sales by AUD 10,000 per week or GBP 1,800.
Based on average transaction value, this equates to two and a half additional orders per week, which is not a lot, but also very critical if we're going to get on our own profitability. Increased marketing spend, focus on establishing a Nick Scali brand in the UK, and quality sales teams are critical to achieve this uplift in sales. In technical, you can see the store network. There was one new Nick Scali showroom opened and one Plush showroom opened. Two new Plush stores were opened in larger locations in Newcastle and Prospect, leading to existing locations reconverted to clearance stores. The UK Peterborough store was closed at the end of lease as it was not suitable to rebrand to Nick Scali. It was part of the ongoing optimization of the UK store network. As at June 11, UK stores have been converted as opted over as well.
Page 11 is the property. We made a commitment to buy our [Artarmon] store, or we had bought it. The contract's not yet settled, and we bought land in South Australia to build a new distribution center. In respect of the outlook, the written sales for the month of July increased by 7.7%. Like for like, was up 7.2%. Sales revenue for the first quarter is expected to be up on the prior year given the strong second half and the momentum continuing into July. We had a further five stores that are confirmed for opening during this year with additional opportunities currently being reviewed. Of the five, three are Nick Scali, two are Plush. In respect of the UK, losses are expected to continue until the remaining stores are refurbished and individual store sales improve. That's the conclusion of our results presentation, so we can now 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 speaker phone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Rachael Harwood from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Anthony. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, do you talk to Nick Scali branded stores in the UK being a little bit mixed in terms of trading? How is Nick Scali product performing in the UK? I guess June, July, also a little bit mixed. Anything you can call out there?
Again, it's the product is performing well. It's more about the mixed agents because, I guess, with the quality of the sales team in the store that we have, and with the change, there are certain salespeople which have left the business that are being replaced. The more the impact on where the store's doing well is not so much as how they're doing on sales in the new store.
Got it. That makes sense. I guess, just the Aussie business, the fourth quarter really strong. That continued into July. Anything you're seeing there that drove this really strong, strong performance?
Is it from solitude?
Sorry, I didn't understand it. I couldn't understand the last points a bit. Their lines are not so clear.
I guess from strong sales in ANZ continuing into July. Anything you're seeing, particularly in ANZ, that's driving this strong growth?
No, it's just our store traffic is up in most states, not all states, and we're converting to sales as a result.
That's great. Just quickly, I guess, New Zealand you mentioned was improving. What are you seeing in the New Zealand market?
New Zealand's improved a lot, particularly, you know, particularly in quarter four. An awful lot of data. Fairness lies to New Zealand around that. The margin period was down, and it's coming back very strongly.
That's perfect. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sean Xu from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Morning, Anthony. Morning, Kylie. Thanks a lot for taking my question. My first question is related to your supply chain. Given the U.S. tariff situation, but looking to the history of the indicator, I was expecting some significant excess manufacturing capacity in China and Southeast Asia, which is a disruption to the U.S. export business. My question is, how is Nick Scali positioned to renegotiate more favorable supply terms with some of your partners in Asia, especially with the one who's established a long-term relationship? More specifically, are you seeing the opportunity to improve your gross margins through better sourcing costs? Thank you.
Our gross margin is absolutely above industry norms, as you know. There are many retailers in Australia who have a gross margin of 50%, not 65%. You have to be careful not to be too green on that. At the moment, we're passing through, if we're getting better deals, which we are, our products are certainly getting better value, we're passing that through to the consumer at a better price than at the moment. Probably that's helping drive sales as well and conversions in store.
The reason why I'm asking these questions is because based on a couple of suppliers in China and Southeast Asia, I'm really expecting some excess manufacturing capacity coming through. That will be telling to you guys, I imagine, in terms of renegotiating better terms and improving your profitability. That's where my initial question is coming from.
If I just interrupt, the opposite, the challenge of these is they've got excess capacity because they need money. The challenge would be if there was not excess capacity, that's when you would have a challenge on pricing. At the moment, and it's probably not going to change for quite a while, there is excess capacity because a lot of our suppliers have factories in Vietnam supplying the U.S. That's been present for the last three years. That happened three years ago. There's been capacity in the China factories for quite a number of years now, to be honest. Even Europe, whilst their sales in Europe are not poor at all, it doesn't seem to be very much. Is that more clear?
Yeah, thank you. Maybe just a follow-up. If we're just focused on ANZ business, could you please tell me what's the implied gross margin performance for your order bank compared to the same time last year? I appreciate there's a lot of moving parts in the past three months, but any idea would be really helpful.
It's going to be in the 65% range, somewhere there. As you say, there's moving parts. We've been very consistent with our margin over the years. Within last year, it was extraordinarily high at 66%. 65% is a very good margin even historically. I'd say we're pretty confident our margin will be maintained at 65%.
Cool. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sam Teeger from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, Anthony. Hi, Kylie. It'd be great if you can please give us an update around the UK marketing, given this is going to be key to getting their customer awareness up. How have the results been so far? What are you buying at compared to Australia? To what extent are the marketing channels different to Australia, given the business over there right now has less scale at this point in time?
Yeah, no, it's a good point. The problem has been the second half, you know, when you're shutting eight stores down and trying to get more refurbished within the short period, there was actually not a lot of point to spend money on marketing. Our view was let's just wait till we get some more scale, Nick Scali stores open, so we can start spending some marketing. Yeah, that's been a bit of the issue in terms of written orders because we're just not spending any money behind. We're starting, we're going to spend a bit more in August. We're just ramping up the marketing as more and more stores get completed, which is important because we do need the brand recall is weak at the moment. Marketing is there to address that and drive sales. That's what's happened so far.
Right. With respect to the UK break-even sales target, which is predicated on that 58% gross margin, is there any reason why you can't get the UK gross margin to 60% in FY 2026? You know, that would mean the required sales uplift to break-even would be less than 20% per store. I'm wondering, can you reduce the interest-free period or any other initiatives to get that margin above 58% in this financial year?
Yeah, look, we've got to be careful because we want to remain competitive. We're constantly watching the market there to make sure we're competitive. The problem with interest-free, it's a cost, and it is really part and parcel of the business in the UK. The opportunity on the margin for us there is we have leakage on delivery fees at the moment because we're subsidizing some of the deliveries to the outer areas given the location of the distribution center. There's an opportunity there in the future by adding a second distribution center, which we've got in plans to do. It won't be the additional cost because in 3PL, we just use less capacity in the existing DC and have a second one in an area closer to a group of stores. That means the delivery leakage is less. Sorry, it's a bit complicated, but there's an opportunity there.
As a brand, the other point, yes, maybe as the brand gets stronger and stronger, you will be less reliant on interest-free and maybe shorter terms rather than four years, 36 months, three years, reducing that offer. Obviously, the margin leakage is less again. I think that in a nutshell, there's a potential to get it up.
Okay. The last one.
I don't want to commit to FY 2026, sorry. I don't want to commit to FY 2026 on that. Certainly, on the following year for sure, there's a good chance you could get it at 60.
Okay. Lastly, just with respect to the UK, how likely are further acquisitions or new store rollout in FY 2026?
We are looking at a number of stores now in retail part. The thing about it, I can say on the property side, things move very slowly. We are looking at a few opportunities now. We aren't looking at any acquisitions right at the moment. There is a potential for that, sure, buying business with three, four stores. Really, our main focus right now is to get the rest of the stores rebranded, refurbished, and look at a few one or two opportunities open stores.
Okay, great.
In the short term.
Thanks, Anthony.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Garth Francis from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good day, Anthony and Kylie. Thanks for taking my calls, my questions. Just on the UK, sorry, the gross margin again, just to touch base on that, the savings that were achieved through sourcing and just the on-flow and how promotional you've had to be. You mentioned there that you've won some business just through being slightly better on promo. Have you had to be any more promotional in the last six months than you have historically?
In the UK, you're talking about?
In Australia, in the ANZ market.
Australia. Yeah, the question is, are we spending more on marketing? Is that the question?
Are you having to be more promotional? You've obviously achieved some benefits from the sourcing out of Chinese factories. How much? You mentioned you were passing some of that on and that had helped drive sales domestically. Can you give me a sense of whether you're having to be additionally promotional at the moment or if the market is somewhat in line with where it's been historically?
Yeah, no, I think the market, look, what the traffic is in most states is up, not all states. Marketing's about getting traffic, getting people to source, getting people on our website. The traffic has improved in that respect. Luckily, we've been able to convert and actually got the good sales growth. I don't think we need to do anything different than we've been doing at the moment. Just why is the traffic up? Is the marketing being better? Maybe. Or is it there's a bit more confidence with lower interest rates? That's the question. It's hard to tell. We haven't spent more on marketing. We might. We've done some different things in marketing in terms of our marketing, which you're already doing. My view is I think the consumer is a bit more confident, maybe.
Right. The ABS data is suggesting that, you know, the furniture sales have been somewhat weak, but yourselves and others are now calling out decent growth. Do you think it's a segment of the furniture market that's under pressure, or are there certain players that you think are losing share?
Yeah, look, I know some big groups doing negative numbers, and I know some big groups doing positive numbers. I think it's a bit of a mixed bag from what I know.
Terrific, thanks. Just on the store rollout, the five stores mentioned, three Nick Scali, two Plush, is there increased competition, and are any or all of those stores leasing opportunities, or are those stores that you've committed to potential acquisitions?
Yeah, no, they're all leasing opportunities.
Right. The competition for those, I know you'd mentioned that you're very strict on your hurdles when it comes to leasing. Are you seeing increased competition with the amalgamation of Amart and Freedom and the called-out rollout opportunity for those stores? Are you coming up against them in a lot of your leasing negotiations?
No, I don't think competition from them and no, not at this point. There's always competition. Landlords, particularly the larger landlords, like Nick Scali because we're a good covenant and a long-term... No, we haven't seen.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Peter Marks from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, Anthony. Morning, Kylie. Just on the UK sales, like the uplift required there to get to break-even, on my math, looks like it's about 25%. Are you? It looks to me like you're not really getting a sales per store uplift after you refurb the Fabb stores to Nick Scali stores. Has that surprised you a bit? I guess, are you still confident you can get that uplift in the sales per store that you're targeting without, or I guess, whilst continuing to take a 30% deposit and sort of de-emphasizing the interest-free financing sales?
Let's go back to the beginning. Yes. Some stores are trading above and some are not. I would say the ones that are, it's more the problem with the sales teams. That's what we're addressing now. That's more the issue, not because we can see a number of stores are up and some aren't. We've had people leave the business. We've had salespeople who didn't like our disciplines and have left the business. I'm confident with the right sales teams, we're going to get the uplift in sales because I'm very confident in the product. At the margin, the other point too is, you're at an 18% higher margin. Secondly, we're comparing written sales orders to last year with Fabb, where they're writing orders with no deposit. You've got to go back to that, and a lot of those orders would be lost in the end.
It's very hard even to say what we're comparing there. Ignoring all that, I'm sort of not really so focused on the like-for-like to what the Fabb stores were doing at the beginning of the way with a 41% margin. How can you compare to that? What I'm trying to spell out is that we don't need to lift ourselves by much. It's 2.5 loans per week per store, and we get to at least break even once all stores are refurbished. We've got to spend—the other thing to point out, we haven't spent any money on marketing. The brand's not really known at all at the point. The point is you get the stores refurbished. We're not far away already from getting a couple more loans of sales per store per week sold. We spend marketing, and then we're going to get better sales teams.
Your sales can be up a lot, and that's where we've got to get to.
That's helpful. Just on the marketing.
Retail businesses do not run on remote control. It's the people, salespeople in stores are really important for your store performance. We spend an enormous amount of effort in making sure that we've got good quality salespeople in ANZ, in Plush and Nick Scali. That's where we're up to now in the UK. We know the product sells because in the good stores, they're banging last year, and we're getting good results, and the feedback has been good.
That's very helpful. Just touching on the marketing piece, the break-even at AUD 53 million worth of sales, am I right in my calculation when it suggests that there is no marketing dollars in that break-even calculation? What do you think you need to spend on marketing to get up to the break-even sales?
There is some marketing in that. My view is just if I left that marketing as it is, we should be able to get it up with better salespeople, right? Once we've got all the stores done. Also, the dollar on marketing, you know, once we get more stores and more written orders, you can start spending more. That's what we'll do. There'll be always, when we decide, the point will be, we'll decide we're going to spend 50% more on marketing next month. It'll be that point to see if it really does drive orders. Then it won't be revenue for three or four months, as you know it, right? That's where we're at too. It's about getting to that point.
Yeah, that makes sense. Just the second half cost growth, I think it's only up in ANZ now, only up AUD 1.1 million. That's a pretty good result just given what the inflation should have been in wages and rents. Can you just walk us through how you've managed that?
I think it wasn't great on a comparable basis in the first half, as you know. The second half, we're comparing on the year before, which it did, in fairness, it went up. We're comparing a period, we're comparing two halves where one went up. The second half last year, FY 2024, wages were up.
I think we want more normalized. If we're comparing it to last year and the first half last year, I believe we had quite a few retail vacancies and things in store. When you compare half to half, we're probably now comparing to a more normalized expense level as opposed to first half comparing to first half last year.
I think in fairness, we've done some good work on optimizing rosters to make sure they're well planned and managed. I think that's helped as well. It's been challenging because, you know, if you want good salespeople, you've got to pay, and then you've got to pay them well, and they've got to do commissions. As long as we get the sales uplift, you know, I don't mind paying a bit more for people.
That's very helpful. Thanks, Anthony. Thanks, Kylie.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Ferrier from Wilsons Advisory. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Anthony and Kylie. Thanks for your time. Can I just follow on from the previous question around the Australian business and the operating expenses there? Anthony, as you said, the uplift was really all in employee costs. When you look forward into FY 2026, do you expect to see some cost increases in the other operating cost lines going forward?
Not materially. Obviously, rents go up. You've got the annual reviews.
Award rates.
I think we've covered that. I think wages, we've pretty much got it now under control. The award increases, we're really more or less above awards for most people. It's more on the only costs will be increasingly small in property, you know, around the CPI figure. Other than that, we've got good costs. I mean, the only thing we might spend more on is marketing to drive more written orders, but that's a variable cost.
Yeah, okay, that makes sense. On the UK, I appreciate that it's a small scale business, and probably my question is going to be localizing on a smaller portion of the existing store network. What do you think the average written sales orders are on a per store for the cohort of refurbished stores where you feel like you've got a good sales team in place? I get we're only talking about a handful of stores here, but what do you think the run rate annual written sales order is for those stores?
Yeah, it's a bit hard to tell because they haven't been open long enough, but you know, I think we're more or less, if you look at what we're saying, we have to increase our sales too, and I've split it down to AUD 10,000 more per week. You should be able to work that out, what the run rate is. It's probably, it's hard to put a stake in the ground for you exactly, that it's probably around AUD 40 million, but that's where it's still not good enough. It's depending on how long stores are open and closed for as well. It's hard to annualize that at the moment.
Yeah, yeah, no, I understand that. Still in the UK, just to clarify, when you talk break-even, are you talking at the EBIT line or the pre-tax profit line?
UK revenue, that's a pre-tax.
Yeah. Yeah. We included lease interest expense there. Yeah, that makes sense. Last question on the marketing, the comment on slide nine around increasing the marketing spend in the UK, is that comment just a sort of a natural evolution with more refurb stores? Naturally, you're going to start spending more on marketing, or are you thinking that you're going to be spending more on marketing than what you originally anticipated?
Right. We will spend.
Goodbye.
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Anthony, Kylie, still James here. Just to finish that question, good to have you back online. The marketing spend on a go-forward basis and the increase in it is reflective of the rebranding process and largely in line with your sort of original business case, or are you anticipating now that you'll spend more on marketing going forward than what you originally were planning for?
I was always going to spend more meaningfully on marketing, sorry. On a per-store basis, at the moment, it's been pretty low because we really haven't, it's too much waste in respect of your advertising, you know, on the television in the UK with only, you know, four stores and six stores and eight stores. We're basically saying once we get all the stores established as Nick Scali, we'll be obviously increasing the marketing to similar levels of Australia where it might be somewhere between 5% and 8% of sales, depending on our margin. That's what we want to get to.
Yeah, the marketing spend as a percentage of sales in FY 2026 will almost, it'll be below that 5%- 8%, won't it? Because you're not really going to crank up the marketing spend until you've got all those stores refurbished.
It depends how many orders we do. Yes, yes. You're right. Hopefully, we are starting to increase our marketing, particularly in this month in August, because now we've got the 12 stores and we're doing that. We're progressing to increase it through the first half.
Okay. No, that's helpful, Kylie. Thanks very much for your time.
Okay.
Thank you. That does conclude our question-and-answer session for today. I'll now hand back to Mr. Scali for any closing remarks.
All right. Thank you for attending the Nick Scali results presentation. I look forward to delivering a good result next half, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.