Good morning. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Yes, I'll just, I guess we'll just go straight into it. Of the performance highlights, in three areas, we've made a little bit different this year, but in three areas of revenue growth, investing in the future, and shareholder return. Revenue growth was across all major markets. I'll call out a few numbers on this page of 48% aerospace and defense, 19% of OEM, 13% of motorsports, and 12% of aftermarket. The investing in the future, as we all know, last year, the year before, we only done about $5 million on CapEx. This was a catch up on that, so, $15 million of CapEx.
There's four furnaces that have been commissioned over the last couple of months. $2 million on acquisitions and establishing our European manufacturing facility in the U.K.. Which has got 40% more increase in factory space over there, and 90% headcount increase across the globe. A little bit over $500,000 on updating our ERP system globally. Shareholder return, our dividend policy is has always been between 40% and 60% of NPAT. This year it's a total of $0.125, which is 58% of NPAT. Which gives a 37% increase of shareholder price over 2023, and 103% of shareholder return over the three years, et cetera.
Our 88 percentile in when compared with the ASX 300. Performance challenges and responses. The recruitment and retention certainly has, has been a big challenge over the last 12 months, particularly. And you'll, you'll see there of our responses, I won't go into every one of them. It's fairly easy to explain. But we are spending quite a bit of money on career development and the PWR Academy, et cetera, et cetera. Inflation, that is common across the board. We've been able to increase some prices of of some pass-through costs for raw materials and wages.
Improving efficiency, and particularly with where we can have automation help us in that space. Factory space, securing efficient factory space to support our future growth. We are in the final stage of negotiation of our 20,000 square meter factory to be available by the 1st of July 2025. We actually will have a heads of agreement signed by this time next week, has gone to plan. Our performance overview, I won't go through every line. I think it's very self-explanatory. It's, it's been, I-I think, a very strong year. Our cash balance has reflects the increase in investment in equipment and acquisitions of Docking and BMR, and increase of raw materials and finished good inventories.
EBITDA in offset increased by labor costs and insurance, investment in travel, marketing, computer costs, et cetera, cyber, ERP development. NPAT, we've put in a couple of extra lines in there for the D&A to explain that where it is. It's all very well spending extra money on CapEx, but then you have the backflip of that of D&A costs that comes below the EBITDA line. All in all, I think a very, very strong result there. Performance trend, I won't go into that page too much. It just definitely shows you a very good, strong performance trend across all sectors.
Our TSR return sitting at, in, in the ASX 300, excluding the energy stocks, we're sitting on about 30. We're very, very happy with that in a tough market. Revenue by sector certainly gives us a fairly good idea of where we've come from. I have been saying our motorsports will be flat, more flat, 10%. It's done there again, so we've, yeah, we've got 13, roughly 13% growth on our motorsport. OE is 19% growth, automotive aftermarket, 12, and aerospace and defense of roughly 48%. Motorsport growth across all sectors and categories. OEM of some of the existing and commencement of new programs, continuing to develop others.
Automotive Aftermarket is increasing, and we've certainly increased production capacity to meet that demand. We feel there's further growth, particularly in North America and in Europe. The bottom line, the Aerospace and Defense increase in size of programs across a range of different customers. Revenue by currency. A fairly simple slide to look at, and I don't think I need to comment too much on that. It's very self-explanatory. The NPAT, normalized for abnormal growth.
This is a, a new slide that we've put in, only because we've, spending, spent quite a bit of money on, our, some, our ERP development, our Silverstone exit, of the lease there, obviously the, new, lease of the factory in Rugby. Which currently at this stage, we have 50% underutilized, in its current state. There, there's a reason for that, and that will come out over the next couple of months. Operating expenses. It's, you know, to be expected, our, our employee expenses, certainly were up there. Certainly a, a lot, certainly a, a lot of pressure on, on, on employee wages, et cetera, in this current market.
Which I've mentioned before, there are other expenses, looking at, you know, cyber, ERP, insurance, et cetera, et cetera. There's quite a bit of that. The expense reduction programs are training and tooling upgrades to reduce remakes and improve efficiency. We're starting to implement quite a bit of automation, where appropriate, and planning and what have you on our ERP system and data control, and reduced in freight, particularly by setting up our new plant in the U.K.. Balance sheet. As normal, hasn't changed too much. Very strong liquidity position and cash position, I should say. It, you know, our inventory has gone up a little bit more, particularly for our Rugby site now.
That will tend to ease over, over the next period of time as the, as the timing of raw material turnaround decreases back to a new normal, hopefully. Plant and equipment, which I've mentioned before, of AUD 15 million of investment and a plant and equipment across the board. It's with our three new property leases between five and 20 years to support expansion. We still have our AUD 10 million multicurrency and our AUD 7.5 million equipment lease. Facilities remain undrawn. I think at the end of the day, it's a very strong balance sheet. Working capital. Key points: Strong sales in June.
Inventory includes nearly AUD 3 million of raw material of long lead times in response to supply chain pressure. Inventory capital expenditures for new plant and equipment and acquisitions of Docking and BMR. These, these investments were, as, as you all know, we said in the half year, paid by cash flows and retained cash reserves. Liquidity position very strong of undrawn facilities, which we've mentioned on the previous page. The business outlook. Organic growth across all, we, we, we've shown organic growth across all areas. European manufacturing consolidation now with the new acquisitions of 3,500 square meter facility. We feel that's has already started to tick the boxes over there.
Aerospace and Defense, that's continued growth, particularly in the Vertical Lift programs and, and also some of the radar programs. We have increased our, our capacity in, in the States with commissioning of a, a vacuum furnace, a heat treat furnace, and anodizing plant. Then also there's a new batch furnace turning up there the week after next. OEM programs continue to deliver. Across the board, a few small new programs, and, and obviously there's a development in the pipeline for some larger programs, which will become more evident later on this year. Automotive aftermarket. We have continued to increase production capacity to satisfy demand.
We're just about to put another 10 welding bays in America, which will give us more capacity over there, and mainly to chase that aftermarket business in America. Motorsports continue to strive and develop more efficient tooling technology across all categories. Pipeline. I'm sorry, I missed the page there. Business outlook on emerging tech. You've got the EV market, which we've spoken about. Cold plates, mainly for radar systems that we're currently supplying. Micro Matrix has been a very good uptick in different categories that we're starting to push Micro Matrix in. Additive manufacturing, 3D parts.
That's really start to, we're really start to, after four years of R&D with additive manufacturing, we're starting to send some invoices out, which is pleasing. Automation. There's quite a bit of emphasis going into automation now and also the future. Right now, we've got two automatic core stacking tables. One, one in here and one in, one in America, and starting to produce high run, high run orders on that side of it. Pipelines. The pipeline for the key OEM, I think there's year for the past few years now, you'll, you'll see a few more on there, et cetera.
As, as we keep going along the road, there's a few that will drop off, and there'll be a few that will be added on. It's still a very healthy part of our business moving forward. Other pipelines, particularly in with some of the, the tech side, emerging tech side of Motorsports, but there's certainly a great deal of a pipeline interest and also order book coming in the Aerospace and Defense area. Our European, our European manufacturing site has started.
We started that, that new site in beginning of February, February this year, I'm very pleased to say that it's really start to hit, hit its straps and with output and also staff retention over there. It's been been a a very worthwhile exercise, we we can see certainly a a lot of development happening over there, which which will certainly make a a difference to the bottom line in the future. Investing in the capability and capacity. This is what we've been doing for quite some time now. Capital investment, factory footprint, et cetera, which I, I won't go into because I have mentioned it before in this presentation. Cybersecurity, our ERP system, and capacity planning.
We are having a, a big push for global capacity planning across the board, and to really capitalize on our skills that we have in different parts of the world, to make sure we get the best out of our people globally. Experienced leadership team, I don't think I need to go into that. All good-looking roosters. Investing in people, the certainly been a a challenge on on getting new staff, et cetera, but we have been done a very good job, I think at the end of the day. Our headcount has increased. We've made sure we're getting the right people and upskilling.
Apprenticeship program, PWR Academy, certainly creating a lot of interest and, and people are wanting to be part of that. Graduate engineering program, which has been running for some time now, and our Global Exchange Engineering Exchange Program, between our three sites, which is working a treat, and our work experience program for young, younger kids coming out of school, et cetera. Retaining our staff. We certainly spend quite a, quite a bit of money, but, but also time i- in, in retaining our staff with our SGI program. Our career development planning, supervisor training, our employee assistance program, Weely's Diner. We're all getting too fat down there. Our employee feedback.
With our employee feedback, we do take notice of what we put out there for remarks, et cetera, and we act accordingly. So that's pretty much it. Happy to happy to take any questions. I'm sure there'll be a few. I guess I'll open up for question time.
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 Alexander Lu with Morgans Financial. Please go ahead.
Morning, Kees, and morning, Martin. Hope you guys are well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, can I just start off with Motorsports, please? You know, 13% growth, including emerging tech, but I guess if you take that out, it's about 16%. You know, quite strong and, and, you know, better than what you'd, you'd expect from a, a flat, you know, 10%. Yeah, could you just maybe talk around that strength in Motorsports, if there's anything to call out there, please?
Yeah, Motorsports growth is, yeah, surprisingly, as, as you've said, and as we've seen, we're a bit surprised at that number. It always comes up, as you know. Really, the, the real numbers are, you know, as, as I said, we had a fairly, well, a very, very strong, productive output on our new site at Rugby, particularly in May and June. 'Cause you'll see that the numbers are certainly better in the last bit of the financial year.
I think by being there, in the U.K., it's opened up other areas of Motorsport that we may not have got before, but because we're there and I think leaning on the back of our F1 program, it's certainly starting to open up, excuse me, open up more interest. You've got to remember that we did buy Docking with that intent. You know, I think a lot of it has come out of there, so, very, very happy with the, that Motorsport and the Docking acquisition.
Okay, thanks for that. Can I just go on to, I guess, costs and, you know, the increase in labor and also the setup costs of Rugby as well? Can you just talk about that and, and I guess your ability to offset, you know, the cost increases in general?
Yeah, the, the, the cost, yeah, certainly I, I don't think I'm the lone ranger in talking about labor costs of what we're doing. You know, we, we, I, I think we have the benefit of putting a, we have had the benefit of putting a price increase through last year and this year, which people are expecting, but that was mainly to offset raw material and labor costs. It's not that it gives us an extra margin, it's just an offset.
The, the cost in Rugby, you know, I think anybody that gets a chance to go to Rugby and have a look at that facility, they'd be very, very surprised and very pleased of how professional it is and how we've made use of every square inch of the half of the factory that we're currently operating out of. It is world-class. It's a world-class facility, and it's setting a benchmark. It'll set a benchmark for our new premises that we're, we'll be moving into in 2025 here in Australia. You know, automation, we're certainly pushing a lot into automation for future future programs.
Yeah, there, there've been quite a bit of cost to set up Rugby at that standard. And, and, and I'm glad we have, because it has shown in this small period of time that it'll give us a very great payback rate on that expenditure.
What was the, what was the magnitude of the price increase, Kees, last year and this year? When, when was it?
5% across most parts except F1. Is that right, Martin?
Yep.
That went out in July?
Yeah, a lot of our price increases went out in July for effectively deliveries from the end of the first quarter. Some programs, the pricing, the, the ability to change pricing structure, is a little bit later for some of the northern hemisphere racing seasons, but majority of the price increases went through by the end of the first quarter.
Okay, so you meant July, July this year, or are you talking about last year?
In both cases.
Okay, cool. It's 5% this year, and was it 5% last year as well?
Yes.
Okay, thanks. Just one final one for me. Just on slide 17, and with the aerospace and defense pipeline, it's, it's obviously expanded quite a lot over the past 12 months, but could you maybe just talk about, I guess, the, the opportunities that you're seeing at the moment? You know, are you seeing, you know, that mainly in Australia, U.S., or, or Europe, please?
I guess there's, yeah, certainly, I'd say you would talk to the majority would be in the U.S. That's why we're spending a fair substantial bit of CapEx over there on new furnaces, et cetera. Yeah, there's certainly some programs here in Australia which we know about. I think the, yeah, immediately, the short-term pipeline increase is over there. It's certainly been the cold plates that we're doing for our radar systems over there, but also what we call the eVTOL, which is the electric lift vehicles.
I think it's fair to say that we're currently dealing with four of the leading ones, and they are really starting to make some traction over there on getting those vehicles ready to be in operation. There's a couple of companies over there that are talking about being in operation next year, and there's quite a bit of money being spent on new premises for building these electric lift vehicles over there and the backing of those companies. Needless to say that, you know, Boeing is a big backer of a couple of those companies.
We, we, you know, we're, we're, we're starting to really, ramp up our pre-production, our pre-production parts, for those vehicles.
All right. Thanks a lot, Kees. Thanks, Martin. I'll leave it there.
Thank you.
Bye.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jack Dunn with Citi. Please go ahead.
Morning, Kees, morning, Martin. Thanks for taking my questions. I just, first one, just following on the A&D projects that you've been winning. Are you gonna touch on the margins for these projects and say how they may compare to some of the other segments of your business?
Margins are healthy, very healthy. You know, I think, you know, a lot of people would know me, and, you know, I'm a 20% net guy. We really push that 20% net program. All the new programs we're doing, particularly in that area, are in excess of that 20% net.
All right. Perfect. Thank you. Then sticking with A&D for a little bit here. Obviously, there was strong growth in 2023. I was wondering if you could provide some color, if it was, say, one or two large contracts in there, or if it was sort of the culmination of multiple programs that drove the result? Then looking at the next 12-24 months, how should we think of the revenue profile for A&D?
Oh, I think the, it's certainly increasing as we speak. We, we had a, I call it a reasonable year last year. I certainly think there'll be a lot more this year and continue to grow of what we do in that area. Excuse me, I, I, I think that, yeah, we're, we're, I, I won't be cheeky and say we're scratching the surface. What I'm, what I'm saying is that we're, there's certainly a lot more to come, and particularly that we've been doing a lot of homework and upfront R&D programs for aerospace and defense. Most of them are coming through with pre-production orders, et cetera, as we speak.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. I just wanna clarify something on the order OEM pipeline. You mentioned a lot of the programs are still there. Just clarifying that those big ones, are the 18,000 120,000 is still in that pipeline. Just sort of if you could provide an update of where they're up to.
You're talking about the car program?
Yes.
Yeah, no, the car, obviously, you know, you know, the jobs that we're doing, we've called them out before with Rimac and Valkyrie and X1 programs are still got a fair while to go. There's a program, an OE program that we've just signed up in America, which is 500 vehicles, et cetera. Then we've got some of the bigger ones that couple in marine and obviously a fairly big one in EV in the car program for 2026.
Okay. That, that was just to clarify, that was the 120,000 vehicle program and 18,000 vehicle program that were there in the half year presentation.
Correct.
They're still in there? Yeah. Okay, perfect.
Exactly, yeah.
All right. Thanks for that. I'll leave it there. Cheers.
Thank you. Thanks, Jack.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tim Piper with UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Kees and Martin. Just to follow up on the Aeros pace and Defense, just to understand the progression of some of these programs going from prototyping and R&D into production. You mentioned there's a few there that are sort of entering pre-production. Is there a way you can kind of represent the mix of those sort of programs in FY 2023 going into 2024, in terms of how many you expect to convert into actual production programs in 2024, at this stage, in terms of what you can see in the pipeline?
There's probably, at least four, if not five, that will turn into production in 2024/2025. Yeah, as time evolves, there's more that we're just doing small R&D programs for et cetera, that are evolving into bigger ones. Yeah, I guess the big push is particularly something that we're very good at with our cold plate programs, and that's mainly into electronic cooling. A lot of that, a lot of those programs currently are taken up in the, into, radar systems. Then, other part of the business is doing those programs into the eVTOL areas of the four major companies that we're dealing with at the moment.
Yeah, got it. Thanks. I mean, probably hard to generalize an answer for this question, but as they transition from R&D and prototyping into production, I mean, broadly speaking, what kind of step up or multiplier would you kind of think about for these programs?
With the, with the R&D side of it, it's very small numbers, but the margins per part are very high because there's a lot of effort goes into that. As we progress into a supply arrangement, you know, the numbers, the quantity numbers increase dramatically, and the per piece price decreases to where we can still have our, as I said before, our 20% NPAT margin.
Might have asked it the wrong way then. What, what do you kind of expect in terms of an earnings uplift as the transitions program then?
Yeah, that, I guess, is built into, I suppose, our thinking as far as the progression of that part of our business, as far as the, the, as those programs expand year on year, as they become more developed and, and into production. We, we will see some of those programs go into production and other prototype programs coming behind as that pipeline matures.
Okay, got it. Just one other one from me, sorry, following up on cost ask in a bit more specific way. Your thoughts around headcount growth into 2024 and sort of the mix between the U.S. and Australia? Maybe a second part of that is, what's the sort of differential in wage inflation in what you're seeing in the U.S. versus Australia at the moment?
It's pretty general. It is pretty general. You know, I know a lot of people say, "Oh, you can get people for $12 an hour in America." Well, that's, that's nonsense. You get what you pay for anywhere, and I, I guess you get that in Australia as well, or the U.K.. As far as headcount goes, well, it'll flatten out a little bit and, and I, I think the, I think the good part is right now that the market, the, you know, the people market out there is softening and, and it is starting to ease and being able to get the right people for, for probably what we would call the right money without paying exorbitant prices and what have you.
You know, we, we feel that'll probably come back a little bit as, as in costs. As, you know, as we increase our productivity across the globe, you know, it'll be program specific. As I've mentioned through the presentation, we are, we are spending quite a bit of time and effort and money on automation. Anywhere we can automate something with a, with a reasonable amount of expense, that we, we will, we'll certainly push, push towards that. The no different to with our machining centers and what have you, that are unmanned and go 24/7. It's, you know, we'd rather pay a little bit more for the machines and, and what have you, but they are running, you know, 24/7.
You know, I, I think that, that side of the, the business is increasing, that automation side of the business is, is increasing as, as we need to and, as our investors, would, would, would, would think we'd be doing. That, that's certainly where we're putting a lot of emphasis on moving forward.
The other key aspect with the people and efficiency is, as Kees mentioned earlier, the focus on training and making sure that we can upskill our teams ongoing, and so that will help, I suppose, the efficiency per person. In addition to that, it providing them with the right tools to be efficient and reduce remakes and increase revenue per headcount.
Understand. Got it. I'm just trying to think about, you know, if by 2023 headcount growth was a bit of a year of investing into the, the pipeline ahead. Do you see 2024 as a year of, you know, capitalizing and generating the operating leverage off that headcount investment? Or is 2024 sort of a year where you, where you do need to continue to invest a little bit ahead of the curve?
We're certainly, you know, we'll be certainly investing ahead of the curve, but not as much as we have been. I think the big expenditure one will be in 2025, what have you. You know, we're, we're, yeah, obviously we don't want to put on more people right now and paying ridiculous prices. We're, we've got to manage that, and manage it well, because I feel that the prices, or that extent is coming off a little bit. People are being more realistic for their what their remuneration requirement is, and expectations are.
Got it. Sorry, just squeezing in one more. What I guess I'm trying to get to is, 2024, your confidence around bringing the NPAT margin up to the sort of 20% mark.
We'd never, never. Well, we'd like to, but I think as we increase our as we increase our revenue number and what have you, we are going to have a cost involved in some of that. You know, I think, you know, we'd be very happy to have it back around that 20%. That's certainly what our push is, for sure. I'm not, I'm not gonna say, put my hand on the Bible and say, "It's definitely going to be 20%," but we're certainly pushing for that.
Great. I'll leave it there. Thanks for taking the question.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Chris Savage with Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Morning, Kees. Morning, Martin.
Morning.
Sunny day in Queensland, no doubt?
Oh, no, it's actually bloody cloudy, mate. It's tough. It's tough.
There you go.
It's tough here, mate.
Hey, CapEx, we had AUD 15 in 2023. What's the outlook for 2024 and 2025, if I can push it?
Yeah, no good question. I think it's more of a timing thing in 2023 that I think we'd done AUD 5 million the year before and 15, so it still come, averages out about that 10. I think in 2024, I would think we'll be around about that seven-ish, thereabout. 2025, we are looking at some automation. Excuse me. We are looking at some automation equipment that we will be putting in the new building, and in 2025. you know, that could be... Yeah, so I think 2025 could be around about that 14-15.
One. Your favorite topic, DNA, continues to increase, at a rate. Have we got a guide on that for 2024? I'm guessing roughly 10.
That's a bloody good question.
If you want to, Martin.
Oh, I was gonna say, can I flip that across the board here, mate?
Yeah, it would be in that order, given that with the furnaces that we're currently commissioning, we won't have a full 12 months worth of depreciation on, but they will start to depreciate, particularly in the second half. We have seen that uptick in the amortization for the property leases, for the right-of-use, which we had a half year for Rugby. Now we'll have a full 12 months of Rugby, which will flow through to that line. Yeah, it'll be up around that 10.
Kees, I remember 12 months ago, you said 2023 would be a year of consolidation, which in your language still meant 15% top line growth, which you more or less did. Then there'd be a return to strong growth in 2024 and 2025, like above the 20% you did in 2021 and 2022. Do you think we can get back to a 20%+ top line growth this year, or we're still gonna be sort of that mid-to-high teens?
I would... Do I think we can get there? Yes. We have to have a few things fall our way, or which I think we can. I guess it's a bit like the stock market, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Mm.
You know, I, I, I think all the, all the key drivers that we've got in place and, and continue to put in place are certainly, certainly, you know, heading that way to a, a, a better bottom line result. Yeah, we'd, you know, you know, as I said to Cole earlier, you know, are, are we confident? Of course, we're comfortable. We have, we have a crack every day, but some of the things that are outside our control are probably the ones that are gonna trip us up.
Yeah, I look, I, I, I think as we get some more automation in, particularly in 2024 and 2025, it'll certainly give us a very good push to try to get that the NPAT, yeah, around about that, you know, 20%-21%.
I was more talking top line growth, Kees.
Oh, I beg your pardon. I'm sorry.
Get it back up to that 20% +.
No, oh, we're very confident of that. Yeah.
In 2024?
Yes.
Great. Last question: I know Land 400 announced, or Land 129 late last month, there was some... You know, you weren't sure at the time what sort of revenue contribution or when it would start to you. Have you got any more clarity on that now?
No. Obviously, it hasn't, you know, been down selected for Hanwha. The government have, have spoken to Hanwha about it, but, as I believe, Hanwha now are negotiating with the government of what pricing and what this and what that. It's very early stages. I think it's typical government defense deal that it'll drag out. You know, that took two years to announce anybody. You know, Hanwha haven't got a factory yet. I, I think that, yeah, it'll be a little while for that, for that to play out, Chris.
The first revenue is probably not till 2026?
Correct. Yeah.
Okay. All right. Thanks, Kees. Thanks, Martin.
Thanks, Chris. Bye.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sarah Mann with MA Moelis Australia. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. First question from me was just another one on motorsport. Obviously, you know, really strong growth, given that it's a pretty established business, but just compositionally interested in, I guess, the strength in the advanced cooling part, rather than the emerging tech part. Then just in general, what your, I guess, outlook is around, emerging tech for motorsports, going forward as well, please.
Yeah, I think that, you know, certainly, the emerging tech part of the business, for motorsport is, is increasing. The advanced cooling part is as well as, as, as we see it. I, I think the big, the bigger ticket items, which I think we'll be able to call out, after the end of this year, I think will be, I think it'll be very, very evident of the increase, particularly in Micro Matrix in motorsport and all different categories of motorsport now. As, as you know, we have got a substantial amount, starting to develop into F1, but now it's also going into some other motorsport categories below that, which is surprising, but very pleasing.
You know, we, we feel that that part of the business is, has still got quite a bit of growth, to come, particularly with the Micro Matrix area.
It's just a timing issue then, in terms of it looking at it, like a little bit weak this year, there's still plenty of growth opportunity, and it should grow?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yes.
Cool. Thank you. Then I guess just a follow-up question that's on, I guess, productivity on a per head basis kind of going forward. You, you mentioned you're kind of investing in, automation. Just to clarify, it, it feels like we should be able to see, I guess, some of the higher revenue per head, going into next year?
Yes.
Good. Okay, cool. Then, just on the inventory as well. You kind of mentioned there was a bit of extra stock in the period, partly because of the U.K. factory setup, but just, you know, general supply chain disruptions from before. Just interested in what you're seeing now in terms of the disruptions kind of normalizing and how this is gonna kind of change your approach to managing inventory from here?
Yeah, I, I think, we've always had the, yeah, a lot of inventory across the globe. Certainly, being a little bit closer to where the majority of our inventory comes from, particularly Germany and some of those European countries, for our for our Rugby facility, which is which is good. We have a lesser lead time for that. We think that will come down on lead times. Some of the lead times with freight and what have you, are starting to normalize now.
So we feel that we'll be able to claw back with that of some of the raw material that we had on, in stock here, which was probably a little bit over where we'd like, but we had to protect ourselves going through these last two years. Now we've reduced our ordering and from, from overseas and, and using up our, starting to use into those product lines that we have plentiful of here in Australia. It'll certainly level out and come down a bit over the next 12-18 months.
We made the decision in November last year to start to pull back the forward ordering.
It, it does, given that the orders that were already in place at that stage were then delivered over subsequent months. We've started to see, I suppose, as Kees mentioned, the stock levels start to come back, but we won't see the full effect of that, or we'll continue to see that effect throughout this year.
Got it. It's gonna be a net benefit for you guys toward the end of this year?
Absolutely. Yes.
Great. All right. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Cameron McDonald with E&P. Please go ahead.
Hey, Kees. Hey, Martin. Two questions from me. Just one on emerging tech. In that second half, you sort of, you know, it was up 6% versus 31% in the first half. Is, is that just a timing issue, or, or what, what sort of? Was there anything delayed? Like, what was the sort of step down in that growth rate?
Yeah, it's more of a, more of a timing issue there, Cameron, really. There was just orders that come in in different for, for different customers we had.
Okay. Just going back to the earlier question, you know, around, you know, this year being a year of consolidation before going back into sort of growth. You know, you spoke about the sort of revenue, growth, being confident of sort of 20%+. I mean, I, I always thought you were always, you know, you also thought talking in the past about impact growth or, as well as sort of that 20% growth. Am I mistaken in that? Then, you know, secondly, you know, you look at EBITDA 9% growth this year. In the last two years, you've done in excess of 23%. Is that what you're thinking about, you know, when you say back to normal growth rate?
Are you sort of looking at that 20%, not only at, say, the top line, but also flowing through the P&L and creating that leverage, so EBITDA should sort of be back to that, you know, to that sort of historic growth rate level? I mean, you've highlighted CAGR as 19% over the last six years. You know, is that the sort of benchmark we should be thinking about?
We're continuing to focus on, on being efficient and managing our costs, while we're delivering growth. That, you know, there have been some pressures in the last 12 months and some decisions to invest earlier to expand the capability of our ERP and so forth. That's, that's put some pressure on the growth rate of our EBITDA and down to our NPAT. We'll continue to focus on being as efficient as we can to bring that NPAT growth up more in line with revenue.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Elijah Mayr with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Kees and Martin. Congrats on, on another solid result. Just a couple quick ones from me. Maybe just in terms of the contracts going forward, I mean, you're obviously transitioning a lot of contracts into discussion and then from discussion to being a nominated supplier. Can you give us a sense of materiality a contract would need to be for you to make an announcement to the market when you have been awarded with such a contract?
I think probably material will be probably around about that AUD 5 million mark.
AUD 5 million revenue per year, I assume?
Yeah. Yes.
Yeah.
Correct, yes.
Excellent. Then just secondly, just in terms of the one-off, I mean, you had about AUD 700K in FY 2023, which was sort of taken above the line. Is there any expectation for further one-off in FY 2024 or, or similar, sort of expansionary sort of cost in FY 2024?
We're expecting the big investment, which is sort of an out of cycle investment in the ERP, occurred in 2023. We will see a little bit more of that cost in 2024, but we've made some really good advances in the programs there. We're expecting to see that to come back down and just become part of the ongoing development. We would, we would expect to be part of business as usual. The other, the cost, the, the, obviously, Silverstone leases are the exit costs are a one-off, then as we more fully utilize Rugby, that will be just part of the business as usual cost as well.
At this stage, not expecting or, or don't have visibility on anything that we would call out as an abnormal at this stage.
No problem. Then just one last quick one. I know there's been a lot of questions on defense, but maybe just one more, one more on the A&D side of things. Is there any impact, I guess, directly for, for contracts that you have bid in place or contracts maybe coming up in the A&D space for sort of the United States Congress to add Australia as a domestic source for defense production? Does that not really matter as much given the production facility already in the U.S.?
No, it doesn't. Yeah, well, that's mainly why we spent that money in the U.S. for that production facility over there to be ITAR accredited. That allows us to do a lot more of that work over there which we're expecting to come through. Yeah, that's the whole reason why we're spending that money on that new facility over there.
No problem. Just wanted to confirm. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jack Dunn with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, Martin, Kees, just one quick follow-up from me. You talked about the number of, A&D, programs going into production in FY 2024, 2025, of four to five. How many were in production in FY 2023?
Two.
Two. All right, perfect. Then just quickly on the 20% plus top line growth, would there be a skew more to auto OEM or A&D that would drive that revenue growth profile?
It'd be more, between, aerospace and defense.
Perfect.
Rather-
Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Yeah, rather than OE. OE certainly increased, but aerospace and defense increased it a lot more than OE we, we, we have on our, our books, for sure.
Okay. All right, perfect. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Kees Weel for closing remarks.
Okay. Probably not a lot more to say, but thank you very much for the interest. Yes, we'll be certainly looking forward to catching up with everybody on, in the half year and see what we can turn out, make it turn out to be. It's very exciting and thanks very much for your interest.