I'd now like to hand the conference over to Samantha Cheetham, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much, Darcy. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our first half FY 2025 results presentation. My name is Samantha Cheetham, the Chief Executive Officer, and with me today is John Slaviero, our Chief Financial and Operating Officer. Pleasingly, margin growth has continued into this financial year, achieving a gross margin of 63.5%, up 200 basis points on the previous corresponding period. Product margins have been driven by operational efficiencies plus favorable product mix within the growth in our higher margin products in higher margin regions. Our amalgam sales declined as expected, and we expect aesthetic sales to continue to improve, with Stela gaining some momentum in the market. Now, let's look at today's agenda. I'll begin the presentation with our performance highlights, which will include a sales by business unit and sales by region, followed by a sales by category and the current product trends.
I'll then turn over to John, who will run through the financials before returning to me to outline our key business updates that have occurred throughout the year, before concluding with our strategy and outlook. The first half FY 2025 saw sales of AUD 51.5 million for the group, down 1.3% on the prior corresponding period. Gross profit margin increased 200 basis points to 63.5% due to stronger performances in our higher margin products, as well as stronger regional mix and increased efficiencies across production. EBITDA fell by 4.4% to AUD 8.6 million versus AUD 9 million in the prior corresponding period. A final dividend of AUD 0.015 per share, in line with the prior corresponding period, with net profit after tax of AUD 3.8 million, an increase of AUD 3.5 million on the prior corresponding period.
In terms of our business updates, gross margin improvements have largely been attributable to product mix and increased efficiencies in production. We are hopeful to see further improvements with the move to our new facility in Montrose. Stela, a posterior restorative product that forms part of our aesthetic product range, is in its early stages of sales, with industry feedback extremely positive so far. Trade shows and investment in marketing have also continued to drive sales and product exposure in the industry and play an important role in increasing product awareness and the innovative nature of our products. Let's now turn to sales by business unit. This slide shows sales by business unit. The strong performance in business unit sales reflects good European and Brazilian growth.
The Australian unit sales, which also captures the Australian direct export markets, was down 10.9% in the first half, with Australian ex direct exports decreasing 15.7% when adjusted for currency movements. These sales were materially impacted by a reduction in sales from the Middle East and Asian region. The North American market was down 7.2% in local currency, primarily due to a 20.2% decline in amalgam sales in the region. The European unit sales were up 10.9% in local currencies, driven by strong demand in most European markets. Brazilian sales increased 28.4% in local currencies due to a major distributor returning to normal business after reducing inventory in the prior period. Now onto our sales by region. Sales by region reflects strong growth in the European markets, which were aided by favorable currency movements and strong demand for aesthetic products.
South American sales were up modestly, with Brazilian sales up over 20% in local currency terms, as previously mentioned. The next slide details our sales by category. In local currencies, aesthetic sales continued to show solid growth of 4.5% for the half year in local currency terms, with growth across all regions partly offset by a decline in Australian direct export sales, down 17.4%. While whitening product sales were broadly flat in local currency terms, we did see good increases in the European and Australian domestic markets, up mid-single digits. Equipment, which is largely a complementary product and represents our smallest product category, was broadly flat in most markets, offset in part by Brazil and Europe. Finally, amalgam sales decreased by 12.7% in local currency terms, declining in most markets, particularly the North American market, down 20.2%.
Turning to drivers behind our gross margin improvement, the shift in product and regional mix is driving margin improvement. In addition, we've also seen some early contribution from our investment in machinery and automation. We expect to see further efficiency improvements heading into the second half, with greater utilization of our machinery expected over the financial year. Now turning to John Slaviero.
Thanks, Sam. We are now onto the profit and loss slide now. As was mentioned by Sam, sales declined by 1.3% in the period, with good growth in the European and Brazilian markets, offset by declines in the Middle East and Asian market, and the continual decline in amalgam product sales. Profit after tax was up 3.5% to AUD 3.8 million, with EBITDA down 4.4% to AUD 8.6 million. Gross profit margins increased by 200 basis points to 63.5%, reflecting operational efficiency, geographical, and product mix. Total operating expenses in Australian dollars increased by 4.3% to AUD 27.1 million when compared to the previous corresponding period, reflecting inflationary pressures, particularly in employment costs.
Turning to the balance sheet, cash decreased by AUD 1.4 million after investing AUD 1.9 million in property, plant equipment and AUD 2.3 million in product development expenditure and AUD 1.4 million in inventory and reducing debt by AUD 2.1 million. Debt has been further reduced in January by AUD 4 million related to the sale of a property, which settled on the 17th of January 2025. The company has unused bank facilities of AUD 9 million and AUD 4.9 million in cash. Now , turning to the cash flow statement. There were several factors that impacted the cash flow in the half. These included increase in payments to suppliers and employees, higher income tax payments, and repayment of debt. We also made the payment for the final dividend for FY 2024, which was higher than the previous corresponding period.
I will now hand back to Sam to run through the business update and the strategy and outlook section.
Thank you, John. I'm now on the operational update page. During FY 2024, we invested approximately AUD 3 million, upgrading the 4,000 sq m warehouse. This is the first step in the complete relocation and provides additional warehousing space, allowing us to continue to grow whilst we carefully plan and execute the longer-term project of transitioning our manufacturing to Montrose. I will provide more details on our progress in the outlook. Turning to product, as previously mentioned, Stela continues to receive great feedback from key industry opinion leaders, with Stela achieving over AUD 1.3 million in sales in the December half. Stela has now been launched across Australia, North America, and Brazil, with repeat orders coming through. In July 2024, we launched Stela into the European market, which is showing good results. We know with time and education that the prospects of Stela are promising.
Turning to our investment in automation, we have continued to invest in automation to improve manufacturing efficiencies and capacity. The table on this slide details the machines we have invested in and their current progress stages. All machines have a remarkably short estimated payback period. The automation of Nozzle & Tip packing machine located at Bayswater due to space vacated by moving the warehouse to Montrose is one of the many efficiencies by having additional space that Montrose has provided us with. I'll now move on to ESG. Our ESG roadmap I've previously shared with you before. We believe in managing our environmental, social, and governance risk positions for sustainable growth at both a corporate and product level.
While these factors have always been a focus for SDI, we're continuing to follow our ESG roadmap, which is in line with our overarching corporate strategy, with a significant number of initiatives achieved in FY 2024. We look forward to further progress in FY 2025 and beyond. We will continue to share our journey and progress with you. Now onto the strategy and project Montrose. The overall cost of our Montrose project has reduced by AUD 4 million from previous estimates due to revising of our plans. The existing warehouse will stay at its current location, and the new construction will now incorporate manufacturing, research, development, and related functions. We are excited about the project, including the capacity it will add and the efficiencies it will generate for the business. Project Montrose, the next page. Here we see an approximate updated timeline of Project Montrose.
Our next stage is to move into the tendering works, and we are hoping to have planning approval by June 2025. We are currently still on track to be relocated by December 2027. The company's strategic priorities remain unchanged. Aesthetics and whitening continue to be our focus for the new product development. Stela and Riva Cem Automix were the latest product launches, and I will look forward to updating you all throughout the year of the positive progress of these products, particularly Stela, given its unique characteristics. We continue to focus on improving operational manufacturing efficiencies via automation and Project Montrose, expanding our sales capacity to over AUD 200 million. The research and development team will remain focused on product development with the aim to have two to three products released to market in the next 12 months.
We also look forward to presenting at the upcoming International Dental Show in Germany, an important event that will help SDI to drive sales and highlight our innovation to the market. Thanks for your participation today, and I'll now turn to questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question via the phone, you'll need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the ask a question box and hit submit. Your first question today comes from James Bisinella from Unified Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Sam. Pleasure. Congrats on the result. Just a couple from me. Firstly, on the first half gross margin, that was a highlight at kind of 63.5% up 200 basis points. You've mentioned some of the operational efficiencies expected into the second half. In terms of the margin, I guess going into the second half and probably into FY 2026, should we expect that to kind of hold or increase a bit? Just keen for a bit more context around that. Thank you.
Yeah. James, yeah, look, we had some operational efficiencies in the first half. We expect to get a bit more, but we do not believe we will get the full efficiencies until the next financial year. We do not expect the margin to go backwards. We always aim to improve the margin. Yeah. The next six months, we hope to hold that margin and the following years to have some improvement on it.
Excellent. Sounds good. Further to that point, just looking at the European business unit sales, that's kind of 40% of sales now, up from 36% in the PCP. Does that also support margins looking forward as the mix increases, just given, I guess, perhaps a lower margin in some of the export markets?
Yes, absolutely. The European market is the biggest dental market, and they focus very much because we do not have amalgam in the continental part of Europe. The margins will definitely increase there.
Fantastic. Switching gears onto sales in whitening, I think that looked like a bit of a highlight. Typically, the second half is seasonally stronger as well. You have the new packaging coming on. I suppose, how should we think about that segment from a sales perspective, firstly? I am also just keen to hear a little bit about the competitive landscape in whitening in Australia and the US in terms of your market position.
Sure. The new packaging that we've got coming along is top-notch. It's absolutely much nicer than every other competitor out there. High quality. It's reflecting the high quality of our Pola product. In terms of—sorry, that will also give a nice increase boost to the distributors. The dentists will love to show it in their dental surgeries, and the team will be very much focused on that. It will be a great door opener to them. In terms of competition, the US is the most competitive market. We've just become number one through distribution. Not all of the whitening products are sold via the dental office, and so the distributors don't—sorry, via the distributors. Several key companies sell direct to the distributors.
We're number one through the distributors, and that's a huge thing because we've got many, many sales reps calling directly on their long-term relationships with the dentist, and that should really go well. Globally, we've got very good market share today. Sorry, in Australia here, we are definitely number one.
Okay. Great. It sounds like you're number one through distribution in the US, but still a pretty low market share. Potentially room to grow on that. Just final one from me in terms of Stela. I think the language previously was a million plus in sales. Now it's kind of 1.3 million. It sounds like sales are continuing to grow there. How's the channel looking at the moment in Stela, and what's your level of confidence in terms of sales and replacing amalgam, looking forward?
Yeah. It is definitely the company maker. It will replace our amalgam sales. Stela is used for any type of back teeth fillings. It is not just the amalgam market we are focusing on. It is all the products that are put in the back teeth, such as composites, which is the biggest category. There is great upside there. We are just touching the surfaces. We have got research and development working with universities to help them understand why it is good. We have got key opinion leaders talking about the products. Yeah, we are only just starting in terms of the infiltration, in terms of the key people who influence the dentist.
Fantastic. That's it from me. Congrats again on the result. I think some of your international peers are going backwards, sort of a rate of knots, and you guys are growing strongly. Congrats. That's it from me.
Thank you a lot, James.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Topy from Select Equities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Sam and John.
Mark.
Just to pick up on, I suppose, the amalgam runoff, it's a bit disruptive in the U.S. How do you see that now happening over the next, say, six months, twelve months?
Yeah.
Is it going to be a real rapid rundown, or is it how quickly we'll just try to understand?
Yeah. It'll continue to decline double digits. The amalgam phase down will finish by 2020-2030. We will have exited the market by 2028. It's certainly not our focus. Yeah, for the next financial year, again, it will decline. Yeah. We're replacing those sales with our aesthetic sales, and that's happening quite quickly.
Right. Yeah. It is certainly exciting to hear about Stela. The focus, I suppose, has been Europe too, and you have got a German conference. Just to talk about the US ramp-up, do you need additional distribution there or points of contact or promotion? Obviously, US is a very big market there. In terms of just remind us again on competing products to Stela now being launched in the market, how do you see the competitive landscape there as well?
Yeah. We could always do with more salespeople, more advertising, and that type of promotion, more investment into key opinion leaders and what they're talking about. That all costs money. We've got all the key distributors, so it's just working with them closely so they focus on SDI and not one of the other competitors. That's pretty much the way we operate globally. In terms of competitors to Stela, there are a few competitors, but they do not have the advantage of super high strength, which is really important for the back teeth, and also the gap-free technology. This is all patented, and they've all got their own advantages, but this one is a key advantage.
Yeah. So when those key opinion makers look at the products, you're confident that you're the gold standard then, is what you're saying?
Yes, very much. It will become a gold standard, certainly on its way.
In terms of promotion, then, current year, you spend around there. Can you give us—with the sales kind of ramping up, can you see additional promotional spend in the global space?
Yeah. I mean, as the sales ramp up, for sure, we invest more into the promotional area. We are trying to manage our expenses too. It is using the most—having the most efficient use of the allocation of money. We do do it step by step. Unfortunately, we do not go and do the massive launches. However, in Germany next month at the International Dental Show, we will be making a big thing of it, and we have all our distributors saying and playing with the products. We are doing it. We do launches really through the distributors. The dentists, there are so many of them. There is no way we could catch them all.
Yeah. No. Great. On that reduction in the Montrose budget there, is that due to John's tough negotiation, or is it?
I'd like to think so, Mark. If you want to give me that credit, yeah, I'll take it, but it's not quite true. No, we revamped the plans, and we thought we'd done it more efficiently because the first lot of plans were sort of our first thoughts, and then we sat down and revamped them and pulled about, I don't know, about AUD 4 million out of the building costs. We expect that to come down a little bit more because once it goes out of tender, hopefully, the tenders will come in a little bit lower as well.
You're obviously project managing that, so.
Yeah. We have a specialist company, TMX, that project manage it for us because they're experts in it. We don't have the expertise here. We certainly don't have the manpower here because everybody's busy doing their normal job. We have external project managers who have done much bigger projects than what we're doing. Right.
Of course. Great. Can you give us a bit more of a feel? You said there was some additional spend on promotion and some—is it wage pressure or inflation pressure, or? How do you see that going over the next—is it stabilizing a bit now or not?
Yeah. Look, being in Victoria, everybody knows that payroll tax has gone up, WorkCover has gone up, land tax has gone up, and then also federally, the superannuation went up. Those cost increases, we can't do anything about. Right? Also, at the same time, every year, we've got to give our employees wage rights to keep in step with inflation. Materially wise, it was more the payroll-related or payroll and payroll related costs. We've lost a few people because they've got bigger job offers, bigger salaries. We have to be mindful of that. It is a tough employment market at this point in time, especially in the skills around quality assurance, where this MDR is attracting high wages and people.
Sorry, what was that? The NDA?
No, no, MDR. Sorry. MDR. The Medical Device Regulation for Europe.
Oh, okay. Right.
That's an enormous cost to us. Yeah, the demand for good people in that area is very high.
Right. Got it. Got it. Okay. Is that due to any particular factor there, or?
It used to be the MDD, and that was a medical device directive. It was a directive. It was not law. Now it is law. We have to comply to everything. We have just been audited, and the audit is enormous. Every part of the company was audited. Yeah, it is an enormous job. We are sort of halfway through it. Our R&D is spending a lot of time on it. We have still got a little while to go on it to ensure that we have got the registration.
Right. Doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but.
No. It is a good barrier to entry because it is costly. If you're a smaller company and you're based in America, you'd probably pull out of the European market because the cost of it wouldn't be worthwhile, right?
Yeah. Okay. And no implication to the Trump tariff range or any disruption there?
No.
No, he's talking about Europe. He's talking about Europe. Australia won't—he's talking about European tariffs now, but yeah.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
She'll get back to Australia. No.
I think Sam just came back from the U.S., and she felt that the confidence level in the U.S. has gone up quite a bit. Everybody's a bit more excited. Hopefully, that will help our whitening sales.
Hopefully, they'll just forget about Australia and not put tariffs on us.
Yeah.
Lastly, just on FX then, just what's sort of the currency been bouncing around? You were just covering per normal, or?
Yeah. We just continue with our natural hedging. The euro hasn't moved that much. The US, maybe in January, it moved a cent or a cent and a half where it ended up in December. So far, we've got no—we do good business in the—it's got a six in front of it for the USD. There's no problems there.
Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from John Galt, private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. I just got through pretty easy questions. The first question is about the projected project cost of AUD 56 million. Is that inclusive of the AUD 19 million already spent on purchasing the site?
Yes. Correct. Correct.
Yeah. It is basically subject to the tenders, of course, around a AUD 37 million residual CapEx project cost.
Yes. That also includes—it is about AUD 23 million build cost in there. Right? The balance includes additional machinery that we want to buy because we have got the space. Right?
Yes. Understood.
John, if you notice on the presentation, there's a chart with the new machinery, and one new one's been added, a whitening machine, which is about AUD 1.9 million. That is part of that machinery budget. Right?
Okay. That's very good. Second question is whether it's been made or not. When is the decision on the funding of the CapEx to occur? Has it been made already? Is it going to get funded, or?
We've got bank approval, right? And we've got a written letter of offer from the banks, but the board hasn't sat down and really gone into the detail that's required and which way we're going to go at this point in time.
Oh, that's understood. Given you probably wait till results of the tenders. Final question is just regarding the new construction of the premises. Given you've gone down the ESG route, was there any consideration for solar panels, or?
Yes. Absolutely. The unfortunate bit where we are now, we can't put solar panels on our roofs because it won't support the panels. The structure will support lots of solar panels.
Yeah. Okay. Very good. Okay. That's it from me. Thank you very much.
Yeah. No worries.
Thank you. As there are no more phone questions at this time, I'll now pause for a moment and address questions from the webcast. Your first question from the webcast comes from Caleb Wang. Caleb asks, could you please provide some color on the delay in tender in the Middle East and whether that is expected to bounce back in the second half?
Yes. Thanks, Caleb. Just all the Middle East disruption. The Saudi government has not ordered too much on the tender itself. It goes for another couple of years. In terms of the next half, we will not catch up on last year, but it is certainly starting to ramp up. We expect good numbers going forward.
Thank you. Your next question from the webcast comes from Martin Watson. Martin asks, Stela was launched as an amalgam replacement product. Given that you are now seeing a wider market opportunity for Stela, how will you manage its market position relative to other presumably high-value products in your range that could be impacted?
We are focusing on the back teeth, the fillings that go into the back teeth, which amalgam is actually a very small part of that in the market. If we walk into an amalgam surgery—sorry, a doctor's surgery—and they are not using amalgam, of course, the team goes straight for, "What do you use in the back teeth for your patients?" Yeah, it is unlimited opportunity for the back teeth.
Yeah. We don't see it cannibalizing our current product range.
No. Absolutely not. This is an opportunity for us to gain market share in the composite segment.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Samantha Cheetham for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much, Darcy. Thanks, everyone, for listening. The next six months are going to be—actually, I should say the next 12 months are going to be a hugely busy time for us. Obviously, the building itself is exciting, but it's a big project for us. I know the results we'll achieve through building that project will be fantastic for the company. In the next month, we've got our big dental show in Germany, and it's an exciting time for us. We'll be able to show our new products to all our distributors and launch the products as we get registration through the world. Very, very exciting 6-12 months ahead of us. Thanks, everybody, for your time, and wait until the next results.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.