Good morning and welcome to Stealth Group Holdings, the 2023 full-year results briefing presentation. With me is John Boland , CFO, and we'll take you through the presentation now. We welcome everybody that's joined us today, and it's good to see that our attendance online is bigger than we've had previously, and that obviously is a testament to the number of shareholders that we have on our books, which has increased by about 25% over the last 12 months. I'll take you through the presentation. I'll then hand it over to John from a finance perspective, and then I'll come back and I'll give you a strategic review and also an outlook.
This presentation will be put up on the ASX directly after this session, and there'll be some supplementary information that's obviously going to be provided, but we won't take you through in the presentation, but it will be available for you. In terms of opening remarks, just to summarize, our company today is 99.7 million shares, still AUD 0.13 was about a week ago, that's sitting about AUD 0.125 today. Market cap is hovering between AUD 12.5 million-AUD 13 million, with the P/E ratio at the end of 30 June of 13.8x , and that's down from 17.4. We had a record year in terms of revenue of AUD 111 million. We're still maintaining our target 2025 of AUD 200 million and 8% EBITDA.
There's been no changes to the board over the last 12 months, and everybody's well engaged in terms of the strategy and also our development and growth. Just picturing our business all in one, so from a commitment point of view, our business is, this message has been clear: sustainable long-term growth and delivering shareholder value. Our operating model has evolved. Today, it's industrial products and solutions to every workplace, and that operates through two specific models from a business point of view and also from a retail perspective. Our goal is to take a leadership position and be Australia's company of choice. In doing that, we believe that we've developed a framework, and the last 12 months has also helped consolidate and expand in a number of different areas, and we'll continue to do that in the foreseeable future.
There are some favorable characteristics that sit behind our business. 95% of the products that we sell are non-discretionary items, so in an economic environment or inflationary economic environment, we're pretty resilient and we're robust, so we're still a growth company and we'll maintain that approach. The tailwinds that support that, not headwinds for our business, because it is an everyday commodity, it is a need. We work in a large and attractive fragmented market, and to do that, we're grabbing market share. Our strategic progress, not only in just the last 12 months, but particularly since our listing some five years ago, so we've maintained a long-term view, and our management protocols sit behind that thesis. Right sizing is really important.
We've completed eight acquisitions in our time over the last six years, and in doing that, particularly in the last 12 months, boosting efficiency also would lower our cost structure as we continue to sales. Profitable growth is always one that has been top of mind, so for the first four and a half years of our journey from listing, it's been focused on scale. We're building scale, building revenue, building capability in the network, and we've invested every dollar back into the company. We've started to receive the fruits of that in the second half of 2023 with better cash flow management, in fact, a record operating cash inflow and also free flow cash.
Our growth strategies that we've maintained have been consistent for the last five years, but particularly in the last two or three, we've made sure that all our metrics have been met, and every element, as I'll take you through shortly, has provided growth in their own particular areas. We've really focused on the customer experience, and our service levels have continued to evolve and improve, and that's demonstrated by the number of contracts that we've recently won, particularly in the last six months, and we've previously announced that, but also we're becoming more sticky with our customers, and that's providing more opportunity itself. The second aspect, I guess, is our people, and that's a really important element of our organisation.
We have a HR team now in place, and that's developed over the last 12 months with a HR manager that is really focused on the strategic side and ensuring that the culture, the engagement with our employees, and enriching their experience is absolute, followed by technology plans, and we continue to invest in technology, and that's a key element of not only our data and our analytics and being right across real-time of what happens within our business, but it's also about the user experience, both internally for our people and also for the customer.
From a supplier consolidation perspective, we announced the central buying office, which has occurred over the last seven or eight months, and that is to bring our tier one suppliers into one consolidated area that will manage and lead the progress of those arrangements for those brands across our whole portfolio and also develop consistency in the master arrangements. That has helped with volume pricing rebates. It has also helped with product selection and expansion of that, and also we are really pushing hard about bringing efficiency in the supply chain, which will also improve our cost structure. We are really well positioned. We have developed into a large market player. We have got a quality business portfolio that is well positioned for growth. We see that there will be growth continuing in all sectors and in all markets, but we have also been winning market share. We are investing in what we call an innovation pipeline.
I'll take you through that shortly. Our business has continued to evolve and mature, and in doing that, we're actually positioning ourselves as an industry-leading business. We've also, whilst we talk about growth, we haven't been shy in making sure that we right-size our business. We divested ourselves from eight on-site store customer or unprofitable customer contracts, and also we closed two branch locations that we felt we weren't getting the right return on our investment. There was about AUD 6.5 million annual revenue that was associated to that. We grew at actually about 17.5% if you remove those. These are not customers that we've lost. These are customers that we decided that we could not get, after good discussion, we could not get the right return on our investment.
We're not here to do business for free, and we obviously have really strong internal rate of return targets, and we're going to maintain that approach. I guess underpinning all this is the diversity that we've added, not only in our product portfolio, but expanding our services, and all of that continues to adapt to the evolving needs of our customers. Summarizing our five-year journey, if you look at the column next to the arrows in the center of the screen, 2018, these were our approximate metrics from our revenue, our acquisitions, employees, the stock we hold, right through to customer accounts and suppliers. It's been a material shift and change. In fact, the AUD 24 million that was there in 2018, AUD 23 million of that was involved in Africa distribution, of which we exited that in 2020 and 2021.
Again, low-margin contracts, and we decided that based on the requirements of that particular customer, we walk away from the arrangement. We've completed seven acquisitions since then. We have AUD 200,000 of products in stock. That was AUD 270,000 12 months ago, so we've really rationalized where our stock holding is, and that's demonstrated by the return as a percentage of sales of our inventory holding. Clearly, going from one store to 70 has been a monumental effort, and there's still so much upside and opportunity with that, as there is with the customer accounts and individual consumers. I do need to apologize. I've just picked up one error in the slide. We don't have 2,500 suppliers. We have 2,500. Our target is still AUD 200 million, and we feel really confident about how we're going to get there.
That's a combination of existing customers and growth there, new customers and growth in the new business model, and acquisitions which we're still actively reviewing and pursuing. If I can take you through the highlights of that by 2023 collectively, it was a record performance where we obviously, in an inflationary environment, it's brought about a number of challenges through supply chain, and it's also brought about a number of challenges through managing costs through inflation. In terms of key messages, if I can talk about the financial side to start with, really strong growth in sales, profitability, and cash, and the way that John and his team have managed and maintained capital discipline has been exemplary. Our second half of 2023 outperformed the first half, and it normally does, but it's also our largest six-month period, and we've outperformed all other prior periods.
We successfully managed inflation and the recovery of that after maintaining our price points for the first six months of 2023. In the second six months, about month two, month three, we started putting price increases through and pricing resets across the business, and that is still maintaining that approach today. I mentioned from a capital employment point of view, we have managed that strongly, and we have invested in areas that we felt were going to allow to take us forward and grow. From a right-sizing point of view, we have improved our cost structure, and those specific numbers we will take you through shortly. I have mentioned the store consolidation, but also one of the things that we have worked really hard from a technology point of view is to bring in automation and improve efficiency in everything we do, both from an operational, financial, and corporate perspective.
Today, the benefits of scale have allowed us to receive more favorable supply terms and engage with suppliers that previously weren't as engaging with us, and there's a number of large opportunities that have now been presented that will set our organizational pathway or roadmap over the next one, two, three years. We've deepened the customer relationships, as I mentioned, and that's been driven by alignment to customers, both from an account management perspective and operations, and we're winning market share. That's the most important thing, is we're growing in all sectors. Underpinning all that, I guess looking ahead, we've now got a large distribution network that's Australia-wide that we have opportunity to leverage.
The innovation piece in terms of new services is unique and differentiated in the market, and some of that is at infancy stage, some of it's half mature, some of it is very mature, but the collaboration with the suppliers or the key brands and large multinational market-leading brands is something that we're advancing with. We are investing in faster profitable growth, and we'll continue to right-size. The customer profile in terms of their buying behaviour right across in-store, online, by phone, by email, and also with our sales reps in the field has been fairly equal. What that demonstrates is it's not one pathway or another. We actually have a really nice blend of catering for all our customer needs, and the strength of our portfolio actually encompasses an omnichannel model.
To bring all that together, it clearly is demonstrated by the upside that we've received within our financials. The financials in terms of our growth performance summary: the revenue, excluding U.K. discontinued operations, is up 11.4% or AUD 12 million, reiterating that 17.4% if we remove the unprofitable customers that we exited those contracts. AUD 5.3 million in our EBITDA, which is a 32% increase. EBIT is a 71% increase, and our net profit is a 50% increase, similarly with our EPS. Even pleasingly, our return on capital employed, which is an internal measure that we have, was 9.9%, which is up from 6%. I guess in terms of all those growth metrics across our financial trading, it has been really positive. Obviously, there's still a way to go.
We're still on track, but we're really pleased in terms of where our jump has been, particularly in the environment that has increased in wages, has increased in rental, has increased in insurances across the board. You have seen that, obviously, in the grocery supermarket sector and every other sector, is the management of costs, which was unforeseen when we started our plan 12 months ago for FY2023, but we have managed it really, really well. Probably most pleasing is operating cash flow. That has increased to AUD 6.8 million for the year, up from AUD 0.9 million, a massive increase. Our net capital expenditure was fairly consistent, but our free cash flows have increased by AUD 6 million, so it is AUD 5.6 million off a negative AUD 0.4 million in the prior year. Cash realisation of 130%, which is a remarkable, obviously, outcome, and a credit to John and also his team in doing that.
Net financial debt, we continue to pay that down. We'll explain that a little bit further as we go through. There's a 29% reduction in our debt facilities, which now brings us into about a 1.4 range of debt over EBITDA. Debt over EBITDA in comparison to our peers is consistent and within a far acceptable threshold. Equally, our reporting now and the size of our business has required us to continue to put forward metrics on gender balance, and we're pleased to say that we still continue in what's traditionally been a male-dominated environment or industry. 39% of our staff are female employees. I mean, it's something that we'll continue to push and promote based on merit and based on best person for the job.
Fairly solid numbers and something that we're pleased with, but clearly, our ambition is still to push hard on our earnings growth and our cash management. Operational highlights. I won't go through all this in detail, but this is something for your reading when this goes up on the portfolio, on the ASX portfolio. Unification of banners. That's essentially the right-sizing element. We've continued to merge, consolidate, and bring Heatleys and Skipper Parts, United Tools, Industrial Supply Group, as well as the development of the Heatleys business. We're looking to right-size, and we're going to consolidate our brands. In doing that, that actually has helped provide a stronger offering and a more competitive price point across the board. We've had a 21% reduction in our headcount through natural attrition, where we haven't replaced, and what that's done is brought about efficiency.
We have also reduced the number of lines that we hold in stock by 16%. That is clearly demonstrated by the improvement in cash, but also the efficiency in terms of our in-time and in-full delivery process. The central purchasing office, in fact, recently increased from 84 suppliers; we are now into the 90s. All brands now are sold across all our operating banners. There are improved margins now that we have been able to consolidate into single trading terms across all the portfolio. The benefits of having technology integration is providing real data, real-time, that allows us to be more predictive in our demand planning for our products. Our push for a total workplace strategy, which is about providing solutions and products for every workplace, is something that is going to not only be differentiated but also drive market share.
In doing that, our go-to-market model really now sits in two areas: business solutions, which caters to large, mid-sized customers, professionals, government organizations who typically have complex requirements, and we have a compelling offer for value-added products, services. We're involved in tailored supply chain solutions. How that's brought together in terms of our connection is through our sales force, our branches, by phone, by email, or digital channels. It represents today 84% of our FY2023 sales. On the right-hand side is our retail solutions. Typically, that's individual consumers. They have very basic requirements. They will walk into a store. They will buy online, or they'll do a click and collect. It's a traditional store retail online retail model, and that's 16% of our sales. We didn't have that within the organization two and a half years ago.
All that encompassed, we operate in a AUD 52 billion addressable market, and we're obviously a pinprick of that. Our model is to cater for individual customer requirements and the varied needs based on those two operating models. This is the way of our future, really dedicated to business, really dedicated to the individual consumers. We've got different competitors in each space, but there's no one company that's doing a go-to-market strategy like this. With that said, I'm going to pass this over to you, John, and you can take us through the financial performance and retail of income as well as balance sheet, cash flow, debt structure, and obviously inventory.
Thanks, Mike. Welcome to everybody. Yeah, John Boland , Group CFO, and representing the FY2023 financial results and performance for Stealth. The FY2023, we're now looking at another year of double-digit growth and increasing total profitability for the group and expanding builds on the tool scale. That is true to strengthening expansion, improving inventory cash flows, and adding to shareholder value. Before we get into some of the specifics, a couple of key ones. As we see on the income statement, double-digit growth in revenue. As we've moved down through the profit line, we've seen increasing growth in EBITDA, EBITDA and the profit before tax percentage improvements. Again, as the group is building its scale, we've seen those benefits drop at the bottom line and seen compound growth rates of 29%-38% across all those key metrics. In terms of shareholder value, high level, we're hitting record EPS.
We've had a record market capitalisation through June. Our price-to-earnings ratios are the lowest they've been. This has continued to add value and upside for shareholders. High level from a balance sheet, we've built up our cash reserves, which is dependent on our working capital management. We've reduced our net debt by 29%. We continue to invest in business and grow our net tax reliability for shares. Finally, as we've got through on the operating cash flow, we've had AUD 6.8 million operating cash flows, AUD 5.6 million on the free cash flow. Refer readers to our FY2023 annual report, and particularly our year report, in terms of more comprehensive details to look on it. Just back onto the income statement, going through some of the numbers. 11.4% in revenue, now at AUD 111 million, and up from AUD 99.6 million.
I think, as Mike said, the comparatives are excluding our discontinued and the best of U.K. operations in 2022. Been no impact on 2023. We've seen those sales. We've seen an increase in daily rates, and we've seen a record gross profit of 32.6%. As Mike was part of that, we've seen our gross margin in the second half of the year at 29.6%. The group's now demonstrated five half-year periods in a row where we've consistently hit that 29%-30% margin. I think for the group, it's continued to hold those levels and look to grow them from there. EBITDA, AUD 5.3 million. If we look at key performance, it's a margin of 4.8%, so 80 basis points on the 4% last year. The key one, obviously, from our finance side is that that's cost of doing business in between.
Again, as a group, we've dropped that to 24.5% this year, down from 26.2%. Again, in an inflationary environment, the pressures we've been having, our gold businesses across Australia, getting that growth and showing that as we grow, those scale benefits are dropping to the bottom line. Depreciation amortization is at 11%, as we continue to invest within the business. Finance costs are over 1.1 for the year. Just really as a context, each 25 basis point increase from the OVA is about 25 grand net of tax impact to the bottom line. Hopefully now, with interest rates either peaked or close to a peak, those pressures and impacts are also going to diminish and lessen, making it into some FY2024.
Finally, net profit after tax of AUD 0.9 million, giving us a record EPS of AUD 0.91, up 51.7% on last year's in terms of the shareholder value. Let's pick over to the cash flow. Key call outs in here, AUD 6.8 million operating cash flow after all our interest, transaction, taxes. This increased to AUD 6.9 million when we peel conversion rate on our EBITDA. We can see that 103% is significantly up on last year. Gross capital expenditure, we continue to invest in the business. It's AUD 1.3 million spent year on year. A few small asset sales during the year give us a free cash flow of AUD 5.6 million. About a significant AUD 6 million compared to the AUD 0.4 million asset flow that we had last year.
Gross acquisition, $500,000 of expenditure coming out of the acquisitions in FY2022, prepared payments there. That will drop further to $300,000 for the year ahead. Within the repayments of liabilities, a large portion of that is repayment of our acquisition debt on the C&L and the Skipper Parts businesses. A key call out, which we'll touch on at the net debt, is that in December 2023, our C&L acquisition debt will be 100% repaid after being acquired in December 2020. Ultimately there, net cash increased to $3 million for the year, closing cash at hand $7.7 million. Both strong results in the current year business climate. Going on to the balance sheet, probably there's two key call outs in this area. One is around cash through the working capital management.
Again, we've increased, as we touched on the cash flow, our cash is up AUD 3 million. Importantly, our net working capital as a percentage of revenue is 12.6%. Bottom corner compared to 11.5%. As we've grown, we've been disciplined in terms of how we've invested in the gross receivables, inventory, and true operables. Even our inventory has fallen to 90 basis points as a percentage of revenue. Reducing the product lines, as Mike alluded to, using automation analysis and just being, yeah, smarter and clever about how we hold and manage our inventory. We're seeing those are the benefits. The second key call out, second point, net debt goes up 29.4%. Down to AUD 7.2 million, we were at AUD 10.2 million last year. As we reduce our acquisition debt, continue to manage our working capital so that it's healthy.
We're sitting here at 32 and with 2 million expanding across the acquisition debt. Again, table on the bottom corner, our net capital, our return on capital employed, up to 9.9%. That's, yeah, again, strong growth from there. Finally, leverage ratio, again, we've dropped it almost 10 basis points to 31.1. Again, important as we're growing around that net debt and managing that tightly, we have increased our facilities with Commonwealth Bank of Australia by another 3 million during the year. At 32, we had 11.8 million capacity between variable facilities plus our cash on hand. Going over to inventory. Again, we've touched on how we've been improving our inventory as a percentage of revenue. Now, as well as key ones there, yeah, come from 16.1 two years ago, down to 13.3. We've made today a 3 million reduction in inventory.
Actually, not the FY2021 percentage we've applied this year, which for a group like Stealth is a significant amount of investment, and cash flow has been freed up. Again, for the bottom points, again, we're looking to improve our in-store retail, looking to improve our brand strategies, and again, looking to improve and be smarter about our inventory as we move forward. Last one from a financial management perspective will be the net debt. Again, just a bit of our waterfall, expected to roll over FY2022 at AUD 10.2 million. Some payments for acquisitions, which also includes some PPE in there. CapEx is sort of a gross amount. Working capital management has sort of freed up AUD 3.4 million of funds. Again, repayments of AUD 1.8 million combination of acquisition debt and finance leases as well.
In terms of the AUD 7.2 million debt that's there at the end of the year, roughly AUD 2 million is our fixed debt acquisition facilities. That will continue to pay down through FY2024. The balance of AUD 5.2 million is our revolving working capital, which again, is investment in business. We'll continue as the business outlook still goes in a disciplined manner. I think that's for me. Conclude with the financial performance, and I'll hand it back to Mike.
Good job, John. The reason why we're just bringing the net debt and creating more visibility with that is to ensure that not only are we explaining how we're reducing our net debt, there'll be nothing there from a fixed point next year or the end of this year.
We're paying AUD 400,000 off the recorder, but the revolving working capital facility is essentially a day-to-day trading requirement based on our debtors and based on our suppliers, making the most also out of early settlement discounts and general working capital for buying stock that might have longer lead times or payments with large contracts that are not your standard 30-day terms. I see that as every business needs to operate that type of facility, and it's not uncommon by any stretch. From an outlook perspective, look, we're sitting in a good spot. Leading on from what John's just said from a financial point of view, I guess if we solidify our position, we've had a 29% CAGR over the last three years. We've enhanced our profitability and our cash flows.
We've got a large business now across a large portfolio that we're looking to double the number of stores in the next couple of years. Our investment in technology over the last three years, and that's been on average around about AUD 900,000- AUD 1 million every year. That has allowed us to win business, be integrated with customers, but also the user experience has been significantly better. We will also continue to automate. The rise of AI and the benefits that that brings is obviously something that we're looking to advance quite considerably. We are a large industry player now. We are recognized. We're getting the attention of a lot of different people in a lot of different areas, particularly our suppliers and our customers. We've got record tenders that we've been invited to that we've won.
We've got record tender bids that are still outstanding that we've never been involved in previously. That just ultimately not only supports the strength of our business model, but also obviously our position has been very deliberate in bringing the organisation together. What's our edge? Total workplace strategy. That's ultimately what our push is, is to provide products and services for every workplace. The customer intimacy side is really important with experience. We're going to be working really hard over the coming future to continue to evolve that. We think our service levels in some areas are excellent. In some areas, clearly through automation, we'll improve. The breadth of what we offer will provide us with an industry leadership position. We continue to take market share. We are highly differentiated. Obviously, our track record, everything that we seem to do, in principle, we've delivered.
Our focus is on expanding operating margins, continue with a robust cash flow management program, as well as our allocation of capital. Our 2025 targets are AUD 200 million and 8% EBITDA, unchanged. What's ahead in terms of specific detail? Our business solutions area, we have scaled. We are going to consolidate more banners. We have six operating banners today. We're looking to bring that down to predominantly two, but there will be a third one. Over the course of the next 30 days, there will be a further announcement of why. We think that's more powerful in terms of brand investment, the cost of obviously programming those brands, but also positioning the business differently. What I mean by that is heat and safety in industrial. We'll also have the automotive part attached. We will remove the Skipper Parts brand from the portfolio.
It will convert those five stores into Heatleys stores as well. That will allow us to be the largest player within the Western Australian market. From a differentiation point of view, clearly, there is still a lot of leverage there, both from a customer perspective and also with the supplier. As I mentioned earlier, getting the recognition of that, there are a number of new products and new brands that we are in discussions with that we are looking to take to market. The reason why we put the business channel and the retail channel together is to allow different products for different purposes and make sure that they are tailored to suit. That brings along imminent opportunities to drive growth there. Clearly, earnings uplift as well as cash generation is really top of mind from focus. Our capital discipline.
On the left-hand side, we are mentioning where would we invest this year. Clearly, being more efficient, right-sizing, more merchandising, the way that we present ourselves in terms of store branding and professionalism, the layout and the look to make it a destination for customers to go to, both online and offline. Our EBITDA, we're looking—sorry, debt over EBITDA, we're looking to maintain at least at a 1.4 from a long-term perspective, but clearly, that will come down over the next 12 months. With all those organic priorities, we are looking at AUD 1.2 million-AUD 2 million that we'll invest organically. That's been fairly consistent in the last three years. We are targeting AUD 2 million to pay off the fixed debt. The facility will be finalized and paid out in full by the end of the next year.
From a dividends perspective, we have announced that there will be an inaugural dividend provided to our shareholders based on the FY2024 period. We have obviously done a fairly big review of that and also looked at what our peers are doing. We are really confident about that coming to fruition. We will provide more information on that in our annual general meeting, which will be coming up in November. That is something that for those shareholders that have been really supportive for us to get a return on their investment. Equally, it also will reset our company as a company that pays dividends and attracts new investor types, which is really important to push that out in the market. From an acquisition point of view, we are still going to continue along the path of value-accretive acquisitions in the price tag of somewhere between AUD 4 million and AUD 12 million.
Our pipeline is active. There are lots of opportunities, and the market is consolidating. We see that further consolidating over the course of the next two years. From an outlook perspective, in summary, we believe that our financial program is positive. We expect strong results going forward. Despite what's happening from an economic point of view, there is strong demand in all our sectors. Just taking you back, the products that we sell are non-discretionary items. Areas like transportation, as well as mining resources and contractors and tradespeople and so on. Even in the DIY market, which we have entered, is all still high demand. Now, when you're coming from a low basis, we have as a business, everything is upside. If we're a long-term mature organization, then clearly that's harder. We are a challenger in the market to take a leadership position.
We see long-term resilience in that. The consolidation of our banners is going to be really important. There will be more information that will flow on from here, but we believe that we will outperform the wider industrial sector. We will continue to do that for the foreseeable future, anywhere up to the next five years. From a numbers point of view, we are not giving out any specifics just yet, but we will in the very near future. Clearly, double-digit growth is our plan on revenue, on margin, and also on our earnings. To maintain, obviously, a strong cash flow, free cash flow, operating cash flow program is top of mind. In summary, the last slide, we are building Australia's company of choice for industrial supplies and solutions. It has been a great 12-month period.
I'd like to thank all our staff for their contribution, which has been absolutely amazing in the environment that's been pretty tough inflationary-wise and to manage costs that almost were changing daily. I also thank my fellow directors who have been outstanding in terms of their support for the organization. Obviously, their guidance and their continued experience and counsel for all our people across the business. We're really excited about where we're heading. We maintain our strong view of not only 2025, but we're actually looking three years ahead of that now. We've got some exciting new innovations that are going to come in the market and be announced in the near future. We spoke about relevance last year, 12 months ago, and we're absolutely getting attention that we haven't previously. That is an exciting journey.
We continue to reset ourselves and make sure that everything we do adds value, not only for shareholders, but also for the customer experience and the products we have and how we represent ourselves and the quality of our portfolio. That is where we are going to continue maintaining our investment.
Thank you. Anything else you'd like to say?
We've covered it all. Okay. We've covered it. Steve, we might go to any questions that anybody has if you'd like to do that.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, John. We do have a few minutes for questions. If you'd like to ask a question of Mike or John, just please type it into the question box on your screen, on your virtual webinar screen. While we wait for a couple of questions, we might pause a moment and be back with you in a bit on the other side.
Please type your questions in. Great. Thanks, everyone. We have had some questions come through. Our first question is from Daniel Gray. First couple of questions from Daniel. If we zoom out, why do you think our impact is still below directors' forecasts in the original prospectus?
Under the prospectus. It's a long time ago. There's a lot that's changed since then. I guess if I take you to this slide, our business has significantly evolved. We've done seven acquisitions in that time, of which obviously we weren't knowing. It was part of our strategy. Divesting out of the U.K. was not part of our strategy. Also getting involved in independents and building the network that we have. I guess every dollar that we've had, we've invested in good technology. We've built the operating platform that now has 70 stores. We've consolidated our operations.
We've opened up operations. We've actually got a far stronger business than we could ever believe that we would have today in comparison to where we looked at our perspectives, which was written back in 2018. Best laid out plans. We also didn't expect an inflationary environment that is unforeseen. We didn't expect COVID to come through for a two-year period, which locked and closed borders and held supply chains really, really all glassed up, which was unavailable to get product or delays in its product. There's been such a significant lift and movement from a macroeconomic point of view, as well as the way that our business has been, that that could never have been forecast from anybody. If you look at all our peers, we've actually outperformed all our peers in every metric over the last five years, every metric.
If we go back and open and look at the perspectives, I can say we're outperforming our competitors or our peers. If we're gaining market share, if we've built a business, one of the largest in Australia now, that combines company and independent operations, that is an excellent outcome. To do that, you don't build a company from almost startup to the size that we have today without investment. I've made sure that we've brought the best people on to allow for this growth in a seamless, organized, and orderly manner. People like John came out of an organization that was number three in finance for a $6.5 billion business.
We've headhunted a number of people that were in leading positions in sales and development areas and technology areas that have come on to allow us to grow our business. The fruits of profitability, clearly, as the largest shareholder, are top of mind. We have been consistent in our message for the last five years about revenue growth, scale growth, building that. We only flipped that message to our focus on profitability during FY 2023. I'm really comfortable that we're on the right track here.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Our second question from Daniel is, can you comment on your competitive pressures for the respective business segments?
Competitive pressures? Clearly, I think everybody is dealing with wages, or the impact of wages, the impact of rental, the impact of price points, and supply chains. All companies, I think, are facing the same competitive issues.
Our pricing, we're not looking for the lowest price. We don't sell at the lowest price. Clearly, that's why we've closed down branches. We've made sure and on-site operations and unprofitable customers to ensure that our pricing levels are correct. Our pressures from our competitive space, they have enough focus within. There is a number of our competitors that are on the market for sale, and that's been listed in press. There is a number of businesses that are going through massive transformation in terms of consolidation. We're probably one of the few that is growing and winning market share because of the investments that we've put in place in the last few years. Our side wages, cost of goods, cost of fuel, cost of freight, cost of rental, cost of insurances. Anything else I've forgotten? The cost of long list. It's a long list. I made the point earlier about we've managed or successfully managed our inflationary pressure as well. I don't think our competitors have done that as well. I think we're facing all the same thing.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for your questions, Daniel. Our next questions come from Peter Langford. We'll start with congratulations, Mike. What is service revenue that doubled from AUD 5 million to AUD 10 million in FY2023? What is the likely future trajectory for this revenue stream?
Yeah, thanks, Peter. Peter's been a really good supporter of our business for a period now of about three years. Also, it's one of our largest shareholders, so thanks, Peter. Segment reporting, so previously segment reporting for us was Australia and international. Clearly, within Australia operation, we needed to change our segment reporting, so services and distribution.
Services is essentially the United Tools business and the Industrial Supply Group business, which is the buying groups. Its revenue that comes through that is not traditional in terms of it's buying a product and selling the product to an end consumer. That model will change. Essentially at the moment, as those suppliers have relationships with 52 independents, those relationships will alter. There will be one relationship, which will be with a Stealth organization. It will be a master supplier, master Stealth agreement. Then those products will be sold down into each vendor. There is technology efficiency in that rationalization of the supply chain. Improvements in terms of cash management is also helping out the independents that can be more efficient. I have mentioned before that the group's spent about AUD 260 million of purchasing.
I guess in simple terms, we expect that $10 million to potentially grow pretty quickly to $100 million based on less than 10 suppliers transition to that single point that I just mentioned.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Our second question from Peter. If not commercially sensitive, to give a sense of resilience in the face of inflation, what proportion of customer contracts are fixed price? And what is the typical duration of a fixed price contract?
Yeah, good question. The contracts that we've signed in the last 12 months are typically two to three years. They all have clauses in there for holding our price points fixed for a 12-month period. However, the trigger is if there's any cost movement by more than 3%, we have to write based on that particular product line or category to readjust our pricing.
We have a really solid pricing strategy that we've put in place with the technology piece that gives us visibility of seeing what prices are moved so that we can move it real-time and adjust it real-time. Recently we've just put a 1.8% increase across all our main product lines. We can do that quite easily. We're resilient at the frame by making sure that we've got the data and the adjustments so there's no lag, which I wouldn't say was the case in the first six months of the year. On the other side, we've been smarter about our contracts. If there is any movement, we're making sure that we have a trigger clause that allows us to either provide an alternative product or have a pricing increase.
We haven't had any pushback on price increases since we started that program heading in February. That is clearly demonstrated by the improvement in our gross margin where we were at 29.6% in the second half. That was up from 29.3% for the full year. We're back to 29%. Twenty-nine, yes. Yeah. It is definitely something that we have on watch. Now I guess if I speak about three key risks in our business: cybersecurity, we're right over that, and we have a really smart technology team, the platform we've got to cover it; two, pricing and the cost of inflation, making sure that we pass that on to our customer; and three, making sure that our supply chain is resilient and our stock on hand and the availability of our stock is there to be able to fulfill our orders for customers.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for your questions, Peter. Thanks, Peter. Our next question is from Andy Nicole. Great result and congratulations on the progress to date. Going forward, how are you planning to take on future acquisitions using debt like previous ones, or is equity preferred now that interest rates are more significant?
Let's do it. Hopefully, I don't sound like a politician here by avoiding this question, but our biggest focus is organic because we see that as big upside. We have obviously demonstrated the way that we have managed our working capital for that. We are going to continue on that path from an acquisition point of view. The reason why we did not raise capital previously, we went into debt. Our first debt profile came in place about 2020, I think. We were zero debt up until that point. It was just cheap.
It was about half a point interest rate. Total with line fees was about 1%. It was definitely a better option than going to market and doing a capital raise when we were sitting about AUD 0.07, AUD 0.0 8, AUD 0.09 . In terms of new acquisitions, we're looking at some that obviously are sizable, which would require a capital raising. Ultimately, we also have significant headroom within our facilities now, down 1.4 in debt. Support from the Commonwealth Bank is there. We have institutions and individuals that are also willing to support us. We will only do that if it's fair and equitable and available to all shareholders, not preference over one or the other. It will be horses for courses, ultimately. Anything that we do, we're really focused on the fact that shareholder value and making it accretive, not decretive. That's really our focus.
I'm not quite sure that I can give specific numbers per se. I guess the framework in anything is a combination of potentially debt, potentially capital raising. We'd like no debt. Clearly, at AUD 1.1 million in finance costs, we'd like that to be falling at the bottom line. We're also conscious that at AUD 0.125-AUD 0.13, that if we did do a capital raising, that we do it for the right reasons and it would add significant value to shareholders.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Follow-up question from Andy. Is the proposed dividend a one-off payment, or are you expecting it to be an annual event?
Annual event. Yeah, we can't stop start. There's some peer groups that we look at overseas, and they've got histories of 51 years in a row, 37 years in a row of dividend payments. My plan is to come out with this program, then we will be consistent in annual dividends. It's not a stop-start process. It's been five years, I guess, in the making. It was always one of our initial ambitions. We've been gearing up for this internally for quite a while. We only announced that, obviously, we were coming out with dividends recently. It's just part of our evolution and maturity as an organization. We need to be sparking the interest of other shareholders and other people who are interested in putting their money into our company. If they had the opportunity to receive dividends from Company A or ourselves, at least that puts us in a position where we're considered. Today, we're not considered. That probably limits us in some ways.
Great. Thanks, Mike. Thank you, Andy, for your questions. They're all the questions we have in the queue. I'll hand back to you, Mike, just to wrap up.
Great. Okay. I guess we've covered most of it as per the presentation. I guess what's happening now over the next 90 days in terms of future communications. One, we've got our AGM that is in November. Two, we will be coming out in October and providing further strategic guidance on our next five years. We're still focused on 2025, but we're now looking out another three years as part of that. We will have strategy days that will be held in every state. We won't be doing it by webinar. It will be recorded. We'll actually go in the city. We'll be in Melbourne. We'll be in Perth and Brisbane. We will hold specific areas for shareholders to come to, both existing and also potential investors.
We will outline our strategy going forward and clearly our position statement and so on. We're cautious about how we come out or when we come out with a strategy and the information that sits behind that. We want to make sure we're ready to go. We're not talking about what's going to come, so we don't give competitors an advantage or a leg up. We want to make sure that we're hitting the ground running and the wheels are well in motion as we are talking about that. Top of mind clearly is about improved earnings profile. If we improve our profitability or return, our inventory becomes tighter and, in our better term, our collections, our payments, our better terms with our suppliers, clearly if all that improves. Also, how we go about allocating our capital investment towards those things that have material impact.
As we've mentioned, the biggest spending is all the thirds, as well as e-commerce and the technology that sits behind that, particularly as AI comes through. However, in something that automation will bring about so much efficiency within our business as well, which brings a lower cost-to-serve model that we're focused on. With that said, really appreciate everybody's attendance today. We've got an exciting future. Every year I say that, but every year we get more excited about what we're doing when we get to this point. It's a nice opportunity for us even to look back at the achievements that we've made. The contribution by the team has just been absolutely incredible. Also our opportunity for the future, which is really exciting about what's possible. Clearly, there's imminent growth within our business moving forward. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate your attendance.