Chair of Super Retail Group, and I'm delighted to welcome you to our twenty twenty-four Annual General Meeting. I note that a quorum is present, and so I formally declare our meeting open. Super Retail Group has connections with Indigenous Australians through our customers, team members, partners and the communities in which we operate across Australia. During twenty twenty-four, we published our first Reconciliation Action Plan, Reflect Stage, with our aspirations and the actions that we're going to take to advance reconciliation. Our RAP will build on some of our important partnerships, as with the Clontarf Foundation and the Stars Foundation, and extend our collaborations. We recognise the Turrbal people, who are the original custodians of the land from where I speak today.
I grew up playing around the vestiges of Tom Petrie's homestead at Petrie, and Tom Petrie grew up with the Turrbal people, and interestingly, he sought their permission before acquiring the land for his estate, Murrumba, a very early act of reconciliation. Now, for those attending in person, we do have emergency venues for the venue, emergency procedures, sorry, for the venue. The emergency exit for this room is via the door behind you. You're then to go through that door, down the stairs, exit via the main front doors, and then in the event of an emergency, of course, one or two alarms will sound. The alert alarm is a warning beep. If that alarm sounds, please just check your surroundings and stand by for further instructions.
But in the unlikely event that we do need to evacuate, a whoop whoop alarm will sound and everyone should evacuate using the nearest safe exit, and please do not use the lifts. There is an assembly point, the grassed area at the southeast corner of the building. And a courtesy reminder, can we please, please turn off our phones for the meeting? So it's a pleasure to have the opportunity to address you both in person, for those who are here with us at Strathpine office today, and virtually for those attending via the online meeting platform. We are holding our meeting in a hybrid format again this year to provide you, our shareholders, with additional opportunities for participation. The notice of meeting has been distributed to shareholders, and I take that as read. I'd like to now introduce my fellow directors and our company secretary.
So starting on my far right, we have non-executive directors, Colin Storrie, who is standing for election today, Mark O'Hare, Annabel Chaplain, who is also the Chair of the Board Risk and Sustainability Committee, and Anna Sandham, our Company Secretary. And on my far left, we have non-executive directors, Penny Winn, who is standing for election today, Peter Everingham, who's the Chair of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee and who is standing for re-election today, and Judith Swales, the Chair of our Board Audit Committee, and finally, Anthony Heraghty, our Group Managing Director and CEO. Members of our executive leadership team are also in the audience today, and it'll be a wonderful opportunity for shareholders to speak with them at the conclusion of the meeting. We also have our external auditor, Ernst & Young, represented by Lead Audit Partner, Lisa Nijssen-Smith, present.
The meeting will now proceed as follows: firstly, I'm going to provide some highlights of the past financial year. Anthony's then going to take you through the Group's results and activities for FY twenty-four in more detail and provide a trading update. And then I'll explain the process for asking questions so that we can then proceed with the formal items of business for the meeting. And then, of course, before we vote, I will explain the process for voting. The meeting is being webcast via our website, the Super Retail Group's website, and a recording of the meeting will be available on our website as soon as practicable after the meeting. So I'm pleased, as your Chair, to report a strong performance by the company during the twenty twenty-four financial year.
Both the financial, operational, and shareholder outcomes for the past twelve months reinforced our status as one of the leading retail businesses across Australia and New Zealand. We added a fresh chapter to the Group's remarkable growth story with the opening of our seven hundred and fiftieth store, another record sales result, and the delivery of shareholder returns of 30% for the year. All of this was achieved against the backdrop of a challenging external landscape. But the Group has successfully navigated the subdued trading environment to deliver a solid set of financial results, and with higher sales and gross margin, it reinforces the resilience and agility of our four core brands: Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF, and Macpac. It is a remarkable effort by the team. And such performance does not come about by accident.
It reflects the immense work undertaken over many years in developing and enhancing an omni-retail strategy to make our business sustainable in any environment. With confidence in a proven corporate strategy, the Group sharpened its focus on execution during FY 2024. Guided by Anthony and our experienced leaders across the business, our team members once again demonstrated why they are integral to our success. Their dedication and commitment and determination to always go the extra mile for our customers continues to be exemplary and helps us strengthen the connection that we have with our loyal customers. By knowing our customers better and understanding where, how, and why they want to shop, we can better meet their needs. Our club membership programs support this goal.
Across our four core brands, Super Retail Group boasts one of the largest active club memberships in Australia and New Zealand, with more than eleven and a half million customers. Our customer data analytics indicates that club members now account for seventy-seven cents in every dollar of sales, and our survey of club member sentiment indicates they are also among our most satisfied customers, with strong engagement across all the brands. This engagement is even more important in an environment where consumers are exercising caution in their shopping behavior. Fueled by persistently high inflation, cost of living pressures escalated for consumers during the year, driving changes in shopping priorities, particularly around the nature of discretionary purchases. We were pleased that the group navigated this subdued trading environment to deliver a solid set of financial results, with higher sales and improved gross margin.
The trading performance reinforced the strength of our core brands. We continued to invest in both our store network and our capability in personalization and loyalty. Investments in store openings and refurbishments, loyalty programs, and data analytics position the business to capitalize on strong and enduring relationships with our customers. The board remains conscious of the need to maintain disciplined capital allocation to support both future growth and returns for you, our shareholders, whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet. The board determined to pay a fully franked final ordinary dividend of AUD 0.37 a share, which is towards the upper end of our dividend payout policy. In addition to the final ordinary dividend, shareholders this year received a fully franked special dividend of AUD 0.50 a share.
Together with the interim ordinary dividend of AUD 0.32 a share, shareholders received aggregate dividend payments in FY 2024 of AUD 1.19 a share. Both the board and management remain acutely aware that strong governance is fundamental to delivering our strategic and sustainability goals, and underpinning strong operational performance, because it lays the foundation for everyone at Super Retail Group on what is expected from them each and every day. We continue to incorporate our sustainability commitments and priorities into our strategy and the way we approach risk management, in line with our commitment to create long-term shareholder value. The board recognizes governance of social and environmental matters is more important than ever for companies seeking to deliver sustainable growth. Robust governance frameworks help support the board's decision-making.
I wanted to report back to shareholders today on an important change to board governance that we initially flagged with you last year. In September last year, we established a Board Risk and Sustainability Committee. The move came in response to rapidly growing responsibilities that directors face in considering sustainability and climate matters. I can confirm that the revised arrangements are working well and provide the board with a process that allows for proper consideration of issues that are increasingly important for all listed companies. The board also continued to focus on safety, health, and well-being of our people, our customers, and the communities in which we operate. An area of concern, though, over the past twelve months, has been our safety performance, predominantly relating to manual handling injuries.
Management is progressing a suite of initiatives to better understand and clearly address the decline, because safety is a non-negotiable for everyone at Super Retail Group, and so we'll continue open and transparent reporting as we work to improve this priority area within the group and across the sector more generally. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the allegations made in the workplace proceedings commenced during the year in the federal court. While we are unable to discuss the proceedings, the board has reviewed and investigated these matters with the support of independent external advisors. And the board's review and investigations concluded that none of the allegations were substantiated, and as we have told the market previously, we are defending these allegations. More broadly, we will continue to review governance arrangements against best practice to ensure that your board can provide appropriate oversight and support for management.
As a board, we also keep a constant eye on the combined expertise, experience, and evolving tenure of directors in our succession planning. You will recall in this forum two years ago, I flagged my intention to retire from the board at the conclusion of today's AGM. In June this year, we were pleased to announce that the board had elected Judith Swales as the next chair of Super Retail Group. Judith has been a very strong contributor in her three years on the board. We have seen her commercial acumen and commitment to robust governance firsthand around the boardroom table, and with her background in high-performing retail businesses and expertise in digital transformation, Judith is the right person to lead Super Retail Group through its next exciting phase of growth. During the year, we also welcomed Penny Winn to the board.
Penny has a very deep understanding of the retail and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, and Penny provides insightful contributions to board discussions. Towards the end of the financial year, Howard Mowlem retired from the board, standing down after more than seven years as an independent non-executive director. During his time, Howard was an effective and diligent chair of the board audit committee and provided sound counsel and support in his broader board responsibilities. And while he couldn't be with us in person today, we wish him well in his retirement, and in August 2024, we announced the appointment of experienced non-executive director, Colin Storrie. Colin is a member of the board audit committee, and he will chair the committee from the conclusion of today's AGM. And we're very excited next month, experienced technology leader, Kate Burley, is joining the board.
Kate is with us here today at the AGM. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my board colleagues for their counsel during the year. Looking ahead, the outlook does remain challenging for the retail sector in Australia and New Zealand. Our closeness to our customers reinforces this sentiment. All our indicators are telling us that customers are feeling the impact of cost-of-living pressures, and given the economic and geopolitical uncertainty sweeping the globe, the outlook for FY 2025 is best described as uncertain. However, I do have more certainty about Super Retail Group. We marked our twentieth anniversary as a public company during the 2024 financial year, and in that time, we have built a track record of adding to our growth story in all external environments, and we feel the same about the prospects for FY 2025.
The group's omni-retail offering across our four core brands will continue to support our customers with value for money products, loyalty benefits, and team member expertise, 'cause it's all about helping our customers pursue their passions and create a positive impact on the communities in which we operate. In the year ahead, we will be focused on new store openings and further investment in expanding our omni-retailing capabilities, enhancing data management and information systems, and refining loyalty programs and customer personalization. With the strength of our brands as a foundation, supported by a strong and experienced leadership group, the outlook for the group over the medium and long term remains positive. The board believes that the consistent execution of our strategy will continue to generate strong shareholder returns over the long term.
Thank you to all our team members for their hard work, and thank you to our customers, 'cause you're not just shareholders in the room, I know you're customers as well, for your continuing support, and I will now invite Anthony to address the meeting.
Thank you, Sally, and good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to provide you with an overview of the 2024 financial year and an update, the all-important update, to our year-to-date trading performance. Against a backdrop of a challenging cost-of-living environment in Australia and New Zealand, Super Retail Group's strong brands, our compelling value proposition, has helped the company deliver a very solid financial performance in FY 2024. In FY 2024, the group delivered a record sales result, and our loyalty programs, as Sally mentioned, hit a record 11.5 million active club members. That's a 12% jump on the prior corresponding period. This loyalty program now accounts for 77% of the sales across the group. Revenue growth and higher gross margins have enabled the group to partially mitigate the impact of inflation-driven cost increases, which really affected the business in FY 2024.
In terms of the financial highlights, as set out on this slide, our performance includes a total group record revenue of AUD 3.9 billion, up 2%. Gross margins up 10 basis points to 46.3%, which is pleasing, considering the competitive environment. Segment profit before tax was down 12% to AUD 343 million. Statutory net profit after tax was down 9% to AUD 240 million. Normalized net profit after tax was down 11% to AUD 242 million. Statutory earnings per share of AUD 1.06, and normalized earnings per share of AUD 1.07. Overall, the company finished in a strong financial position with a net cash position of AUD 280 million - 18 million, got to get that one right, and no drawn bank debt.
Super Retail Group team members deserve special credit for delivering this result despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. Our team continues to be highly engaged and passionate. Our two engagement surveys during the year delivered above-benchmark results, reflecting the strong connection we have with our approximately now 16,000 team members. An engaged team drives increased sales and greater customer satisfaction, so we're committing to drive that engagement with our team members in FY 2025 and beyond. Appropriately, on behalf of the entire management team, I'd like to thank every single team member for their efforts and dedication over the last 12 months. We're really pleased to support our team with a new Enterprise Agreement for our retail and customer care team members, which was passed with a 94% yes vote.
The group was recognized during the year by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, or WGEA, for being only one of 16 ASX 200 companies to have a neutral gender pay gap. Equally, we also maintained our WGEA Employer of Choice citation for gender equality. However, regrettably, as Sally mentioned, our safety performance slipped, and we saw a significant increase with a 31.6% increase in total recordable injury frequency rate. This is mainly due to an increase in manual handling injuries. This is just unacceptable, and we know we have serious work to do. The increase in retail crime is also an ongoing concern. We've strengthened our security measures to manage these risks by enhancing team member training, maintaining close collaboration with government and law enforcement.
The group is now rolling out manual handling improvement plans across all our brands and our supply chain, and we're enhancing our early intervention and care program for our team members. Right, let's turn to customer highlights. The group's customer base continues to materially expand ahead of our internal targets, and our satisfaction metrics reveal that they are more engaged with our brands than ever, more customers and happier customers. In April 2022, the business set itself a mission of 10 million active club members or customers living their passion by 2025. But by the end of FY 2024, we had already achieved 11.5 active club members in our brand loyalty programs, driving a record level of sales. In FY 2024, they now account for 77% of sales, which was up 4%.
They are also, as mentioned, some of our most satisfied customers, with a Net Promoter Score of 69, which reflects higher customer engagement across every one of the four brands. We've continued to invest in our loyalty programs, recognizing the significant potential for sales growth from our members. In October 2023, Rebel launched the Active Loyalty program, which has driven improved customer visitation. In 2025, we'll refresh the Supercheap Auto and BCF loyalty programs and begin the work on a new mission to attract and grow this increasing club membership base. Our store network continues to be the backbone of our omni-retail business, and last year, last financial year, we invested AUD 72 million in 28 new stores, also format upgrades and refurbishments. We're planning 25 new store openings for FY 2025. Over to digital and omni-retail highlights.
The business invested a further AUD 63 million, enhancing our omni-retail capabilities, boosting Supercheap Auto's trade capabilities, strengthening our data management and core information systems, building a new automated distribution center, and of course, improving these loyalty programs. Excelling in omni-retail remains a key pillar of the group's strategy, and the group continues to invest in digital capability to enhance the online experience for our customers. Online sales grew by 9%, almost now to AUD 485 million, and represents 13% of total group sales. With group online sales fast approaching that AUD 500 million mark, we are, this approach appears to be well and truly vindicated. Nevertheless, it's worth pointing out that 93% of all transactions are still completed in-store, just reinforcing the importance of and the value of our store network. Over to sustainability.
Our customers, team members, suppliers, and our shareholders expect us to operate sustainably and to limit our impact of our operations and our products on the environment and the broader society. We are committed to decarbonizing our operations by improving energy efficiency and sourcing renewable energy to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, Scope 1 and 2. In fact, since our FY 2017 base, we've already been able to reduce those Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 23%. Store network growth and warmer temperatures in many of our locations increases the importance of partnering with our lessors and continuing our energy efficiency program to reduce this emission energy. We recognize that climate presents a strategic and operational risk and some opportunity for our business and the four core brands.
We'll continue to enhance our climate reporting and respond to standards set by the International Sustainability Standards Board and Australian regulators. Turning to corporate strategy. During the year, we continued to deliver on the group's strategy based on what should be very familiar five pillars: growing the four core brands, leveraging our closest to customer, connecting our omni-retail supply chain, simplifying the business, and excelling in being a omni retailer. The group maintained strong cash flows in FY 2024, which enabled the company to strategically invest in the business while at the same time delivering attractive shareholder returns. We remain focused on disciplined capital allocation to maintain the business's financial position and earnings per share for our investors. Let's go to the segment results. This slide provides a summary of the segment results for the full year.
Let's unpack them in some more detail for each of the brands. Supercheap Auto has delivered a resilient performance in the year, as it always does. Confirming the reliability of the auto category, the strength of the Supercheap brand, Benjamin Ward and his team have done a great job delivering a record full-year results and EBIT result, a record NPS score, and a record number of fitments in the in-store program. Supercheap Auto has continued to excel in customer acquisition. 500,000 active club members in the last twelve months, taking that membership base now to over 4 million members. Summary of the financial performance on Supercheap Auto is set out on this slide, in seemingly very small type, and I'd like to make the following call-outs: Total sales grew by 3% to AUD 1.5 billion.
Like-for-like sales grew by 2%, driven by transaction volumes, growth in transaction volumes, and higher average transaction value. PBT margin fell by 60 basis points to 13.5%. PBT decreased by 1% to 203 million. Right, on to Rebel. So Rebel's performance did fall short of our expectations. Weaker customer demand, which in turn led to increased discounting from competitors, especially in that footwear and apparel categories, continued to contribute to a sales result which was below last year. On a more positive note, though, there were a number of highlights for Gary Williams and the team, including the successful launch of the loyalty program and the execution of what was a very highly successful FIFA Women's World Cup licensed football campaign, and an online sales result, which was 12% higher than the prior corresponding period.
A summary of Rebel's financial performance is set out on the slide. Now, when considering this performance, this financial performance, I would like to remind you that its financial results for this period include a one-off impact of revenue deferral of AUD 7 million relating to its points-based member loyalty program. So that said, total sales fell by 1% to AUD 1.29 billion. Like-for-like sales fell by 2%, with ATV—with transaction volumes and average transaction value both decreasing. PBT margin of 7.9% translated into a full-year PBT result of AUD 102 million. Whilst this year's results were disappointing, we've taken a number of steps to improve our performance in Rebel. In FY 2025 year to date, we've already seen some encouraging results in the key category of footwear and apparel, which we're seeing some positive sales momentum.
All right, turning to BCF. Well, Paul Bradshaw and the BCF team have had an outstanding year period, delivering record sales result and 10% EBIT growth. Successful rollout of our in-store tackle format has helped deliver BCF's biggest ever year of fishing sales. I'm not sure many more fish were caught, though. BCF has delivered strong growth in other key strategic categories, including 4x4, caravan, and touring. Our Townsville superstore has delivered more than AUD 20 million in sales in the first year, and the further opening and further success of the opening at Kawana and Mackay has strengthened our conviction that we can roll this superstore format out more widely. A summary of the financial performance of BCF is set out on the slide, and I'd like to call out the following highlights.
Total sales grew by 5% to AUD 879 million. Like-for-like sales fell by 1%, as higher transaction volumes were offset by a modest decline in average transaction value. Segment PBT margin increased by 10 basis points to 6.2%, and as a result, the segment PBT increased by 6% to AUD 54 million. Off to Macpac. Following a very warm, soft first half due to the mild winter weather, improved sales in the second half really helped Macpac deliver a really credible full-year result. This year, Cathy Seaholme and the Macpac team achieved another record full-year sales result, as well as a record NPS score in Australia and New Zealand.
In a testament to teamwork and collaboration across the company, it's important to note that more than 10% of Macpac's Australian sales were actually made in BCF and Rebel stores. I'm pleased to say Macpac has also made significant steps in increasing its recycled content across the product range, including the introduction of the Pertex Quantum NetPlus, which is a fabric used from recycled fishing nets, so some cross-selling going on there. Summary of the financial performance for Macpac is set out on the slide. Total sales grew by 3% to AUD 222 million. Like-for-like sales grew modestly, as 8% like-for-like growth in New Zealand was offset by lower like-for-like sales in Australia due to that warm Australian winter. Segment PBT margin of 8.5% translated into a PBT result of approximately AUD 19 million.
Right, onto the most interesting trading update for this financial year. The group has delivered 2% like-for-like sales and 4% total sales growth in the first 16 weeks of this financial year. Supercheap Auto performance has been driven by the auto maintenance category, including lubricants, which has benefited from the Best Performing Oils campaign. Sales, though, have demonstrably slowed down in New Zealand. Competitive intensity has increased, and that's required an increase in promotional activity. Rebel's delivered growth in footwear and apparel. That's offsetting that impact of the FIFA World Cup in the prior corresponding period, and that's pleasing. In the preparation for the peak trade, which is upon us, we've undertaken additional clearance activity, and that's been executed to improve our seasonal inventory position.
BCF has seen continued growth in fishing, caravan, and four-wheel drive and benefited from range expansion initiatives showcased recently at our new superstore in Western Australia in Cannington. Macpac has delivered growth in insulation, rainwear, and packs, while there are those continued challenging trading conditions in New Zealand, which have driven some sales compression. Team member safety remains a critical focus in an environment that's seen a real increase in incidents and severity of retail crime and theft. The Rebel Active loyalty program has performed well since launching in October of last year, with all key metrics ahead of business case. Customers who have redeemed loyalty points year to date demonstrate a strong engagement with the program and as anticipated, redemptions have reduced gross margins by circa 140 basis points in the current period.
We are pleased to advise that the new Supercheap Auto loyalty program, the Spend & Get-A-Thon, is live and in market. This investment in customer loyalty is expected to drive stronger share of wallet across our key customer segments, with a modest, unfavorable impact to gross margin. Supercheap Auto has now launched their trade website, including improving trade customer experience, providing transparency of trade customer pricing and value proposition, and increasing trade representatives in the network. This increased investment in trade is expected to yield increased trade customers and visitation, and sales. We now also plan to open twenty-five stores in FY twenty-five. Supercheap Auto will open ten, four for Rebel, five for BCF, and six for Macpac. The store program has a larger investment in the first half of this year, with nine stores opened already, ten as of this weekend.
As previously flagged for the FY twenty-five year, the group expects duplicated operating expenses associated with the transition from our existing distribution facilities to the group's new Victorian distribution center, which will result in a one-off increase to group and unallocated costs in FY twenty-five of AUD 8 million. Total group unallocated costs in FY twenty-five, including this AUD 8 million, are expected to be around AUD 40 million. That compares to AUD 36 million for FY twenty-four. We're targeting a CapEx of AUD 165 million to fund our store development program, this new distribution center, enhancements to customer loyalty, cyber, omni, and digital capability. While inflation seems to be gradually easing, we do expect onward, upward pressure on our cost base in FY twenty-five. The outlook does remain uncertain. There is ongoing cost of living pressures on household budgets.
The group's customer value proposition, the strength of our core four brands, the size of the Loyalty Club membership base, means Super Retail Group is well-positioned to perform in a retail market where customers are carefully managing their spending and prioritizing value for money purchases. As always, the group's first half result will be dependent on this peak Christmas trading period. But we're ready for action with cyber sales commencing in a couple of weeks, so we look forward to seeing you in store. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Dr Sally Pitkin, who will retire as the group's chair at this meeting. Sally's been our chair since twenty seventeen, and been on the board since twenty ten. During that time, she's seen a fundamental transformation of the group.
She left it in much better condition than she found it. On behalf of the entire management team and all our sixteen thousand staff, I'd like to sincerely thank Sally for her dedication and commitment to the success of the group, and I welcome Judith to the chair. In conclusion, I look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year, and I'd like to again thank you, our shareholders, for your continued support. I'd like to hand back to Sally.
Thank you, Anthony. We now come to the formal items of business for the meeting. I will introduce each item of business separately and then respond to questions for that item. For each item of business, the number of proxy and direct votes received prior to the meeting will be shown on the screens in the room in front of you and also displayed via the online platform. All open proxies given to me as chair will be voted in favor of all items. So, the first item is to receive and consider the financial report for Super Retail Group for the financial year, year ended twenty-nine June, twenty twenty-four, together with the directors' report and the auditors' report.
Please note there's no vote on this item, but Anthony and I have shared with you already some of the detail of the company's performance in FY twenty-four, and we're now very happy to take questions from shareholders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, Lisa Nijssen-Smith of Ernst & Young is here with us today. So please, questions to Lisa on the conduct of Ernst & Young's audit, the auditors' report, the company's accounting policies, or EY's independence. Questions for Lisa can be directed through me. So let's go to the process for asking questions. So of course, only shareholders and proxy holders can ask a question in today's meeting, and I would ask that you direct all questions to me as chair. There are three ways to ask a question today.
If you're attending in person, of course, you can ask a question from the floor. For shareholders and proxy holders attending online, you can submit a written question by clicking on the Ask a Question button and selecting General Business or the particular resolution to which your question relates. So type in your question and press Submit. And could you please just submit one question at a time? You can start putting your questions in online at any time now, but I'll keep the questions with each of the agenda items as relevant. And where there are multiple questions on the same topic, we'll endeavor to group them together. And then after we've dealt with the online questions, we will take audio questions for those people who are only able to dial in today, and that will enable you to ask a question that way.
There will be an Ask a Question button on your screen to enable you to do that, and when it's time to ask your question, the moderator will introduce you to the meeting, and you'll be able to join us on the phone. Okay, so let's go please to questions in the room. Any questions that have been submitted in advance, I will address first, and then I will go to questions from the floor, and then we'll deal with questions online, and then from the phone. Questions from the room, please, shareholders, any questions?
... relating to this particular item, or will we have an opportunity to ask other general questions later on?
Mr. Mangan, any general questions that you might like to ask, now would be an appropriate time, as well as questions on the financial performance and results.
Yes. Well, I'd like to say something about that, if I may.
Please.
My name's Len Mangan. Been a shareholder for a long time. I think may have been here right from the beginning, a shareholder. Very small shareholder and grown over my, shareholding has grown over time. Not very big, though. I'd like to make a few comments about you, Sally, if I may. We do hear, of course, every year, and if we follow how the company is progressing, we can see all the time about how the company is progressing across a broad, very comprehensive and balanced set of measures. One of the things that motivates me when I buy shares and motivates me to continue to own shares is the ethics that the organization has. Sort of I make judgments about the moral compass that the organization has.
I'd like to single out three particular issues over time that I think very much reflect on Sally's leadership in particular. Of course, Sally would be the first one to admit that she wouldn't be able to perform at the level she does without a very high-performing team around her. The first one I remember back when the organization self-disclosed the wage theft issue, which became a big issue for a lot of companies throughout Australia. Many, many companies had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to admit that they actually had that problem. Supercheap Auto was very quick, and I believe one of the first organizations to put their hand up and self-disclose. Now, there's some shame attached to that, but I think it's a wonderful thing that the organization, under your leadership, Sally, was able to do that.
The second one was, and I was extremely proud of this, was when the COVID grants... I forget what they were called. I think they were grants, weren't they? Well, they certainly treated like grants by a lot of organizations. When, I believe, again, this group was one of the first organizations in Australia to put their hand up and say, "We don't need this money. We're giving the money back." And that was extraordinary, and I was very proud, and I think I wrote to you, Sally-
You did
... at the time, saying how proud I was to be a shareholder on that day. The third one is a bit of an unusual one. At all the AGMs that I've attended, I've never, ever, had this happen before. I appreciate the work of the Australian Shareholders Association. I remember, Sally, when you introduced the new, I think, remuneration package for executive, and I remember at the time, I think you'd spent a long time working on that package. And the representative from the Australian Shareholders Association did something that I have never seen before. Sally, you got a big compliment from them on that day, saying that your... this package that you'd personally put together was a model for all other organizations in Australia.
I may be paraphrasing there a bit, but that was my recollection. They're just three examples, I think, of what you've contributed to this organization and why shareholders like me, who like to feel comfortable with people like you... And I'll continue with my shareholding. I'm very happy to get the dividend in my back pocket, but I'm also very happy to know that you're an ethical organization. Congratulations, Judith. Great to see that Sally's being replaced by another woman as chair of the board as well. Very big and sensible shoes that you have to fill. So congratulations, and please show... I'd like to ask you to show your appreciation for Sally's contribution with a round of applause. Thank you.
Thank you for those very kind words, Mr. Mangan. But as you noted, it's no single person's effort. We are a great team here, and we all pull together in the good times and the not so good times to give, look after our team members, give shareholders good results, and look after our customers. But thank you for your words. Thank you. Very much appreciate it. Other questions in the room or comments?
Can I repeat again?
Mr. Mangan, this is your final question.
I didn't even ask a question, so it's my first question, actually.
Oh, oh, yes, good point.
Now I'd like to flesh out a couple of one positive, one negative. I'd like, if I could, get either you or Anthony to flesh out the safety issues and also the neutral pay gender pay gap issues. So there's two questions in there, I know.
No, that's, that's okay, given your first comment.
Hopefully, that's my final question.
Two questions is appropriate.
Final two questions.
So firstly, on safety, we were all very concerned when we saw our TRIFR result increase the way it did. The prime area of concern is in that manual handling, and it's mainly in stores as opposed to DCs. And we thought we had the training programs in place, the support in place, but people are still getting injured. So we have got out the blank piece of paper. We've started again. We are finding interesting things in terms of how people respond. So, for example, one way to reduce manual handling injuries is to have people stretch, just do some stretching before they undertake the activity.
But for a lot of people, they just think that's a bit of an awkward thing to do, and so, you know, we'll just skip the stretching part and get on and do it, and then there's a strained back or a hurt knee. So we are unpicking our whole safety program. We've got a range of initiatives, and we're going to get on top of this, Len, because we don't want anyone being injured at work. We're trying to learn from what other retailers are doing, what other industries are doing, and it really has to be safety first in everything that we do. One part of our program to address safety has been the introduction of a wonderful Australian-based and owned program called Sonder.
So it is an immediate support program through the phone to a qualified medical person, both physical and mental health, and it's available to all of our team members as well as their families. And we're seeing the uptake of that. It's extraordinary, and we are hoping that that's going to reinforce all of the safety messages that we have, as well as enable team members to make good decisions immediately. So you've lifted that heavy article. You feel a bit of a twinge in your back. You ring Sonder. They ask some questions because they're medically trained, and their advice might be, "You need to go home, ice it," or, "You need to do some stretching." Whatever the advice might be, it's helping our team members in the moment, in store, to address these issues. So I hope that's an adequate explanation.
On your other issue about the gender pay gap, this is speaking to not that. For us, everybody who does the same role receives the same pay. But of course, what we have in corporates is, in the more senior ranks, we have more men than women, and the more senior ranks get paid higher salaries, and so that all feeds in to producing a result, which is your gender pay gap. For us, because of our commitment to forty-forty-twenty, our commitment to women across all levels in the organization, we are now at a stage where our pay gap is neutral. I mean, effectively-
Very small.
It's very small, so we're very proud of that, and we're gonna stay focused, so we can continue that. Thank you. All right, let's turn. If there are no more questions in the room. There is one. Yes, Mr. Midwood, representing the Australian Shareholders Association.
Good morning. My name is David Midwood. I'm the new representative for the Australian Shareholders Association. I, along with my colleague, Richard, that's just to the right here, and thank you. Just, some initial comments, if I may. I wanted to thank the board, for the opportunity to meet and to review, a week ago and go through some detailed questions, which enabled to assist us, with this meeting today. So thank you very much for that. I also, on behalf of ASA, want to thank you for the hybrid meeting. Unfortunately, there are some companies that are shrinking away from that, but, that's immediately a red flag with respect to their transparency, but not, not Super Retail Group, in that respect. So thank you for that.
Also, congratulations to the team, led by Anthony, of course, but it is a team effort with respect to the excellent result that's been put in place and looking forward, moving forward. But a question from the floor, if I may, through both the outgoing-
Please
... and incoming chairs that are in place there, and the elephant in the room, and that's with respect to the governance issues that are in relation to that. There's been some material media in the last week, and I'd ask if you would be good enough to give us an update on that, please.
Thank you for your question, Mr. Midwood. As you would appreciate, this matter is before the court, and therefore, I am very limited in what I can say. I would, of course, refer you back to our ASX announcement in April, where we advised that we expected two employees to bring court proceedings, making serious allegations and seeking very significant damages. All of the matters that are claimed in the proceedings now before the court have been reviewed and investigated by the board, and that review and investigations concluded that the allegations were not substantiated. Now, the court process will resolve the matter. We tried to resolve the matter with the employees, former employees, before the court proceedings were commenced, and we were unable to do so.
We tried to settle on reasonable terms because, as you would appreciate, that's an appropriate risk management strategy for the company to undertake. But the court will resolve the matter, and I know that the court is working assiduously to expedite that resolution. So that's all I'm able to say on the matter at the moment, Mr. Midwood, but thank you for your question. Any other questions in the room before we go to questions online? All right, let's go to questions online. So I've got two big screens in front of me, which of course, I'm unable to read. So I'm just going to move a little. So we have a question from Stephen Mayne. Thank you, Mr. Mayne, for the question, which I will read out, and congratulations, Mr.
Maine, on your Lifetime Achievers Award, made by the Australian Shareholders Association this year, recognizing the extraordinary work Mr. Mayne has done for retail shareholders over decades. So Mr. Mayne's question is: "The CEO mentioned a strong vote in favor of our enterprise agreement, which was negotiated with unions and registered with Fair Work. Retail competitors like Accent Group and JB Hi-Fi say they don't have any union presence in their business and mainly just pay award wages. What is the history for our retail business being more heavily unionized than other retailers, and which parts of our workforce are not covered by union-negotiated agreements?" We deal with two main unions here at Super Retail Group: the SDA for all of our retail team members and the TWU for our team members in our distribution centers.
We have very good working relationships with those two unions and engage with them very constructively in order to have enterprise agreements which look after team members and allow the company to appropriately manage wages, which, of course, as you would appreciate, it's a very significant cost to the company. That has always been the way for us, Anthony, and I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future. Is there anything you'd like to add to that, Anthony?
Um, if-
Yeah, please.
I think the only thing I would add is just in terms of the relationship to pay to the award. We do pay above the award. We also provide our team members with a significant team member discount. That's fundamental to our belief that you cannot have an engaged customer without an engaged team member. So it goes to the heart of how we get an NPS score and the kind of club memberships that we get is because we have that view around team member award, and that's why we have one of the highest engagement scores across our sixteen thousand team members of any retailer in the country.
Thanks, Anthony. Thank you, Anthony. There's another question from Mr. Mayne. "Did any of the five main proxy advisors, ACSI, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS, and ASA, recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions, including the remuneration report? If so, what reasons did they give, and has this translated to material protest votes?" And Mr. Mayne goes on to comment that, "It is standard for companies to be..." Oh, sorry. "Please don't say proxy advisor reports are confidential. It is standard for companies to be across this detail on the voting recommendations and inform shareholders, where relevant. Has the Federal Court litigation been an area of focus for the proxy advisors?" Thank you, Mr. Mayne, for the question. So as you would expect, we always engage with all of the proxy firms.
ASA did not issue a report on the company ahead of the AGM, but I note Mr. Midwood is here with us today. Each of the other proxy firms did issue reports, and ISS and Glass Lewis recommended for votes on all resolutions, and Ownership Matters and ACSI—ACSI always following Ownership Matters, the reports are identical, supported all of the resolutions, except they recommended against resolution four, which of course we'll address in detail when we get there. In terms of how that's translated through to the voting and, of course, the voting. Actually, can I suggest, Mr. Mayne, that we address the voting around that, particularly when we get to resolution four? But I can say that I'm confident that all of our resolutions will be passed overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly today.
As you would expect, the litigation, because that's an issue of risk to be managed by the board, we certainly addressed any investors or the proxy firms in our engagement. But as I said, earlier in response to Mr. Midwood's question, very limited in what we can say, and I was able to refer back to our ASX announcement in those discussions. All right, any other questions online? Now, nothing is appearing on my screen. I'm seeing shaking of heads at the back. Let's go to telephone. Are there any questions, operator, on the telephone?
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you very much. All right, so let's move on now to voting procedures because we're coming now to those matters before the AGM, which require shareholders to vote. So in terms of those procedural matters, we will be holding a poll on all the resolutions before this meeting. That allows everyone attending an opportunity to vote. And so I now formally open the polls for all items of business that shareholders will vote on today. The polls will remain open until five minutes after the meeting closes. And at the conclusion of the meeting, or if you choose to leave the meeting sooner, please place your completed voting cards in one of the ballot boxes that's located near the exit doors. For shareholders and proxy holders attending today via the online platform, you will need to register in order to vote and participate this way.
And we do have a virtual meeting guide, which will provide you all the information you need to guide you through how to vote. That guide is there accessible in the AGM section on our website and on the online platform. And of course, if you experience any technical details, there is a phone number that you can call to resolve those so that you can participate. We will announce the poll results to the Australian Stock Exchange later today, and we'll also post them on our website. Rachel Teo from Link Market Services, the company's share registry, has been appointed Returning Officer, and Rachel will determine the results of the polls. So we've dealt with item one. So let's now move to item two of the formal parts of the business. And we'll go to...
Sorry, I'll just get up to date. Here we go. Adoption of the Remuneration Report. There is a vote on this item. It is a non-binding vote, and you can find the Remuneration Report on pages 57 to 88 of our annual report. The Remuneration Report sets out the remuneration arrangements in place for directors and senior management during the period, and it also reports on the board's assessment of management's achievements for financial year 2024. The vote on the Remuneration Report, as I said, is advisory. However, the board always considers the result of this vote as it reviews the company's remuneration policy and practices for the future. The group did produce a strong set of financial results in FY 2024, and so by design, the reward outcomes for FY 2024 reflect those results appropriately.
We need to reward executives for their contribution to the success of the group. They deliver both short-term milestones and long-term sustainable value to you, the shareholders. The board recommends that you vote in favor of item two. I'd now like to open it up for questions on item two, and we'll firstly deal with questions in the room, and we did not receive any questions on this item in advance of the meeting. Are there any questions in the room? If there are no questions in the room, let's go to questions online. There are no questions online. Operator, could we please check to see if there are any questions coming through the telephone?
Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you, operator. So as there are no further questions, or as there are no questions, I should more correctly say, I'll put the resolution to the meeting for voting, and so the direct voting and proxy position for this item will now appear on the screens in the room and on the webcast. In accordance with the voting exclusion statement in the notice of meeting, the company will disregard votes cast by certain persons on this item. If you have not completed your voting card for item two, could you do so now? Thank you. So I'll now turn to item three point one of our notice of meeting, and this is the election of Penny Winn as a director of the company. Penny was appointed to the board on the 1st of December 2023, and she offers herself for election.
Information regarding Penny's background and experience is set out in the notice of the meeting. Penny is a member of the Board Audit Committee and the Board Risk and Sustainability Committee, and the Board, with Penny abstaining, unanimously recommends to you, shareholders, that you vote in favor of Penny's election as a director. And I know that you'd like to hear personally from Penny, so I'll now ask Penny to address the meeting.
Thank you. Thank you, Chair, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Penny Winn, and as you know, I'm seeking your support for election to the Super Retail board, having been appointed as a non-executive director in December last year. Super Retail Group is a great Australian company with an impressive retail heritage, a successful track record of growth, and I believe, a very bright future. The company has evolved to be a leading lifestyle retailer with an extensive physical and digital network across Australia and New Zealand. The group is home to some of Australia's best-known brands and indeed, leading retail talent.
Since joining the business, I've been lucky enough to visit stores, distribution centers, and offices in both Australia and New Zealand, and I've been greatly impressed by both the passion for the business and the professionalism of the team members at all levels of the organization. The four core brands have clearly worked hard to develop deeply engaged and loyal customer bases and continue to strive to find ways to serve their customers better each and every day. Super Retail Group is entering a very important period with major investments ahead in technology and supply chain, as well as obviously continued growth of the store footprint. I believe I'm strongly placed to support the business during this very exciting stage of the journey, given my experience in logistics, technology, and transformation with some of the world's largest retailers.
Indeed, prior to my non-executive career, I had a thirty-year career in retail, leading retail business units with specialization in logistics, information technology, operations, customer engagement, business transformation, and online retailing. I've worked for Grace Bros, Big W, Woolworths, Myer, and Walmart. In addition to my to the Super Retail Group, I'm currently a non-executive director at Ampol Limited and the ANU Foundation Board. And in recent years, I've also served on the boards of CSR Limited, Goodman Group, and Coca-Cola Amatil Limited. I recognize the trust that shareholders place on their directors to carry out their duties to the highest standards, and I am committed to acting in the interests of shareholders at all times.
I hope, with your endorsement today, to continue to provide sound advice and good stewardship to the board and senior leadership of the Super Retail Group as it navigates what can only be described as its exciting future. Thank you for your time. Thanks.
Thank you, Penny. Are there any questions from the room? All right, let's go to questions online. We have a question from Mr. Mayne, who would like comments on the board recruitment process. Was a headhunter involved? How many of the directors did Penny know before she was appointed? How involved, if at all, was Reg Rowe, given he retired from the board in April last year? Reg being, of course, the founder and largest shareholder, and Penny was the first appointee after his retirement. That's not quite accurate. The first appointee after Reg's retirement was Mark O'Hare, who offered himself for election at last year's AGM, Mr. Mayne. For all non-executive director appointments, I'm assuming you will have the same question in terms of Mr. Storrie's appointment.
For all non-executive directors, we engage a reputable recruitment firm to conduct a search. That's a rigorous process. We have a position description. The board runs the process. We look at candidates against a position description, against the capability that the board has mapped out for itself, so it can be successful in the future, and then we interview candidates. We do reference checking, integrity, and background checks, and then the board discusses, and our approach is that the board makes a unanimous decision on that appointment. In terms of Penny knowing us, we all knew about Penny. We knew of Penny because of her extensive retail experience and her other directorships. Anthony, I think you crossed paths with Penny briefly.
She was a tough customer.
She was a tough customer. So that was back when you were with who, Anthony?
With Pacific Brands.
With Pacific Brands. But otherwise, no, we didn't know Penny. We knew of her because of her experience, and we're getting to know her well, and we're delighted she's on the board. And no, Penny didn't meet Reg. These decisions about who's appointed to the board are for the board. Reg was not on the board, and so no, Penny didn't meet Reg before or after appointment, for that matter. But Reg is here in the room today, so Penny, opportunity to say hello. Are there any other questions online? Let's go to audio questions then, please, operator.
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you. So I will now put resolution three point one to the meeting. The direct voting and proxy position for item three point one will now appear on the screen, and if you have not yet completed your voting card, could you please do that now? Thank you. Let's move on to item three point two, the election of Colin Storrie as a director. Colin was appointed to the board as a non-executive director on the 1st of September, twenty twenty-four, and Colin offers himself for election. Information regarding Colin's background and experience is set out in the notice of meeting. Colin is a member of the Board Audit Committee and will take over as chair of the Audit Committee at the conclusion of the AGM.
The board, with Colin abstaining, unanimously recommends to you, shareholders, to vote in favor of Colin's election as a director, and I will now invite Colin to address the meeting and briefly speak to his election nomination. Thank you, Colin.
Thank you, Sally. Good morning, everyone. My name is Colin Storrie, and thank you for providing me with the opportunity to make a short statement in support of my election as a non-executive director of the Super Retail Group. Following my appointment to the board in September, I joined the board audit committee. Subject to your vote, I will chair the audit committee from the conclusion of this meeting. I have more than twenty years' experience in board and executive management roles at a range of leading publicly listed and private Australian businesses operating across retail, financial services, aviation, travel, logistics, and technology sectors. In each of these businesses, I've been a chief financial officer or audit committee chair, providing me with the necessary skills and experience to chair the audit committee of the Super Retail Group.
... I've previously served on the boards of the Endeavour Group, Qantas Airways, AIG Australia, and StarTrack, and have developed a detailed understanding of consumer behavior and retailing fundamentals in these customer-facing businesses. Currently, I am Non-Executive Director and Chairman of unlisted firms Petstock and PFD Food Services, and a Non-Executive Director of North Queensland Airports and the data and analytics firm Quantium. From my engagements with the board and management to date, I'm confident about the future prospects of the group and its capacity to meet the challenges ahead. Importantly, I am a keen fisherman, although I'm not that successful, bushwalker, sportsman, and garage tinkerer, so I resonate with all of the brands across the group and thoroughly enjoy shopping our stores.
Subject to your vote today, I'll bring my experience across retail, strategy, property, data analytics, finance, and accounting to complement the current skills of the board and help continue to drive good outcomes for you, our shareholders. Thank you for your time this morning.
Thank you, Colin.
Thank you, Sally.
Thank you, Colin. Let's go to questions in the room. Are there any questions about Colin's election as a director? No questions in the room. We do have a question online from Mr. Mayne. Mr. Mayne's pointing out that Colin has only recently joined the board after the federal court proceedings commenced. Mr. Mayne is very interested in the level of briefing that Mr. Storrie received on the issue before signing up, and because he's the incoming chair of the audit committee, and he has a reputation for hard-nosed action at companies like Qantas and Endeavour Group. What's going to be his impact on the management of these issues, and how engaged is the audit committee? I can assure you, Mr. Mayne, Mr.
Storrie was fully briefed and did his due diligence on this company, as you would expect all incoming directors to do, and I should say, as Ms. Swales has done, although she hasn't yet commenced as a director. The audit committee, of course, will be appropriately involved in all matters that relate to the preparation of the financial statements, which I know are always complete and fully audited, and I would expect Mr. Storrie would, as with his board colleagues, participate in the ongoing review of this matter, but this is a full board matter, and the full board has oversight of it. Are there any other questions online, please? Operator, could you let us know if there are any questions on the telephone?
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you. So that brings us to the end of questions for this item. The direct voting and proxy position for item three point two is now being shown on the screen, and it's now time for you to complete your voting card for this if you have not already done so. So I'll now move to the next item of business, which is item three point three, which is the re-election of Peter Everingham as a Non-Executive Director of the company. Peter was first appointed to the board on the nineteenth of December, two thousand and seventeen, and so he is offering himself for re-election. Information on Peter's background and experience is set out in the notice of meeting. Peter is the Chair of our Human Resources and Remuneration Committee, and also a member, sorry, of the Board Risk and Sustainability Committee.
The board, with Peter abstaining, unanimously recommends to you, shareholders, to vote in favor of Peter's re-election as a director. But before voting, I will ask Peter to address the meeting. Thank you, Peter.
Thank you, Sally. Good morning. Just checking. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to address today's annual general meeting in support of my re-election as Non-Executive Director of Super Retail Group. As Sally mentioned, I've been on the board for almost seven years, joining in December 2017. During this time, the company has successfully navigated the COVID pandemic. It's doubled its profit and market value. It's significantly improved its customer ratings and, very importantly, team member engagement. It's developed some of the best loyalty programs in retail and has transformed itself into a leading omni-retailer. I've thoroughly enjoyed contributing to the sound governance and development of the company during this time, and I remain optimistic about the future of the business, its people, and its brands, and optimistic about the future that lies ahead. So today, I'm seeking support for re-election to the company's board.
My skills are in corporate governance, finance, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and people and culture, and my experience is in applying these skills in online consumer businesses, where the experience tends to evolve rapidly and need to adapt regularly. Also, I think as Sally mentioned, at Super Retail Group, I've served on the Finance Audit Committee for five years, and I'm currently Chair of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee, a role I've held for the past three years. I also sit on the Risk and Sustainability Committee, where I contribute much of what I've learned and care about with my association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature Australia, where I've also had a near seven-year involvement. At Super Retail Group, we are committed to reducing our footprint on the planet. If re-elected today, I look forward to helping progress our important work in sustainability.
Outside of work, I have a keen interest in sport, hiking, and the ocean, all of which feed my interest in and knowledge of our categories. It's been a privilege to serve as a director for almost seven years, and subject to your vote today, in support of what I expect will be my final term on the board, I look forward to continuing to make a positive contribution. Finally, before I hand back the microphone, and Sally, I didn't share this in what I shared with you in the notes-
It's dangerous.
But I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for your outstanding work as Chair. Sally has been Chair my entire seven years, and I've very much admired Sally's leadership, her judgment, her work ethic, and as well, her ethics as well. I've admired and learned from your very high standard of corporate governance, and I've just thoroughly enjoyed working with you. So I wish you very much lots of happiness in what lies ahead. Thank you.
Thank you, Peter.
Pleasure.
Are there any questions on Peter's re-election? We haven't received any written questions ahead of the meeting. If there are no questions in the room, could we please take any online questions? There are no online questions appearing on the screen before me. Operator, are there any questions on the telephone?
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you, operator. So I'll now put the resolution for item three point three to the meeting for voting, and as with the previous items, the direct voting and proxy position is now appearing on the screen. And if you haven't yet completed your voting card, could you please do that? Let's move now to item four, which is the approval of a grant of performance rights to the group MD and CEO.
This item relates to the grant of one hundred and one thousand and sixty-six performance rights to the Group Managing Director and CEO, Anthony Heraghty, under our employee equity incentive plan. We seek this approval as required under ASX Listing Rule 10.14, and the details of that are set out in the notice of meeting. The board, with Anthony abstaining, recommends that you vote in favor of this resolution. I'd now like to open this resolution up to questions. Are there any questions in the room? Yes, Mr. Midwood.
David Midwood from the Shareholders Association. We acknowledge the importance of the work that has been done, et cetera, particularly with respect to governance, and the results and where that team has led from. However, this motion has been subject of intense discussion within ASA, and so I advise that the ASA is voting, or the proxies awarded to the ASA will be an abstain vote, for this motion. Thank you.
Thank you for advising the meeting of that, Mr. Midwood, and we look forward to speaking to you after the meeting to understand the complexities, obviously, of that discussion that you've had internally. I would just like to come back and address the question that Mr. Mayne had in relation to this item, which, where we did have two firms recommend to shareholders to vote against. The recommendation to vote against was about a very specific element in relation to this equity grant. There is support for equity grants. There is support for having this long-term incentive underpinned by two important metrics, which are EPS and return on capital.
There is support for that, and the reason those measures, of course, are so important is because they have a strong correlation to the drivers of value for the company, and they're measures that management can impact. So that's why they're there. So we have strong support for a long-term incentive plan. We have strong support for using those two metrics. Where the area where we had a difference of opinion was in relation to the maximum on the return on capital metric. So if you achieve 15% return on capital, the executive will get the full award. Now, that return on metric, return on capital metric at 15% is above our weighted average cost of capital. That return on capital metric needs to incentivize management to invest in growth for the long term.
Our return on capital, yes, we're doing very well at the moment. We are trending back, though, towards more normal levels post those COVID headwinds. The top of the range at 15% has been in place for over a decade, and it has always enjoyed the support of those two proxy firms until this year. But this year, they've decided to, as it was put to me, "Well, we might have... We just need to take a different view." Interestingly, we, over the last couple of years, have lifted the bottom of the range, so you get nothing now until you hit 13%. And now, if you hit 13%, you only get 5% of the tranche.
What we have done over the last several years is made it more difficult for management to achieve the metric, but we feel we have balanced appropriately the need to invest capital appropriately for the long term and to incentivize management. I trust that answers that question that you raised earlier, Mr. Mayne. Mr. Mayne has also now just asked a question in terms of summarizing past LTI grants as to whether they vested or lapsed. That's highly technical detail, Mr. Mayne, which is set out in a table in the remuneration report. We'll just get the appropriate page so we can come back to you on that. The Managing Director and CEO does sell some shares that are vested through the program.
There's a point in time every year, if he's got a significant tax obligation, where he has the consent of the board to sell some shares to pay tax. That's the only time that the managing director does that. And in terms of buying on market, the CEO has both received shares through the long-term incentive plan, and he has also bought shares on market. And we're still trying to... Come on, CFO, what page of the remuneration report is it? We've got it. Page 72. Page 72, and it's a table, isn't it? Yep. David found it. David?
We have table six.
Table six on page seventy-two.
So it'll be the forfeiture and the vesting, which is actually on page 64, and then on 72, there's the proportion.
Two pages, page sixty-four and seventy-two. I'm very happy if shareholders want me to start reading out a whole lot of numbers, but it's there in a really easy-to-read table. All right. Are there any other questions online? If not, we'll go to questions on the telephone, please, operator.
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you. So I now put a resolution for item four to the meeting, and the direct voting and proxy position for item four will now appear on the screen. So please cast your vote. All right. Now to item five, is the ratification of the appointment of the auditor, and this is here because during the period, the company appointed Ernst & Young to be the auditor of the company and its controlled entities. So the approval that we're seeking is to Ernst & Young's appointment, and the terms of that are set out in the notice of meeting. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of item five. Are there any questions on this resolution? Any questions in the room? Questions online, please. No questions online. Operator, any questions on the telephone?
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you. So I'll now put resolution for item five to the meeting. Could you please complete your voting cards, and the direct voting and proxy position is now appearing on the screen. That brings us to the last item of business for our meeting, which is agenda item six, and it's the renewal of the Proportional Takeover Provisions in the constitution. So a proportional takeover bid occurs where a bidder offers to acquire only a proportion of each shareholder's shares. So, for example, you hold eight shares, but the takeover bid only wants five of your shares. Now, under the Corporations Act, the companies can include these proportional takeover rules in our constitutions, so that enables shareholders to vote on a proportional bid in principle before a proportional bid is permitted to proceed.
Now, there are, of course, pros and cons for this, but the board thinks that the potential advantages for shareholders in being able to express a view on any proportional takeover is important, which is why we're recommending it to you. And given we bring this item as part of our AGM package, we don't feel it's an onerous burden to ask shareholders to consider and vote on this resolution. So under the Corporations Act, these rules that we have today expire, and that's why we need to renew them every three years. Last time these rules were approved were back at our twenty twenty-one annual general meeting, and that's why they're here for renewal today. Are there any questions on this item? Any questions in the room? No questions in the room, so we'll just see if there's any questions online.
A question from Mr. Mayne. Mr. Mayne, you've anticipated the comments I've just made. Mr. Mayne is asking: "Do we really need to renew this proportional takeovers provision? I own tiny holdings in around four hundred companies." Mr. Mayne, that's because you're there monitoring those companies and looking after retail shareholders around the country, "but have never received a proportional takeover, but have voted on hundreds of these resolutions. What is the point? Does anyone ever launch proportional takeovers, and what is wrong with it if they did?" So to answer that, we think shareholders need to have the say. I'm sure you're very efficient in voting, Mr. Mayne, and I, notwithstanding those four hundred companies you've got shareholdings in, we still think it's appropriate to put it to you, the shareholders.
You've also made a comment that we're still controlled by our founder, so isn't the provision even less necessary for us? I disagree. For a start, we're not controlled by our founder. Our founder is a significant shareholder, but he's not controlling this company. Are there any other questions online? Let's go to questions on the phone. Operator, any questions?
Yeah, there are no audio questions at this time.
Thank you. So could we all please now attend to voting on this? And the direct voting and proxy position will now appear on the screen. So as we move now towards the close of this meeting, I just provide the opportunity for if anyone has any final comments or questions. Oh, Mr. Mayne. "Thank you to Sally Pitkin for her fourteen years of service on the board, the last seven as chair. It is always helpful for investors to have access to some exit perspectives from retiring independent directors.
In her final contribution at Super Retail Group, could Sally please comment on what she regards as the three best decisions Super Retail Group made during her time on the board, and does she have any regrets? So, corporate life is not all smooth sailing, and you take the difficult times with the wonderful times, Mr. Mayne. And I was just-- have been reflecting during the meeting on your comments, Mr. Mangan. And, you know, you mentioned the underpayment issue, and I probably wouldn't have thought of that one because I still feel such a... You know, I still feel bad about that. We underpaid our people.
Now, we of course fully remediated, we apologized, we self-reported to Fair Work, and we continue everything that we need to do to assure our payroll, that our team members are being paid appropriately. But yes, I am proud that we did the right thing there. But if, if I had to reflect on three things, I think I'd call out, firstly, the commitment and capability of our team members, and it was shown so clearly during COVID, when they just went over and above to support our customers and each other. Secondly, we have lifted our game in digital commerce so that we could become an omni-retailer. Our customers now are more satisfied because they can shop in a way and at a time that suits them, not us.
I think, finally, a highlight for me, and this does go to a decision of the board. It has been about generating returns for you, our shareholders. During COVID, we raised capital. That was a very difficult decision for the board to make. But in raising capital at that time and having over 95% take-up by shareholders in that capital raising, including 100% take-up from our founder, it enabled us to accelerate our strategy, and that has underpinned the returns that we're delivering to you as shareholders. So thank you, Mr. Main. I'd call out those three things.
Regrets?
Regrets? Oh, I don't want to go. All right, there's Mr. Midwood.
David Midwood from the Australian Shareholders Association. Can we also please extend the same congratulations to Sally for the work and contribution over the last, where's my maths? 14 years, and that, and we also extend a very warm welcome to Judith in that respect. Your transparency and leading by example for listed companies and the openness, highlighted by what Len had raised, earlier today, and continuing with the hybrid meeting here, we're looking forward to continuing with that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Midwood.
I'm gonna say a few words.
I'm handing over to the incoming chair.
No, thank you, Sally. Look, I think, just before Sally formally closes the meeting and retires as your chair, I wanted to say a few brief words of acknowledgement to the significant contribution to the business over the last 14 years on the board. Sally has overseen a remarkable period of change and growth for Super Retail Group as a director and as the chair of your company. When she joined Super Retail Group, there was around 6,000 team members and sales of less than AUD 1 billion. Today, we stand as four iconic brands, over 16,000 team members, and almost AUD 4 billion of sales. As chair, Sally has helped the company through some very challenging times, through the COVID pandemic, delivering fantastic shareholder returns.
On the day she started on the board, the share price was around AUD 5, and it's more than three times that now. We're gonna miss her around the board table, the council, the guidance, but Sally, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and we wish you all the best in the next chapter. Thank you.
Thank you, Judith. And it has been an absolute pleasure to serve shareholders as your chair and as a non-executive director. And although my term has finished, I look forward to continuing to visit stores, to engage with team members, to hear their stories about living their passion, and enjoying all the wonderful products. And you never know, I may even have time to get through that stockpile of car cleaning products, Benjamin, by actually washing the car. Thank you all. So I'll now bring the meeting to a close. Please join us for some refreshments. Thank you.