I would now like to hand the conference over to Mark Coulter, Executive Chair. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Before we begin, I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the country throughout Australia. On the call with me today is our new CEO, Susie Sugden, as well as our CFO, Cameron Barnsley. We will be taking you through Temple & Webster's financial results FY 2026, which were released via ASX earlier today. Before we run through the investor presentation, I would like to warmly welcome Susie to Temple & Webster and to her first results call. While Susie started with us as CEO on the 1st of July, this actually marks a return to the company for her. Susie has previously been with us for about five years, running various functions including merchandising, marketing, and commercial operations.
It's been great having her back in the business, and I'm really excited to be working with her moving forward in the capacity of CEO. I'll start with a summary of our FY 2026 results on slide four. In FY 2026, we delivered record revenue of AUD 665 million, which represents 11% growth on FY 2025. This result was delivered in the face of a challenging consumer environment, which continued to soften for the last few months of the financial year. In terms of profitability, we generated close to AUD 22 million in EBITDA for the financial year, which is at the top end of our guidance range from May. This outcome represents a margin of 3.3%, and when excluding significant items and unrealized FX losses, was closer to AUD 26 million, or a margin of 3.9%.
This significant growth in EBITDA was driven by improved unit economics through the fourth quarter as a result of the margin optimization initiative that we implemented in March. We will talk to these more later in the presentation. Pleasingly, we've been able to make strong progress against our strategic priorities throughout the year. FY 2026 marks the first time that more than 50% of our revenue was from exclusive and private label products. Our growth adjacencies of home improvement, Trade & Commercial, and New Zealand now account for well over AUD 100 million annual revenue. Despite variable market conditions, we are targeting EBITDA of between AUD 33 million and AUD 40 million FY 2027, which represents approximately 50%-80% growth on FY 2026.
Now, crucially, we are focused on returning the business to double-digit revenue growth, and Susie will be providing more specific details of these plans to achieve that at our upcoming H1 in October and our Half 1 FY 2027 results in February. I will now hand over to Cam to take you through our financial and operating results in FY 2026 in more detail.
Great. Thank you, Mark, and good morning to those joining us on the wire. I would also like to take the opportunity to welcome Susie to the team. I am really excited to be working together with you as we take Temple & Webster to the next stages of its growth. Welcome. I will start today by taking you through some of our operational metrics and milestones, and then I will pivot to our financial results. Firstly, on slide seven, our key performance metrics continue to trend well, demonstrating consistency in our execution. Active customers reached over 1.3 million for FY 2026, up 5% year-on-year. As discussed in H1, we continue to be pleased to see improvement in customer cohort behavior, loading a greater proportion of repeat orders. Repeats comprise 62% of orders in FY 2026, up from 59% in FY 2025.
I am also pleased to note that our 12-month marketing ROI has remained stable at 1.4. Whilst growth in our first-time customer acquisition cost, or TAC, has slowed year-on-year. Our new customer TAC for the last 12 months of AUD 105 was lower than that same metric at 31 December. Revenue per active customer was up substantially to over AUD 490, driven by higher average order values, particularly in H2. Finally, we continue to maintain a world-class NPS level of 60, demonstrating the strength of our customer proposition and experience. Moving on to slide seven. Our ambition is to become Australia's leading furniture and homewares retailer. To achieve this, we have continued to execute against five strategic priorities. I am pleased to report that we continue to make strong progress across each of these during the year. I will call out a few highlights from this slide.
Firstly, in terms of our exclusive product range, continues to grow as a percentage of total revenue. For FY 2026, private label and exclusive drop ship was over half of our revenue. In fact, 51%, up from 45% last year. This is a great milestone. 83% of our top 500 selling products are now exclusive, up from 70% two years ago. Our dedicated sourcing office in Shanghai continues to deepen our relationships, and we continue to add many new and high-quality private label options to our customers. We also continue to trial and deploy proprietary AI-powered tools company-wide. We are focused on several key initiatives, including customer-focused personalization and internally developed upgrades to our storefront architecture. We have also invested in new insight agents across our business, which are already driving commercial outcomes and helping to improve margin. Finally, our commitment to cost discipline is driving ongoing operating leverage.
Fixed costs improved to 10.1% of revenue, a 50-basis-point reduction from the prior year. This allows us to reinvest in growth drivers of price and marketing whilst maintaining a strong customer value proposition. I will now turn to the slide next to talk through the performance of our adjacent growth plays. During the year, we have hit a milestone for our adjacencies, now contributing over AUD 100 million in annual revenue. In fact, it was actually AUD 117 million for FY 2026, representing an increase of 30% in FY 2025. From a home improvement perspective, this business continues to disrupt the category with a good quality, stylish, and cost-effective range, delivered with the convenience and customer experience that Temple & Webster is famous for. In FY 2026, home improvement generated almost AUD 60 million in revenue, an increase of 39% on FY 2025, representing a 43% CAGR since the launch of this business in FY 2023.
Trade & Commercial continues to perform well despite the softer conditions. The business recorded a pleasing AUD 56 million of revenue, an increase of 16% in FY 2025. Finally, New Zealand. This continues to be a really compelling opportunity for us. This AUD 3 billion market expands our TAM by nearly 10% and serves as a proof of concept for future international growth. I am really pleased to report that we have now generated AUD 3 million in revenue from New Zealand, ahead of expectations, and the business is now run rating at contribution breakeven. We believe we can accelerate our revenue in New Zealand through some basic enhancements to the customer journey, including a dedicated domain and checkout, accelerated shipping timelines, as well as focused local marketing. I remain excited about what we can achieve here and to develop ways to better serve our customers across the Tasman.
Now turning to slide nine to talk through our financial results. As Mark mentioned at the start of the call, revenue grew 11% for the year to AUD 665 million. This outcome was driven by higher AOV, particularly through the second half, as well as growth in active customers. This result was in line with our guidance range in our May trading update. At the delivered margin line, we ended FY 2026 at just over AUD 200 million, a margin of 30.2%. This outcome reflects higher promotional intensity through the third quarter, but offset by an improvement in the fourth quarter. This margin outcome remained consistent with our target operating range of 30%-32% for the year. Pleasingly, a more disciplined approach to marketing and some efficiency gains realized in our digital channels have driven our marketing cost of sale down from 16.3% in FY 2025 to 15.2% in FY 2026.
During the year, we also achieved material fixed cost leverage, with fixed cost growing at just 5.5% versus revenue at 11%, which resulted in our fixed cost ratio declining from 10.6%- 10.1%. At the EBITDA line, I am pleased to report that our underlying EBITDA, excluding unrealized FX losses, was AUD 25.9 million, a margin of 3.9% and an increase of 28% over FY 2025. This measure excludes our start-up investment into New Zealand as well as one-off costs incurred as part of our warehouse transfer in Melbourne. Reported EBITDA of AUD 21.9 million was at the top of the guidance range provided in May, driven by stronger profitability through the fourth quarter as a result of our short-term rebalance between growth and margin.
Finally, at the net profit after tax line, we did see an abnormally high effective tax rate in FY 2026, which is a result of a reversal of our deferred tax asset relating to outstanding share options. This had no impact on cash flow. Our cash tax expense for FY 2026 was AUD 3.6 million, approximately 30% of PBT. Turning to slide 10, I think it is worth taking everyone through the initiative that we have put in place during H2 and the impact that this had on our margin profile. As a reminder, we had four key initiatives in March in order to appropriately balance profit and revenue growth in the short term whilst we move through a difficult consumer environment. These changes have driven permanent change in our unit economics and are expected to continue into this financial year.
Firstly, we have made specific changes to our pricing structure and promotional cadence to improve delivered margin. Secondly, we have worked with suppliers to access greater promotional support, as well as reducing the incidence of damaged and defective products, which result in poor customer outcomes. Thirdly, we restructured our digital marketing channels in order to implement category-specific bidding, which has resulted in a circa 10% reduction in CPCs, demonstrating true improvement in efficiency rather than just a reduction in spend. Finally, we made changes in the fixed cost base in order to drive AUD 3 million in cost savings in H2 versus H1, primarily linked to automation and AI adoption. You can see the impact of these changes in the table on the right. In the fourth quarter, our run rate margin profile was materially higher than our overall FY 2026 profile.
In particular, our delivered margin after marketing cost ran at approximately 19% in the fourth quarter compared to an overall level of 15% for the full year. This run rate gives us confidence in our FY 2027 target ranges of 31%-33% at the DM line, 15%-16% at the contribution margin line, and then 5%-6% at the EBITDA line. In fact, our fourth quarter run rate was ahead of these ranges, meaning that we do have some additional flexibility already. As Mark mentioned, we are targeting an EBITDA range of AUD 33 million-AUD 40 million for FY 2027, and as always, we retain flexibility to use our price and marketing levers to best respond to conditions and drive revenue. Our long-term targets on margin remain unchanged. We continue to focus on scaling towards an EBITDA margin of 15%+ .
And what we have achieved over the last few months gives me even more conviction on this target. On slide 11, we have shown our cash flow bridge for FY 2026. We ended the full year with a cash balance of AUD 123 million, which is a reduction of approximately AUD 21 million on the prior year. Driven by our on-market share buyback program, through which we acquired AUD 30 million in shares through the year. Having this strong cash balance and a capital management flexibility continues to be a competitive strength in the current environment. Our operating cash flow of AUD 24 million represents over 100% of EBITDA. Note that our CapEx spend for this year was impacted by approximately AUD 5 million, the one-off set up costs for our new Melbourne facility and warehouse, where we have a 10-year lease. This will not reoccur in FY 2027. Finally, turning to the balance sheet on slide 12.
Key takeaway from this page is that we continue to be in a really strong capital position with over AUD 120 million in cash and no debt, plus a business that is generating cash flow. On the right-hand side of this slide, we have once again outlined our capital management priorities, which remain unchanged. Maximizing shareholder returns is at the core of our long-term strategy and the lens through which we assess capital allocation. Our strong capital position means we remain fully funded to pursue organic and inorganic growth opportunities, as well as other capital management strategies, including our buyback. A few housekeeping points for FY 2027. Our expectation on depreciation and amortization for FY 2027 is between AUD 13 million and AUD 14 million, up slightly from AUD 12.9 million in FY 2026.
Intangible CapEx is expected to increase on FY 2026 levels, as we invest more in AI tools and customer-facing technologies, to a range of between AUD 5 million - AUD 7 million. PP&E CapEx is expected to be approximately AUD 1 million. Thanks again for your time, and I will now hand the call over to Susie.
Thanks, Cam, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I am so excited to be back at Temple & Webster. I rejoined after my time in private equity for a couple of really good reasons. The first is the experienced and innovative team. I know them really well, and it is a pleasure to be working with them again. The second is this is a business with a huge growth opportunity ahead of it and a really consistent track record of execution against that opportunity. During the current uncertain operating conditions, I take a lot of confidence from having worked with the business both through good times and through more challenging times. I know that our consistent ability to move fast and to manage risk sets us up to turn these moments to our advantage. Let me start with the opportunity, which is bigger than ever.
The total addressable market is AUD 40 billion. Furniture and homewares, home improvement and New Zealand. Even as the leading online retailer in our category, we represent just 2.9% of the furniture and homewares market in Australia and only a fraction of a percent of home improvement in New Zealand. There is a lot of room to grow. As the only at-scale digital-native retailer in our category, we are uniquely positioned to benefit both from increasing online penetration and as our millennial customers reach their prime purchasing years. We have built a significant asset in our customer and product data, which is now powering our AI. A brand and product range that our customers love, and a bulky delivery experience they tell us is the best in the category and that we have built over 15 years.
As the business has demonstrated over the last six months, our asset-light operating model enables us not just to pass on value to customers, but to move fast when others can't. On the next slide, I want to focus on what I've seen in my first seven weeks and my initial views of some of the opportunities that are immediately ahead of us. First, reach. We are the number two specialty furniture retailer in the country by spend. Within the last 12 months, 17% of Australian households in our core segments purchased from us. A priority for FY 2027 will be building on this reach to improve our brand recognition and overall share of wallet. Second, trust. We have always had market-leading NPS. Our customers are our biggest fans.
We will build on that trust to further expand and differentiate our range so that we provide the quality, value and style that our customers expect with more of our own private label and exclusive product. I led marketing and merchandising while at Temple & Webster previously, so this will be a particular focus for me. Third, data and AI. Our retail reporting and data is the best I've ever seen, and we've already developed AI agents to access data and analyze it in natural language. This is just the beginning of AI opportunity. The next stage for us is to prioritize more customer-facing innovation, building on our industry-leading data to personalize their experience and improve conversion rates. Fourth, growth beyond our core. In the prior role, our biggest growth came from international expansion, so I know what this can add.
Initially, we will be expanding our low-cost New Zealand pilot and qualifying additional markets where there's both the scale opportunity and market dynamics so we can build on our strengths. Fifth, growth overall. It really is in our DNA as a company. While we're focused on improving unit economics in the short term, given the environment, these and many other growth initiatives are already underway. We're also shaping the longer-term strategy to deliver both top-line and bottom-line growth, and I look forward to updating you on it over the coming months. Finally, I'd like to give a trading update. Revenue year to date is down 13%. This is the result we expected, and we don't think it's indicative of the full year given that we're comping 28% growth and have a number of growth initiatives already underway.
Importantly, over that same period, our contribution margin dollars have actually grown by 10%, which is a really strong outcome. This is deliberate. We've chosen to focus on improving our unit economics while the market is soft. These are my numbers and my team's numbers, and this is the right balance for this moment. But we are a growth business, and we want to finish FY 2027 with strong forward momentum. As a result of the improvements in our unit economics, we are targeting a 50%-80% increase in EBITDA to AUD 33 million-AUD 40 million in FY 2027. This once again demonstrates the flexibility of our business model, and we'll be using this period to further invest in the foundations that would drive consistent top-line and bottom-line growth. As mentioned, we'll brief the market on our strategy to return to double-digit revenue growth in the coming months.
Our ultimate goal of becoming the largest Australian retailer in our category is unchanged. It has been a pleasure returning to Temple & Webster, and I want to thank Mark, Cam, and the team for their warm welcome of me and their commitment to our collective success. With that, I will open the line for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from James Leigh with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hey, team. Thanks for taking my question and welcome back, Susie. My question is around some of the assumptions going into FY 2027 target of 33%- 40%. Can you help us understand what economic conditions you are factoring there? Appreciate it is a wide range, but at the midpoint it looks like zero growth. What sort of macro conditions are we thinking about in that guidance range or in that target range?
I mean, lovely to meet you. There are really uncertain conditions at the moment, and we are not guiding revenue. But I am, as I have said, really consistently focused with the team on building strong momentum through FY 2027. I think we mentioned in the call earlier, we are comping a really tricky period. It is 28% up year on year in the prior year. But I don't think the comps are the only thing we are focusing on. We are also focusing on what we can do internally. So, big focus is some of the initiatives I have already talked about, which are underway, and we expect to have an impact through the year. The macro, it is very hard to forecast at the moment.
Yeah. I think, James, probably thinking back to our May update as well. I mean, the market hasn't gotten any better since May. We haven't seen an improvement in the macro conditions since then. We're giving ourselves flexibility in that 33%- 40%. It's still an uncertain operating environment. As Susie mentioned, we are expecting to see momentum build through the year, particularly as the comps get easier and some of these initiatives start to take place. I wouldn't be focused too much on the trading update. I'd be focused more on what we're expecting to see throughout the entire year. I'd also maybe just call out Q4 as well, which I think is an interesting data point. I mean, I did put that Q4 outcome in the deck so people could see what the margin profile was after we made those initiative changes in March.
The Q4 period was pretty much flat year-on-year, comping at 20% in the prior year. So I think that gives you a real sense on what an outcome for FY 2027 could look like. In fact, we're able to deliver those unit economics and margins on a flat revenue base against a very strong comp.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of James Wilson with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a few from me this morning, if I may. Just firstly, can you give us a sense of the kind of EBITDA margin that you might be tracking at in this first quarter of the year? Appreciate your fourth quarter run rate was around a 6% margin.
Yeah. Thanks for the question, James. Obviously, I am not going to give a running update on quarterly EBITDA performance. But I think you can see the Q4 update, and you can see where we were at. Contribution margin dollars are up 10% for the first seven weeks. I have not seen anything that is too different to what we were run rating in Q4. So I am not going to give quarterly guidance on EBITDA, but I think you can take that Q4 run rate and look forward into FY 2027.
Great. Thanks. Just another one from me on your AUD 1 billion revenue target for FY 2028. Are we able to get an update on this aspiration?
I will answer that. The goal for me is not AUD 1 billion. As we have talked about in the presentation, we want to be and have consistently said we want to be the largest retailer in the category. That is not about AUD 1 billion, it is about more than two. I will come back with more details on our plans to achieve that and to get us back to double-digit revenue growth over the next few months.
Okay, great. Just one final one from me. Just on the trading update that you have just reported. How much do you think that maybe some of your margin initiatives in the fourth quarter might have flowed through to the top line in this kind of first seven weeks or first eight weeks period of FY 2027? Do you think there has been any drag at all on your top line from what you have done on margins in the fourth quarter?
We are really deliberately balancing margins and growth at the moment, and we think that is the right balance to take during what are quite uncertain macroeconomic conditions. We obviously have some flexibility in that margin. I am really encouraged by what we are seeing as our progress in building strong unit economics. This is what we expected for this period. My focus with the team is on in kicking off, or we have kicked off initial initiatives which will mean that we can drive both top line and bottom line growth. We expect to be finishing the year with strong momentum on that.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Forres Salekian with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys, and congratulations, Susie, on the role. I guess just first question from me. The feedback we have been hearing from most retailers we speak to is that they are pretty reluctant to take price in the current environment, and they are leaning harder into discounting to drive sales, just given the softening in the consumer. How are you thinking about balancing the near-term margin optimization story against protecting your value proposition? I guess how do you think this impacts your ability to return to double-digit growth over time?
I think it is a great question, Forres, and lovely to be talking to you. I think my big focus with the team, as you have heard about, is about value, quality, and style. Value has always been a really important part of Temple & Webster's DNA. While we have adjusted the price up in some portions of our range where we were probably a little bit too cheap, there are still really significant opportunities for value. There are portions of our range where we are 20%-40% below what you see in offline retail. I think that is a really important point to make. Value is also about quality and style, the overall proposition we are offering customers.
I remain really confident that as the leading online category specialist, that we are able to deliver customers a better offer all round than any of our competitors.
I might just add, Forres, it is Cam here. Within the range that we have put out, the guidance range, we do have some flex to go harder if we need to as well. You can have a look at that Q4 run rate. The implied target ranges for FY 2027 do have some room versus the run rate. There is a little bit of ammunition there as well if we need it.
Got it. That is clear. To get top line growing again back to double-digit growth, do you need to wait to see an improvement in the consumer to start reinvesting into marketing? Or are there other factors which could catalyze reinvestment to drive growth?
No, we are not building our strategy around the macro. I want to make that really clear. We are laser-focused on driving growth out of our core. The two big initiatives we are focused on there are really around marketing diversification, so making sure that we are getting the most effective reach into our customers. Also around this range exclusivity and private label, so making sure that we have a really distinctive range and that it is delivering across style, value, and quality for our customers.
That is clear. If I could just squeeze in one more. It looks like a few of your peers, like Wayfair, Castlery, and now Kmart with K Home, have been pushing more into physical stores. How willing are you guys at this stage to pursue growth via physical locations, maybe as an an opportunity to generate higher AOV and more sustainable economics over time?
I am really excited about our brand overall. I have only been back a brief period, but I think there is some interesting ideas for us to look at there. It is still very early days.
Got it. Thanks, guys.
Your next question comes from the line of Aryan Norozi with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Hope you are well. Just a few from me, please. First one, just one thing I am trying to reconcile. Your marketing has obviously gotten more efficient. So you are spending less for the same amount of revenue growth, and your pricing has not gone up to levels that makes you uncompetitive. Still do not get why the revenue growth has gone backwards. In 2023, you have had 13 rate hikes, and into FY 2024, you have printed sort of 25% revenue growth. Why is this time different for that sort of three to four year period?
I do think obviously there are some challenging macro conditions out there, and I do not think our category in general is finding that super easy. But I would sort of point to, we have increased marketing efficiency a bit. We have also scaled it back a little bit, and that is probably a big part of that revenue growth. And when we get to the right point where we feel like we have got the right unit economics on the customers that we are acquiring and that we are focused on the most valuable customer segments, we will be able to increase that again.
It is also a bit of a different situation now versus four years ago. The environment is quite different.
Right. Got you. On capitalizing tangibles, there is about AUD 4 million , I think AUD 3 million or AUD 4 million of annualized intangible capitalization versus what you were doing before this result. Is that a permanent feature of the business or is that just shifting stuff out of cost into CapEx now?
No, it reflects a move towards developing internal AI solutions and technologies within the business. We have ramped up that area in the last 12 months, and that obviously is reflected in the capitalization.
Great. Last one. Just on the exclusives, it has grown from 49% - 54% of sales first half on second half 2026, which is great. Is all of that step up the private label? Can you just give us an idea, please, around how big the private label part of the business is?
Yeah, I can take that one, Aryan. We have talked a bit before about the private label exclusive dropship split. Private label and dropship exclusive has increased in the past six months. Private label is still roughly about 30%, but it has moved up slightly. The balance, 51%, is exclusive. That exclusive dropship is still doing the heavy lifting. Both are growing.
It is good to see that number.
Yeah.
Awesome. Thanks, guys.
Your next question comes from the line of Chami Ratnapala with Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, team, and a big welcome to Susie. Thanks for taking my questions. I think the first one would be on the delivered margin. Given that it is run rating slightly above the range you have talked about, can you talk to how you are able to maintain this as conditions probably does not improve, get worse, into FY 2027?
We are feeling really confident after Q4 on our forecast for FY 2027. As Cam has mentioned, we have a little bit of flexibility in there. We are running a little bit ahead of our targets, and can use that as we are thinking about our promotional strategy going forward. The big things that will drive our margins overall is really around that price, sorry, value, style, and quality. Making sure that we are continuing to deliver the best range in our category as the leading online furniture specialist. That is the big focus for us.
I think the other thing to think about, Chami, there is obviously the mix of exclusive and private label. As that continues to trend upwards should support that. There will be a little bit of FX this year. It is obviously only 30% of our business private label, which is the US dollar denominated, but there should be a little bit of FX tailwind on that 30% as well this year.
Great. Thanks for that. How are suppliers or the dropshippers taking the new changes for the fourth quarter profit optimization initiatives?
It's a good question. One of the things that I did when I first started in the business was sit in on a couple of our supplier meetings. It's a really important part of our business, and their growth has been a big part of our growth for the last 15 years. What I heard in those meetings was actually quite a lot of support from suppliers who thought that the measures we're putting in place prioritized customer experience and meant that the suppliers that were performing really well got prioritized on our site and in our business. So while there are some, it's been a big plus for us, I think, and for our customers.
Great. Okay. Thanks for that. Maybe if I could ask one more just on the fixed cost leverage. In a low revenue environment, what's the level of or what are the layers of efficiencies, further efficiencies, to maintain the fixed cost leverage there, in the guidance range that you're expecting for the year?
Yeah. Thanks, Chami. I'll take that one. It's Cameron here. Look, we haven't assumed any real change in the fixed cost base as a percentage. You can see that guidance of, or that target range of 10%-11%. So that's pretty consistent with where we were for FY 2026. So we haven't assumed any reduction in that cost base into our FY 2027 numbers. But obviously that's a reasonable portion of our cost base. If we need to take action on that, we will. But at this point in time, I think we're consistent with what we did in FY 2026.
Okay. Thanks for taking my questions, team.
Your next question comes from the line of James Bales with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, customer acquisition has slowed. I would like to understand exactly how the economics of customer acquisition have changed. How much of it has been you guys proactively lifting the hurdles of what you think your return profiles should look like versus just the opportunity set that is out there with your partners? Tying that into your earlier comments, Susie, around marketing diversification, how should that sort of change or move the needle on the returns that you see for that spend?
Yeah, it is a great question, James. Thank you. It has been very deliberate. We have made the choice to focus on customers where we think we are going to get the unit economics that we need. More broadly, you can hear in a lot of the initiatives we are focused on making sure we are focused on the most valuable customer segments in our sector. What we want to do in terms of diversification is really build on our brand, build on our strength in content and inspirational content, and diversify our channel mix that way. My expectation is that should continue to improve the effectiveness of our marketing and reduce the overall cost of sale.
Got it. In terms of the outlook for FY 2027, you are sort of starting with negative sales momentum early on in the first half. When you think about the pathway to get back to growth, how should we think about the timeframe to get back to being level with the PCP?
We're not giving guidance on revenue, but I can say that we don't think that the initial trading period of this year is indicative of how the year is going to play out overall. There's a couple of reasons behind that. The first is we're comping 28% growth in the prior period, and the second is we're not just relying on comps. As you've heard, we have a number of initiatives already underway and strong margins to support us driving growth. So our expectation is we're going to finish FY 2027 with really strong momentum leading into FY 2028.
Great. Sorry. Sorry, Cam.
I wasn't going to say anything, James.
All right. Then I guess one other question was, when we spoke following the May trading update, you seemed very confident that even in a flattish sales environment, that AUD 40 million EBITDA was achievable. Can you just help me understand why you've moved the range to where it is today?
Yeah, I'll take that one, James. I will speak to you. Good talking. Look, I think obviously the AUD 40 million is still part of the range. So we still have some belief in that target. I would just remind everyone that the range we put forward is 50% - 80% up on FY 2026, which is quite a big increase. The reason for the range is basically to give us some flexibility as we come into this year. As we go through the year, we'll be able to narrow that range and get more precise on it. But at this point in time, that range gives us real flexibility to be able to use our levers as we always do to drive top line. So AUD 40 million is definitely still there on the cards and scenario running May. Not much has changed since May. Conditions are still weak.
That range is giving us that extra flexibility that we want going into the new year.
Got it. Then maybe one last one. You've had really strong momentum in home improvement and Trade & Commercial. When we think about the momentum heading into FY 2027, how is the core homewares and furnishing business performing relative to that 13%? Is there a big divergence there or are they all sort of moving together with the macro?
I won't go into specific details on the different adjacencies and the growth rates. We'll obviously do that later in the year. But the trading update 13% down is reflective of the overall business as our trading updates always are. Home improvement, B2B, and the core have different growth rates, as they always do. So we'll obviously update you later in the year as we get through the half on the different adjacencies and their growth rates.
I'll just add that my priority is the core, and I think it's the biggest opportunity. We're still only 2.9% of furniture and homewares, and that's where our biggest dollar prize exists. That said, we do have really meaningful opportunities in adjacencies, and so we'll also be working with the team to form up our strategies around that. But the priority for us and in the initiatives we've talked about is really on how do we make sure we take advantage of that growth at the core.
Perfect. I really appreciate it the color .
Your next question comes from the line of Sam Teeger with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, team, and welcome, Susie. Susie, it'd be good to get your perspective as to how the business has changed since you were here last, and what is your priority number one for this year? What's the most important thing you want to achieve?
Hi, Sam. It's amazing coming back. I feel like it's a real gift to come back with a lot of familiarity with the business, but still fresh eyes. I think the exciting thing for me is a lot of what has made Temple & Webster really successful up till now is still the same things that are going to carry us forward. We're talking about building on our amazing range, improving our marketing effectiveness, all areas where we've really been successful before. We are going to use potentially slightly different tools and have been doing that over the last quarter. At core, the objectives we have for the business are still the same. In terms of my priorities, really, I've talked a little bit about the biggest opportunity really is in growth at the core.
The business is bigger now than it was when I was here last, but we're still only 2.9% of the market. There is so much upside, and that's the area that I really want to make sure that we nail this financial year.
All right. I appreciate you don't see it as indicative of what we can expect for the full year, but can you help us just unpack that revenue decline of 13%? Any comments around traffic, orders, conversion, promotions, customer acquisition would be helpful because there is a lot of interest in it. Thank you.
I'd just say that as I've mentioned, there's quite a lot of context there. First of all, the comps from the prior year. I think secondly, just the broader macro environment. The thing that I am most excited about, looking at the numbers from FY 2026 and that we're going to now, is how our contribution margin is increasing. Driving margin dollars is ultimately how we will continue to deliver top line and bottom line growth. That's my big priority. We want to do both. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Maybe, Sam, just to talk about. I want to go back to Q4. I think nothing has really changed since the update we did in May. Obviously, the macro is a little bit worse than it was, but it is pretty consistent. So I will definitely look at that Q4 period as indicative of the first seven weeks of this year as well. But noting that that Q4 period, we did do a pretty flat revenue growth on a 20% comp.
Yeah. But is the weakness?
July was abnormally strong last year. It was really flat.
Is the weakness more a function of traffic? Is it orders? Is it conversion? Within the sales, what kind of element is driving most of the weakness?
Sam, we are not going into all the different drivers. What I would say is that, through the last half, we did see slight weakness in conversion. You can see that in the numbers. It is 2.9%, so it is still okay, but down from 3% a year before, so slight weakness there. Traffic is still okay. People are still browsing, but there is just that little bit more time taken to make a decision in this environment. I think that is reflective of what was happening in July, but also what was happening in the last quarter too.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Garth Francis with MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Hi, Mark, Susie, Cameron. Thanks for taking my questions. If you could just talk about the competitive environment. We have touched on, and specifically gross margin here. Gross margin was well managed but was still down in the second half. You mentioned currency, then a little bit of tailwind in private label. Are you getting help from suppliers in terms of promotional funding? Are you having to self-fund promotions? What does that mean to FY 2027? Do you have to do something similar?
Yeah. Thanks, Garth. I can take that question. You made a comment there around self-funding promotions. Our funding of promotions is similar to where it was for the last half and last quarter as well. That sort of hasn't changed. On the FX piece, we didn't see much of a tailwind through FY 2026 on FX because our hedge rate was below the spot rate. Going into 2027, as some of those hedges have rolled off, we will see some tailwind from FX. It's not huge, so I'm not going to say it's contributing to significant delivery margin improvement, but maybe 10, 20 basis points should come from an FX improvement. I think more broadly, yes, the delivery margin was well managed. It's obviously run rating above 33% for the last quarter.
That gives us confidence going into 2027 and the outcomes that we've put on in the presentation as target ranges.
Great. Thanks. You've highlighted in the presentation that at the AGM, we're going to get some more detail around the strategy. Susie, you've alluded to a few of those things already. Why couldn't we get a full update today just in terms of what the strategic initiatives are? Is the AGM just going to be used as a progress report as well in terms of how you're tracking with those initiatives, and are those all in place or are they still being worked through and is that why you haven't given much color on it today?
Yeah. I've been in the business for seven weeks. It's been a really productive seven weeks I think. The observations that we've put in the presentation are really areas that we want to focus on, and we will give an update, a progress update on those initiatives around the AGM. There will likely be some additional areas that we sort of explore together with the team over the next couple of months and can talk about then as well. The idea would be that we're coming back with more of a strategy update at the February results announcement.
Okay. Thank you. You also alluded in your remarks that the international markets outside New Zealand were an opportunity. Are there any restrictions with your current platform into any markets you cannot enter and which would be potential targets in your view?
Garth, I might take this one. There are no real restrictions on markets. The main restriction, so to speak, is around product. It needs to be compliant in different markets that we go to, which we have a team that knows that really well and can help with that. There are no restrictions. It is more the product itself. Is it the right fit for that market? Is the aesthetic right? Is the size right? We have such a broad range and such differentiated catalog that there are products that will suit different markets in our current catalog quite nicely. In terms of restrictions, it is more about where is the opportunity, where is there a gap in the market, where there is the right market size, et cetera.
Okay. Just in terms of the exclusivity, it sounds like you have a number of suppliers that are on the larger side. Is there a risk that as other retailers offer a marketplace and have a homewares SKU . Because of Bunnings that your partners might look to also offer product on those platforms. I guess the question would become how beneficial is it for them to be on Temple & Webster services, through Bunnings or through another such marketplace?
Yeah. Thanks, Garth. I think actually it's a good point to really emphasize. We've been competing with entry-level marketplaces since the history of Temple & Webster. The Kmart marketplace was previously Catch, and we competed with it then. What our customers tell us and what we know internally is that there's a real opportunity and a need for category-focused retailers. We provide a level of service, value, and quality that generalist retailers can't really match. We're confident that we're going to continue to deliver that.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of John Campbell with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks, guys. Welcome Susie to the role. Just in terms of online penetration in Australia, we're well below comparable economies offshore. The U.S., I think, is probably around 35%. Has online penetration stalled in Australia? If so, what do you think can really get it going again?
I might take that one, John. We have not got recent data on this. There are certain data sources that we look at. The last data point we had for Australia was 21% online penetration. You are right, U.S. penetration 35%, U.K. penetration is about 30%. I look more anecdotally at other retailers who disclose online and offline. It is not always in furniture and homewares, but more broadly. I do think the online penetration story is still there and still growing. Not just in our category, but in other categories. We just have not seen the data, so to speak, to back it up. Certainly anecdotally and looking at other retailers, I do think the online penetration march is continuing. Obviously, it is a tailwind for our business.
Yeah. We have also had some customer research, which has talked about demographic segments that are more interested in purchasing online. Our core segment, being millennials, are much, much more likely to purchase online than older customers. Again, that gives us a bit of a tailwind as a business. As those millennial customers hit their prime purchasing years, that is going to be a structural upside for us.
Thanks for that, Susie. Just to put it in context, the trading update so far this year. What typically would the first quarter represent of annual sales?
The first quarter is not our biggest quarter. Obviously, the second quarter of the financial year is biggest with Black Friday, Cyber Monday. The fourth quarter is reasonably big with the June end of financial year sale. The fourth quarter is less than 25% of full-year revenue. Sorry, first quarter is less than 25% of full-year revenue. Yeah, it is one of the weaker quarters in terms of the delivery to the overall revenue line.
Yeah. Okay. That is helpful. And just last question from me. The spike, I guess you might say, in delivered margin in Q4, very high, well above the run rate for 2026. Then the slight drop-off in marketing spend in Q4. Can you draw any dotted line between that and the weaker sales performance in the first quarter of, well, so far in 2027?
Yeah. We can actually. It has been a very deliberate choice to prioritize unit economics. And our expectation is those changes are permanent. So we are building the foundation for profitable top line and bottom line growth. We want to, as you can see in the forecast that we have for FY 2027, maintain those margins loosely in line with the established pattern that we had from quarter four. And now I and the team are really focused on how we drive top-line revenue growth as well. Making sure we calibrate that balance correctly, and also driving it through the range and marketing improvements we are talking about in the core.
Okay. So we can basically see the delivered margin, the higher level, as a sort of a new line in the sand, if you like.
Yeah. We agree.
Okay. That's helpful. Thanks, Susie.
Your next question comes from the line of Wei-Weng Chen from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Thanks. Just two questions from me. I guess the tricky part for me is with your trading, when you are going well and you are doing double-digit growth, the messaging is that you are taking share. But then I guess you give us a -13% trading update. Is the reverse true? Are you guys ceding share, whether that is kind of on purpose or otherwise? Also, I guess macro has been given as a reason to kind of some of the softer trading. But I am kind of struggling with why Temple & Webster is so highly sensitive to the macro and what can be done to reduce this volatility.
Wei-Weng , I will take the first part of your question on market share. For the full year, our market share was 2.9% versus 2.7% last year, based on the data that we have seen. We have not got good data on July yet and August. Obviously, it is still in play. We do not really know or have a sense on what market share looks like. I think if we go through this year and we are able to hold market share at 2.9% whilst increasing EBITDA 50%-80%, I think that is a really good outcome, actually. But we do not have a sense on what share running out through July at this point. Secondly, your point around macro sensitivity. I will just remind you that the changes that we put forward in March were a deliberate strategy to balance profitable growth in this environment.
The macro was one of the reasons why we thought it was prudent to do that. We still think it is prudent to do that. It's not the overall driver. It was the decisions that we made to make this optimization this period. I wouldn't call it highly sensitive to the macro, but I think it was one of the reasons why we'd put in place some of these initiatives.
Yeah. Okay, cool. Lastly, just on NPS. You've mentioned NPS a few times on the call. If I look at your slide on page six, your customer satisfaction levels are actually at post-pandemic lows. I'm just wondering what is going on here. You've previously spoken to the benefits of AI customer service. Could falling NPS be a sign that AI service is actually hurting the customer experience?
Yeah, look, I think there was one abnormal thing this year, which was our Melbourne warehouse transfer. We talked about it. We moved into new premises, and that took about six months. As you do that's a pretty large project, and we can isolate some NPS impact from that. Outside of that period, NPS levels were stronger. It was a bit of a one-off impact on the NPS number of 60.
Okay, cool. So your view is AI services, it's not impacting the customer experience?
No, not at all. I think we've said before that the AI tool has a really good, actually higher NPS score than average. We don't see that at all.
Okay, cool. Thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Owen Humphries with Canaccord. Please go ahead.
I think most of my questions have been answered. Hi, Susie. Welcome to the team, or welcome back. One question I will just ask is to understand how paid marketing moved in July relative to revenue. If revenue growth was down 13%, what was paid marketing down?
I think the best guidance to give you is just to have a look at how Q4 run rated through the end of last year, and that gives you a bit of a feel for our settings on marketing and margin overall, and those settings remain pretty consistent.
I guess just on unit economics. Is the unit economics now where you are happy where they are in July? Given there has been a restructure.
I think it is something that actually gives me a lot of confidence going into the year is we have been able to adapt and improve our unit economics consistently over the last four months. So yeah, very pleased with it. The next focus really is on how we get some of these initiatives we have been talking about to begin having an impact. So we are back and focused on double-digit top-line growth.
I will leave it there.
Thanks, Owen.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Susie Sugden for closing comments.
Thanks, everybody, and thanks for spending your time with us this morning. I am so excited to be back at the business. As we have discussed, these are uncertain times, but I am taking really positive confidence from the impact we have had on margins and unit economics over the last three, four months. I am looking forward to talking with you all again about our plan for a return to double-digit top-line growth, and our longer-term strategy over the next few months.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.