Good afternoon, everyone. Ahead of the formal AGM, I'd like to welcome you to this information session to talk about two of our biggest divisions and also two of Australia's most trusted retailers, Bunnings and Kmart. Both these divisions have had great success in recent years, and they both have some incredible growth plans for the future. First up, we'll hear from Ian Bailey, Managing Director of Kmart Group, which is home to both Kmart and Target. Kmart Group was one of the standout performers for Wesfarmers in the last financial year. Growth at the division has been supported by Anko's capacity to develop great products with a unique sourcing model that delivers amazing prices. Ian's going to tell us more about what's happening at Kmart Group.
Thank you. Thank you back. Good afternoon, everybody. Wonderful to see you all. This afternoon, I'm going to give you just a quick update on what drives us at Kmart and also what drives our business. If you go back after over the last few years, back to 2014, you'll see the revenue in Kmart has more than doubled from a little over AUD 4 billion to now about AUD 9 billion a year. At the same time, we've really grown the Anko brand. Now, back in 2014, it didn't exist, but we created that brand over that time period, and it now does over AUD 7 billion a year. I'm sure that most of you will have at least one Anko product in your home, and in many cases, you'll have many, many Anko products at home as well.
The question was, well, how did we get to this point, and where do we go from here? The first thing I'd say is customers are really at the heart of everything that we do, and it's what drives us on a day-to-day basis. We know a couple of things really matter to our customers. The first one is low prices make a difference. You see this and you feel it from our customers every day. You can read it on social media. You can hear it when you're in our stores, and we get direct feedback from our customers. I would never underestimate just how important it is to get everyday products into the hands of customers to help them with the day-to-day costs of life.
And if you think about the current economic conditions that we're in, most people are trying to figure out how do they make their dollars go further. And of course, a business like Kmart and products like Anko are incredibly helpful at doing that. And to bring it to life, it's the difference sometimes between parents being able to put new shoes on their kids when they go back to school, being able to buy presents for their kids or for other kids for their birthdays, or being able to just give their home that little bit of a lift by putting some new products in there and just making it feel like a slightly warmer and more engaging place for the whole family.
The second thing that we do is we take products that were previously unaffordable or at a price point customers couldn't justify, and we brought them down and made them really affordable for customers. Now, this gives us a different reaction. The first one on lowest price is almost like logical. The second one, you get a very strong emotional reaction from customers because it enables them to do things they really want to do, but they couldn't previously justify, and so this is where we hear words like love coming out.
You see things like Kmart hacks if you're on social media, or you see it yourself when you see what you do with your own products and you can create new things, new experiences, new rooms, new outfits, new games for your children just because we've been able to find a way to bring products that might have been AUD 80, AUD 90, or AUD 100, and suddenly they're AUD 15, AUD 20, or AUD 25. So they're the two things that really drive us in what we do. And at the heart of that, it's about no compromise. If you think about low-priced products, there's a big difference between great value and cheap. So what we do is we hit the lowest price point, but we work really hard on the quality. We make sure the products are being sourced ethically.
We make sure that the environment has been protected in the way that we've developed and moved those products. So when our product lands in market, it is really equivalent to products that are three times the price. And that value equation is really powerful for our customers. Now, to do that, of course, it takes a lot of focus and time. And one of the things we are is we're constantly focused on this idea of making everyday living brighter for our customers, which is our purpose. We sort of tie together all those concepts and put them into a few small words. And then what we've been doing is just working year in, year out, trying to find ways to get better and better at delivering that for our customers. Now, if it works, why do not more companies do what we do?
Why do we not have more direct competitors? It's difficult to replicate. We have a model now where we create products all the way from design. We work very closely with our dedicated manufacturing partners, and then we manage the shipping of those products all the way through to our stores and then finally either into consumers' hands in our stores or through home delivery and online. Most other retailers do parts of that. They'll do the retail piece. Or if you're a product company, you'll do the product development piece. We do it all. And the end-to-end process means we can become very, very efficient at delivering both the designs all the way through to the end product. We've been working on this for 15 years, so this isn't a new thing that we're getting used to.
And if you think about anything you've done in your lives, if you've been practicing something for 15 years, you get increasingly good at it. So we've been getting better and better at this over that period of time, which means that if you are trying to do this for the first time, it's always going to be difficult to deliver the same outcomes that we can hit. And then finally, we've got a scale now, which gives us economies of scale, and it gives us a productivity that's very hard for others to imitate and replicate. So that gives us what we believe is a business model that is compelling and has the ability to maintain satisfactory returns over the long term. So where to next? So we've got this great asset that we've been creating. We've been delivering wonderful products for our customers for a long time.
We still see lots of opportunity for future improvement. The first one is within our own Kmart and Target stores. So you'll go into your stores today and you'll know some of our products really work, and you'll know there's some we've still got opportunity to improve. So we see the opportunity to continue to improve the offer that we have within our Kmart stores, and that we think will help our customers and will deliver further growth. Secondly, we've been bringing Anko products into Target stores to support the Target-specific offer. There are some things we sell in Target which are really not differentiated, and we've leaned on Anko to do that. That gives us the resources to invest 100% in the product in Target, which is differentiated, and you'll see in the Target stores at the moment, Apparel and Soft Home are really starting to look different.
They're looking really high quality, and they're delivering a proposition that moves on beyond their price points and the types of products that Kmart can do. The two brands in combination means we can offer a more complete retail experience for our customers across the retail market. Very excitingly, we're now taking the Anko brand into new markets. Next week, we launch our first store in the Philippines, which we're very excited about. We've gone into a partnership with a large Filipino company. So the two of us are launching that business jointly, and we're really excited to open our first store next week with two other stores to open in the new year. We've partnered with Mattel, and globally, we are now the product development and manufacturing partner for wooden toys for the Mattel business.
And the toys that we develop under the Fisher-Price brand are now being sold throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and frankly, the rest of the world. So we've now got our Anko products moving beyond the shores of Australia and New Zealand. And we're also now starting the process of partnering with some of the world's biggest retailers in both North America and Europe, where we become a product brand as Anko working within their stores. And we're pretty excited about that, and we'll be announcing, I hope, certainly in the next two to three months, some of the partnerships which we will be intending on launching into those markets in calendar year 2025 and 2026.
So as we think through all of those things for the future, the one thing I'll say we will always do, we'll always keep focused on the customer, and we will always keep focused on delivering products at the lowest price because we know just how important it is to make everyday living as affordable as possible. And if we can make everyday living brighter for our customers, we know that's going to make a real difference in how they try and balance their budget and do all the things they want to do in their lives. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you.
Thank you, Ian. Kmart and Target have amazing stands outside. If you haven't already been out there, take a look after the meeting. Next up, we're going to hear from Mike Schneider, Managing Director of Bunnings Group. Bunnings has been a huge success for decades and continues to grow through new product ranges and constant improvements. Part of its success comes down to its commitment to lowest prices, which in the last financial year helped the division deliver another solid result in what was at times a challenging market. Mike's going to talk to you today about where the business has come from and what's next, and there's many exciting developments to come. Thanks, Mike.
Good afternoon, everyone. It is wonderful to be here, and my name is Mike Schneider. I have the incredible privilege of being the Managing Director of the Bunnings Group. It's wonderful to have this opportunity to provide all of you with an update on our business just before the Wesfarmers AGM kicks off in a few minutes' time. While most Western Australians, I should say, have a really good knowledge of the Bunnings story dating back to our first sawmill in the 1880s, others may not know that it's the 30th anniversary of our warehouse format this year. Our first warehouse opened in the western suburbs of Melbourne in Sunshine in 1994, and it's fair to say since then we've grown a bit.
There's been some special events this year for our team members, suppliers, and customers, some of whom joined our journey on day one at Sunshine and are pleasingly still with us today. The hard work continues with the same three pillars that we began remaining at our core: that we have the lowest prices, the widest range, and we work hard to deliver the best customer experience every single day. Over the last 30 years, we've worked hard to innovate and expand our offer to stay relevant and appealing to both our consumer and commercial customers. And this evolution has seen us expand our addressable market well beyond the traditional hardware offer we started with. Every day, we work hard to earn the right to be chosen by our customers and to grow our participation in this ever-expanding market.
It's delivered a good track record of consistent top and bottom-line growth. Our physical footprint today goes well beyond the traditional large-format Bunnings warehouse. Our network continues to evolve to reflect the diverse and often specialized needs of DIY, lifestyle, and commercial customers, and we also have several formats, including our small-format stores, Bunnings Trade Centres, and manufacturing sites in Frame and Truss, Tool Kit Depot, and Beaumont Tiles showrooms. All in all, we've now got more than 500 locations across Australia and New Zealand. A critical part of understanding the Bunnings culture is our commitment to community activities and events. In the financial year 2024, we supported communities in every corner of Australia and New Zealand. This included almost 80,000 separate community activities and more than AUD 60 million in community donations. In our communities, we like to say that we live here too.
Our team members live, work, and raise their families in their local communities, and we love bringing that to life. For those who love a barbecue, you'll be pleased to know that we hosted more than 34,000 sausage sizzles, also raising funds for community organizations. As I mentioned earlier, we work extremely hard to evolve our offer to remain relevant to DIY and commercial customers. Now, we know that we can't be all things to all people, and nor do we want to be. But what we do want to offer is the most relevant and compelling product range for our customers from the front gate to the back fence of their home or building site.
Recent examples that have helped grow our customer appeal and drive our sales growth include our smart home range expansion, introduction of our pets range, new cleaning products including bulk pack sizes for value, helping customers combat the cost of living burden. Over the next few months, keep an eye out for an expansion in our automotive range, an entry into electric and renewables, as well as vehicle charging and much broader assisted living ranges. On the commercial customer growth front, we're growing the whole-of-build, offering across each phase of the residential building process from frames to fixes to fit-outs and, of course, finishing. Our specialist formats are other avenues that we can continue to serve our customers to keep growing our share of the market and support our specialist trades and builders.
Space productivity is a key strategic growth driver for us, and that's all about leveraging our biggest asset, our store network. We see huge opportunity to further customize our store formats, ranges, and layouts to best serve the needs of each local catchment where we operate, whether that be urban or regional, temperate or tropical, or anything in between. Now, this will provide space for our bestsellers while leveraging the immense reach and traffic our digital channels provide to customers with even more choice beyond the four walls of your local store. It's still relatively early days for us in this journey, but we're really pleased with the results we're seeing from the early activity in this space. Whenever we talk about digital, we also talk about data.
We see this as a critical enabler for our business and our ability to offer customers a seamless, relevant, and personalized experience across each part of their shopping journey. Compared to a decade ago or even more recently, we know that our customers want to engage with us both in store and through our digital channels. Our Flybuys, OnePass, and PowerPass programs provide customers with amazing value and convenience. In turn, the data generated through these programs makes us able to support our customer experience even more, making it seamless and personalized each time. Ultimately, it's about making sure we use our data effectively so our team have what they need to help our customers get what they need. As the opportunity for increased Gen AI and other types of curated content continues to grow, we need to remind ourselves it's not the answer to everything.
Our data must be safe, secure, accurate, and well-governed, but sometimes nothing beats the human touch. That's why you'll always see real Bunnings team members in a lot of the things we do today and, of course, into the future. Thank you so much for listening, and I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today, and as we prepare for the formal part of the meeting, which will commence shortly, I'll now play a short video from Bunnings which celebrates the 30th anniversary of our warehouse format. Thank you very much.
The Bunnings story began back in 1886 when brothers Arthur and Robert purchased their first sawmill in Western Australia. From these humble beginnings, Bunnings grew to become the leading timber and building supplies business in WA. Growing from strength to strength, Bunnings moved into the DIY market with the purchase of Alco Handyman and soon turned our attention to the East Coast with the purchase of McEwans in 1993. Moving east was the next chapter of the Bunnings journey. By 1993, Bunnings was beginning to think outside the box with the idea to introduce big box retail to the Australian market. The Bunnings team fast-tracked a study tour of the best big box retailers in the U.S. And learning lots from the get-go, the team booked the cheapest package flights available, which included a trip to Disneyland.
It was here they were able to sit through an induction that would inspire a whole new approach to service and building team culture at Bunnings. The playbook for the Bunnings brand was born on this trip, and the warehouse journey began with a little sprinkle of Disney magic. 30 years ago, the first Bunnings Warehouse, Melbourne suburb of Sunshine, in August 1994, building on the core ingredients of the Bunnings playbook, the Sunshine Warehouse focused on delivering three things: price, range, and service, which would ultimately become the three pillars of the business: lowest prices, widest range, and best service. Sunshine was soon followed by warehouses in Mentone, Altona, Nunawading, Fountain Gate, Broadmeadows, Northland, and Croydon. At this time, the first-ever Bunnings sausage sizzle took place after a local community group asked if they could host a fundraiser in the car park.
More warehouses would soon follow in South Australia and Western Australia, and later we entered the Queensland and New South Wales markets. In 1994, Wesfarmers took 100% ownership of Bunnings in November, and Bunnings was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange. Building a strong team culture has always been at the heart of the warehouse experience. We knew from the beginning that team culture starts with treating our people with respect and giving them a say in how stuff gets done. Our team were empowered to collaborate on creating their own vision and values unique to their warehouse and local community. We were building the best team, and all over the country, they were making it happen. From the start, being a part of the local community was always important.
In-store vibe was to become a major drawcard for every warehouse, welcoming people of all ages and from all walks of life. A trip to your local Bunnings has something for everyone, and our teams made an impact by living local, supporting local community groups, or being willing to extend a helping hand in times of need. In 1996, Bunnings took our message national with an ad campaign made with real character. Built around the low-cost look and feel of line-drawn products and nicknamed by the Bunnings team, Lionel delivered our message of price, range, and service with an engaging sense of fun and playfulness. Everyday low prices are the cornerstone of what we do at Bunnings.
To prove our commitment to offering our customers the lowest prices, Bunnings introduced a price match guarantee backed by a catchphrase of, "We'll beat it," which is still a powerful reminder to customers to this day. In the early 2000s, Bunnings moved across the ditch with the purchase of Benchmark and the BBC Hardware Network. The first Bunnings-branded warehouse in New Zealand opened its doors in Christchurch in 2003. In 2005, we brought team culture and the warehouse experience into living rooms across Australia and New Zealand with the launch of our red shirts campaign, putting team members front and center in our ads, highlighting them as the heart and soul of the Bunnings brand. With our business built strongly on DIY customers in Australia, Bunnings expanded to provide a more tailored solution to meet the needs of trade and builder customers.
With the launch of our PowerPass program, Bunnings Trade was able to provide additional exclusive benefits for our trade customers. In 2011, a new competitor entered the frame, and Bunnings proved once again we were fit for the fight to remain the favorite hardware store in Australia. Bunnings maintained our position in the hearts and minds of Australians as having the lowest prices, delivering a competitive offer to market, and often in record-breaking time. By 2014, the Bunnings brand grew from strength to strength and expanded our network throughout Australia and New Zealand with warehouse stores, small formats, trade centers, and our first multi-level store in Hawthorn. As we've continued to grow, we've learned a lot about ourselves, no more so than in 2016 when Bunnings purchased Homebase in the U.K. and Ireland.
History shows that not everything we do is a success story, and through a very difficult time, some hard and humbling lessons were learned along the way. After an extensive review process, it was ultimately decided to exit U.K. and Ireland in 2018. That same year, Bunnings finally embraced the digital era to transform the way our customers shop with us. We rolled out new e-commerce solutions to empower our customers to shop in the way that works best for them with access to the warehouse experience whenever and wherever they wanted, starting with more than 20,000 products through special orders online before making our whole range available online. We soon expanded with the launch of Click & Collect and Click & Deliver throughout Australia and New Zealand. Next came the PowerPass app for trade customers and an extended range available through Marketplace.
In a short space of time, our digital presence has rapidly evolved to a formidable online destination, receiving over 40 million hits every month. The challenges the world faced in 2020 show just how resilient we are as a business. Finding new ways to trade through lockdowns led our team to seeking out new and innovative ways to safely reach our customers, fast-tracking our e-commerce capabilities, Drive & Collect, contactless transactions, and the Bunnings app. Through acquisitions, we've continued to expand our offer for our trade customers. In 2020, Bunnings acquired Adelaide Tools before rebranding to Tool Kit Depot and expanding to other states. Beaumont Tiles joined the Bunnings Group in late 2021, supporting and deepening our whole-of-build strategy.
Building on our capability to deliver a more personalized service to customers, Bunnings partnered with Flybuys and joined the OnePass program with other Wesfarmers brands, including Kmart and Officeworks, to offer even more benefits and value to our customers. In 2023, we got tails wagging with the introduction of a new pet range to our warehouses, and we followed up the success of pets with cleaning, launching a new expanded range of cleaning products. We also surprised and delighted our customers with new partnerships that took the family fun and in-store vibe to a whole new level, converting selected stores to the first IRL opening of Hammer Barn with plenty of Bluey-themed fun. As we look towards the future, it's amazing to reflect on where we are today.
Our Bunnings business includes a growing team of over 55,000 team members and an extensive network of stores, trade centers, distribution centers, manufacturing, and fulfillment sites, as well as our support centers across Australia and New Zealand. While so much has changed, our core values are still as strong as ever, and best of all, 30 years is just the beginning.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Wesfarmers' annual general meeting for 2024. My name is Ruth Callaghan, and I'll be your moderator for today's meeting. In relation to some housekeeping matters, in the unlikely event of an emergency, you'll be asked to leave the room in an orderly fashion through the exits, which are clearly marked around the room. Convention center staff will be available to assist you should you need them.
If you have not already done so, may I remind you to please switch off your mobile phones. Now, before our Chairman, Michael Chaney, commences proceedings, I'd like to begin today by introducing Dr. Richard Walley, OAM, to perform a welcome to country on behalf of the traditional owners of this part of Western Australia, the Whadjuk Noongar people. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Walley.
[Foreign language] So may the Good Spirit keep everyone safe. May the Good Spirit give those who are presenting the ability to articulate the message, those who receive the message, pass it on to those who require it. At the end of the day, may the Good Spirit take each and every one of you safely home to your families. This is called the Whadjuk section of the Noongar language group. We call this Boorloo, the traditional name for Perth. It's by the river. We call that the Bilya Boodja, and it's a significant place and spiritual place. We call that the Wirin Boodja. I'd like to thank you for including a welcome in our culture. A welcome is just a sign of respect, and the greater the respect, the greater the community.
So we don't take these for granted. I will finish with a little song. This is called the Bilya Koorliny Wadandi. It's a story of the river traveling. Like us, we get older, wiser, slower, and we go to this beautiful place where we do a circle in the ocean and start the whole journey again. And this is called Bilya Koorliny Wadandi, Kaiwa. [Foreign language] May the Good Spirit keep everyone safe, Kaiwa.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this meeting. I'm Michael Chaney, the Chairman of Wesfarmers. I'm advised that we have a quorum present, and I now officially open the 43rd annual general meeting for Wesfarmers Limited. Can I start by thanking Dr.
Richard Walley for his welcome to country on behalf of the Noongar people, the traditional owners of this part of Australia from which I'm joining you today, and I pay my respects to their elders past and present. And thank you to everyone who's joined us in today's meeting in person, online, or listening by phone. Can I extend a particular warm welcome to Mrs. Beryl Smith, who's here with us today, who's age 97, here with her two daughters, and she was insisting on coming along. And Mrs. Smith has been a shareholder for over 60 years, one of the original farmer shareholders. That's wonderful, Mrs. Smith. We're pleased to be hosting a hybrid annual general meeting for Wesfarmers from Perth, and our entire board and executive leadership team and hundreds of shareholders are in this room with us, and other shareholders are able to participate online.
I'm joining you all for those of you who aren't here today from the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. On stage with me are Managing Director Rob Scott and our Company Secretary Sheldon Renkema. Also joining us are the Board of Directors. There are three directors standing for election today: Alison Watkins, Kate Munnings, and Tom von Oertzen. You'll be hearing from each of them later in the meeting when they'll be seeking your support for election or re-election. But first of all, I invite my director colleagues to stand while I introduce them. First, Vanessa Wallace, our longest standing director, who joined the board in 2020 and will retire at the conclusion of today's meeting. Next to Vanessa is Jennifer Westacott, a board member since 2013, and Jennifer will retire at next year's AGM. Then Sir Bill English, who joined the board in 2018.
Mike Roche, next to Bill, who joined the board in 2019, and he's Chairman of the Remuneration Committee. Alongside Mike is Sharon Warburton, the Chair of Audit and Risk Committee and a board member since 2019. Next to Sharon is Anil Sabharwal, who joined the board in 2021 and is also retiring at the conclusion of the meeting today, and then Alison Watkins, who joined the board also in 2021. Alan Cransberg, who joined in 2021, and Kate Munnings, who's on Alan's left there. Kate is one of two new board members seeking election today, and she joined the board in August this year, and finally is Tom von Oertzen, who joined the board earlier this month and is standing for election today. Thank you very much.
Also with us today, seated at the front of the groups, senior executives, including the Managing Directors of our divisions, and some of you heard some of those in this room a little bit earlier. I welcome them on your behalf and thank them for their efforts and fantastic efforts, really, through the year. As you would have seen coming into the meeting, all of our businesses are well represented here today, and I know how pleased they all are to have been able to demonstrate some of their products and services outside before the meeting. So if you have any particular questions that you wish to raise and go into detail of these operations, please make contact with them after the formal meeting, and they'll all be outside having a drink and able to talk with you.
We also have in attendance Wesfarmers Audit Partners from EY, Trevor Hammond and Mark Cunningham, who are available to answer any questions on the audit or related matters, and lastly, I extend a welcome to all of our current team members and also to all the former directors and executives and team members who have joined us here today. Now on to some procedural matters. Now, many of our shareholders have taken the opportunity to submit their voting instructions and questions through the online voting platform, and we thank them for doing so in advance of the meeting. As outlined in our notice of meeting, shareholders and proxy holders may vote and submit questions during this meeting, either in person or using the Lumi AGM online platform.
We've also provided shareholders and others who may not be able to be present in person or to participate online with the opportunity to listen to the AGM by telephone. Please note that shareholders and proxy holders joining the meeting by telephone will not have the ability to vote or ask questions, but obviously, if you're online, you will have that ability. All resolutions will be decided on a poll, and to provide ample opportunity for shareholders and proxy holders, including those participating in the meeting online, to submit their votes, I now open the poll on all resolutions. I'll provide a reminder to submit any outstanding votes later in the meeting before the poll is closed.
Sebastian Verna from Computershare will act as the returning officer for the purposes of conducting and determining the results of the poll in each resolution, and the results will be announced through the ASX announcements platform later today and will also be available on the Wesfarmers website. EY, the company's auditors, will act as scrutineer. Now, we'll now play a short video outlining further procedural matters, mainly because you'll get bored with my voice, but you'll see it all up on here.
For shareholders and proxy holders eligible to vote at the meeting who are joining the meeting in person, you will have a voting card which has a voting paper printed on one side. If you are acting as a proxy and have been directed how to vote, please sign and lodge your blue voting card.
If you don't, the vote will default to the Chairman as proxy, and the Chairman will vote in accordance with the shareholders' instructions. If no instructions have been given regarding a resolution, the Chairman will vote in favor of that resolution. When you have completed your vote, please place your voting cards in one of the boxes, which will be handed around by the Computershare representatives at the conclusion of the formal business. For shareholders and proxy holders who are participating in this AGM online through the online platform and who are eligible to vote at this meeting, a voting icon will appear on your device or navigation bar. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options for each resolution: for, against, or abstain.
There is no need to press submit or click the enter button, as your vote will be automatically recorded. You may change your vote during the meeting until the Chairman declares the poll closed. If you wish to ask a question, you must be a shareholder or their attorney, proxy, or authorized company representative. These attendees will have the option to ask questions both orally and by submitting them in writing through the online platform. If your question has already been asked by another shareholder and answered or otherwise addressed during the meeting, please do not ask it again. Consistent with the approach taken at previous AGMs, the Chairman will respond to questions relating to a particular item of business during discussion on that item. The Chairman will also answer general questions at the end of the meeting while voting results are being counted.
In the interests of all participants, please ensure that your questions are relevant to the resolution being considered and are also relevant to all shareholders. When the Chairman calls for questions, if you're in the room, please proceed to the microphone nearest to you, show your green, blue, or yellow card, and give your name to the attendant who will introduce you. If you are representing an organization, please say who you represent. You will see that we have microphone points around the room. In order to enable all shareholders a reasonable opportunity to be heard, if you have a number of questions on a particular item of business, please ask them together when you come forward. If you are a shareholder or proxy holder participating in the meeting online, please submit any written questions on any item of business as early as possible during the meeting.
To minimize repetition and to maximize the number of questions that can be responded to during the meeting, written questions submitted through the online platform may be moderated, for example, by amalgamating into one question or choosing the broadest question which covers questions on the same topic. As time is limited, it may not be possible to respond to all questions during the meeting, and the Chairman may choose to limit the number of questions per person. If that is the case, or if there are questions that might be better addressed on an individual basis, the company will respond to relevant questions after the meeting. When the Chairman takes questions on the relevant item of business, written questions submitted online relating to that item will be read by an external moderator to the meeting.
If you are online and wish to ask a question in writing, press or click the messaging icon, which can be found on the navigation bar on your screen. This will open a new screen. Select the category that relates to your question from the list, then type your question in the Ask a Question box before clicking the arrow to submit. A copy of your submitted questions, along with any written responses from the moderating team, can be viewed by selecting My Messages. If you are online and wish to ask a question orally, click on the Request to Speak button, which can be found in the broadcast panel. This will pause the webcast. You can check your name is appearing correctly and then enter the topic of your question. Submit your request and follow the instructions to allow microphone access. Then connect to the queue.
You will then listen to the meeting on this page in real time with no delay while waiting to ask your question. When it's time to ask your question, there will be a beep, and you'll be asked to proceed with your question. If you are attending the AGM in person and need assistance with how to vote or ask questions during the meeting, please speak to one of the Computershare representatives around the room. If you are participating in the meeting online, a user guide is available on the online platform as well as on the annual general meeting section on the Wesfarmers website. This guide sets out instructions on how to submit your vote and ask questions during the meeting. If you are having any issues with the online platform, please refer to the user guide or call Lumi on the number shown.
Transcripts of the Chairman and Managing Director's addresses will be available on the Wesfarmers website and on the ASX Company Announcements platform. A recording of the meeting will be made available on the Wesfarmers website after the meeting.
Well, I hope you found that video helpful. It's terrific that we're able to provide access to the meeting online. It does introduce a lot more administrative detail, as you saw, but I know it's appreciated by those who aren't able to get to the meeting in person. So please submit your votes any time from now until I close the poll at the end of the formal business. Are there any questions about the poll procedure? Okay. Well, as you'd be aware from the notice of meeting, there are five items of business to be discussed when we move into the formal proceedings.
But before that, I'll make some general observations about the last 12 months and the business environment. And then our Managing Director, Rob Scott, will provide us with some reflections on current trading and on the outlook for the group. I'm pleased to report that despite some external challenges in the economy, higher interest rates and inflation, for example, your company produced an increase in profit, and the directors declared higher dividends in the year ended 30 June 2024. This financial performance demonstrated, I think, the great benefit of being a conglomerate where a downturn in one part of the business or leveling off is compensated for by increased earnings in another part. Details of the financial results for the 2024 year are in the annual report, and I don't propose to repeat all of that here.
But in summary, the group's net profit from continuing operations was a record AUD 2.6 billion, up 3.7% on the prior year. Our fully franked dividend rose the same 3.7% to AUD 1.98 per share. Kmart Group was the standout performer over the year, recording a 25% increase in profit. But increases were also recorded by Bunnings, Officeworks, Health, and Industrial and Safety, while earnings from the chemicals, energy, and fertilizers business fell largely as a result of reduced international ammonia prices. Your company continues to be in sound financial health with a strong balance sheet and businesses that generate solid cash flows. In spite of the challenges and uncertainties that face all companies doing business in Australia, we continue to maintain a focus on future growth and on generating superior long-term returns to our 500,000 shareholders.
Next month marks the 40th anniversary of Wesfarmers listing on the Australian Securities Exchange, and in terms of long-term returns, we have a lot to celebrate. Many shareholders here today will remember that day, the 15th of November 1984, when a small farmers cooperative with a value of AUD 28 million spun off its businesses into a listed company in which it retained a 60% shareholding. Over time, all of the original co-op shares were converted to Wesfarmers shares, and the company grew and grew. That growth, I must say, has been beyond the wildest dreams of everyone involved at the time, with your company now having a value almost 3,000 times higher than that AUD 28 million at AUD 80 billion today.
Expressing it another way, if you bought AUD 1,000 worth of Wesfarmers shares on the day of listing and you reinvested the dividends, you now have an investment of about AUD 1.1 million. And if you held that amount in original co-op stock, that is, AUD 1,000 worth of co-op stock, it would be worth over AUD 2 million today. It's instructive to reflect on the benefits that have flowed to Australia over that time, not just through dividends and capital gains for shareholders, but through job creation, taxes paid, the support of suppliers, customers, and many, many community causes.
There is, I believe, too little appreciation of the huge contribution that large businesses like Wesfarmers make to the Australian economy. And it's worth pointing out just how significant that contribution is, using Wesfarmers as an example. In the year just completed, Wesfarmers generated revenue of just over AUD 44 billion.
Almost all of this revenue was received, proudly, I must say, by providing everyday low prices and great value to our customers. Well, where did all that revenue go? AUD 29 billion, or 65%, went to our suppliers, whom our businesses rely on for raw materials and inventory and services. And in turn, our more than 27,000 suppliers rely on our custom for their growth and prosperity. AUD 6.3 billion, or 14%, went to our 120,000 team members in wages and salaries and benefits. And of course, some of that went on to the Commonwealth as personal income tax. AUD 4.4 billion, or 10%, went on rent, freight, and other services, again supporting numerous large and small businesses as well as individuals. Approximately AUD 500 million went to governments in payroll taxes and other charges. AUD 200 million went to our lenders as interest payments.
About AUD 0.7 billion was depreciation and amortization expenses, really, for replacing equipment. And that left about AUD 6.3 billion of profit before tax, or about 8% of the original revenue. Now, for some external parties, profit seems to be a dirty word. But it's important to understand how profitable businesses are essential to our economy and to our future prosperity. For one thing, companies have to be profitable in order to continue to operate, to do everything I just listed, like employing people and sourcing products and services from suppliers, providing customers with what they need, and supporting their communities. But where do our profits go? That last element. The first billion dollars of Wesfarmers' profit before tax in the last year, or 29%, went to the federal government as income tax. That's corporate tax to support all of the services that government provides.
The next 61%, or AUD 2.2 billion, went to our 490,000 shareholders, including individuals and superannuation funds. Where the individuals are concerned, much of it was no doubt spent on consumption, in other words, supporting other organizations, individuals, and government. The last 10% of profit, or about 1% of the original revenue, went to retained earnings in the balance sheet. So in other words, almost all of the revenue ended up outside the company, supporting the economy and the community in different ways. It would be good to hear political leaders of all persuasions acknowledge their understanding of these facts, that large companies like ours constitute a vital part of the economy, that generate enormous benefits to the community and make a huge contribution to society. Companies large and small deserve political leaders' support.
Such an understanding, I believe, would lessen the chances of governments enacting laws that, as we pointed out in the annual report, work against national productivity, that productivity improvements that Australia so urgently needs. And I'm referring here to the many changes we've seen to employment laws, payroll taxes in some states, and to some proposed environmental laws. It's only through a prosperous, vibrant, growing private sector that Australia is going to be able to provide the sort of support to our children and grandchildren that in the past we've taken for granted. In the context of the external environment, we continue to focus on what we can control, running our businesses well. And as I said earlier, notwithstanding the challenges we face, the company is well positioned to continue its history of success. At a board level, we're well served with an appropriate mix of experience and skills.
Today, we farewell two directors, and we welcome two new faces. I invite Vanessa Wallace and Anil Sabharwal to stand, if you wouldn't mind, and perhaps face the audience. Vanessa Wallace leaves us after 14 years, during which time she's provided invaluable guidance on strategic issues. And Vanessa has a background in management consulting and extensive experience in online matters and startups and so on. It's been fantastic having her on board. Anil Sabharwal is an executive at Google and has been a wealth of knowledge on all matters digital. Anil's leaving us because he's so flat out at Google and other commitments that he didn't feel he was able to continue, but he's been a terrific contributor over the last four years, and we thank them very much.
We welcome Kate Munnings, who, amongst other experiences, has been a chief operating officer and CEO of a number of companies, and Tom von Oertzen, whose background includes senior consulting roles in technology, loyalty program, and new ventures. Thank you, Kate and Tom. We'll hear from them in a moment. At the AGM in October next year, Jennifer Westacott will retire from the board after 12 years of service, and we'll have an opportunity to thank her for her great service at that time. We're very pleased to announce today that Jennifer's replacement will be Miss Julie Coates, who will join the board on May the 1st next year. Julie was most recently chief executive officer of CSR Limited, and she was previously managing director, Australia and New Zealand, of Goodman Fielder and also had senior roles at Woolworths.
While at Woolworths, Julie was managing director of Big W, and she'll bring pretty valuable retail and senior management experience to the board. In closing, I acknowledge the great contribution made by our 120,000 team members, who are led so ably by CEO Rob Scott, whom I now invite to address you.
Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Dr. Walley, earlier for your Welcome to Country. As the Chairman has outlined, this year saw our businesses operate in a more challenging trading environment. Despite this, they adapted well and maintained their focus, implementing growth strategies and benefiting from proactive efficiency initiatives. These measures helped our retail businesses keep prices low for consumers and business customers. In turn, this supported growth in sales, profits, and dividends for the year.
Our Chairman has already spoken to the group's performance and the significant contribution that Wesfarmers provides to the community and our many stakeholders from being a profitable company. And I wanted to assure shareholders that we are steadfast in our commitment to our corporate objective, and that is to deliver a satisfactory return to shareholders over the long term. A business that isn't profitable isn't sustainable. And in the 40 years since Wesfarmers listed on the ASX, we've seen many companies fail, unable to adapt to changing environments with disruptions in technology, consumer behavior, and regulatory landscapes. And today, we're seeing an acceleration of many of the disruptive changes that impact businesses, particularly through new technologies, global competition, geopolitics, and regulation.
Now, the Wesfarmers model of active portfolio management, combined with divisional autonomy, together with very strong commercial and financial discipline, provides an excellent platform to adapt and prosper in the new world. In discussing the group's performance this year, I'll outline how our approach to portfolio management and key divisional strategies delivers satisfactory returns to shareholders while also helping to address some of the big issues facing our nation at this time, and then I'll conclude with an update on our recent trading. To start, our retail divisions are helping address cost of living and cost of doing business pressures. Inflationary pressures and higher interest rates are placing significant stress on many households and businesses. Businesses big and small are facing cost pressures with rising wages, skills shortages, higher costs of energy insurance and rents, and increasing regulation. Together, these are putting further pressure on prices.
Now, as you know, Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks have long focused on everyday low prices. Bunnings' commitment to lowest prices is supported by an ecosystem of regular price monitoring to maintain the lowest prices possible and a Price Beat Guarantee that delivers an additional 10% saving in the unlikely case that a competitor has a lower price on a similar item. The ability of Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks to offer low prices is due to their relentless focus on managing their costs and always looking for ways to be more efficient and more productive. In the past year, there have been many examples of this that I'd like to talk to. Kmart Group has started to realize the benefits from its implementation of RFID technologies and robots to monitor apparel inventory.
This has freed up our team to focus on customers, made their jobs easier, improved stock management, and also delivered higher sales. Kmart's direct sourcing capabilities provide unique products through the Anko brand at low prices and sourced in an ethical and sustainable manner. Kmart has focused on digitizing many of its product design, sourcing, and inventory processes, which further reduces our costs. Bunnings have also made significant improvements in areas of range expansion, rostering, development of digital tools that are used in store and online, and this allows it to deliver upon its three strategic pillars of lowest price, widest range, and best service. As Bunnings has expanded its offer into areas such as consumables, auto accessories, and commercial tools, it has brought more value, more competition, and more choice to the market.
Officeworks last year commissioned its second automated fulfillment center, this one right here in Perth, delivering lower cost and faster delivery speed for e-commerce. Importantly, we have the capacity to make these kinds of investments, delivering benefits to customers and other stakeholders because our businesses are profitable, as our Chairman has noted. While I have highlighted ways that we are taking initiative to improve productivity, many people running a business in Australia will tell you that it is getting harder and more expensive to do so. It takes longer to get approvals for projects, and the volume and complexity of regulation is increasing in all aspects of business. There are shortages in key skills, especially in certain trades that are essential for many residential and commercial developments. In this environment, it is riskier than ever to invest.
This is most obvious for anyone trying to renovate or build a new home. But it also holds for businesses like ours, looking to invest and evolve to meet the changing context I spoke about earlier, and also, importantly, to realize opportunities. And with the federal election next year, there needs to be a constructive debate and a commitment to action to find ways to ease the regulatory burden in Australian businesses if we are to build prosperity and improve living standards for the future. Now, turning to our industrial businesses, our industrial businesses in Wesfarmers are supporting some of Australia's key export industries. Australia's prosperity relies on the strength and the competitiveness of our export industries. And as the world demands new sources of critical minerals to support global decarbonization and development goals, Australia has a unique opportunity.
Wesfarmers continues to pursue opportunities that support decarbonization, reporting a further 5.4% reduction in our operational Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and I'm pleased that Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks retail businesses are on track to use 100% renewable energy by the middle of next year, and WesCEF is continuing to make good progress towards its interim target to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 relative to its 2020 baseline. In WesCEF, we're evaluating expansion opportunities for sodium cyanide, ammonium nitrate production, and also moving into the production of lithium hydroxide. These kinds of investments will be critical for Australia if we are to expand and diversify our exports in the decades ahead. Alongside our joint venture partner, we've commenced the commissioning phase of our lithium hydroxide refinery here in Kwinana and are working towards achieving first product in the middle of next calendar year.
We know that many other countries have similar aspirations, and our ability to be internationally competitive will be impacted by the speed at which we can gain approvals, undertake developments, access critical skills, and offer cost-competitive and sustainable products. Now, turning to another key challenge and an opportunity for Wesfarmers, making healthcare more accessible and affordable. The aging population and the growing care economy is placing significant pressure on government budgets, and we need to think differently if we are to maintain and hopefully improve the quality of our healthcare system. Wesfarmers Health has the ambition to make Australians' healthcare, beauty, and wellness experiences simpler, more affordable, more accessible, and to build a trusted consumer healthcare business that delivers satisfactory returns to our shareholders.
Now, Wesfarmers Health recently published a detailed report on Australia's cardiometabolic health, drawing on over three million free, de-identified health checks at our SiSU machines that are found across most Priceline pharmacies and many other locations across the country, and you may have seen a SiSU station outside at the Wesfarmers Health booth. Now, this important report highlights significant opportunities to build awareness of risk factors and to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for patients and the community. It highlights the important expanding role in community health for pharmacists and pharmacies alongside our businesses such as Priceline, Instant Scripts, and SiSU, as we invest in technology for health monitoring and clinical care with very strong clinical governance standards. Now, let me comment about our most important asset in the group, which I think are our team.
We cannot hope to build sustainable and profitable businesses without harnessing the talents, the ingenuity, the passion of our 120,000 team members. Across Wesfarmers, there are thousands of stories of people developing skills and building rewarding careers. Now, alongside our mature, highly experienced team members, we also employ tens of thousands of younger team members, many doing casual work, often a first job, learning valuable skills to set them up for the future. Now, a job should be much more than a paycheck, and it has been fantastic to see many of our younger team, including our Indigenous team members, develop careers and progress into managerial roles. Now, one example of this is a young chemical engineer who joined CSBP back in 1984, and that young engineer is called Ian Hansen.
Now, over the next 40 years, Ian built a remarkable career, culminating in his current role as managing director of WesCEF. Now, as we announced in May, Ian retires next month and will be succeeded by Aaron Hood. Now, this is Ian's last AGM as an executive. I do expect we will see him back here as a shareholder. But on your behalf and on behalf of the executive team, I'd like to thank Ian for his immense contribution to Wesfarmers over four decades. Okay, I'd now like to provide some comments on the recent trading of the group. Now, elevated inflation and interest rates continue to place pressure on household and business demand. In this environment, the everyday low-price positioning of our retail businesses is resonating with customers who are seeking better value and also supports growth in customer numbers and transactions.
In Bunnings, year-to-date sales growth remains resilient, with positive sales growth in both consumer and commercial segments, albeit weakness in residential construction is weighing on commercial sales. Growth in the consumer segment has been pleasing, and Bunnings has seen a continued increase in transactions driven by ongoing demand for repairs and maintenance. Bulk pack quantities, own brand, and entry-level ranges continue to perform well. Kmart Group is benefiting from the strong value credentials and the uniqueness of its Anko products. The strength of the Kmart offer is evident through ongoing growth in units sold, transaction volumes, and customer numbers. However, customers are increasingly seeking value, and items per basket and the average sale price have both experienced minor decreases.
Kmart and Target continue to improve and innovate their offer and are both well-positioned to deliver even greater value and choice to shoppers in the lead-up to the important Christmas trading period. Officeworks' sales growth continues to be supported by higher technology sales, which now represent around 59% of its overall sales. But demand from business customers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, has been impacted by the challenging business conditions. In the health division, the transformation program is gaining pace, with pleasing sales growth in Priceline following recent improvements to pricing on key value lines and an expansion of the health and beauty offer. E-commerce growth in the retail and health divisions has been strong and is benefiting from recent investments in our omnichannel capabilities. This has also been supported by the ongoing growth and engagement of our OnePass members, which is translating to incremental sales.
Catch's gross transaction value continues to be impacted by weaker discretionary demand and increased competition in the online space. Plans are underway to increase the utilization of Catch's e-commerce distribution centers to support the growth and improve the efficiency of Kmart and Target home deliveries. Opportunities are also being evaluated to leverage Catch's marketplace capabilities across our other retail divisions. In WesCEF, strong plant operating performance has continued, as has their safety performance. Losses associated with depressed global lithium prices on spodumene sales that we're pursuing before we commission the hydroxide refinery will impact their earnings this year. In the industrial and safety division, trading conditions in Blackwoods and Workwear Group have become more challenging, with customer demand impacted by a softer market environment. These businesses are focused on delivering cost reduction and efficiency initiatives to offset the slower sales growth.
Coregas, however, continues to perform well and win market share. So, in closing, Wesfarmers is well-positioned for the future. While the outlook for the economy remains uncertain, with some ongoing challenges, Wesfarmers is well-positioned with resilient businesses, a strong balance sheet, and various platforms for future growth. I would like to thank team members across the group, and a special thanks to our group leadership team for the commitment that they show to our corporate objective. And also, a special thanks to our board for their continued advice and support. I'll now hand back to you, Chairman.
Well, thank you, Rob. And now to the formal business of the meeting. I refer to the minutes of the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the company held on the 26th of October last year. I've reviewed the minutes, and I've signed them as a true and correct account.
And the minutes are available for inspection at the shareholder registration desk and the company's registered office. Voting on all resolutions today will be carried out by a poll. All resolutions are ordinary resolutions requiring approval by a majority of the shareholders who vote on that resolution. It's a majority of the shares of the shareholders. Where, as Chairman of the meeting, I've been nominated as a shareholder's proxy, I intend to vote all proxies in favor of each of the resolutions. There are also voting restrictions for some resolutions, as outlined in the notice of meeting, which apply to those who have an interest in the resolutions and certain of their related parties. A reminder that if you are having any issues casting your vote or submitting a question, please speak to a Computershare representative if you're attending in person.
Or if you're participating online, refer to the user guide on the Wesfarmers website or call Lumi on the number shown on the slide. And that's at the bottom there. The proxy votes and direct votes that have been submitted in advance of the meeting will be set out on the slide shown for each resolution. And I'll provide details of the percentage for the benefit of those listening to this meeting through the telephone line. As mentioned earlier, the final results of the poll on each resolution will be available on the ASX Company Announcements platform and on the Wesfarmers website later today. I'll now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The notice of annual general meeting was distributed to shareholders on the 27th of September, and I'll take the notice as read. We'll now proceed with the items of business listed in the notice.
For each item of business, we'll display the wording of the relevant resolution on the slides. For those listening in on the meeting on the telephone, please refer to your notice of meeting for the relevant wording. The first item is to receive and consider the financial statements and reports of the directors and the auditor for the year ended 30 June 2024, which are included in the company's annual report. Trevor Hammond, as I mentioned, from EY, was the lead audit partner for the company in that year. Trevor and his co-signing partner, Mark Cunningham, are here and available to answer any questions on the audit or related matters. I note that this was Trevor's final year as Wesfarmers auditor, and as the law requires him to rotate off the audit, having served as the lead partner for five years.
And Trevor, I want to thank you and acknowledge your diligent efforts as the company's auditor over that time, and we wish you all the very best for the future. I'll shortly invite questions. Thanks, Trevor. I'll shortly invite shareholders to ask in person or submit online any questions regarding this resolution. For those shareholders and proxy holders participating online, just a reminder that there is a short delay in the broadcast, so please follow the instructions outlined earlier to ask your questions online. Now, are there any questions on this item one? None from the floor, I think. Sorry, is there one over there? Oh, yeah, microphone three.
Mr. Chairman, microphone three. May I introduce Mr. Reed, who is a proxy holder?
Good morning, Chairman. Good afternoon, Chairman. My apologies. Thank you for your time. I'm here today as a proxy holder representing the 1,200 members of the ASA who have given me their proxies who between them hold about 3 million Wesfarmers shares. Congratulations, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Scott, on the results of last year, especially the Kmart results. It's great to see and very much appreciated by all of us. Mr. Chairman, I've got two questions. May I ask them both at once?
Yes, sure.
Thank you. The dividend we just received was paid on the 9th of October. In our family's portfolio, that's the last dividend we receive. Most of our dividends are paid in September. One is even paid in August. Mr. Chairman, could you please find a way to pay the dividend earlier in September sometime, please? Thanks.
Thanks, Mr. Reed. Do you want to ask your second question?
Second question. This is a local question for WA listeners. Here in WA, we have some rather restrictive rules on retail trading, which, for example, prevent Bunnings from selling safety boots and pet supplies. Mr. Chairman, what is the financial impact of this restrictive trading arrangement we have in WA on Bunnings' profitability, and can we do anything about it?
Yeah. Well, thanks, Mr. Reed. Firstly, on the dividend, all of us are shareholders, and we would all love to receive our dividends earlier than the 9th of October. We had a good look at this because Mr. Reed foreshadowed this question with us a bit earlier, and the short answer is that it's not possible. I hope we could bring it forward a couple of weeks, but there are some pretty compelling reasons why not.
One of them is that, as you all know, we have a dividend reinvestment plan, and it has quite a large take-up of about 15% of our dividends come back in the dividend reinvestment plan. And we have, in order to make sure that those who reinvest aren't victims of sudden volatility in the price, we calculate the reinvestment price on a 15-business-day average. So that's over three weeks. And one of the reasons, well, the second reason we do that is that when we don't need the capital that's reinvested, we buy shares on market. And in order not to disrupt the market because we're dealing with a large number, call it AUD 150 million, we have to stretch that over a period. And so that's the reason we pay the dividend when we do.
When we looked at it in detail, it may be possible to bring it forward a day or something, but it's in that week. But thank you very much for the question. The main thing, as far as we're concerned, is that we do maintain a very high payout ratio. So we pay out 85%-90% of our profits because we know that the franking credits are valuable to our shareholders and not to us. Rob, you might like to comment on the restricted trading point.
Sure. Thanks, Mike. We have the CEO of Bunnings here as well, which you could get some perspectives from afterwards. But you're correct that there are very restrictive trading rules, retail trading rules in Western Australia. For Bunnings, to benefit from the longer opening hours that a lot of our customers, and particularly the trades in Bunnings, desire, so this is from 6:30 A.M. to later at night. If we are open for those longer hours, then we are prevented from selling certain products, notably the pet products, indoor lighting.
Actually, we could even list a whole lot of other unique products out. So look, unfortunately, the consequence of that is not only that Bunnings misses out on an opportunity for sales, but it actually means that Western Australian shoppers and businesses have less choice, and they're probably paying more for those products. For example, with the pet offer, we have seen enormous growth in the pet offer in Bunnings outside of Western Australia because we're offering phenomenal value. But unfortunately, under the current retail trading laws, we can't offer customers that benefit in WA.
The other frustrating thing is that these retail trading laws were set up at a time before e-commerce was a thing. In fact, I think they were set up before the internet had been invented. Now, we would say that for the benefit of consumers and businesses in WA, it would be timely to reflect on those rules because the frustrating thing is that at a time when our shops are either shut or not able to sell you things, you're still able to buy products online and have them delivered from groups like Amazon or others, not that we want you to buy things from them. So we think it would be timely and for the benefit of Western Australians to review those trading laws.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Reed. Are there any other questions on this resolution? Okay. Very well. If there are no further questions, I'll move on to the next item of business, which is the re-election and election of directors. Alison Watkins, Anil Sabharwal, and Vanessa Wallace are retiring by rotation at this meeting. Alison is offering herself for re-election while, as I mentioned, Anil and Vanessa will conclude their positions as directors at the end of this meeting. I want to, again, thank them and acknowledge the great contribution that they've made over the years, and so Kate Munnings was appointed director in August this year and Tom just earlier last month, and both are offering themselves for election today.
Displayed on the screen is the position in relation to direct votes and proxies received on the re-election and election of each director prior to any revocations that may have occurred during this meeting. For the benefit of those listening on the phone, there are a bit over 65%, sorry, 96% of the votes in favor of Alison's re-election, 98% of the votes in favor of Kate's election, and a bit over 98% in favor of Tom's election. So I'd ask each of the three to just come up and give us a brief address about their background and why they make a contribution to the board. So Alison, would you mind coming up to the stage first, please? Thank you.
Thanks, Mike. Fellow shareholders, I'm honored to stand for re-election as a director of Wesfarmers. I've had the privilege of contributing to your wonderful company during my first term, and I hope to be able to build on that in the years ahead through a second term. As the former CEO of ASX-listed Coca-Cola Amatil and ASX-listed GrainCorp, I've been fortunate to gain quite a lot of experience in leadership, and I've also been able to gain quite a lot of experience as a non-executive director through my roles in major ASX-listed companies like ANZ, Woolworths, and CSL, where I'm currently a director.
My background in consumer businesses, retail, and supply chains fits well with the Wesfarmers operations, and I'm also a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia board, which gives me a good connection to the economic trends that impact our businesses. What draws me most to Wesfarmers is its commitment to delivering shareholder value while also meeting the needs of all stakeholders. That's a philosophy that I strongly support, and I also think that being a good director is about both head and heart. For me, growing up on a farm in Tasmania and now being involved with our family property in Victoria, I really feel very closely connected to Wesfarmers' rural roots and values. So I appreciate your support for my re-election. Thank you.
Thank you, Alison. Well, I now invite shareholders to ask any questions in relation to this resolution. Jordan, you could keep an eye out in case I missed it.
We do have an online question.
Sorry?
We do have one online question.
Yes. So we have one online question. Thanks, Reed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a question from Mr. Stephen David 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 re-election of Alison Watkins? If so, what reasons did they give? Will you disclose the proxy votes before the debate on each resolution so shareholders can ask questions about the reasons if there have been any protest votes? Finally, on the proxy votes lodged 48 hours before the meeting, why not disclose them with the formal addresses like many other companies, such as Dexus, Brambles, NAB, JB Hi-Fi, Carsales, and Origin Energy do, in order to make a more timely disclosure to the market and avoid AGM questions such as this one?
Thanks, Mr. Mayne. On the first part of your question, no, all of the proxy advisors advised in favor of all the resolutions, very pleasingly. We do display the votes on the screen. We've never felt it necessary to put them out a couple of days earlier, but they are there for shareholders to see either here or online prior to asking questions.
So hopefully that will continue to suffice. Are there any further questions? Okay. If not, I'll now introduce Kate Munnings. Kate was appointed to the board in August 2024, and Kate will come up to the stage and provide the meeting with some details of her experience.
Thanks, Michael. Thank you. And good afternoon, everyone. I joined the Wesfarmers board in August this year, and today I seek your support for my re-election to the board of your company. Wesfarmers is an iconic Australian company, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to serve you on your company's board. Given this is my first time speaking with you, I thought I would share what I hope to bring to the Wesfarmers board and the broader Wesfarmers family.
I started my career as a registered nurse, so I bring to Wesfarmers frontline experience and a belief in empathy that comes from caring for people while at their most vulnerable. As a registered nurse, I specialized in HIV and AIDS nursing. AIDS patients in the 1980s were ostracized and isolated, often for reasons that had nothing to do with their disease. That experience led me to study law, and I left one of the most loved professions and joined one of the least loved professions when I became a solicitor in the 1990s. I spent 12 years in private legal practice specializing in construction law, and I progressed to partner in a leadership role in the construction practice at international law firm Baker McKenzie. So I bring to Wesfarmers experience in dealing with complex and commercial issues that arise from large infrastructure projects.
I then left private practice and spent eight years at ASX-listed Transfield Services as their chief risk and legal officer and company secretary. So I bring to Wesfarmers experience and an understanding of corporate law, risk management, and corporate governance. When I eventually moved into operations, I was responsible for Transfield Services' construction, logistics, and project management business across Australia and New Zealand. So I bring to Wesfarmers operational experience in running a large international logistics business as well as running a large construction business. After 20 years of working outside of healthcare, I returned to the sector, first as chief operating officer at Ramsay Health Care, then as chief executive officer at Virtus Health, and now as CEO of Vitrafy Life Sciences . So I bring to Wesfarmers operational leadership experience in running complex health services and biotechnology organizations.
Finally, coming from a family of traders, home renovators, and having six grandkids, I bring to Wesfarmers a lot of free advice from regular customers at Bunnings, Kmart, Priceline, and Officeworks. I commit to you that I will bring all that I have learned to the Wesfarmers board as I support Wesfarmers' objectives of delivering satisfactory returns to shareholders while treating all stakeholders respectfully and fairly. Thank you.
Thank you, Kate. I invite shareholders to ask any questions regarding this resolution. Are there any from the floor? I see there's one online. Ruth will go to that online question.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is from Mr. Stephen David Mayne. Could new director Kate Munnings and the chair comment on the recruitment process that led to her appointment to the board? Which headhunting firm supported the process? Did the full board interview any unsuccessful applicants for the role? Also, did Kate know any of our directors before engaging with the recruitment process?
Perhaps I could. We won't have individual directors popping up and down because it tends to open the floodgates, but I'm sure I can answer the question for Stephen. We did, in fact, engage a search consultant this year. It'd be pretty unusual to name the consultant because all the other search firms would be jealous. It was one of the biggest search consultant firms. We actually said we're looking for certain skills, and we need to replace two directors over the next 18 months and would appreciate it if you could see what's around.
We actually said to them, "Please include Kate Munnings' name because we're considering her now, but let us know whatever else you can find." And eventually, we decided we got a short list, a long list, and a short list, and eventually decided that we'd love to have Kate join us now. And as part of the process, Kate had the opportunity to go and sit one-on-one with all of the other directors just to make sure that they all thought it was a good idea. And at the end of that process, we were delighted to be able to invite her to join the board, and she accepted. The director that I mentioned, Julie Coates, who will join us next May, actually came through the headhunting process, and she was known to a number of our board members already. And so we contacted Julie.
She was really at the top of the list of the people that were there, and we're delighted after the CSR takeover that she was able to agree to come on board next year. So the search for directors varies a lot. Often, it's word of mouth because somebody knows a very good director that may be available. In the case of Tom von Oertzen, we didn't involve a search consultant at all. We'd come across Tom. We originally actually came across him when he was head of BCG Ventures, and the board visited BCG Ventures, the startup organization of Boston Consulting Group in Berlin. And Tom had organized that. And so we kept in contact, and I then introduced him to the rest of the board. He met all the directors, and we all felt that he'd be a terrific replacement, and we could let Anil go.
And so that was a different sort of process, but I think both of them have ended up with very high-quality people. Are there any further questions on that item? Very good. Thank you very much. So I now would introduce Tom von Oertzen, who, as I mentioned earlier, joined the board on the 1st of October. Thanks, Tom.
Thank you, Chairman, and fellow shareholders. Turned it up a little bit. I'm really honored to stand here for election today at this AGM. I started out as an apprentice on a broad acre farm in Germany, so I have got some affinity with Wesfarmers roots. I completed my degree, my commerce degree at Munich University, and then arrived in Australia in the early 1990s, where I again went to university here to do my MBA.
I joined the board after 25 years with the Boston Consulting Group, an international strategy consulting firm. During that time, I worked with CEOs and leadership teams in the aviation, retail, and mining industries. As a senior partner and managing director, I led the Asia-Pacific aviation and tourism practice with a focus on loyalty in airlines, retail, and hotels. I was a member of BCG's global partnership board for 18 years. In 2014, I joined the Australian part of BCG Digital Ventures as a director. And as Mike mentioned, I helped companies to innovate and accelerate their digital efforts. I worked closely with data scientists, UI/UX designers, software engineers, people that I had not worked with before to build disruptive digital solutions for the corporate clients that we served.
As Mike mentioned, I met every director in the interview process, and I learned from them the key ingredients, the secret sauce for Wesfarmers' incredible shareholder value creation history, four decades of top quartile performance. I also learned about the great progress the company has made in OneDigital, and I'm looking forward to working with the board and management to supporting that incredible value creation opportunity on the way forward. Thank you.
Okay. I invite shareholders to ask any questions regarding this resolution. So I think we have none from the floor, and we don't have any online. So if there are no further questions, I ask you to vote on resolutions 2A to 2C, and each of those is independent and should be voted on separately. Shareholders voting in person should put a mark in the for, against, or abstain box on your green voting cards.
Similarly, proxy holders who are voting in person who have been given open votes should place a mark in the appropriate box on your blue voting card to indicate whether you're voting the open votes, for, against, or abstaining on each of the resolutions. Shareholders who've already voted have received a yellow card and don't need to do anything further. Now, if you need assistance, please raise your hand, and a Computershare staff member will help you. Shareholders and proxy holders who are voting online should follow the instructions provided, as we've said earlier, and the user guide is available on the voting platform and the Wesfarmers website. If you need any assistance, as I also said earlier, please call Lumi.
In relation to item three, the board seeks shareholder approval to increase the maximum fee pool payable to non-executive directors by AUD 400,000 to a minimum of AUD 4 million per annum. The current fee pool was approved by shareholders nine years ago at the 2015 AGM, and we just wanted to make sure that we have the flexibility to continue to retain and attract high-caliber people, but also that we have the flexibility to have transition arrangements as we have this year with a few more directors coming on before others go off, and displayed on the screen is the position in relation to direct and proxy votes received, and for those on the telephone, you can see that I can tell you they're about 98% in favor of that resolution, so are there any questions on this resolution? Nope. None here and none online. Thank you.
You should now vote on that resolution if you haven't done so already. Item four relates to the company's remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2024, and displayed on the screen is the position in relation to direct votes and proxies received on this prior to any revocations, for the benefit of those on the phone, they're a bit over 95% of the votes in favor of this resolution. The Rem Report provides information regarding the remuneration of our directors and our senior executives, those who are considered to be key management personnel of the group, and the details can be found in the annual report. We appreciate the engagement from shareholders in relation to executive remuneration, and by the way, we always sit and talk to the institutional shareholders who represent pension funds and so on about remuneration in detail.
But I wanted to provide just a little further context on our approach. The board remains committed to an executive remuneration framework that is underpinned by our guiding principles that are focused on driving leadership performance and behavior to deliver what you've all heard, satisfactory returns to shareholders over the long term. The total remuneration of our senior executives is set at levels which reflect their contribution, competencies, and capabilities, and at a level that compares to the market and enables us to attract and retain the best people. The remuneration report in our annual report, including the covering letter from the Chair of the Rem Committee, Mike Roche, provides a detailed explanation of the outcomes for 2024, and you've had a chance to read that, so I won't repeat it here.
The report continues to address the desire for transparency regarding our framework and our practices, specifically in regard to variable remuneration, so I now invite shareholders to ask any questions with regard to the remuneration report. No questions in the room and none online, so I ask you to vote on resolution four. As we're now moving to the final item of business, I'll take the opportunity to remind those eligible to vote at this meeting who have not yet cast their votes that I'll close the poll shortly after the final item of business, so please ensure you cast your votes at this time. I've actually got my votes up here, so is somebody going to collect those before I close? I will.
It's okay.
Probably be a good idea. The next item is Item 5, relates to the grant of deferred shares and performance shares to the Group Managing Director. Displayed on the screen is the position in relation to the direct votes and proxies received on this prior to any revocations that may have occurred. Is that coming up on the screen? That's the resolution, and there are the results. For those on the phone, the votes are a bit over 97% in favor. Obviously, the board believes it's really in the shareholders' interest to provide the Group Managing Director with equity-based incentives to ensure there's significant alignment between returns for shareholders and rewards for Mr. Scott as an executive director.
Approval is sought for the grant of deferred shares and performance shares to Mr. Robert Scott under the 2024 Key Executive Performance Plan on the terms set out in the explanatory notes to the notice of meeting. Are there any questions on this resolution? We have some online questions, I believe, Ruth.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is from Mr. Stephen David Mayne, who says, "I voted in favor of this CEO incentive resolution, but I suspect there will be more than 1,000 retail shareholders who voted against. However, under your current disclosure practices, you won't reveal this. The annual report says that we have 490,000 shareholders, but less than 2% of them will have bothered to vote today. Will you voluntarily follow the lead of Qantas, Suncorp, Tabcorp, and ASX over the past week and disclose the voting results like at a scheme meeting where you also reveal how many shareholders voted for and against each item?
This will make the public Wesfarmers retail shareholder sentiment on issues like remuneration and board fees rather than having the voting results dominated by US-based index funds. Such disclosure will also stimulate future retail shareholder participation. You have the data, so please let the sun shine in on Australia's chronically low retail shareholder voting rates."
Well, thanks for the question, Mr. Mayne. We have an unusually large proportion of retail shareholders. I mentioned we have 490,000 shareholders, many of them in this room who got their shares through the old co-op, and the law and the rules, the ASX listing rules and so on require us to put the resolutions to voting on a poll, and the result is a result of the number of shares cast in favor or against a resolution.
There's never been any suggestion that the number of shareholders should be mentioned or raised in this context. We follow the rules. I think they're appropriate rules. The great majority, 97% of the shares are cast in favour of this. Some institutions no doubt voted against some retail shareholders as well, but the overwhelming majority of the shares are cast in favour. Ruth, was there another question?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Okay. Thanks very much. If there are no questions from the floor, that concludes the formal business. I now close the poll. If you're eligible to vote and have not yet cast your vote and wish to do so, please ensure you cast your vote now. For those in the room, please complete your voting cards and hand them in to Computershare. I see the Computershare coming up to get our votes.
So I invite all of you to do the same, and we will just wait until that's done. Now, some people I know are leaving us at this point, and there are refreshments outside in the next room, and I'm sure all of you I'd love all of you to join us out there when we go out in a moment. So thanks for taking the time to come here today and to cast your votes. And are there any voting cards not yet collected? So we've got a bit to do. Just say it again, lady, when you're closing the poll. So we'll close the poll in a while, but in the meantime, we've got time for and the opportunity for general questions. Are there any general questions anyone would like to ask over here or online? I know we have one online. So, Ruth? I can't hear you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is from shareholder Mr. Ron Guy, who says that some workers have been exploited in Australia and internationally. Having such a large portfolio of businesses across different industries, is Wesfarmers confident that this is not the case in the Wesfarmers supply chain? Have there been any examples this year of suppliers being approached by Wesfarmers on this issue?
Rob, do you want to comment on that?
Sure. Well, Mr. Guy, the question you raise is a very good one, and it really goes to an issue generally referred to as modern slavery, and it's something that we treat very seriously across our supply chain. You will see within our Modern Slavery Statement, we have various commitments and processes, and importantly, reporting associated with that.
I can assure you that a lot of the processes that we have in place in terms of establishing relationships with suppliers, auditing of suppliers, requiring compliance with suppliers are strong. They are continuing to improve. So, by way of example, there are thousands of suppliers where we do undertake auditing of their processes. From time to time, we will identify some breaches, which we disclose very transparently. In cases where there are extreme, very serious breaches, then that would obviously lead to us no longer dealing with a supplier. We do also have regard to what we see as best practice in this space in an effort to continue to improve our processes.
I would just make one remark of businesses such as Bunnings, Kmart, Officeworks, where we have long-standing sophisticated relationships with our suppliers, and even in our private label businesses such as Anko, we enjoy greater transparency around our supplier relationships than many would be the case with some other businesses. So that also creates an opportunity to ensure that we have the right processes and auditing in place. But I'd encourage you to read our annual report and our Modern Slavery Statement for more details of what we're doing to mitigate that risk.
Thanks, Rob. We have a question at microphone five.
Mr. Chairman, microphone five. May I introduce Mr. Cunningham, who is a shareholder?
Mr. Chairman and fellow board members, I'm Barry Cunningham, a World Masters Sprints champion, a surf lifesaver. I'm sure I speak on behalf of all the sporting and social bodies in Australia in the vital way you help us exist. Now, the street collections are a thing of the past, and only old fogeys like me still carry cash. Your decision to let your Bunnings premises Australia-wide for us to raise funds is greatly appreciated and now recognized worldwide. Your famous Bunnings sausage sizzles are an example of what can be done by directors thinking outside the let's-make-a-profit box. Fellow shareholders, I would like you to give a round of applause to the directors as we fully support their decision to carry on this service into the future. Please applaud.
Thank you very much, Mr. Cunningham. Yeah, microphone five.
Mr. Chairman, microphone five again. May I introduce Mr. Berg, who is a shareholder?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for taking my question. I just wanted to say congratulations first on your improvement in Catch this year, which had a decrease in losses by AUD 67 million, which is good. I was just wondering if you can talk a little bit about the long-run performance of your other businesses, which do have incurred some losses this year, such as OneDigital, Wespine, Bunnings Property, Gresham, and Flybuys.
Yeah, Rob, I had a bit of trouble hearing that, but perhaps you could.
Question related to businesses or areas of the group that are generating losses and what are we doing about improving the performance there. So, as Mr. Berg noted, we have seen significant improvement in the losses of Catch, but the losses are still too high.
As I mentioned earlier, we are working on a number of strategies at the moment to better utilize the capabilities that we have within Catch for the benefit of our other businesses, but also to materially improve the earnings and profitability. So, I look forward to sharing more details of that through the year ahead. I think you mentioned Wespine. Wespine is one of our joint venture businesses. It has been a very profitable business over the years, but over the last year, we did report some small losses, largely as a result of the downturn that we've seen in residential construction being a key driver. But we are hopeful that over time, with the recovery in residential construction, that will improve. On the Bunnings side, the Bunnings Property side continues to be very profitable.
I think what you might be referring to might be some revaluations potentially that do flow through from year to year based on what's happening to capitalization rates in the sector. But the performance continues to be quite strong and overall profitable. The final point I'd say with One Digital, we report the operating costs and investments associated with One Digital as part of our corporate numbers. What's important to understand is that all the benefits associated with the incremental sales and profit growth in customers, all of those benefits flow through to our retail businesses. And I think the performance of our retail businesses shows that there's value flowing through there. I would expect the losses, the investment costs and losses to reduce in One Digital as we transition from the setup phase to the operational phase.
But we will continue to see the benefits and the upside flow through to our retail divisions.
Thanks, Rob. Before we go to any more questions, all the ballot papers, voting slips have been collected, and I now close the poll. So, microphone five.
Sorry, Mr. Chairman, just a follow-up question from Mr. Berg.
Yeah.
Can you just make a comment on the performance of Gresham and Flybuys for Wesfarmers?
Sure. So, Gresham continues to be performing very well. If we look at Gresham on a return on capital basis, it would probably be one of our better investments over the years because many, many decades ago, only a small amount of capital was invested, and the business has grown to be a very successful business financially from Wesfarmers' point of view in terms of investing in Gresham.
But also, the broader relationship and partnership there is something that we've deeply valued and has benefited the group. So, clearly, it's still a profitable business. With respect to Flybuys, similar to my comment on OneDigital, a lot of the costs of operating the Flybuys business flow through as operating losses as we report Flybuys, but the benefits associated with the loyalty program flow through to our retail businesses. We did undertake, together with our partner Coles, a number of changes to improve the business processes within Flybuys that we expect will materially improve the financial performance over the next couple of years. But we are very pleased with the growth in members, the value that members are getting from the Flybuys program, and the benefit that our retail businesses are enjoying from the data insights and the loyalty program.
Thanks, Rob. Microphone seven.
Mr. Chairman, microphone seven. May I introduce Mr. Maxwell, who is a shareholder?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like you, I'm a life member of Apex. My question is in regards to the state government's closure or shutdown of the hardwood logging industry in Western Australia. And I'm just wondering how that's affected the Bunnings business, and is it requiring Bunnings to rely more on imported timber for their hardwood supplies?
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Maxwell. Well, certainly, the closure of the industry here has had an effect on the products that Bunnings is able to offer. And so, while you'll see some jarrah products in Bunnings, they're much more limited than they might be. And they've been substituted with other products, including softwood products and so on. My personal view is that the industry, the shutting down of the industry, was a huge mistake because a lot of people relied on it.
It was the most sustainable, environmentally sound logging industry you could find. It was regrowth over 100 years with half the karri forest in reserves that could never be touched. But political pressures, I guess, resulted in the state government taking a decision to shut down the final parts of it last year, which I think is a travesty, really, but that's the way it is. Are there any other questions? Okay, none online. So, I think that concludes the questions. And I'd thank you for joining us at our 2024 annual general meeting, whether you're here or online. And thank you very much for your interest in the company. And I declare that all the resolutions at today's meeting have been passed, and an announcement with details will be published, as I mentioned earlier.
Thank you very much for your attendance, and we'd be delighted if you join us outside for refreshments. We're very pleased to have some entertainment for you outside, which is some people from the West Australian Opera. They're one of Wesfarmers' arts partners, and singing today are some Wesfarmers' young artists. Please enjoy.