Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us. We will be presenting our interim financial results for the period ended September 30, 2023. Joining me today is Jacques Bestbier , our CFO, and Graeme Lillie from Tier 1 Investor Relations . On the agenda for this afternoon, we'll start off by reviewing the results for the six months. Then move on to discuss our debtors book, followed by the financial results, after which we'll spend time on the targets and the outlook for the next six months. And after that, we will then deal with all your questions. So the highlights for half one: revenue increased by 8.3%, supported by a merchandise sales growth of 4.8%. A solid gross profit margin performance at 14.7%. Our collection rate remained strong, 80.9%.
Once again, a very good satisfactory paying performance in our book, with a final 79.9% achievement. The debtors book grew by a solid 10.8%. Operating margin settled at 14.2%. Headline earnings per share reduced by 6.6%. Ladies and gentlemen, the board remains confident in the group's medium-term prospects and with the investments in the debtor book that the group has made during this period. And the interim dividend of ZAR 200 has been declared. This is a nice increase of 2.6% on last year. It's important to give operational context to this set of results. These results were achieved in a challenging business and consumer environment.
We all know that there has been significant pressure on global economic growth, and we've seen prolonged elevated inflation that led to increased interest rates during this period. On top of this, we've also seen a significant increase in geopolitical tension. Closer to home, in South Africa, increased cost of living, more especially so food and fuel inflation, the market that we sell into, have continued to erode the wallets of our consumers during this period. We all know the Eskom load shedding story, still a big restraining factor in economic growth. We've also seen further deterioration in socioeconomic conditions, and political uncertainty also remained high during this period. I think one can also expect that political uncertainty, that the level of political uncertainty, will continue to rise as we move closer to next year's national elections.
The unemployment rate remained stubbornly high, and together with this, the continued threat of more people that might lose their jobs in the mining industry, places like the Post Office , places like Tongaat. All of these things have also played a role in terms of making the outlook for the general consumer out there quite a bleak one. We've also experienced significant pressures on imports. First and foremost, the rand remained weak during this trading period. Also experienced severe congestion at local ports. After we came out of this trading period, things just got worse. I think we all know the story. Durban Harbour is under severe pressure at this point in time.
As a matter of fact, the latest update that we received this morning speaks to the fact that no fewer than 24 ships are currently anchored outside of the Durban Harbour, waiting to enter. So if one just do the quick math, that's somewhere between 50,000-55,000 containers that are basically stuck outside of the harbour. In our case, as at this morning, 290 containers that were due to dock are still outstanding. To give that color, in a normal year, at the end of November, we will have somewhere between 40-50 containers that must still dock. I must immediately pause to say that the necessary plans has been made, and we don't expect to see major disruptions to merchandise sales in the short term.
We believe that we've got adequate stock to see us through the Christmas trading period. But be it as it may, all of these factors are adding to a picture that's already a very, very bleak one. When we spoke in May, we also touched on the fact that the rail line between Durban and Jo'burg has been or can only be described as unreliable. During this six-month period, 86% of all of our containers were actually transported by road between Durban and Jo'burg. In the past, when the rail, during periods where the rail line was fully operational, we would only transported around about 15% of our stock via road transport. Obviously, ladies and gentlemen, this comes with quite an additional cost attached to it.
We've seen a decline in cash purchases in the Lewis Group, but I think if we look at the results of some of the other retailers, it's very clear that there is not an awful lot of cash in circulation in the economy. The increased demand for credit continued during this reporting period. Against this tough and very challenging background, management believe that a solid trading performance was delivered. We look at our revenue achievement, that is in line with expectation. We look at the sales line, our sales achievement basically points to further market share gains that were made during this period. Our gross profit margin expanded nicely by 140 basis points. Our operational costs were well managed during this period.
Even if one add the benefit of the ZAR 22 million business interruption claim that paid out back to our expense line, we still came in well below the lower end of the target range that we communicated at the beginning of this year. The quality of the debtor's book was maintained, and the book is really in a healthy state as things stand. And then, ladies and gentlemen, we also give ourselves a tick in the box for investing for the future, and it's important to unpack this a little bit further. So first and foremost, we've seen the opportunity to add a material number of new stores to our store base during this period. We opened 28 new stores on a net basis.
We've also used the last six months to further refine the new business that we launched during the latter part of last year. This is a specialist bed, a bedding outlet, and I'll talk a little bit more about Bedzone later on in the presentation. But then, most importantly, the biggest investment that we have made in our business, and we really see this as a solid investment for the future, is the investment in the growth of the debtors book. We've invested just more than ZAR 600 million over the last 12 months in this debtors book, and unfortunately, it will take some time before the benefit of this investment will be fully realized.
I think if one looks at this slide and one considers that management makes the statement that the trading performance has been a solid one, it immediately begs the question: If you give yourself a lot of green ticks and say that the trading performance is in fact solid, why is it that the operating profit line... and the profit line, I should say, why isn't your earnings follow suit? And why does profits actually remain under pressure? Ladies and gentlemen, and that's absolutely correct, earnings have been under pressure for the first half of this year. I also want to highlight that earnings will remain, and maybe even come under more significant pressure during the second half of this year.
It's important that we highlight the fact that the pressure on earnings is driven by one thing and one thing only, and that is the increase in the actual size of the debtors book. Although the underlying quality of the book can only be described as, as good, the debtors book is really in a, in a healthy state. The increase in the actual size of the book is driving the growth in debtor impairment provisions, and that is going to, to continue as we move through the remainder of this financial year. When we get to the debtors book, I will unpack this point a little bit further. We've spoken about the exceptional quality and the performance of the debtors book. Credit sales during the period increased by 19.5%.
I can mention that all of our traditional brands performed well and delivered a solid credit sales growth during this period. Credit application decline rate settled at 34.8%. That is more or less in line with what we reported at our previous year-end presentation. As a matter of fact, we reported a 34.7% decline rate at that point. And I must mention that we did not relax our credit granting criteria in any way, shape, or form. We managed during this period to attract more lower-risk credit customers into our stores. It's also worthwhile to mention that there is a little bit more stress coming through in terms of customers that are currently applying for credit.
The credit application decline rate for the last two months of this reporting period, being August and September, increased to 36.5%. Collection rates solid at 80.9%, and a very good satisfactory paying performance at 79.9%. The underlying quality of the debtors book is benefiting from our improved collection strategy. We all know that debit orders in South Africa is playing a very big role in this new strategy. As things stood at the end of this reporting period, 52% of all customers in South Africa have now committed to pay their accounts through debit orders. The payment provision, good reduction from 38.3%, 36%. Once again, illustrating that the underlying quality of the book is good. Little bit more on merchandise sales during half one, increase of 1.1%.
We got out of the starting blocks quite slowly. We had a slow start in April. In May, we basically reported a flat merchandise sales performance. Then from June onwards, as we started to introduce new merchandise ranges, as we tweaked our marketing campaigns to support these new ranges, sales actually gained good traction, and most of that good traction was maintained all the way up to the end of October. And we'll talk about November and what we've seen during the Black Friday campaign a little bit later on. So the growing debtors book also supported our other revenue streams, with a very solid increase in other revenue of 13.4%. This improved positive trend is likely to continue, and we will close this financial year some way closer to...
or some way closer to reporting the other revenue increase of around about 15%. Also taken the opportunity to chip away at the buffer stock holding that we had. As we said, during the month of May, when we reported, stock levels are now reduced to more historic levels. Traditional brands, 7.3%, merchandise sales growth, whilst UFO saw a further decline of 14.3% in the merchandise sales line. Pretty much in line with what the group have seen in terms of a cash sale reduction of 14.4%. Furniture sales contributed 60.6%, roughly one percent less than what we reported last year at this time, whilst appliances gained the one percent and finally settled at 25.5%.
Audio and visual remaining stable at a merchandise sales contribution of 13.6%. During this reporting period, we've also adopted IFRS 17, insurance contracts. Ladies and gentlemen, very important to note that the adoption of this accounting standard did not have any material impact on earnings for the current or for the prior periods. It has brought about certain disclosure changes, and we have restated all of the comparatives. Just want to pause to make the point that this change in accounting standard will not change the way in which management run the business, don't have any bearing on future strategies. In short, the business model will not be changed or in any way affected by this change. Operating costs were well contained, reflecting increase of 4.2%.
Like I mentioned earlier, we have had the benefit of receiving our business interruption insurance claim payout, and if we basically discount the benefit of that insurance payment, operating costs increased by 5.5%, which is well below our target range for the year. The balance sheet remains robust, with a net asset value of ZAR 4.6 billion, and the share repurchase program continued. Like you can see on the slide, 4.8 million shares repurchased in the 12 months to September. 3.1 million of these shares were in fact repurchased during this reporting period. And then a very strong stat, 45% of shares in issue has already been repurchased since we listed the group, and we returned no less than ZAR 1.8 billion to shareholders, during, or as a result of these repurchases.
We touched on the fact that we believe that it is correct to continue to invest for the future. Beginning of this year, we communicated the store opening target for the full year of 25 stores. We exceeded that target in half one by opening a net 28 new stores. Five of these stores were opened outside of South Africa, increasing the store base to 138 stores. So 16% of the total store base are now outside of South Africa, and these stores have contributed 19% of the group's sales. We've refurbished 90 stores during the period, with 60 more refurbishments that is planned for half two.
Ladies and gentlemen, yes, in the background, for the first time, you can see a picture that has been taken in one of our, our newly opened UFO Bedzone outlets. You can also see the Bedzone logo just above the UFO logo. And yes, at this point in time, it's really a business model that we are in the process of refining. We've opened two stores during the latter part of, of the last trading year. Those two stores have, have performed well. Subsequently opened a further, a further two stores up to this point, and I can mention that our store count as things stand today under the Bedzone brand, is today up to, up to 12 stores. Our refinement of this model and all of our testing and everything that goes with that, will continue to happen in, in Gauteng only.
At this point in time, we operate these stores out of 200-240 square meters. It's part of the traditional portion of our business, so we obviously offer credit in these stores, and we've also recently started to offer revolving credit out of our bricks-and-mortar Bedzone stores. Our social media strategy continued to gain very good traction. Our Facebook followers over the last 12 months increased from 2 million to 2.7 million followers. As you can see on the slide, we've also made inroads in terms of increasing our Instagram followers. And the outcome of this strategy is good at this point in time, ladies and gentlemen.
As a matter of fact, we've generated 5.5% of merchandise sales through social media channels during half one. As part of our strategy to create shareholder value, we've continued to buy back shares. I've mentioned the fact that 3.1 million shares have been repurchased during half one. Maybe just a snapshot of what we achieved during the last 6.5 years under this program, almost 35 million shares have been repurchased. We also got a new mandate from our shareholders at the AGM in August, and this gives us the opportunity to buy back 10% of shares in issue. We've got a proud history in terms of dividend payments. We've never suspended a dividend payment since we listed this group in 2004.
And ladies and gentlemen, during tougher periods, if at all possible, it's our preference to maintain the actual rounds of dividend paid in prior periods. So during this reporting period, so for the last six months, we've returned 11.4% of the group's market capitalization to shareholders through buybacks and through dividends. And on the next slide, you can see our history for the previous five years. The average return to shareholders over this five-year period settled at a solid 17.5%. If we look at the return that we achieved through dividends and buybacks as a percentage of the attributable line, you will note that over the last four financial years, we've returned 120% of the attributable line.
At the beginning of this financial year, management communicated to the market that it is our aim to return at least 100%. It's our goal to return at least 100% of the attributable line to shareholders during this year, and for half one, we've returned 124% of attributable. We can now move into the debtor analysis. Already spoken about the solid collection rate of 80.9% that we've achieved. This slide just gives you the five-year view in terms of how collection rates performed at the interim level. You'll see that this is our second strongest year, only slightly down on last year's achievement. If we look at the last three years, a very consistent and solid, solid achievement.
So collections in rand terms increased from ZAR 2.3 billion last year to almost ZAR 2.6 billion. Contractual arrears, a nice reduction of 10%. This must obviously be viewed against the background of a debtors book that is increased by 10.8%. We look at debtor costs. Ladies and gentlemen, so, yes, we've spoken about collection rates, spoken about the satisfactory pay performance. I've now touched on arrears that is significantly below last year's levels. As a matter of fact, arrear levels of 26.6% compared to last year's 32.9%.... that all sounds like, like good news. So I guess it's, it's counterintuitive to now see that the debtor impairment line actually increased by ZAR 147 million during this period.
So last year, we had a release of 17, this year, a charge of 147, bringing about a swing of ZAR 164 million in that specific line, and subsequently pushing debtor costs up from 4.4% to 7%. So I can understand that it this really needs some further explanation, and that it is, in fact, counterintuitive. I want to start off by saying that profits are currently under pressure as a result of what you're seeing on this slide under the debtor impairment provision line. If this business was still run under the previous accounting standard, profits would have reflected a very, a very different, very different picture today.
So all of this has been brought about by a change in accounting standards, and we will now report under IFRS 9. 25% must be impaired on day one when you consummate a new credit, a new credit sale. It's 25% impairment before you get out of the starting blocks. And during periods of solid book growth, like we've seen, 10%, 10.8% increase in the debtors book, this will place a burden on short-term results. I already alluded to the fact that we expect to see further book growth or a further acceleration in book growth, I should say, during half two. We can share with you that our models are showing that we should close this financial year with a debtors book growth of somewhere between 16% and 18%.
So that 10.8% book growth will accelerate, and the year will be closed with a book that's 16%-18% bigger than last year. That will obviously result in further debtor repayment provisions that will be raised. So let's have a good look at the book. I would like to start with the increase in the book, which you can see in the gross carrying value column, where the book has increased from ZAR 5.8 billion- ZAR 6.4 billion. Important to once again note that the arrears reduced from ZAR 1.9 billion- ZAR 1.7 billion during this period.
Then, ladies and gentlemen, if you can just cast your eye to the satisfactory paying column, right, right at the top, and I want to focus your attention to the impairment provision in rands. So the impairment provision that covers satisfactory paying customers have increased by ZAR 232 million over the last 12 months. This clearly highlights the point that, that we've just made. So we've got customers who are, who are performing, customers who has just been... or deals that has been consummated. A charge has been raised, and that charge is now being held, that additional charge, against the very best performing portion of the debtors book. Furthermore, if you look at the total level of arrears that exist against those satisfactorily paying customers, you will see that the level of arrears last year was sitting at 14.6%.
This year, a much improved position at 13%. Ladies and gentlemen, so the underlying quality of the book can be viewed once again, highlighted by the fact that 79% of customers are now satisfactory paying. This compares favorably, favorably to last year, 78.8%. And just as important, to note is the reduction in the non-performing category of customers, where we had 9% of customers, falling into the non-performing category last year. That has now improved to 7.6%. And then the real proof of the quality of the book is displayed in the impairment provision percentage column, where you can see a reduction from 38.3% last year to 36% this year.
When we look at the halves, 79.9% is the highest satisfactory paying percentage that we've ever reported at the interim results stage. We now move on to the financial results. We've already spoken about the fact that we've adopted IFRS 17 during this period, and for this reason, change in presentation that is now dictated. We, for the first time, separately disclosed our insurance service expenses. You will note that insurance service expenses increased by 12.7%, which is still below the level of credit sales growth that, that we have seen, but that is the only driver in terms of this increase in that specific expense line. So for the rest of the income statement, we've touched on the nice expansion in gross profit margin. We've spoken about operating costs in general, total operating costs, that is.
I'll unpack future targets and what you can expect when we get to the target slide. Operating profit increased by 7.5%. Operating margin up from 13.9 to 14.2, and attributable earnings down 6.2% for the period. We look at the performance of the segments. Solid merchandise sales growth for the traditional brands, coming in at 7.3%. I spoke about the fact that UFO is still not gaining traction, and that cash in the economy and the lack of cash in the economy is holding the performance of this brand back in a significant manner.
In terms of operating costs, solid performance by the traditional brands, good cost containment, and in the case of UFO, we spend a lot of time to right-size the business and to really cut all possible costs out of the UFO business. This had the desirable impact, and costs in this business, in UFO, reduced by 18% during the period. This basically drove a small operating profit turnaround, where we've banked the operating profit, and this is before impairments and capital items, of ZAR 4 million, where the business was loss-making at that line during last year at this time.
The operating profit for traditional went slightly backwards, and in the case of UFO, still loss-making, but at least we've turned the tide and we've recovered from a ZAR 48 million loss last year to a ZAR 10 million loss this year. Operating margins are all there, therefore noting, and under pressure in the case of the traditional business, and then, like I said, UFO unfortunately still in the negative. Number of stores, 39 stores, a net 39 stores opened over the last 12-month period. Move on to the balance sheet. Following the adoption of IFRS 17, you will note certain changes to the face of the balance sheet. I'd just like to take a moment to pause on the shareholder equity and reserves line.
You will note that because of this, the introduction of this result, we've seen an increase in the opening retained earnings as at the first of April, and that change basically speaks to a change of ZAR 78.8 billion. Just once again, reiterate that the introduction of this accounting standard is going to have a 0 impact on the way in which we run the business. The business model will not be tweaked or changed in any way, shape, or form. On the balance sheet, I'd also like to draw your attention to the fact that we've reduced our stock levels by 23% during this period, and if all things remain equal, these are the more normalized sort of levels that we would like to run the business at.
Obviously, one needs to keep a close eye on things like, for instance, the disruption that we are experiencing in Port Elizabeth. Just for interest's sake, I heard that Transnet made a commitment that they will restore the harbor to its full glory, and that they will catch up this backlog by early February. Cash on hand, very similar position to last year. And then if I can draw your attention to the borrowing line. Our borrowings during this period doubled from ZAR 432 million- ZAR 862 million. Ladies and gentlemen, so during this period, we've invested ZAR 600 million in the growth of the debtors book, and we've returned more than ZAR 500 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividend payments.
Like mentioned earlier, we believe that all of these are good investments. Onto the key ratios. Earnings per share up 2.6%. Headline earnings per share down 6.6%. Then we get to our return on equity, slightly down from 8.8% last year to 8.4%. Now, we've spoken a lot about profits that are under pressure at this point in time because of the investment in the book. I also made the point that we can actually expect to see more pressure coming through on the earnings line in the second half of this year. So how does that influence our medium-term objective? I'm sure that most of you know that we have, on more than one occasion, made the commitment.
Management's focus is to get our ROE to 15% in the medium term. I'm very happy to share with you that the pressure that we are expecting to see on the earnings line will be short-term pressure, and that the investment that we have made and that we will continue to make in the debtors book, will in fact start bearing fruit from the next financial year onwards... So in short, the medium-term target on ROE to get to 15% remains unchanged. And as a matter of fact, the investment that we are now making in the book will play a very big role and part in terms of ensuring that we actually achieve that goal. Return on capital employed, more or less in line with last year, and return on assets up from 8.6% to 8.9%.
So borrowings, because of the continued investment in the, in the book, increased from 4.1%- 13.4%. And I will talk about new ceilings that has been, that has been set by, by the board when we get to the, to the target slide. And we touched on the dividend, an increase of 2.6%. So let's get into, into our targets. As mentioned, a solid increase of 140 basis points gross profit line. Our expectation for half two is to see further strength coming through in the gross profit line, and we believe that we can, that we can, that we can, can basically close the financial year in a, a stronger position, closer to the middle or maybe slightly, slightly above the midpoint of the target range that we've set.
I think it's also today appropriate to talk about the medium-term targets as well. As things stand today, the medium-term target for gross profit remains in play unchanged. Increase in operating costs, there is the 4.2 that we've spoken about. I mentioned that if we do the countback of the business interruption claim, it's 5.5%. That's below the bottom end of our target range. I believe that that was a solid achievement. We look at the rest of this financial year, we remain confident that we will settle within the parameters of the target range that we set at the beginning of this financial year, most probably towards the midpoint, maybe slightly below, and the medium-term target remains in play unchanged. Credit sales, very strong growth.
If you look at our year-end target there, you'll see that we've already exceeded the upper end of that target range. If we look at the end of this financial year, ladies and gentlemen, we'll most probably settle at around somewhere between 67% and 68%, as we've seen a continuous uptick in credit sales growth in October. If we look at the sales mix for November, it's no different. At this point in time, there's no cash in the economy, and there's strong demand for credit. Satisfactory paying, almost at the upper end of our target range. We'll definitely close the year within the parameters of that range, and the medium-term target also remains unchanged. Now we get to debt costs. We are at 7%. Last year at this time, 4.4%.
It's clear that we are not going to achieve our, our target here, ladies and gentlemen. Even if we look at the upper end of this target range that we've set at 16%, as things stand today, we will exceed the 16% upper end of, of that target range. But the good news is that we do believe that the medium-term target remains in play, and that for the medium term, a range of 12%-15% is, is still an achievable, achievable range. Operating margin, now at 14.2. I think you've already made your sums, your assumptions.
I made the point that we do expect to see pressure on earnings in half two, and therefore, we must share with you that we do not expect to actually reach our operating profit margin target for this year. We will, in fact, most probably come in below the lower end of this target range, but most probably still in double digits. Good news, the medium-term target remains in play. We get to our borrowings ratio. We've exceeded our short-term target, and as things stand today, we will most probably exceed our medium-term target during this year as well. After due consideration by the board, the board have approved... I must reiterate that this is a ceiling, it's not a target.
The board approved a ceiling of 35%. So it is our aim to run the business to ensure that our borrowings do not exceed, our borrowings ratio do not exceed 35%. By setting that ceiling, I'm not suggesting that we are moving anywhere close to 35% in the short term. But what we must share with you is you can expect a further increase, that 13.4% will not, will not be the high point, as we are still investing in the growth of, of the book. This new ceiling will obviously flow through to our gearing targets, and the new gearing ceiling that you can pencil in is 50%. Ladies and gentlemen, so just before we move on, just to reiterate, book growth currently 10.8%, and expected book growth for the full year, 17%.
Move on to the outlook. Our expectation is that the tough, macro environment is not going to ease in the short term. As a matter of fact, we believe that the trading conditions might, in fact, become a little bit tougher than what we've seen in the last six months before it starts getting better. We believe that next year's election and the build-up that leads to that is a critical tipping point. So we don't believe trading conditions. We don't believe that trading conditions will improve during this period at all. I think now is also a good time to spend a moment to talk about what we've seen in for the two months after this set of results. So October was a good trading month for our traditional brands.
As a matter of fact, a better trading month than than the average growth that we have reported for the set of results. Unfortunately, UFO still remained under pressure, but for the group as a whole, we were, we were very satisfied with our sales achievements for, for October. For the month of November, so we went into the November trading month with good, good momentum that was built in, in October, and that momentum actually, actually lasted up to the point where we, where we reached our Black Friday campaign. As a matter of fact, the preview day was still, was still a good one, but then with Black Friday, Load shedding actually hit, and as that started to influence shopping patterns again, turnover really, really started to slow.
So for the Black Friday trading period, which is basically a period of four days, we unfortunately could not report or we could not bank a sales growth. We can share with you that sales during that period went backwards by 5%, so a minus 5% for that trading period. If we look at our expectation, we are closing the month of November today. It's our last trading day. As things stand today, for the month, the group will still post a small sales growth for the month. We must reiterate that it's quite a disappointing November performance for us.
So all in all, if we look at the two months, then collectively, October and November, our sales growth for the two months will be very closely aligned with what we are reporting today. We talk about collections for the two months, October and November. So the collections over the two-month period is in line with expectation. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, ongoing Eskom load shedding. I don't need to tell any of you anything about load shedding. Eskom will most probably still be switching the Christmas lights off and will still be hampering economic growth as we move during through this period. We spoke about consumer spending that is expected to remain depressed. To give that balance, we have been trading in troubled waters before.
We've been trading through troubled waters and times in recent times as well, and we believe that the management team that we've got has got the necessary experience to, on a continuous basis, manage costs well and to bring good initiatives forward to keep top line. In the case of UFO, we spoke about the 18% cost saving that we've banked in H1. It's now a question of working really hard to keep that cost-saving momentum going in that business. Exclusive merchandise offerings will be introduced into UFO on a continuous basis. Then, very important for us is to continue to work really hard to further improve our social media strategies. This is the one area where UFO is underperforming against the rest of the group.
We quite recently partnered with a new service provider, and we believe that there's a lot of good things to look forward to in the medium term, coming out of that newly adopted social media strategy. So strategically, we are well positioned to continue to gain market share. We've got an extensive store footprint that we continue to grow. Like I said, we've got good social media strategies that will put us in a position to continuously mine our almost 3 million followers on Facebook and Instagram. Fresh merchandise ranges went into our stores recently. Our stores are well stocked. I mentioned all of the problems at the Durban port. I want to reassure you that we will have sufficient stock to basically meet the demand during the December Christmas period.
All of these new merchandise offers are strongly backed by advertising campaigns through a whole host of different advertising channels. Same-day delivery remains a big competitive advantage, and at this time of year, that competitive advantage just becomes a little bit bigger. People don't want to wait... well, after Christmas to receive their merchandise. If they make a purchase now, they want assurance that they will actually enjoy the benefit of that purchase same day. We spoke about investment a lot today, got a strong customer base that we are actively mining. Got unique offers going out to this loyal customer base. We've got a very, very good and attractive credit offering that can actually enable consumers to continue to buy from us during tougher times. Social media, we said enough about. Continue the store expansion program.
We will continue, ladies and gentlemen, and as you see on the slide, 10, 10 new stores will be added to our footprint during this period. And then the Bedzone business model, the refinement of this model will, will continue, and we will be happy to share some further results with you as to how we are progressing the rollout of this plan in six months time. And then, yes, finally, the share purchase program will continue. We spoke about the fact that we've got the mandate, and we are actively in the market to see what is available to, to buy back. Ladies and gentlemen, so yes, interesting times. There's no plain sailing. I believe that we've got the management team at the Lewis Group to once again steer the ship through, through the storm.
For us, the top priority here is to maintain the quality of this debtors book, to make sure that the actual investment that we have made in the book actually pays dividends as we move forward into the future. With that, I would now like to open the floor for questions.
Thanks, Johan. The first question we have is from Chris Reddy at All Weather Capital , and he says: Assume the ports issue impacts UFO more than traditional, given the high reliance on imports. At what time does this become an issue? The last time, the local items worked well.
Chris, yes. Good afternoon, and thank you. Thank you for the question. Yes, we are in the fortunate position where we've already launched our new lines into UFO, and we believe that we've got enough backup stock to actually carry us through the Christmas trading period. And obviously, this is a situation that one needs to watch very carefully as we move forward. And it's definitely something that will weigh very heavily on our decision-making processes when we get to our annual range review. But in terms of our coverage for Christmas sales, I believe that we've got sufficient stock to see us through this vitally important period.
Thanks, Johan. Then a question from Matthew Zunckel from Umthombo Wealth . Can you please elaborate on the timing of when the book will start generating substantial cash and earnings for the group? Are you anticipating inflection point from H1 of financial year 2025?
You will see a material benefit starting to flow through during the next financial year. When we get to the next financial year, the actual support that will start coming through, or higher levels of support, I should say, which should start coming through in the other revenue line, will then obviously positively impact our earning results. And if all things remain equal, next year will be the year during which the benefits will actually start showing.
Andrew Moses from [Wolfe] asks if you could please let us know what your capacity is for share buybacks at this stage. That is, what percentage of the 10% has been utilized so far?
Yes, unfortunately, we were only in the position to buy back just a little bit more than 200,000 shares since the inception of this program, so it has been a slow start. We have been actively in the market to actually acquire shares during the close period as well, but the volumes were really low. As a matter of fact, for one day during this week, only two shares traded. And hopefully, following the release of these results today, there will be some volume available in the market. So from our perspective, we see...
As a management team, we see incredible value in the share price at the levels that it is trading at, at this point in time, and we would like to use this as an opportunity to buy back shares that are available at this time.
Thanks, Johan. And then Chris Ready asks if you could comment on the competitive environment.
Chris, yes, we first and foremost, and most importantly for us, we believe that we have gained market share over the last 6, 12, and, as a matter of fact, 24 months. I think everybody has now seen the results of our competitors. I don't want to spend too much time on that, other than to say that we have gained market share and will most probably continue to gain market share. Both of our competitors seem not to have a great appetite to extend credit. And where we are at in the cycle at this point in time with very little cash available in the economy, credit sales is a real driver of sales.
You basically need that if you want to keep top line moving and if you want to expand your share of the market. That's with regards to market share. If I look at the merchandise and marketing strategies in our competitors at this point in time, we haven't noted any significant changes on that front, Chris. We just picked up on an interesting comment that were made by one of our competitors, and that is that they are in the process of entering into further brand consolidation. So we are also watching that space.
Johan, there are no further questions on the webcast. If anybody does have any questions, they can send them to us via the investor relations contact details, which are on the Lewis Group website.
Ladies and gentlemen, with that, thank you very much for attending the presentation. Like Graeme has said, if there's any further questions, please do reach out to us. Thank you, and have a good afternoon.