Hi, good morning, everybody. Nice to see so many people here in the room, and a very warm welcome to everyone who's following us on the webcast as well. I believe we have several hundred people out there watching us on the webcast this morning. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Gavin Slark. I'm the CEO, or more correctly, the CEO of Travis Perkins. I'm joined today by Duncan Cooper, who obviously most of you will know as our CFO. We also have quite a few members of our group leadership team in the room today as well. Very happy for you to badger them with questions at the end. Obviously they've been well briefed not to answer any of them. I'm very happy for you to have a go anyway.
I think most of you will know, although 10 weeks in the role here at TP, very well versed with the sector, having been in the sector for kind of well over 25 years. Really delighted to be here as the CEO of Travis Perkins, and really looking forward with a lot of excitement to what happens going forward. I think it's fair to say that the business has been through quite a lot of flux and quite a lot of change over the last couple of years. I think as many of you will know, Duncan has been here for two years, and during that period, he's technically worked with three different chairs and four CEOs, and also three managing directors of our Travis Perkins Green and Gold business. A huge amount of change.
What I would just say at this point is just thank you to everybody who was involved in the group last year, particularly the leadership team, who got us to the point where we are today. My aspiration in terms of the business is very simple, to build a group of world-class businesses and for all of our stakeholders, whether they be colleagues, whether they be suppliers, whether they be customers, but just to build a great experience for everybody involved in the business. It doesn't really matter what we do, one thing we need to be sure of is that everything that we do is driven by the needs and the wants of our customer base. We do have an all new leadership team in place.
What I would say there is we've got a leadership team in place now that I think is really committed in terms of delivering value in the business going forward in the medium to long term. I'll talk a little bit more about the leadership team later on, and as I said, you will have an opportunity to talk to them one on one when we've finished. We are, and we should be, a branch-based, sales-led organization. I think that kind of organization can work absolutely in harmony with a mindset of a disciplined approach to margin, to cost, and to capital allocation. I think particularly with where the macro is now and the construction market in particular, having that disciplined approach to the balance sheet management is a really important factor that Duncan will talk more about later on.
I know many of you will be aware that we had the Oracle transition in the group last year, and I don't want to underestimate or understate in any way the pain that the business suffered during that Oracle transition. That Oracle transition is now principally behind us, and we're now starting to see the positive benefits of Oracle in the business starting to come through. I really believe that our success will be defined by what we do. It won't be defined by what happens in the market. Some market growth would be great, and we'll talk more about that later on. I think what we can focus on is what we have control over, what we can do in the day job and be really disciplined about the way that we run the business.
I firmly believe that our success is driven by us and not by external factors. The focus right now is to improve what we have. It's to remove distractions, it's to remove background noise, and to really give the leadership team the opportunity to focus on the business that we have today and the necessary improvements that we need to make. I'm not gonna go into sort of detail around numbers because obviously we have a CFO for that, but I've really got sort of three numbers that I think I just want to focus on for one moment. If you look at the revenue number there, you'll see that the revenue in total was down by 0.9%. If you look at that on a like-for-like basis, it was positive by 0.3%.
For the sake of sensible conversations, we'll basically say revenue was broadly flat. If you look at the adjusted operating profit at GBP 133 million, I believe that's absolutely right in line with where consensus was for the business. I do think that the most important number on that page there is the balance sheet number, and even though it's a relatively small number of GBP 1 million, but on a pre-leases basis, being net cash positive, I think is a really important place for us to be and gives us an underlying financial strength, and it's the best cash position that Travis Perkins as a group has had in over 25 years. We don't have any significant refinancing to do probably until 2028, and we also have a really substantial level of liquidity headroom in the business.
The financial underpinnings of the group remain really, really strong. What I will do at that point is pass you over to Duncan, who will take you through the more interesting parts of the numbers, and then I will come back after Duncan's finished and just give you some of my early observations on the group and what I think we can do going forward. With that, Duncan.
Thanks, Gavin. Good morning, everyone. I will start with the usual financial overview slide. Group revenue for the year was GBP 4.6 billion, down 0.9% on prior year. I normally do, I'll provide some color on the moving parts within that shortly. Adjusted operating profit for the year was GBP 133 million, down 12.5% on prior year and in line with company compiled consensus of the same number. That delivers an adjusted earnings per share of 30.8 pence per share, down 15.8% on prior year, reflecting the reduction in earnings on prior year and the fixed nature of interest expense between years as well. Net cash of GBP 1 million before leases puts the group, as Gavin has said, in the strongest cash position for nearly 30 years.
Accordingly, despite the reduction in earnings, leverage adjusts down another 40 basis points to 2.1 x. I'll talk more about the good work we've been doing here later. Finally, the board is pleased to announce a final dividend of 7.5 pence per share to make 12 pence for the full year, in line with the group's policy to pay a dividend of 30%-40% of adjusted earnings. Over to the next slide and our revenue walk then for the year. I'm not going to dwell on this too long, as I think Jeff and I covered in some detail at the half year the challenges we faced in the first half with key vacancies and us trying to grapple with the implementation of Oracle.
As we moved through those challenges into the second half, we were able to be far more front-footed with some key promotions, which drove an improvement in our sales performance. This saw the general merchant start to reverse market share losses and retake share, a trend we are seeing continue into early 2026. You see that reflected in the cadence of the like-for-like sales performance in merchanting that we have reported today as well, -3.2% in Q1 like-for-like, improving to +2.1% in Q4 as we exited the year. We saw one fewer trading day, 2025 versus 2024. Finally, the impact of disposing of Staircraft is also presented, which was not material enough to the group's performance to be reported as a discontinued operation. On the next slide is the usual operating profit walk we provide.
The first four blocks relate to merchanting segment only. The first block represents the reduction in gross margin for the year, and this reflects the ongoing competitive intensity in a market starved of volume growth. Manufacturers' price increases have been hard to pass through in full or in some cases at all. As we ourselves have demonstrated in the second half, some price investment has been necessary to kickstart a volume recovery. One fewer trading day is the next block, and then we come to overheads. We saw about GBP 40 million of total overhead inflation in the year, about half of which is represented in the next block, and the other half is netted off within the Toolstation bar for consistency of reporting. I'll go into more detail on this in the next slide, including the actions we've taken to reduce overheads while facing into these headwinds.
Toolstation UK continues its strong earnings growth and remains on track with our longer-term expectations and aspirations for that business. Finally, property profits were in line with prior year. Let me come on to talk about cost inflation and mitigation in a little more detail. Firstly, you will remember at last year's prelims and half year, Jeff and I both talked about the need to reinvest in some frontline, predominantly branch-based roles that which were removed at the end of 2023. Most of the 350 colleagues I refer to on this slide were onboarded early in the first half of 2025. A small amount of that increase relates to the opening of three new general merchant branches.
At the same time, I think we've also been consistently open with the market that the group had become too centralized in its decision-making and was carrying too much resource in central and regional management roles. Across several ways of activity during 2025, we removed roles from functions such as finance, COSEC, sustainability, HR, corporate communications, group procurement and marketing, and IT to ensure that we start 2026 with over 300 fewer heads in these areas than at the start of 2025. Our total overhead inflation across 2025 was around GBP 40 million, which comes from a part-year effect of the National Insurance increase, National Living Wage, property rates and rental inflation. Through our focus on headcount and other discretionary costs, we did a good job of offsetting as much of this as possible during the year. We cannot offset it in full.
It's a similar story for 2026, where cost inflation will be of a similar magnitude, and our ability to offset as much of that as possible will depend on identifying further operational efficiencies across the group. I would also add at this point that sometimes people ask me why we need to hold over GBP 800 million of property on the group balance sheet. There are lots of reasons I could share around why the flexibility and long-term location security that gives us is important, but I'm not going to go into those now. However, a positive consequence of our tenure mix is how it helps shelter us from some of that index-linked rental inflation while also ensuring we don't shackle the group with long-term lease debt and leverage.
I'll close on this slide by offering an example of what I mean by tighter controls on discretionary spend and headcount. Gavin now has to personally sign off all roles coming into the group above a certain salary threshold. On the next slide, I want to cover the adjusting items we've recorded this year. The first thing I will say is all of these are covered extensively in the notes to the accounts with detailed disclosure. The first charge of GBP 111 million can be split into branch level impairments, covering 196 branches in the merchanting segment, where the carrying value of the branch's assets was above the value of our forecast discounted cash flows generated from those assets. The total non-cash impairment recognized in relation to these branches is GBP 67 million.
In the majority of cases, the branches are expected to deliver a positive contribution in 2026, with the vast majority delivering a positive contribution in the future based on our forecasts. A non-cash goodwill impairment of GBP 44 million has also been recognized following the annual impairment review of the CCF business as an entity, taking into account the structural challenges in its end markets and future forecasts of CCF's profitability. The Toolstation Europe impairment charge relates to the non-cash write-down of goodwill, property, and right-of-use assets in the Toolstation Benelux business under IFRS accounting rules. The Toolstation Europe restructuring charge relates to restructuring costs in Toolstation Benelux and adjustments in respect of redundancy provisions and lease liabilities related to Toolstation France recognized in previous years. Again, this impairment is principally driven by our recent trading performance in Benelux and our future forecasts of its profitability.
The restructuring charge of GBP 12 million relates to severance payments made as a result of the headcount reductions I referred to earlier on that were made during the year. The majority of these roles were in central functions or regional support teams. The Staircraft business was sold during the year for a consideration of GBP 21 million and resulted in a loss on disposal of GBP 3 million. It had already been impaired in our 2024 accounts. Finally, the adjustments to prior year items relates to the release of property and stock provisions recognized as adjusting in prior periods. I want to come on to now talk about cash and the balance sheet. We reported a strong cash inflow of GBP 196 million for the year, and that is set against a backdrop of lower year-on-year EBITDA reflected in the first line of the table.
You can see we have a similar level of access costs associated with restructuring year-on-year, similar levels of interest expense and dividend commitments. The sale of Staircraft has broadly offset the lower cash receipts from property transactions, principally sale and leasebacks. The two big controllables here remain capital expenditure and working capital. We've had another year of disciplined capital investment into the group. Our priority over the past two years has been to invest in our fleet and bring down its average age. We had allowed that to drift up in recent years, and while the useful and operable life of our trucks is around 10 years, based on the heavy usage they get, you see repairs and maintenance costs increase and utilization rates fall past about seven years. We want to ensure our branches and drivers can operate efficiently with minimal vehicle downtime.
We're also starting the job of fixing some of the uninvested parts of our estate, and the strength of our balance sheet means we can do this in a sensible and staggered way over the coming years. Our big focus, though, has clearly been in working capital. Stock has increased in line with inflation, but we know we have more work to do here across the group. Trade debtors have reduced by GBP 130 million as we have successfully managed to invoice much of the Oracle-related backlog of debt I referred to last year, but also sharpened our disciplines on debt collection generally. Trade creditors have increased by GBP 26 million as we have harmonized payment terms across the group following the introduction of Oracle. These changes combine to deliver the significant working capital inflow number.
In addition, we are targeting further self-help in terms of cash generation during 2026. I'm not going to put a target on that or provide formal guidance, but I would reiterate what I've said about TP since I joined. This group is capable of generating very healthy levels of cash when it's focused in the right way. I'm happy to bring the obsession, and I'm really pleased to see how others are responding to that. To effect a real cultural shift throughout the whole organization will take time, but we've made a good start.
The last point I would make to give confidence in our cash generative capabilities is to remind you that we have managed to absorb some significant one-offs in recent years, including the closure costs of France, Toolstation France, some significant restructuring and severance costs, and the multi-year cost of implementing and launching Oracle, and still demonstrated some excellent forward momentum. That brings us on to the balance sheet impact of this cash generation. Net debt has fallen by GBP 224 million to GBP 621 million, and that leaves us just outside our desired long-run leverage range of 1.5-2 x. It also puts us at net cash at the end of the year of GBP 1 million. It's only slight, I accept, but we'll take it.
that, as I said at the outset, is the strongest cash position we've had since 1998. If you're looking for cultural reference points, Michael Owen scoring one of the goals against Argentina was the first one that came into my mind. That cash profile has compounded steadily and consistently throughout the year as the benefit of the actions I referred to earlier on have taken effect. It gives us, when combined with our undrawn revolving credit facility at year-end, over GBP 800 million of available liquidity, which provides significant resilience in what remains a challenging market backdrop. Also the necessary firepower to underpin our competitive position if market conditions demand it.
Being more optimistic and forward-looking, it also gives us the necessary headroom to invest in areas like inventory when market conditions do improve. The renewed cash discipline we've put in place over the last two years has also enabled us to refinance on competitive terms during the year. Across two tranches, we fully refinanced the GBP 250 million corporate bond due to mature in 2026 with U.S. private placement funding for both tranches, and did so on an investment-grade basis with a blended coupon across both tranches of 6.27%. We've also managed to smooth the timeline of future tranche maturities, which now run out to 2035. This gives us excellent near-term as well as long-term financial security, as we have no immediate significant refinancing events until 2028.
As I touched on earlier, we are targeting further cash generation opportunities and therefore further deleveraging in 2026. Let me conclude with outlook and guidance. There is likely to be ongoing uncertainty attached to the economic and geopolitical environment, and therefore we will remain focused on what we can control. We've started the task of right-sizing the overhead base of the group and implementing a more rigorous approach to expenditure generally, and we'll continue to identify and deliver further efficiencies. On the balance sheet and cash generation, we go again. From a guidance perspective, we expect the group effective tax rate to be around 30%. Capital expenditure is expected to be around GBP 80 million for the year, and property profits will be around GBP 5 million.
On a like-for-like basis, our interest expense is expected to be around GBP 6 million higher per annum from switching out the 3.75% corporate bond for the USPP financing arrangements I outlined earlier. However, holding the healthy cash position that we currently do provides an offset to this through higher interest income. Finally, we expect a similar level of loss in Toolstation Benelux this year, and Gavin will talk to you more about this when he returns. With that, I will hand over to him now.
Thanks, Duncan. What I'd like to move on to now is just to really give you some kind of early views of what I've seen within the group. As I said earlier, it has only been 10 weeks. I think we've crammed quite a lot into 10 weeks, but really trying to give you some sort of early observations of what I've seen and working with the leadership team, we've tried to look at this very much from the point of view of all of the stakeholders. Whether that's customers, colleagues, suppliers or shareholders, but really trying to take a rounded view of what we've got and where we go with what we've got. We've got a dead clicker. There you go.
Trying to come up with a simplistic way of looking at the group, and what I've done is I've broken the group into three tiers, so different businesses in each of those tiers. We'll talk about the individual businesses more. I've got some more slides after this one. If you look at tier one, what we're really saying in tier one with Travis Perkins General Merchanting or Green and Gold, however you want to refer to it, BSS, Toolstation UK and Keyline, these businesses are already delivering what I think is a sustainable financial return. That's not to say that they are at the end point and they're performing absolutely at their zenith, but these are businesses that within the group are already giving us a decent financial return.
The priority here is to improve the businesses and to really exploit some of the synergies that exist there. It's really important, though, not to confuse exploiting synergies with some grand centralization plan. I think as most of you know, I'm an absolute disciple of the sort of decentralized, federated structure within distribution businesses, and that is absolutely core. Utilizing the businesses and really recognizing the synergies is about having a leadership team that understand the power of collaboration and what we can do with these tier one businesses. The tier two businesses, being CCF and TF Solutions, are in a slightly different position. To put some context around it, these two businesses together have revenues of around about GBP 600 million. In broad terms, these businesses are trading at either side of break even.
We do need to make sure as we go forward, we recognize the different challenges within these businesses and how we move these businesses from being around about break even to getting into what we would comfortably refer to being tier one businesses, but it's a different set of challenges that we have to the tier one businesses. Also, as I'll just explain in a moment, both CCF and TF Solutions have different challenges of their own as well. Then in tier three, we have Toolstation Benelux. It's fair to say that I think Toolstation Benelux has been a perennial loss maker within the group for quite some time, and it's also been a cash burn for quite some time.
What I am gonna commit to you today is, although I've only been here for 10 weeks, I've been across to Benelux, I've spent time with the leadership team, got a really much better understanding of the challenges that they face. By the time we stand here and deliver the half year results in the summer, I will give you absolute clarity at that point of what the plan for the Benelux business is. Just moving on to some of the individual businesses, and, forgive me if some of you really know this, very, very well. Obviously, Travis Perkins, Green and Gold, number one in the U.K. builders merchant market, 579 branches trading today.
Within Green and Gold, we have the sub-brands as well of Benchmarx, we have Hire, and we have Managed Services, all coming under the remit of the new MD, Rich Lavin. Rich was formerly appointed as MD, I think in my second week in the business, so that was great to be able to do that. Rich had been running the business as the interim MD since the middle of last year. He's actually been in the business for over a decade and held a lot of sort of senior finance and operations, roles. Although brand new to the managing director role of Green and Gold, a huge amount of experience coming into that particular role.
We do believe we've got opportunities that we've already identified in ranging, in sourcing, logistics, and the way that we take the product to market. I think when we're looking at how we can utilize the facilities that we already have in the group, we'll talk later on about how we can make some of the assets that we've got, like the Toolstation distribution center, just sweat a little bit harder and bring value into the other parts of the group. One of the areas that we've identified that we think there's a greater degree of collaboration between Toolstation and Green & Gold is in what we would call either the shop or the self-select area, where there is a real margin opportunity if we can be a little bit slicker at how we bring that product to market.
Green & Gold is the largest turnover business within the group. In broad terms, it's around 50% of our turnover, so it's a really high potential business for us and a significant platform for growth as we go forward, recognizing that Rich is brand new into the MD's role. What we've also done is strengthen the spine of the team around Rich. We've got a really experienced commercial director in Paul in there now, and some of you will know Matt Worcester, who was our group IR director. Matt is now the finance director in Green & Gold, which I think speaks volumes about, A, what we think about Matt, and B, the significance of getting a really high-class management team within Green & Gold. Just moving on to Toolstation in the UK. Toolstation in the UK, number two market position, 590 stores.
There's a regular theme coming here that you're gonna recognize. Lakvir was appointed Managing Director of this business in around about September of last year. Lakvir has been with the group, I think I'm right in saying, for about 14 years. She's held very senior commercial roles. She's been a pricing director. She's been a commercial director. She's been a finance director, so brings a huge amount of experience to the role of Managing Director of Toolstation. I think one of the things that you'll see from the leadership team that we're putting in place, we're bringing through here the next generation of leaders within the group to give us real longevity and a long-term view of how the group should be operated.
Within the seven operating businesses within the Travis Perkins Group, last year, Toolstation UK was the number one profit earner within the group. It's a really very significant business within the group and should be viewed absolutely as part of our core offering. As I mentioned earlier, we do believe there's opportunities to work better between Green & Gold and between Toolstation in utilizing the Pineham distribution center that we have in Northampton. To give you some context around that, Pineham is a 500,000 sq ft, high bay distribution center that we believe can actually work harder and give us better value across the group in distributing for more than just the one business. We have got a new demand planning and forecasting software coming into this business, I believe, around August, September time of this year.
One of the areas I think we've been less efficient at in Toolstation UK is inventory management, and this new demand planning and forecasting software will enable us to manage that inventory with a greater degree of diligence and really make sure that we're sweating the assets that we have. You know, as I said earlier, it's another growth platform along with Green & Gold, very significant turnover, largest profit maker that we have within the group and should be seen as really important as we go forward. Also in a tier one business is BSS.
I think some of you who've been around a long time will recognize this is a business that I used to know very well, having been the CEO there from 2005 through to 2010 and actually selling the business to Travis Perkins in 2010. It's number one in its market. We've got 54 branches. Josie has been appointed as the MD in the middle of last year. I think it's fair to say when I was the CEO there in 2010, I think I'm right in saying that Josie was in her first year of branch management in BSS Peterborough. Again, although a new managing director has got huge experience, not only within BSS but also across the whole of the Travis Perkins Group. We have got quite a unique distribution model within BSS.
We have a superb central distribution center in Magna Park in Leicestershire, but we also have quite a unique Big Pipe national tube distribution center in Coventry, which is a facility that we have that none of our competitors really do have. We have got some real unique characteristics within BSS that I think enable us to drive that business forward with quite a lot of vigor. We've also developed over quite a number of years, through the National Accounts team, a real skill in what I would call significant projects. When you look at airports, when you look at stadiums, when you look at prisons, when you look at these kind of secure environments in which we operate, we've now got a great deal of experience at operating on-site facilities that again, I think is a differentiator for BSS going forward.
Just to be clear, while we're in the spirit of openness, in the group last year, BSS was the third-largest profit maker that we had behind the top two. Lastly, but by no means least within tier one, Keyline, our specialist civils distribution business. Again, number one in the civils distribution market in the UK. 41 branches. A new Managing Director in Hugh Jennings. Hugh joined the business, we could do this as audience participation, but in September of last year. I think it's also fair to say Hugh's background is in logistics and distribution. That is wholly appropriate for this business 'cause well over 90% of the business through Keyline is delivered either ex-yard or from our suppliers.
Having someone whose expertise is in moving product from point A to point B in the most effective and the most efficient way is absolutely appropriate in this particular business. Hugh and I have been working on this for, you know, a little while now in terms of growth opportunities for this business. We do see, particularly in infrastructure, if you look at the areas like power and like water, we think we have got real growth opportunities here, and that also opens up new markets and new product opportunities, so it gives us really a very positive outlook for Keyline going forward as being one of our tier one businesses, again, with that new leadership team. Just moving into Tier 2. These are the businesses that predominantly have been trading at around about break even.
CCF, which is our dry lining and insulation business, is a structurally challenged business, but more importantly, operating in a structurally challenged market. Dry lining, which is over 65% of the revenue in this business, is very much about high volume, low margin, commoditized, high cost to serve. We really are going to have to look at how we operate this business and make sure that we can find a more efficient route to market utilizing the assets that we have right the way across the group. I mean, it's fair to say in terms of leveraging margin in this particular business, over 50% of the business is with one manufacturer. Our opportunities even to leverage margin on ex-yard sales are still a little bit challenged. 37 branches across the UK.
New Managing Director in the summer of last year in Chris. Fair to say Chris has got over 20 years experience in CCF and has basically done every single job in CCF from working in a branch, getting through to be the Managing Director. It shows how much we think of Chris as the MD of this business. For those of you who know me well, he is a Newcastle supporter. That would ordinarily be a challenge in my book, but I think Chris is bang on the right guy to be running this business going forward. We do believe we've got synergy opportunities, again, with Green and Gold, looking at that from a distribution point of view, just reiterating, don't look upon that as some kind of like, centralization move.
In the categories of plaster, plasterboard and insulation, Green and Gold also have volumes in that particular category that run into hundreds of millions GBP. I think there's just some opportunities there for us to do what we do a little bit better so that we can find the most efficient and effective route to market for CCF, and again, get that to a point where we believe it could be a Tier one business. TF Solutions, which is a business some of you may not know very well, is our specialist distributor in air conditioning and refrigeration. Refrigeration being a relatively new sector that we've gone into, but one that we see with a real opportunity for growth and for development. James is the MD of TF Solutions.
He is the longest serving MD that we have in the team, having been in place for 14 months. In terms of like getting on a bit, you know, he's the one that's been there, seen it and done it during the whole of 2025. To enable us to get the maximum benefit out of this business, we do believe we need to give it greater support in terms of logistics and distribution. We've identified what we need to do to make that happen, but to get to that point, we have to make some systems and processes upgrades. Those systems and processes upgrades are already in train. They will take place later this year. That will then enable us to move into a more efficient distribution model for TF Solutions.
I think for the first time, it'll give us the ability to react to customers as opposed to just having what I would see as a more inefficient stock holding within the business. I think TF Solutions, intuitively, it's a business that ought to make money. I think the plans that we have in place will enable us to move that business forward as we go through 2026. Finally, in terms of Tier 3, the Benelux business, as I said, my commitment to you is to stand here at the half year results and give you absolute clarity over the plan for that business. We don't actually have a permanent managing director in that business as we stand here today.
It's still an interim, but I have been over and spent time with the management team getting to understand the magnitude of the challenges over there. I think all I would ask for is, look, having only been in for 10 weeks, if you can give me that little bit of forbearance through to the half year, but we'll then give you some absolute clarity on where we stand on Benelux. In summary, we've got a new leadership team. We've got a simplified structure. All of the managing directors now report directly into me. We don't have any intermediary levels there, which I think just gives us a more efficient and more effective communication chain across the whole group. We've identified business improvement opportunities in every business.
Don't get me wrong, some market growth would be great, and we would absolutely welcome it with open arms. We absolutely can improve the business without that reliance on market growth. I think making those improvements now will put us in a great position for when the market does turn. The leadership team is very focused on doing the day job, removing distractions, removing the noise around. Let's just focus on what we do within the business today. There's a lot of noise outside in terms of the economy, in terms of the market, in terms of even the global macro situation now, but we will absolutely stay focused on what we can do, which is running the business the best that we possibly can.
As we mentioned earlier, we're in the best financial position in terms of balance sheet that the group has been in for over 25 years. I think in any kind of uncertain market, that is a great place to be. I think a lot of our suppliers, a lot of our customers, and a lot of our shareholders will take a lot of faith in the business that we're starting here with a very, very strong financial structure. As I mentioned at the very beginning, culturally, we absolutely see ourselves as a branch-based, sales-led organization that can work in harmony with a disciplined approach to cost, to margin, and also to capital allocation. Very, very simply, and primarily around our customers who are the main drivers in us being in business, it's about, can we just be brilliant at what we do?
If we're brilliant at what we do and focus on the simple tasks, then I believe that everything else will follow through. Financially, we're in a great position to support all of the businesses in the group to develop and to recognize their potential. That's the end of the formal part. We're gonna move on to Q&A. What I would say in terms of the logistics of Q&A, particularly 'cause we've got so many people on the webcast, if you've got a question, if you could raise your hand, we'll bring a microphone to you.
When you get the microphone, if you could give us your name and the organization that you represent, then if you could ask your difficult questions first so that Duncan can answer those and leave your easy ones for the end, and I can bowl in there, that'd be a great way to run it. I think what we'll do, Sarah, if we start at the very front down here, and then we'll work our way backwards.
Hi. Ben Wild from Deutsche Bank. Three questions from me, please. Firstly, Duncan, you mentioned delivery of 2025 in line with consensus forecasts. You haven't given quantitative guidance for 2026, but are you happy with where consensus is? Secondly, in terms of pricing in the group and particularly in merchanting, it sounds as though there's been a slight change of policy at the start of 2026 as compared to 2025. Given the inflationary backdrop and the demand environment, can you make a comment on the price elasticity of your customers and how your attitude towards pricing? Thirdly, you made a lot of the leverage in the presentation and have delivered an exceptional year of cash generation.
Compared to your peers who are highly levered, you have significant balance sheet headroom to deploy. Maybe related to the pricing question, how do you think about deploying that balance sheet to drive competitive advantages? Is there a temptation, given the market environment, to push extremely hard on pricing given your competitor set probably can't follow?
Okay. I think, well, we'll work our way backwards, and I'll certainly pick up on the pricing point. I think in terms of deployment of the balance sheet, look, I think everybody recognizes we proved last year that we could increase market share by being more price competitive. But I think when you look at the overall financial performance as we go through this year, we absolutely need to have a slightly more balanced approach. I think in terms of can we still deliver great prices for the customers and improve the margins that we have within the business, it is a fine balance, but I think that is the right thing to do. If I'd have been in place last year, going aggressive on the prices is probably exactly what I would have done last year.
I think with where we are right now, we need a more nuanced approach and making sure that we're balancing what we're doing on pricing and balancing what we're doing on margin. That does drift into your sort of second point, which is, you know, when you look at the pricing models that we have within the business, the elasticity that our customers have, there's quite a lot of moving parts here right now. I mean, even in the last few days, you know, literally over the last week, we've started to see communications coming in from manufacturers talking about energy surcharges, talking about surcharges on transportation. I think we need to react to that really quite carefully, in making sure that we're not being disadvantaged by what's happening in the sort of global environment.
If you look at diesel as an example, just as a one-off, we spend about GBP 15 million a year on diesel within our merchant businesses. If we got a 20% spike in diesel that lasted for six months, it's GBP 1.5 million. We need to make sure that we're not being disadvantaged by what's going on. I think last year pricing was quite aggressive, and we proved that we can take market share. I think the trick for us this year would be, can we maintain and grow market share while still improving the margins that are within the business and making sure that we get the right level of return? Hopefully, that kinda gives you a sketch around pricing. I'll let Duncan talk about 2026.
Yeah. We're not making any comment on consensus today. Brief.
Do you want to just bring the microphone here, and then we will come across. We'll just try and do this logistically sensibly.
Thanks. Will Jones from Rothschild & Co, Redburn. Three, please. Perhaps we could just have a quick run round of the end markets within the construction sector, as it were, and whether you think the combination can deliver a kind of flat market picture for 2026 or, realistically, should we be expecting market volumes to be slightly down? Second, maybe coming back to overheads. I think you mentioned a similar rate of inflation about the GBP 40 million mark underlying in 2026, with then the challenge to be the extent to which you can offset that. Perhaps you could talk about that ability to offset. Maybe last one just on the businesses. Perhaps you could just expand on your thoughts with regard to Benchmarx.
Obviously, sits inside Green and Gold, but a somewhat different business, to the standard Green and Gold offer. Thanks.
Okay. Yeah. If I pick up Benchmarx, and again we'll kind of work our way backwards. Look, Benchmarx is a brand within the Green & Gold business. We've got a good management team in Benchmarx. We've got a really talented managing director in that business who reports into Rich 'cause it is part of that overall business offering. I think we need to work out with Benchmarx exactly where its place in the market is. You know, who is it trying to compete with? Who are its target audience? I think there's improvements that we can make in Benchmarx. Is it one of my burning issues as I sit here today? The answer, Will, is no. I mean, I think we've got other things that are sort of like better for us to address.
I think we've spent some time with the Benchmarx leadership team. We've got a view on where Benchmarx will go over the next 12 months. It is and will remain part of that overall kind of Green & Gold merchant model as opposed to being pulled out and standing alone.
Do you want to do the overheads one?
Yeah.
It's about half, Will, I think is where we start the year. Of that GBP 40 million, we think we can offset through some of the actions we've taken at the end of last year. But that doesn't include further actions we may then take in this year as well, which also help contribute to it. It comes back a little bit to Gavin's answer to Ben's question earlier on, which is for all of our peers and all large multi-site organizations in the UK, which are also very highly labor-intensive based on the inflationary pressures, cost inflation pressures of things like NI and National Living Wage, et cetera, we're only going to get to margin expansion if we can start to expand gross margins.
Either or, we are trying to take out so much cost that we would, in my view, fundamentally impair the business and really hobble it in terms of its ability to sort of face into any recovery as well. It's a careful balance. We've. You know, I don't think anyone could say that 300 heads isn't a meaningful and significant reduction in terms of the challenge that's out there, and we are also got a strong hand on every other element of discretionary cost. I come back to my comments in the presentation. We can't offset that in full, but then I don't think anyone else can either.
Just back to your point on the markets. I mean, look, we're sitting here sort of like middle of March. The world is in a very different place to what it was in the middle of January. Who knows where it'll be in the middle of April. I think I'm just looking around the room actually, the number of analysts in the room. We've probably got greater analytical brainpower sat out there rather than up here. Maybe ask some of your peer group when you're having a coffee afterwards, you might get a better answer. Do you wanna come across down this side, Bailey, and then we'll
Thank you. Hi. Annelise Vermeulen from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions, please. You've mentioned ongoing competitive intensity, and touching on some of what you said earlier, given the state of the world at the moment and what that implies for consumer and business confidence. Are you seeing any change in that competitive intensity in terms of some of your competitors? Any sort of less discipline on pricing, not only as a result of the actions you've taken, but also given what the end customers are seeing. Secondly, on the headcount reductions, do you expect to make further headcount reductions this year? Are you happy where the business is today?
As part of that, could you comment on your expectations for the exceptional charges and restructuring costs, how you expect them to stack up in 2026 versus 2025? Thank you.
Do you wanna take the exceptionals?
Yeah. I mean, look, the first thing to say is, we don't have any live and significant programs. As you would expect me to say, the first people we'll communicate those to, if appropriate, are our colleagues, and then the market. However, I think, we'd be reasonably open to say that Gavin's just arrived. We are clearly lifting up every single rock in the business and looking around how we're resourced and how we're structured and whether we're appropriately set. Look, I'm not gonna get into giving forward guidance around whether we'd have an exceptional charge associated with that quantum or not. I mean, you can back into, Annelise, the kind of number that we've got for what has been a very large reduction last year.
If we end up having some further reductions, it may or may not qualify for an exceptional item, but it doesn't, that wouldn't concern me in terms of either the profit impact or the cash thing if it was the right thing for us to do as a group.
I think the other thing on costs I would say is it isn't just about the absolute level of cost, it's making sure that you've got the cost focused in the right place. I think there's been quite a lot of work done in terms of, as you know, as Duncan mentioned earlier, some central roles taken out, but making sure that we've got the appropriate level of cost in customer-facing roles, which is more important. It isn't just about cost out, it is about the rebalancing of the cost and making sure the cost is in the right place as well. In terms of market behavior, I mean, look, we have hundreds of competitors across the whole country in different sectors. It's really difficult to say whether people are behaving more or less rationally.
What I would say is, you know, having been in this market for 25 years, it's always been a competitive market. You've always got competitive pricing. I wouldn't say intuitively now, I don't think people are behaving less rationally now than they were a year ago, two years ago, or so on. I don't think there's been a significant change. Should we just go another one on this side? If we go to Aynsley, who's just second row, and then we'll come across back to this side when we got the microphone in the right place.
Thanks very much. Aynsley Lammin from Investec. I think I've got three as well, actually. Just first of all, on the kind of backdrop, I think we've heard last year that maybe, you know, some companies and particularly the independents are struggling a bit more. Just interested to hear your thoughts, whether you think any more capacity will come out of the market. Given your strong balance sheet, would you consider any M&A if it's even smaller, bolt-on deals? Interested in that. Secondly, Gavin, in your various previous guises, you've always had a very clear margin target. It's just interesting to hear your early thoughts on, you know, where do you think that merchanting margin could be over the medium term? I think, you know, we've heard 8% in the past, and similarly for Toolstation UK.
Is that still kind of reasonable, do you think? Last question, just on the working capital. If we do get kind of flat sales, is there more efficiency that can be squeezed out of the working capital, or actually are we kind of broadly there? Thanks.
I think in terms of the backdrop and kind of M&A, I think as I said at the very beginning, you know, let's not get distracted by things. Let's focus on the day job and do what we need to do and do it really well. As you know, M&A has been a huge part of my career over the past 20-odd years. You know, as and when the time is right, there's always things that you can look at. But fundamentally, it's not about looking at distressed businesses in a market where there's overcapacity. You know, anything that you buy has got to be a really good business and bring strategic and financial value to the group. I don't think it's a case of just saying, do we think some independents will be finding life tough and therefore hoover them up?
I mean, we've got well over 500 locations in Green and Gold. We've got pretty good coverage. In fact, last week I discovered some towns in Scotland where we have branches that I'd never even heard of. You know, I think our coverage is pretty good. In terms of margin targets, I think it's far too early for me to give like a long-term margin target of where it all sits. Just a couple of points that you made. Do I think in the medium term, an 8% margin target in Toolstation UK is a reasonable target to have? Yes, I do. I think, you know, everything that I've seen so far, I think that's reasonable.
In terms of Green and Gold, rather than setting long-term targets there, you know, let's see some margin movement and start moving back towards the 5% level, and then we can determine where we go beyond that. I think there is definitely margin improvement to be had, but I'm not in a position, Angie, where I can sit here today and say, "Right, in three years I want to be here. In five years I want to be here." We need to make sure we understand all the moving parts in there as well.
I know your working capital question. Yeah, I mean, not just working capital, I mean, just generally cash opportunities. I've got a metaphorical dartboard up, and there's a big number we're going at this year. I mean, just give you some examples. You know, our relative percent of sales of our credit is still higher than it was pre-Oracle. We've still got, as Paul will attest when you speak to him afterwards, firmly under some pressure around payment terms elsewhere with other suppliers. There's loads we can go at within the group. The problem is, or the challenge for me is, I can't and won't see all of those sat in my seat.
We have got to create a culture where everyone is foraging for these opportunities across the group. As I said in the bit earlier on, we've started that, and I think that's really encouraging. I'm actually quite pleased and excited to see what starts coming back 'cause I'm starting to get more things come back organically to me around suggestions around what we can do differently. Yes, is the answer to your question. I think there's plenty still to go at.
Okay. If we just go across to Clyde, they can basically hand the microphone to each other to make life easy.
Thank you. Clyde Lewis at Peel Hunt. Three if I may as well. Firstly, on incentives, I mean, you stressed the branch focus, sales-led sort of structure you really want to push hard on. Are you happy with the current incentives for the team or do you need to tweak that? And if you have, what have you done on that front? That was the first one. Second one, Gavin, you sort of talked about, again, very much focus on the day job. Where do you think the biggest noise is still within the organization that's stopping the team from doing the day job? The third one was probably following Will a little bit on Benchmarx. I want to ask about Managed Services. Similar sort of question. Where,
Short answer.
Well, it may well be. May well be, but slightly different business, obviously, to Benchmarx. Those are the three. Thank you.
Okay. I think in terms of incentivization, we have tweaked some of the incentives this year. We have made some changes. I don't think it's right and appropriate to sit and sort of, you know, go through details of incentive plans here today. I think Rich and I, particularly in terms of Green and Gold, we believe that what we've put in this year gives a greater emphasis on driving sales and also driving profitable sales. We have made some tweaks. We'll see how those incentives play out during the year, but it was something that very early doors I kind of looked at and thought, "I think there's something that we can do better there." We have made some tweaks there. In terms of the biggest noise in the day job, God, that's an interesting question.
I think it's, from my perspective, I think the leadership team that we've got now, the newness of the leadership team in terms of being MDs, I think has taken a huge amount of noise away. 'Cause what we don't have sitting in the room when Duncan and I are with them together, there isn't any kind of tendency of, "Well, three years ago we did this, five years ago we did that, ten years ago we did this." I think we've got a sort of young, hungry leadership team that I think have really got a new focus and actually looking at the business in a slightly different way. I do think a lot of the noise in terms of the internal noise has gone.
Now, that needs to filter through hundreds of branches and areas and regions and make sure that we get down to branch level and people understand it there. I just want people to think, look, very, very simplistically, if we give people three or four things that we just need them to do, focus on the customer, sell more product, protect the margin, those very simple messages, I think that's what we need to get down right to branch level so that people really understand what it is that we need them to do. I think I'd like to think what we're bringing is a simplicity and a clarity of the messaging that I think takes a lot of the noise away.
The response I've had from that new leadership team has been really good in terms of, okay, we understand this, let's start getting that messaging through, and we're having some really good, you know, dynamic conversations between us as a leadership team in terms of how we want to move the business forward. In terms of managed services, I do refer the honorable gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago. Passing it over that side now.
Shane Carberry, Goodbody. Just one from me. It's just to dig a little bit deeper into that kind of exploit synergies point, particularly in the tier one bracket. I know you've made it very clear you don't want us to think about that as centralization. Maybe just a couple of live examples of what you're kind of getting at there would be helpful.
Shane, I think as a really good example, our electrical range in the shop in Travis Perkins Green and Gold, I think left quite a lot to be desired. This is not about targeting electricians, but this is about looking at jobbing builders and the electrical product that they buy, that currently they buy from somewhere else. We looked at the range that we have in Toolstation, and basically Rich's response, I'm paraphrasing, was, "Well, if we just take the top 50 selling SKUs from Toolstation and put them into Green and Gold, distribute them through Pineham, which is already going out to hundreds of locations on a daily basis, that's a really quick win.
We don't need to go back and start rearranging and rethinking and sort of reinventing the electrical range in Green and Gold, 'cause actually the top 50 SKUs are very much fit for purpose in terms of Green and Gold and Toolstation. It's just like, it's those kind of examples, but it isn't-- it absolutely isn't centralization. I think the utilizing the sort of Pineham distribution center, as I said, it's half a million square feet. It's a very high bay. It's got a couple of mezzanines in there. I think there's just efficiencies that we can utilize from there on distribution. Again, that distribution center is going out to hundreds of locations already. It's just things like that we've just looked at very early doors and thought, "No, no.
We can do this a little bit better. If it makes it more effective, makes it more efficient, takes a little bit of cost out, then it's just those like knocking these small things over one day at a time. That's the kind of viewpoint, Shane, really. We've got a hand right down the very front here. It's on its way. It's quite a walk.
Thank you so much. Arnaud Lehmann from Bank of America. A few from my side. I mean, Gavin, you're quite recent in the business. We've been around a long time, and I guess we all had enough of talking about Travis Perkins' IT systems. That being said, do you think it's in good shape now? And do you see opportunities related to AI? It's a bit of a buzzword at the moment, but I'm sure there could be some improvement going forward. Secondly, I think a follow-up to some of the question on the balance sheet. Could buyback be an option or are you just gonna sit on your strong balance sheet for now considering market uncertainties? Travis Perkins certainly is in tier one.
That's great. We've seen branch closures in the past, especially the smaller ones. Do you think if volumes continue to decline, would you consider that? Lastly, for Duncan, what's the trading day impact for 2026, please.
Can you repeat the last one?
Trading days, any impact this year relative to 2025? I think it's a small positive maybe.
Okay. All good points. In terms of branch closures, we have seen some branch closures. We're not sitting here right now with a mass branch closure plan. I think one of the things that we're doing already, we're looking at individual branches based on their P&L. You know, sometimes there's a lease impact, sometimes there's a property sale impact. Overall, I think the branch infrastructure that we've got gives us pretty good coverage across the whole of the country. What I certainly haven't done is come in with a mindset of, let's reduce it by 100 branches. I think every single branch that we look at is looked at on an individual basis. We looked at one or two with Rich last week where we thought, "Okay, is this borderline? Do we keep it open?
If we extend a branch that's three miles away, can we cover it from a transport point of view? It is absolutely on a branch by branch basis, as opposed to a program of branch closures. That really isn't part of what we're trying to do. I'll touch on the IT systems because I know Duncan spoke a lot about IT in the last couple of years. I'll try and kind of give you an outsider's view of it. I think there was obviously a lot of pain last year from the Oracle implementation.
It was very clear when I turned up that the pain of the implementation was behind, and we were genuinely having conversations even down at branch manager level with people saying, "We're starting to see the benefits of that coming through." I think with any big ERP implementation, there's always a lot of pain. I think Oracle was particularly painful, but it's really good to sit here now and say Oracle is a reason to be positive now as opposed to a reason to be negative. I would also say in other parts of the group, we've done other stuff that has kinda gone under the radar. Like in BSS, changing over to Kerridge from the system that was on, that went really smoothly. The team did a super job on that.
I think it's something that we are constantly looking at to make sure we have got the right systems. We're not sitting here today with any plan of another significant ERP change in any of the businesses. By virtue of just evolution of time, there'll always be some work that needs doing on the systems. I'm looking at the next two years and thinking we haven't got anything in the next couple of years that's of a magnitude of what the group has been through over the past two years. Just in terms of like things like AI, I mean, look, it's always easy to say that, you know, I appreciate it's a great buzzword.
I think we're still some time away yet from an AI truck driver in TP who can drive a 36-ton truck, operate a crane and lift a pallet over Mrs. Jones' hedge and get it in the drive. There are areas within the business. When we're looking at things like credit management, when we're looking at inventory management, we're very alert to the fact that, you know, those developments can bring some value to the group. It's not lost on us at all, but I think there are some quite specific areas, probably more so back office rather than front office.
Yeah. I agree entirely. I think your two on buyback and on trading day. One more trading day in Q4 this year than the Q1 to Q3 the same. On your buyback, I mean, yeah, your somewhat rhetorical question in terms of you answered it at the end. We will come back with some more developed thoughts on strategy and thinking. As you would expect me to say, capital allocation should follow as a logical extension or accompaniment to that when we come back in the half year. Right now, we're just basking in having a relatively strong position, and it is pretty uncertain out there. I think we'll sort of enjoy the resilience that affords us.
Just got one here in the second row. If you could pass the microphone back, and then we'll come across to you in just a moment.
Thanks for taking my questions. I'm Zaim Beekawa, JPMorgan . The first is just on the CapEx. How sustainable is it to have CapEx at this level? At what level do we see that reinvestment cycle come back? Secondly, on Toolstation Go, just how that's been trending and what's the opportunity set there? Thank you.
The Toolstation Go, it's a new format store that we've opened up in Battersea. It's a physically smaller branch. It has about 4,500 SKUs in it, as opposed to a full fat Toolstation that would get close to 10. It has literally been open for a matter of weeks, but the early trading is really encouraging. I think it's something that lends itself predominantly to the London market rather than elsewhere. I mean, literally, it's been open for, like, three or four weeks, so we just need to see how it goes. Early indications have been really good.
Yeah, on CapEx, look, I mean, it's at the moment we say we've managed to move our way through what we need to fix fairly carefully. I think where we've been historically is we have made a number of large relocations or new branch investments, which come with a higher CapEx bill. Mindset-wise, we are starting to move into a world where we've got great sites and great locations, you know, dint of our heritage, where we need to move into a mindset of effective refurbishment at a much lower cost, but ultimately still giving branch colleagues a better working experience and customers a better experience when they come in. I think we can manage it at around this level.
I think it's more frankly the previous number perhaps, which has acted as a precedent, has been too high. As I said, we're investing in and replacing our fleet and bringing down that average age. I think Ben asked a question earlier on around price to Gavin. I was thinking as he was making the point around that cash doesn't necessarily have to be deployed per se to price in terms of taking on the. You can also create competitive differentiation by investing that capital into assets and equipment in the business, which also is a point of differentiation. There's nothing stopping us doing that.
Okay. One just over here.
Morning. Adrian Kearsey, Panmure Liberum. Two from me, if I may. On Toolstation, on the distribution center, you talked about sweating the assets and then provided the example of the electrical range within Green and Gold. Are there any other examples where you can use the Toolstation DC to sweat, you know, to sweat and provide service elsewhere? The other question sort of follows on from Duncan's kind of comments about points of differentiation. I'm drawing on the point that you made about having the cost in the right place. Do you think you have the right number of people in different branches, or is there something that you need to evolve over time to make sure that you can actually differentiate on service?
I think in terms of Toolstation DC, are there other examples when the answer is yes? I mean, you know, I can't sit here and list them for you, but I think we've had very grown up conversations around the leadership team in terms of how we can utilize the assets that we have. The Pineham distribution center is the most modern distribution center we have. There is undoubtedly efficiencies that we can bring across the group by using Pineham more. When I mentioned earlier about the logistics support that we can give TF Solutions as an example, we will be doing that through Pineham. Pineham is the Toolstation DC. The answer to your question is yes.
I think in terms of have we got the right number of people in the branches, as a point of differentiation, we're always looking because also branches change. If you look at certain branches, they can land a very large contract. That very large contract may require extra manpower in one branch, but actually 18 months down the line, that contract could be gone, and you then have to realign. Can I sit here and say, "Well, I'm absolutely confident we have got the right number of people in every single branch across the whole of the group?" I mean, the answer is no, 'cause it's a very kind of fluid playing field.
I think the work that the guys did in the second half of last year before I started in January, there was quite a lot of work done in making sure that we had the right resources going in the right place. That was part of the changes in the center that Duncan spoke about earlier. It's a constant area of focus, as is productivity, as is utilization of people, utilization of vehicles. That is very much part of what we need to be on top of as a top-class distributor. We got another question anywhere? Stephen in the middle.
Stephen Rawlinson from Applied Value. A couple from me, but mostly they're in and around the IT system, whether it's actually giving you now the data that your decentralized structure will allow you to manage properly, as well as get some of the benefits of centralization, for example, say, from procurement. You've just spoken there about electrical products. I mean, you can now go back. Does your IT system give you the data to be able to go back to manufacturers and argue properly for a group discount or group purchasing deals in and around those product areas.
Just on the branch networks, quite clearly, I get your point about centralized management, but there's gotta be centralized understanding of what's going on, plus not having those individual units in silos such that they can work across customers. There's two questions there, one really about procurement, centralized buying, and the other one about centralized management of customers that might use both Green and Gold and Toolstation such that you can help them perform better but also help you get more out of them as well.
Okay. I'll let Duncan pick up on your first point around the IT system. In terms of the decentralized structure, a decentralized structure does not mean it's a free-for-all. You know, there are parameters that we have people working within. We've got a lot of experience in making this work. One of the things that I would say actually is an opportunity for us, and back to a point that was made about managed services earlier on, I think there are opportunities with Toolstation UK where we haven't really fully maximized what that can do perhaps with some of the managed service customers, and those are still opportunities that we've got going forward. Do I think we've got the right level of communication and understanding of how that can work?
The answer is yes, but there's still some implementation that we need to go. We had the guys together last week in Northampton, and one of the things I was very conscious of is, you know, make sure that we actually manage these initiatives in a well-managed way. You can't just pile everything in in month one 'cause that'll just result in chaos. I think there are improvements that we can make across the group in utilizing both inventory and in utilizing the branch network. We need to make sure that the backup systems are right for those. I think, you know, as we go through the year, you'll start to see some of that come to value, Stephen.
Yeah. I'll delight and disappoint you in equal measure in the response on kind of Oracle particularly. I mean, look, on the one hand, things like stock visibility, stock valuation, branch level reporting, highlighting process issues around where we're not following process correctly and getting that right because Oracle is more sophisticated and because it's a closed box, it's flushing a lot of that stuff out. Just gone through a year-end audit. Unsurprisingly, second-largest ERP platform on the planet. Our auditor can come in and plug in and get a load. So there's a load of efficiencies and things started to come out of that.
Where I'll disappoint you in equal measure, though, is we didn't need Oracle to address some of the other things you addressed in your answer around can our group commercial function go and have a conversation around the fact that we're not getting the best price on the supplier? That was never a data issue. That was a will issue. Actually, we don't lack information in this organization. We are swimming in data and information in this organization, and as Rich will talk to you afterwards, so we need, you need five reports to run a branch. The challenge is what insights is it giving you, and who is holding that branch manager or any other person in the organization to account around why the KPIs don't tell you what they're doing? For me it's, I don't think Oracle has necessarily addressed that.
That's around better performance management, and that is a journey we're on and making good progress into.
We've got any more questions in the room? I'm gonna look at Bailey and say, we've got any questions coming in offline or not? Excellent. Well, that's it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your interest. Look forward to seeing you all in the summer, and I hope everyone stays well, stays safe. Thank you very much.