Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us for the EBOS Group's FY 2025 Results Presentation. I'm Adam Hall, the Chief Executive Officer of EBOS Group and I'm joined today by Alistair Gray, our Chief Financial Officer, and Martin Krauskopf, our Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer. I'd like to say it's an honor to lead the EBOS team and I've taken the opportunity to get to visit many of our businesses in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia since joining last month. I'm excited for how EBOS capabilities are well suited for the opportunities ahead. Turning to the result, FY 2025 was another solid year for EBOS, reflecting the quality, scale, and leadership positions we hold across the various businesses within the portfolio.
We delivered solid organic growth which was supported by new customer wins in pharmacy wholesale where we added over 320 stores nationally, particularly across both New South Wales and Victoria. Continued expansion of our pharmacy store network with 34 net new TWC stores added. We also expanded our medical technology business including adding the Pacific Surgical team in the Philippines. We also saw steady performance from our pet brands business despite a softer market. We also maintained a sharp focus on cost management, delivering a 20 basis point reduction in operating expenditure through labor productivity, procurement, savings, and animal care and ingredient costs. By the end of FY 2026 we will have concluded our Distribution Center Renewal program which will deliver eight new sites and enhance existing systems over four years. These facilities enable us to serve more customers more efficiently.
Alistair will talk about the benefits this program has brought later in the presentation. Our bolt-on acquisition strategy also continues. In July 2025 we purchased Next Generation Pet Foods which enhances our manufacturing capability and expands our route to market through the exciting channels of hardware and cloth retail. Our ongoing growth prospects remain strong with advantaged positions in each of our major divisions: Community and Hospital Pharmacy, Wholesale Retail Pharmacy, Medical Technology, and Animal Care. The stage is set for growth, but first, how did this translate into the 2025 result? Turning to Slide 4 and the financial performance on an underlying basis excluding the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract, revenue grew by 12% to AUD 12.3 billion and underlying EBITDA increased by 7.5% to AUD 585 million. This is within the guidance reaffirmed in April 2025 of between AUD 575 million and AUD 600 million in EBITDA on a half by half basis.
Our second half was slightly ahead of the first half at AUD 294 million versus AUD 291 million. This growth was achieved in a pharmacy wholesale market that has been highly competitive since the CWA contract transition and also has seen softening discretionary consumer spend within animal care. Underlying EPS was AUD 1.313 per share and we declared a final dividend of AUD 0.615 per share, bringing total dividends for FY 2025 to AUD 1.185 per share, unchanged from last year and reflecting the Board's continuing confidence in the future growth of the group. Our leverage ratio remains well within our target range of 1.9 x and our ROCE was marginally down 20 basis points to 13%. This reflects a period of significant investment in long-lived DC assets and this program will continue in 2026.
As we flagged before, on a statutory basis, our results are down on the prior corresponding period reflecting the loss of the CWA contract. It is important to note that the commentary this morning is predominantly based on our underlying results excluding the impact of the CWA contract in the prior year. We have included a reconciliation between statutory and underlying numbers in the appendix of the presentation. Now turning to the performance of the divisions, I'd like to start on Slide 5 with an overview of the highlights. First, within Community Pharmacy we are pleased with the new wholesale customer wins which equate to approximately AUD 540 million of revenue on an annualized basis and that the continued store rollout of the TWC network led us to 626 stores.
In addition, the outcome of the first pharmacy wholesaler agreement together with the new CSO Accord will provide better medication availability to all Australians and provide far more sustainable industry funding. Secondly, Institutional Healthcare was again a major growth driver for the group. Hospital medicines, particularly oncology products and the Southeast Asian medical technology business maintained their growth momentum from the first half. This growth was also supplemented by several strategic acquisitions as previously announced. Alistair will expand on these later. Thirdly, contract logistics delivered customer growth across both New Zealand and Australia, enabled by our new warehouse capacity completed in this area last year. These new warehouses were timely, with the additional refrigeration capacity supporting increased GLP-1 prescriptions. Please note that the New Zealand business also saw a decrease in earnings as certain COVID area programs ramped down.
Finally, in animal care, our branded products delivered ongoing growth supported by new product developments. We also completed two new acquisitions, with SVS establishing a leading position in the New Zealand vet wholesale sector and Next Generation Pet Foods providing an entry point for new high growth, high value products, including air dried treats. In the second half i n particular, animal care continued to face headwinds from consumers under cost of living pressure, choosing to delay or downsize premium discretionary purchases, including puppy purchases. The team did a terrific job to offset part of this trend by continuing to grow our branded revenue through share gains. Now turning to page six, I'd like to provide an update on the near term growth objectives that were established in FY 2025. I'm pleased to report that the team have achieved all near term objectives.
Specifically, they have delivered base business growth within both the animal care and healthcare segments. We won approximately AUD 540 million of annualized sales from new pharmacy wholesale customers. We achieved cost savings of AUD 30 million against our target of AUD 25 million- AUD 50 million per annum by FY 2026, and we also executed five strategic investments across medical technology and animal care, deploying capital to strengthen our segment positions and diversify earnings. This slide completes our report out on these four initiatives. On the next slide, we have an overview of our ESG commitments. I'm pleased that the group continues to make sound progress on its ESG program. During the year, the group advanced several environmental initiatives that focused on improving renewable energy generation, offsetting our carbon footprint, and transitioning grocery brand packaging to recyclable materials.
EBOS also enhanced its safety standards for high risk activities, as our efforts have reflected our commitment to improving health outcomes and supporting our communities. I'd also like to add that I have found the EBOS team to be focused on safety. There's always more to be done, but my experiences with our frontline colleagues demonstrate their commitment to keeping themselves and their teammates safe at work. Now I'd like to move to how our individual businesses perform. I'm first going to share healthcare and then within healthcare, the highlights of community pharmacy, TWC , institutional healthcare, and contract logistics. Next, I'll move to our second reporting segment, animal care. Turning to slide nine in our healthcare segment. Our healthcare segment delivered a solid performance with revenue growth of 11.8% and EBITDA growth of 6.9%.
Again, excluding the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract, you'll notice that EBITDA growth was lower than revenue growth, driven by two factors. First, a rise in the proportion of high value medicines, which are profitable for us but come with lower percentage margins. For example, an increasingly popular oncology drug has a sale price of approximately AUD 3,700 but an effective profit margin of around 1.5%. Second, with recent CWA changes, the competition for pharmacy wholesale customers is strong. We expect the tighter margins that we have seen in pharmacy wholesale in 2025 to continue through FY 2026. As wholesale providers and customers realign, healthcare's performance was well supported by Community Pharmacy, TerryWhite Chemmart, and the institutional healthcare business. From a geographic perspective, our underlying Australian healthcare business grew revenues and EBITDA by 12.9% and 5.9% respectively.
Our New Zealand and Southeast Asia business grew revenue and EBITDA by an impressive 8.1% and 10.8% respectively, driven by a strong year from Transmedic in Southeast Asia. Now drilling down within healthcare, how did Community Pharmacy perform? On slide 10, y ou can see that the business has responded well to the changes in industry dynamics, achieving meaningful share gains and benefiting from continued demand for high value medicines such as GLP-1s. Cumulatively, this has seen the underlying business grow both revenue and GOR by 15.8% and 7%. As I mentioned earlier, 2025 saw both an increase in high value medicines and a period of tighter EBITDA margins as the market went through a period of heightened competition. This industry went through a similar process in 2019 when EBOS Group won the CWA contract.
We expect this to be the last period of such competition as the largest single retailer has backward integrated into the wholesale pharmacy chain. I'm very proud of the way that the EBOS team has very methodically prepared for this transition. From the physical challenge of overnight restocking when the contract ended to the cash conversion challenge of ensuring working capital release to the commercial challenge of securing an alternate customer base, our business has managed this transition well. The GOR margin improved by 40 basis points to 9.1%, reflecting a positive shift in both product and customer mix, new business wins, and enhanced service revenue. The increased CSO funding relating to the first pharmacy wholesale agreement commenced in the second half of 2025, and we expect a further step up in FY 2027.
Now, one part of the community pharmacy business that's worth further expanding on is TerryWhite Chemmart, which is Australia's leading health-focused pharmacy network. On slide 11, you can see two key dynamics for TWC. First, network size increased. D uring the year, 34 net new stores joined the network, growing our total to over 620 locations nationwide. These stores are frequently existing pharmacy customers, so we understand their performance well and are happy to have them on board. We expect net store growth to moderate in FY 2026. Next, network performance also improved. Here, we delivered AUD 2.6 billion in sales, representing total sales growth of 10.2% or 8.5% on a same store basis.
I'm delighted that our Care Clinic service continued to scale, delivering approximately 976,000 vaccinations administered across the network through the year. Our understanding is that's more vaccinations administered than anyone in Australia, but I'd be glad to be corrected. Clearly, our customers want to be engaged with their TerryWhite Chemmart pharmacist on health. Not only that, but they want to keep that engagement going online. Over 1.2 million prescription transactions were placed online in FY 2025 through the myTWC app, reflecting strong customer engagement and digital adoption, generally initiated from an in-store interaction with our knowledgeable TWC team. There's more to come in this space. What about institutional healthcare? Turning to slide 12, our institutional healthcare business was again a significant growth driver for the group. This division delivered revenue and GOR growth of 8.4% and 11.4%, respectively. This positive operational leverage was driven by particularly strong growth across Southeast Asia and also in allografts and oncology.
Our Symbion hospital business maintained its growth momentum largely due to the ongoing demand for high value oncology medicines. Growth in medical consumables was partly offset by a normalization in vaccine activity p ost COVID. Transmedic's performance was particularly pleasing and I was glad to meet some of our team in Indonesia and Singapore. The improvement of GOR margin by 40 basis points to 15.7% reflects the ongoing expansion of the medical technology business within institutional healthcare, which is higher margin.
Looking beyond community and institutional healthcare, what about contract logistics? On slide 13 you can see our contract logistics business delivered a solid overall performance with GOR of AUD 154 million in a period up 3.3%. Both the Australian and New Zealand businesses were able to grow their customer base with Australian GOR up 15.3% as the new warehouse capacity was completed in FY 2024. The New Zealand business was down overall as we had previously flagged, which is due to the result of the progressive ramp down of the COVID-19 related contract.
We are continuing to invest in our footprint and systems with a new facility in Perth expected to open in FY 2026 and further cold storage expansion in Sydney, which will support continued demand growth for GLP-1 and other specialty medicines, and Alistair will talk more about this shortly. Beyond healthcare, we have a wonderful second reporting segment, animal care, and how did that perform in FY 2025? On slide 15 we can see animal care revenue and EBITDA increased by 16.3% and 10.4% respectively. This was due to the resilient performance of the branded business and the acquisition of SVS. The performance of the branded business reflects the leadership positions of our flagship Black Hawk and VitaPet brands as well as investments in new partnerships and new product developments.
Consumers have been affected by cost of living pressures and we saw a flattening of the Australian puppy cohort, particularly in the last six months of the year as consumers defer adding a companion pet to their family. I'm pleased that this has been partially offset by share gains for EBOS brands. In the affordable premium space, i n the specialty channel we've seen consumers trade into the Black Hawk brand and in New Zealand we've seen some consumers trade into our value focused but high quality Chunky and Possyum Dog Roll brands. The vet wholesale business also grew significantly, largely due to the acquisition of SVS in April of this year. I'm pleased to report that the acquisition has performed in line with our expectations and reflects our disciplined approach to capital allocation.
The SVS team are great additions to the EBOS team and we look forward to continuing to build opportunities together due to the acquisition of this lower margin wholesale business. The GOR margin for the segment was down 170 basis points to 32%. However, excluding SVS, GOR margin was up 90 basis points on the prior period. In addition to the SVS acquisition, on July the 1st, 2025, we purchased Next Generation Pet Foods and on slide 16 you can see details of the business including photos of the two dedicated facilities focused on the managing, manufacturing, and packing of premium pet products. This acquisition is a strategic expansion of our pet brand business into new high growth, high value products including air dried treats. It also gives us an entry into the club, retail, and hardware channels through the Evolution brand.
That's what you can see in the photos, by the way. The air dryer is in the top right and allows us to introduce new Black Hawk air dried treats, which you can see on the bottom left. The transaction was fully funded from our balance sheet and we expect that the transaction will be marginally EPS accretive in its first full year. With that, I'll now hand over to Alistair to take you through the group's financial performance in more detail.
Thank you Adam. As Adam has mentioned, on an underlying basis the group delivered a solid financial performance for the year despite the significant loss of volume associated with the CWA contract. Revenue was AUD 12.3 billion, up 12% on an underlying basis supported by both of our segments. Underlying EBITDA was AUD 585 million, an increase of 7.5% with group EBITDA margins improving to 4.8%. This result reflects the successful delivery of all our near term growth objectives and disciplined capital allocation. Our depreciation and amortization costs increased to AUD 120 million. This reflects the ongoing capital investment in the DC Renewal program. I will talk further to this shortly. Finance costs were up AUD 12 million due primarily to higher lease interest costs associated with the same program.
Now turning to cash flow, the group generated strong cash flows with underlying cash flow before CapEx of AUD 448 million, up AUD 81 million compared to the prior corresponding period. Net working capital reduced compared to the prior year and cash realization was strong at 109%. The strong cash generation supported our organic and inorganic growth investments and distributions to shareholders. Capital expenditure was AUD 146 million for the period, up AUD 27 million on FY 2024. Turning to slide 20, over the past several years EBOS has made substantial investments in our healthcare infrastructure to support long term growth and improve operational efficiency over the next 10 - 15 years. From FY 2023 to the end of FY 2026, we have invested approximately AUD 360 million in our distribution network and systems across both Australia and New Zealand.
At completion, this program will have delivered eight new sites representing a 20% net increase in our network capacity. The DC Renewal program has already delivered additional refrigeration storage, supporting the significant growth in GLP-1 and other temperature sensitive medicines, expanded automation driving productivity and lowering our cost to serve, and enhanced system integration with customers, improving service delivery and scalability. We expect that the organic capital program will conclude in FY 2026 following commissioning of the remaining three sites. From FY 2027 onwards, annual capital expenditure is expected to reduce approximately 30% on a like- for -like basis reflecting the completion of this strategic program. Now moving to inorganic investments in the period, consistent with our strategy, acquisitions have continued to deliver value to the group. We completed five acquisitions across both the medical technology and animal care businesses.
Collectively these accounted for approximately AUD 210 million of capital w ith investments being small to medium in size, we expect that each investment will be EPS accretive immediately and will support return on capital employed expansion in the short to medium term. Now turning to slide 22. The group b alance sheet and liquidity remain strong. Net debt reduced to AUD 918 million following the successful capital raise in April this year. The leverage ratio of 1.92 x is consistent with the prior year, remaining conservative and within our target range. This provides significant capacity to fund further growth investments. Earlier this year our debt facilities were successfully refinanced and our weighted average debt maturity is now 2.9 years.
Moving on to shareholder returns and earnings growth, underlying earnings per share were AUD 131.30, down AUD 26.60 when compared to the prior corresponding period, reflecting growth of the underlying business, partially offsetting the conclusion of the Chemist Warehouse Australia contract. Reflecting the Board's confidence in the future growth prospects of the group, the Board has declared a final dividend of NZD 61.50 per share, bringing the full year dividend to NZD 118.50 per share.
This represents an underlying payout ratio of 83.8% and will be imputed to 25% for New Zealand tax resident shareholders and fully franked for Australian tax resident shareholders. The group's dividend reinvestment plan, which has been strongly supported by shareholders previously, will be available for the FY 2025 final dividend. Shareholders can elect to take shares in lieu of dividends at a discount of 2.5% to the volume weighted average share price. I will now hand back to Adam to conclude today's presentation.
Thank you very much, Alistair. On slide 25, you can see our outlook for FY 2026. I'd like to share this for the year ahead before we open the call up for Q & A. I believe EBOS is exceptionally well positioned for long term growth. We continue to benefit from positive industry tailwinds across both healthcare and animal care sectors, supported by increased spending, demographic shifts, and evolving customer preferences. However, we remain mindful of near term macroeconomic pressures in FY 2026. The wholesale pharmacy environment remains highly competitive, hospital capital expenditures have softened, and discretionary pet categories are being impacted by subdued customer sentiment. With this context, the group is targeting underlying EBITDA of AUD 615 million- AUD 635 million in FY 2026, representing a 7% uplift on FY 2025 a t the midpoint. W e expect growth in both the healthcare and animal care segment.
This rate of growth would be broadly consistent with FY 2025. It will also be based on similar drivers to the FY 2025 result: continued focus on winning new customers in pharmacy wholesale and driving animal care sales while also taking full advantage of our new distribution centers across New Zealand and Australia. As I noted earlier in the presentation, FY 2026 will also mark the end of our major Distribution Center Renewal program. We anticipate CapEx of AUD 130 million- AUD 140 million this year, which is a small step down from the AUD 146 million of CapEx in FY 2025. Future annual CapEx should reduce by approximately 30% on a like- for -like basis. Our D&A expense is expected to be approximately AUD 140 million- AUD 150 million in FY 2026, r eflecting these recent capital investments.
Our balance sheet remains strong with leverage to remain in our targeted range and ample headroom to support future growth through existing liquidity and financing capacity. FY 2026 net finance costs are expected to be approximately AUD 110 million- AUD 120 million, which assumes there are no additional debt funding requirements. In addition, the effective tax rate will be approximately 28%. Finally, we are planning to host an Investor Day in Q4 where we will provide deeper insights on our strategic priorities, our long term growth drivers, and our capital management framework. We will share further details in due course. Thank you for listening this morning. I will now hand back to the operator for Q & A.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press Star one and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Please have one question and one follow-up per person. If you have more questions, please re-queue. To withdraw your question, please press Star one and one again. Please stand by as we compile the Q & A roster. First question comes from the line of Saul Hadassin from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning Adam and Alistair. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Good morning, Saul.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just the first one. It seemed like operating costs was the surprise in the second half 20 25. A couple of the cost lines stepped up pretty materially in growth versus the previous period and also as a percentage of revenues. I'm thinking here what's booked as other expenses in the profit and loss. We don't get a lot of detail. Can you talk Adam maybe to what you're seeing in terms of those operating costs that potentially presented as more of a challenge in the second half and how we should think about growth in operating costs into FY 2026, please?
I'm going to let Alistair start and then I'll add a comment at the end.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the question, Saul. I recognize that it is fairly difficult to interpret given the number of moving parts and the result we touched as part of the presentation on delivering this savings of AUD 30 million. It's worth recognizing that AUD 22 million of that was in OpEx and AUD 8 million of that was in go. On a like-for-like basis, excluding CWA cost as a percentage of sales has decreased by 20 basis points, which is probably the cleanest read in terms of the cost performance in both the half and the full year. On the same basis, cost dollars has increased with the growth in the base business. It's worth recognizing that CWA was a low cost to serve customer given both the scale and the medicines-only nature of that contract.
Reported costs have increased as a consequence of the change in the customer mix there. By and large, the sort of bridge in terms of costs are really these three simple things. It really is the base growth and the revenue of 12% contributing to the cost base, the savings performance across the business, and then the exit of the CWA costs. What I would say is that the FY 2025 cost position is probably representative of the go-forward position, recognizing the fact that we still remain focused on optimizing the cost base. There has been a tremendous amount of change to the operations of the business in FY 2025. As we've mentioned through this call, we are continuing to progress with the strategically important DC Renewal program, which again operationally creates challenges and change across the business.
I think it'd be fair to say once we have landed that program through FY 2026, we feel really positive about the productivity benefits that we expect to unlock as part of that program. As I've said, we remain focused on cost as an organization.
Yeah, I just want to echo Alistair's comments on the DC Renewal program. In the go forward, a number of the projects are in commissioning at the moment. As they come online, as the team gets six to 12 months of running those DCs under their belt, they'll be able to choreograph the activities in an ever more optimal way and shave some costs up at the margin. Saul, did that answer your question?
Yeah, it did. Thank you for that. Maybe just as a follow-up, you know, Adam, you flag some sort of softening in some of the end markets. You called out animal care and also that competition in community pharmacy. I think as you look into FY 2026, cognizant that your guidance is EBITDA below, from a revenue perspective, can you give us any thoughts on how you see revenue progressing into 2026 across the two key segments, both healthcare and animal care?
I think the way I'd characterize it would be we see the trends of the second half of 2025 broadly continuing through FY 2026. I don't see at this point any material change. Obviously, we'll update you at the half, if not before, on that.
Thank you. That's all I had.
Thanks Saul.
Thank you. Next question comes from Adrian Allbon from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon team. I was just wondering if I could come b ack to the delivery of t he full year EBITDA, because I guess w hen we look at the growth o bjectives that were achieved on slide 6, and particularly even if you go back to the first half, they look like the business was kind of achieving ahead of the initial plan, and then you sort of add in the SVS acquisition, which I'm assuming is maybe AUD 4 million or AUD 5 million of EBITDA. I'm just wondering what would have been required to hit the top end of that range. If you can phrase it back to us in that sense.
Yeah, I think the themes that were pointed to in the half one call, we reaffirmed the guidance of AUD 575 million- AUD 600 million. I think in part because we were seeing the competition in pharmacy wholesale, and that has transpired. Alistair, in terms of the breakdown of the range, did we provide any guidance on that between the AUD 575 million and the AUD 600 million?
No, we didn't necessarily break that down, but Adrian, just to sort of pick up the explanation, I think the themes that Adam touched on in the call really are the driver of that second half performance. We did see the animal care market soften within the second half, which is where we feel really pleased with our ability to grow share through that period. The reality is that has subdued growth in the second half. We've obviously started to see some green shoots in terms of the easing of monetary policy flowing through consumer confidence. As to how quickly that manifests in a more buoyant market remains to be seen. We remain sort of cautious about that, but equally confident about our ability to perform well in that kind of environment. We have also seen some capital sales slowing within the ANZ business.
It's probably a less material factor in truth, but they're probably the contributing factors. Okay, I was wondering if I could.
Ask a slightly different question. Maybe it's just for you, Alistair, like. Just in terms of, I know, like in terms of the outlook, like the net interest costs are stepping up quite materially, like to the turn of AUD 30 million. Can you sort of explain, and like it doesn't feel like the debt is necessarily moving a lot year- on -year. Can you explain the drivers in that?
Yeah, no. Thanks for the question, Adrian. By and large, the financing cost growth into FY 2026 is driven almost exclusively by lease interest costs as a consequence of the continued implementation of the DC Renewal program. We are actually expecting, subject of course to acquisitions and net debt movements, as a consequence, we are actually expecting the bank financing costs to remain broadly consistent year- on -year. It really is the contribution of the DC Renewal program, which I'd kind of go back to. I mean, that is a long-dated series of investments that we've made that will support growth over the next 10 - 15 years. In the short term, that will be our impulse in both interest and depreciation. Does that answer your question, Adrian?
Okay, sorry, just to go back. Your net interest costs or net finance costs was sort of AUD 82 million for this year. They're going up to sort of midpoint AUD 115 million, I think it is in the guidance statement. You're saying all of that bridge is pretty much in the higher lease costs, the actual bank side of it, though?
Yeah, no, sorry Adrian, just to pick up, I think we may have potentially confused you. The net financing costs is AUD 106 million in the year. The AUD 82 million you reference is simply the bank financing, so that excludes lease interest costs. It's moving from AUD 106 million up to AUD 110 million -AUD 120 million, and that movement is driven by lease interest costs.
Did that help, Adrian?
Okay, yeah, that's good. Just finally, in terms of the stay in business with [about your] CapEx once you roll off 2026, it seems higher than history, I suppose. Is that a consequence of inflation? Plus, it's a bit more sophisticated in terms of maintaining these facilities.
I think you've hit the nail on the head there. The sophistication of the facilities and the efficiency gains is what drove much of the investment. The pressure will be on the team to really put those to work and drive the highest productivity from each of those facilities.
Okay, thanks.
Thanks, Adrian.
Thank you. Just moving to our next question, please. Next we have Matt Montgomerie from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Hi guys. Good afternoon. Just want to pick up on pharmacy, if that's okay. I mean you're clearly calling out pressure on margins. If you could, I guess, provide a bit more detail behind what you're factoring in in FY 2026 in terms of pharmacy GOR margins. It sort of feels like they need to be coming down somewhat notably lower to get to your guidance, and then maybe any comments you can provide on EBITDA margins within pharmacy. What's happened in FY 2025 and then what's incorporated into guidance?
Sure, thanks for that question, Matt. Firstly, in terms of the industry dynamics, we've seen this movie before. Back in 2019 when EBOS picked up the CWA contract from another player, we saw a period of around 18 - 24 months following that transition where there was a realignment of that spare capacity in the competitor that was created with the market demands. We're seeing that again now and this will be the last time because of course there's now integration between CWA and another player. Again, we're seeing that take that 18 probably to 24 months after the changeover. We would expect that period to continue all the way through 2024. In terms of the overall margins, with the increase in high cost medicines, that has an impact on pharmacy wholesale margins. You heard me mention that on the call.
Alistair, I think it would be fair to say that the GOR, we would expect to be at roughly the same level in 2026 as 2025 in terms of percent.
Yeah, that's absolutely right. We've seen both in community pharmacy and institutional healthcare being supported by the growth and the high value medicines. As Adam outlines, these are a material contribution to the top line growth, and as such they're having an impact on the shape of the P&L because higher sales, same GOR, same EBITDA. The margins are being compressed. Naturally, we have seen that trend. This isn't something new, as I'm sure you would appreciate, Matt. We have seen that trend continue. At present, we don't see that trend abating. Certainly, our expectation is that that will continue into FY 2025. I'd expect the shape and growth within that segment to remain broadly consistent with what we've seen in the half, recognizing Adam's comment about heightened competition.
Matt, maybe just a place to end there. In terms of GLP-1s, the prior rationing regime has come to an end in Australia, and in New Zealand the launch of GLP-1s only happened on the 1st of July. There is still future runway in high priced medicines across both Australia and New Zealand.
Okay, that makes sense. If we sit back from your guidance a little bit more, your first question is is it fair to assume that organic growth within your guidance is about 4% year -on -year, you're acknowledging SVS plus presumably the small Next Generation Pet Foods contribution, and then I suppose I think some more color would be appreciated as to divisional drivers in behind that. I mean I know you don't typically give color, but I'm just cognizant that there's some reasonable downgrades likely to consensus here and that organic growth rate is lower than what you would have typically delivered over the last five, 10 years. I think it would be appreciated just a little bit more color if we could step through your divisional comments a bit more.
Yeah. I think, let's go back to FY 2025 as the starting point. In FY 2025 was 7.5% growth and we got into 7% growth in 2026. I guess that's 50 basis points.
I'm just more meaning organically. Like if we strip out the impact of acquisitions, it looks like your guidance for 2026 is for 4% organic growth, which is lower than what you've typically delivered historically. I think I'm just looking for color on more divisional comments in behind that.
I think you're broadly accurate, but given the headwinds that we've outlined, including the increased competition and the currently soft animal care market, I think that's to be expected.
Is there anything else you'd want to call out in institutional healthcare or concept logistics?
Look, as Alistair mentioned, there's probably a slightly soft hospital capital expenditure outlook . We've seen that through 2025. That probably impacts our Southeast Asian business more than our Australian business, but that remains a sort of third driver. The top two would be pharmacy wholesale competition and discretionary spending. Thank you very much, Matt.
Thank you. Just a moment for our next question, please. Next we have David Loeb from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Just with the lease costs, I mean. Clearly I've missed how much they were going to lift. I was just wondering, Alistair, if you. Could give us some rules of thumb because obviously there's other DCs coming on and three yet to come on. How do we think about converting the CapEx spend to the likely lease costs as I think beyond FY 2026?
You know, that's a great question. Thank you. As I would say, start by saying I recognize that it's been challenging to predict given the step up investment that we've made. It's really why we've been deliberate about being transparent about the guidance into FY 2026 for both depreciation and financing costs. We wanted to provide that clarity as we go through. Clearly, as we continue to invest in FY 2026, I would expect that there would be a less material increase in D&A and financing costs into FY 2027. I won't get into the permutations. The longer we get out, the more subjective that becomes.
Really what I'd point you to is the guidance we've given in 2026. That will then be a reasonable base to go off. We are, and Adam noted that in his overview, like, we would expect the CapEx to materially reset down post completion of this DC Renewal program in 2026 and then I would expect these levers to move in a more consistent format to what we've seen previously. Did that kind of help, David?
Yeah, no, it does.
Thank you, David.
It'd be nice to have some rules o f thumb in terms of the CapEx and the timings of openings. We can talk about it offline when I've done a bit more r eview of my numbers. Thanks for the note.
No problem. Thank you, David.
Thank you. Next we have Stephen Ridgewell from Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon. Just a couple of questions on the divisional results and outlook. First of all, on the medical technologies business. You sort of split it out, but back of the envelope I think you can spend t he GOR margins may be around 55%. Just on the result you've delivered, i t might have softened a little bit. Just given the strength of revenue growth in Southeast Asia, are you able to talk to the GOR margin for the medical technologies business in that market? Does it tend to be a little? Bit lower than Australia, or was it just sort of business mix and acquisitions perhaps driving that?
Look, Stephen, I'm very sorry, we don't provide any additional color on that because it is commercially sensitive. We have to be in the market, winning partners, selling new products every day. We don't provide additional guidance on that. What I can say is that we were really pleased with the Transmedic performance in the second half. I think they did a great job. Other than potentially some slight softness in hospital sales just at the very back end of the year in Southeast Asia, the rest of the half was a strong half for that business.
I appreciate you don't split it out specifically, but at a high level, is that market typically a lower margin market for the industry than perhaps what's achieved in Australia? Because I guess the consideration is the growth is a lot faster in Southeast Asia going forward, and obviously seeing that the year just gone, it might be that the market needs to think about some dilution of core margins going forward from that segment.
I appreciate you coming through. I think you can assume it's broadly similar, and if it ends up growing in a different direction, we'll let you know. At the moment, broadly similar assumption would be high.
The only point I'd make, obviously we group Med Tech within the institutional healthcare segment, and you would have noted that the gross margin has expanded at a healthy rate in the full year. That really talks to the pleasing growth that we've seen in the Transmedic business in particular in the second half, which is obviously, as you rightly noted, margin accretive to the rest of the portfolio.
Okay, all right, we'll move on. In terms of animal care, Adam, you kind of called out in terms of the outlook consumers are trading down. Understand that EBOS has access to scan data, which gives you a pretty good sense of market share. You're just able to confirm, just to provide a bit of comfort that EBOS branded products aren't losing share sort of year to date in FY 2026 and you're not assuming share loss. I guess that's because it is a new trend that's been a strong performer and obviously the like -for-l ikes are a little bit softer, o rganics are a little bit softer at the moment.
Oh my gosh, Stephen, it's been such a great performance by the team. The puppy cohort is definitely flat, but the Black Hawk share of that cohort has definitely increased at the margin. If you think about what the team had to do, the team had to make sure that every consumer in Australia that's trying to take care of their furry member of their household has seen Black Hawk as the affordable premium option for that member of their family. It's worked. Their share is up.
Our understanding is that it's been a great partner to the channel as well, and the channel enjoys bringing Black Hawk to market. I don't want to forget the different position, but still share up in dog roll in New Zealand at the margin, again, just at the margin, but seeing strong performance in the Chunky and Possyum brands, which are just a high quality product but at a very reasonable price for the consumer. New Zealand consumers feeling the cost of living pressure at the moment, seeing both those brands as great options. I'm glad you asked the question. I'm sorry if we weren't clear before, but the branded products within the animal care portfolio are doing well and we expect that to continue in 2026.
Okay, that is helpful. Thanks, Adam. I guess just in terms o f t he market move which you have called out, which is consumers trading down a little bit to lower value brands in the prepared remarks. I guess from an EBOS perspective, is there a different margin structure between the premium brands and the more value brands in the mix that we should keep in mind?
I don't believe so. I think we're very comfortable that, you know, obviously the cost base adjusts with the price and that overall the margin. I can see what your question is, Steve, and you're concerned about if the value brands were to surge, does that mean a change in the margin percentage? I wouldn't say that at the moment.
Okay, thanks. Maybe just one last one for me again on the guide. Is there, beyond the factors you've called out, are there also BAU cost pressures that are elevated in terms of what you're expecting for FY 2026, for example, wage cost pressures or freight pressures, for example, that you take into consideration with the outlook statements that perhaps haven't been called out yet.
I'll let Alistair comment in just a moment. In general, we expect inflationary pressures on our cost base every year. I think it is comparably visible that we have 3% - 5% sort of cost growth baked into EBOS and so on. We expect the teams to offset that every year as well through productivity or through other means to protect the margin. Alistair, do you have any comment on that?
I've got nothing to add to that. I think that was a good summary.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Stephen.
Thank you, management. As a reminder, please have one question and one follow-up per person. If you have more questions, please requeue. Just a moment for our next question, please. Next, we have Lyanne Harrison from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Adam and Alistair. You mentioned a couple of times pharmacy constitution being a little bit of a headwind. Can you talk through how you've seen that present itself, and also can you talk to that in light of you've won something like 320 new store customer contracts this year? Can you give us some color on whom or where you're winning that from and reasons for the win?
Yes, Lyanne, thank you for your question. Your line came through just a little bit faint for us, but my understanding is that you're asking about Community Pharmacy, what the nature is of the competition, and how Symbion manages to win despite the competition. Is that right, Lyanne?
Yes, that's correct. Do you think you're winning your share of the new store customers?
Yeah, you heard me reference this in the opening remarks. We believe our market share in pharmacy wholesale is up slightly, excluding CWA. The reason for that is the power of this enduring value proposition to pharmacists across Australia. That value proposition is built on a team at Symbion that has a huge amount of experience and relationships in the industry. That means they're seen as very reliable. Of course, you need to meet the market price. I think in a market where there's heightened competition, pharmacists are going to look and test the options that they have for their wholesale. They're going to rank them up. If we can meet the market price, then I think Symbion becomes a very compelling proposition to that pharmacist. Did that answer your question, Lyanne? Again, you were just a little faint on the first one.
Yep. No, that's fine. Thank you. Just a second question. You talked about some cost savings. Your guide range for 2025 of about AUD 25 million - AUD 50 million. Do you have a similar target range for 2026 that you can share with us? Where do you think some of those cost savings might come from?
Yeah, thanks for the question, Lyanne. The AUD 25 million- AUD 50 million was actually by the end of FY 2026. The target that we outlined was for next year. We've obviously delivered AUD 30 million of that in year one and feel really positive about being able to achieve that cost. What I would say is we continue to be focused across the entire cost space looking for opportunities both for efficiency enhancement and also from procurement benefits. I would say that it is something we'll continue to be focused on. I would expect there to be some inflationary offsetting savings as we look forward into FY 2026. As Adam said in answer to a previous call, from a management perspective, we do look to try and negate the impact of inflation as we look forward and set targets and investments across the organization. That's something we'll continue to do.
Thank you very much. I'll leave it there.
Thanks, Lyanne.
Thank you. Next question comes from Daniel Hurren from MST Marquee, please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks very much. Look, a lot of the earlier questions. We're kind of dancing around the same issue today about the industry outlook. I was hoping you might be willing to say what you expect for community pharmacy system growth in FY 2026 within your guidance and if you expect to b e below or above that.
Dan, thank you for your question focusing on community pharmacy. I heard that you're asking about community pharmacy and then you're asking about FY 2026, but I just didn't catch the last part. Would you mind just saying it one more time?
Sure. My question is, you know, what do you expect for community pharmacy system growth in FY 2026 within your guidance, and if you're expecting to be above or b elow that?
System, did I hear you right, say system growth, meaning the market growth?
Yes.
Yes. You're asking, are we expecting to gain or hold market share or lose market share in Community Funds in FY 2026? If that's the question, I think that we are assuming that steady state in terms of market share through FY 2026.
What do you expect that pharmacy growth to be in 2026 within yo ur guidance. What is your assumption there for, with all these headwinds you've been talking about, w ith high cost drugs and so forth? What is your assumption for market growth to be?
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Daniel. We won't go into splitting out the segment by segment, business by business guidance. What's the biggest segment at this point? I think pretty much. I think we've provided a relatively tight range in terms of our EBITDA guidance. What I can say is, though, that I would expect the dynamics that we've seen in FY 2025 to be broadly consistent with laws and [FY 2026 ].
One thing I'd add though, Dan, just looking back at FY 2025, you heard us mention that we had a slight tick up in our market share in pharmacy wholesale. That was a pretty good result given that not just the change in CW , but also that it doesn't include CW in that base, given CW is growing swiftly.
Okay, thanks. Last question, looking forward, Chemist Warehouse New Zealand. Will that be negotiated in FY 2026 and do we need to consider that during the guidance period?
I don't think we're going to comment on any individual contracts other than the CWA contract, which of course is already, the CWA contract, which has come to an end. Everything else I think would be baked into the guidance range that we've given.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks, Daniel.
Thank you. Next we have Stephen Hudson from Macquarie Securities. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Adam and Alistair. Just two quick ones from me just on the DC Renewal program. Did I hear you correctly when you said that that should give you 10 -1 5 years of capacity headroom in both animal care and healthcare?
Stephen, I would love for that to be the case. I think that's probably just a bridge too far. Firstly, the DC Renewal program was only in healthcare, it did not cover animal care, so let me put that one to the side right away. Within healthcare, each of the assets has a 10 - 15 year life. I will be encouraging the team to create a high quality problem as swiftly as possible by driving utilization as quickly as possible. The extent to which we need additional CapEx will be the extent to which the team succeeds. If we happen to have a h igh quality problem s horter than 10 - 15 years, I think that'll be welcome at the time.
That's useful, Adam. Where does it lead you versus your key competitors? Do you think in terms of headroom? Could you give us some broad brush comments on cost to serve?
Look, I think one of the, when I look at each of those eight facilities, the underlying teams were intimately involved in designing the DC refreshes, and so they're well suited for each of the businesses. Just for example, one of the HCL facilities that came on in New Zealand arrived just in time with the additional refrigerated capacity to serve the GLP-1s that were released in New Zealand on the 1st of July . I see each of these facilities as generating a return for each of their individual business units, and again, something that we'll be pushing each of the teams to focus on. Did you have any add to that, Alistair?
I mean I think you answered it well, Adam. The only other example I'd probably direct you to, Stephen, is we're investing in a distribution center in Sydney, which really step changes the productivity of that site and again provides other capacity for future growth. As Adam said, these are sort of site by site, business by business investments, while we've wrapped up as a renewal program, but we feel very confident in the productivity and service that these new facilities will give us relative to competition.
Okay, very good. I'll just sneak in a second one. I think that's the second one, the AUD 95 million go-forward CapEx that you've provided us. Can you just break down that into some basic buckets?
Probably I'll take that one, Stephen, thank you for the question. I probably won't break it down at this point. I think what I'd like to do is take that question on notice and share more on our capital management framework and how we think about capital at the investor day that we've outlined. I think there's a bit to unpack, so I'd rather do that then, if that's okay, Stephen?
Yep, no problem. Thanks, Alis.
Thank you.
Thank you again, Stephen.
Thank you. Our last question comes from Marcus Curley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Lucky last. Can we just start with any color you can provide on what you think the community pharmacy market growth was in FY 2025?
Thank you for the question, Marcus. I'll let Alistair lead on that, and then I'll follow on.
Yeah, just to clarify Marcus, you're asking about the market growth in community pharmacy in Australia.
Correct, yeah. In the last financial year.
In the last financial year. I mean at a revenue or value perspective, the growth in the community pharmacy market has been relatively elevated compared to the long term average as we've talked about. The driver of that in reality is the distorting factor of high value medicines, which have been a feature for some time and continue to be. The growth in these medicines continues to be propelled most recently by the introduction of GLP-1. I think the PBS growth was low double digits in the year, which is probably as good a guide as I'd be able to provide in terms of that market goal.
Marcus, in addition I would say the—oh, sorry, did you have a follow-on?
Oh no, you finished. Sorry.
In addition, I would say just on those high value drugs, those are not just GLP-1s. There's also continuing growth in high cost oncology drugs and other Section 100s that are coming through as well. Yeah.
Fair enough to assume that the market growth for the distributors is less than t he low double digit?
Sorry, I didn't catch the question. Marcus, do you mind just seeing that again?
Yes, at the distribution level the revenue growth would be less. Given that obviously the payment against high value drugs is obviously different at the distributor level.
No, it generally correlates. What we are seeing though is the GOR margin is being compressed as a consequence of that mix. We delivered like- for -like revenue growth in our community pharmacy business of 15.8% which is higher than the aforementioned PBS [growth]. We feel very comfortable with the performance of the community pharmacy business, particularly in light of the change in the business.
With PBS. Sorry, you first, Marcus.
No, no. I was going to ask a second question but happy for you to finish.
I was just going to say just the important point to note with PBS is you can publicly observe the dollar spend under PBS. That translates slightly differently into the wholesale because it's the number of units carried that benefits the wholesaler in that case. Back to you for your follow on question.
My second question was just on the o perating costs, which have been spoken about a couple of times. There was quite a large difference. This is in the healthcare business, quite a large difference between the second half and the first half. Would it be right in assuming that we should be using the second half as the base going forward as opposed to the year as a whole? The difference was sort of AUD 30 million or so.
Yeah, I think that, I think that's right, Marcus. I think the second half better represents the forward look in terms of the cost profile.
I think that is consistent with the guidance on the continuing themes of pharmacy competition and high priced medicines.
Okay, great. Maybe seeing one last. I've got maybe the liberty of actually asking another one. When you do the maths around the acquisition of SVS, it does look like the EBITDA contribution was a shade below AUD 6 million. I believe it was only for three months. That sort of implies, yes, circa AUD 23 million on an annualized basis versus the acquisition talked about AUD 15 million . Is there any seasonality or is it just simply that it's traveling a lot better than you thought?
Oh, great question. One of the things that's actually pretty fun about the SVS acquisition is that it's about 50% companion animal business and 50% industrial animal exposure in New Zealand. It's actually a pretty interesting addition because we don't have that in the Lyppard business in Australia. As a result, that leads to what you put your finger on, Marcus, the seasonality. I would not unfortunately just multiply out, but the full year impact of SVS is in the guidance range that we provided.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Marcus.
This concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand back to Adam .
Thank you all very much for your questions and your time this morning. I'm looking forward to engaging with shareholders and analysts in the coming days. To conclude this presentation, I just want to turn to slide 26 and reaffirm the EBOS investment proposition. Healthcare and animal care continue to experience sustained increases in consumer and institutional spend, driven by demographic shifts, innovation, and evolving customer preferences, and a desire for a longer health span. These macro opportunities are well matched by EBOS' core capabilities. In a growing, complex market, we are trusted to connect with care, notably in wholesale distribution and nutrition. For investors, this means we are levered to ongoing healthcare spend, but we don't have the exposure to large clinical practitioner bases. It's this exposure that's yielded a track record of consistent EBITDA growth.
Over the past decade, EBOS has outperformed the broader market, and I'm excited to build on this momentum. As CEO, I'm committed to further strengthening our leadership, unlocking new growth opportunities, and continuing to deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders. The team and I are excited by the challenge. Thank you for your time this morning.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.