Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks to you all for joining this update to our analysts today, updating you on our interim results for the thirtieth of June. In commencing and starting this presentation, I would like to introduce you, Nick Reynolds. Nick Reynolds is Group Financial Controller. He's standing in for the other Nick at the moment, Nicola Neilson, who unfortunately is sick. She's a young mum with a toddler at home, and any of you who have those know that they will come home from daycare with new and novel diseases for you to experience, and unfortunately, she's under the weather and unable to be here because she's ill. So, welcome. It's been a challenging period for the company over the last six.
We've had, you know, every challenge thrown at us over the time. We've had a wet summer. We've had followed by, you know, cyclones, a hail at harvest time, much lower volumes than what we had ever ever predicted. And we've had flooding down in the Hawke's Bay and in Gisborne, and so, you know, it really has been a difficult period. On top of that, it was a low dry matter year for the industry, so the fruit characteristics had lower leaf weight, lower dry matter, and it was at a time that the that the maturity standards were increased to try and improve quality, and so, you know, some of the fruit that we would normally have packed didn't get packed.
We've had the lowest Hayward yields across the industry in the last 10 years, and the lowest yields for SunGold on record once orchards have got to full production. So, today, you know, as an introduction, you know, that is the introduction to us, really. For a large part of our business, we are a hotel for fruit, and our occupancy rate was much lower than what we had expected, predicted, or I would have liked. So, I'm going through presentation today, push my own buttons. Gonna run you through the highlights for the six months, talk a little bit about the balance sheet, give you an insight to the operating segments performance, each parts of our business, and talk to you a little bit about our forward focus.
You know, without being completely depressed about it, I'd also say to you that we've had a complete change in the weather pattern more recently. You know, it's got much more calmer, less rain, colder, particularly through the second- half of the winter, and generally, you know, we're reasonably satisfied with the work we've done and what we're seeing in the orchards at the moment. So in terms of the highlights. So firstly, challenging six months, as I introduced, you know, right across the industry, we're not immune to it, right across all regions. You know, we are big regional players in Northland and out into Tauranga, into Gisborne, and so, and down to the Hawke's Bay.
So, you know, the impact of those weather events with a warm winter, the frost, the cyclones, the flooding and the hail was that, you know, our occupancy rate through our pack houses was down. Revenue was NZD 212.7 million. EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, at NZD 36.4 million. Thirteen point six million dollars profit before tax, NZD 0.25 EPS, and the Hayward yields and SunGold yields down on what we expected, and on last year, and much lower than what we would have liked. Now, of course, we've made a profit for the first six months, but we've also told the market that we're expecting a full- year loss between NZD 20 million and NZD 25 million.
That's because normally our cool stores would be sort of 60%-70%, or 60%-80% full at the end of June, and this year they were something much lower than that, 50%-60%. And so therefore, as we head to the second month, second six months, we don't have so much fruit in store to rework out, yet we've got all of the costs of leasing stores, we've got all of the costs of maintaining those facilities and the staff, with the expectation that next year the volumes will bounce back, and hopefully, and we are predicting that we will head back into back into the black. Operationally, you know, at the last annual meeting, we talked about the things that we wanted to do better.
We were concentrating on as a company, first of which was to be operationally excellent, and to improve our operational performance. We've achieved that. Improvements that we've put in place in the company to address the issues from last year have delivered good results. We've got new automation commissioned, particularly at KKP. We delivered growers a very timely harvest this year, with few exceptions. We've got very low fruit loss, extremely low fruit loss, below 1%, in both categories, so excellent. And our quality delivered to the markets across all categories, and particularly to Zespri, has been nothing short of excellent. So operationally, things have worked well, and I would also say to you that the margins that we expect to make on a per tray basis across our business actually has been achieved.
Our issue simply is that we didn't have enough volume, and it is an industry-wide phenomena. Assets grew to NZD 582.7 million. Asset backing is at NZD 6.01 million, a significant premium to the current share price. And so, you know, a key issue for the company was getting back to a state where we can pay dividends. We have NZD 182.3 million in bank debt. Bank debt remains a focus, and we have got full banking support. We have done a number of things I'm gonna talk about in this presentation to focus on bank debt. It's a little bit like the Titanic, you know? You've got to do things well in advance of when you actually start to see the results.
We have dramatically slowed our capital expenditure, and we've taken some cost reduction mechanisms into the company. We are also looking at sale and leaseback opportunities, and with, by way of example, have got a new facility that we are building in Sharp Road, that may well be sold, and we intend to do that with a leaseback in place. We have, early on in the six months, we spoke to our banking syndicate. We explained to them the situation. We did a joint presentation with East Pack to talk about an industry-wide issue that we were facing, and we put in place and negotiated some banking covenants waivers with them. Interest cover ratio and leverage ratio are the two, and they are planned to come back next year.
We have, as a highlight, put in place a negotiated, a sustainability-linked loan as part of our suite of banking facilities, and so effectively that puts in place a penalty or a premium, or a reward should we achieve certain, sustainability-linked targets. And so that for us, is a highlight and is a big important step for the company. We have taken steps to control and innovative steps to actually get over top of costs and cost inflation. We have gone through and restructured nearly all of the company and trimmed out the overheads. We also put in place a, captive insurance structure, where in fact, we've actually set up our own insurance company, Seeka Insurance Management.
And we have gone and placed that cover directly into the insurance market, both in New Zealand and in London, and with a significant saving in costs. Costs haven't gone down, costs just haven't gone up by as much as we might have expected, given the sort of assets that we are, that we are seeking to protect through insurance. We have got capacity in place to handle well more than the 30 million trays of kiwifruit we handled. It's not just about kiwifruit, but that's the big game in town for us. It is our foundation business. And so, you know, we've got the capacity to handle well, much, much more than that.
You know, more than NZD 50 million, and so, you know, we're able to actually look forward and just do sensible things now to make sure we're efficient. Short-term outlook has improved. We have experienced much better weather. At the moment, we've got good winter chill here in New Zealand. You know, for the first half, it was probably lackluster, and very ordinary in terms of quite mild and wet, if you recall. But the second half of the chilling period has been cold, and we've actually caught up. From now on, it doesn't really matter because we've already got the bud break enhancers in, or applied, it's being applied now, we're just finishing it. And so really, you know, we're pretty happy with what we're seeing here in New Zealand. Australia looks tremendous. We're really happy with what's happening over there.
The team have done a good job. So we are planning for a resurgence in volumes. That is the expectation. Life seldom works like it does on a spreadsheet, but if it works like it does on a spreadsheet, in this case, we'll be very happy. And of course, you know, where we have focused on some things, particularly around our retail services business, that's really bounced back to more favorable trading conditions. So we're happy with the work the teams done up there in Auckland, and of course, our new developments in, in Australia are taking place. In terms of group financial performance, as I said, NZD 212.7 million in revenues, down 14%, NZD 48.4 million in gross profits, down 22% on the previous corresponding period. NZD 36.4 million EBITDA, down 26%.
13.6 million dollars profit before tax, down 55%. But really, it's all about volume, 'cause we didn't have the stores anywhere near as full as they were last year or previously, in terms of percentage terms, and so in the second six months, we haven't got so much fruit to load out and make money. And kiwi fruit is the big part of our business. Then we've got some graphs, in case some of you like graphs. They're just really showing you the same information again as bars, but a little bit going back a bit over time. You can see the EBITDA down to levels which we haven't seen since 2020, but of course, we're a much bigger business now, and so, you know, it's not really that relative. NPAT at 10.5 million.
Total assets of NZD 583 million. We've already gone over that. In terms of operating segment performance, I'm gonna talk more about the operating segments in a minute. So effectively, in the first segment in orcharding, you will see we made a loss. Well, quite simply, we've been frosted and hailed. The yields are down, and look, you know, we've got to take a prediction of what we think the fruit's gonna sell for. And you know, if the fruit returns go up later in the season, then perhaps that loss will reduce. But it's a reasonably small part of our business. You know, NZD 5.1 million in EBITDA the year before is now -1.9 million. So it's quite sensitive to changes in yields, in particular, and AGRs.
In terms of post-harvest, NZD 47.4 million at the six belies the fact that we're not full. We had a busy first six months, but the stores aren't full, so the fruit isn't in the store to work the second six months to make money. As a positive note, SeekaFresh retail services really bounced back with vengeance. The strategies that were put in place and the management team there, and the operational people on the ground done a great job. Concentrating on key varieties: avocados, citrus, kiwifruit, tropicals, some cherries, and eggs. And so, you know, they've done a good job for that to bounce back. Australia's had a harder year. Many of the issues that we've had here in New Zealand, we had there.
And so, you know, but the outlook actually in Australia, I was there last week, with Jon van Popering and the team, and, you know, pretty happy with the work they've done. Those orchards look as good at this time of the year as they've ever looked. I'd say to you that, you know, the next six weeks across both countries in terms of our kiwi fruit orcharding business is critical, as we head into bud break, and into flowering, and into fruit set, you know, it's a critical time for us in terms of the growing season to see what fruit we'll get to pick. And look, you know, I think last year, industry got caught with a late spring frost.
It's the first one we've had in a very long time, maybe nine or 10 years. It's unlikely that we'll be caught to that same extent again. We're far more prepared and far more aware of it. In terms of the balance sheet, we're looking at our balance sheet in total. NZD 14.3 million increase in capital employed in the half year. Of course, we're building the accommodation facility out there in Sharp Road. That Sharp Road facility is being opened at 10 o'clock this Friday at the facility. Any people who are around are welcome to attend it. Then our intention is to put that facility and that property onto the market and lease it back, as one of the opportunities that we're looking about, sale and leaseback.
We had a NZD 6 million increase in plant, property, plant, and equipment since the half year last year. Well, of course, you know, we have slowed our capital expenditure. We have got a lot of automation now into the business. And so, you know, you get the hangover. We put the investment in last year, we've got to pay for the last of it this year. So the things that we're doing now will save money going forward because, you know, we've actually slowed down to within what we expect depreciation to be. So total capital employed here, NZD 540.5 million, compared to NZD 526.2 million the previous year. Continuing on the balance sheet theme, talking about bank debt, NZD 177 million at the end of June 2023.
We had a lot of money going out to Seeka RSE. We got paid back, of course, as advances in around the 15th of July, so that's all back into the bank now. I think that's about NZD 30 million. It's a NZD 15.7 million increase in the year before, but that's following the investment that we had in automation and capacity. We've got the new sustainability linked loan with the measures around greenhouse gas emissions, around increasing our solar generation, which is happening at the moment, and to target our health and safety process. We have got NZD 21 million in a banking syndicate facility from the banking syndicate. We've got covenant waivers in place for 2023. They come back into being next year.
They stage their way back in, so 4.5 times for the first for next June for leverage is EBITDA debt, and then down to 4 at the end of the year. So a reasonable—banks have been sensible in supporting the company as we come back. And the same with interest cover. And so actually, we would commend the banks for their approach with the whole industry really through this process. Dividends will be planned to recommence when our board thinks it's reasonable to do so, and one of the thresholds for that will be making sure that we're compliant with our covenants. Earnings per share and dividends, well, at 6.25 cents a share. The asset backing is NZD 6.01, just down 1%.
There's some property revaluations going on, just reflecting the general property market in New Zealand and interest rates. And there's no dividend presently. The board has said no dividend, and we're just working our way forward to next year, really. In terms of the guidance, as I said earlier, the guidance range is for a profit or loss before tax of between NZD 20 million and NZD 25 million. In terms of operating segments, and getting into this part of the presentation, just pushing through, getting on the right page in the notes in front of me. Revenue at NZD 39.9 million, is down 13%, really reflects the impact of lower yields, frost, hail, and lower OGRs from Zespri. EBITDA, negative NZD 1.9 million, as I previously said. SunGold is down at the 22%.
You can see the SunGold yield there is less than 10,000 trays, actually 9,333 trays. You can see the Hayward yield, 6,750, really reflects orchards that have been hit with frost or partially hit with frost, or neighboring orchards that have been hit with frost. And so what tends to happen is that the flowers get affected by the cold weather, and we get misshapen fruit, and the yields go down. And so, look, we wouldn't expect that to happen again. We have done a lot of innovation in that part of our business. Our picking innovations have created operational improvements. We have got NZD 19 million invested in longer term. Orchard developments will start coming into production from next year. And in fact, in the Longr idge, they actually are coming in now.
We're sort of slowing our investment in those developments because they'll start to start paying back. Of course, we've got big partnerships with iwi and regional operations to actually get those away. Our orcharding business provides secure supply through to our post-harvest business, which is really the facility that is a hotel for fruit. In terms of the post-harvest business, NZD 151.1 million in revenues, down 15%. NZD 47.4 million EBITDA, is down 10. You know, kiwifruit volumes are well under capacity. We've got to handle a lot more fruit if it had been there for us to handle. A very big highlight for us is the KK machine, turned on and delivered the numbers from day one. So very happy. We've also got Oakside and Trans transport capacity upgrades completed.
We've got a new, camera grading, operation actually on Oakside 3. It's done a good job. We've also got carton handling facility over in Gisborne, which actually removes a lot of labor in a site that at some point will run 24 hours a day. So it just takes the labor pressure off us. Having a balance of machines that are highly automated, with alongside machines which are traditional manual graders, actually served the company and its growers really well this year, because those lines that were compromised by hail, needed a more intense visual grade, were able to be done on machines without compromising the efficiency of the big machines that actually took high value and high volume fruit, fruits.
Margins on a per tray basis is achieved, and these guys are obsessed with actually achieving fruit quality, which is one of our brand attributes, and, you know, they've done a good job, really. The key question for us or the key mission for us is up the volumes as an industry. And so this is where we generate the cash that actually pays back the investment that we've got in this part of our business. You know, nearly NZD 400 million invested in this part of our business needs to be earning more than it does, and it will. In terms of the Seeka Fresh retail business, really a bit of a highlight. Maybe not quite, but nearly a lone highlight for us. Just under NZD 10 million in revenues, up 15%.
This business so far, through week 34, this year's only missed weekly budget sales rates four weeks. So, you know, tremendous really, 'cause it's quite challenging. The EBITDA of NZD 1.7 million is up 240% on previous year. Business is rebuilding after COVID-19 disruptions. Got a good relationship running with its customers, and good supplier lines, and we've got a reputation for quality. Team's doing a great job. Niche market supplier, delivering incremental returns to growers across New Zealand. Key categories: avocados, kiwifruit, citrus, importers, tropicals, and actually, we're now today selling our own pears that we grow in Australia on the floor here in New Zealand. So, you know, we're just expecting that business to keep building and building, and so, well done. If I can say that to the others, you can draw your own conclusion.
In terms of Australia business, well, it's been challenging over there, many of the same issues that we've had here in New Zealand. You know, NZD 11.6 million in revenues, down 19%. We had a flood there. Surprisingly, how much effect that's had. Weather pattern over there has settled down. Their winter chill they've just been through is more than double what we have here in Te Puke. More than 850 chill units over there in Shepparton, so it looks pretty good. And Jon and the team have done a good job in tying down a good canopy looking forward. Unfortunately, the EBITDA result for six months is NZD 900,000 million, down 65%. You know, and but we have got some new developments here. We've got the jujube dates coming into production, which looks really good.
And we've got, you know, 63 hectares of orchards coming through into production, which actually we takes a bit longer in Australia, but it's a very good market. It's a very good market, and the market for Hayward Kiwifruit in Australia, you know, very strong. At that time of the year, there's only really our Australian Hayward Kiwifruit available for sale. In terms of our forward focus, well, we continue to focus on being operationally excellent. We talked about this at this, on, at the annual shareholder meeting in April. And so, you know, making sure that we're our processes that we've put in place are there and delivering. You know, the focus we have put in place around inventory management's done well. Some of the new reporting tools we've got in the company are excellent.
You know, and we've got an end-to-end focus now. We're focusing not just on what's happening, well, we've got the fruit, but what's happening to the fruit once we've dispatched it to the market. And so, you know, we will continue to push in that part of our business and our orcharding business to, to get the results right. We have actively managed our costs and will continue to do that. We are a leaner business. We expect to save NZD 3 million in personnel related expenditure this year by restructuring or reducing headcount by a third. That NZD 3 million has not come from vacancies. That's come from roles where people used to work in them. So we've been through that business. We haven't been through that process. We haven't quite finished it yet, but we're nearly there.
And there may be no other changes, but we continue to review things. We're reasonably pleased with what the captive insurance company has done for us. It's set to save us over NZD 1 million annually. We'll continue to visit the market and make sure that our underwriters are happy with us, and we're pretty happy with the team at Lockton, who've taken us through that process. Capital spending will continue to be within annual depreciation. We'll continue to slow that. We believe we've got enough money there to do any automation that we need to do, to do capital maintenance, and to manage our risks. We don't have a lot of deferred maintenance around, so we can actually focus in a structural way.
We've put in place a new role in the company, which is a facilities manager, looking at the 11 pack houses and 30-odd coastal sites, and putting in program maintenance to make sure that we're over the top of it, to manage the state of our maintenance evenly across the business. We are focused very much on bank debt reduction. I'm sorry to be so vague about it, but it is a key focus for us. We continue to be focused in on it. We have got the line facility in place with those covenants waived for 2023. I want to say that the leverage ratio actually is 4.25 next June and 4 next December, not 4.5. Interest cover goes 1x and then 1.5x, in case you needed to know.
We have continuing support from our banking syndicate. We are investigating sale and leaseback options. And for example, as one of them, is the sale and leaseback of the Sharp Road accommodation facility that we are just completing building and are opening this Friday. We've got the capacity to handle more than 50 million trays. It's not a finite number 'cause it does depend upon the harvest and it does depend on the shipping program that wraps around the harvest as to how full we get. The constraint actually exists in our cost laws, not in our packing engine. We have invested in the quality accommodation for RSE workers up there in Sharp Road. We've got that one.
We've also leased one here at Spreadmaster down in Te Puke, which complements the local. Those RSEs complement the local workforce, for our on orchard and post-harvest work that we have, particularly around our unpalatable work hours or working conditions out in the orchards when it's wet. The winter labor is much more improved this year we've ever seen it, although it comes at a cost, with a relentless drive by the government to push the costs up. Winter conditions and the El Niño weather pattern, if it is exactly what we've got, it seems to be there, it's changed, and it's much more favorable for kiwi fruit. It's in stark contrast with 2023 growing condition, growing conditions that we had. I'll make one other point, if I can just step back to the bank reduction.
Company has been working with Northington Partners. The board has taken some advice about debt, appropriate debt targets, how we might get there. And so we've appreciated the work that Greg Anderson and Guy Burke have done in terms of giving the board some things to consider going forward. So, in case you don't know, here's our contact details, whether they're in the pack that was put up on the website. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might want to ask. And if I don't know the answer, I'm sure that Nick can, first time into the chair. Are [audio distortion] a few more minutes. If you want any questions, feel free to. If you don't, then all good, hold your peace.
You're most welcome to contact Nicola, or myself after the meeting by email or telephone, if you like, and we'll answer any questions that you've got. No questions, Jamie? All right. Thanks so much to everybody. Thanks for hopping onto the call and taking interest in our company.