Okay, good morning, everyone. Welcome to our presentation on Skellerup's FY2023 results. Before we start, you will note David is absent today. A family member had a reasonably short notice, but planned medical procedure yesterday, so David's in the right spot supporting their recovery. I'm Graham Leaming. I'm the CFO of Skellerup, and in the absence of David, we also have John Strowger, Skellerup's Chairman, with me on this call, along with Tim Reynolds, our Group Financial Controller. As per our normal mode, I'll talk to the slides that you'll see on the screen, and then there'll be an opportunity for questions. We have everyone on mute, and we request that you remain this way, and also, keep your cameras off until we move to questions.
When we get to that point, please use the chat function to note you have a question, and we'll take them in turn. Okay, we'll move to slide two, titled Seven Years Earnings Growth. This slide provides a clear visual of our performance over the past seven years. EBIT and NPAT have both grown at a compound annual growth rate of 14%. The outcome of revenue growth, margin improvement from new products and operational improvements, and good management of indirect costs. We do ensure we have the team to support both the current business and future growth. Moving to slide three and the FY2023 highlights. The graphs on the right-hand side, the one at the top, shows our NPAT for the group. And at the bottom, the EBIT by division, excluding corporate costs.
As reported earlier today, FY2023 NPAT of NZD 50.9 million is 7% above prior competitive period and represents our seventh consecutive record result. Notwithstanding, the increase in FY2020 was very small. EBIT of NZD 71.7 million was also up 7%, and both divisions achieved record results. I'll touch on the details of those more shortly. Operating cash flow of NZD 54.1 million was up 25% on PCP. You will recall in FY2022, we increased inventory to mitigate the risks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It's good not to be talking so much about COVID-19 anymore. Inventory increased again in the first half of this year for the same reasons. However, as planned, we were able to unwind some of this investment in Q4, reflecting the easing of supply chain risks.
Our strong cash flow funded our CapEx requirements, dividends, and the IFRS 16 lease payments, meaning net debt closed at a very similar level to the close of last year. A final dividend of NZD 0.14 per share has been declared to bring the full year dividend to NZD 0.22 per share, up 7%, and consistent with our earnings growth. Our dividends continue to be 50% imputed, reflecting the proportion of our domestic and international earnings. Capital investment in FY2023 has included a focus on enhancing operational flexibility, ensuring continued market access in the future, and broadening technology. I'll discuss this further later in our presentation. We've also invested significant time on assessing the impact of climate change on our business.
There is, of course, the mandatory reporting requirement for FY2024, but the broader benefit is to guide our investment decisions in the future, and again, I'll cover this more shortly. Moving to slide four, this provides a little more detail on the key financials. A couple of points to note that I've not already covered are the higher finance costs in FY2023, due to the higher level of debt we carried during the period, and also increased interest rates. Tax at a lower effective tax rate, due to the deduction for the benefit received by executives on the exercise of their share options under the LTI, offset this impact. I'll move to slide five, where we provide some granularity on how the various applications we sell products into performed in FY2023 compared to FY2022.
The contribution from dairy increased, which may surprise, given a generally tougher global market with lower milk prices. This serves to highlight that demand for our largely essential consumable products is linked more to milk production than milk price. The lower NZD/USD cross rate also assisted, given 70% of our sales for the dairy application are made into international markets. The contribution from footwear grew strongly, reflecting growth in our key New Zealand and U.S. markets. A better product mix and the availability of inventory to meet demand. You may recall we were constrained with inventory in the preceding couple of years. Potable and wastewater was slightly down on the prior comparative period. Destocking and reduced demand impacted on our potable water-related sales in the US and China, but this was largely offset with gross growth into wastewater applications, particularly in the U.S.
Roofing and construction earnings grew most significantly due to increased sales used in solar applications in the U.K. and Europe. We achieved further growth of sales in high-performance marine foam, and that was the key driver for growth in the sports and leisure applications. Corporate costs were lower in FY2023 due to lower employee compensation costs, and interest costs were higher, as I noted on the previous slide. The New Zealand dollar against the U.S. dollar, being our key currency pair, was 10% lower on average, in FY2023 compared to the prior period, which was generally a boost to our gross margin at a business unit and application level. However, the hedging arrangements we had in place largely offset this benefit, which is what you see, with the red bar there on unfavorable effects on the chart.
I'll move to slide 6 and highlight some key elements of the Industrial Division result. Industrial Division EBIT was up, as shown, by 10% on prior period, and a record result for the third consecutive year. Normalizing for constant currency comparison, EBIT was up 7%. Potable and wastewater is the largest application for this division. As I noted on the previous slide, the performance was flat or slightly down in FY2023. Destocking and lower demand for consumer-linked products like tapware, created a headwind that was offset by growth in sales of our Vacuum Systems used in wastewater applications. David has highlighted previously, our customer focus on product improvements to deliver more value, and this approach continues to help us win market share in this market.
As I noted on the previous slide, we've achieved growth in sales of U-DEK Marine Decking, and also the products that we sell into roofing and construction applications. Moving to slide seven, and our Agri Division. EBIT was again, a record, albeit a modest 1% improvement over the prior period. On a constant currency basis, it was slightly better, with EBIT growth at 2%. As noted, dairy increased modestly with increased sales into the USA. There is a trend towards longer life and higher value milking liners, which reduce the frequency of liner changes. The impact for Skellerup is lower volume, but higher pricing to sustain revenue, mean investing in and achieving productivity improvements has, and will continue to be important for our business. I'll note in FY2023, we successfully relocated our Stevens milk filter business from Featherston to Christchurch.
It's located in very close proximity to our dairy rubberware facility at Wigram, and it provides us with access to a larger pool of people and more robust transport route. Our footwear, as noted previously, performed very strongly in FY2023. New Zealand, we increased sales through the urban channels, we rationalized our range, and importantly, we're able to build inventory to meet demand. The pretty ordinary weather over the past 12 months will also have contributed. In the U.S. sales of our dielectric footwear again grew. For those that don't recall, the dielectric footwear provides an insulation to protect against the risk of a live electric source. I'll move to slide eight. To continue to deliver growth, we are investing in people and equipment to develop stronger internal capability and a more agile manufacturing platform for the future.
From an Agri perspective, over the past 12 months, we've added engineers to our product development team at Wigram, and we are investing in equipment to give greater internal capability to not only design, but manufacture our product tooling. This will not only help us build internal expertise, but reduce risk and enable us to respond more quickly to opportunities. We've also invested in modern manufacturing equipment for the manufacture of some of our products. We've immediately realized gains via increased productivity, reduced engineered process waste, and reduced energy usage. Importantly, we are developing a platform and a knowledge basis to facilitate an easier transition for in-market manufacturing presence in the future, where we determine that is needed.
From an industrial perspective, as reported at the half year, we moved from a minority position to 100% ownership of Sim-Lim, which manufactures liquid silicone rubber products in Wisconsin, in the U.S. We are supporting this with investment in our product development team in Auckland, to again, enable faster development of prototype and production tooling, with less reliance on third parties. In addition, as previously noted, we have partnered with a U.S. manufacturer to produce a range of potable water gaskets for existing customers in the U.S. This delivers two benefits: a dual source alongside our existing supply line, and providing local U.S.-made product, which is required by some customers. The presses are currently being commissioned, and we expect to be manufacturing and selling product by the end of Q2 of FY2024.
Investing in capability is obviously important for the future, we're also pleased we've moved a few projects into products and revenue. The most notable in FY2023, that David has discussed in prior presentations, is for the hygiene market. We've successfully launched production and began to sell this product during Q4, customer forecasts show strong growth for FY2024. We're also pleased to now be delivering the LSR diaphragm, manufactured from our facility in Whitewater, in Wisconsin, which is used in HVAC systems, again, we expect good, strong growth from this product in FY2024. The final slide that we'll move to now summarizes our ESG priorities and performance. From an environmental perspective, our priority is climate change.
We're sorry, we have described our work and progress in quite a bit of detail on the annual report, and to briefly summarize, the approach we're taking is to consider the impact of climate hazards on the key applications that we sell into and that we talk about with you at these presentations. We've considered how these climate hazards might impact the inputs to our products, the facilities in which we operate, our customers and markets, and the transport networks that bring these three elements, inputs, processing, and customers together. We've identified the risk and opportunities we consider important, and we'll now move to consider transition and mitigation, but also commercial opportunities to capitalize upon the opportunities that we do have with the products that we sell and the applications we're in.
Ultimately, this work is giving us practical guidance for investment decisions and actions, as well as ensuring we meet our reporting obligations in FY2024. Reporting of emissions is another stream of climate work. To date, this year and in prior years, we focused on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Our gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reduced by 5% in FY2023, reflecting the move to more efficient facilities for a number of our businesses, investment in more efficient equipment, and better management of our operations. With the pandemic thankfully passed, by and large, FY2023 was more normal, but our mode of work has permanently changed, as it has for others. We have more staff now on part-time and hybrid arrangements than, say, five years ago.
It is good for our business, and it's good for our people as it helps us retain talent and attract new talent. We've also moved a number of our operations to 4x 10-hour shifts, which provides both our business and those people with more flexibility. From a governance perspective, as you're aware, John replaced Liz Coutts as chair at the conclusion of last ASM. As noted, John's with us today. Before we move to questions, John will offer some comments on the board, and the business from his perspective. Over to John.
I think someone else should talk about the board, but I think we can talk about the result and management, management's performance. I mean, this has been another year of, of shifting sands for us, and this is a record result, notwithstanding a number of pretty strong headwinds, in the form of escalating costs, an inflationary environment. Don't really need to speak to that with any specificity. We're all experiencing that. Freight management's continued to be almost a full-time job for some of our executives in Christchurch. Yeah, Graham's correct.
The pandemic has gone away, but it went away later in China, which is a, you'll recollect, is a, we have a significant manufacturing site in China, so, you know, fantastic job by the local people there to manage things and really not miss a beat in terms of delivery of product out of the, out of the facility, notwithstanding, you know, the most demanding of circumstances. Equally, in Vietnam, we had people effectively camping at the factory to, to meet their commitments to us. We experienced some delayed rollouts, candidly, from some of our, from some customers on some major purchase orders, although, as Graham has said, they're certainly coming through now. Nevertheless, they impacted on what we anticipated for the year.
We had a reasonably significant change in customer mix in the agriculture, in the ag sector, courtesy of some M&A activity in Europe that entirely beyond our control, some customer mix was, the change is pretty significant there. Like a lot of people experienced, the impact of variable demand, courtesy of customer destocking post the end of the sugar hit, which was the COVID experience for us all. I appreciate that, you know, change is constant in commerce, that feels like, that list I've just been through, feels like a pretty, pretty significant series of headwinds for us, notwithstanding that, to deliver this result.
Management can't say it because they are too modest, and they have to stay that way, but the board is, is very pleased with this result in the, in, in the circumstances.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks, John. We'll move to question time. As noted, if you can please just put a note in the chat function to alert me of questions, and we'll take them in turn. Rohan, we'll see if we can unmute you and take your questions first. One moment, Rohan, we'll get there.
Okay.
Where are we? Just struggling a bit with the, unmute here, so I wonder if you could just pop up to the top.
Yeah?
Yep. Go for it. Maybe scroll. Rohan, can you hear us?
I can hear you. Can you hear me?
We can. Go ahead.
Excellent. Congratulations on a solid FY2023 and a big second half. The questions I had were firstly, just when you look at Industrial, I guess the second half growth was a bit of a slowing year-over-year. Can you just give us an indication of how that phased through? Was this mostly in the fourth quarter? And kind of, you know, some idea of the run, exit, sort of, run rate, so we can kind of think about, you know, the year ahead.
Sure. you know, one of the strengths of Skellerup's business is the range of applications we sell into. In the second half of the year, we had a very strong performance from our Vacuum Systems group, which is selling products into the, into the wastewater applications. We had some slower, slower sales into other applications, for example, marine foam, and potable water, as I talked about. As we move into the new financial year, we see some cautious increases in demand in the potable water sector. I think it's too, too early to read too much into that. We certainly don't expect it to, to bounce up in any rapid way, as it was, you know, during the midst of that pandemic.
Ryan, are you still there? Ryan, perhaps. Well, I think we muted you. While we sort that out, we had a question from Christian Bell. Let's see if we can unmute Christian. Yep. Yep. There we go. Ryan is muted again. Perhaps if you can unmute Ryan. Yep.
Apologies. Force of habit of muting myself so you don't get any background noise during question answers.
That's good. It wasn't our fault then. Carry on.
No, no, 100% me. On the hedging side, you know, just looking at the accounts, you kind of really got cover at, I guess, $0.62 . Going forward, you know, how should we think about that rolling off? Is it, you know, near term, is it more weighted to the near term? I just noticed you had $0.66 for last year.
Yep.
You know, what was kind of the average rate that you went through the year with?
So why don't we answer your, your first part of your question first? So Our cover goes out, I think, in the accounts, it goes out as, as far as three years...
3 years.
On the US. Yeah. The average of it over that period of time is $0.62. For the next 12 months, the hedged rate is higher than that, it's probably nearer $0.65.
That's right.
In terms of what our average hedged rate was during FY2023, Tim, do you have a feel for what, what average? Probably closer to $0.67, $0.68 on the U.S. Yeah.
Excellent. Thank you.
Carry on.
That's, so that, that, that's, that's very clear. Then just in dairy, obviously, there's this move to long-life milking liners and, and potentially a bit of volatility, given low payouts in New Zealand. Can you just give us a color, some idea of, you know, expectations around impact, in New Zealand, of the low payout, but also, you know, you've got lower volume from these high-life milking liners, but also higher prices. Is, is that net-net kind of even at the, at the earnings line, in your view, longer term? Or do you get... Is it a headwind, or do you get some sort of benefit from that mix shift as well?
Yeah. Look, I think net-net, it's, it's certainly that's what the FY2023 earnings showed, is net-net, it's relatively neutral. It's not a, a sea change from, shorter life liners to longer life liners, but it's a gradual move in that direction. It's, it's longer life, what we call black rubber liners, as well as silicone liners. We, we think that's a trend that, that will continue, because what, of course, that means is there's, a less frequent requirement to change out liners. We see that trend continuing.
Perfect. I'll, I'll leave it there and let someone else have a go. Thanks.
Okay, Christian, we'll come to you. We'll just see if we can unmute you. We're getting better at this. Through the...
Hi, hi, Graham. You can hear me fine?
Yes, we can. Away you go.
Nice one. Yep, I guess my first question just sort of starts, yeah, you hit top, top end of guidance and flying strong, second half exit, right? You're building a track record of becoming less cyclical. On that, on that basis, would it be correct to assume that what you've just delivered is a base that you intend to grow from? You'll give us an indication of that level of growth at the ASM later this year as per normal?
Yeah, I think, absolutely Christian. It is a base we want to continue to grow from. What we've achieved over the last seven years is we've tried to set a new base each year that we continue to grow from. You're right, ASM is typically the time when we've got enough trading under our belt in the year to offer some outlook on the year that we're in.
Awesome. Well, I guess, you kind of have... It sounds like you have the benefit, a little bit of tailwind from currency, maybe some easing in freight costs as well. Like, I'd admit that, those should be tailwinds going into FY2024, right?
Yeah. I think from a freight cost point of view, we probably experienced the benefit or the reduction of freight rates in the latter part of the second half of the year. In Q4, we had some of that benefit, which obviously should continue through into FY2024. Also the improvement we got was not only some easing in costs, but some faster transit times, which in part accounted for the build in inventories during the first half as those transit times were starting to improve. Freight, I think we're not expecting any steep changes from what we had in the past quarter of the year.
Currency, if it stays at these levels, yes, we are, we are substantially hedged, at around sort of 75% of the exposures for FY 2024. At the fringes, we, we benefit a little bit more from the Kiwi dollar being lower.
Cool. Actually, how, how much is freight cost? Like, how much of an expense is that for you? Because it's, it's not broken down in the annual report.
Yeah. it's a difficult one for, for me to say, because in some instances, we sell product on an Ex Works or an FOB basis. I can't, off the top of my head, give you a quantification of a number. It also depends a little bit on the nature of the product. Some of our, some of our product, takes up a lot of space in the container. The value of a product in a, in a box, depending on what the nature of the product is, can be quite different. The freight cost relative to the product value can be quite different. I, I can't give you an easy one-word answer for that one, Christian.
Yeah. No, no worries. Sorry, just a couple more questions. You sort of called out some destocking behavior from some of your customers, which, you know, just sort of looking at some, you know, some of those being Moen, Fortune Innovations, it sort of started second half of last year. I guess year to date, are you starting to see a normalization in destocking behavior? Like, sort of, how's that sort of tracking?
Yeah, look, I think we, we spoke a little bit about the destocking, even at the half year, when we reported in February. We saw that continue for particularly in that potable water sector in the second half of the year. Also, as John touched on, the restrictions relative to the pandemic in China lasted longer than they did in many other places, so that impacted demand. China still continues to be, I guess, a challenging market. What we've seen over the past couple of months is, is a slight lift in demand for some of those potable water application products. So it's, it's come off the bottom.
We're a little bit cautious about the fact that, you know, there could be a little bit of restocking going on, but, I, I think in talking to our people in market, in the US, they're cautiously optimistic that, that the level of demand we're seeing now, which has lifted slightly, not at the levels it was, during the, the inventory stocking that was going on in, in the likes of FY2021. We're cautiously optimistic that, that a lot of that destocking is cleared, and that we've got some slightly more normal trading patterns.
Right. Okay. I guess, just following on from there, you know, you, you sort of over the last couple of years, you've, you've achieved some pretty strong top line growth, which has required some working capital support. You know, you've been more strategic around, like, given supply chain uncertainty, around raw materials and finished goods. Sounds like some of that stuff is easing, alongside, you know, cautious optimism around a destocking kind of, through, through the worst of it. What are you, what are you expecting for your own working capital in FY2024? Yeah,
We think we still have some opportunity to take some more cash out of inventory. I guess it's important to remember, inventory is up for both the reasons that we talked about, managing that risk, but also we have been in an environment of increasing costs. Some of those pressures on some of our key raw materials have eased, but we believe we've still got some opportunity to reduce the level of investment we have in inventory. A target we are looking at is trying to get it back down near to where we closed FY2022.
Cool. No worries. Thank you for that. I'll, I'll give it to someone else.
Okay. Josh, we're moving to you. Here we go, Josh, go ahead.
Thanks, Graham. Can you hear me okay?
Yes, we can.
Brilliant. Just first question, on a constant currency basis, revenue growth was pretty flat for both divisions. You know, the result was mostly led by margin improvement. Going forward, you know, you obviously want to grow NPAT, but how do you see the bottom line growth being driven by, I suppose, top line growth and also margin improvement? How do you expect the mix to look like?
It's, it's quite a broad question. I, I mean, I'll point to a couple of things. We, we have a, you know, track record of bringing new products into the market. We-- I touched on a couple of examples that we've, we've brought in, in Q4, and, and they're just a couple. We do have a good pipeline of new product and new revenue opportunities. You know, part of our job also is to review what we're making and, and trim out, items that perhaps, aren't generating the sort of margins we would like them to do. I'm not gonna give you kind of a, I guess, a percentage split of where the two things will come from, but, we do have a good pipeline of, of revenue growth opportunity.
We've highlighted in the past that we see faster growth as being able to be achieved out of the Industrial Division, but we're not without opportunity in the Agri Division as well, as we've demonstrated this year. You know, one example is, is footwear. We had good growth out of footwear this year, and I touched on what some of those factors were, but we think we can continue to expand the growth of our technical footwear products in the North American market, for example. We think there's other things we can do, and these programs and projects we have in place around the dairy division. From a continuous improvement point of view, you know, that, that never stops. I noted the investment we've been making in, in both manufacturing equipment and in our development teams.
Those things, all come with a, an expected payback, to being able to improve, the margins, and, and I guess combat rising costs to, deliver improved earnings. That's a pretty general answer, but I, I think it's probably the best I could do, Josh.
Yep. No, no, that's okay. It's just, for some time now, it's seemed like, you know, earnings have been really driven by margin improvement rather than top line growth. I guess, that's something that might be helpful. To what extent do you actually trim product lines? You know, what is the top line impact of that? Is there sort of a, a rough guide you can provide? Is it that material?
No. No, there's not a rough guide that we, I can provide. You know, products mature, and so some, in some instances, customers make that choice for us. It's an area that we're giving an increasing priority to as well. You know, a particular focus over the past 12 months has been in our dairy business, whereby we've done quite a bit of product rationalization and reduced the number of products we make because that reduces complexity. Obviously, we have to work pretty closely with customers, 'cause often, often we are making these products for OEM customers. They need some encouragement to, to help discontinue products with very small trading volumes.
That's a constant part of what we do, and it's probably something in the past we don't think we've done as well as we could have, and it has more emphasis, now.
Okay, thanks. Just referring to-
Just to go back on the revenue, comment there. You know, on the first page, we, we highlighted the seven-year view. We had acknowledged that our, our earnings growth has been faster than our revenue growth, nonetheless, over that seven-year period, we have grown revenue at a compound annual growth rate of 7%. You know, we believe we've, we've demonstrated and, and we can continue to drive revenue growth, because without that, there's obviously a ceiling on what you can achieve, at an earnings level.
We've got opportunities in front of us. We'd be disappointed if we didn't grow revenue.
Right. Yeah.
You know, materially this year.
The reality is, as John recapped at the end there, for FY2023, we did have a number of customers destocking, that did impact us at the revenue line. We were able to offset that with genuine revenue growth, and some of the other applications that we talked about, into wastewater, into marine foam, into footwear. We're confident we can continue to grow both revenue and we should always be striving to improve margin to boost our earnings.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. Just referring to the chart on page 5 of your presentation, the dairy...
Yep
... and footwear bars, which, you know, encompass the Agri Division, look like they collectively drove a, why don't we call it, NZD 2 million-NZD 3 million improvement in NPAT.
Yeah.
If you look at Agri EBIT, it only lifted by NZD 400K.
Correct.
What's... Is the explanation for that hedging, or is there another explanation?
Quite right. In general, our hedging program is related to the Agri business, because that's where the largest net exposure on currency is. Our Industrial businesses are generally more international, and our earnings stream is significantly more international, and so therefore, we have a much larger natural hedge of revenue and cost. Our hedging program is primarily couched at the Agri business. And this year,
Covered pretty well for it.
We, we, we would have been better off if we, if we hadn't had any. Just like in prior years, that bar's been green, and I guess that's the, that's the outcome of, of having a, having a, a prudent policy to manage that risk, in FY2023, and, and offset the, the spot gains that we got, that boosted the, the revenue and gross margin of those businesses.
Yep, makes sense. Last question from me is really around your plant at Wigram. You noticed, you note on slide seven, some capital investment occurring there. There was a media article last week around job cuts at that same plant. Are, are they both related? You know, are you cutting jobs or making some roles redundant because you've managed to automate some of the processes down there? Or is it because demand-
Yeah
... has slowed a bit? Can you just talk to those points, please?
Sure. I mean, the answer is, the answer is, yes, they are related. Making job, job cuts is always difficult. We have reduced the number of people we employ in our post-molding activity, which is a, a, has been a relatively manual activity. It was necessary. We've touched on a couple of the reasons already, but, you know, an outcome of continuous improvement, and, and that's both in how we do things, process, and introducing more mechanization, has eliminated process waste. It's eliminated things that we used to do. It eliminates moving things when you don't necessarily need to move them, all those things. It has also eliminated some manual activities. That, that's a factor.
As I noted before, there's been a, a gradual shift to some longer life liners, which does capture higher value, but it reduces the volume of products that we manufacture. We've been making these improvements for a number of years, and, until very recently, we've been able to manage that impact by reducing the number of temporary employees that we, we have on our staff. We've largely eliminated temporary employees from our workforce over the past six months or so. So, you know, unfortunately, an outcome of the improvement we needed to make has meant that we've had to take some jobs out of, out of that post-molding process at Wigram.
Yep. All makes sense. Thank you for that.
Okay, I think we've covered, covered all the questions. If anyone else has got a question, it seems like an easy way to alert us is to use the Raise Your Hand function. We'll just give everyone a minute to see if they've got any further questions. If not, we'll close out the presentation.