AGM 2021

Sep 30, 2021

Slides

Good afternoon to you all. That was a great way to start today's meeting and hopefully gives you a bit of a taste of some of the strengths and advantages of your company. While we would have liked to have been present with you, with shareholders, Unfortunately, this is not possible at COVID Alert Level 3, and we're only able to hold this meeting online. Thank you all for joining us. We appreciate you taking the time and hope you find our presentations interesting and of value. Today's meeting is being held online by the Computershare online meetings platform. This allows you to watch a webcast of the meeting, ask questions and submit votes. If you have a question, please select the Q and A tab on the right half of your screen anytime. Type your question into the field and press send. Your question will be immediately submitted. We will then answer any questions after the presentations. Questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, they will be amalgamated together. Due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, we will answer them in due course via e mail. Should you require any assistance, you can type your query and one of the Computershare team will assist you with the share function and reply to your query. Alternatively, you can call Computershare on 800 65034. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll. I will shortly open the voting for all resolutions. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, you will be able to cast your vote under the Vote tab once the voting has opened. Simply select your voting direction from the options shown on the screen. You can vote for all resolutions at once or by or 1 by 1 on each resolution. Your vote has been cast when the tick appears. To change your vote, simply select Change Your Vote. You have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. I now declare voting open on all items of business. Please submit your votes at any time. I will give you a warning before I move to close the voting. Joining me online today are your directors. I will ask each of them to raise their hand when I introduce them. Firstly, Chris Ellis, then Steve Reindler, John Beveridge and Karen Gordon. Karen joined our Board in December last year and is standing for election by shareholders today. You will have a chance to hear from her later in the meeting. I'm also pleased to announce that Andrew Flabbel will join our Board from tomorrow. Our search for a director with digital skills was still in progress when the notice of meeting went out. Hence, Andrew will stand for election by shareholders at next year's AGM. Andrew is a very experienced senior technology executive and has driven digital transformations at companies such as Nike and Microsoft. He was recently Chief Technology Officer at Plektra, the NZX listed global mobile engagement company. Andrew has a Doctor of Engineering Systems from the University of Tokushima, Japan and did his Bachelor of Engineering at Auckland University. Centurium's digital strategy is becoming a valuable pathway for our company, and Andrew's extensive experience will be of significant value, and we are looking forward to him joining the Board. Since taking over his share in 2017, when the business was burdened with high debt, excess engines, inventory and many nonperforming assets and aspects of the business, we have undergone a complete refresh of the Board and management, and I'm very confident that we have an excellent team dedicated to driving the growth of the company. Also joining us are Steel and Tube's CEO, Mark Malpass Pass our Chief Financial Officer, Richard Smythe and Legal Counsel, John Gordon. A number of our advisers, including our auditors, are also online. I'd like to thank all the professional firms who have provided valuable advice to Stell and Tube over the last year. We're pleased to be able to share our passion for our company at today's meeting. You'll hear first from myself, then from Mark Malpass as well as some of our senior management. Following that, there will be an opportunity for shareholder questions and discussion. We encourage you to submit any questions as early as possible during the presentations. We will then move to the resolutions. 7 Tube is one of the leading providers of steel solutions. Our goal is to be the best in the sector, the preferred choice for steel products and solutions, a rewarding place to work and an attractive investment for our shareholders. We do this by investing in the things that matter: our people, our customers, digital innovation, operational excellence, quality and health and safety. The value and benefits of hard work over the last 3 years are now becoming clear. Prior to 2017, the company went through a period of growth and acquisition. These businesses are all now integrated and adding value to our group, aside from the plastics business which we closed. Substantial and positive outcomes have been achieved from our 3 year Project STRIVE transformation program. We have optimized our national network, established our digital and e commerce platform and are leading the way in digital technology in the sector. We have locked in material cost reductions and efficiencies and have invested significantly in our people, quality and health and safety. We have a great team leading our company and passionate people who are focused on delivering the best possible solution and experience for our customers. The Board recognizes the value of diversity across our workforce and the part this plays in creating a rich and vibrant culture. While we have initiatives in place and numbers are growing, we recognize that women remain underrepresented in the sector, and we are committed to addressing this as much as we can. We also recognized early on that COVID was with us to stay for 3 to 5 years. We have a number of initiatives to upskill our people, provide assistance for lower paid employees and provide work opportunities for school leaders in our community. Our customer satisfaction scores continue to rise, and we have a strong pipeline of work ahead of us. Steel induced FY 'twenty one results signal a steep change in our financial performance. Revenue increased 15% year on year. Operating expenses reduced by 13.5% and we delivered EBITDA of $40,700,000 compared to a loss of $37,200,000 the previous year. We completed the year with a strong balance sheet with 0 debt and $25,000,000 in cash to support our growth strategy. We were pleased to resume the payment of dividends while carefully managing our capital requirements in a COVID environment. The events of last year have reinforced the importance of taking a long term view and putting in place strategies that look beyond the next quarter or next year. Your board remains committed to building a sustainable business, which delivers long term value for customers, employees, shareholders and communities. Our ESG program is built around our strategic pillars, and we are making good progress on a range of initiatives. Safety remains a priority, and we were pleased to see our total employee total injury frequency rate drop to 1.86. This is well below industry averages. It has also been encouraging to see the high levels of engagement from our employees with a score of 7.4 out of 10 and an employee Net Promoter Score of 19. Both of these are very strong results. People remain our biggest asset, and we are investing in training, work placements, mentoring and well-being. Quality remains a priority investment for us, with industry certifications, independent third party orders of steel mills and other suppliers and our traceability program. Our entire business is now ISO 9000 and onetwenty 15, quality certified and independent audits were carried out on 8 supplier mills with up to 12 more planned this year. Work done across our network and supply chain has assisted with a 9% reduction in carbon emissions and a drop in fuel and electricity consumption as well as improved material efficiency and recycling. Our customers remain at the center of our business, and we are building a powerful combination of people and technology to deliver customer experiences that are dynamic, effortless and personalized. Digital technology is bringing value to all we do and will remain the focal point for FY 'twenty two and a priority investment area. We continue to advocate that New Zealand needs a range of construction materials and that material choices should be made by the experts, engineers, architects and designers, not politicians. The creation of a circular economy is not simply focused on design and construction process, but also considers the post construction life cycle stages and the benefits from materials that can be reused or recycled, such as steel. We can't continue to trash our buildings to landfill. We must reuse, repurpose and recycle our valuable materials and move to a circular economy. That is what counts and makes a real difference. It is also where materials like steel, which has a 72% recycling rate in New Zealand, stand out. Steel is infinitely recyclable without product degradation and is easily reused and repurposed. It generates minimal construction waste, and renewable energy sources in New Zealand are used for steelmaking. We are now moving to the next stage in our strategy evolution, building on the foundations we have in place and positioning ourselves to capture new opportunities. We are focused on organic growth in sectors where we have strengths and competitive advantage, and Mark and his team will talk to this shortly. We continue to have our conservative approach to capital management and will fund growth initiatives from retained earnings and improved capital efficiency. As a Board, we are pleased about the shape of the business, the positive attitude of our team and the opportunities ahead of us to add value for our shareholders. We would like to say a particular thank you to Mark, our CEO. He initially joined Stellan Tube as a Director in 2018 and then stepped down to take up the role of CEO. He has calmly and confidently led our strategy and built an amazing team over the past 3 years and has been integral in achieving the strongly improved results that we are seeing today. I will now hand over to Mark to provide more insights on the business and where we'll be focusing our efforts going forward. Thanks for that, Susan. I'd like to start by thanking the board for their encouragement and support over the last year and of course, our people for their efforts and contributions. The Steel and Tube team has responded really well to a very challenging environment and I'm proud of the high levels of engagement during this time. Turning to the trading environment under COVID. Today, Auckland remains at level 3 and this is the 4th time in less than 2 years that our businesses either been had to close or there's been restrictions due to the pandemic. Of course, every time we go into that lockdown mode, our revenue drops while our fixed costs remain largely the same. The initial lockdown in April last year provided us with an opportunity to reassess our strategy and advance our long term network optimization plans. This resulted in significant changes to the business model, a more cost efficient and streamlined network of branches, distribution hubs and manufacturing facilities that were centered around where our customers are located. As with previous lockdowns, under Alert Level 4, we were unable to operate except for supply to essential services businesses. Now they had totaled about 7 15 essential service customers by the end of Alert Level 4. These were mainly serviced through our distribution operations. The building products businesses was one of the very few industries not to be permitted to operate and continue manufacturing operations. This mainly impacted our manufacturing businesses and of course has applied additional pressure on top of New Zealand's already fragile supply chain. In mid September, a very restricted category of products were given an exemption to recommence manufacturing under alert level 4 with a total of 100 workers being approved across the whole of the Auckland market. That's 100 workers in total, not per company. Steel and Tube received approval from MBIE for 6 workers to continue manufacturing color steel for roofing and cladding, but no other products. In late August, our network outside of Auckland was able to open under Alert Level 3 with the Auckland market reopening from 22nd September. All our nationwide operations are now fully operational, providing much needed steel products to the manufacturing, rural construction and infrastructure sectors. We have a very robust COVID operating procedures and protocols in place and these were quickly put in place to ensure that our staff, customers and suppliers all remain safe and well. Pleased to me, with the support of the Board, we were able to provide peace of mind to our employees and continued paying 100% of wages during the lockdown. While we claim for the wage subsidy, this only goes partway towards our wage costs. It also is worth noting that the whole business only qualified for the 1st 2 weeks of the wage subsidy. Moving to the trading update year to date. This chart shows our weekly sales performance for the new 2022 financial year to date. What you're basically seeing here is the Q1 less a couple of days trading. You can see the impact of the latest lockdown on our business. From 1 July, the start of the financial year up until alert level 4 lockdown, our revenues were about 29% ahead of the prior period. That continued a really positive momentum that we were seeing through the last half of the last twenty twenty one financial year. You can see that since the lockdown, trading has progressively recovered with the supply to essential services businesses under Alert Level 4 and the reopening of operations outside of Auckland that are now operating at Alert Level 3 and below. We've also learned from previous lockdowns is that as demand doesn't disappear, it is simply deferred until the economy reopens. And we've seen a significant backlog of orders that have been we've been refocused on meeting those customer demands as quickly as we possibly can. Lockdown has been difficult for everyone, and I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of my team who have delivered day in, day out for our customers and shareholders. During the lockdown, our team has been working harder than ever. As new rules and guidelines were rapidly changing, it's hard to describe the myriad and relentless nature of decisions and careful change management that my team and their direct reports have been working through. Many of our frontline people couldn't work as they normally would, but that didn't stop them from undertaking training. During lockdown, over 1700 training modules were completed by our people as they use that downtime as an opportunity to upskill and learn more through online training through our skill center called My Skills. We have a great group of people who are passionate about our business and I'm very proud to be part of the team. Moving to market conditions. The 2021 financial year was challenging. With the impact of COVID-nineteen and pressure off global on global supply chains, demand for steel increased as consumers pent up on white wear and cars and other items. We saw residential construction soaring and governments have also invested in infrastructure programs to boost the economy. Steel mills are operating at capacity and on top of this supply chains have become congested with no signs of that pressure alleviating anytime soon. These regional and global factors have led to an increase in pricing across a broad range of steel products here in New Zealand. We've seen strong activity in residential construction. We're also seeing a recovery in other sectors such as commercial, which had been soft for several years. The infrastructure pipeline continues to grow and manufacturing is expanding prior to the lockdown. We have a number of advantages in this environment. We're diversified across a range of sectors. We have the size and scale. We have very strong supplier relationships that mitigate a lot of the risk of the supply chain pressures. And our investment in technology is also paying dividends across all areas of our business. Moving to performance overview. Our efforts in the 2021 financial year have delivered a strong improvement in year on year results with volumes, revenue, margins recovering across the year and we have also secured a strong pipeline of work. We've provided detailed information in our results presentation and our annual report, so I won't dwell on that too much today. But as Susan said, our financial results were significantly improved. We have created a really strong financial and operating platform that has been driven by cost efficiencies, our optimized operational network and also our focus on customer excellence and our investment in digital technology. We operate through 2 divisions, the distribution and the infrastructure division. Distribution is a high volume commodity business. Basically, we buy the products in bulk, we repackage them and process them and distribute to our customers through our national network of branches. Distribution continues to go from strength to strength. Revenues are up, gross margin dollars and margin percentage have also improved year on year. Infrastructure comprises of our products and services tailored to customers' needs. Products are processed before sale typically include installation and specialist knowledge and skills are a key ingredient. And infrastructure volumes were up versus the prior period with gross margin improvements from the cost out program being partially offset by competitive pressures in some areas. While slower to recover, an increasing volume of activity has been seen in the second half of the financial year as infrastructure and large commercial projects came back on stream. And we have also secured a very strong pipeline of work forward. Our businesses are very well run by high quality leaders, and I'd like to now share some insights from 2 of our divisional managers. Hi. I'm Mark Haynen, General Manager of Steel and Tube's Distribution Division. Our network is truly national with our sales teams, distribution hubs and trade shops located from Southland to Northland and everywhere in between. We serve the needs of a wide range of customers from manufacturers and fabricators through to builders, engineers and rural markets. We source products from preferred steel mills and suppliers around the world, mainly from New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Europe, and then we distribute them through our national network. One of our biggest strengths is the breadth and depth of our product range. We stock thousands of products and have more products available than any other steel supplier in the country. We continually refresh our stock, bringing new items, ensuring we have critical high demand products available in stock for our customers. We have strong and long term relationships with mills and suppliers, including shipping companies. This is approving of value in the current times and the ongoing constraints across the global supply chain. We use internationally accredited third party accreditations to ensure all our products are of the highest quality. A big focus over the past year has been to build our customer platform, developing a range of different channels for our customers to engage with us online at our web shop or at our chatbot, Stanley, by phone to our customer excellence center and in person at our trade shops with our account managers. Our Net Promoter Scores have grown steadily as have other key customer satisfaction measures such as delivery on time and to speak, quote turnarounds and call answer times. We're continually looking to provide value and are adding more integration and automation for our larger customers to make forecasting, planning, ordering and delivery even easier for them. Sales growth has been strong over the last year and use of analytics and focus on target market segments has provided strong margin growth. Going forward, our focus is on high margin in growth areas where we have a level of sustainable competitive advantage. Symbolic of this strategy is the acquisition of a niche fasting business in July, which is now under the umbrella of our Fortress Fasteners brand. This allows us to offer a new specialist range of fastener products that are of value to our customers. We're also adding other new products such as an industry leading range of compliance certified structural bolts, roofing screws from the Screw Fast range and a new rural fencing offer. We've identified other growth areas where we add value without conflicting with our customers and have a number of investments planned. We're also using digital technology, particularly data analytics to help with our pricing and inventory management strategies. This ensures we have the right stock in the right place at the right price for our customers. We're at an exciting time for the distribution division and for Steel and Tube. The work that has been done over the last few years means we're strongly located across New Zealand with a massive range of quality products, a great team of product specialists, sales and support people and a valued customer offer. We're looking forward to another strong year. Hi, I'm Mohammad Afrouz, General Manager of Steel and Shield's Rollforming Business. Our Infrastructure division comprises of 2 divisions: CFDL Rio, which consists of wire, reinforcing and confluenceillation and rollforming, where we manufacture long run roofing products, confluence metal decking, girts, purlins and coiled sheet processing. We make steel products to order on a project basis. These are usually larger items such as roofing, cladding, steel reinforcing and metal decking. We also provide installation services for our confluence and reinforcing products nationwide. We are one of New Zealand's largest suppliers of fabricated reinforcing steel mesh, piles, beams, steelback and columns for the construction and infrastructure sectors. We have worked on projects as wide ranging as the Napier Portrait development, the Altea Center in Auckland, the Harapaki Wind Farm in Hawke's Bay, the Mesi Vet School and the University of Waikato. Our customers range from large commercial developers and managers of massive infrastructure projects such as the City Rail Link through to residential builders. We also have a national contract with Kainga Ora supplying roofing products to approximately 1500 houses annually. Infrastructure work is generally planned over a longer time frame with some bigger projects in the planning for months. Our focus is on end to end project management from design and manufacture to delivery and installation. In the roll forming and flooring sector, orders such as roofing, metal decking and curling can generally be processed to a customer's requirements and out the door in 1 to 3 days. One of our big advantages is our range of products to cover a customer's needs. We can deliver packaged solution from the ground up. While commercial building and infrastructure slowed down last year, we are seeing demand start to pick up again as large projects come back on stream. The ongoing momentum in residential construction is also driving demand for our roofing and plating products. We have a great plan for this year to capture the demand that is out there. We are expanding our sales presence in high growth areas that have lots of building and development work. We are continuing to invest in our customer excellence center, upskilling our people to deliver the best possible customer service and allowing our customers to do business with us confidently. We'll be adding new features and functionality to the roofing workshop, making it easier for customers to order online. Since the official launch on 1 July this year, we have now successfully onboarded over 300 roofing customers. We are using digital technology to make our manufacturing equipment and plants more efficient with improved IFS, overall equipment efficiencies and waste reduction. One of the safety initiatives is our Intellect Health and Safety platform to ensure our people stay safe at work. This is a great app that allows workers to update safety measures on their mobile devices and provides better monitoring and oversight to managers through reporting and dashboards. Macro trends are positive, and we are looking forward to a strong area in FY 'twenty two with increasing tenders for large scale infrastructure projects, a strong pipeline of secured work and growing demand for our steel solutions. Technology is one of our biggest investment areas. So I'd like to talk more about it today. Digital is becoming critical to how we operate. We are using digital technology to add value to all areas of our business. This includes from our omni channel customer platform, pricing analytics, product traceability, health and safety and also employment development. Technology improves our customer offering, reduces the cost to serve, drives revenue and improves margin. Up next, we've got another short video that demonstrates some of our digital initiatives in action. At Steel and Tube, the use of innovative digital technologies is central to our strategy to create excellent customer experiences and value for our shareholders. Our e commerce initiatives, including the web shops, are rapidly growing. We have achieved over 6 28% online revenue growth year on year with more than 6,000 registered users on our e commerce platforms. We're using data analytics and data science to gain insights into our business. This is supporting our pricing and inventory management strategies, making sure we have the right products in the right place and at the right price. And our barcoding and traceability program is adding to our quality assurance, allowing us to track our products from the steel mill through our warehouses and on to our customers. We're also investing in CRM technology to help us better understand our customers, provide an enhanced This provides This provides technical content about our products that makes it easier for construction and design professionals to work with us, streamline workflow and estimation information and deliver superior constructability for our products. It's another added value service that sets steel and tube apart. We are also integrating electronically with key customers to assist with planning, pricing, ordering, dispatch and test certificate retrieval. New online programs and apps and hardware are making it easier for our staff to do their jobs and creating a safer work environment. We're investing in Intellects, a health and safety app that can be used by our staff on the go, helping to meet our goal of ensuring all our staff go home safe every day. And we're deploying tablets and handheld scanners across our operations, which further support safety and quality checks. We are committed to helping all our people release their potential, and our online library now has over 50 different training courses with more than 2,000 modules completed last year. Our digital strategy is an intrinsic part of our company and the benefits from our investment are accelerating. Steel and Tube is leading the way in the steel sector and we will continue to be innovative as we deliver on our quality promise for our customers, our staff and our shareholders. We have a clear digital road map, and this will continue to be an important investment area for us. So looking forward at where growth will come from in the next year. Our strengths. The solid financial performance in the 2021 financial year enables our focus to transition from turnaround mode to growth and value add mode. Our turnaround program has delivered for us and we are now seeing the benefits of that. We are moving forward with a robust financial and operating platform, leadership positions across many of the categories that we operate within and very strong employee morale. There is always more to do and while our focus remains on optimizing the business, we have also identified a number of organic growth opportunities. Our priority remains on delivering great experience and quality outcomes for our customers. Our purpose and our goal is simple, to make life easy for customers needing steel solutions and to be their preferred supplier of choice. We continue to build initiatives under each of our 5 pathways, which are focused on our customers, our people, our technology, service and operational efficiency. Strategically, we will build on the strong business foundation that we've built with a focus on digital and IT initiatives. Gross margin dollar improvement and operational efficiencies remain a priority and we will leverage our breadth and scale to cross sell to our customers and sell a wider range of products and services. As you've heard today, we are investigating new products and opportunities that will extend what we can offer to our customers and we'll continue to invest in our marketing and sales to build demand. While our primary focus is on organic growth, we will also continue to consider opportunities in adjacent sectors, Creating a sustainable business underpins everything we do and we are really pleased to have recently appointed Trent Brasch for the new role of Group Sustainability Manager. Trent has a clear passion for improving our environment and communities and will play an important role as we continue to create environmentally and socially responsible company that shareholders, customers and our Steel and Tube team can be proud of. Market outlook for FY 2022. Aside from the current and any future lockdowns, market conditions are expected to remain positive and the economic cycle is expected to be stronger for longer. The current residential boom is expected to ease over the medium term due to an expected rise in mortgage rates and also increasing supply. However, commercial infrastructure and manufacturing are all expected to grow. The latest lockdown has shown New Zealand's vulnerability and we believe vaccination is a key to reducing risk. We have introduced an incentive scheme for our staff to encourage them to get vaccinated faster And we've offered $150 in either the cash, KiwiSaver contribution or Steel and Tube shares to those who are fully vaccinated by mid November. We've had a really positive feedback on this from our staff and it's worth noting our robust systems are in place to ensure personal information is kept confidential. This great response from our Foundurai staff was captured on Te Kari Maori news last week. I'll try to get it done as soon as possible so I can get the 150 in November. Everyone can still visit loved ones and everything like that. So it's pretty good. Are you getting paid to do the right thing here? Well, it's a choice really. Not everyone has to do it. And I think it's just an incentive to actually get people out there to actually book something. It's a great plan by Mark and the senior leaders at Stellan too, but give someone an incentive to actually go and get the vaccine if they're on the fence. And it's just good for the team, really. We were really clear that vaccinations have become just so critical for our employees and also the business. So prompted us to do a bit of thinking about what we could do to make the experience a bit more positive. It became clear pretty quickly how important vaccinations were going to be, not just for the whole country, but for us as a business with a predominantly Auckland base. Keep my kids and family safe really. That's the number one priority for me, always keep my kids safe. And my whole family is fully vaccinated now. If we could create a workplace that means everyone had a vaccination, we believe it would be the safest place to be. So that would be the absolute ultimate outcome. Just to make sure that everyone's safe, not only the staff, but also their families and the people that they deal with, making sure that we're a safe company for also our customers. Moving to the business outlook. We will continue to be responsive to the changing environment and changing sector demands. Our team has the experience and skills to solve challenges, identify opportunities and differentiate ourselves to be the preferred supplier of choice. Our focus remains on gross margin improvement, customer delivery and growing sales in attractive segments. We have a strong pipeline of secured work in place and we are well positioned to take advantage of new market and product opportunities. Investing in new processing equipment will assist opening up some identified markets as well as driving operational efficiencies, safety and product quality. In addition, we will continue to invest in digital technologies to continuously improve our customers' experience and to expand the customer offer providing further competitive advantages. We are confident in our strategy, our people and our positioning and look forward to continuing to build the strong platform we now have in place. Before I hand back to Susan, I would like to share a few words from some of our Steel and Tube team members. Thank you. Steel and Tube is it's the people. It's the last. It's the street. It's more than just a workplace. I'm very happy at my job. I love my role here. I feel very safe here. A good solid company as far as I'm concerned. I look forward to coming to work every day. Good bunch of us to work with us, of course. Teamwork. We'll have opportunities for staff to work remotely. This is a regular job like we're doing now, but working with some great people. It's a job that's put through on table to pay for mortgage, which is one with family. Family, extended family. Family. Everyone who comes to work here has a purpose. I've been learning more. It has a fixed purpose. Steel and tube I work with some really great people. Maybe it's come like nineteen years. It's a lot of fun. I've been doing this job for 22 years. I couldn't work anywhere else, I don't think. Thank you, Mark. I would now like to invite questions in relation to the annual report or today's presentations. There will be an opportunity to ask questions about the resolutions once they have been put to shareholders. Moderator, do we have any questions on the results or presentations? Thank you, Susan. There's a number of questions. The first question is from a shareholder, John Cagle. John has asked for the company's view on several items. Firstly, the rationalization of the steel industry in New Zealand is the only path forward. Secondly, significance of the BlueScope Steel Shareholding, which he assumes as a blocking holding to prevent rationalization and the views of the Commerce Commission. And thirdly, he comments that what was once a good income stock is no longer and that the market reaction to changes within the company have not been positive. Thank you. So in responding to John, rationalization with regards to the steel industry, we do think it's important that consumers have a number of competitors and that there is competition in place. While there are some rationalization opportunities such as we've just bought Fire Sinks New Zealand and some smaller things, we have investigated any further or greater consolidation opportunities, but we don't believe that those exist in the industry at this time. And therefore, our main focus is on organic growth of the business. With regards to the significance of the BlueScope shareholding, the market was announced it was announced to the market that in 2018, BlueScope, which are the owners of Pacific Steel and New Zealand Steel, had bought a 15.8% shareholding from Milford Asset Management. BlueScope are very supportive of our company, and we communicate with them regularly, and they're supportive of our strategy. As far as the Congress Commission goes, they don't have any view, in particular, on this shareholding. With regards to what was once a good income stock, as you'll be aware, the management and Board have been overseeing quite a turnaround of the business. And during that time, we are very mindful that shareholders have foregone dividends and income from our stock. This year, we have reinstated a dividend, and now we have restructured the business, and we see it in a very good position. Our intention is to maintain dividends going forward. You'll be aware that our share price has increased from €0.60 about a year ago, and we have moved much in line with the other competitors or other businesses in our sector over the past few years. We've delivered 2 strong after year results, and we have confidence that we will continue to deliver results like that going forward. Thank you, Susan. The next question is in regards to supply chain. So can you comment on the implications of Chinese steel output reductions? Are there any issues with supply, logistics and pricing? And can input price increases be passed on and margins maintained while remaining competitive in the marketplace? Mark, we've had a board meeting and spent several hours discussing this. But Mark, can I ask you to provide an overview for the shareholders on all those issues that we've discussed today? Sure, Susan. I mean, I'll start with the last question first, the ability to pass prices through into the market. The market appears to be operating under a replacement cost type model. So we are able to pass prices through. In fact, over the last 6 months, there's been a succession of price moves as product prices have increased quite significantly, particularly over the last 6 months. And obviously, we can't speak for other competitors, but it appears that the market is also seeing similar cost pressures to what we're seeing. Moving to the question around Chinese output reductions. Yes, we are seeing some changes in the iron ore markets. It's worth noting that also coking coal has increased in price significantly, both iron ore and coking coal are key ingredients for blast furnaces. What we see for many of the products that steel and tube are buying is typically arc furnaces, electric arc furnaces that are feeding those products. And so scrap is actually a key ingredient for those mills and particularly markets like the Taiwanese Taiwan scrap prices have continued to increase and firm. The key factor that really drives prices, particularly in our part of the world, is supply and demand of finished products. And what we're seeing from close to 30 mills that we buy from on a daily, weekly, monthly basis is that most of those mills are on allocation, so very long lead times of product. Demand is exceeding supply. And so that has an obvious impact in terms of pricing pressures that we're seeing here locally as well as our shipping congestion and other supply chain issues lead to price pressure coming through. And as I say, most participants in the market appear to be seeing similar pressures. The logistics issues for steel and tubes, specifically, we have partnerships with shopping companies. And the most important thing to secure in this type of environment is the actual physical laneways into the different markets that feed from those mills. And so we've been successful in securing long term contracts in place with many of the shipping companies and freight forwarders. So that means that we're able to physically move product in through the country. And then, of course, we've had local congestion issues at ports, which the ports have been doing a good job of working through. So we've been able to support our customers locally. Thank you. And then in relation to the question, inventories have increased on the balance sheet. Is this a monetary or physical count increase? Well, it's both. We are we've increased our stock on hand just to cover the issues that I just mentioned to ensure that we can support our customers here locally. We've made sure that we've got appropriate levels of inventory for our customers. And we've also got significant quantities of goods in transit at any one time. Close to 20% of our inventory is actually goods in transit that's coming in that we've obviously got monetary commitments around. Next question. Have all issues with the Commerce Commission now been resolved? And what were the financial Commerce Commission are now well resolved. As we advised going through those issues with the Commerce Commission, that was fully insured and so there were no financial implications for the company. Next question. Does the Board have a return on equity or return on capital employed target for the company? Before the GFC, the company's return on equity used to be more than $0.16 per annum and return on capital employed more than 25% per annum. But I've also been they've all been $0.05 to $0.08 per annum at best over the last few years. Thank you again. Yes, the board is very focused on return on capital employees, and this is a metric that we monitor in the Chief Financial Officers report each month. At the moment, we are tracking around 7.3%, which the board is very aware is not where we wish to be. But Richard, I wonder if I can pass to you as CFO to talk a little further on that. Thanks, Susan. Yes, as Susan said, it's definitely a focus. This is something that we are actively working on, not just in my monthly report the Board, but continuously within our senior leadership team and as the focus of each of the GMs, we track return at a divisional level as well as at a group level. So we are managing this very closely. Okay. Thank you. Next question. Why not reward shareholders via a tax efficient share buyback instead of paying fully taxable uninfused dividends? Going forward, at the moment, we are having a good look at our capital structure and what is the most effective way. If we were to return any money to shareholders, we felt it was important to reinstate the dividend. And as we are now in a tax paying position, we will have imputation credits to attach to those dividends going forward. Next question. The company has gone through some restructuring under the current management. Are there any more operating costs that the management could still take out? Let me address that one initially. We have completed most of our major restructuring initiatives that we've had underway. And as shareholders be aware, we've gone from around 50 sites down to in the order of about 29. We will continually look at any efficiencies that we can drive across the business. Obviously, we have inflationary pressures, so we would expect at least those inflationary impacts to be offset by efficiencies to be found across the business. But we haven't got any significant major cost out initiatives going forward, although we will continually lock with our digital technologies, etcetera, to be optimizing the business. Mark, just wonder if you'd like to add anything further on that. No, I think that's right, Susan. We've reduced our costs structurally reduced costs by about 13.5%, so significant reduction year on year in our cost structure that we've been able to lock in. And this is for, as Susan mentioned, the facilities are actually coming from 50 out of 26 operating sites today. We've reset our supply chain model, hub and spoke models across the company. And that said, there are always efficiency opportunities. And we as Susan mentioned, our objective is to offset inflation with efficiencies on an annual basis, and we are striving to do that. We still see opportunities within the business to be more efficient, and we're constantly chasing that. Thank you. Next question. New Zealand has been having a construction boom over the last 5 years, and it is still going strong, but 7Q's revenue has been stagnant at around £500,000,000 per annum. Could you please share your view on this and where to from here? Mark, I might let you take that one. Thank you. Sure. Look, our revenues have been fairly steady at about that level. Of course, last year dropped down due to COVID to about 4.20%. It's worth noting that over a couple of decades, Steel and Tube's revenues had tracked downwards, particularly over the last 10 years, and that had been propped up through acquisitions. And what we've done is really integrated those acquisitions over the last 3 years. And we've been actually able to grow our core revenues through our distribution function to the point now where we're getting back up to acceptable levels of return. We've been able to grow that business to return to around that sort of run rate of about $500,000,000 in revenues. Of course, we're targeting to grow that now. As you would have heard in the presentations, we're bringing on new product streams. We're increasing share of wallet with many of our customers. So we anticipate that revenue will be able to start growing now that we've got a really solid platform in place that's efficient and cost effective. Next question. Could you comment on your customer satisfaction score of 34? How do you benchmark this? Which system do you use? And what would be the best and worst possible scores in the system? Mark, why don't I let you take that one through on MPS? Sure. We use a company called Perceptive. That is a nationwide firm that do MPS, Net Promoter Score surveys for many companies. We've been using them for about 18 months. And we go out to between 5700 customers every month and we seek feedback. We get a response rate of between 20% 30%, which is best practice sort of number to get response rates around that. And that gives us really rich, specifically relevant feedback on our performance across the business. We've got set rules in place for the sort of groups of customers that we survey, so it's consistent and repeatable. And we've seen, obviously, the scores are improving and have improved year on year and month on month. In fact, current month, we're seeing sort of scores of upwards of 50, but as that rate builds. So the diversity across the business, yes, there is diversity. I don't have the range top of mind, but you could assume that it's 10 to 20 points either side of that. This is the average score year to date for the 2020, 2021 year. Next question. After a turnaround profit over the past year, how much of that profit is due to rent relief from landlords? Or what was the reduction on costs due to that rent relief? I can answer that if you like. Yes, Yes. We at the 1st lockdown in 2020, we worked with our landlords around abatements. Many of our contracts have the 2012 ADSL clauses in them. And so we were able to seek our relief through those mechanisms. More recently, we've also gone back to landlords at the moment we were locked down and have worked through and negotiated appropriate outcomes with each of the landlords. Obviously, we're in partnership over long term partnerships with those landlords, but we've exercised our rights within those agreements. It's not in terms of our overall OpEx cost structure, it's not really material, but does make a difference on a monthly basis, of course. And so that has been a positive benefit to us as we've been locked down, although it only goes partway to the cost that we're incurring that I mentioned earlier are significant in terms of our wage bills that we've got very little revenue when we are locked down. We've been able to rely on a little bit of income from the wage subsidy and also the abatements through the landlords. Okay. So another question. Great to get such an upbeat growth story today. Obviously wondering what this means for our shareholders. Recent analyst estimates for 2024 revenue at the same level as 2015, which is a slice above $500,000,000 I. E, basically no revenue growth long term and estimated 2024 earnings per share of $0.08 per share are less than half of what they have been in 2014. Do you think that the analysts are too pessimistic? Thanks, Jackie. The company doesn't exactly provide definite forward guidance, but certainly, we have a number of growth opportunities ahead of us and are certainly looking to take advantage of all of those. We do see a really solid future for the company and believe that we will build our revenues and our earnings per share as we go forward. Mark, would you like to add anything else to that? Thank you, Susan. Look, certainly, the market backdrop is very positive. I mentioned earlier, the residential commercial infrastructure and also an expanding manufacturing sector. One of the strengths Steel and Tube has is we're not just limited to residential consent. So we have a very broad base that is really looking very positive, absent of lockdowns, which obviously have a dent as you would have seen in the earlier material. So we're very optimistic and positive around the outlook in terms of demand. We've been able to lock in a cost structure that is sort of race fit. So we are cautiously optimistic about the go forward position. As Susan mentioned, we're not giving guidance at this point, but we are seeing good strong earnings momentum, which should flow through to shareholders. And no more questions, but just one comment from a shareholder who has said, Steeling Tube. I'll pass back to you, Susan. Thank you, Jackie. I'd now like to move to the resolutions before the meeting. These were notified in the notice of meeting and explanatory notes have been provided. Voting on each of the resolutions in the meeting will be by way of poll. Please cast your vote under the voting tab on the meeting platform. Only shareholders, proxy holders or corporate representatives of a shareholder may vote on today's resolutions. We will take questions on each resolution as they are put to shareholders. Firstly, appointment of KPMG. The first resolution is to approve the appointment of KPMG as the auditor of the company and to authorize the directors to fix the auditors for remuneration. KPMG has been recommended by the Board following a formal request for proposal process. We would like to take this opportunity to thank PwC for the service and support they have provided to Steel and Tube over many years. Moderator, are there any questions regarding the appointment of KPMG? There are no questions. Thank you. The next reservation is regards my reelection, so I will hand over to Steve Reiner to chair the meeting briefly. Before I do, I'd like to say a few words in support of my reelection. I'm sure you probably all read my background in the notice of meeting, but after a pharmacy degree and working in business and pharmacy, I completed an MBA at London Business School and then worked internationally on a lot of strategic transformations for a strategy based company based out of Boston but working across Europe and the United States. After coming back to New Zealand, I worked for the steel division of Fletcher Challenge and worked in restructuring that steel division before moving into a career in energy. And I worked then for the government on secondment to establish the wholesale electricity market in New Zealand. Since that, I've had a number of directorships and have been doing directorships for the past 20 plus years, and a number of those are in sectors which are very relevant to Steel and Tube. I had 8.5 years on the Board of Transpar, which gave me a really good insight into major infrastructure organizations and projects. I was on the Board of Goodman Property Trust for 13 years where we've done a lot of industrial developments and on the Board of Boithouse in New Zealand and Arvina where we build a lot more residential style buildings. This has given me a lot of industry insights and a really good network. And one of my other Board relationships is that with the Reserve Bank, where again, I get a lot of insights into the direction that the economy is taking. I'm really excited about Steel and Tube. We've done a lot of work, and I think we've built a fantastic team. I believe we're doing the right thing for New Zealand by both organizing and becoming a really efficient and effective supply chain player in building materials and in steel, which is such an important element within the New Zealand economy. We've done a lot in the digital space, and I think we're going exactly in the right direction. And I'm confident that we've actually really turned a corner at Steel and Tube, and I would love to continue working with the company and helping to lead the company as it goes forward in the future, delivering value to all of you as shareholders and to our other stakeholders. Thank you. Thanks, Susan. Susan Patterson is retiring by rotation and being eligible for standing for reelection. Susan is a supportive and committed Board Chair and the directors unanimously support her reelection. I would also like to add on behalf of the Board recognition of Susan's steady guidance throughout the demanding business turnaround for Steel and Shug over the last few years. Moderator, are there any questions in regards to Susan's reelection? There is a question. What is the greatest lingering threat to the business that most worries the board and management? Thank you. I must say there's always things that happen around the corner. And of course, COVID has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works, but I don't believe that there are any major lingering threats to the business. I think we have, over the past 4 years, really peeled back the onion and looked inside it and rebuilt the organization such that it's in a really good place going forward. So I don't actually see any lingering threats outside something completely outside our control, which, like COVID, I must say, I'm incredibly proud of the whole team in the way that we have reacted and been nimble and been able to get the organization up and running, really looked after our people, but also looked after our customers ensuring that we've got a strong supply chain so we can deliver to New Zealand and New Zealand Inc. And all the very important areas that we operate such as supporting manufacturers to have steel available so they can keep working infrastructure, residential and commercial and rural, we've done a really good job. And so I don't actually believe that there are any major threats. I think what's facing the company is that we have the ability to take advantage of the opportunities for us going forward. Thank you. There are no more questions. Thank you, moderator. I'll now hand the meeting back to Susan. Thank you, Steve. We were pleased to welcome Karen to the Board in December last year. Steel and Tube's directors provide diversity of thought, experience and gender. And importantly, the majority of our directors have either worked in or involved in directorships in the sector. Karen is an experienced director with over 20 years' experience in FTSC Listed Energy Companies. She has a strong commercial background and financial skills and is the Chair of our Board Audit and Risk Committee. The Board unanimously supports her election. Karen, would you now like to say a few words? Thank you, Susan. Kia ora, Coteau. I'm Karen Jordan, and I'm seeking election to the Board today. I'm a graduate and economist by academic background, a chartered management accountant by profession, a fellow of my accounting institute, CIMA. I'm also a chartered fellow of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand. My executive career spans over 20 years in the UK Energy Industry, starting in professional finance, risk management and in internal audit, then moving into general management roles where I developed a passion for safety, customer excellence and business efficiency. I have led technology enabled business transformation, managed commercial operations for National Grid's energy infrastructure operations in the UK, and latterly, the UK Construction Business within National Grid. And then as a Director for the UK Ministry of Defense, where I led contract management across a portfolio of major capital programs and also essential operating services. I've been a Non Executive Director for over 10 years, serving in a number of UK governance roles, including on the Board of the British Cabinet Office, where I also chaired the Audit and Risk Committee. Some 20 years, I made my annual pilgrimage to New Zealand visiting family here and in Australia. And 5 years ago, I moved here permanently with my husband and my black Labrador. I currently sit on the Board of City Rail Link Limited on the Risk and Insurance Committee of New Zealand Defense Force and the Inland Revenue Risk and Insurance Committee. I'm absolutely delighted to be standing for election to Steel and Tube. And I see the company as being at the heart of New Zealand's engine for growth and for prosperity at a time when construction is really being relied upon to help the nation through these challenging times. With a clear strategy, strong leadership and discipline in execution, the ambition is to continue this improvement in performance and to meet shareholder expectations. As a Board member and also Audit Committee Chair, I feel I bring professional disciplines, leadership experience and governance expertise to help develop and oversee the execution of this strategy and help the company to build on its recent turnaround and to thrive for the benefit of all our stakeholders and especially for our shareholders. I respectfully request your support in this endeavor. Thank you, Susan. Thanks, Karen. Moderator, have we got any questions for Karen? There are no questions. Thank you. Just before we go on and I close the voting system, I just wondered there was a question earlier with regards to tax and imputation. And I just wonder if I might ask Richard Smyth to just elaborate a little more on imputations of the tax. Richard? Thank you, Susan. Just to let shareholders know, as included in our annual report, we currently have about $5,300,000 worth of tax losses. So depending on the profitability of the group this year, we may not actually pay taxes in FY 'twenty two either, which means that we wouldn't have the imputation credits until we started paying taxes in the FY 'twenty three year. So I just wanted to clarify that comment. Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate that. That concludes our discussion and the items of business for today. Can you please use the tabs and follow the instructions in casting your votes? In a minute, I will close the voting system. Please ensure that you have cast your votes on all resolutions. I will now pause to allow you time to finalize those votes. If there is any other business question that shareholders would like to raise, please feel free to submit any questions now. Moderator, have there been any other questions submitted? There are no further questions. Very well. I believe we should close the voting now. Voting on today's resolutions is now closed. The results of the voting will be posted on the NZX as soon as practicable. I would like to thank our shareholders for your continued support. We remain committed to realizing the potential of our business and delivering value on your investment. Thank you very much for your attendance today, and I truly hopefully hope that we can meet up in person again next year. I declare the meeting closed. Thank you.