Franchise Brands (LSE:FRAN) — Interim Results

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the FRANCHISE BRANDS PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time by the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to the management team. Peter, good morning, sir. Good morning, and good morning to everybody, and welcome to the FRANCHISE BRANDS inventory presentation twenty twenty six. Before I go any further, I'll introduce myself. My name is Peter Malloy. I am the CEO of the business.

0:46 I've been with FRANCHISE BRANDS in the group for about nine years and CEO for the last two. And I'd also like to introduce Neil Miller, our new CFO, who joined the business about two months ago, and I'm delighted to welcome to the group, and it significantly strengthens the executive team. So so welcome, Neil. Thank you. So in terms of an overview as the the first half of the year, what we saw was a return to growth driven primarily by things that we can control and some self help initiatives. What we didn't see was any particular improvement in the macros in any of our geographies, probably with the exception of the states where it remains strong.

1:35 So across the group, record system sales in our three b to b divisions. In some businesses, that was a modest record, but nonetheless, a record. Exceptionally strong performance in filter international in The US helped by the increased price on the used cooking oil and expansion of the range of services. We're making good progress with our strategic plan of becoming a b to b franchise business and focusing on those core markets. The one franchise brands initiative that we've been working on for about eighteen months is progressing well, and we're starting to see some initial benefits coming through from that investment and that work that we've been doing. And as I've already touched upon, strengthening the management team with Neil joining the group and Andrew, our former CFO, reverting back to his more commercial role.

2:33 So in terms of the business and just reminding people of the strategy, as I've said, we want to be a b to b franchise business and a more simple connected group. And underneath that then, there are key elements to our strategy, which is clearly growing sales, and we have a well established playbook for that, which is centered around the expanding of the range of services, working in new sectors, and developing the CRM to help us drive that. Spending smartly is a key element of that, and you'll see a little bit of evidence where we can demonstrate that in the first half of the year. Collecting cash and remaining a very strong cash generation business is key to our strategy.

3:18 And then allocating the capital whether that's reinvesting in our organic growth or paying down debt or helping our franchisees develop their businesses. So as a very high level look at the first half performance, as you can see, system sales increasing by 6.7% and adjusted EBITDA at almost the same level resulting in an almost 9% increase in EPS. Debt coming down 9,200,000 over the last twelve month period, leading to a 1.5 leverage, is down from 1.8 at the same time last year. And a strong cash conversion and continuing cash conversion at 81%.

4:05 And Neil will go through in more detail the finances later in the slide deck. When we look at our businesses, one of the things that we look at is what drives it, and we're a resilient business for many reasons. All of our customers have similar characteristics. They all have assets that need to be used and utilized. As they get more used, then they're susceptible to failure or need maintenance. We make the operational response through over two hundred and eight eighteen b to b franchisees, which then generate system sales. And that resilience is really underpinned by the 1,300,000 jobs that we do per annum at a very modest average order value of £340.

4:53 So an inbuilt resilience within our market and in some cases where we then can outperform GDP in in geographies and certainly outperform that in territories run by our franchisees, and we'll demonstrate some of that in in a moment. One of the things that we talk about in franchise brands is as they grow, we grow, and our job is to try and help the franchisees build their businesses. And what you can see is in the first half of the year, a 9% increase on year on year average value for a franchise business, average tenure of eleven years within our franchise group and our franchise partners, and that's a blessing and a curse. The blessing being that it's a really good business to be part of and we've got longevity of franchise partners.

5:43 Equally, sometimes our partners are here too long and they need to move on at the end of that tenure. And we're acutely aware of that and that's why we look at the churn within our franchise groups to make sure we've got the right level of commitment and enthusiasm from our franchise partners. And then the b to b franchisees in growth, 73% in growth and 50% of them growing by more than 20% sorry, more than 10%. And what that tells us is a number of things. If you look at their growth compared to the overall year on year average at 9%, what it demonstrates is that franchisees are much better at running operational businesses than we are, and that really allies with our strategy of ensuring that we are entirely a b to b franchise business.

6:36 Helping our our partners acquire and retain customers and spend. In the first half of this year, 7,000 new customers traded with the group, 56,000 customers overall. And more importantly, I think, is the retention rate within our franchise businesses. Pertek had a plus 90% retention rate of customers and Metroid and Fils were 80%. Why is that important? It's really important because although in some of our businesses, the sectors in which we operate are depressed, What we need to be is the supplier of choice when those sectors grow and start to come back. So being retained by those customers and ensuring we're their first choice is really critical to our strategy.

7:28 One franchise brands is the initiative that we launched just under two years ago, and and it isn't simply a technology strategy, although some of that underpins it. It is much more about becoming a connected group and sharing best practice. In terms of integration, where are we at today? The Works Management System is currently being tested in The Benelux. If that passes test, then that will be rolled out in The Benelux in August. On the back of that, we will then roll that out in Germany, in Pertek, and in Pertek UK in h two, and that will roll into 2027 when we complete the rollout.

8:14 In terms of the finance system NetSuite, that's fully deployed across our b to b businesses. And what we're seeing there is some benefits coming through, but I think it's early days where we virtually completed the implementation phase and the second half of the year, we'll be looking at process improvements and efficiencies. In terms of the CRM system, HubSpot, again, fully deployed across the businesses And, again, what we're seeing there is some better quality information to inform our decision making, and in particular, to be able to track customer trends and also to see when we pilot an initiative, what that looks like and what information we can garner from that to decide whether we continue with an initiative or pause it.

9:03 So what you're seeing is is a couple of things in the early part of the the one franchise brand strategy. The admin costs reducing by not point 6%, which is clearly a positive indicator for us. What we're also seeing is an improvement in vehicle utilization, And in part, that comes from the systems, but also it that also comes from a real focus on helping our franchisees improve the productivity of their engineers. And as I touched on earlier, really strong cash conversion at 81%. So talking on on Pertek particularly to begin with, as I said right at the start of the presentation, what we haven't seen is any improvement in the macros.

9:51 So so really the 2% system sales growth at just under now a 100,000,000 has been derived from an expansion of range of services, modest price increase with some customers, but also entering new sectors as well where the average order value is slightly better for us. So expanding those sectors particularly in marine, quarrying, and rail have helped offset some of the decline or the continued decline in plant hiring construction. So 2% increase in system sales and an equivalent increase in adjusted EBITDA. And what you can see there is that 5% increase in the the average order value.

10:40 One of the things that we wanted to try and do was reduce the cyclicality of the Pertech business, and one of the important areas of focus is now to try and increase the percentage of the planned work that we undertake. So it is less volatile, and it's much easier for us to forecast. So as we go forward into h two and and beyond, we will have a focus in particular on our total hose management service where that is essentially it is inspecting and ensuring we fully maintain the hoses on machinery or in manufacturing plants, giving us better lifetime value and certainty from from those customers. So overall, against a, as I say, an unchanged macro environment, a fairly satisfactory performance in Pertek in the first half of the year.

11:34 In terms of water and waste, our input into water and waste is much more mature than it is in Pertek and that starts to come through in some of the stories on this slide. The 6% increase in system sales overall in the division, underlying that was a 10% increase in system sales in in Metro which is really encouraging. As you can see, the average order value has increased substantially to 18% and that range of extended services has also increased from 40% to 44%. And why I say the strategy is much more mature, Metro Rod was a rodding business to begin with. We then built out tankers, we then built out pumps, and now we're building out lining. And that playbook is the same playbook that we are utilizing both in Pertek and in Filter in The US and you will see some of the benefits of that in The US shortly.

12:29 Equally here in terms of shared customers, one of the things that we've discovered is it's more challenging to share customers across brand, say, Pertek to Metrod, but it is slightly easier to share customers within a common division, so from Willow to Metarod, for example. And what we're seeing now is that 27% of system sales are from customers who buy from one or more of those brands, and that's an 18% improvement since 2023. So wrapping up in terms of water and waste for the for the half year, higher average order value, broader range of services, better productivity. Filter International, the standout performer in the first half of the year.

13:19 System sales up by 20%, adjusted EBITDA up by 40%, and there are combination of reasons for that. We've clearly benefited from a a very buoyant used cooking oil price, but the used cooking oil advantage that we had wasn't just based on price. We also improved the volume of collection by 16% as well. We also benefited from the introduction of a new service, and that introduction is being reflected at the moment in the licenses that our franchise bought our franchisees bought from us as we rolled out the filter clean pro service. So that is franchise's fueled investment and 5053% of those franchisees have now signed up to deliver that service.

14:09 What we need to do with that now and our real focus for the second half of the year is take those license fee sales into system sales. And what gives me really real encouragement is that level of franchisees that have bought the licenses, but also the opportunity to enter into new sectors. On the quick service restaurants, it's not really been a sector that filter of serviced over the years because they simply take away the oil and then refill it with with virgin oil as opposed to filtering it. But there is a high demand for commercial kitchen cleaning, particularly with the ceiling clean that we've introduced as well. So a very, very strong performance in the first half of the year from from Filter International and optimistic that that will continue.

14:59 So we look at our business and we talk often about resilience and one of our ambitions is to is to grow our profitability or have our profitability equally shared in North America, in Europe, and in The UK. And what you can see here for the first time, certainly in my time in the business, that The US is no greater than Europe in terms of profit generation. But that international diversification also gives us written built resilience where we operate in different economic cycles. We have essential demand from our customers. All of our customers have got really similar characteristics. We've got that local execution, so 218 franchisees operating across the divisions.

15:45 And and the largest franchisee in the in the group represents less than 3% of system sales, and the largest customer is less than 1% of system sales. So not dependent on a single franchisee or single contracts or usually exposed to a particular customer. And then clearly, the opportunity for growth as we start to expand our business may be through acquisition. We get asked why multi brand and why not a single brand. Think the answer is is fairly straightforward from our our point of view. We can leverage the group's resources and infrastructure and ways of working right the way across the business without having to do it multiple times. If you look at the the support of the shared group infrastructure in terms of CRM, one finance, one works, one procurement, whatever it might be, we need to develop that once and then be able to share it because as I say, we've got similar characteristics in a lot of the businesses.

16:49 So one of the benefits today, cross selling, reduced costs, increased sales, benefits for the future, a a more simplistic acquisition in terms of absorbing that business into the existing platforms and then monetizing that much quicker than we've experienced in the past. So that multi brand strategy really works for us, as I say, where we've got the same types of characteristics in our franchisees, which is manning van management franchise with an element of reactive service. So that's an overview from my perspective in terms of the operational performance of the business in the first half. I wanna hand you over to Neil, who will take you through the financial elements.

17:39 Thanks, Peter. And let me welcome everyone. It's great to have you with us and wish you a very good morning or good afternoon depending where you're dialing in from. As as Peter said, I joined the business a couple of months ago and been really excited to join and spent the last two months getting to know the business, getting to know the people and the teams, meeting some of our franchise partners, and and really going up the learning curve. Just sharing a couple of insights from my first sort of two months in the business. I think there's a really strong culture in the business and a culture that's entrepreneurial and really wants to drive drive growth and deliver the expectations for everyone, whether it be the internal to to franchise brands or most importantly with our franchise partners.

18:25 Secondly, the financial health of the business is very strong. We've got good organic growth, high levels of profitability, good cash generation, and lowly geared and continuing to deleverage as we go forward. So I think that the financial health of the business is very strong. And thirdly, you know, I've not worked in franchising before. My my experience has mostly been in in manufacturing business. So understanding that franchise model and the and the upside potential of having, you know, for our b to b franchise business, 218 franchise partners who are all entrepreneurs, who all want to grow their businesses. And as Peter's slides say, we've got 70% of franchise partners in growth. We've got 50% of them growing above 10%. And I think my insight from that when I've met some of them is they will outcompete a corporate in their same market in their patch, and our job is to support them and how do we get them to grow quicker. So I think there's real strength in in that model.

19:24 Opportunities from from the early insight that I've had, I think we can we you know, in areas that I'll be focusing on as we go forward, I think there's more cash that we can squeeze out from from working capital and getting that working capital management working a bit better, and that will always go towards our our capital allocation strategy and putting deleverage at the at the top of the list of that. And then secondly, building on on what Peter said around the the one franchise brands initiatives within NetSuite, which we finished the rollout in in finance and looking to use that to, firstly improve our transactional processing efficiency within within finance, but also how do we get better data and insight to support the decision making within the business. So those are some of the areas that, that I'll be focusing on. But moving forward to talk about the the results for the first half of twenty twenty six.

20:13 So on the top line, growing really nicely at 6.7%. I'd say Pertech, really driven by by Pertech UK and Benelux and looking to accelerate that growth as we as we come into the second half. Waste and water with Metro Road growing at 10% being the big driver within that. Willow Pumps is declining at 5%. A lot of that is around phasing of big projects. So where we've won a contract, and actually, it's that it's the partner that we've our customer that is not ready to really commission that work and and and put that through. So we hope that's gonna come through in in the second half, but that's been some some some delays, but it's very much sort of from the customer side rather than anything from to to competitors. And then as Peter's already talked about, FILTER International, the standout performer, growing at 20 in in GBP, 24% in in in dollars.

21:06 Underlying, I think, really importantly, system sales growth at 14% or 16% in dollars and supported by the used cooking oil of growing on top of that. But again, about 25% of that growth is coming from volume and collecting more, and that's through through investments we've had with our franchise partners supported by the higher used cooking oil price. Business to our b to c businesses declining at 8%, and really, that's the continuing trend of of attracting and retaining the franchise partners. So moving on to the adjusted EBITDA. And I think there's already a question come through on this, but I was, you know, explaining this we will be explaining this anyway, that that's not all dropping through in the first half. All that growth in the top line, not all dropping through, and they're for various reasons, which I'll which I'll explain.

21:59 So in when you compare six months on six months, you've got some some sort of one off or things that will will phase out over a twelve month period that are not repeating in the first half of this year for the first the first half of of of last year. So one of those being franchise territory sales in Pertek, which we had in the first half of last year. We would expect those to come through in the second half, but that didn't that didn't happen. So, therefore, that's why that's a a a sort of a a depression in in the profit six months on six months. So that's why it's not all flowing through to the bottom line in this six month period. I'd expect that to unwind in the full year. I think on the other side, I think we have got really good cost control. And and the the businesses that are not performing as well, that's not dropping through to the bottom line. So you see that in in Willow and in Filter UK in waste and water that they're very much not letting that top line to go full through into an EBITDA decline. They're using cost control to offset that.

22:58 But the big one is is Metro Rod, where we have seen profitability not in line with with the previous year despite a 10% growth. The main reason for that is the way we've allocated some fixed costs that in 2025, these that allocation was all in December, whereas in 2026, that allocation of cost, which is roughly like for like, but that's spread in every month. So that's the main reason why the the profit the top line growth isn't dropping through to the bottom line. Currently, that'll completely unwind by the end of the year. The second effect there is, you know, as Peter talked about, the growing of additional services. This is around tanker work and around pump work, which to support our franchise partners in these more capital intensive services, we give them a lower serve MSF, lower lower franchise fee for those services. And as they grow, it slightly dilutes our profitability, but we definitely get the return on that through through through top line growth.

24:00 Filter International, again, moving forward very strongly. Underlying profitability is there supported by the used cooking oil, both volume and value, and by the sale of those licenses for the FilterClean Pro. There are some some sort of non repeating things there where we had franchise sales in the first half of of last year, which haven't happened yet in the in the first half of this year. They will come in in the second half. And similarly on equipment sales, so that where we get a big push on equipment sales pre, tariffs in 2025 that hasn't been repeated yet in in 2026, but we'd expect to see that pick up. So despite the really strong performance, there are other areas where that we expect to come in that would offset any one offs in the in the first half.

24:46 And, really, you know, when you look at fixed costs, what we're focusing on is our total fixed costs. So total fixed costs for the first half were 25,400,000. That was up point three, so only up 1%. And really when we look at our operational gearing, we want to bring that down as a percentage of system sales. We made a good step forward on that in the first half of the year, and now it's at 11.1% of system sales versus 11.7% in the first half of last year. And that's where I'd expect to see our overheads grow but at a lower rate of growth compared to the, compared to system sales growth and and see the benefits of operational gearing coming through. Talking about cash flow for the first half, so very positive cash flow and cash conversion, 81%.

25:34 We do have some outflows from working capital, which is mostly around phasing. So we have some big one off payments for for group costs for things like insurance and for some of the IT license spend, which goes out in the first quarter. So that will unwind as we go through the second half, and that's what you've seen in previous years. On top of that, there has been some support to franchise to our franchisees through some extended payment terms, for example, of the of the filter clean licenses that Peter talked about that are on slightly extended payment terms. So the profit is sitting in the in the, in the EBITDA, but that's sitting in working capital for now. That cash will flow in as we go forward. Low capital intensive, so only point four on net purchases of of of plant and equipment. We do see the the sort of peak flow outflow from the one franchise brand's IT project, so 1,700,000 as we've got the cost of implementing CRM, the cost of implementing NetSuite as well as the build out of the works management system, which is gonna go into the rollout phase as we speak.

26:35 So that will unwind. That will get lower in the second half and then and then further step down in '27 and to to completely stop there. Good progress on deleverage. So we're at 2,700,000 versus opening balance, 9,200,000 versus this time last year on on the leverage, and interest paid at 2.1. So that's a 16% reduction versus the same time last year. So continuing that allocation of of of or capital allocation that we've said and supporting a a progressive dividend. So, really, this is confirming we are on track versus market expectations in terms of net debt and our leverage ratio, and we're continuing to see that coming down over the next next couple of years.

27:21 And then confirming our capital allocation priorities. So, you know, in areas of of my focus in terms of how do we generate more cash, so through the profitable growth that we're that we're seeing in the top line, which is really where all of our focus is in supporting our franchise partners to grow. And when they grow, we grow. Driving that operational gearing of how do we have a lower growth in our in our fixed costs compared to the the top line growth. Working capital discipline where I think there's some opportunities to improve. We don't have a big working capital position, but but I think an area where we can tighten up. And driving noncore disposals and using all of those proceeds to continue to deleverage, invest in the core business and in our one franchise brands platform. And that not only is the right thing to do for the short term, but creates the platform for future acquisitions as we as we move forward and supporting a progressive dividend policy and, you know, the the dividend growing in line with EPS growth and share purchases, which we'll we'll use to offset the option dilution that that we're seeing through through through share options granted.

28:33 So, really, as we look to the outlook for the second half of the year and beyond, we are seeing the benefits of the business model with the sort of resilience in the in the in the industries we serve and the services that that we that we that we give. And we see that there's significant growth opportunities through expanding that range of services and supporting our our franchise partners to grow. Our strategic initiatives position us well to continue to drive system sales and control costs, whether that be on the top line or whether that be through the things like the one franchise brands, programs to control our costs and and drive operational gearing. As we've been very clear, we're not seeing any help from the macroeconomic environment in the first half, and we're not expecting that to change in the second half. So we are not assuming there'll be any tailwinds coming through, and we don't really see those coming through in the second half of next year. As and when they do, they'll they'll be built into our forecast. But at the moment, we don't think that that they will be helping us.

29:32 Highly cash generative franchise models continues to build that capital allocation and continues to build the deleverage and and the growth in our dividend. And, really, the actions we're taking are underpinning the confidence in the market expectations that are out there, and that's where we're guiding for the rest of the year. So the final slide is really just to reiterate the investment case and really building on all the work that's all the words that Peter has has said at the beginning is we've got market leading franchise brands, seven across 10 countries, and that gives us diversity and and and robustness in in our model. Resilient essential services is the core of what we do in man and a van services that things need to be repaired, although we're building out where we can in terms of planned services as well.

30:22 Significant growth opportunities. You know, we we've talked in the past about the maximum potential model and how do we help all of our franchisee partners grow and maximize their their opportunity. Highly cash generative leading to degearing and and paying down paying down debt as we continue to allocate our cash towards that. Operational gearing gives us a great platform to be able to build and grow without having to put lots of overheads in and a highly experienced team with deep franchising experience. So at that point, that concludes the presentation, and I'll hand back to Lily for the q and a session. Pete and Neil, thank you very much for presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Just while the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via investor dashboard.

31:19 As you can see, we have received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. Peter, can I please ask you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so? And I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you, Lily. So the the first question I I it's from Marcus H. And I think, Neil, you covered it off in your presentation, which was why was there a gap between the development of system sales and growth profit in Pertek and water and waste? I think just to reiterate, Neil, some of that will normalize in in h two, and it's a timing issue particularly in Metrod. Is that fair to say? Yeah. Okay. And then again from Marcus, what about of b to c and or other businesses, and how far is that process along the way? I I think it's fair to say that that we are making progress.

32:11 We have the we've outlined our strategic ambition to be a franchise business, and the noncore DLO businesses don't really fit within that strategy. I think the the easiest way of answering, Marcus, is to say we are making progress. And then in from Henry w, Metrod, what do you mean by 44% of extended or expanded range of services? Henry, it's really about away from the noncore drainage work that we do, the the the normal drain unblocking. So as Neil touched on, it's worthy. It's it's more capital investment from the franchisees or capital intensive. It is tankers.

32:58 It is drain lining. It is pump work, which attracts a lower management fee. So it's important that we understand what proportion of sales that is. And in part, it talks to that that gap between system sales and EBITDA in in Metro as well. So it's just really a way for it's a different measure away from the core business of of straightforward drainage. Again, from Henry w, filter clean pro currently accounts for about 8% of system sales. What revenue contribution should we expect going forward? I think the easiest way of answering that is that we would expect to see an increase.

33:45 What gives me confidence in that is the enthusiasm of the franchisees that have taken up that service, but also the expansion into other sectors where we've not been able to operate previously. I wouldn't mind is proportionally stayed at 8% as long as we were growing the business much more rapidly. But I think the short answer is that we expect it to increase. I think slowly in 2026 was an acceleration through 2027 as we start to establish ourselves in that market. From Marcus H, are there any more structural factors for the high cooking oil price? Or will that likely normalize again when and if the Iran war is over and oil flows normalize?

34:35 Neil, do you wanna take that? Yeah. Yeah. There's there's a second question about what drove up the used cooking oil price in Okay. Half one and what is the assumptions for half two. So Yeah. I think that the there is a broad correlation between used cooking oil price and and mineral oil, although there are many other factors that affect it on top of that. So I think the first thing to do is is, you know, I think our our sales are about 16,000,000 in the in the first half from used cooking. So it only makes up 7% of the overall system sales of the business. So although although it is a factor, it's not a material factor ongoing. And as we grow the rest of the business, it will become less of less of an impact. I think what we we are seeing within that marketplace also, there are there are factors that influence that in The US. So they've banned the import of used cooking oil from China, so that's putting more demand.

35:33 And as well as the in terms of the supply side, on the demand side, that demand for biodiesel and using that into some animal feeds as that's affected by by by other things as well, it means that market is is is buoyant in on its own without the the sort of the mineral oil price change. So we have seen it go up. I think on average for the first half, it was about 50 yep. Our internal price was 53¢ a pound. It exited at a higher rate than that. We're not expecting it to continue with that high rate, but we think half year on half year, the price will be pretty much pretty much the same as those macro factors within that market will continue in the second half. But also kind of repeating what we said before, I think some of the growth in that market has come from things that we've done to supporting investment with franchise partners into bigger collection tanks. And when you collect, when you put those tanks in, the oil volume will come in, and that's that's gone up half year and we'll half year, and we'll expect to see that continuing.

36:36 So there are a number of factors within that, and it isn't simply just a it'll follow the the the oil price kind of up and down. I think for the second half, we think it will be roughly in line with the first half. Thanks, Neil. Another question in here from Steven are, how much potential do you see in The US market for growth? Think significant is the honest answer. We've touched on the filter clean pro program that we've we've launched. But equally, we have about 30 to 35 territories which are vacant, which we would class as b and c type territories, where they are sustainable for a franchisee and maybe a three or four van operation, but possibly not in a 15 van operation.

37:28 And and one of the advantages to filter clean pro launch is that that makes that much more attractive in those territories as opposed to just focusing on filtration. I think the other area that we see as well and I think when we acquired the business, two thirds of the work in filtration came from hospitality. That's now about a third of the market share that we have. And we see expansion opportunities in other sectors, you know, in education, in health care, in stadia. I I think the short answer is that we see significant opportunities in in The States going forward. Just let me have a look.

38:16 How question here. How are the franchisees performing? What drives the top performing franchisees? And how do you improve the overall performance of the network? I I think some of it is cyclical in terms of franchisees. But in in answer to the question of how do we monitor and improve that performance, one of the things that we use is the maximum potential model, which effectively identifies the best of the best within our franchise network. So we we understand what they're doing, and we try and educate our other franchisees in terms of what needs to be done in their business to improve that performance. As I said earlier in the slide deck, 73% of the franchisees in growth, so we've got to focus on 26% that that need to look at their performance.

39:07 And it's a combination of things. As I say, it's a combination of us giving them help, them helping themselves, or indeed, you know, deciding that the journey we're on is not for them. And we we need one of the other factors we need to do with that is look and make sure we've got the right pipeline of new franchisees coming in, not only in The UK and in America, but also in Europe where that's not quite as strong as the other two parts of the business. Have you another question. How have you successfully expanded the range of services at Metroid and Filsa? I'll answer it in part, and then Neil can perhaps talk about the support that we give for franchisees in ensuring that they can expand quickly.

40:01 I think in part, it is proven of concept. You know, if I if I go back to my early days in Metrod, it was about understanding what a tanker can bring, getting franchisees and advocates. And once the franchisees are listening to each other, that's like a snowball effect and that starts to really drive the business going forward. Equally, on the other side of that is ensuring our sales and marketing is aligned to change the customer perception of our businesses, which is more than just a drainage service or it's more than just a filtration service. So it's a whole combination of things. Neil, do you just wanna talk about maybe the Bell loans that we do in The States as an example? Yeah. Yeah. So we will support our franchise partners to grow wherever wherever we can. And one of the things we've been very successful at in in The US is looking at 0% loans. So in the first half of last year, we we bought a lot of equipment pre tariffs and then supported the franchisees with 0% loans in order to to remove that as a barrier for their for them to to invest in the business and grow the business. And we and we've got a continuous record of of of getting that getting that cash back and that being the right thing to do.

41:16 We do we have done similar things in in in Metro Rod, and and we'll always look to support our partners in in in anything that they're doing in the best way that we can to to get a mutual a mutual beneficial output, but and and using the balance sheet in in the right way. And and just, you know, another example of that is something that's not direct, but, you know, we we bank with h HSBC. They are a big franchise lender, and and so we can help connect them with with with financing as and when they they need that. So there are a number of ways we can do, but but, you know, the bottom line being that we will support to we'll support our franchise partners to to any barriers they have to to invest and grow the business. I I think it's a just to build on that, Neil, I think it's a real advantage of the franchise brands group.

42:05 Not a lot of franchise businesses or franchisors adopt that policy, but using the power of the balance sheet to help expand our businesses has certainly proved beneficial for us in in the recent past. So I think that's every question we've had submitted. So, Lily, if I can hand back to you. That's great. Thank you for answering those questions you can from investors. And, of course, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses on the Investor Meet company platform. Just before redirecting investors to provide with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company, Peter, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments? First of all, I'd like to thank Neil for for joining us here just two months in and giving such a comprehensive overview of the business.

42:50 I think to reiterate really the message is that, you know, what we've done in the first half of the year is a result of the strategy we've deployed over the past two to three years. It has been effectively controlling what we can control, helping ourselves where we need to do. And I think against the backdrop of fairly weak sectors, a pretty strong performance. Going forward, we're being pragmatic with our numbers for the second half of the year against the backdrop that we don't see any improvement in those macros. But if we do get some tailwinds, clearly, those would those would be very welcome for us. But thank you everybody for joining today, and I wish you all a good day. That's great. Thank you for updating investors today.

43:37 Do I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This may take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.