Lords Group Trading (LSE:LORD) — AGM 2025

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the LORD Group Trading PLC twenty twenty five AGM. Throughout this recorded meeting, attendees will be in listen only mode. Questions could be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply just type in your question and press end. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. I'd now like to hand you over to Gary O'Brien, Chairman of the LORDS Board. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon to you as well, and welcome to twenty twenty five Annual General Meeting for the LORDS GROUP TRADING PLC. My name is Gary O'Brien, as I've just been introduced, and I'm the Chairman of the company, and I'll also be Chairman for this meeting today. Thank you every everyone for attending both in person and in the investment company platform.

0:50 We have at least two members present personal by proxy, so I, therefore, can declare that quorum is present. For this morning's or not this morning, this afternoon's AGM, I have in the room with me, sitting on the right, who's the chief executive officer for the group. Stuart Kirkpatrick, sitting on my left, chief financial officer. And then either end of the table, we've got Andrew Harrison, independent nonexecutive director, and Sheila McKay, also independent nonexecutive director. Right. Just a bit of housekeeping for everybody in the room. Can we all make sure we've got our phone switched to silence, if you don't mind? And if there is a fire, closest the exit or follow instructions given by any fire marshals that may be around.

1:39 Now before we turn to the formal business of the meeting, I'd like to draw the meeting's attention to the trading update which released this morning at 7AM. Now not everybody may have seen it, may not read it, so therefore, I'm going to read it out aloud. Bear with me. It's a little bit longer than our normal trade did say in previous years. So since our fiscal twenty four annual results announced on the 05/08/2025, trading has continued in line with management's expectations. In plumbing and heating, as previously communicated, boiler volumes were pulled forward into the first quarter of the current year prior to an industry wide price increase. Then this, which was implemented in April 25, with volumes in the two months result subsequent being a result of the lower.

2:32 Merchanting volumes, which were 11% ahead in the first quarter, continue to trend positively against the prior year despite market conditions remaining challenging and new brand remaining challenging. There are new branch openings in Vista, Mason and Mansfield and are contributing more strongly than we had anticipated during their startup phase. On 06/06/2025, we acquired the trade and assets of CMO Group Limited, The UK's largest only online retailer of construction products. The acquisition brings together LORD's infrastructure and merchandising expertise with CMO's digital first online model and accelerates the group's digital offering to the construction materials and plumbing and heating markets.

3:24 The group continues to focus on growth, margin accretion and cost control. Three branch openings, two strategic acquisitions since October 24 and a significantly stronger balance sheet after the property sale and lease which we announced in April 25, have this positioned the group well for any subsequent improvements in the RMI market. The recent addition of nine online CMO superstores, bronze our offering to customers while maintaining our focus on excellent customer service. Performance today has been as expected. And although the seasonally significant trading period lies ahead, the board is confident that the group is on track to meet its expectations for fiscal twenty five.

4:13 That ends the announcement that was published. You'll be able to see that both on our website and also on the company's London Stock Exchange page page if you haven't haven't received a copy. Now Shankh and Stuart gave a thorough presentation to company's preliminary results on the May 8 on the investment company platform. We don't intend to actually do a presentation today. And if anybody didn't pick up on that presentation, that is available to view on the investor meet company platform so you can go back and review it. Right. We'll soon move to conducting the phone business at the AGM. Following this, the directors will be available for any questions that you may have, taking questions from the audience and also any of those submitted online.

5:10 Shareholders were given the opportunity to submit questions in advance of the AGM, and questions can also be submitted to our team at any time during the meeting. As you'll see from the investment company platform, there's a q and a function which you'll be able to click on to. That'll be explained to you later on in the meeting. Right. Thank you. So I propose that we now proceed to the formal business of the meeting. Right. The notice convening today's annual general meeting setting out the resolutions to be proposed and the explanatory notes was posted to all shareholders on the May 27. Accordingly, the requisite notice of meeting has been given. I propose they have followed up with your consent. The notice of meeting should be taken as read.

5:56 All agreed? Yes. Thank you. So voting. For this meeting, in accordance with best all resolutions will be voted on a poll. I am directing that the votes will be conducted on the poll in accordance with my right to do so under article 19.8 of the company's articles of association. All cards were provided on arrival to those eligible to vote. I will cast the proxy votes held by me and the vote. If show shareholders are present today, and, and also point to me as a proxy, then they don't need to do anything. But if you do wish to change a vote, then you can do it through through the poll, in which case, the the votes you submitted are already submitted will be deducted from the proxy vote.

6:43 I'm appointing the the company's registrar MUFG Corporate Markets as scrutineers. Order resolutions require a simple majority. Special resolutions require 75% or more to pass. I will now go through and present the resolutions, as they, represented in the notice. I should also note that I'm holding, proxy votes in favor for each resolution in excess of 94%. Right. So resolution one, the annual report accounts for the year ending 12/31/2024 have been circulated to shareholders together with the auditor's report thereon. I would now like to propose a passing of the first resolution, which is proposed as an ordinary resolution to receive the annual report accounts of the company for the financial year ended 12/31/2024, together with the director's report and depositors report on those accounts.

7:44 Resolution two, again, an order resolution, is to declare a final dividend of 0.52p per ordinary share for the financial year ended 12/31/2024. This will be paid on the 07/04/2025 to the ordinary shareholders on the company's registrar of members at the close of business on the 05/30/2025. Resolution three, an ordinary resolution is to reelect Andrew Harrison as the director of the company. Resolution four is to reelect Stuart Kilpatrick as the director of the company. Resolution five is to reelect Sheena as the director of the company. And resolution six, I will have to pass to Shankar as it affects me.

8:33 So I propose a passing resolution resolution six, which is being proposed as an ordinary resolution to reelect Gary O'Brien as director of the company. Hand it back to you. Thank you. In briefcase, I'll do the reciprocal. I now propose that we should reelect Shankar Patel as the director of the company as resolution seven. Now resolution eight, again, is an honor resolution. It's to reappoint RSM UK audit LLP as an auditor of the company to hold office until the conclusion of the next general meeting at which accounts are made before the company. And resolution nine, order resolution on the same day, is to authorize the directors to determine fees payable to the auditor. Resolution 10 is an ordinary resolution, and that's directors being authorized towards equity securities within the limits set out in resolution 10.

9:26 Resolution 11, which is our first special resolution, is that subject to resolution 10, the directors be authorized to roll equity securities for cash as of section five six one of the company's act 20 the zero six did not apply within the limits set out in resolution 11. Resolution 12 against a special resolution that's subject to resolution 10 and in addition to resolution 11, the directors be authorized to award equity securities for cash as if section five six one of the company's act twenty zero six did not apply within the limits set out in resolution 12. Now I've now proposed all the resolutions as set out in notice, and I declare the poll open.

10:14 If please complete any poll cards and tick the appropriate boxes. You have seek resolution, and these will be collected by the company's registrars. So from that point of view, all done. Okay? Am I going to get notice of that, or it's just approved? It is approved. Okay. Thank you very much. So the the actual polls counted will actually be will be issued as an RNS later later today or even tomorrow, hopefully, so everybody will see what the the actual voting for the meeting was. So, unfortunately, this concludes the formal business of the meeting.

10:59 I'm sure everybody's unhappy about that. But I will now hand back to investor meet company's host to assist us with the q and a session. So if I can pass it back. Fantastic. Darren, thank you very much indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your question just using the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of the screen. As we articulated earlier, the company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted a demo, publish responses where appropriate to do so on the investor meet company platform. I'd also like to remind you the recording of today's meeting along with the Q and A will be accessed via your investor dashboard. If I may hand back to you, Gary Shankar, if there's any questions that you've got there, if you can just read those out and give a response, and I'll pick up on Yeah. You Thank you very much. There's several questions here, and, obviously, you know, I'll pass them to Shankar or Stuart as if you're appropriate. The first one I think is I'd like to take is in respect of CMO.

11:56 What are the integration plans? And those are announced in the the statement I read a minute ago that we've acquired the assets of CMO. What are the integration plans and what is the projected net profit? Will goods be distributed via existing outlets? So this is just a general inquiry as to how CMO is going to be integrated and operated. Shankar, can I throw that to you? Yes. So in terms of the integration plans, CMO will act as a independent division within our group, supported by our merchanting and plumbing and heating divisions because there is a supplier and product overlap between what CMO, how CMO sells its products, and how our offline businesses sell their products.

12:44 The business will be integrated in terms of group policies, in terms of being part of our group culture. We see a very strong alignment in how CMO has built its business. It has a very strong, employee first culture, very similar to to ours. And so integrating the two teams in terms of collaboration, we foresee will be a much easier route than sometimes can be when you acquire businesses. In terms of the projected net profit, I think at this moment in time, it would be too early to to make a statement except for the fact that, you know, clearly, the business is in need of a a degree of transformation, which we are working on at pace, and we have a plan to do so. A lot of that will involve making CMO grow once again, and again, that will occur because of its ability to leverage the group's strengths, particularly with suppliers and also with any kind of working capital constraint that they may have been operating under over the last six months.

13:46 Could be distributed via the existing LORDS network, possibly. But at the end of the day, the business is a online digital business, and we intend to respect that. That's part of our strategy is to ensure that we have a strong digital capability within our business. And it's our acquisition of Centimeters is not based on the fact that distribution will occur solely out of LORDS outlets. It has a CMO has an excellent model, and we intend to grow and enhance that model to make it work financially more rewarding than it might have been in the past. Okay. Thank you, Shankar. But quite a specific question here. As we announced in the AGM statement, there have been three organic store openings, Vista, Maidstone, and Mansfield.

14:34 This one asks can you come back down? Oh, no. It's okay. How much has Maidstone added beyond expectations? It's quite specific. Sure. Oh, yeah. I think there's a question mark. Who's gonna answer this? Stuart, you haven't talked yet. So why don't you? Thank you, Gary. So, yeah, Macy's doing better than his business plan at top line level. It's strong double digits ahead of where we expect it to be by the end of May. So long way that continue. Okay. Next one, well, this is good definitely gonna be for you, Stuart, which is what is the net profit projections for '25? I guess that means for the group that I presume they're going to refer people to to market, but I'll let you answer. Yeah.

15:21 There are obviously market expectations with our brokers as a group. Obviously, we we don't make profit projections or forecasts, and we're not really allowed to. But, obviously, there are, broker assessments of our outcome for 2021. Okay. And another question is any current acquisitions in the pipeline? Shankar? Well, the groups If you answer that, we might have to smack her. The group has has a very clear strategy. So in terms of acquisitions, it's very clear that it's part of our our our our strategy. And with the recent acquisition of CMO, one can deduce from that where we will be in terms of any kind of pipeline of opportunities. We're always seeking opportunities.

16:12 Yeah. I mean, it's part of our strategy, Shankar said. Obviously, if anything does come along, it is something that we announced to the market in due course, but we're always looking If anyone's offering, please talk to us. Actually, we're always being approached. Yeah. That's true. More than we are looking. Yeah. Very true. Okay. Now I don't think, unless there's any other questions from the room, there are any other questions that we need to be addressing. Just say Yes. Well done on your delving into having fully recyclable paper. You've followed that through, and you've achieved the highest level of environmental accreditation. Secondly, can I ask you do quite a bit of work to in the communities, etcetera?

16:59 I noticed from the end of the report, you obviously transmit that to your all your staff so they know what you're doing. It's always good to work with a company whose peers do good things moves it and enables staff within that organization to maybe get involved. Can I throw that one to Shankar? Because, actually, it takes a very keen interest on local involvement. It's part of your philosophy, really, isn't it? So Yeah. It's it's a big part of our our values and giving just giving back to the community in the areas that we treat, and that giving back actually occurs through our colleagues. So the ecosystem is a it's a colleague led giving back into the community program.

17:45 We have we do have an ESG and charity manager who assists with that. You're either inquiring locally, are the the good community projects to support. But quite often, in fact, more often than not, so almost 80% of our initiatives comes from colleagues who say, we would like to support x. We would like to support y. And would the foundation be able to to provide that support? Of course, we have a strict grant making policy, which with with checks and balances. And then all of that is supported not just through an ESG manager. There's a group of trustees who are all from within the sorry. Mostly all from within the business alongside the fact that I will set aside about three to four days four days in a year to go and visit some of these initiatives.

18:32 Most recent one was in Glasgow where we supported a local hospice. It's been very popular in this particular town, and it's not a well-to-do town. The hospice is is one of the centers of the of of the community and to visit them. Very, very pleased to to to to have been able to support. So it's a very well thought through strategic approach to to giving back to our community, which is a big part part of our value system. And that's it transmitted through to audio stuff to ethical policy. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. All the staff know about it. It's also an in house communication system. So it's what we I think it's called. We're WorkVivo is our in house communication platform. Staff can put on what they're doing, and it's actually used, you know, very openly showing what they've been involved in. It's not just for the, you know, charitable things. It's for anything and everything.

19:26 But it's, yeah, it's very well communicated throughout the group. Okay. K. Okay. In which case Oh, one more question. Oh, sorry. I shouldn't talk so long, should I? The SP rise has been excellent. Analyst medium, I guess, that share price. Target is 67. Is this reasonable? Well, I'm not sure I should pass that to anybody, actually. Well, it has been excellent. Very pleased to see it. Let's hope it continues. That's that's probably the best thing to see. Yeah. And thank thank you for everybody for your attention to the to the day. Can I there's no other questions, I'm just looking to make sure there isn't there isn't? I will bring the meeting to formal close and pass back to our host.

20:16 Fantastic. Thank you indeed, Mr Chairman. Thank you to the attendees for attending today. Can I please ask attendees not to close the session? It should now automatically be redirected to provide your feedback in order that the board can better understand your views and expectations. Will only take a few moments to complete, and that is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the board of LORDS GROUP TRADING PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's annual general meeting, and good afternoon to you all.