Lords Group Trading (LSE:LORD) — Interim Results

0:00 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to LORDS GROUP TRADING PLC Interim Results Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review your questions submitted today and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll, and I'm sure the company will be most grateful for your participation. I'd now like to hand over to CEO,

0:31 Shankar Patel. Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for our interim 2024 results presentation. On the agenda, I'll be going through the highlights. I'm Shankar Patel, the CEO. My colleague, Stuart Kilpatrick, the CFO, will go through the financial review. And then I'll take you through our strategic update and outlook followed by Q and A, which we will share with you myself and Stuart. In terms of the highlights, we're very pleased with our resilient performance in challenging market conditions in our first half of 'twenty four. Group revenues have come in at $214,200,000 H1 'twenty it was $222,600,000 a like for like revenue decrease of 6.1% and in line with the market.

1:21 In particular, our Plumbing and Heating division recovered in Q2 after a significant disruption in Q1 due to the clean heat market mechanism being introduced and then removed in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. We're very pleased with maintaining our gross margin, which reflects our focus on customer service and the fact that our colleagues continue to ensure that they provide our customers with the best experience they can buying our products. In line with prudent management, we've taken decisions and actions decisive decisions and actions that expect to deliver annualized savings of $2,600,000 in costs in full year 'twenty five. I'm also pleased to announce that our 2023 acquisitions have been fully rebranded and fully integrated into our wider business.

2:09 Another positive for our business has been the sales of airsoft heat pumps, which are up 492% on last year. All in all, we believe we are well positioned to deliver operational gearing from a recovery in our end On the next slide, we'd like to reiterate our investment case. LORDS is a high a leading high growth distributor of building materials in The UK. We characterize our investment case through six major areas, first being our unique customer first proposition. You can see that through consistently high fee force scores in all of our brands, and we achieve this through having engaged colleagues who in turn make sure that our customers are fully satisfied and get a great experience. We also have a great management track record that's demonstrated through the fact that we're consistently a top 10 UK merchant.

3:02 We also have a strong financial profile, and that's demonstrated through our free cash flow, which is 59% in full year '23. Our strategy has been value added m and a. That makes, again, another strong case for for for investing in LORDS. And you see can that through what we've done and achieved through the acquisitions of Alloy, Chilton, Advanced Roofing, and AWN in the last few years. Our markets are large and substantial, especially as we we are are in the RMI segment of the construction industry, and that is reflected through our ten year revenue CAGR of 36%. Finally, we also have organic margin accretive growth opportunities. Again, the demonstration of that is the Air Force heat pump category, which has increased by 492% year on year.

3:51 Stuart will go through some of the financial highlights. Thank you, Shekhar. So if I can just talk about the financial summary for the first half. As Shekhar said, revenue of £214,200,000 was 3.8% lower than last year. And the difference between the like for like numbers of 6.1% decline and the 3.8% is really the businesses we acquired in 2023, namely Chilton Timber and Highway Timber. Our gross margin held up particularly well at 20.2% compared to 20.4%, and shows an improving trend of the full years 'twenty three and 'twenty two. And that's a tribute to our customer service excellence and how we deliver our products. Adjusted EBITDA at £12,600,000 was 16.6% lower, and that's impacted by the market conditions we faced and also the operational leverage.

4:45 We still have a target of 7.5% for our EBITDA margins, which fell down to or decreased down to 5.9%. And we still think that medium term target is in range. If you add, say, 5% to our revenue, our run rate revenue, that will deliver £4,000,000 to £5,000,000 of additional EBITDA, and that takes us to the mid-six percent range. We think with a bit more leverage and a bit more volume, we can still achieve that medium term target. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was 1.57p in the first half compared to 3.3p last year. And we're pleased to announce the dividend at the interim stage, 0.32p per share, which has been scaled on a prudent basis in line with earnings per share. And there's been no change to our progressive dividend policy through the cycle, so we expect dividends to move up as the financial performance improves going forward.

5:38 Net debt at the end of the year, which is our cashless, our borrowings, is at £36,300,000 and it's 4.5% lower than this time last year where it was £38,000,000 precisely. If I can now turn to our two divisions, firstly, merchant team division. Revenue at merchant team was 4.4% lower than the previous year, down to 4,600,000. Our like for like statistics have improved through the quarter. So the first quarter was slightly worse than the second quarter, which improved. But overall, our like for likes in Murchison were 9.3% lower than previous year. Gross profit, as you can see, has improved in terms of margin. So our gross margin has gone up by 100 basis points or 1% from 26.5% to 27.5%.

6:30 And that reassures our customer service excellence that we provide, particularly in a challenging market where it's clear we haven't reduced margin to gain sales in these tough conditions. Overheads have increased slightly, and there's a couple of dynamics within that. So the full year impact of the businesses we acquired in 2023, about a $2,400,000 to the first half of overheads. We I received a credit in respect in relation to our Park Royal site, which is an important distribution site for us of £1,700,000 following the lease renegotiation. Adjusting for those two items, our underlying overheads were 2% lower despite inflation rate running through the business in every business, I guess. So overall, our adjusted EBITDA margin was 7.3% compared to 7.7 last year. And the business we bought last year, the main business, highway timber, we bought it for about £2,300,000 in September 'twenty three.

7:33 And despite the challenging trading conditions, the turnaround is on track, and we're expecting it to be profitable in full year 2025. If I then move to our Plumbing and Heating division, our revenue at £109,600,000 for the first half, 3% lower than last year. And as Shankar touched upon, we've got the impact of the clean heat market mechanism being introduced in January 2024 and then later being withdrawn in March 2024 and deferred. Well, that's how that impacted the company or the business. I was we saw a boost in sales in the last month or so in 2023 as boiler manufacturers put up their prices to compensate for the fact that they weren't going to achieve the targets and therefore face levies or fines.

8:23 So we saw a surge in revenue in the last quarter of twenty twenty three, and that led to a drop in revenue in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. So you can see the first quarter, we're 15.1% down on a like for like basis, which recovered in the second quarter and was 16.7% ahead in the second quarter. So overall revenue, 3% down in the first half. But that disruption from the mechanism coming in and being withdrawn severely impacted our gross margin. And we saw several manufacturer promotions and more lower margin boiler sales as a result. And you can see our margins drift down proportionally 5% to 13.2%, and that impacted gross profit by just under £2,000,000 which we clawed back a little bit in overhead savings. Overheads were £300,000 less than the previous year.

9:11 Adjusted EBITDA did drop by £1,600,000 to £5,000,000 in the period.

9:17 But we have a tightly controlled overhead, so that's a good progress from that perspective of all and the things we can control. But we still have continued momentum in the business. So continued momentum in renewables. As we mentioned in the highlights, air source heat pumps are up four ninety two percent. And that's a key target market for us as we go forward and a key opportunity.

9:40 I'll turn to the summary of the group results. Adjusted EBITDA, as I mentioned, was £12,600,000 We've seen an increase to our depreciation and amortization in the half of £600,000 which is the effect of the acquisitions I've touched on from 2023. We acquired five new properties, which leads to an IFRS 16 adjustment of right of use amortization, That's that increased by 600,000 due to those new businesses. Our finance costs increased by £900,000 to £3,400,000 That's partly the average rate being 1% higher, which added £400,000 and partly due to average borrowings being slightly higher, plus the right of use interest costs from the accounting basis. I then turn to adjusting items. It's very similar to previous year, about £2,000,000 for acquisition related mainly amortization, a little bit of restructuring costs and some share based payments of £1,300,000

10:41 Our first half cash flow is in this table presented here. As you can see, we seasonally have a working capital outflow in the first half, and that chart shows our working capital to sales ratio going up every point in June, going back down again in December, and we expect that to happen this year. So our working capital outflow was 6,700,000 in the first half compared to £15,600,000 last year, significantly lower, nearly £9,000,000 lower, but we did have boiler supply issues in 2023, which increased inventory. But we expect our working capital to reverse in the second half. We do have a strong track record on free cash flow conversion. In 2023, it was 59%, and we'd expect to deliver similar sort of numbers as we go through the second half of twenty twenty four.

11:30 We tightly controlled capital expenditures of £2,600,000 of outflow in the first half of twenty twenty four compared to £4,300,000 last year and a little bit of acquisition related deferred consideration of £1,800,000 but again significantly reduced from the previous year at 5,200,000 and that's a reducing amount going forward. All in all, our cash flow was £7,800,000 at outwards, and then increased our debt to 36.3, as I mentioned, but still 5% lower, near 5% lower than June 2023.

12:07 Turning now to the balance sheet. So our focus really in these challenging conditions has been on cost efficiencies, as I've mentioned, where we've peaked at about £2,600,000 on an annualized basis, but also in terms of working capital management. It's very critical for us to maintain a high level of customer service and a high level of stocking availability to our customers. So you can see we've reduced inventory quite significantly in compared to this time last year. Most of that's due to all the supply issues as inventory days are seven days lower because of that. But we've actually improved it by one day since the end of last year, end of December. And we've improved payables by one day as well. So we're eating out small improvements in our working capital management, but operating capital is £10,600,000 less than the previous year. And we do have within that operating capital £20,000,000 of tangible fixed assets and about £30,000,000 of freehold property as part of our asset base and part of our branch network, which is about six or seven properties.

13:10 But then turning to our financing and committed bank facilities. We have £95,000,000 of facilities in place, a revolving credit facility of £70,000,000 and invoice financing of £25,000,000 with a group of three banks, HSBC, NatWest and BNP Paribas. We extended the revolving credit facility in May 2024 and extended the maturity date to April 2027. So you can see we've got three years to go on that, maybe. Our headroom remained fairly constant, still at 47,000,000 at the end of June twenty twenty four, a pretty similar number to the end of December. So we've got plenty of headroom on maturities and plenty of liquidity, so as you could go to the financial position airport.

14:01 Thank you very much, Stuart. In terms of our strategic update, a few things to mention. First is to confirm our track record of organic and acquisitive growth. We have delivered a revenue and EBITDA ten year CAGR of 35% plus. We're well placed and have shown and demonstrated really good track record in in growing our business. We have considerable organic opportunities, one of them being expanding our geographic footprint. We opened a mission center leading branch last year in Edinburgh, and we have now identified a potential site for George Mines, which is our civils brand, and we will be aiming to bring that on stream within the next three to four months.

14:47 We've also got a great opportunity in the decarbonization of The UK housing stock, and I'll talk a little bit about that in the following few slides. Fundamentally, the RMI market remains strong, which is where we're well positioned. The market is 60% of housing stock is built more than fifty years ago, and that's a great opportunity for us. In addition to the RMI market being strong, we have taken decisive action in digital and direct sourcing, investing in these channels to gain market share. Overall, our market is fragmented at $55,000,000,000 and LORDS GROUP TRADING is less than 1%, which is providing an opportunity for selected acquisitions and consolidation.

15:32 An update on our acquisitions from 2023. Alloy timber is a highly strategic geographic expansion, which grew our presence in five locations in the Southeast Of London. These are highly affluent locations of Mitcham, Myfleet, Putney, Chee, and Kingston. Preacquisition of business was loss making, circa 1,000,000 and rising. But since the acquisition, we have invested in our strategy of investing in our three piece, invested in our people, invested in the property, and invested in the plant of the business. All four branches have been refurbished, investing £500,000. And in addition to investing in the property and the plant, we've also invested in the business development of this business and improved improved the the branch branch management.

16:19 We can see some of the effects of this in the fact that the business is delivering gross margins of over 30%, and it is expected to be profitable in 2025.

16:30 Another acquisition we made, which is Tilton Timber in the first quarter of twenty twenty three, a single site specialist timber merchant that is now fully integrated into the world's merchant. The business provides a product range extension to existing merchanting customer base and is highly complementary to LORDS GROUP TRADING PARTICIPANT because of its milling capacity. We're also pleased with the performance of this business with its revenue up 3.2% in pro form a H1 twenty twenty three.

17:02 So how are we driving profitable growth? There are a few product areas in in particular that I'd like to call out. One is in the boiler space, 80% or 85%, sorry, of our business in plumbing and heating spoilers. And we're really excited to announce an exclusive UK distributorship with a boiler manufacturer called Navion that's providing twenty four hour availability to our to over two and a half thousand independent plumbers merchants and builders merchants. Nabion is one of the world's largest boiler manufacturers based out of South Korea, and they provide high efficiency eating solutions, which are competitively priced and aesthetically well placed for our customers.

17:42 There's There's also a great opportunity with this brand to support them in space distribution and product storage in The UK. Following on from Navient, we've also commenced a distribution agreement with Beesman Solutions portfolio, their portfolio of gas boilers, heat pumps, and commercial heating solutions. Whilst this is not exclusive, we are very fortunate to be able to be a distributor of a very large European manufacturer, which is leading in this space.

18:12 Unlike to boilers, we've also commenced a distribution agreement in radiators with Thermotechnic radiators. Thermotechnic has 30% of The UK radiator market, a product area that we don't currently distribute. Although we do sell radiators, we don't distribute in in quantity to our two and a half thousand merchant customers. And all of the above signifies and demonstrates our continued strategy of product group diversification. We're also supporting the energy transition. In particular, in the air heat pumps, we're pleased to announce an exclusive distribution agreement with an Italian manufacturer, Clivet, to distribute their air source heat pumps. Clivet is a global market leader, and it currently manufactures for other European brands in heat pumps.

19:00 Our relationship with Lieslin will also lead to another strong brand in air source heat pumps becoming part of the portfolio of products offered by our Plumbing and Heating division. And to help The UK transition to clean heat, we're aiming to establish a design and installation service for air source heat pumps. We're also aiming to provide end to end design, which is critical for system efficiency for our customers and installers. And finally, we're looking to get a NCS accreditation, which facilitates our customers in getting grant recovery of 7,500 barrels as part of the government's plans for energy transition in the heating market.

19:44 Our growth in renewables will come from not only air source heat pumps and and the fact that we are well placed in renewables because of the existing channel that we have to customers that can be leveraged with no major further investment. We believe that getting accreditation installation will also assist towards driving these government targets of 600,000 heat pumps by 2028. The growth will also come from the fact that we have market leading brands and customer service excellence. We'll continue to win market share, and our and our continuous investment in new branch rollout, missile central heating and George lines will add to our organic growth. As Stuart mentioned earlier, efficiencies implemented in the last twelve months provide operational gearing when our markets recover. I reiterate, a 5% increase in our last twelve months sales adds between £4,000,000 to £5,000,000 to our earnings.

20:41 An update on our actions in environmental, social and governance. We have implemented our strategy and framework in place. We have worked tirelessly in ensuring that we have a robust strategy. The strategy has led to an implementation of new environmental policy that outlines our ambition to reduce our scope one and two emissions by 90% by 2020 2035. And in addition to that, reduce our scope three emissions by 90% by 2050. Scope three is much harder, but we're pleased that we're working in collaboration with our buying group, H and B, and also with most of our major suppliers to combat climate change and reduce our emissions. In our business, environmental progress in H1 twenty twenty four is of We new

21:33 20 projects projects the of and we have have selected a solar pipeline panel installations planned of between two to four branches per annum. Finally, we are really pleased with the fact that our foundation, LORDS GROUP TRADING has distributed £120,000 towards good causes the local communities where we trade from over the last twelve months.

22:05 I'll finish off with an outlook for the future. We remain well positioned in highly fragmented and essential RMR sector to grow market share organically and through selective accretive acquisitions. We do not expect H2 trading conditions to change, but the medium term outlook is positive, supported by industry data and demand fundamentals. One of the key fundamentals is interest rate reduction, which we're encouraged by the recent reduction and expectation of future rate cuts. A new government sentiment and new build should also improve the construction center in the medium term, and we're well placed to benefit from that. And finally, recognizing the the important autumn season ahead, particularly in Plumbing and Heating, we anticipate adjusted EBITDA to be in line with our expectations.

22:59 Thank you. That's great, Shankar. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation, Lasham. Please please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the guys take a few moments to review your questions submitted already, I'd just 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 your Investor Meet company dashboard.

23:21 Shankar, Stuart, as you can see, you've had a number of questions from investors this afternoon or this morning. So thank you to everybody for your engagement. If I may just hand back to you, ask you to read out the questions where it's appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the Okay. We've got a whole host of questions. So I think we'll take it in turns to I'll call out one and can call out the other. I'll do the easy ones. You'll do the easy ones. Okay. So we've got question from Jan. How How has trading been since since reporting period? So we we're expecting that h two would be stronger than h one. And July and August, unfortunately, have not shown too many signs of encouraging trading, but the start of September has been encouraging.

24:09 And as we've maintained, we remain to see how the important awesome season trading ends up. Early indications from macro indicators are that there is a a a slow growing set of leading indicators feed through into our end markets. So another question from David S, which maybe and let Stuart take. Gross margins have remained steady. What strategies have you implemented to protect protect and and even slightly improve margins during challenging market conditions? Yeah. I think it's a it's a great credit for business. The gross margins have remained fairly steady. Obviously, our our branches have a bit of control over over what they sell out, and some of our competitors have been more aggressive in terms of winning volume rather than keeping margin.

25:05 So our strategy really is to try and maintain our margins, but also provide excellent customer service that cut nicely. It depends on what our customers are doing as well. So it's getting that balance right. Shankh has talked quite extensively about some of the new arrangements we've got on the new distribution range, and we have and we're always looking for improved margins as we develop our our spread of products and the thing that we do sell to our customers. So I think it's more about product diversification and just trying to hold our nerve in these challenging conditions. Thank you, Sean. John s has a question. Given the fragmented U. K. Building supply sector, what is your strategy for future acquisitions? And how do you balance growth through M and A with organic market share gains?

25:59 How do you prioritize between these two approaches? We've always maintained that we've got two elements to our our business, organic opportunities and selective accretive acquisitions. And, you know, at the moment, with the market being in in a quite a difficult trading position, we believe that acquisitions have to be highly selective. We we see in merchanting, like for likes are still challenged. And therefore, to make acquisitions in this particular period, we'd have to be highly selective because, of course, what we're all looking for is what is the right valuation in a down market. But you see that in this kind of difficult trading position, what we've tilted to is organic opportunities.

26:48 In particular, I've called out some of the actions we've taken in our Plumbing and Heating business and division in tying up with manufacturers where the products are margin accretive. We've got a good opportunity to take market share and to offer our customers a wider portfolio of products. So all in all, as we see the market improve, we'll again balance out between the organic opportunities and the m and a opportunities. However, just to reiterate, there are always acquisition opportunities that that avail themselves to us. But right from day one, we've said that we're very disciplined in in in in our acquisitions. An old adage that always uses our business, and that is that you can change everything about an acquisition the day after you bought you bought the business. But the one thing you can't change is the price you pay for it. And in this challenging in terms of it, we're very focused in making sure that we don't overpay.

27:47 That could sometimes lead to a mismatch between our expectations on valuation and vendors. If I take the next one, which is from Michael J, which says, how is trading in the third quarter to date compared to 2023? Is it likely we can expect the second half to improve? I think we certainly have that we're not forecasting that the second half of trading conditions do improve. There's some good positive news flow and positive dynamics for the for the sector, but those will take a little bit of time to come through. The first interest rate cut, I guess, when we came into this year, we were hoping to be further along on that, on that journey by now, but very various things have thrown in the way like elections, etcetera. So we're not calling any great increase. We've seen we've got a very, I suppose, difficult first half in terms of showing trends given the cleaning mechanism.

28:40 So July was probably better than we expected, and August was not quite as good as we expected. So it's a very mixed picture, but we're not seeing enough green shoots or increase on last year to start predicting the upturn in the second half as yet. I think I'd add to Stuart, the point around interest rates. At this point, we were expecting to see two interest rate reductions and possibly three for the year. Right now, we've only seen one, potentially a second one in November, which is what the market is expecting. And that today does feed into our markets. There's a lag between interest rate reduction and those and feeding into the RMI market in particular.

29:26 So the delay in interest rate reductions, we also believe has delayed the potential recovery in our markets. However, there are still two very strong three very strong months left in the year, which is September, October and November. And we are seeing some positive leading indicators as whether those then feed into our markets. We've got one from Gavin around acquisitions. Our potential sellers now are more receptive to selling. CGT business sales being a tailwind. I think with the with the potential budget tax squeeze that might be coming, unfortunately, the timing between the announcement of that and the the the potential tax increases is a bit short. So I don't think that we're seeing any direct correlation between the two.

30:20 But there are always plenty of sellers willing to sell. What we do have potentially at the moment is, as I mentioned earlier, a sort of valuation mismatch. It's very difficult in a falling market to value companies correctly, especially small to medium sized businesses, the likes of which we buy, generally turnaround or business improvement plays. And we are very disciplined in the sense that we won't buy business at valuations that we feel cannot be sustained and are not beneficial for our shareholders. Question from Ben Jeane in terms of how confident are you with the turnaround of recently acquired companies like Allaway Timber and Chilton Timber, and what metrics will indicate their successful integration into the group?

31:07 Well, firstly, Ben, Chilton was not wasn't a turnaround. It's a past. Of progress And made a a a year when we bought it. The indications that we need to see it turning into the right direction are sales growth, and with some of our branches are growing month on month in terms of sales. And we typically see and we've done this kind of turnaround several times, sales drop off in the first few months of new ownership, and they start to come back, and that's the trend that we've started to see. It's obviously been more challenging in terms of the market being, I've mentioned, 6% down on a like for like basis, has not been assisting us in that turnaround.

32:02 So it may be that our internal hopes would have been that we'd have turned around bit quicker, but it's going in the right direction. So it's all about revenue growth. We've addressed and rightsized the cost base. So it's all about growing on that cost base, which I think is suitable for the business. Question from Michael. Are there going to be further cost impacts like redundancies or major refurbishment costs? Well, we're not planning on the redundancies. Of course, that is directly correlated to activity. And in terms of major refurbishment costs, we have a program of investing in our property and our plant.

32:47 And that program usually sorry, not usually, but inevitably always leads to a good return. So our strategy in investing in our property and our plant is not going to change. Of course, we're prudent, and we will do so in terms of timing to match the cash flows of the business and the requirements for the investments that need to be made. Question from Jani. Okay. What are your expectations for the EBITDA if they have not they haven't been disclosed? Yes, Jenny. I think I think we have disclosed our expectations for EBITDA. They're on that last bullet point of the outlook side slide where we said that we anticipate adjusted EBITDA to be in line with expectations.

33:36 So that's we're holding our expectations for the full year on this announcement as we stand at the moment. Okay. We've got some questions from Mandy. Lost by your heat pump sales, about 1,600,000 in the first half, Mandy. How much of our turnover is from new build? Do want to take on one more? Yeah. So less than 10% of our turnover is from from new build. Now whilst we don't directly supply the national house builders, we do supply into their supply chain through several of our divisions. And in particular, we supply the ground workers that work on behalf of the major house builders.

34:34 Can we talk about how we incentivize branch managers in the traditional way, I guess, is the answer to that one, which is a a bonus scheme and also a longer term scheme as well. But, essentially, each branch manager will have a trigger, a target, and a stretch target to achieve that bonus so that that remunerated in that way in of incentivization financially. Yeah. And and that's profit led. Yes. So so directly, they get ownership of their branch, and it's their branch profitability that that is then shared with them through a through a remuneration center. One more question, Dennis. Are you looking to expand geography geographically to other areas of The UK?

35:24 But, yes, we're we're consistently looking at expanding into other areas of The UK. In particular, Mr. Central Heating and George Lyons are two plays where we believe there is opportunity for us outside of our current London's Southeast centric market. In fact, Vista Central heating is is well placed geographically across the nation with locations as far as Edinburgh down to Portsmouth and Bristol, George Lyons, which has generally been a more Southeast based business, has got opportunity in expanding up North as well as East and Southeast of The UK. That's great. Shankar Stuart, thank you for addressing those questions. And I know it's the first day of your roadshow, and you have several back to back meetings. If any further questions do make themselves available, we'll obviously let you have those post today's call. Shankar, sure, I know investor feedback is important to you. I'll shortly redirect those on the call to give you their thoughts and expectations.

36:27 But Shankar, before doing so, if I may, just ask you for a couple of closing comments. Okay. Well, thank you very much, everyone, for taking the time to join us in today and listening to us present our h one twenty twenty four results. I'll summarize by saying we still maintain that we're a leading high growth distributor of building materials in The UK with a bright future. Thank you. That's great. Shankar, Stuart, thank you once again for updating investors. If I could please ask investors not to close the sessions, we're now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the company can really better understand your views and expectations. So it'll take a couple of moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of LORDS GROUP TRADING PLC, I would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.