Staffline Group (LSE:STAF) — Audited Results for the year ended 31 December 2024

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the STAFFLINE GROUP PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time via 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. And I'd now like to hand you over to Albert Ellis, CEO. Good morning, sir.

0:33 Many many thanks, and welcome, everybody. Thank you for giving up your time this morning to come to the investor results for 2024 for the STAFFLINE GROUP. You've got myself, Albert Ellis, the chief executive officer, and I'm joined by Daniel Quint, my chief financial officer. So without further ado, let's go straight into the highlights. As you can see, the main the main point of this morning was to confirm the results of last year, which we preannounced in a preclosing trade preclose trading statements, highlighting that the business in terms of hours was up 10% in the year compared to the prior year. So a really strong performance in hours, and this was mainly driven by new business.

1:22 This was in the food distribution, essential logistics, and food distribution networks where we're providing mainly blue blue collar labor.

1:32 Interestingly, perm revenue was up too, and this is against the background of a very weak recruitment market. But once again, through a strategy that's been implemented to target perm revenue increases where there's where it's possible, I'm so pleased that we were able to lift perm by a double digit during the year. One of the metrics that we follow very closely is a conversion ratio, and this really demonstrates the efficiency of any recruiter and takes the percentage of operating profit as a percentage of gross profit and maps it against its peers. And we we've we've risen in, you know, by over 20% there to 14.3%, one of the best conversion ratios as a group that we've seen and we've reported in recent times. When we come on to the divisional businesses, I'll go through their individual ratios, which are absolutely stunning.

2:25 Share buybacks, we've been active in the market. We bought back almost a fifth of our equity over the last just under two years at an average price of 32, and all this activity has been from trading cash flow. Net cash at the end of the year, Daniel will go into that in his his section, and he will also talk about some of the details with the disposal of People Plus, which we, as a board, after a strategic review, deemed it to be noncore as it's training and employability to recruitment, and we disposed it for 12,000,000. And you would have seen that that announcement a couple of months ago if you if you were if you were watching. So with that, over to Daniel.

3:11 Well, just before we go over to Daniel, I was going to go through, for those of you that don't know us, just a quick snapshot of the group. You can see we've got STAFFLINE, and this is off to the disposal of PEOPLE PLUS. You've got STAFFLINE GB, which is England, Wales, and Scotland, and that is just under 900,000,000. You've got STAFFLINE Island, which is the the island of Ireland, both Northern Ireland and The Republic Of Ireland, and that's just a little over 100,000,000 in revenue. And there's some of the sort of key clients, and I'll talk about those in in the section on recruitment, but some really top brands and customers that we have in the group, which we're very proud of. And as you can see on the left hand side, the scale and reach of the group is quite phenomenal right across these the islands with with 40,000 temp workers at our peak and on on over 400 customer sites.

4:07 So the scale and reach of the business is really its key differentiator.

4:12 Daniel? Thank you, Albert. Good morning, everyone. Very good to be presenting to you today in what is, of course, very interesting times running a business in the current economic climate, but we stand or we sit here today with a business that, as Albert alluded to earlier, has been developed over the last few years with a really strong strategy of getting close to our customers and supporting them through good times but also challenging times. And hence, we have the results that we have today for FY '24. Very pleased to report revenue up 14% to £992,900,000,000 as partly as a result of an increase in the in the national living wage, but very much driven by the growth that we've seen, organic growth in our key food and logistics customers. And and the real sign of that is our fees. Gross profit up 10.3% across the recruitment businesses, which of course when benchmarking across the rest of the recruitment sector is helped by the fact that we are a 90% plus temporary worker model business. I think the perm businesses have been a bit challenged in 2024 versus 2023, although as Al has already mentioned, our perm is actually

5:42 up 17, a real laser focus on taking on the risk of really good permanent contracts in both GB and Ireland and all of those things, the temporary worker model, the laser focus on winning really great permanent activity work has driven that gross profit up 10.3%. And then the final cog in the wheel is an absolute really drilled attention to cost control, and that's enabled underlying operating profit to increase 40.3% from £7,200,000 to £10,100,000 driven as Albert alluded to earlier by that conversion as you can see in the bottom under that graph conversion improving across the group from 11.2 to 14.3%. These numbers provide the group with a great platform for 2025, not ignoring the fact that 2025, of course, has just seen the increase in employers' national insurance and the current economic reality around tariffs, but this group is really well prepared with really solid foundations.

6:46 And that takes me on to the next slide which is regarding the financing. So in FY '24, we saw net finance charges increase by 1,200,000 to 4.9. That was partly driven from two things. Firstly, the slightly higher for longer interest rates than we were originally expecting but more predominantly driven by our growth. But the great underlying operating profit growth on the previous slides more than countered to that increase in finance charges, and, of course, we have already seen three interest rate reductions since August last year and and possibly some more during this year, which we'll we'll see. Regarding cash, a great result at the end of the year, 9,600,000 of cash, up 5,800,000 on the prior year. And from a financing headroom, we ended the year with over £75,000,000 worth of financing headroom.

7:41 This was a business that used to have a 100,000,000 of net debt in five years ago. We now have nearly 10,000,000 of cash net cash at the end of the year and over 75,000,000 of financing headroom and something that that we're very proud of. And I'd like to comment at this stage, not just in terms of the trading performance of our management teams, senior teams, and throughout the organization, but also the finance teams to be able to deliver these numbers, a really important contribution. And finally on this slide, the covenant analysis leverage low, I would say, at 0.4 times EBITDA and interest rate cover nearly 88 times. And finally, as Albert mentioned earlier, I'm just gonna take a little a moment to just present the detail on the disposal for £12,000,000 of PEOPLE PLUS. And before I do that detail, just the summary on this page is that the financing landscape that STAFFLINE has now created for itself does leave us with opportunity for investment in organic growth, notwithstanding the challenging economic environment.

8:44 We want to take opportunities where maybe others may be not be able to deliver some of the trading contracts, we can do that and we look for those opportunities from an organic perspective and this balance sheet and financing landscape will help us do that. So just some of the key characteristics of the People Plus transaction, cash consideration of 12,000,000, which includes 2,000,000 of deferred. There was an offset for advanced payments received in respect to future revenue of £5,100,000, so net consideration of £6,900,000 and that delivers, generates for us cash proceeds, which we will use to fund share buybacks, which we already announced on the February 25.

9:29 We announced a 7,500,000 share buyback as well as the the direction of travel I've already spoken about which is working capital for organic growth, and we'll be able to really deliver for customers both old and new on helping them to navigate the current environment. And finally from me, just to show you the key components of the cash movement over the years presented on a pre IFRS 16 basis, The headline from this is that we actually generated in year £10,200,000, which enabled us to do own share purchases, mostly share buybacks, some EBT purchases of £4,400,000. The key elements of that cash driver, the strong trading cash flow as you can see there, and then the really strong tight working capital management, which generated an inflow of £4,000,000.

10:22 So some tight, cost control, some tight balance sheet control underpinned by really strong performing business in 2024 leaves us with strong position from which to support our customers in navigating the current environment, And I'll hand back to Albert to take us through the Thank you, Daniel. Just before I start on the strategy,

10:50 which has actually now crystallized into a very simple proposition, and simplicity is actually in markets that that that we're facing at the moment really important. I just wanted to paint a little bit of a picture of the background under which we're operating. As you all well know, the tax increases in the October 24 budget delivered by the chancellor last year included increases in national insurance for the employers both on thresholds and on absolute cost of of of payroll. So that is a significant uplift, probably a little bit more than is expected. The business, by and large, has made some representations to government on how damaging this could be for jobs. But what we found is that we we're working with our partners and our customers in a strategic relationship to ensure that we can absorb between us some of the costs, but also the pain and then share some of the gain by by through volume increases and by expanding our market share. So we're taking the these challenges head on, and we and we are using our strategy as a market leader to to to to benefit the company and, of course, our customers. There's also been, obviously, the current market uncertainty that we've seen at the moment, and, of course, the recruitment market in general has been quite subdued.

12:10 We believe the answer to this is about market leadership, laser laser sharp focus, and also making sure that you've got your costs under control, and I'll talk about that a little bit later. But the first point of our

12:22 strategy is to capitalize and make sure that we continue to march forward as a strong deliverer of blue collar in the in the GB market and the island market, where we are actually the number one by some margin, and we leverage our scale and reach. That is our single largest competitive advantage. But we've also been broadening the portfolio. We did state five years ago when we when Daniel and I first were were at the helm of STAFFLINE that we intended to increase permanent recruitment being higher margin and cash generative. We were very keen to see the proportion of permanent recruitment improve. And indeed, over the years, the the businesses have done fantastically well to focus and change their mix of services to more towards permanent fees, not abandoning temp, but towards more permanent and in experiencing the benefits of high margin cash generative. Of course, this is just a cyclical thing, and we'll see permanent recruitment come back quite strongly in the recovery. But for now, we're very pleased with our 17% uplift.

13:27 Then you've got the Republic Of Ireland, which is obviously part of the Eurozone. We feel this is a very important market. The Irish budget, the state budget is actually in surplus, and we've seen demand there, you know, as we've been growing over the years. We'll continue to invest in our fee earning capacity there. We're targeting large large contract wins, and the the most recent of which was police force, the police service of of of The Republic Of Ireland, the Angada, and we're we're supporting the police force there with support and high quality back office staff. Finally, cash is king, particularly at these times, and we're underpinning all our organic growth with strong trading cash flow. And this is improving our balance sheet, particularly with the disposal of People Plus, and we're we're increasing our share our returns to shareholders. So in a nutshell, our vision is to be a world class focused pure play recruiter with a clear market leader and trusted partner to our customers, always known for our excellent service and, of course, adding the best in class governance that we can.

14:39 So looking more closely now at the recruitment GB results, I mean, these are absolutely stunning results, and credit to the team, Frank Atkinson and his very able team. They've done an absolutely amazing job in a challenging market. I mean, to drive hours up 10%, revenue slightly more than that. There's a little bit of inflation there from the minimum wage uplift for the year, but actually 10% uplift on the previous year is a stunning result. And actually, this has been achieved mainly in the food distribution and logistics sectors. And they've had a continued focus on efficiency savings, not letting up the sharp focus on the on costs across the business. And this is reflected in overall overheads being held back as gross profit has increased. I mean, the flow

15:29 through to profit is stunning. I mean, that that's a very high percentage for any recruiter to get in a good market, let alone the market that we're in today. Now we've also had a reasonably good peak, Christmas and Black Friday, very, very strong trading. Our key customers, as I'll talk to you in a minute, have all have all posted some good results over the Christmas period. But there you go with the perm fees again, driven by the g four s contract, is a a managed service,

15:58 very innovative, and just shows that you can find perm fees even in difficult recruitment markets. Once again, this is this result has benefited from the scale. The focus on delivery excellence without which they we wouldn't have any customers. And, of course, there's been a flight to quality in the last few years, which we've benefited from. Now talking a little bit more about these customers. I mean, you you if if you look at Tesco's, for example, we we've increased our market share in all of these customers. Been Tesco, particularly, increased our market share through acquiring new depots from competitors and successfully demonstrating that we can we can we can deliver into those new depots at scale and manage transitions.

16:46 GXO has been a tremendous partner for us, and we've we've seen that they've benefited from

16:51 the trench at third party outsourcing, both with Sainsbury's and other companies, and we've helped and supported GXO with their labor requirements. So these are two two two specific brands where we've expanded our market share through excellence in delivery. And then you've got Morrison's over there where at the beginning of the year, we we announced in in 2024 that we had secured a sole supply ship, and we're delighted that that that that relationship is going as well as it has. We've also got Half and Iron Wind Canton. That's

17:21 GXO's acquisition of Wind Canton, where we do support the team there, and we we're obviously stand ready to support the combined entity as and when the competition and markets authority sign that off. So in summary, our market share of our top 20 customers improved by twenty seven percent. At the half year, that was 17%. So as you can see, we gathered momentum into the second half, which has continued into 2025. There's your hours graphs, and I talked about the 10% increase. This is the key metric that drives our profitability, and you can see it accelerates through the second quarter. The gap gets bigger through the third quarter, and we end the year on a high there on weekly hours. So a really strong performance by the team, and congratulations to them.

18:14 Moving on to Ireland, and, you know, this is an also slightly smaller business, perfectly formed, and Tina McKenzie and her team have done an absolutely fantastic job lifting profits in a year where all recruiters posted declines and pro multiple profit warnings, lifted profits by 1,000,000 to 2,800,000, and grew gross profit by 14.6%. I mean, this business is far more white collar than blue collar. Ireland doesn't have volume and scale. I mean, population is slight is much smaller than the Mainland. And and so we we're focusing on white collar recruitment there and HR consulting as as as as I'll come on to talk about. So if you look at the revenue, just to give you an explanation on on that being similar to the prior year, that's because in in the temporary market, it hasn't really been very strong. It's been flat for the year, and we've not seen much growth. And as I've said, there's been some headwinds on the temporary side, and the and the team has been focused on white collar recruitment, and in particular, where they've been able to provide some stunning HR consulting,

19:25 which has boosted gross margins. And so that, in particular, along with all the permanent recruitment that they've won, has boost has boosted their gross profit by double digits. And you can see permanent fees up 38% last year. And you're not talking about a small business in the sense that it's not a market leader. It's a small business compared to GB, but actually in the island of Ireland, our Irish business is the market leader in Northern Ireland and is fast catching the market leaders in The Republic. So a large brand to be reckoned with in in in Ireland. Operating profit has benefited from a tough control of costs, excellent profit conversion both in Ireland and in GB, both touching 20%. I mean, those are absolutely stunning results. If you compare them right across the recruitment market, you won't see anything like that.

20:16 And then finally, just a little note on the police services of the Republic of Ireland where we've secured sole supply ship of their of of their back office and their support staff recruitment. That's been mobilized. It's obviously cost us quite a bit of upfront mobilization costs and investment, and we're now starting to see the flow steady flow of requirements, which is good to see.

20:44 Daniel? Thank you, Albert.

20:48 So just wanted to make some comments on e n. This group sees a very, very important position from delivery both to workers in the in across GB and Ireland as well as to the communities that our workers in in terms of its contribution to the ESG agenda and the ESG values that the group installs. And there's a few of those, and some of these stats really represent those values that are very important to us. Of course, the core one is is helping people into work, and as you can see, we we helped over 98,000 people into work. Secondly, helping unemployed people into work. Additionally, of course, addressing our carbon emissions like any business, we see a very, very important contribution to society in ensuring that we are operating in an environmentally efficient and focused manner, and therefore we saw CO2 emissions decline year over year by over 54%.

21:51 Additionally, and I do want to mention this openly, that having divested of People Plus, we actually are continuing our strategic commercial relationship with People Plus, and therefore, the education in prisons and our relationships with People Plus will allow us to support them in helping workers get jobs after they they come out of prison, and that is very, very important to the group as as we move forward having

22:17 divested with People of People Plus in February. So all these things are very, very important for the group in ensuring that we are delivering value for shareholders, but as well as that contributing to the values that our stakeholders or other stakeholders, employees, suppliers, our customers, and general society see as important regarding ESG, and we'll continue to drive that forward over the coming period. And just hand back to Albert now to summarize the presentation, and then we'll move to q and a after that. Thank you, Daniel. Daniel makes a very good point about People Plus and the relationship. We divested People Plus because it was non core for us. Found a very, very good parent, a high-tech company that's got all the sort of positives that STAFFLINE has, but additionally is years ahead in artificial intelligence company called SwipeJobs.

23:15 And we've got a tremendous relationship both with the owners, the leadership there, and indeed, we're continuing with the strategic partnership that gave so much benefits to us and for us to them over the years. So we continue that strategic partnership, as Daniel said, very important to us. We won't be owned by the same investors, but we will continue as fellow travelers in in our in our journey, and we and we respect and love the people at People Plus, and they will be supporting us too. Onto the current trading and outlook. Look. It's very, very simple. The current market conditions, as I alluded to in in the in the in the top end of the presentation, are challenging.

23:58 There's no doubt about it. That's been added to over the over the months, particularly with tariffs, but also mainly in The UK with the national insurance increases. And our focus is laser sharp on the blue collar recruitment area where we are providing essential workers in a tight labor market to customers that have large scale and are dependent on those essential workers to move their goods and services around the the country. And that includes driving, of course, HEV driving, and a host of other roles and and and and and labor. And so, you know, we we exceeded expectations last year. The momentum was strong towards the end of the year. That continues into the first quarter. The first quarter has been in line and slightly ahead in many areas of budget, so we we we feel confident about the year ahead.

24:51 And the scale and reach is what's going to help us face these headwinds. The investment of People Plus is really important for our investors who recognize that possibly the business was non core and have supported our transaction, and indeed, the balance sheet then benefits, and also we've we've expanded our cash resources to now leverage and focus into the core market of recruitment. We do have ongoing demand for blue collar, but we also have demand for our technical expertise in our Omega brands, in our in our in in our Datum brand, our RPO brand. There is ongoing demand, and we've seen some recovery in demand in those business. A little you know, very, very, very early green shoots, but we've seen some recovery in in in that in this year. And then finally, just to restate it for the record, the board is confident that trading will remain in line with expectations for the full year 2025, and our strategy is obviously to leverage our peer play recruitment status with all of our customers and indeed our candidates as well in in in a tight labor market.

26:00 So with that, happy to answer any questions. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being with us. We're we're available for a few minutes to answer questions. Albert, Daniel, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue submit your questions just by using the q and a tab situated on the top 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 by our investor dashboard. And Daniel, could 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. Great. Thank you very much. So first question is a question regarding the share price over the last six months and what the strategy for the business going forward is in the context of that. Albert? Yeah. Thank you, David.

26:49 First of all, the share price has been obviously extremely strong relative to the sector. So I think in the in the in the year to to date, this year in 2025, we're well ahead of the sector in for the full year, we're well ahead of the sector on on almost any measure. So the share price has been relatively strong. That reflects our focus on growth, and that is our primary primary focus is growth. CoreScape growth has gives us wonderful choices like dividends or share buybacks, what type of returns. The board has consulted widely with all of its shareholders, and we remain persuaded that share buybacks at this stage of the economic cycle is the most valuable way to reward shareholders.

27:36 I mean, it provides liquidity for those who don't wanna hold the shares, and it provides a reducing equity pool for those that do hold the shares. And by definition, their ownership percentages increases. So I'm a big fan of share buybacks. We're buying our EBITDA back at ridiculously low levels at these times in the market. And and, of course, with with with interest rates high, that means your dividend percentage payout and return would be competing against a relatively risk free deposit, fixed deposits, or gilt, which would which would be challenging. If if it is the other way around and and and market market prices were high and and valuations elevated and interest rates very low, you might take a different view. But at this stage, we're persuaded that this is the best way to grow the value for shareholders, and we've focused on that. Thank you, Albert. Our next question is regarding the proportionality of our automotive exposure.

28:37 Do we have any contracts expiring next year? How do we see our automotive customers weathering their current hedges? Before I hand over to Albert to just discuss the automotive sector in general, I would say the proportionality is relatively small. Our majority exposure is to food, logistics, etcetera. I'm not going to divulge a specific percentage but relatively small. But, Albert, over to you to discuss. Yes. I mean, we we also we're also exposed to other sectors. Being the market leader, you'd expect that. Aviation is another one, which has been very strong in the last twelve months, and we've seen not very, very satisfactory growth there. But in automotive, we announced a number of years a couple of years ago that we had secured the BMW contract, which includes Rolls Royce in Goodwood and also the MINI in Cowley, Oxford, the mini production facilities there, and also engines in in West Midlands.

29:39 So, you know, we we we're also we're also supporting Land Rover and Jaguar, and so we look we we we are conscious of the automotive sector and its challenges. And our view is that the that sector has been really affected by the transition to electric. And so there's been a bit of a slowdown, and you would have read it in the papers, I'm sure, how that's, you know, customers buying and various various challenges and headwinds in the slowdown. I mean, the tariffs obviously would cause that sector to have a rethink or to have some consternation, but we haven't at this point received any sort of any news that they would be negative in that sense. I mean, I think these these businesses have been around for over for a for a hundred years, and they'll be able to work it out, I'm sure, with full confidence in them to do that. So, you know, there there'll always be headwinds.

30:32 In life now, that's normal, and we we've always got to just be positive and work out what the solution is. Thank you, Albert. Next question is with People Plus now divested, how do you expect the pure play recruitment platform strategy to impact operating margins and capital efficiency going forward? Again, I'm just going to make a comment before I maybe just hand over to Albert as well. So operating margin perspective, People Plus was a higher gross profit margin business. But actually from a capital efficiency perspective, People Plus actually had a number of properties throughout The UK, and we don't obviously, we don't have those anymore. We operate largely our recruiting businesses on-site. We have some branches as well and a couple of head offices, but I see that as a very efficient way for Al and I. We're just talking this morning about the efficiency of that model, and so we're very pleased with the basis for going forward from an operating margin and efficiency perspective. Don't know if had anything to add to that. Yeah. I mean, they both businesses, People Plus and Recruitment, have an element of mobilization and upfront investment when they secure large contracts. So in that respect, very similar.

31:47 But the recruitment business, as they grow, they tend to absorb capital. So you've got to really watch your debtor days, your your risk on outstanding debtors. Those are the sorts of things that you're focused on with people plus 90% plus of their revenues from government. So you you you tend to sort of your your risk on on recovery of outstanding debtors might be low or remote, but you you've got up upfront mobilization costs in terms of CapEx and offices, as Daniel's just said. So slightly different models, but, you know, broadly similar in the way they pan out. The the only thing I would say is that in terms of efficiency, recruitment can be extremely efficient If you are generating strong trading cash flows, as they grow, they they they spin off cash.

32:34 Yes. You you have there's a portion to be invested in the working capital, but we've found over the years that we can do that, and banks, and particularly the banks that we've partnered with, are very happy provided we are hitting their metrics and their KPIs to to advance debt financing on those on those recruitment activities. They're imminently financeable. So, you know, recruitment businesses, if you get them right, can be very rewarding. They can also go wrong if you very quickly if you don't understand what you're doing. But, essentially, it's a cash generative business. It doesn't have high capital investment requirements, and it's and and, you know, it's a sort of it's it's it's it's a it's a business that requires a light touch understanding people and ultimately servicing your customers because the barriers to entry are quite low.

33:23 So it's about excellence in delivery. Thank you, Albert. Our next question was about buybacks and EBT purchases where we might consider reinstating dividends. I think, Albert, you've already covered that in your in your answer to the first question. Next question, a multi part question, which I think Albert will take the first one. So please share with us comments that customers are saying about tariffs. Second part EBIT increase that can be from the Garda contract in Ireland in 2025 and any of and the investment we made based on the investment made in FY '24. And then thirdly, a little bit more about the opportunity to invest in organic growth. Maybe So Albert, you'll take the tariffs and organic growth question, and I'll I'll I'll take the Yeah. I'm not an expert in tariffs, so I won't go into detail there. But what I will say is that BMW we we know that BMW had some significant operations in The US where they build many of their vehicles, particularly their SUVs, and they export them all over the world.

34:27 They, you know, they they are present in almost every country. So in the sense that tariffs are a new challenge for them, I'm sure, and we don't have any we don't we don't we don't know we don't sort of have any indication that they're panicking or that they feel that this is going to affect the business. They are well ahead in terms of their electric vehicle offering, very, very attractive offering. And so, you know, they they they're weathering that transition, and you've only got to look at the mini range to see how how that is succeeding. So, you know, yeah, the the headlines are the headlines, but, you know, in in in our experience, the the our customers know how to manage their their businesses in headwinds. We we do we are the largest supplier to the scotch drip whiskey and drinks industry in Scotland.

35:18 You know, the these sort of niche products, high value products, they tend to be pricing elastic, and I will say the same for the high end automotive sector. For example, BMW owned Rolls Royce, which is, you know, pretty price inelastic for the types of consumers and customers that they are serving. Not to say that price is irrelevant, but, you know, the the they are at the very top end of the price and value scale. So, yeah, price can be quite inelastic in terms of the demand, and so we we, you know, we've got quite some confidence there. I mean, it's very interesting that in Ireland now, the tariffs exceed for importing into The US, the those that are in the Mainland UK. So there might be sort of near shoring opportunities and some some solutions that could that that both countries, both Ireland and The UK could exploit in terms of making sure that they are getting the best value in terms of tariffs. So there's there's lots to think and talk about, but I'm not an expert. But all I can say is that our customers are keeping calm and carrying on, and the main thing is to to deliver great products and great services.

36:26 Thank you, Alvin. Just to cover off the question in there around the Golar contract and the investment we put in in FY 2024 and the expected return in FY 2025. So there's two ways to look at this. From a cash perspective, we did put the investments in in FY '24 and then we will see, you know, numbers of hundreds of thousands of pounds of benefits of that in FY '25. From a P and L perspective, we did capitalize some of that investment on the balance sheet, so so that will be coming through an amortization in FY '25, and therefore, won't be as as much of that incremental benefit from P and L perspective as we will see in cash. There will be an absolutely, you know, numbers of £100,000 of cash delivery from the Garda contract in FY 2025 based on that investment in FY 2024. As we've mentioned throughout FY 2024, that contract was a bit delayed in its mobilization, and therefore that's why we'll see the real flow through in cash in FY '25.

37:26 Moving on to the next question. Do we anticipate any major CapEx or investment requirements in the coming year? Just to just highlight one item, very responsibly, we invested some CapEx in our payroll and finance systems in '24, which will continue into the first half of twenty five. Beyond that, we don't see any particular capital investment needed. Very important, as you've seen over the last couple of years, we've seen significant growth, organic growth in our recruitment business, specifically in GB, and we want to make sure that from a a a scale perspective, a cyber control perspective, that our systems are absolutely tip top and ready to deliver the next stage of our growth, which as Albert and I hopefully have communicated today, notwithstanding the challenging wider economic environment we believe that we can deliver for the group, for its shareholders and all other stakeholders.

38:25 So hopefully we should see the fruits of that investment over the coming years. Albert, maybe like to just summarize and finish off. Yes. So thank you for those questions everybody. Really made us think, put us on our keep us on our toes there, and hopefully you've got the gist of the message and and the detail on the results. We as I said, if I can restate some of the positives, we're a pure play blue collar and white collar recruitment business now. In my view, actually, having a global business with small operations in many countries across the world will pose quite a challenge in the years to come. What what what I've always believed in is having market share as much as you can, you know, acquiring or being the market leader in your market and having the advantages of scale and reach. I think, you know, subscale operations are gonna be challenging to manage and to be profitable, particularly with the current current politics and geopolitical risk. So, therefore, I'm delighted that we've got this really strong footprint in The UK and the island of Ireland supporting and cross fertilizing all of the areas of the business and providing that reach and that scale for customers, which is really world beating and world class.

39:46 So we're we're a highly cash generative business. We'll continue to buy our shares in the market at these very real really good low level value levels, and we will return cash to shareholders where appropriate. So bright outlook for us. We're very confident about our results for the next twelve months. We they're in line with expectations currently. The first quarter has been slightly better than budget, you know, in line with our management's expectations. And so we set fair. We're gonna have our AGM in a few weeks, and we we might be updating the market at that point. We'll we'll see if it's if there's anything that we we we can usefully say. So with that, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Albert, Daniel, thank you for updating investors today. Now 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.

40:39 This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of STAFFLINE GROUP PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.