Replay available

Wickes Group (LSE:WIX) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Wickes Group (LSE:WIX) Q2 2026 earnings call, held 2026-09-15. Watch the replay and read the transcript on 6ix.

Tue, September 15, 2026 at 8:00 AMendedReplay
Wickes Group (LSE:WIX) Q2 2026 Earnings Call
Company
Wickes Group PLC (LSE:WIX)
Period
Q2 2026 earnings call
Date
Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 8:00 AM ET
Replay
Watch the replay on this page · 38 min
Results news release
Wickes Group Plc – Interim Results 2026 · Tue, Sep 15, 2026

On 6ix: 6ix.com/event/wickes-group-plc-wix-q2-2026-earnings-call

Replay

Transcript

Automated transcript · Written by software from the replay's audio. It can mishear names and figures; the replay is the record.

0:00 Good morning, everyone. It's great to have you here with us today, whether in the room or joining us online. Welcome. Over the next 20 minutes or so, myself and our CFO, Mark, will walk you through our first half results for 2026, breaking down our business performance, exploring broader market trends, and sharing how our proven growth levers continue to drive market outperformance. Overall this has been a strong period for the business. I am pleased to report that in retail we have continued a strong volume led sales growth trajectory despite a deflationary pricing environment as more customers turn to Wix more often. Within design and installation, customers continue to react positively to the enhancements made to our kitchen and bathroom proposition, resulting in our fifth consecutive quarter of positive like-for-like growth.

0:54 Together, Group revenue increased 2.1%. The benefits of delivering sustained volume growth alongside our productivity plan resulted in a 1.1% increase in adjusted profit before tax to £27.6 million. All delivered in the absence of any market tailwinds. A clear demonstration of the strength of our self-help growth levers. Looking ahead, continued sales growth and our productivity programme will further support profitability in the second half. Our proven growth investment in our store estate continues. In the first half, we refitted and refreshed eight stores with a further four planned in the second half. We also remain on track for four to five new stores within the year to go, whilst building a strong pipeline to support our accelerated ambition of 300 stores.

1:44 We are delivering attractive returns to shareholders and have announced today an increased interim dividend of 2.8% to 3.7p, signalling our intention to grow dividend and dividend cover as profits increase. We have completed the £10 million share buyback and also funded a further £9 million worth of share purchases for the Employee Benefit Trust. As anticipated, trading so far in Q3 has shown a significant step up with mid single digit light for light revenue growth in retail as we remain on track to meet market expectations for adjusted PBT this year. Before I hand over to Mark, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of my brilliant colleagues for their incredible work in delivering these results. Thank you.

2:39 Thank you David and good morning everyone. As David mentioned we had a good first half with growth in both sales and profits. This slide has a summary of the highlights but as we cover all of these points in other slides I'm going to skip over this one. So on the next slide we have a summary of the P&L. We grew sales in the first half by 2.1%. In retail this was 0.8% growth and design and installation 5.7% as we worked through the healthy order book built up during 2025. Gross margin rate was broadly flat with just 0.1 percentage point movement. Operating costs grew by 1.9% with productivity helping to offset some of the cost inflation we've experienced.

3:29 A couple of examples of productivity initiatives that we've delivered in the first half. In design and installation, a new online journey for booking appointments has improved the customer experience and lowered our customer call centre costs. Also in design and installation a big focus on right first time from design to delivery is reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction. Also within operating costs is a step up in investment in tech and in property and a bit more detail on this in a moment. Overall, the PBT margin in the first half is flat year on year. With an uplift in both sales growth and productivity in the second half, we expect H2 to show a good step up in profit year on year, and as a result, deliver an increase in PBT margin for the full year.

4:21 So let's look at the P&L drivers in a bit more detail, starting with sales. In retail, we've seen an improving trend across the year so far. In Q1, adverse weather meant sales were in slight decline, but this improved in Q2. And as David has mentioned, we've seen this step up significantly in Q3 so far. In all quarters, we've seen good volume growth with deflation in the business of between two and 3% in the first half, as you can see on the table there. Now we expect to see inflation turn positive in Q4. It's also worth reflecting on the two year like for likes, because we were lapping a good H1 last year. As you can see in the table, even with very tough trading conditions in Q1, the two year like for like for the half was still 6%.

5:13 In design and installation, we've now had five consecutive quarters of delivered sales growth, following a strong performance in ordered sales last year. In the first half of this year, we've seen an increase in the number of new projects sold. However, with a shift in mix towards lower AOV projects, bespoke bathrooms and lifestyle kitchens in particular, overall ordered sales have been slightly down. This will result in a flatter profile for delivered sales growth in H2. So now turning to the profit bridge, which helps highlight the key drivers of our H1 performance. The 2.1% sales growth gave us 10 million of margin upside, offset by 5 million of volume-related costs.

6:03 In terms of other operating costs, you can see here that inflation remains a headwind. And whilst we've continued to deliver some good productivity savings, they have not fully offset the cost inflation. The further cost savings shown separately here is that we've saved about a million pounds in business rates in the first half and this will be about two million in the second half. We continue to invest in the business to drive future growth and productivity and as you can see here in aggregate this has stepped up by around five million pounds year on year. This is mainly investment in technology and the opex costs of our property development plan. So a good performance on profit given the challenging trading conditions and the inflationary headwinds.

6:50 So turning to cash, we are a cash generative business and even in a challenging economic environment, we can generate cash to reinvest in the business and deliver good returns to shareholders. We ended the period with £152 million of cash. Now, as you know, the half year is a high point for our annual cycle and the significant improvement in working capital in the first half will unwind in the second half. A couple of other things to note on this bridge. CapEx this year will be H2 weighted with much of our property programme happening in the second half. In H1, we had £11 million of cash out for CapEx and we expect around £40 million for the year as a whole. Also in the first half we've returned £26 million to shareholders, £16 million in dividends and £10 million in share buybacks.

7:42 We've also funded the EBT by a further £9 million. So overall a very healthy cash position enabling us to fund our growth strategy whilst also delivering good returns to shareholders. I'll end with some comments on outlook and guidance. So far in Q3, as anticipated, we've seen a significant step up in performance with retail sales in mid single digit light for light growth. This strong sales growth plus the additional cost savings expected in H2 mean we are on track to meet market expectations of around 10% growth in PBT for the year. Now we've also provided here the usual guidance on tax and capex etc. And just as a reminder on dividend, we plan to grow the dividend and the cover as profits increase. And as David said, we've started today that process by announcing a 2.8% increase in our interim dividend from 3.6 pence to 3.7 pence.

8:41 So in summary, the business has had a good first half and as we move into the second half with improving sales in Q3, we are well placed to deliver another good year of profit growth in 2026. With that, I'll hand back to David. Thank you, Mark. This slide simply illustrates the clarity and consistency of our strategy that is working so successfully, enabling us to drive growth and market outperformance while supporting our purpose to simply help the nation feel house proud. Over the next few slides, I'll share how we're investing in these growth levers to continue to win in the market. But before I do that, let me share some headline insight into current consumer trends that we are seeing through our monthly Mood of the Nation survey.

9:37 Encouragingly, we see a high degree of stability of where the customer is right now. Local trades still tell us they are busy with around 30% having a healthy 12 month plus pipeline of work. One in five customers in the market plan to take on a new kitchen or bathroom project and spending plans have remained stable over the last few months. We can see in our own performance data that customers are looking for more affordable solutions for bigger projects. and in DIY people remain keen to improve their homes with one in two consumers planning to decorate a room over the course of the next 12 months. Speed and convenience continues to be important to them as seen in the growth of our 15-minute click and collect, home delivery and Wix rapid propositions.

10:24 We are particularly pleased that sales growth in retail is purely volume driven and this is all down to more customers shopping with us in store or online. Our TradePro membership scheme goes from strength to strength with sales up 5% driven by a record level of 671,000 active members. Our market share in retail has increased again year on year, with a number of key range reviews driving out performance, in particular in decorative, which is an all-time market share high, and gardening and timber, all supporting growth in our DIY customer base. We continue to focus on what matters most to our customers, certainty of value, clarity of choice, speed and convenience. Our digitally led service enabled model delivers that promise seamlessly, driving 7% growth across click and collect and home delivery.

11:13 We know that customers value the products and services we offer and we see this very clearly in our customer satisfaction metrics. For example, 86% of customers rate our 15 minute collect and collect service as excellent or good and that rises to 90% for our home delivery service which we uniquely operate from all stores. As we turn to design and installation, delivered sales in this part of the business have been strong for the last five consecutive quarters as customers react positively to our breadth of offering across good, better and best ranges. We have achieved volume growth across the total number of projects served, a result not just of great innovation in the more affordable segment of the market, where we now offer 23 ranges of lifestyle kitchens, but also encouraging customer engagement in our top-end, hand-painted, paint-to-order range. and in bespoke bathrooms we've seen success with a new bayswater collection which you can see on the right and a host of new fitted and modular furniture.

12:15 Crucially our customers are telling us that we're hitting the mark. 96% rate us excellent or good from lead to order. We have successfully re-based the Wix solar business and are now backing growth through high quality lead generation and customer journey with strong conversion. In addition, we will install solar on a further five Wix stores this year and have some interesting B2B opportunities in the pipeline. Turning now to investment in our store estate, the strong performance of our existing and new stores, alongside our proven ability to operate successfully in smaller footprint stores, led us to announce earlier this year our scaled up ambition to reach a network of 300. Our plans are on track and in the first half we have refitted or refreshed eight stores with 84% of the estate now in the new format with a further four to come in the year. We also plan to open four to five new stores in the second half with Saffron Warden opening this week.

13:17 We continue to strengthen our future property pipeline focusing on white space opportunities and underserved larger towns and cities. For 2027 we plan to open between seven to nine new stores and we will accelerate to 10 plus per year from 2028. Moving on to our Responsible Business Strategy, which is embedded deeply within our business. When some of you join us on store tours, you can often meet leaders who started at WIC straight out of school and now run £10 million stores. We are incredibly proud to be a destination for early talent, with around 30% of our store colleagues aged 16 to 24. Through our dedicated training programmes, we are actively equipping the next generation of retail leaders.

14:03 Tool theft affects over a third of UK tradespeople, costing them £2,500 on average, impacting their ability to work and in some cases really affecting their mental wellbeing. In the first half we stepped up for our trade community, pledging to protect well over a quarter of a million power tools across the UK this year by providing free tool marking kits in stores. and we are well on our way to hitting our two million fundraising target for our charity partner Calm, having already raised an incredible 1.3 million to date. and it is fantastic to be recognised for all of the work we do as part of our responsible business strategy with highly positive ESG ratings. We maintained our AAA rating in MSCI and we continue to be included in the FTSE for Good Index having improved our latest score from 4.2 to 4.4 out of 5.

15:00 So to conclude, we have made great progress in the first half, growing volume, sales and profits through the strength of our own self-help levers, really demonstrating our value-led and highly differentiated business model. Our growth momentum through the first half has continued to build in Q3 and whilst we are winning market share and growing volume, there is still so much more to go for. Today we hold just 5% of the £35 billion addressable UK home improvement market. The headroom for growth is tremendous. That is why we are accelerating our property ambition, going further and faster to expand our store footprint by 30%. This is all underpinned by a strong cash flow generation enabling us to invest in our proven growth leaders and deliver attractive shareholder returns.

15:46 Thank you for listening. Mark and I will now be happy to take any questions. Morning, Ben Hunt from Premier Liberal. Do you think you could just flesh out a little bit more about those cost savings you're expecting in the second half and maybe that inflation headwind easing with the wage inflation coming down or any colour really on the on the H2 bridge, as it were? yeah so firstly on the cost savings we've got a continuation of initiatives that have started earlier in the year so we've got a good line of sight as to how that's going to evolve in some cases getting more of a six-month benefit rather than a partial benefit in the first half so you know we're now really starting to focus on the initiatives that are going to be our productivity plan for 2027 so I think we're very confident in what's coming in the second half of 2026 In terms of the inflationary headwinds, the wages and general employment costs headwinds have slowed down a bit. Obviously, the big increase that came in national insurance and the higher levels of increase in national living wage are behind us.

17:06 So hopefully now we'll see more normal levels of wage inflation, which will be good. Obviously, we don't yet know what the government will agree on the November increase in national living wage, but we're expecting that to be a lot lower than in recent years. So the one to watch out for, of course, is energy costs. As you know, we've got about 50% of our energy costs hedged into 2027. So fairly well protected there. But obviously, that's a moving thing in the market at the moment. Okay, and second, I was delighted to hear you were opening a Wix in Saffron Warden. It's their Friday, Ben, if you'd like to join me. Oh, I may well be around. Opening day.

17:52 I was just wondering if you could just tell us a little bit how the smaller format stores are performing, whether they're in line with the usual new opening maturity, you know, how the maturity is when they start to break even and any sort of details around that. Yeah, I think, I mean, if we step back from it, we've had a number of small stores in our network for a while. So it's probably somewhere between 20 and 25 of our store counts that fit that smaller 15 to 20,000 square feet. As we illustrated at the fall year when we were talking about our ambition, What you can see is although the revenue on average is slightly lower, as is the cost of running those stores, so the EBITDA net-net is actually equivalised across the estate.

18:38 So we know we can still deliver great value creation from a smaller store footprint. Saffron Warden, interestingly, will be the first of those new ones. So, as I say, Friday, if you're around, by all means, come and join me. We're quite excited. and then Harrogate as we look forward between now and Christmas will be even smaller as a store with a mezzanine as well. So we'll learn more about the new stores as we move into next year but our confidence in finding the ability to get greater depth and reach of the network through a smaller store footprint is predicated on the fact that sort of like 10% of our estate was already like this and we can see how that performs which on balance creates a similar value to the estate at large. Matthew, oh sorry, where should we go? The mic is over there Matthew, Matthew we're going to lead with the mic.

19:30 Thanks very much, morning, Lewis Roxburgh from Goodbody, just one please, just how generally should we think about pricing obviously, we've seen some deflation over the period, costs are increasing, so you know how do we interpret that, is there a lag effect happening, are you struggling to sort of pass through inflation or are you sort of happy remaining you know cost leader and gaining market share really? So through the year so far as we said we've seen deflation but we're now as we come towards the end of Q3 starting to move into inflation. So we expect positive inflation in Q4. Our priority really is that we're a price leader in the business, in the market. we aim to be two to three percent cheaper on a basket than our key competitors and we monitor that every week and we want to deliver great value to customers and drive profit in the business not by increasing gross margin but actually getting the flywheel of volume going and getting operating leverage through the business so you've seen that the margin is flat however all of the pressures coming through our sector are starting to come through, and we are going to see some inflation in Q4.

20:39 And that will just make it a little bit easier, obviously, when you've got 2% to 3% deflation in the products that you're selling, but you've got cost inflation of 3% or more in your operating costs. That's clearly very challenging. So that's going to be more balanced as we go forward. Matthew, I know you had a question. The mic is on its way, sir. Great, thanks. Yes, Matthew McEachern from Singer Capital Markets. Can we just ask for a little bit more information on the D&I side? I mean, it's clear that you've got a load of initiatives working through, you know, you showed us the design tools, improvement on that site visit, the product range has improved, and the service element is also improving. Could you just remind us as to what you've done so far in the first half and how much is still pending as you go through to the next peak?

21:28 And related to that question, will there be a kind of step up in marketing once you've embedded the suite of changes, if you like? Yeah, oh gosh, there's a lot of questions in there. I'm going to do my best to take all of them on board in one go. Look, in the first instance, there's been some really good broad-based innovation in our design and installation business. And it's interesting because when you look through the kitchen business, that innovation has been much more predicated at the more affordable end. And we spied that coming a couple of years ago. We started to develop the lifestyle range. Integrated into the showrooms, make it a more prominent and equal part of the overall customer journey and then subsequently expanded that business to 23 ranges which we market through all of our communications channels and we're seeing great volume growth there. So what we're seeing in the kitchens business is overall great volume growth in our lifestyle business.

22:29 a more muted performance in sort of like the higher end at the moment but interestingly we are innovating right now for the return to growth in this like the better and the best part of the portfolio so we're extending our paint to order hand painted ranges so in the same way we anticipated the more affordable requirement in the market we're also anticipating as the economy recovers that we'll be well placed to capitalise on that as well so we're very happy with that performance but the AOV is down because of that. It's interesting on the bathroom side of the business because the innovation focus actually has been about adding greater value, adding more premium brands. So on the bathroom side of the business we are growing volume very strongly and we are actually growing AOV but in the round that mix gets washed out a little bit when you look at Design and Installation in the first instance.

23:16 But I guess the really important point here is as a business we are taking more orders, we are serving more customers. The blended AOV is down on traditional sort of like numbers where we can feel hence a more muted sort of like performance in terms of the ordered sales line. But we're winning where we can, which I think is a great outturn and we're well placed to win again as the market recovers for the more high-end stuff in the first instance. and in relation to marketing. No particular step up, it's just a continuous process throughout the year of our campaigns. Hi, morning. Ben from Deutsche Bank. Just one question on that Q3 acceleration in retail like-for-like. Are you able to talk a bit more on the drivers of that?

24:08 Obviously, you've mentioned inflation, which is helpful, but any indication on which kind of categories have been performing well would be really helpful. Yeah, probably just a point of correction. We're not seeing actual inflation in Q3. We're just about to exit Q3. That's a more modest to slightly declining inflationary period. We expect it to come through as we move through Q4. And again, a more modest level, I think it's fair to say, in the first instance. So there isn't an inflationary benefit in Q3. Look, Q3's performance is much as we had anticipated. And we're keen to point that out. We could See where we were going from Q1 into Q2 and expected that to start to flow through as we got into Q3 because we're always pretty confident that the projects needed to get done.

24:55 The growth of that, so we are mid single digit like for like performance so far Q3, we're 11 weeks in so that's a really solid performance and it is simply doing what we always do which is growing our customer base. So this is a volume led performance, there's no inflation in there and it's growth of customers across both trade and DIY. So it's continue to execute the strategy you have and just do it brilliantly. There's no seismic change in there, Ben. We had fully anticipated this profile as we were coming through the year. Some of the drives we could call out, particularly on the digital side of the business, has been going very well. So David mentioned the popularity of Click and Collect, our home delivery service, Wix Rapid, which is the same day delivery service. All of those areas are in good growth and that sort of desire for convenience from the customer is really strong and we're delivering on that really well.

25:46 So that's been a good standout as part of that retail step up. And importantly, as you would have seen in the Mood of the Nation survey, our trade customers in particular, our most strategically valuable customers, are busy. 30% of them have only got a pipeline for the next year plus. That's slightly up versus the average, to be fair. Perfect. Thank you. Morning, Sam Cullen from Peelland. I've got one and a half, I guess. Firstly, you can call it two among friends. Well, it's kind of interrelated. Any comments on, I know seasonal is not a huge category for you guys, but the trends you've seen in that category in the first half and indeed in Q3 and then related to that, obviously extremely hot summer, the trends you've seen in the solar business.

26:35 Shall I do the first bit and you do the second? First of all, Sam, you're right. We're not massively exposed in terms of seasonal play. What we have seen as we've come through the year, and particularly just relating to the weather patterns, is really you just oscillate. When it's very wet, you see a lot more internal projects being done. As the weather starts to dry up a little bit, you see the benefit of internal and external projects. as it gets a bit hotter you might see that emphasis move out to more to more external in terms of the balance but broadly nothing dramatic or unanticipated in terms of the shape of that in terms of the weather play and how that might have affected the seasons but it's it's not a big exposure for us as a business we don't really play in big seasonal categories of course garden you know and growing media and compost and fencing and that good stuff's in there but on balance you know the business is performing well as we've come through Q3 we're seeing you know all categories performing really well Since March actually we've seen a good pick up in solar volumes, a combination of some very good weather of course which gets people thinking about sunshine but also the news flow around cost of energy and people trying to find ways to save money and solar is a fantastic way of doing that.

27:54 That in combination with our innovation and how we're going to market I think is in combination driving a better performance in solar since around March time. But still obviously quite small in comparison to the rest of the business so it's yet to make its mark on the numbers. Got a case at the front there. Morning, Kate Calvert from Vestec. Just two questions. The first one is on tech investment. Could you comment on the outlook for tech investment going into next year from a P&L perspective? Is it like to be sort of similar year on year? And could you sort of flesh out some of the details about the benefits you're going to get from the new till system? as that rolls out next year.

28:45 And the second question is just on TradePro because obviously it's a very valuable database. Could you just talk about any sort of potential development opportunities there and potential to sort of start monetising the data? And I suppose you can tie that in with retail media developments as well. Thank you. So we have been stepping up our tech investment and as you know now most of our investment in tech is going through the P&L, small amounts of capex on things like till hardware and that sort of thing but most of the development work is through the P&L. We are reaching the stage where we're close to what we think would be a steady state level of investment per year. But next year, there will be a small increase versus 2026.

29:31 It's been a bigger step up this year. But there will be another small increase next year with around sort of 20 million of project development costs in tech that are going through the P&L. Super and in terms of the new till system, we are currently still testing in a handful of stores. We will build that test out further and then by the end of the year we hope to have covered the estate at large. There will be inherent efficiency, just the speed and the ability and capability of the new system and we are running on a system currently that's probably three decades old or something so You can just understand that, but also the experience of both the colleague and the customer, not just the ease of use, but how we're serving up opportunities.

30:19 So these are sort of like iPad based tills. The iPad also faces the customer. If somebody buys a tin of paint, the AI will automatically serve up and recommend that you might need a few other things in the basket. So you will be able to project build at till point and really help the customer get all that they need to do that project in a way that we haven't been to today. And then generally just the data we have on the customer and the ability to recognise a customer and actually just build that sort of empathy. and engagement. I mean, there'll be a host of benefits and I'm sure we'll learn more as we do roll out, for sure. But efficiency, engagement, the ability to upsell will be the key things on my mind right now. Oh, and trade pro. Trade pro. I think there are always two things to think about on trade, or probably three. I mean, one, you know, there still remains a lot of headroom for penetration growth. So if we look at our active member base, it's sort of like, you know, heading towards 700,000 in a population of an addressable market of 2.3 million.

31:19 So the first thing to say is there's still a penetration opportunity. One of the ways we'll get after that, Kate, is as we build the network. Because location does matter and although we have a brilliant service like Rapid and we are a great fulfilment business, there's only so far you can fulfil. So as we build out and we appear in new towns, we will access that ability to get brand new penetration in terms of trade. The next thing that we continue to work on and it is through data but monetising it for our benefits is building out the relationship, building out greater share of wallet with our existing trade customers as well. There's still a huge opportunity there when you pair it back where arguably whilst it's one of our fastest growth drivers through penetration, we're still used at quite a convenient level and we can build a bigger relationship and get more share of wallet with that customer. And then probably the third thing on my mind is how we continue our efforts in the B2B side of things. So moving beyond one man and a van working in these local communities, perhaps to more organised businesses and providing that value and service as well. So they would be some key thoughts for me as we look forward into next year and the remainder of this.

32:29 Hi, Arthur Berenberg. Just two from me. Just on product costs, is there anything to call out yet at all? I know Timber's been one in the past that sort of caused a couple of issues. I don't know whether there's anything to call out there. And then just on Wix Solar and the B2B opportunity, I know you just sort of mentioned it, but is that a sizable opportunity going forward? Shall I do the first and you do the second? I think the product inflationary environment, yes, there is inflation in the product. It's not at a high level. It's at a more moderate and expected level in terms of the inflation that we're seeing coming in across the business. But of course, we negotiate well, we buy well. One of the strengths of having a tight curated range is you're buying a lot of volume over a few SKUs. So we buy very well. in that environment, mitigate as best as we can and pass value on where we can to the customer to generate more volume and get the leverage effect of doing that. But nothing to report at the moment, Arthur, that is stratospheric in terms of cost inflation.

33:33 Yeah, and then B2B Solar, we think there is a really good opportunity here. Obviously, we're a customer of Wix Solar as Wix, and we'll be putting solar on a number of our stores over the next few years. But also, there's an opportunity to do that with companies that we already have relationships with, you know, we have suppliers that have manufacturing plants and warehouses. We deal a lot with landlords who have lots of properties around the country. and as you can imagine therefore we've got a really good entry point to talk to people about what Wixola can offer. We're scaling the team there so we're in a better position to deliver bigger projects because obviously it's a different type of project to domestic premises but yeah we're building the pipeline nicely and we think we can do well in that part of the market.

34:29 Hi, it's Mark Petiardis from Canaccord. Just a quick one on the pipeline for 2027. Any additional colour on phasing of opening between H1, H2, the 7 to 9, and then the split between sort of the smaller format and the larger format, your expectations at this stage? Yeah I'd start to expect over time a more balanced lay down in terms of the new store opening program but you know we are still you know we we want the right sites so we'll be patient for those this is not a this is not a space race for us this is 70 locations that are broadly identified so we'll be patient for those it's been very back back weighted this year just because these are the sites we want and you know as I say you've had to be patient but in in time I expect more balanced profile Mark, I think it's fair to say.

35:19 But it may have, as we look into next year, it could still be slightly second half weighted as we push through. In terms of the size of the store, I would encourage you not to think of it as a small format versus a larger format. We have one format. It's just that on average, we're now going to open smaller stores. So across the estate at the moment, 27,000 square feet is the average size. Going forward, we'll probably open more like 20,000 as the average. There'll be some below, one or two above, but they will be the same format. And when you walk into a Wix, Saffron Warden, for example, on Friday, it will feel very similar. It's not like it's a convenience version or a local version of a Wix. It's just ever so slightly smaller. Do I need a bus for Friday? Is there any more people that want to come on Friday?

36:08 All are welcome. Thanks. Just one more from me. Just come back to TradePro, if that's OK. I mean, that first half, the differential between your average customer growth and the revenue growth is probably the biggest we've seen for quite a long time. Do you want to just go into the detail? Is that driven by the deflation and the earlier weather conditions and such like? And to that point, in more recent current trading, has that gap now closed back? Or would you expect that to close back up again? Yeah, I think the relationship with the two is probably two things. One, the ability to get after the work, as you say, the volume of projects, combined with the deflation.

36:53 There is deflation in there and we see that. They would be the two drivers. We would expect things to improve as we move through the year. Thank you. Is that everything, team? Anything on? No? All quiet on the Western Front. Super. Well, look, just a few final thoughts from me. Look, this has been a great first half. Sales are up, volumes are up, profit is up, share is up, dividend is increasing. And as anticipated, performance has really strengthened in Q3, particularly through the lens of retail. And that leads me to only conclude one thing, that the strategy is working.

37:38 and we'll continue to execute it brilliantly and deliver attractive returns. So thank you very much for turning up this morning. Thank you very much for watching online and all have a super day.

Follow Wickes Group PLC into a list and get an email when it puts out news.

Latest news releases

Companies on this call

More from Wickes Group PLC