Norcros Aktie

Okay. All right. I think we're mostly there. So welcome to everybody. We're delighted to welcome back the Norcros team. Just a few points of admin for the viewers first. You can submit your questions as the presentation unfolds via the Q&A button on Zoom and we will do our very best to address all of those later on. This presentation is being recorded. So if you miss any of it, do not worry, a video will be circulated probably early next week. The slide deck and lots and lots of other useful investor material is available on the Norcros Investor Relations site. And if anybody had missed it, there is also a recent review of their results from the equity development analysts, retaining a fair value for Norcros shares still well above the current level, even though they have performed well in recent years.

So I shall now pass over to James Eyre, CFO, his last appearance on these events. So we shall thank him now on behalf of all the investors for the time that the company and himself have put on previously. And also to Thomas Willcocks, the CEO, and Thomas will commence proceedings. Over to you, Thomas.

Okay. Good morning, everybody. And on behalf of the Norcros team, James and myself, really warm welcome. Good to be talking to. I'm sure lots of people we've spoken to before, and it's always a pity we can't see you, but good to have you on. Look, James and I are really pleased with the set of results. They again demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy and some really, really strong contributions from our colleagues right across our business. And before I hand over to James in a couple of slides and ahead of this being his last presentation or certainly his last Norcros presentation on this platform, I really want to thank James on behalf of our team and the Board, myself personally for the significant role that he's played over the last 12 years. And so James, thank you very much.

There are really 3 key takeaways from this presentation. The first is we have again delivered a strong organic performance, especially in our core U.K. and Ireland markets. Not many businesses did not update their numbers last year or update guidance. We held guidance, and we hit our numbers. We reached significant milestones in our journey to become a capital-light cash-generative bathroom business and are ahead of plan in terms of the financial targets that we set at our Capital Markets 2 years ago. Three of the 4 financial targets have been delivered within 2 years, and we are also progressing extremely well in terms of our carbon targets that are measured through the SBTi. So Norcros is really well positioned to continue growing share and creating value for our customers and our shareholders. In the market that has remained really weak, we have again demonstrated our ability to grow and deliver through the economic cycle, both organically and also inorganically by doing really what we set out in our strategic plan.

We can jump to the next slide, please. So when we look at these numbers that we have in front of us, they reflect the benefits of really, really focused execution. And looking at these numbers, we have grown our like-for-like revenue on an organic basis in a tough market and also our reported revenue is up 10.6%, reflecting the Fibo acquisition. This growth has been delivered profitably with operating profit up and included a record year in the U.K. and Ireland with a really strong operating margin progress there again. We've made strong progress strategically as we continue to grow a more focused portfolio. And as I've mentioned, with Fibo being the highlight in the year. And importantly, we've rapidly reduced our leverage back to 1.2x following the all debt and highly accretive Fibo acquisition and then the closure of Johnson Tiles in South Africa.

I'm really pleased to announce that we've delivered on our medium-term ROCE target of 20%. So when you look at the overall business, strong ROCE, really good operating margins, high cash conversion over a long period, good earnings per share growth and a nice bump up in the dividend that James might talk to. Importantly, post the year-end, we announced our intention to investigate options to sell our last remaining assets in South Africa. This really signals an inflection point for Norcros that we'll discuss through the presentation. But let's first look at our regional performances quickly. Next slide, please.

The first thing to point out is that following the acquisition of Fibo, we have renamed our U.K. and Ireland region Europe. So where we refer to Europe like-for-likes, this would exclude Fibo and is essentially what we used to report as our old UK&I region. Starting on the right-hand side, our South African like-for-like operating profit was marginally lower than the prior year in a market that remains under pressure, probably with the main difference to the U.K. being that the interest rates are still significantly higher. We have a really strong team in South Africa have performed well. And some of the key self-help measures included the closure of Johnson Tiles South Africa, which has been really sensitively and accurately managed, driving a strong cash performance. I'd really like to recognize the performance of Kevin and his team in South Africa, especially with regards to the care and professionalism in which they handled and completed this really difficult closure during the year.

The European like-for-like, as I said previous, U.K. and our performance was strong with operating margins up to 15.9%. Reported operating margins on the left-hand side are lower, and that's really due to the expected dilution following the acquisition of Fibo. We've also demonstrated the benefits of leveraging our connective scale through the year, and that is reflected in that operating margin growth. Importantly, again, these results show the benefit of focusing on the brand-conscious, more resilient mid-premium RMI segment. We often talk about RMI and you get different people reporting saying RMI is poor or RMI is good. I think what you generally find is heavy side RMI is under more pressure than brand-led light side RMI like Norcros. So we continue to see the market remaining fairly resilient and trading as we expect.

Looking forward, it's worth drilling down a little into what is going to become the foundation of our new European focused business. And we'll look at the underlying performance over the last 10 years, and these numbers include the FY '26 pro forma numbers for Fibo. So if we go to the next slide. Thank you.

Looking at the graph on the left, and this starts in FY '15, broadly coinciding with our first acquisition and kindly enough that coincided with James' arrival at the business. And with the time before Brexit, COVID and all manner of shocks in between. And what you can really see in this business is consistent through-cycle profit growth, progressive operating margin growth that has been driven by the benefits of our growing collective scale as we've grown as a business, our focus on that more resilient brand-led mid-premium market segment and our work on refocusing our portfolio on capital-light design-led businesses. So what you're seeing is really strong through-cycle profit growth and also operating margin growth. And what we've done over this period is we've demonstrated a repeatable, scalable growth model, striking the right balance between organic and inorganic growth.

Importantly, this model has and will continue to be applied to what is a large, attractive and fragmented end market in our targeted geographies. On the next slide, we look at what this new European group profile looks like, starting with the fact that these would include the pro forma Fibo numbers. And essentially, what you're looking at here is the culmination of the work that we set out at the Capital Markets Day 2 years ago. Looking at what is going to become the new European group profile. All of the businesses in that center doughnut are bathroom businesses. They are capital light, they are cash generative. And essentially, that talks to a transformed Norcros and the Norcros that is now going to become a bathroom focused group. So I'm really, really pleased with the work that the team has done here. The left doughnut shows what the revenue would be adjusting for the full year of Fibo. And on the right-hand side, it's just an important reminder that the main demand in bathrooms comes from RMI.

There's a lot of noise around new build because a lot of those businesses are listed. But historically, around 80% comes from RMI and 20% new build. This year, RMI may have been a little bit higher. When you look at the size of our business and then you go down to the bottom left-hand block, you can see the size of the opportunity and the available addressable market in the U.K., Ireland and Nordics, which is where we have our businesses. So a huge amount to go at, and we'll do that in a focused way. We have a business with GBP 45.8 million operating profit. We have a 14% operating margin. And important to note that as we move that Fibo business up, and we know how we're going to do that, that would bring us to north of 15%, which would be the last of our financial target set 2 years ago. And we have a ROCE that's already at 20% and would grow to probably just north of 21%.

So this snapshot shows the underlying strength of the base from which we will and will continue to develop and grow and create value really driven by a clear purpose, our expert teams in what is and remains a decentralized structure and a balance sheet that offers a high degree of flexibility and optionality.

I'll now hand over to James for the last time. Thanks, James.

Thanks, Thomas. Good morning, everyone. We have the next slide, please, Andy. Thank you. So just on this Slide 8 and the income statement. Revenues totaled GBP 393.4 million. That's up 0.6% on a like-for-like constant currency basis. On a reported basis, that was up 10.6%, largely driven by the acquisition of Fibo and continuing market share gains. In turn, the underlying operating profit was GBP 48 million, and that's 7.9% ahead of the prior year comparative. Underlying PBT was at GBP 40.9 million and was 8.2% ahead of the prior year and exceptional items of GBP 9.9 million, mainly comprised of the noncash goodwill impairment of GBP 7.2 million.

Pension scheme admin expenses at GBP 2.8 million were higher than the prior year, and that's largely due to one-off external gender equalization project costs. Acquisition and disposal costs of GBP 13.1 million mainly relate to GBP 7.8 million of noncash amortization costs on acquired intangibles and about GBP 4 million of fees associated with the Fibo acquisition. Overall, this resulted in a reported PBT of GBP 14.9 million. And next slide, please, Andy.

So just on Slide 9 and some of the revenue and profit bridges, starting with the top left. U.K. and Ireland total revenue was GBP 6.8 million higher. Fibo contributed GBP 32.7 million. And in total, as shown in the bottom left-hand chart, overall group constant currency like-for-like revenue increased by 0.6%, and that was 0.7% in Europe and 0.3% in South Africa. So just going now to the charts on the right and underlying operating profit. The top right, underlying operating profit of GBP 48 million was ahead of prior year by GBP 3.5 million. There's a really strong U.K. and Ireland performance, a GBP 3.5 million increase as well as a GBP 3.3 million contribution from Fibo. And note that we have separated the increase in central costs of GBP 2.8 million as we continue to make investments to help drive our strategic initiatives.

And finally, looking at the bottom right chart, I guess the key number there is overall, the return on sales for the group was 12.2% compared to 12.5% in the prior year. This is a marginal decrease, and it's largely driven by the initial margin dilution effect as expected from Fibo. So if we go to the next slide, please, Andy. Just going to highlight a couple of key numbers on this slide. The first one being the diluted underlying earnings per share was 35.8p, and that's an increase of 7.2% on the prior year. And on the dividend, the Board is proposing a final dividend of 7.6p per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 11.3p per share, and that's a significant 0.9p per share increase on 2025.

Just moving on to the next slide, please. Thanks, Andy. And this is on the cash flow. Lots of numbers on this slide. So I'm just going to highlight 2 or 3 of them. The first one being the group generating an underlying operating cash flow of GBP 57.6 million in the period, and this represented an excellent cash conversion rate of 116% of underlying EBITDA. Net capital expenditure was GBP 6.8 million. And then further down that -- yes, further down the underlying free cash flow prefinancing dividends was GBP 42.6 million. I'm just going to call out the repayment of acquired subsidiary borrowings of GBP 39.8 million. That relates to the repayment of a bond that related to Fibo at the time of the acquisition. Next slide, please, Andy.

So just on to the balance sheet. Net debt at the year-end was GBP 65.8 million. I think importantly, with leverage at 1.2x, this was a reduction from the 1.6x leverage at the time of the Fibo acquisition. And I think just to stress, the balance sheet remains really strong and in good shape, and we continue to have significant liquidity and funding headroom to further invest in our strategic initiatives. Also to note, the group banking facility was refinanced in December '25 with the committed RCF increasing to GBP 150 million, and the maturity date was extended to December '29 with a further 1-year extension available. The pension scheme remained in surplus on an IAS 19 basis. But importantly, more importantly, the scheme remains almost fully funded on an actuarial basis at 98% of technical provisions. Next slide, please, Andy.

So most of you would have seen this slide before on our capital allocation framework. So just to outline again, our capital allocation priorities are organic investment, ordinary dividend, complementary acquisitions and finally, supplementary distributions. And this will be done within the investment guardrails you can see on the right, including maintaining leverage below 2x, dividend cover of approximately 3x, cash conversion in excess of 90% and a ROCE target of 20%, which takes us to the final finance page where we provide an update on the progress towards our medium-term targets. Here, we can see significant progress across all our targets over the past 3 years. Organic growth has remained ahead of market as we continue to take market share. Group operating margin is now at 12.2%, benefiting from the closure of the Tiles businesses, operating efficiencies, and as mentioned, partially offset for the time being by Fibo.

ROCE has again increased and is now at 20% and cash conversion remains excellent and over the last 3 years averages 107% conversion rate. And finally, we are pleased to see the continued progress in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 near-term targets with a 65% reduction from our base year.

So for a final time, Thomas, back to you.

Thanks, James. Appreciate it. So a really strong set of results. And I think this progress against the published targets is really important. We've stayed focused. Our teams have stayed focused and we've done what we said. I'll now give you a light update on some of the strategic initiatives that we have and continue to deliver in terms of the progress against these targets. This slide, again, is a slide that you all know well. And the really key takeaway here is that we continue to do what we said we were going to do when we first put this slide up. On the portfolio development side, as we said, we've completed the Fibo acquisition. We've closed Johnson Tiles. We've announced post year-end that we are exploring the options to sell the rest of our South African business. And we have a really attractive M&A pipeline. And as James alluded to, we have the ability to do further M&A.

On the organic growth side, our in-play drivers, new product launches included NaturePanel, Metlex, ENlight and HeatRepeat. Strong group cross-selling progress, and I'll talk a little bit later, a little bit more about the complete bathroom offer. On the operational side, our group scale advantages continue to help us significantly, specifically in these uncertain times, our group freight deal and a new U.K. wide grid energy contract being part of that sort of resilience. And we've also launched a group operations project that I'll talk to a little bit later. James has covered the ESG in a bit of detail. But I think one of the important things about ESG that I'll touch on is that ESG is not only driving market share gains, but it's also improving our resilience as a business. So starting with portfolio developments on the next slide.

Let us get there Fibo. We're really pleased with this acquisition. The post-acquisition integration process is largely complete. And as you know, we tried to leave businesses alone for about a year after we bought them so that they can integrate, get their systems going and integrated and just get back into running their businesses after a sale process. In this specific case, we bought a very strong management team. It's come out of private equity. So a lot of the work we normally need to be doing around systems and reporting is already in place and again, validates the quality of this business. There is strong upside potential in this business, specifically around the operations where we have a very automated assembly or light assembly plant in Lyngdal, Norway. It has spare capacity. So as this business grows in what is the fastest-growing bathroom segment, we're going to be dropping additional volume onto a very automated plant, and we should see a lot of the margin progression of Fibo come through this avenue.

We have made some early investment in growth initiatives, especially people as we start to pivot towards growing the business in new markets. And we expect to start working on leveraging our group growth and supply chain value drivers as we start approaching a year-end in the second half of this year. And this is much the same thing that we've done with previous acquisitions where we have a demonstrated track record of growing these businesses faster than they were growing when they were on their own. And just as a reminder, in 2017, we bought MERLYN, we've doubled the size of MERLYN without any dilution to the operating margin. We're on a similar journey with Grant Westfield really through strong cross-selling and investment in new product development and we fully expect that Fibo will grow fast as part of the Norcros Group and the benefits flow both ways, by the way.

So I'm really pleased to report that the business is trading in line with expectations and albeit that the margins are lower than our group targets. We have a very, very well-planned business in a great market segment. Now moving on to our post year-end announcement that we are looking at options to sell our remaining South African business. The first thing to note is that following the closure of the capital-intensive and cash negative Johnson South Africa business, we are left with a more capital-light business in South Africa with really strong prospects and a strong track record, albeit that this now sits outside of our core product and geographic markets.

I think it's important to note that any sale will take some time with an obligatory competition commission process adding about 4 to 6 months, we don't foresee any issues here. This is really about redressing historical racial ownership imbalances in South Africa through what is called a public interest clause. And given that the current ownership is currently 100% U.K., we expect any deal in South Africa to see progress on that front. So we are just comfortable that, that would be an administrative process.

And what we're really looking at here is that the successful conclusion of this process will see Norcros complete our transformation into a focused high-return bathroom business with significant strategic flexibility. And just addressing how we go about a process like this is we are doing this with our team. We've preannounced this rather than surprising our team in South Africa have been part of Norcros since 1954. And we'll be working with that really strong team in South Africa to make sure we find the right investors and the right home for what is a really strong team and asset.

Now moving on to our organic growth drivers and projects that a real strength for us is our proven organic growth accelerators, specific new product development and cross-selling that we always talk about. But I think increasingly in uncertain times, and it has been uncertain times for quite some years now is that we win a lot of business because of the strength of our balance sheet and our ability to help our customers keep their promises. And I think the other thing that I will keep repeating is that we have a resilient business model that has value that we're able to chase after because of our scale and because we are increasingly selling into a more resilient mid-premium market.

Highlights include our strong vitality score, which is around 23% last year, driven increasingly by higher value and higher margin ranges often with a very strong sustainability underpin. And this is driven by in-house design expertise that includes a combination of strong technical skills and also strong design skills. And to be fair, we also are happy to work on a license agreement with good partners. And the picture you see here is a very recently relaunched Laura Ashley Panels range and really pleased to have hooked up with Laura Ashley and Clarke & Clarke. Secondly, our proven ability to grow businesses that we own or acquire through cross-selling. You will recall the work that we've been speaking about with Grant Westfield in tops and Screwfix and Wickes. We've now added B&Q and others with some of the new accounts delivering north of GBP 1 million of additional revenue already. So a strong year at Grant Westfield from a revenue and profit growth perspective.

And although at very early stage, we have started a project to bring VADO & MERLYN together to create a full bathroom business, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about this on the next slide. So over the last sort of 18 months, we have been collaborating across VADO & MERLYN to create and test a complete bathroom offer. And this is really in response to a growing demand from our customers and end consumers to make bathrooms easier to select, purchase and install. We are not first to offer a full bathroom. Our first bit of work is really going to be about getting the 2 businesses, data and systems and teams even more closely aligned. So there's a common language that we're talking. But what we've done since February is really brought the 2 businesses together under the leadership of Charlie Soden, who is the Managing Director of MERLYN. So he's running those 2 teams, and we started to integrate those teams with a number of the portfolios already integrated. But as I said, the initial focus is on integration and preparation projects will take around 12 months.

This project will grow our addressable markets by north of GBP 1 billion in the U.K. and Ireland alone, and that's really reflecting the size of the furniture, sanitaryware and other markets. This is a medium-term project, but that will drive incremental organic share and margin growth. And again, just demonstrates that even in tough markets, we have clear pools of value that we can and will tap organically and inorganically, and we'll continue to leverage our collective scale to do this more efficiently, which leads to the next slide. And I'm really going to start here about doing what we say we're going to do. And we set a target last year, and you can go back to the presentations about shipping 20% of our freight using eco-fuel and I'm really pleased to point out that in the year that passed, we, in fact, shipped 37% of our inbound freight using eco-fuel, which not only reduced our carbon footprint, but made us more resilient in terms of the fuel dependency that we have seen more recently with another crisis in the Middle East.

Because we were an early adopter and have embedded eco-fuel into our model, we benefited both in terms of our predictability and shipping rates significantly and reinforcing our resilience. I'm also pleased to report that we've negotiated a scale-enabled group energy deal in the U.K. that does the same thing, 100% clean energy with long-term price stability. So this whole point about being a decentralized business, but leveraging our scale for collective benefit when it makes sense is borne out here.

Looking forward and building on our initial work in the U.K. and Ireland to consolidate and simplify our warehousing footprint, we've launched a project at the start of this year using our internal team and external partners. And this is really about investing in and simplifying our wider systems infrastructure. And we're doing this to drive improved service levels at a lower cost. We're doing this sensibly and much like the bathroom project, we'll see further incremental gains starting to come through in around 12 months from now. You're not going to see a big bang systems rollout or big bang collapse of our existing footprint. This will be done sensibly in a considered way and in a way that has as little disruption to our end markets as possible. But there is value there, and we are looking 3 and 5 years ahead to make sure that we help our customers remain relevant and competitive.

The underlying message is that we're not sitting back and hoping for a market recovery. And we can do this because we have a clear plan and very importantly, excellent teams running our businesses. Part of our plan has been to apply common and commercial sense and get ahead of the pack when it comes to modern and sustainable business practices. And if we can move to the next slide. I've shared some examples of where our commitment to doing the right thing is driving value given the full debt, and we'll not spend too much time here other than saying we remain extremely focused on exceeding our 2028 SBTi targets and driving hard towards our 2040 targets. As I said, we've delivered our Scope 1 and 2 targets 2 years early, again, doing what we say. And really, sustainability done properly is not about ideology. It is simply good business where we are making practical choices that strengthen our business today and ensure that we remain relevant tomorrow.

Moving on to our exceptional team. Our decentralized but collaborative model is different. We have passionate subject matter experts running and working in our businesses. And I'll remind you that I think there are 13 of us at the center, all of the best people actually sit out in the market running these businesses. But they are aligned by a group-wide purpose and set of values that we call keys and who are empowered to make good decisions close to the rock face. And it's a key reason why we win and why we have so many #1 positions with our brands. All of our businesses are Great Place to Work certified, but we know that we still got a lot to do. But I'm really pleased that our employee proposition be someone has been recognized and awarded.

So a strong culture, a cohesive culture that we continue to build on. Norcros is also increasingly in a space where anyone regardless of their background, can make an impact and be someone. And this is probably best demonstrated by the fact that our last 5 Managing Director appointments have come from within the group. And to be fair, so James and I progressed through the group. So a good business where people can impact and grow. If we could change the slide, please.

So in closing, and we can change to the next slide. We have seen a strong year with current trading remaining on track with revenue over the last 2 months up 3.1% on a like-for-like basis, again, talking to the resilience of that sort of mid-premium market and the fact that we sell branded products. The teams have delivered operationally. Our team has done what we said we would strategically, and we are now a fundamentally very different business. Our focus on becoming a capital-light design-led bathroom business, which has included taking some really tough decisions has seen Norcros evolve into the high-quality business it is today. We acknowledge it's tough out there, but look forward to, as we move forward, maintaining our current expectations and the only thing that would change that would be a material change in underlying conditions. So we have a clear strategy and a strong and proven business model that I will finish with if we can go to the last slide, please.

So Norcros is in a really fantastic position now. We have a resilient, scalable model. We have benefits of scale that differentiate us in what remain fragmented end markets. Not many businesses lead with the fact that one of the great strengths in terms of growing share is our balance sheet strength, but that is a fact and it has become particularly post COVID and again now. We have really strong in-house NPD. We're not a distributor. We design our own products. We have great technical and design and fashion design skills. We are able to leverage our cross-selling abilities to drive faster than usual organic growth. We have a very resilient and scale-enabled supply chain, strong technology, and we continue to invest in that technology. But most importantly, we've got the best talent in the market. So really, really happy with where we are. We have a clear strategy, very importantly, disciplined capital allocation. And all of these organic and also strategic drivers that we talk about are all in play. There's nothing here that we have to reinvent or come up.

We just keep executing into what remains a big opportunity, and I'm confident that our focus and discipline will continue to drive further value creation through the cycle and as stated in the previous slide and our statement.

So thank you very much, and we are ready for questions.

Great. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Comprehensive review of a very busy but successful year. Lots of questions in already, so we'll dive straight in what we got here. So whilst accepting that Norcros is heavily weighted to RMI in the U.K. are your housebuilding clients seeing any grounds for optimism yet in new build? And does the ongoing lack of activity damage their relationships with Norcros or your ability to participate in an upturn when it comes?

Look, I think the house build market is a really difficult place to be, and we're very supportive of our customers there. We have leading positions in the national and regional housebuilders. And I just think if we get some half decent joined up thinking from the government in the nicest way that looks at a value chain like any business would at any project, -- there's just a huge amount of latent demand and potential growth, and we know the benefits that come with building 2 things. So we don't see a rapid recovery in household because we don't see that sort of policy coherence that we need to see. That said, we continue to take share and VADO recently just won 2 big household contracts working with MERLYN. When the market turns, we will be there with the housebuilders. We will make sure as we do now that we leverage our balance sheet to support them in terms of stock, in terms of sustainability, in terms of aftersales service. So as that market grows, we will see the benefit of that. And of course, when people move houses, the people who buy the old houses need to renovate and that gives us a double flip there.

So yes, I think a bit of a journey to go, but let's hope that in the near term, we at least get some kind of coherent policy that we can all focus on. It doesn't even have to be a great plan, but have a plan that all implement would be really helpful.

Just to add to that, Andy, housebuilders increasingly looking at the resilience of their supply chain. They know they're in a tough spot. And I think our balance sheet wins us market share, as Thomas just mentioned, if a housebuilder has a supplier that goes ban, then it's going to be very, very difficult for them. And with the bathroom being one of the last components of the house that gets fitted, I think for us to have a strong balance sheet with inventory on hand, with great service is a really important criteria for housebuilders.

Yes. Absolutely.

Yes. Great. Thomas, you mentioned that panels are now your largest source of revenues. Can you say a little bit more about who the leading competitors in your European markets are?

Yes. No, it's quite an interesting piece because this product category has grown up in Scotland and Northern Europe, mainly Norway. And it grew out of fairly humble sort of product in social housing and it started to move more upmarket and Grant Westfield Fibo being strong proponents of that. We have no real major international -- directly international competitors. So most of our competitors in the U.K. and Europe are smaller and probably less well capitalized and businesses, and that's why we are probably able to move quicker and have moved quicker to take this product more premium.

We also have a stronger balance sheet in terms of being able to support our customers and see this as a category that will continue to grow. Would it attract new competitors? Likely, yes. But it's not only about the product, it's about how you move this product around. It's big. And one of the benefits for us is we have over many years through MERLYN perfected moving big, heavy and fragile stuff around, especially in terms of last mile. And again, we are able to apply some of that expertise here. So confident that we can continue growing, confident that we can continue staying ahead in terms of our model, which is a design and service model. So yes, I hope that answered it for you.

Yes, it does indeed. A couple of questions on MERLYN and VADO and the complete offering. First one, I suppose, a typical question for most businesses, probably not one for Norcros, but has there been any internal tension or loss of staff as you've started to build a management structure around the project?

Yes. I think this was something we've been thinking about for some time. And again, we spent a lot of time in preparation when we did eventually decide to formalize what we've been doing informally anyway. And I personally went out and spoke to both those businesses. We spoke about the reason for doing it. We spoke about why markets were demanding this, and there was an opportunity for growth for the businesses and people in those businesses. Of course, it brings uncertainty. Change is never easy. We haven't seen accelerated levels of churn as a result of this. And my belief is that hopefully, most of the team can really see where this is going. But we stay very, very close. We've put additional people resource and talent management resource around this project to help people work their way through. And we're hoping and believe that most people want to stay on board and be part of what is a really exciting project.

Yes. I'll answer that. And in terms of -- you mentioned that this project was, to a large extent, client-led. We have a question, are there some of your clients that your offering of a complete bathroom might be seen as stepping on their toes?

No, because we're obviously selling to other businesses. And so we're essentially a B2B business. And where we used to just sell a shower enclosure to, let's say, an independent retailer, we're now selling them a complete bathroom that they can then sell on to their end consumer. So it's more about that and really interesting and encouraging thing here is we did the trials with Cameo and then Safari. Those trials have got us into Wickes in terms of making their whole bathroom experience and what they can offer their end consumers a lot stronger. And that's given us the confidence to now put the foot on the accelerator here.

A couple of questions about South Africa. You've announced it before the results, but you will have been seeing a lot of your institutional shareholders in recent days. How is the plan going down with your larger shareholders?

I don't think it's a surprise. The Capital Markets Day laid out our path. And when we talk about being a bathroom business, our South African business is a really good business. I ran it for many years, and I know the team and the quality of the team and the brands we've got there. But the 3 businesses there, you've got a tile adhesive business, a very good one. We've got the second largest tile and bathroom retailer, and we've got a small plumbing merchanting business. And as much as we'd love to stay involved with that team in that business, we want to become a focused mid-premium bathroom business. So I think anyone who's been following us for some time would have seen the clear progression. And I think the fact that we managed to close the tile manufacturing business gets this business into a position where it is more attractive. And hopefully, I know we will find the right home for it.

Just to add to that, Andy, I think the direct feedback from investors is they recognize that this is a really strong asset with a really experienced management team. It's profitable. It makes cash and recognizing that this is actually a rare attractive asset in the South African market and very much the flavor of get appropriate value for it. And if you don't, then we won't consider selling it.

Okay. Very sensible stance. And another, I suppose, logical question, since the plans have been announced, has there been any impact internally or more in terms of revenues for the South African business or business as usual with the -- being the Norcros way, the aspiration that all your stakeholders will see the business potentially end up in a more suitable place.

Look, always a difficult announcement to have made. Again, we went out, as I said, and spoke to the top 200 people face-to-face. But I think importantly, it is a stand-alone business. It's run itself for many years. Kevin, who runs that business has -- is ex-Bidvest for those of you who know them. So he's been through a rollup at Bidvest. And I think the confidence that he and his senior management team bring to the rest of the team is really important. So we haven't seen anything, no. We continue to run the business like we're going to own it forever. So we're also not sort of throttling the business in any way. So I think we're in a good place. And as I said, we're not doing it to them. We're doing it with them. This is about working together to get to the right place.

And moving forward to look at the residual focus on Europe. We have a question. There's clear opportunity to grow market share in Europe as a whole. Which are the countries that you need to have critical mass in that you do not at the moment? How far has Fibo got you on that journey? And will you target acquisitions on a regional-by-country basis to expand your reach?

Yes. So again, common sense for us is close to the better really and also which markets are we able to find that value brands have value sustainability underpin and service and maybe are a bit more fragmented. So we still have opportunities in the U.K. and Ireland, both organically and inorganically. Obviously, Nordics is somewhere that we've looked at for a long time in fact, from time James led our M&A team. What Fibo has given us as a management team that does business in the U.K. and up in Northern Europe. And the key takeaway is each of those businesses, each of those countries is different. But this is not about copy paste. I think as we grow into maybe taking some of our other brands back across that way, what we'd be looking at is working with our team at Fibo and our M&A team to find businesses maybe, let's say, with the showing closure find a really good showing closure business that's for sale that would benefit from our growth drivers.

So that would probably be the likely model. And then, of course, we're going to be supporting Fibo and Grant Westfield in terms of the overall market expansion across Europe and the rest of the world, which they're already doing. They, in fact, export to places like New Zealand, the States and others already. So we're going to drive the panel piece but use our knowledge of those individual countries to drive the rest of the model.

Sounds very sensible. Maybe one for you, James. You showed the pro forma margin -- EBIT margins for the European business. What might be an aspirational level to move EBIT margins to over the medium term in Europe?

Yes. Thanks, Andy. Maybe I'll start and then maybe Thomas, you can jump in. I think as we mentioned in the presentation, we think there's a good pathway to improving the Fibo margin overall. So getting through the 15% in the short, medium term is definitely doable. And then in the kind of more medium term, we think high teens as an EBIT margin is possible. We've got the levers to be able to do that. I think much beyond that, you start to stretch the envelope a little too far. So I think at this stage, we'd see a pathway to 15% and then progression through to high teens.

I think it's sensible when we set that initial target of 15%, as we said, we had South Africa in the low teens and that implies Europe being in the high teens. And when you have a look at what's left after South Africa and you've got a big chunky and really one business like Fibo sitting between 10% and 11% with a clear path and then the other pools of value that we've spoken about today, we really are confident in terms of be able to see to progress those margins as James has explained.

Good -- you've provided a very neat segue, Thomas. Thank you there. Your very helpful slide on progress versus Capital Market Day targets showed you're well ahead of the curve. So there's a couple of questions linking them together and things will change if there is a disposal of the South African. I think the first one, positioning the group in the mid-premium segment has clearly worked very well in recent years of consumer caution. Is there any possible shift up or down from that position?

It's a good question and one we get asked quite a lot when we're going around London and see some of the bigger shareholders because we have some businesses talking about trading up and down and a whole lot of different things like that. And of course, there's never a single kind of customer. So we can't always apply our people trading up and down to a mono customer. What we find is in that mid-premium segment, especially on the light side, the branded product side is a lot of those customers don't have mortgages anymore. If they've got a brand in their bathroom, they're not going to have a whole branded bathroom and replace the tap with an OEM product that doesn't match it. So we haven't seen any down trading to talk about, and we're extremely focused on being profitable business. So -- we think that, that -- and especially the gray pound, it's a growing part of the market. So we see it remaining resilient going forward.

Good. And a related question I presume from a shareholder who says, thank you for a better final dividend than expected. Can you remind me what the key considerations for the Board in setting a dividend are around earnings cover, balance sheet, net debt leverage, et cetera, et cetera, and whether that might change after a successful South African disposal?

Yes, sure. So I guess the key parameters that we set out in our capital allocation policy are earning a dividend cover of approximately 3x and I guess, overall keeping leverage below 2x. So they're the key factors in what the Board discusses in setting the dividend.

Probably we don't see a material change going forward. James and I always say we've got a clear strategy. We've got clear targets to go. So while balancing giving some back to shareholders, we would like to apply the cash that we generate to growing the business.

Again, you've anticipated the next question. So in terms of capital allocation, returns to shareholders may be on the agenda. Deleveraging was another question. There's also one of whether given the much improved health of the pension scheme, you might look for a buyout of that at some stage in the future.

I'm going to let James handle that he's been part of the team that's worked so hard to get us in the position we're in. So jump in, James.

Yes. So firstly, if we consummate a South African disposal, proceeds would then obviously reduce leverage, and we have a very active well-developed M&A pipeline with some really good strategically compelling opportunities. So that would be first prize. In terms of potential pension scheme buyouts, I think the pension scheme is just in a really good place. It's light years away from where it was 5, 10 years ago. The deficit recovery contributions, they finish in June next year. I think it depends on what the cost of a buyout would be, whether we would consider it to be an appropriate use of capital. I think -- so we'll decide at the time. But if a buyout cost let's say, the GBP 15 million, I don't think that would be a particularly good use of capital because we're not putting any more cash into the scheme anymore. If it was significantly lower than that, yes, we would consider it as a Board.

Great. Just time for a couple of final questions. Firstly, there's a lot going on. Are you comfortable there is enough management bandwidth to run the South African sale process and at the same time, appraise, execute, integrate Fibo as well as looking at future acquisitions?

Yes. So what we do is we have got a small center. As you know, James is stepping down at the end of June, but we've got him until March next year. He is -- he will be fronting up on the South African piece and he's working with a very strong team in SA. So that is hugely helpful. James is also around as we continue to progress the pension and really help out on any other thing that we might need a bit of flexibility on. In terms of the other projects we run, what we do is we try to bring on too much fixed cost at the center. And when we do need to partner and bring in additional resource, we do that on a flexible basis, and we do flex it up and down, and we will show with more clarity. We started to give an idea of what those central costs look like. We're going to split those out going forward. So our shareholders can see when we are flexing up a little to deliver the kind of transformation that we have over the last number of years. And then also when we can flex down in quieter period. So we're comfortable we have. We're mindful. We talk about it a lot at Board level. But at this stage, we're comfortable, yes.

And the last one also neatly set up, we have a fun question. How is the recruitment process for a new CFO going, Thomas?

Well, we just kicked that off and the bar has been set high. So the bar is that it's got to be James or James Plus. And just in terms of how we run our business, we fully expect to have our CFO present, not working from a beach-house somewhere and dialing in on team. So we're a little old fashioned like that. So we want somebody based up in the Northwest with the right skills, the right future-facing skills. We have a very strong team behind James. Andy Hammer is stepping in on an interim basis. He's been with us. He was Group Financial Controller. He's been the U.K. and Ireland [indiscernible] and well versed in terms of what we need to do here. So he and his team with James still available means that we will find the right candidate, somebody who understands our business model is aligned to what we're trying to do and excited by what we're trying to do. We won't be rushing into making the wrong ones. Not the Norcros way.

Well, thank you very much to our readers and viewers for all the relevant questions. You will get a feedback form immediately this webinar closes. If you could spend just a minute looking at the questions on that, the company would be very grateful for your feedback. Thanks to the presentation team, of course, James rather [indiscernible] I hope thank you for all your contributions and wish you the best in your future employment. Thomas, thank you [indiscernible] for enrolling yourself again, and good luck with continuing to beat your targets.

We're working hard at it. Thank you very much, and thank you for your time, everybody.

Thanks, everybody.

Bye-bye.

Good morning, and on behalf of the Norcros team, a warm welcome to our Norcros Prelim Results Presentation. I think it'd be fair to say that James and I are really pleased with the set of results. They demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy and some really great contributions from our colleagues across the business, and I know some of them are probably listening in, and thank you.

Before I hand over to James in a couple of minutes' time and ahead of his last results presentation with Norcros, I'd like to thank you, James, on behalf of the wider team. The Board, and myself personally, for the meaningful and significant role you've played over the last 12 years, we've come a long way. And thank you very, very much.

When we look back at the set of results, we go back to Capital Markets Day only 2 years ago, I keep thinking it's 3 years ago, but only 2 years ago, we set out a path towards building a capital-light bathroom business and we've made significant progress since then.

There really are 3 key takeaways from this presentation. The first is a strong organic performance, especially in the U.K. and Ireland, which going forward will be known as Europe like-for-like and Europe total would include Fibo. We've reached significant milestones in our journey and James will talk to that in terms of this journey of becoming a capital-light cash generative bathroom business and are ahead of plan in terms of our medium-term financial targets that we set out 2 years ago, having delivered 3 of the 4 financial targets and delivered Scope 1 and 2 of our SBTi carbon reduction targets 2 years early.

So we are well positioned to continue growing share and creating value for our customers and shareholders. In a market that has remained weak, we've demonstrated again our ability to grow through the cycle, both organically and inorganically by really being disciplined in and around our strategic plan.

Having a look at the execution and numbers, we've grown reported and like-for-like revenue with the reported revenue up strongly following the Fibo acquisition. The important thing is we've done this profitably with operating profit up and including a very strong year in the U.K. and Ireland. And we've made strong strategic progress as we continue to grow, to becoming a more focused portfolio, again, with Fibo being the highlight.

And I think another really important thing is we've demonstrated the ability to do acquisitions, using quite a bit of debt and then deleverage really quickly because we have such strong cash generation. And I think James and his team are well done for the exceptional work there. And going back to the targets really nice to deliver now on our ROCE target of 20% for the first time.

Importantly, post year-end, we've announced our intention to investigate options to sell our remaining South African operations, and this really signals an inflection point that we'll discuss in the presentation. But first, let's just look at those individual regional performances.

The first thing to point out, as I've said, is that we used to talk about the U.K. and Ireland region. Now that is Europe like-for-like. So you'll get used to that.

But starting on the right-hand side and talking about the South African business, still tough out there, high interest rates, but again, the team has done well, really executed the closure of the Johnson Tiles business to plan. And as we said when we set out that, that would not be a cash negative process and it hasn't been. And in fact, it has reversed a cash outflow and turned it into a cash inflow in the current year and going forward. So really pleased, and I'd like to recognize that South African team for the care and professionalism that was shown closing that business. That has not been easy.

European like-for-like previously, U.K. and Ireland performance was really good with operating margins growing to 15.9%. Reported operating margins for total Europe are a little bit lower because, as you know, the Fibo acquisition that came in currently operates at a slightly lower operating margins.

We've again demonstrated, and this is an important thing about Norcros, the benefits of leveraging our collective scale, especially when it comes to things like resilience of supply chain. And James's favorite topic of a strong balance sheet being the best thing we have when we sell our business out to customers.

And importantly, the results show the benefit of focusing on the brand conscious, more resilient, mid-premium RMI segment that I've been talking about for 3 years now. We don't sell cement. We are not a commoditized business. We are able to recover our pricing, and this is a really important part of what we do as Norcros.

Looking forward, it's worth drilling down a little into what will become the foundation of our new European-focused business. And we'll look at the underlying performance, firstly, over the last 10 years that include full year pro forma numbers for Fibo.

And when you have a look at this, this really talks to the quality of the Norcros business and it's our ability to perform through the cycle. This period really coincides with when we started making our first acquisitions and James led that. This has been through Brexit, COVID and all manner of other shocks. And what you can see is consistent through cycle profit growth, through cycle operating margin growth, although we've just dropped back slightly this year with the acquisition of Fibo, but we'll reverse that as we leverage that business.

Our focus on the mid-premium market segment does work and continues to drive value for our shareholders. And that business is now a capital-light bathroom business going forward after the work we've done over the last 2 years. So we have a repeatable, scalable growth model striking the right balance between organic and inorganic growth.

Importantly, this model will and continue to be applied as we start addressing what remain large, attractive and fragmented end markets in our now targeted geographies that we set out in Capital Markets Day, which is U.K., the rest of Europe and maybe in time the Gulf.

On the next slide, we'll look at the new European group profile, as we discussed. And so looking forward, if you were really trying to understand what Norcros looks like, once we've found some new owners for our South African business, what you can see is a really high-quality business from which to build. The left doughnut shows the revenue for FY '26 adjusted full year for Fibo. The center shows the revenue split. It's all bathroom and all bathroom products.

And you'll note that our biggest product category is now panels, waterproof bathroom panels. That's a material change over the last 2 to 3 years or just more than 3 years really. We will talk a little bit today about what we're doing to solve what is a broader opportunity in and around making bathrooms simpler and easier to do. And that is really around working and getting VADO and MERLYN to take what has been some good collaboration and formalizing that. And then we've got 3 high-growth products or service categories where we have leading positions and the knowledge to grow and win, okay? So we've carefully selected where we want to play.

The right-hand doughnut importantly reminds us that 80% of demand in the U.K. and Ireland, it's not that different to anywhere else, actually comes from RMI, not from new build. We have great positions in new build. But we are not reliant on new build, and that is why we continue to perform through the cycle.

So the snapshot shows the underlying strength of the base from which we will continue to develop and create value driven by a very clear purpose. Our expert teams, we run a decentralized model with people who know how to make money and a balance sheet that offers us a high degree of flexibility.

I'll now hand over to you for the last time, James.

Thank you, Thomas. Good morning, everybody. So throughout the presentation, the current and prior year income statement results are shown excluding Johnson Tiles South Africa, unless otherwise stated, as this is now a discontinued operation and results are also shown on a like-for-like basis where appropriate, adjusting for the 53-week to a 52-week period, the impact of excluding Johnson Tiles U.K., which was sold in May '24, and also the acquisition of Fibo in October '25.

So to Slide 8 and the income statement. Revenue was GBP 393.4 million, that's up 0.6% on a like-for-like constant currency basis, and reported revenue was up 10.6%, largely driven by the acquisition of Fibo and also some market share gains.

In turn, underlying operating profit was GBP 48 million. That's 7.9% above the prior year. The finance charges were GBP 7.1 million. The increase to prior year, largely due to the additional debt from the acquisition and the IFRS 16 finance charge was GBP 1.8 million, and that was in line with prior year.

The underlying PBT at GBP 40.9 million, was 8.2% ahead of prior year. And the exceptional items of GBP 9.9 million comprised mainly the non-cash goodwill impairment of GBP 7.2 million, relating to Tile Africa and House of Plumbing. And there was also a further approximately GBP 2 million of restructuring costs regarding the merging of the VADO and MERLYN business to form a complete bathrooms business and Thomas will talk about that shortly.

Pension scheme admin expenses at GBP 2.8 million were higher than the prior year, largely due to external gender equalization project costs. And I'm sure if you know about those, you'll be wanting to chat with me about them later. And acquisition and disposal costs of GBP 13 million -- GBP 13.1 million mainly relate to the GBP 7.8 million of non-cash amortization costs on acquired intangibles and approximately GBP 4 million of fees associated with the Fibo acquisition. Overall, this resulted in a reported PBT of GBP 14.9 million compared to GBP 3.3 million in the prior year.

So Slide 9 and some of the key bridges here, starting with the top left, U.K. and Ireland total revenue was GBP 6.8 million higher than the prior year, reflecting market share gains and the additional week of trading. Fibo contributed new revenues of GBP 32.7 million and South Africa saw an increase in reported revenues of GBP 2.2 million. The portfolio reduction there of GBP 4.3 million is the sale of Tiles U.K. And in total, as shown in the bottom left-hand chart, overall group constant currency like-for-like revenue increased by 0.6%, and that was split 0.7% Europe and 0.3% in South Africa.

So looking at the underlying operating profit charts on the right and firstly, top right. Underlying operating profit of GBP 48 million was ahead of prior year by GBP 3.5 million, really strong U.K. and Ireland performance, a GBP 3.5 million increase as well as GBP 3.3 million contributed by Fibo.

And just to note in that top right chart, we have separated the increase in central costs of GBP 2.8 million as we make further investments to help drive our strategic initiatives going forward.

And finally, on the bottom right chart, underlying operating profit in Europe saw a strong result at GBP 44.4 million, whilst the return on sales marginally decreased as expected to 15.2%, largely given the initial margin dilution from Fibo.

Underlying operating profit in South Africa was GBP 3.6 million and the return on sales was 3.5%. And overall, the group return on sales was 12.2%.

So moving on to Slide 10, earnings, dividend and tax. Regarding tax, the underlying tax charge for the period was GBP 8.6 million, and the effective rate was 21.1% compared to 20.4% in the prior year, largely reflecting the portfolio changes in the year and some small releases in the prior year.

Applying the tax charge to underlying PBT of GBP 40.9 million, resulting in earnings attributable to shareholders of GBP 32.3 million, and diluted underlying earnings per share was 35.8p, an increase of 7.2% on the prior year.

And just turning to the dividend. The Board is proposing a final dividend of 7.6p per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 11.3p per share, and that's a significant 0.9p per share increase on 2025, and this reflects the Board's confidence in the business, the future cash flow generation and earnings growth.

So just on to the cash flow, a lot of numbers on there, but you can see the underlying operating cash flow of GBP 57.6 million in the period, and this represents an excellent cash conversion rate of 116% of underlying EBITDA. The working capital outflow in the period was modest at GBP 1.1 million versus GBP 14.1 million in the prior year. Net CapEx in the period was GBP 6.8 million and included ongoing investment into systems infrastructure, new product development and projects further driving our operational excellence initiatives.

Cash tax paid was GBP 2.9 million. And then, just on the exceptional acquisition-related cash costs of GBP 9.4 million, this largely reflects the fees associated with the acquisition of Fibo. And there are also other cash costs associated with restructuring projects, including obviously Johnson Tiles South Africa and the merging of the MERLYN and VADO businesses.

As part of the acquisition of Fibo, on completion, the group also repaid Fibo's GBP 39.8 million bond loan, which is seen there as a repayment of subsidiary borrowings. Proceeds from the sale of property of GBP 4.6 million related to cash receipts from selling the former Johnson's U.K. site. And overall, the net cash outflow in the period was GBP 29.9 million, post dividend payments of GBP 9.5 million in the year.

So just on to the balance sheet on Slide 12. Net debt at the year-end was GBP 65.8 million, excluding finance lease liabilities. The increase is predominantly due to the debt from the Fibo acquisition. But I think importantly, with leverage at 1.2x, that's a reduction from 1.6x leverage at the time of the acquisition. And the balance sheet remains strong and in really good shape and we continue to have significant liquidity and funding headroom to invest in further strategic initiatives.

And just to note, in the year, the group banking facility was refinanced in December, with the committed RCF increase to GBP 150 million plus a GBP 75 million uncommitted accordion with the maturity extended to December 2029. The pension scheme remains an accounting surplus and importantly, the scheme remains almost fully funded on an actuarial basis at 98% of technical provisions.

Capital allocation framework. I think you've all seen this slide previously, but it's there just to make sure that we state that again, in terms of our capital allocation priorities, organic investment or ordinary dividends, complementary acquisitions. And if we can't do all of those, then supplementary distributions, all done within the investment guardrails of leverage below 2x, dividend cover of approximately 3x, cash conversion in excess of 90% and the ROCE target of 20%, which takes us to the final finance page, which gives an update on our medium-term targets.

And I think here, we can see significant progress across all of our targets over the past 3 years. Organic growth has remained ahead of market. We continually take market share, which Thomas will talk to again shortly. The group operating margin is now 12.2%, benefiting from the closure of the Tiles businesses, operating efficiencies and partially offset for the time being by Fibo. ROCE has again increased and is now 20%.

Cash conversion, excellent this year at 116% for over 3 years, averages of 107%, and we are pleased to see continued progress in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 near-term targets with a 65% reduction from our base year.

So as it's my last Norcros prelim presentation, huge thank you to Thomas, the Board also, Nick and John and in particular, the first class finance teams across all of our businesses and especially the amazing team back in Wilmslow. Thank you.

Thomas, over to you.

Thanks, James. I think a really strong set of results and a lot of progress over the last year since the Capital Markets Day. And I'm now just going to touch on a couple of the key strategic initiatives and also start talking about some of the things that we have started working on that will drive additional value out of our existing business.

You all know this slide really well, the Capital Markets Day slide, 4 pillars. This is what underpins what we do. The key takeaway is we've stuck to plan, and we continue to do what we said we would do. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the inorganic growth. We've spoken about this already. What I will say, it's been a busy year. We do have an attractive pipeline. And I think I said at the last presentation, we will look at bolt-ons as well as the typical size transactions that we've always done. It was really good to do an all debt materially accretive acquisition and then drive the debt down again really quickly. So I think that was positive.

I think the 2 takeaways on the organic growth and operations drivers here are really to -- it's more than self-help initiatives, but initiatives to grow our business faster, grow our addressable market faster and do it more efficiently.

And really the first one that we're talking about is the process of creating a complete bathroom offer. You'll know that we tested this out at VADO, working closely with MERLYN to firstly launch Cameo and then launch Safari. We started the relaunch of Booth & Co, which we picked up at KBB. And really, we've tested the concept. We're not first to market with this by any stretch. It is really important to be able to compete that you have a full bathroom offer, which is what we are doing here.

This will take around 12 months to do the initial prep on really in and around systems, data and basic integration, but the business is already being run by a single management team. And we're really excited about this project, and we'll keep talking to you about it. So we're telling you early, this is where we are, this is what we're doing, and we will report back on it.

While we do this, we are also taking the next step in terms of our scale and our ability to provide really great products and looking at how we do that better and more efficiently. You've seen the work we've done on freight. You saw the initial work that we did on the consolidation of our footprint in the U.K. And we're working with a really strong project team looking at how we take this forward over the next 3 to 5 years. And I'm really excited about this and think that we will generate ongoing value from this project.

And then finally, on the ESG side, that we really committed to this and it's not only driving share gains, but resilience as well, and I'll talk to that when we get to freight. This is fundamental to our business. And I think I always remind everybody, if you look at the top-rated businesses in our sector, they all have a strong sustainability underpin where they understand it's not about [indiscernible]

Quick feedback on Fibo. The post-acquisition integration process is largely complete. We have brought an exceptional business with strong operational leverage upside. And what do I mean by that? We have a really good light assembly plant, very well invested with lots of spare capacity. So as we grow and grow in this fastest-growing part of the bathroom market, the drop-through will be significant. We have made some early investments into their growth initiatives coming out of private equity. We knew we'd need to put some people in. So we started to put some people in especially to help grow into new territories. And then Anders and his team are on with that, and we're pleased.

They've been in for almost a year. We always say we leave businesses alone for a year so that they can get through the initial integration, and starting to then focus on driving the group benefits that we've done with Grant Westfield and MERLYN before that. Pleased to report the business is trading in line with the expectations.

And then the second really key thing in and around our portfolio development is South Africa. This one is a tough one for me personally, having been in the business as long as we have, but we've got a fabulous team out there, and we've got to do what's right for our shareholders here. But I think importantly, also for the South African business and what we've spoken in the South African business about is, having the right shareholder. I think we've been a good one, but they need one that is absolutely focused on that market and has a longer-term view on that market, and we'll be working really closely with Kevin and his teams to realize that.

I remind you that any process will take some time. There is a 4- to 6-month competition commission process that adds 4 to 6 months to any transaction, okay? We don't see any issues there, but just putting that out there. But the successful conclusion of this process will see Norcros complete our transformation into a focused high-return bathroom business with significant strategic flexibility.

Moving on to our organic growth drivers and projects. Again, I don't want to go into all of the detail, but our vitality remains at 23%, really, really strong. I'll remind you that our in-house design is very strong technically as well as from a fashion perspective, we've launched HeatRepeat, which basically warms the water coming into an electric shower. So you use less energy to fire up and an electric shower is already the most efficient way to heat water. So we twin really strong technical expertise and IP with good fashion and help create beautiful bathrooms that have a lower impact on the world around us and save people money, by the way.

Secondly, our proven ability to grow business that we acquire or own. You'll recall the work that we spoke about with Grant Westfield, where we introduced into Topps, Screwfix and Wickes. I won't tell you which a number of those are already north of GBP 1 million accounts. We've added B&Q and a couple of others, and Grant Westfield has grown really well over the last year. So we did a restructure of their footprint last year. We introduced them to new businesses and the performance of the business has accelerated significantly. And I think well done to the Grant Westfield team. We've gone through a lot there.

Although early days, we are flagging to this process of starting to bring VADO and MERLYN together. And the way we normally do, we don't crash stuff together. We do it sensibly. We work with our people. We preannounced it to our team. We didn't do it to them. They're part of that process. But I know that, that will drive incremental value creation as we go forward.

What this really looks like is really all about making bathrooms easy. And the picture you see there is MERLYN and VADO at the KBB show, you were there. So we're having a look at the new ranges that the teams are working on. As I've said, they're reporting into a single MD and FD already. Initial focus for the next 12 months is integration and preparation projects, but this grows our addressable market in this area by north of GBP 1 billion in the U.K. and Ireland alone. So again, we're able to address and tap pools of value without spending heaps of money when we don't need to.

This is a medium-term target that will drive incremental organic share and margin growth. So the markets are tough, but we have clear pools of value that we can and continue to tap organically and inorganically, and we'll continue to leverage our scale to do this more efficiently, which leads to the next slide.

And I'm really just going to start with a target quickly. Last year, we spoke to you about shipping 20% of our freight from China predominantly using eco-fuel. We, in fact, shipped 37%. The best part of that is not only reduce our carbon footprint and embedded good business practice into our business. It improved our resilience. With all the problems you've got with fuel at the moment, there's only so many ships that ship with eco-fuel because of our partnership with Maersk and having been -- we were on the first eco-fuel ship coming to the U.K. We've got full access to that. And we have really great resilience from it.

So again, the common sense of doing things in and around sustainability, if you embed them into your business early, it's not just about a carbon footprint, it's about a more resilient business as well. Following on from that, we've negotiated a scale-enabled group energy deal in the U.K. that does the same thing, 100% clean energy with long-term price stability. So that resilience that we're able to build into our model, given our scale really does count.

Looking forward, the big project for us, as I touched on, is really to further consolidate and simplify our warehousing footprint in the U.K., in Ireland and Europe. And we've launched a project at the start of this year, working with external partners and our teams. And really, this is about initially investing in and simplifying our widest systems infrastructure, driving improved service levels.

The reason we're doing it is not to save money, we will, but it's to be better at servicing our customers, and we'll do this sensibly like we do all of our other projects, and we'll see incremental gains starting to come through in 12 months from now.

The underlying message is that we are not sitting back and hoping for a market recovery, and we can do this because we have a clear plan. We have an excellent team and a strong track record. Part of the plan has been to apply common and commercial sense and get ahead of the pack when it comes to modern and sustainable business practices, and we continue to do this even when it doesn't always look like it may make sense initially.

On the ESG piece, I've shared some examples with you about how it's helping our business, and we will continue to drive value using this lever. And I think, I just want to say something here, really one thing is sustainability done properly is not about ideology, okay? It is simply good business practice where we are making practical choices that strengthen our business today and ensure that we remain relevant tomorrow.

Pop the politics. Okay. On the people side, we do run our business differently. We have a very different culture. We have a very low ego collaborative culture that some of you have visited our businesses and have experienced this, but our model is different. We have passionate subject matter experts who are aligned to our group-wide purpose and set of keys or values and empowered to make decisions close to rock face.

All of our businesses are now Great Place to Work certified. And although we have a lot of work still to go because we're not at the top of the tier yet, but we're going to get there. We already have an award-winning employee proposition called BeSomeone that pulls all of our people together and gives everybody a chance to contribute.

Norcros is increasingly a place where anyone regardless of their background, can make an impact and be someone. And this is demonstrated by the fact that our last 5 Managing Director appointments have all come from within the group as did James and I. So that sort of factory of producing people who can lead our businesses and the overall business is in place.

In summary, we've had a strong year with current trading remaining on track with revenue over the last 2 months up 3.1% on a like-for-like basis. The team have delivered operationally. They've delivered strategically, and I think ahead of plan strategically. We are now a fundamentally different business.

Our focus on becoming a capital-light design-led bathroom product business, which has included taking a number of tough decisions has seen Norcros evolve into the high-quality business it is today. We acknowledge it's tough out there.

But looking forward, unless there is a material further change to underlying conditions, the Board's expectations remain unchanged. We have a clear strategy, a strong and proven business model. And really to finish off and probably in honor of James, when you have a look at the things that drive value in our business, scale is really important. We have a repeatable model. And right at the top, we have an exceptional balance sheet that gives us the flexibility that we're going to need to go forward.

And with that, again, James, thank you. Thank you to everybody for your time, and we are happy to take questions.

I'm Rob Chantry from Berenberg. Just 3 questions from me. Firstly, obviously, first move into Europe this year. What have you learned about the European market, the Nordic market that you didn't know 12, 18 months ago prepurchase?

Secondly, can you talk about the competitive environment in the U.K., changing tactics, changing larger players? You're looking to combine MERLYN and VADO. Is there anyone else looking to do the same type of activity?

And then thirdly, I think decent like-for-like growth at the start of the full year '27. Can you just talk about the timing and scale of any price rises this year in relation to cost moves, et cetera? What's driving that kind of decent like-for-like?

Yes. I think on the Nordic piece, before I joined the business, James was looking there. It's exactly what we thought in terms of being a market that values brands, value sustainability, really high-quality teams. So it's a market that suits us well. Every country is also different. So we say Nordics, but Norway and Sweden are very different in terms of routes to market. But not all of this was a surprise because it's something we've looked at a long time. So we like it, it will be the bottom line.

The competitive environment, I think the biggest thing that -- and I think we spoke this last time is this channel shift, okay, that we've been seeing across our sector. And when you really look at it, we've seen older models struggling to compete with newer models that have made it easier, especially in trade.

And it doesn't matter where and how you sell and buy your product, convenience and ease is hugely important. So the businesses that have tapped into making it easier, for instance, to a trade person or to an end consumer are the businesses that are winning. And I think that it doesn't matter whether you're in retail, trade, direct, you've got to make it easy. You've got to be tech-enabled and that experience has got to count.

So we have seen a shift to ease of doing business would be the underlying piece there. And on the like-for-like growth piece, we've got a long history of getting our price increases and because we sell brands, we don't sell cement. So when the market is under pressure with cement, my old story, volumes are down, you have to discount. We don't. So we work very carefully, very responsibly with our pricing, but we do make sure that we recover our costs and we motivate that well.

James, I don't know if you want to add anything.

Just to add one more point on the competitive profile. Yes, channel shift is a key part of that. But I'd also say that increasing failures in our competitors and stress in their balance sheets, we monitor them very closely. Clearly, it's a point of differentiation that we have a strong balance sheet. And I suspect there'll be more failures as we go into later this year and into next. And I think that's a source of opportunity for us. It's unfortunate when smaller businesses go under, but it's an opportunity for our guys to take even more market share. And I think increasingly, key customers, they're looking at credit ratings. They're looking at inventory levels. And it's a very, very important piece of the competitive advantage in terms of the scale that we have.

Tom Fraine from Shore Capital. Just following on from the question on price increases. Would it be a sensible assumption to assume low to mid-single-digit average price increases for 2027 and therefore, that being the main driver of the organic growth this year rather than volume?

And secondly, a point on the M&A following the deleveraging, it looks like you've now got scope for a similar sized deal to Fibo, possibly as soon as within the next year or 2. What exactly are you looking for? Is it something similar to Fibo, different product areas, somewhere you can cross-sell a bit more? And how is the pipeline progressing?

I'm going to let James answer the second one because he started our M&A strategy all those years back, and I'll add in. But I think looking forward, it's quite unpredictable. We don't see material volume growth anyway other than through market share growth. So I think growth is predominantly going to be price increases.

For our business at the moment, we probably haven't been impacted as much as others, given that through our scale, we have fairly solid freight arrangements, for instance. Our raw materials and input costs although are impacted by moving them around other than the plastic at Triton are not quite in the same league as some of the other people who have raw materials and input costs that are massively out there.

So as I said at the beginning, where things stand now, if we don't see any other crazy movements, and we don't run out of diesel in the country one of these days, we think we can manage it. So in short, Tom, the answer is, yes, we don't see big volume growth. We haven't built that into our model going forward, and we are comfortable we can recover the price increases.

James, do you want to add anything to that?

Yes. Just on the M&A front, yes, you're absolutely right, that the deleveraging of the balance sheet down to 1.2x. That does give us scope and capacity for GBP 50 million, GBP 60 million of debt to deploy in M&A, maybe a little bit more.

What are we looking for? We're looking for those businesses that we can grow faster under our ownership, and that might be a complementary product or a complementary geography. We certainly have a very full pipeline across the U.K., Ireland and again, into Scandinavia, Sweden, Denmark would be looking at as well. But we're not going to go and buy something for the sake of it. We're not going to go into the U.S. We're not going to go into Asia. We're going to be sensible with that approach. And we're very aware that in terms of Fibo to do sensible, strategically compelling transactions on all debt is that are materially earnings accretive makes a lot of sense for a business of our size.

Christen Hjorth from Deutsche Bank. I just have 2, please. So the first one, obviously, great performance on leverage, as you've touched on. As we look forward to FY '27, how should we think about ongoing deleveraging outside of any M&A? Are there any cash exceptionals or working capital movements that we need to be aware of?

And second, on Fibo, but maybe sort of looking at it the other way around, do you -- are you increasingly confident of opportunity for some of your U.K. and Irish products in the Nordic market now that you sort of understand route to markets there? And how could that potentially look over the medium term?

Yes. Just on the deleveraging, I think the way we would look at it is I think we've guided to low to mid-50s on debt for the end of this year, and that takes you to leverage 0.9x broadly. Clearly, there's scope to go further than that if we felt we had to or wanted to. But I think it comes back to that balance sheet strength. We do have the capacity to invest in inventory. That's a source of advantage and we'll play to those strengths in times of uncertainty.

Yes. And I think on the second question, Christen, I think you know us well, year 1, integrate, get to know. We are getting to understand those markets better. I think importantly, we have a management team there that operate in the U.K. and in those markets. So they know both. Definitely opportunities there. But again, we will do them at the right pace at the right time. But yes, there's -- there is something to go, and it's one of the reasons we bought that business. Yes.

Samuel Cullen from Peel Hunt. I've got a couple. On the whole bathroom offer, when you're going to market, is the idea that you're going to be selling this offer to the consumer or to the trade predominantly? And what's going to drive that?

And then secondly, do you need to acquire anything in furniture and sanitaryware to complete that offer? Or will you kind of look to assemble and build your own brand?

Yes. Okay. So -- we're a B2B business, but we've -- when you ask us how we spend our CapEx, we really invest in our service offer. So where we currently are as we build these ranges, we've really got a range in Wickes, for instance, we've got some in the independents is we're helping create demand through our B2B customers, i.e., through a where to buy.

So if you went to Croydex and you clicked on the toilet seat finder -- if you have a broken your toilet seat, the best way to find one is to click on there -- it will tell you, this is the toilet seat you need. This is where you can get it from. And in so doing, we help create demand for our existing customer base.

Who knows where the routes to go to long term and how we do that. But what we see ourselves doing is really supporting our existing customer base, look after their end consumers really well. And as you know, we own the end consumers aftersales service. It's one of the things that differentiates us. Acquisitions for sure, smaller bolt-ons, definitely that because it's quite a big project on its own and developing certainly of these product categories if we can buy some of these categories, we will. And we've certainly been looking at some of those.

I think just on that as well, and there's even the furniture piece that we have such a small share that we would -- and we have looked at good furniture businesses. And should the right one come along, there's the potential to add a further brand or furniture part of the existing portfolio to make a step change and grow even faster. So if it makes sense, we'll definitely be looking at it.

Toby Thorrington from Equity Development. I've got a few kind of company-level questions, I think. Can you just be a bit more specific on what you've done with VADO and MERLYN so far in terms of where the HQ is and how you pulled it together and integrating sales teams?

Yes. So VADO and MERLYN at the moment, the single at -- the top of that pyramid is the MERLYN team in terms of Charlie and Michael. So they oversee the 2 exec teams. We have started one department at a time, putting those together. So the sales force has come together and so is the customer service piece, typical Norcros looking after customers.

But we're doing this slowly and sensibly. It is a complex project. And ultimately, the key focus is in getting ready for doing more is really about making sure we have consistent data at a minimum. We're not going to crash ERPs and things together. You don't need to in the modern world. We will continue through the team at VADO, who started the actual work around product to drive that through. But I would hope sort of 12 months from now, we'd have the critical mass and the sort of data and stuff we need to be able to put it together in a coherent way and then start the next steps of that process.

Does that mean, sort of, more collaborative launches in the second half of this year?

Yes, definitely. Yes, definitely.

Interested to know on that and with Metlex actually with the sort of new launches, what the customer reception has been for those in terms of new listing and those kind of things?

So Metlex very early, but very positive. Again, excellent in-house design capabilities you're at KBB. You saw us next to a whole lot of other people who do those things. And I think you spent time with one of our designers and the way we go around that design and speaks to the quality of what we're doing. So really good reception, very early days, just launched.

In terms of the bathrooms, we obviously, the test was Cameo, which is a pretty generic looking range. The launch of that led to Safari. You've seen the work on Booth & Co, which is a big category and traditional, but the work there got us into Wickes with a range. So again, careful narrow testing and now foot on the ball, set it out properly, make sure we've got everything behind it that we need, get the teams aligned, do the hard work upfront and go from there.

Okay. Few more ticks in the grid coming then by the sounds of things.

And interestingly, with them working together, and I can't talk about who, but VADO have gained 2 major housebuild accounts through the association with MERLYN in the last 3 months.

On Grant Westfield, I think you previously said that it's a potential beneficiary of not having to put in a membrane on the new housing regs behind because of the waterproofing properties. Have the housebuilders taken a greater interest because of that?

They're important customers of ours and some are more progressive than others. I would say they've probably had some bigger issues to deal with over the last year in the nicest way. But in saying that, we have a proactive group team working on group projects around ease of installation and sustainable product solutions that are working very, very closely with some of the biggest and most progressive housebuilders in and around ease of installation, sustainable products. And what I will tell you is we have just won a major account in the States through Grant Westfield, and we won it by showing them how we could install the wall coverings for a bathroom and I think, 16 minutes and maybe we'll show you the video next time. Okay. So there's real stuff behind what we're doing.

Final question. Fibo, I think, the contribution or the margin contributed under reported numbers is low 10s in the period, the full year annualized is 11-point something. You've obviously taken some cost on the chin by putting sales guys in and those kind of things, amongst other things. Can you give us a sort of a pathway where you expect Fibo margins to get to?

There's no reason the Fibo margins shouldn't get to where the Grant Westfield wants to get to. And I've spoken about the leverage piece there. So that team came through a really long sales process, a horrible CMA process. We've started bedding them in and introducing them to the rest of our team, started, for instance, helping them, they are a sustainable business, but plugging them into our group sustainability around data and how to do things like that. I would always say, always be cautious, but it's not going to take 3 or 4 years. There are very obvious pools of opportunity and value that we'll talk to you a lot more about next time we see you.

Okay. Great. And you don't disclose Grant Westfield margins for obvious reasons, but I assume that they're above the U.K., Ireland average, are they?

Andy Edmond, Equity Development as well. You've handled or to us, it seems, handled the South African disposal very carefully, looking at employees and, of course, customers and business there. Can you give us an update on how it's been received over there by your employees and whether it's had any positive or indeed negative impact on the perception?

It's an interesting one. And I think it's, again, a different way of doing it and an all cross way of doing it, and I'm really pleased the Board supported this is quite often you do a deal and then announce it to the team. And I think the fact that we went out, I personally spoke to the top 200 people face-to-face, with Kevin, who's a really strong MD in South Africa, explained the rationale behind it, explained how with a focused shareholder in that area, they would probably be able to accelerate what they want to do with the business that landed.

So there was some sadness, a little bit of anger from some people who're just saying geez, we are Norcros. How can you sell us? It's like offloading a member of the family. The lower down, you went. Obviously, people saying, how does this impact my job. But I've got to say, Kevin and his team there, and we've got a really strong people function there, Marcy Murwa heads that up, have been doing some great work and just talking to Kevin and the team.

They're starting to transition to -- well, this isn't us again chucked in the bin. We are being supported. We've committed to finding the right home and the future might be -- will be brighter with someone who's absolutely committed to that market. So we spent a huge amount of time working with the team, but so is the management team in South Africa. So I think really pleased with the aligned approach from the Board down to do this the right way. So do it with you rather than to you is the motto we've used on this and on the VADO and MERLYN project, just different. But good, yes.

Very good. And then you made a very brief mention of the Gulf as a market down the road, huge focus on Europe and the opportunity quite rightly at the moment. But you don't tend to drop little clues like that without.

No, that is only because it's really on talking -- if you look at our CMD, we do business in the Gulf. We've got an office in the Gulf. Our priority at the moment will be closer to home. If I was -- if we were looking at acquisitions, it will be something really compelling out there for us to distract us. So I think if you think about our geographic growth, just think about it as a slow spread and keeping it close. So most likely, if we were doing an acquisition outside the U.K. and Ireland, it's going to be quite close to the Nordics or somewhere. And we're certainly not going into the core center of Europe. We're more the territories in markets where we know that we can consolidate.

Low-hanging fruits first.

Sensible, common sense. There we go.

It's Charlie Campbell at Stifel. Just one really for me. In a kind of an inflationary environment, I guess, the cost of a bathroom project goes up and lots of those costs are kind of outside your control. Do you worry that people might kind of spend a bit less on your products because they've got to spend a bit more on plastic pipes, et cetera? Does that come into it?

Bathrooms are really interesting thing. So the first thing to say that if you look at bathroom sales, and I don't have an exact stat, most bathrooms business is individual pieces, people replacing a mirror, people replacing furniture, a shower door mirrors. So it stays really resilient.

The number of complete bathrooms sold is probably more a new build piece than a renovation piece. People do their complete bathrooms, but they also upgrade their bathrooms. I mean -- and the team we have working on this bathroom project is sort of bathroom for a lifetime. So you put one of our bathrooms in 5 years from now, change the handles on your furniture, change the mirrors. It's all going to be designed so that you can keep refreshing that bathroom. So we're not too concerned about it. There are a couple of business that talk in their results and rightfully so about people shopping down in tough times. Well, not all customers are the same, okay? And we shop mid-premium and our mid-premium customers haven't started shopping down.

Can I just add to that maybe as well that also with the kind of the installers, we pick up market share because the installers recognize the benefits of quality, easy to fit. They want to go and do a job, get paid and never return to that property again. So in terms of actually the way we operate and making sure our customer service and those installers are looked after with quality product, that's, I think, is another key driver of why we pick up market share.

Again, thank you very much for your time. I know it's a hell of a day out there in terms of reporting. So we really appreciate you all coming out. Thank you very much.

Thank you, everybody.

I think we've got a sensible number on board. So welcome, everybody. We're very pleased to welcome you to today's update webinar from Norcross who have just reported their half year results, which was the period up to the 5th of October. Brief admin from myself. First, the presentation is being recorded. So if you miss anything, you can watch it again and we will publish it in a day or 2. The management are talking to a very full deck of information that is available on the Norcros website. So you can find that there. [Operator Instructions]

Right. We're very pleased to be joined again by the CEO, Thomas Willcocks; and the CFO, James Eyre to take you through the results and their outlook. And I am now going to pass over to Thomas.

Good morning, everybody, and especially those who have been following us for a while. It's great to be with you this morning. And on behalf of the Norcros team, a warm welcome to the Norcros Interim Results Presentation. Today, we are presenting a strong set of results with a good first half and continued momentum through the first 2 months of H2. Before I hand over to James, who will take you through the financial highlights, I will give a short overview of our first half.

There are really 3 key takeaways. The first is that we have made significant further strategic progress with the closure of our last capital-intensive tile manufacturing business and the acquisition of the materially accretive Fibo business in Norway. Secondly, in the period, we have again grown our market share, our operating profit and our operating margins, and we've generated excellent levels of cash while doing so. In a market that has remained weak, we have again demonstrated our ability to grow and deliver through the economic cycle. And I always encourage you, if you have the deck to have a look at some of the slides in the appendix that show you our 10-year track record. And we do this both organically and inorganically by what -- by following through in a disciplined way what we set out in our strategic plan. And again, you can reference our Capital Markets Day deck for that.

Next slide, please, Andy, which should be the highlights slide. So when we have a look at the numbers, just some key takeouts. James will take you through this in more detail. But underlying half year operating profits were up 7.4% to GBP 21.9 million. More encouraging was that our operating margin was up 70 basis points to 11.9%. Revenue growth, particularly in Q2 was stronger. And as I said, this momentum has carried forward into Q3.

I've spoken strategically about exiting our tile manufacturing business and the addition of Fibo, which we'll touch on a little later. And James will focus a little bit more on our balance sheet and the excellent cash conversion through the period once again. But for those of you who know us well, it is probably worth pausing at this point and reflecting on the fact that Norcros is now a fundamentally different business, underpinned by high-quality market-leading bathroom product brands, generating consistent market share and margin growth. And we're really pleased with where we've got to and even more excited about the opportunities that sort of lay ahead.

And this progress has really been built on outstanding foundations. And I think as we said when we put these results out, it is worth giving you a nod to my 2 predecessors and our older team. So Joe Matthews, who was the first CEO that I worked for and got us off the stock exchange and started this journey. And I think Nick, who was the CEO for a long time, who built an incredibly strong financial and business platform that has allowed us to start accelerating this wonderful business that is Norcros.

Next slide please, Andy. Just looking at the U.K. and [ SA ] core regions. Just looking at our 2 core regions. It's worth noting that our U.K. and Irish markets make up around 90% of our group operating profit and our South African region about 10%. In our core U.K. and Irish market, really strong revenue momentum in a weak market. Operating margin up from 13.6% to 14.8% and above our targeted 15% on a trailing 12-month basis. We're particularly pleased with the growth at Grant Westfield on the back of our org growth programs there, i.e., the new products we've developed and launched and also our operational excellence accelerators, which saw the restructuring really of the route to market, simplifying it and also simplifying our plant operations.

In South Africa, strong decisive self-help action by the management team there. And you'll remember in South Africa, we have an independent team running that region. We've exited tile manufacturing and are left with a more capital-light business that really is well positioned to move forward as the market does start to recover. Any market recovery in South Africa will be a little more challenging due in the main to high interest rates. Those are taking longer to come down.

But again, I will just reference the history of our South African business only 2 or 3 years ago was making GBP 8 million to GBP 9 million. So really encouraged by the work the management team have done in South Africa and well set for the eventual market recovery. Given the strong first half and positive momentum that has carried forward into Q3, we are confident that we will meet our pre-acquisition market expectations and then start materially increasing our earnings on the back of the acquisition of Fibo, which we'll talk to shortly.

James will now take you through the financials in a little more detail. Thanks, James.

Thanks, Thomas. And just on to the financials. And to note, the current and prior year income statement results are shown excluding Johnson Tiles, South Africa as this is now presented as a discontinued operation in the interim statement financials.

So turning to Slide #6 and some of the financial highlights. Some key takeaways. These results demonstrate how we are making further strategic progress towards our medium-term targets. And I think importantly, the group has improved its operating margin to 11.9% with the U.K. and Ireland region up 140 basis points. I think EPS has increased by 11% to 16.2p. And in turn, the interim dividend is up 0.2p to 3.7p per share. We continue to have a strong balance sheet with excellent cash conversion in the period. And overall, we continue to operate with a disciplined capital allocation in terms of our portfolio development.

So just turning to Slide #7 in the deck and the income statement, just some highlights here. H1 revenues totaled GBP 184.3 million. That's 0.8% higher on a constant currency like-for-like basis. And after a slower start to the period, group constant currency revenue was up 2.8% in the last 18 weeks of the period. Underlying operating profit was GBP 21.9 million, ahead of prior year by 7%. And as I mentioned, the operating margin for the group was 0.7% higher at 11.9%. The finance charges were GBP 3.2 million in the period. That's in line with the prior year.

And then just to note, acquisition and disposal-related costs include amortization of acquired intangibles of GBP 3.2 million. That was in line with last year, with the remaining circa GBP 2 million of costs relating to the costs on the acquisition of Fibo.

So if we now look at the revenue and underlying operating profit bridges, this is now on Slide 8. Thanks, Andy. Starting with the top left, first half total revenues increased by GBP 2.4 million to GBP 184.3 million, with U.K. revenue increasing by GBP 5.9 million in the period and constant currency revenue increasing GBP 2.4 million in South Africa, and that partly reflects a stabilizing macro environment, albeit, as Thomas mentioned, consumer confidence remains a little subdued.

So now looking at the underlying operating profit charts on the right. Top right, underlying operating profit was GBP 21.9 million, a really good performance, GBP 1.5 million above the prior year with a strong U.K. performance of GBP 1.9 million increase, partially offset by South Africa. And looking at the bottom right chart, the U.K. return on sales increased from 13.6% to 14.8%, benefiting from strategic delivery and operational efficiency. Underlying operating profit in South Africa was GBP 0.4 million lower in the period at GBP 2.2 million with a return on sales at 4.3%. As mentioned, the overall return on sales for the group was 11.9%.

So just moving to Slide #9 very briefly. I think just a couple of key takeaways here. The first one being diluted underlying earnings per share was 16.2p, and that's an increase of 11% on the prior year. And just turning to the dividend, I think in light of the robust first half performance and the strong position of the group and the confidence in the group's prospects, the Board has increased the interim dividend by 0.2p to 3.7p per share.

Next slide, please, Andy. So just on to Slide 10 and the cash flow. The group generated an underlying operating cash flow of GBP 24.1 million in the period compared to GBP 14.8 million in the prior year. This represented a conversion rate of 107% of underlying EBITDA. And this is another excellent performance. CapEx was GBP 2.7 million in the first half as we continue to invest in new product development and projects focused on delivering further operational excellence.

Just a couple of other numbers to call out there. Proceeds from the sale of the property of GBP 4.5 million relate to cash receipts regarding the former Johnson Tiles U.K. site. And the other potential number I'll call out there is the dividend payment of GBP 6.2 million in the period, and that was in line with the prior year.

So just turning to Slide #11 and the balance sheet. Net debt at the end of the period was GBP 30.7 million. And I think importantly, the balance sheet remains strong and supports further delivery of strategic objectives. Leverage remains low and was 0.6x underlying EBITDA at the period end and 1.6x taking into account the Fibo acquisition just shortly after the period end.

And then on to the pension scheme and probably best turning to Slide #12, please, Andy. Thank you. Following on from the excellent results of the 2024 actuarial valuation. The scheme is now almost fully funded on that actuarial basis at 99% of technical provisions and shows further progress. And just as a reminder, the company deficit repair contributions of circa GBP 4.5 million per annum will end in June 2027.

And then finally, on to Slide 13, just a very brief reminder of our capital allocation framework. You can see there on the left from organic investment, ordinary dividends, complementary acquisitions and then supplementary distributions. And that's all within our investment guardrails of maintaining leverage below 2x, dividend cover of approximately 3x, and this will be alongside our strategic targets of cash conversion in excess of 90% and a ROCE target of 20% in the medium term.

Okay, Thomas, back to you.

Thanks. We'll get to the next slide. And maybe just going back and reiterating what James just covered in terms of our targets and our capital allocation. We are really focused on delivering leading shareholder returns. At our Capital Markets Day in May 2024, we set out our strategy and our medium-term targets, the ones that James just spoken to. We've remained really disciplined in our approach and delivered consistent progress against these targets, growing shareholder returns through material appreciation in our share price, which is up from circa 1.85p at the time and a consistent and an increase in dividend flow.

Going forward, we'll continue to remain focused and disciplined in terms of our allocation of capital, and we remain confident that we will deliver against our stated medium-term targets. I think this is a really important point around Norcros. We are disciplined. We've got a clear plan and the levels of execution have been really high, and it's a great testament to the quality of our team.

If we could then move to Slide 16, please. So on Slide 16, we have a summary of our 4 key strategic drivers. And the key point to take here is that they are all in play and proven. These growth accelerators of the business are not dependent on doing anything other than what we already do well and improving on that. If we look at our portfolio development over the period and since Capital Markets Day, I think we have dealt with and made the tough decisions that we need to and demonstrate that we're not shy to do what's right for our shareholders. On the organic growth side, I will speak through 1 or 2 specific examples, but we talk about growing our organic growth 2% to 3% ahead of the market. I'll show examples of how we do this through our very strong new product development program and also cross-selling, including an update on our entry into complete bathrooms at VADO.

On the operational excellence side, we made excellent progress on the projects at Grant Westfield and VADO that we presented last time out, which has really been about leveraging our scale to drive our growth more efficiently and really pleased with the results there. And you can see that in the underlying margins in the U.K. and Ireland.

On the ESG side, we will deliver on our verified 2028 SBTi carbon reduction targets ahead of plan. And just to make it absolutely clear, we see this as a really strategically compelling part of what we do. It is winning our share both in RMI and new build, and we'll continue to grow share on the back of what we are doing there. And then really pleasingly was that every one of our business units achieved Great Place to Work accreditation, which just talks to the cohesive and joined up thinking and culture at Norcros. So really pleased with that.

We can click to the next slide, and we'll start having a look at an example of each. On the portfolio development side, we've spoken about closing the Johnson tiles operation in South Africa, and that's been expertly managed and handled by our team in South Africa, and that follows the exit of tile manufacturing and the sale of tile manufacturing in the U.K. and Ireland. We're really excited now as we increasingly move on to the front foot in terms of driving growth and the quality of our portfolio. And the acquisition of Fibo just after the period end is a meaningful next step.

Change to the next slide, please. So Slide 18 really takes us back to our Capital Markets Day in May 2024, where we set out our target themes for M&A growth. And you'll see a consistent theme. We will always go back to our plan and report back on how we're doing.

Fibo is the leading panel business in Scandinavia and ticks our 3 key themes at the top of this slide and especially boxes 2 and 3. But let's start with the first one. I didn't pop out and turn that green, and that's the filling gaps in the U.K. What is important to note is we have a Grant Westfield panel business in the U.K., and we bought a Fibo business that has around 30% of its revenue in the U.K. What we see with the 2 businesses is that we have really good channel overlap, very little cannibalization. And we believe that the strength that these 2 brands give us in the fastest growing part of the bathroom is really, really good in terms of our long-term prospects, both in the U.K. and just across the channel in Northern Europe.

In terms of sustainable products, panels are the future, both in terms of being easy to use and their very strong sustainability credentials, and they are rapidly taking share from traditional wall coverings like tiles. And then the third part, in terms of driving growth into adjacent geographic markets, you could see that we highlighted back then that Europe and the Gulf were key focus areas for us and Fibo really ticks that box neatly. And the nuance in terms of having Fibo ticking that box is they have a presence in the U.K. and a presence in Europe, and it's really helpful for us as a wider business to have a management team of the gravitas with the understanding on both sides of the channel.

The next slide, please. Looking at Fibo itself, which is based in Norway. Key takeaways include that Fibo is the regional market leader in this fast-growing modern and sustainable product segment. Looking at the graphs as well, Fibo really gives a strong geographic balance between the U.K. and Europe. Around 46% of their revenue comes from Norway, around 30% from the U.K. and the rest being in Europe and wider exports, including as far away as New Zealand. Fibo has also helped establish a beachhead for Norcros in terms of being able to, in time, start to consolidate the Northern European bathroom market in the same way as we have in the U.K. and Ireland, and we have the team and the channels to do that. We would do that really sensibly.

I think you know us well when we bring an acquisition in, we spent a good amount of time settling that acquisition down, settling the team down after what has been a protected process, including working our way through the CMA. So where we are at Norcros now, we've got a strong presence in Northern Europe, strong presence in the U.K., and we've certainly got a market-leading position in panels across both geographies. So in summary, this is a really strategically compelling acquisition. It creates a position of scale in an attractive high-growth panel segment that we understand. You can see looking at the 2 maps, the clear overlap in the core and secondary markets. And the exciting thing is there's a whole lot more to go, and we'll do this in a targeted and deliberate manner.

As I referenced earlier, the acquisition creates a Scandinavian and Central European platform with the same consolidation road map as we followed in the U.K. and Ireland. And those Northern European markets remain large and fragmented with lots of privately owned businesses. So really well positioned for Norcros to move forward.

James, do you want to just take us through the next slide?

Thanks, Thomas. I guess the point to take away from the Fibo acquisition, it was done on an all-debt basis. It's a meaningful transaction size for us, but it did mean we didn't have to raise equity. And therefore, in terms of earnings enhancement, it moved the needle in terms of first full year EPS accretion. So overall, very pleased with the structure of the transaction. And we completed on the 13th of October and early integration is going well and lots of opportunity.

Thanks, James. So moving on to organic growth on Slide 22. This is actually a key part of our strategy. And I think I said this most times, I talked to you guys is that if you really want to check on the health of a business, look at the core like-for-like and organic business. We've got 2 key drivers in Norcros for organic growth, and that's new product developments and our ability to cross-sell. Having a look at our product vitality, it sits anywhere between 22% and 27%, which means that of our sales in terms of products launched in the last 3 years, they make up around 25% of our total revenue. We have a strong pipeline. And what I'm going to talk about today in a little bit more detail is the work that's been done at VADO.

The last time we spoke to the market, we launched a product range called Cameo, which covered the full bathroom. That product range has done extremely well. We've launched a further 3 ranges. So we now have 4 ranges out there. These new ranges are helping us take share with key new account wins in businesses and partners like Wickes and C.P. Hart. We have another 4 ranges in development and that we will be able to launch over the next 6 to 12 months. And I think what's key here is that our really strong in-house design capabilities help us to get to market quickly to test things properly, and they really drive what has been a long and proud history in new product development.

Just a reminder that this launch into sanitaryware and bathrooms, full bathroom furniture opens up a segment worth around GBP 800 million in the U.K. alone, and we'll update you on further progress in the year ahead.

If we go to operational excellence. I think the key thing across our 4 strategic pillars is they are all joined up. They are not separate. And the work that we did in our operational excellence side, especially at VADO, where we consolidated our warehouses into a single modern warehouse was not only did we gain service and efficiency advantages, but it provided the platform for this complete bathroom project and then as VADO transforms from being a tap to a bathroom business. So really excited that the teams and departments work in a joined up way. And that's why we're able to, in a fairly predictable and steady way, make the progress we do regardless of the market.

At Grant Westfield, the consolidation of that network did 3 things. It improved our health and safety, it created space in the plant, allowing for better flow of people and equipment and stock. The space also created space for new product capabilities, the launch of really, really strong ranges like Naturepanel, which are driving growth and taking our range further up the mid-premium scale. So better products, higher prices and just helping our operating margins that way and a significantly improved service offer. So instead of taking 7 to 10 days to move what is a fragile product around, we can now do that in 48 hours when we need to from a single point. So really pleased that what we're doing on the operational side is, in fact, not just delivering efficiencies, but driving organic growth in the business. So I'm really pleased with what the team have done there.

On the ESG side, for all the politics around ESG and specifically things like sustainability, for Norcros doing the right common sense things is driving share and margin gains. And as a common denominator, if you think about it, you look at all the best-performing businesses in the building products sector, and I'm thinking of companies like Volution and Genuit, there's a common underpin. And it's a recognition that sustainable products are not only strategically compelling, but actually move the business forward ahead of a lot of other businesses. So we will continue to do this. As mentioned earlier, we will deliver on our 2028 SBTi targets well ahead of plan. We've already secured 22% of the 33% reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Our sustainable products are driving really strong share growth in RMI and increasingly in new build.

And it's important to note there that given our scale and our size, we are the largest branded bathrooms business in the U.K. We are able to not only provide a powerful choice in terms of our sustainable product range, but also the data that sits behind that. So we're able to partner both with our retail and RMI customers, but also on the new build side, and we have leading positions in both. So that is important to note. We also launched this year our first separate sustainability report covering in plain speak, our authentic and sensible approach to giving our customers and consumers a powerful choice to really put in more than they take out. And if you think about it, if you can do something that works better and has less impact, forget the politics, it's just common and commercial sense to do so. So this will continue to underpin how we grow our business organically.

The key to our business is our people. We run a decentralized model where we sometimes work together and sometimes we don't. And it's really made up of really strong and brilliant people at the rock face with every one of our businesses having their own design teams with very strong customer service centers. And these are the people that have not only participated in but inspired the vision of the business that we are increasingly becoming and help make Norcros a really great place to work while doing this.

So looking ahead, if we can get to Slide 26. We are on track as we continue to develop the scale based on the plan that we published at Capital Markets Day. This has been done with discipline and significant strategic implementation. And Norcros is now, as I said earlier, a fundamentally different business. Our focus on becoming a capital-light design-led bathroom products business, which has included taking some tough decisions, has seen Norcros evolve into the high-quality businesses today with market-leading branded products and positioned in the core and more resilient mid-premium noncommoditized part of the market, we are generating strong and growing shareholder returns.

Looking ahead, we're not reliant on the market to grow and progress, although this will clearly help. If you look at our H1, H2 split, it's 49-51. And then as we said, trading in H1 and particularly Q2 was strong and the last 3 months, the end of October has seen this trend continue. So we continue to make really positive and sustained progress in markets that remain large and fragmented, and we have a proven, differentiated winning model. And as stated in our trading update, we are confident about the outlook in the year ahead. So thank you very much for dialing in, and we are open for questions.

Great. Thank you, gentlemen. A very thorough run through what has been a very busy but successful period. So lots of questions already in. I would encourage people who want to add any more to put that through the button now.

Let's start with Fibo, which quoting the question looks a fantastic deal for you. I'm sure you're not going to argue with that. But could you go into a little more detail about what the next steps you are going to make as regards launching other Norcros products into their markets and their client base outside the U.K. and whether that would involve significant additional investment by yourselves in sales teams or new operating bases. And also give a little bit of insight as what the time scale might be for that to start paying back that investment?

Yes. I think as I said earlier in the presentation, the first thing we do when we bring a business in, and you can look at MERLYN, you can look at Grant Westfield to settle the teams down, make sure that they sort of recover from the sales process, get back to the day jobs per se. And that's what we're doing. [ Anders ] and his team have been traveling around some of our businesses. I have personally been across and spoken to their full team in Norway and as well as in the U.K. So we're getting to know each other. You kind of live in the house for a little bit before you start knocking walls out.

But strategically, for us, looking at the Fibo acquisition, providing a platform for further growth, the first way to drive that growth is the same way as we do here, and that is organically. The Fibo team understand the routes to market, have very strong positions in those routes to market across a number of countries in Northern Europe.

What we would need to do is make sure that our products are right and correct for those markets. You have different standards. We would do that with our really strong design and sourcing capabilities and then slowly start to introduce them. And by way of example, with Grant Westfield, we didn't do any cross-selling for close to a year. And once they were settled, we got them into Wickes, we got them into Topps. We've got them into Screwfix and a number of others since then. And we will follow exactly the same way with this.

So I wouldn't expect any material cross-selling in the next 6 to 12 months. And when we do on an organic basis, we would not need a whole lot of extra resourcing, and that's the beauty of the Norcros model. What I would just also add, though, is we would certainly be looking in time if it made sense to make the right acquisitions to speed up the consolidation and the roll-up of that market exactly as we've done in the U.K. We can do it organically or inorganically. So -- but first 6 months settle down and make sure we continue the momentum that we see in Fibo.

Great. Very thorough. And another follow-up on Fibo. Norcros has done very well out of its acquisitions by making sure that there's a strong cultural fit. The question is, historically or currently, how much has Fibo's management embraced sustainability? And is that a shared ambition with yourself?

It really is. So overall, culturally, we talk about our values or we call them keys here, and you have a look at this. The language is sometimes different, but the alignment is strong. And it's a key part of our due diligence process. We have a very small center, 16 people, 2 people working full time on acquisitions. And one of the key things we look for is cultural alignment and then obviously, the strategic alignment in terms of sustainable products. So I'm really pleased with that in both instances. And I just think, as usual, when we put these kind of businesses together as part of wider Norcros, we can just do more. But Fibo underlying the product is a sustainable product and is the future of bathroom coverings, especially on the wall. So we're really pleased. And I think we've ticked off on the cultural piece and the sustainability piece.

Good to hear. And following on from the greater Norcros. You have mentioned VADO's successful pivot into full range and new product categories. Can you give us an indication what proportion of those sales now comes from products other than Topps?

Yes. It's around 5%. So it's obviously very early days. We launched a single range called Cameo, ran that for a full year. That did north of GBP 1 million in its first year. We then launched Safari in a subsequent 2. In terms of that maturing, I would say it will take around, as I say, another 6 to 12 months to get a minimum critical mass in terms of covering all of the styles of the bathroom. And then we should see good steady progress on from there. But I think the confidence you've seen from people like Wickes and C.P. Hart are taking this range in shows you that we've done a good job. We continue to do a good job. And I think this will be a key driver, a key organic growth driver for the years to come. So definitely, at year-end, we will report back on our progress in full bathrooms. But early doors, we've launched one full range, and we've just added 3 more.

Great. Very impressive. James, maybe one for you. Across the group, cost control has been effective. Do you think that most of the heavy lifting has already been done there and therefore, material gains are unlikely to be recurring? And specifically looking at South Africa, where there seems to be more dependence on the macro factors of consumer demand and economic recovery. Are there any further cost actions that you might be able to take there?

I'll probably take the first part and then maybe Thomas could take the second part. I think firstly, we probably wouldn't necessarily call them cost controls. What we look at them as in terms of operational efficiencies, where can we invest and drive the customer service part of our business and do things more efficiently. As a consequence of that, hopefully, yes, the numbers should improve. But we start from a point of how can we make the customer service part better and improved.

Now in terms of the heavy lifting, yes, we've done some heavy lift in terms of the depot consolidation and maybe looking at working together with Maersk, consolidating freight in some ways. But I think, yes, there's more to do. Is it going to be one big bang and then we're completely done everything we can. I don't think so. It's going to be incremental. It's going to be sensible as and when leases come up, for example. But is there more to go? Yes, absolutely.

Just the second part, Andy, sorry, I just -- I lost the second half of that question.

Yes. Second half, I think it was more looking at South Africa and whether the profit recovery is more down to macro factors, consumer demand and economic recovery, and therefore, there's not much you can do internally to drive that.

No, I think it's a good point. I think with the closure of Johnson Tiles, we have our 3 businesses at TAL, which is the market leading adhesive business. But the rest of our business is really a big tile and bathroom retailer and a small merchanting business. And there are 2 key costs, obviously, lease costs and people. They're not that people intensive. So the business gearing is really important. And I think if you go back and look at when Norcros was making GBP 8 million to GBP 9 million versus where it is now. The biggest difference would be on that retail side. So as the market does recover, it is really responsive in terms of the profitability and the operating margins. The team have done a cracking job managing their way through what has been, as you know, a hugely challenging time with the energy crisis specifically.

But the businesses have spent time tidying up their retail disciplines, tidying up their working capital controls. And also, we've just this morning done a soft launch of our first new generation lifestyle store down in Cape Town, which I'm sure we might post some pictures of on LinkedIn if anybody wants to have a look. But the business is really well positioned, really well managed. I would just again say interest rates remain high and our South African business is a little bit more new build heavy than the U.K. business. So we need that momentum to kick off. And as I said last year, the best time to measure that is around March. After our [ building ] holiday, we would start getting a feel for how housebuilding is going. Some early encouraging signs, but there's not going to be a V recovery here. It will be slow and steady.

Yes. So I think you've just answered the affiliated question, which is where Norcros has a long record of making successful investments. But would it be fair to say the primary focus at the moment is on increasing products and penetration of European and Gulf markets, which I think you covered in that answer and also during the presentation. That's where the opportunity lies at the moment.

Right. A question on M&A, which is given that a number of your markets are displaying quite soft underlying conditions. Do you think that potential M&A prices or vendor expectations have adjusted accordingly over the last 6 months?

I let James pick that up. He used to head up our M&A team. So he's going to give you a much better answer than me.

Yes, it's a really good question. I think potentially, yes, they have softened somewhat. I think maybe some entrepreneurs and owners out there are a little tired post anything from Brexit, pandemic, Ukraine, supply chain crises, all the rest of it. I think maybe there's a few potential sellers out there who would potentially accept a lower multiple.

Having said that, I think from our perspective, we continue to talk to owners and entrepreneurs with a view to buying in 1 years' time, 2 years' time, 3 years' time, cultivating those relationships to make sure that we will continue to have a full and well-developed M&A pipeline. I think we're seen as a good home for businesses. I think we've proven that over the years. We're not here to take advantage of certain market conditions or anything like that. We want to work with those businesses and vendors and bring them in to the Norcros portfolio. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of a flavor of how we think about things from an M&A point of view.

Yes, makes considerable sense. Also, whilst you're onto it, we have a question about pensions. Congratulations on diminishing the perceived pension problem, which has been associated with Norcros for many years. The question is, what is the end game for this super mature pension fund? Can it be just outsourced and taken off the plc books at some point in the future?

Yes, really good question. So what we continue to do in the background is make sure we do all the admin exercises on the pension book to ensure that when we do go and get a quote from an insurance company about a potential buyout, that is the most competitive quote we can get, having taken away as much uncertainty as possible. It will -- hopefully, that will happen during the back end of 2026. And then it'll be a call on capital for the Board and the company. Would it be an appropriate use of capital to go down a buyout route should the company no longer be funding deficit recovery contributions and should the asset base be largely risk-free. Well, we'll have to wait and see and depend what that capital call is. If it was GBP 20 million, it might not be an appropriate use of capital. If it was GBP 5 million or around GBP 5 million, it might be something worth considering.

But the key part in the next 12 months is to finish what we're calling the admin clear-up exercises, particularly GMP and equalization is a big one that's going to round out in the next 6 to 9 months, and that will enable us to take the next stage, which is a competitive insurance market quote.

Again, very sensible. And another question relating to good in-house management. Can you elaborate how the group protects itself against bad debt risk. Does each individual group company manage its own risk profile? Or is there an additional group risk overlay?

We manage this via a captive insurer. So U.K. bad debt risk is extremely low as long as we keep within the credit insurer limits, which we do. So a very low risk.

Great. I think we're on to the final question, a timely one. Do you -- this is about the U.K. budget, by the way. So to you, inevitable question, but at this early stage, did you perceive any damage or indeed benefit from the changes that were announced last week?

I think if you have a look at our -- first have a look at our Norcros business and look at our 10-year record, I think we've shown that we operate through the cycle through different budget announcements and different market shocks and continue to make progress. Nothing has jumped out at us in terms of the budget for us. I think what business really needs and wants is a clear joined-up plan, joined up thinking from the government and take all their best intentions and just make sure they tie up and then just deliver on 1 or 2 at a time, like any good business might need to. We need less noise and a little bit more doing without getting into a big political piece.

But do I think that we're going to build more houses going forward? I do. I think the housebuilders are prime. It's been difficult for them. But we just need to stop talking ourselves into a hole. There's a lot of good things happening in the U.K. And I think a bit of a change in sentiment and looking a bit more forward at what's right than continually looking at our feet is going to be hugely helpful.

Well, that's great. So just to round up, remind viewers that the deck and a lot of background material associated with it is available on the Norcros website. If you think that there's been a lot of progress made in this period and indeed in the last 3 years and want to know what it means to the shares, there is a new equity development research note where we have raised our calculation of financial value by about 1/3 to 3.97p per share. So you might find that interesting.

Thank you to the audience for all their questions. You will get a feedback form that the company are very keen to read if you can manage to fill that out. And last, but by no means least, thank you very much, Thomas and James for a very detailed presentation. And we wish you best of luck for further execution of your strategic plans.

Thanks, everybody. Much appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks, Andy.