thank you, uh Operator. Uh it's a privilege to um to be here to uh today with you all, and uh certainly a privilege to uh to serve the team and the uh the shareholders as uh we develop and uh and move our turnaround uh journey forward.

I'm joined to uh today by our uh Chief Financial Officer, uh Kim um Kerr. I remind everyone that uh you will only be able to participate in the uh Q&A session if you've joined via the dial-in and not via the uh the webcast.

Today's uh presentation should be read together with the Appendix 4E financial reports and the ASX release issued the uh this morning. Uh now, turning to slide uh three, if I could uh, Operator.

I'd like to uh acknowledge the uh traditional custodians of the uh the lands that we operate uh in across Australia, New Zealand, and also uh Asia and uh acknowledge that Bapcor embraces building communities together in our multicultural uh nations. Today, uh we're on the uh lands of the Wurundjeri um uh people, and I'd like to acknowledge and thank them for this uh uh for this day.

If I look at uh also the people that I would like to acknowledge, uh 5,500 team uh members that I'm uh very privileged to uh to serve in the uh the role managing director and CEO. These are good um people.

As uh today I would say, the reflection uh in the uh the performance is certainly not that of the effort, the willingness, and the commitment that these team are making towards our uh turnaround. They are uh really amazing people that, in the last few months, have made a a tremendous difference that we'll talk to during the uh presentation.

I'd also like to acknowledge what is largely a new executive um team uh that are actually leading the uh the organization. Kim Kerr, certainly; um Marty uh Story; Craig uh McGill; uh and then uh Rebecca Uhlmann; Angus McDonald; uh Morris uh Lieberman; George Saoud; Gerfaras; uh and equally, I'd just like to uh to thank all of them for their support of me as a leader in this turnaround.

Today's presentation is structured uh Moving to slide four. Uh today's presentation is structured in five parts.

Uh we'll begin with group uh highlights. We'll cover off performance of each uh segment.

I'll hand to uh Kim, uh then to take us through the financial summary. Then, I will close with the elements around our trading up uh date and outlook for the uh the coming uh year.

Turning to slide five please, Operator. F26 is certainly a uh year of reset.

You will uh remember that I came into the organization and we first talked back in February, as we started developing the uh the turnaround uh plan for the organization. Clearly, statutory uh results are disappointing, but I want to highlight some of the uh the elements that really are very clear signs of the momentum and the uh the reset that's occurring.

Fundamentally, this is a good business at the uh the foundations, but it does need reset in the critical elements of the turnaround to really take us forward to where we want to be. $1.9 billion in uh turnover.

Uh that was a reduction year-on-year of 1.8 um percent. EBITDA was $152.

uh $5 million, which was above our top uh end of May guidance uh range. Underlying uh net uh profit after tax was 10.8 uh million.

Clearly, these results are uh at a lower level than we would uh expect in the uh the future. Importantly, we delivered $68.5 million worth of working capital uh initiatives in the second half in line with our uh commitment, and it is really pleasing to have seen our cash conversion uh rate actually uh increase to 109.4, reduced our net debt to $135 uh million.

If you think back to the half-year point, where we had a debt of over $400 million, it's fair to say that the activities and also the capital raise have put us into a significantly better position for the future. The statutory uh loss was um recorded at $431 uh million, 99% of uh which was primarily relating to impairments of goodwill, trademarks across the uh the segments uh that we operate.

The results were impacted by certainly the challenging external environment, the Middle East conflict driving higher uh costs, certainly the weaker uh uh impact the weakening of our economies both in Australia and New Zealand, and the real impact that that's had on discretionary spending across the uh consumers and workshops that we actually serve. Back in February when we announced the uh turnaround, certainly there was no war in the Middle East and nor uh were the the impacts and inflationary pressures that have been felt in the last few months.

Hopefully, with a little bit of normality in the uh the future, this will only help building on the great foundational work we've done across the organization, which we'll talk to in the uh coming slides. Turning to slide six, if we could.

The turnaround uh plan when I announced it back in February was primarily focusing on first and foremost the team, and actually what the customer um required to meet their demands of us of an as an organization. We've been focusing on key priorities, which have been absolutely centered around profitability improvement, optimizing costs, improving capital efficiency, and returning the uh businesses to um to growth.

We'll talk about this shortly, but we've certainly changed the uh the direction of the momentum of the uh the business. The next uh four slides will summarize some of the actions we've taken between that February and June uh period, and the uh priorities that we're also looking at as we move into F uh 27.

While there's a lot of informations on these slides, I'll highlight the sections of the key uh actions and progress made across each of these uh areas. What I'm very pleased to uh to say at the highest level is that we have significantly reduced turnover of our uh teams and we're actually improving customer satisfaction, and I'll talk to that uh more in the coming slides.

That is absolutely enhancing and putting us in a good position to increase our profitability. We're also uh uh happy to uh talk about how we've improved our competitiveness across the uh the business.

Some of the challenges when I first arrived and we talked to were the availability of stock in the uh the right location, in-store discounting that was running at elevated uh levels as our team tried to compensate for uncompetitive uh prices in uh market. This was something seen across all of our uh business uh units.

What I'm uh happy to say, in the second half we've were able to take quick action around a number of these key focus areas. Competitiveness, I'm happy to say now that we have actually looked at our pricing in our trade businesses with over 80% of all prices being reviewed to put us into a competitive price in market for our uh customers.

This is being well received. We tightened controls around overrides and price uh discounting, reducing the discounting by 16, now running at around 8 uh percent, and we still see more improvements that can be made.

In our retail businesses, we've changed over 13,000 prices to ensure that we are actually both competitive and maximizing profit opportunity, while ensuring the value uh at our consumer levels are uh in line with their expectations. F27 focus is certainly the building on through the introduction of data-led pricing uh management.

We've started introducing that across the uh the business units and we're actually seeing positive momentum and margin improvements as we mature that capability across our business. Moving to slide seven.

Optimizing our uh cost um base. Uh this summarizes a number of priority areas in our turnaround, because as uh talked previously, our cost of doing business at a total organization needs to be reduced significantly to achieve best practice performance levels when looking at competitor sets.

There is a big opportunity here. In relation to costs, we're operating in a significantly elevated cost environment, whether that be cost of goods, fuel, freight, local, international.

However, during the uh the second uh half, we've established a number of key uh activities that are reducing the cost. I've talked previously about high cost of uh recruitment and also the cost of our supply chain.

We've been able to establish in-house recruitment functions, now no longer reliant on external high-cost providers, reduced uh higher uh cost of emergency orders, which were uh right throughout our organization. We've implemented supply chain labor efficiencies, and in the last four months that already was delivering it over a $2.8 million saving just in the efficiencies in our supply chain.

A lot more to uh to do, but starting to build momentum. F27 the uh the focus is to drive and continue cost out where non-productive activities occurring.

We've got review of actually some $300 million worth of non-stock uh purchases occurring. The opportunity is great.

We're increasing our capacity to undertake uh effective competitive uh tenders and reviewing where we can remove price cost out of our organization. Moving to uh slide eight.

Strengthening our capital efficiency. This was a uh a big area of uh focus, and uh very happy to uh to report that in the um the second half, we were able to reduce uh by a further $14.5 million our overdue uh debtors.

That's a 35 uh percent reduction on the uh the first half, where we uh opened in uh January. Significant work by the team, and we're continuing to make improvements in that uh space.

We reduced our overall inventory in the business, which was a change from many years of escalating inventory being in held in our organization. We reduced by some $22.5 million.

Significant opportunity still, um but we've started introducing programs lowering minimum order quantities, reduction of excess stocks, working very closely with our trade partners to remove non-productive inventory, and while improving the in-stocks across our organization. Our capital efficiency um uh focus on inventory uh reductions will continue and build momentum as we move into this uh current uh year.

What is very pleasing, however, we both reduced inventory while significantly improving our in-stock in the stores and branches across our organization. When I talked back in February, we had some business units with in-stock levels at branch and store in the range of 50 through to 80% in-stock available for customers.

Today, all of those business units are sitting over 90 through to 96% in-stocks and we're aiming for 98%. As the consumer uh confidence and also available discretionary income uh improves, we're in a very healthy position to start capitalizing on those sales, the sales momentum out of having the right stock, while we continue to work closely with our trade partners to ensure that the future health of our inventory, particularly around EV, hybrid, and also the China-manufactured uh vehicles, which is representing a significant opportunity.

Many people talk about the impact of EVs coming into the marketplace. I would say to you, this is an enormous opportunity for our business that we're very aware of.

These are heavier vehicles, they wear out parts like suspension, steering, braking at far more uh significant uh rates, and it represents a terrific opportunity, while also calling out that the aging car park is still boding very positively for sales momentum of ICE uh vehicle parts. Moving to slide uh nine.

This slide covers initiatives to return our business to um to growth. I've talked about the organization's power of expertise, knowledge, and our connection with customers before, and the reduction of team uh turnover is very significantly contributing to the positive momentum as we reconnect with our customers.

We've got the right price. We've now got the items in the right locations, and our team are reconnecting with our customers.

I'm very uh pleased to say that we've had a 15% reduction in the turnover rate since uh December as we closed at the end of the um the year in June, and we continue to build momentum in reducing the turnover rate. I'm very pleased to say that we've got a number of prior uh team members starting to come back to our organization, as well as some very pedigreed retail uh retail automotive and trade um experience coming back into our organization.

We've been investing in our leadership training, and happy to say that uh we had our first 80 senior uh senior frontline leaders go through the Deakin Leadership Training uh program before year-end, uh and by the end of the calendar year, we'll have some 200 of our leaders that have gone through that program of developing skills in leading and running organizations. In F27, our emphasis is on improving our team engagement and now moving into network expansion, particularly in our trade and networks uh in New Zealand uh businesses.

While we need to look very clearly at what is the optimal footprint in some of our other retail uh businesses before we start looking to expansion of those businesses, I do want to acknowledge that the growth and the uh the future of our organization is very much linked to our trade partners, and I want to acknowledge and thank our trade partners. We've met with many of our very significant trade uh partners, and their support of the turnaround of our organization has been overwhelming and humbling.

I thank those uh those partners as we now form and build more strategic uh partnerships as we uh build forward. Moving to slide 10, please.

As outlined in our previous four slides, we're working to recenter the business on customer, team first, customer-fascinated, and what I'm very pleased to say is that over the uh the month and certainly building momentum in the second half, the slide to the uh the left is actually our Net Promoter Scores across the three channels fundamentally that we play: trade, our uh networks uh businesses, and also retail. You can see that all of the customer measures are starting to trend uh up.

Clearly, the aspiration is to have a best-of-breed uh outcome somewhere near 80, but it's very pleasing to see now a consistent positive uh trend. Very clearly, what was significantly called out price and in-stock is now starting to really be removed from the feedback that we're receiving from our customers.

We're meeting what they need. I'm also pleased to uh share the graph on the uh the right-hand side of the slide is now confirming that we are picking up after 5 years of successive decline in our market share, again, further confirming that as the consumer and the trade workshop start coming into a more stable environment, we are well placed to continue building on our uh share momentum.

Two quarters in a row, still a long way to uh to go, but certainly positive uh momentum. Uh I'd like to uh to now uh move to slide 11.

It's fair to uh to say that the building of the turnaround uh strategy team-led, but as we are now moving into the next stage of the growth of our organization into the future, it is critical that our strategy around growth and performance improvement is in place. I'm happy to announce that we've been running in parallel with our turnaround uh program the development of our strategic uh plan.

We've involved our team, our customers, experts, and senior leadership uh team. We are well um progressed, and it is unquestionably about how do we also simplify a very complex business.

For many that have been asking, "What are we going to be doing?" , I can say very confidently that the strategy will address the simplification of this business, allowing us to focus more specifically on the core elements of our business and our future uh success.

Bapcor has many strengths, and what I will say that over the last 6 months I can only reconfirm that this is a good business. There is significant customer demand for what we offer.

Our trade partners are fully engaged. We have a good team and we're building a path to our future uh success.

I'll now move to slide uh 13, if I could. I'm now going to talk to some of the uh segment uh uh growth, but before I turn uh to uh that, the underlying strength of the Bapcor platform is strong.

Our ability to evolve into the future, the trusted brands that we have relationships with, our extensive network of the some 900 uh touch points with customers across the countries we operate is formidable and enviable across the competitor landscape. We are known historically around experience delivery, the expertise of our team, availability, delivery, and fair value.

This is what we're focusing on as an organization to build us back to the organization we want to be in the future. Moving to slide um 14.

What I want to call out is a very significant uh change in momentum in a very constrained economic environment. I want to really highlight uh to you that in the second and the 5 months very specifically after the announcement of the uh turnaround strategy, we've moved very significantly most of the operating business units from significant negative uh growth, and as you can see on the uh the slide, in a like-for-like uh basis, the first 7 months was running at a -2.7%.

In the uh the remaining 5 uh months, we uh ran at a positive result. Although the number is small, the overall movement from the uh starting point of 3.1 is something that certainly is a credit to the uh the team, and it is an absolute affirmation of the strategic elements that we've put in place are starting to build momentum.

I will say that it didn't happen as quickly as I would have liked uh to, but they are the right things that will build us uh forward. Total uh growth for the organization, uh taking into account store closures and rationalization, uh the right stores being removed out that were non-profitable, is uh certainly equally setting us for the future, but 2.7% uh movement from the first half uh moving through to neutral as we continue to build momentum to positive uh growth.

I might uh now move to slide uh 15. To start uh now talking through some of the um the segments, and very um firstly, I'm going to uh to talk to the overall uh performance.

Clearly um disappointing at a 1.8% uh uh decline year-on- uh year-on-year. If you uh looked at the uh the contribution of the growth that we've seen in some of our um businesses, and particularly in the trade and the specialty wholesale uh business, it contributes 72% of the growth of the organization.

The recent uh improvement in momentums in those uh areas, which I'll talk to a little later, is certainly giving me confidence as we move into F uh 27. I'll move to slide 16, please.

What I'm uh pleased to um certainly not uh present the numbers in terms of the year it was, but I am pleased that the change in the second uh half momentum after the appointment of Craig McGill back into the leadership of the uh trade business is starting to see a positive impact. Momentum is changing and I'm happy to uh to say that in some of the key and core elements of this business, we are starting to see uh growth.

Craig is a 30-year automotive um pedigreed executive. He's also brought people back into the um the organization that had left uh previously at senior leadership uh levels, and they're having an impact.

I'm happy to say that the market share growth that I talked to uh before is very significantly coming out of the initiatives and the energy that Craig and the uh the team are bringing back into the business. Quarter four and uh F27 is really building momentum.

We're now seeing uh growth into uh the 2+% range in that business. EBITDA margins declined, reflecting what was a very poor historical pricing uh management, low pricing disciplines, and they are very directly related to the overrides price discounting that I've talked about before.

Pleasing, the second half showed uh positive uh momentum. Parts growth was running at around about 1.2 in that second, and I've made mention that we're now seeing growth over 2%.

We continue to be constrained in the tools and equipment, that's the heavy tools and equipment component of our business, which represents about 10% of uh trade. There are turnaround uh plans in place, and we uh will continue to monitor that business very uh carefully in the coming uh months to ensure that we return to a healthy position.

We are uh growing the uh the network, and this uh year there will be an additional five uh branches that will come on uh stream. The trade business, the branches in the right place, the right size are a very profitable uh business.

Turning to uh slide 17. Networks, I'm happy to um to say that the clear momentum change that is occurring more uh and more in that uh business is certainly a credit to the individual team, but also I'm happy to say that the appointment of both Angus McDonald, our Chief Operating and Strategy Officer, which Networks reports into, and more recently, Guy Nicholls, a pedigreed uh CEO, someone that learnt from the ground up on the uh the tools to being the CEO of a number of automotive uh businesses, joined us to lead our CVG and Truckline businesses, 50 years of pedigreed automotive executive experience.

What uh are we seeing? EBIT um increased by 7.3 uh to $67.7 million, uh reflecting the cost of doing business benefits from the prior-year operating model um review and uh and consolidation.

The segments that are experiencing disruption back in that period are showing positive momentum. The terrific leadership of JAS under Daniel Torpy is having uh significant uh build and continues to grow up 6.8% on the prior year.

Uh, CVG, as I mentioned, remains challenged. Guy uh Nicholls only joined some 6 weeks ago, but the momentum under his leadership and the growth that we're seeing of recent weeks is very positive.

Uh, to also just acknowledge that our wholesale business under uh Chantelle's uh leadership is really significantly uh building the momentum. Overall, Networks is starting to show very clear and positive uh momentum.

Turning to slide 18. Retail um is really a moment where we need to look back to what the business was: expertise, service, great brands, and fair value.

We're rebuilding the Autobarn uh business into the future. The performance improved materially throughout the uh the year the year.

It was a very challenging first half. Uh momentum in the second half as our operational initiatives gained traction are showing very positive green shoots.

Like-for-like sales returned to a uh growth in the second half from a very significant decline in the first, 1.4, and is supported by targeted promotional activity, hyperdrive focusing on operational disciplines and execution in the physical environment. Earnings momentum improved significantly in the second half from operating improvements that have been embedded in the uh second half period.

We accelerated and grew our loyalty um program, and happy to say we've got over now 2.1 uh million members, and this uh is a significant opportunity to be leveraged um through closer and more targeted relationship connections with those customers moving forward. We've also continued to work very specifically on range and in-stock across the uh the network, uh improving from some 80% to now 96% in-stock.

There are new brands being introduced, roof racks, tools, uh refresh, and a focus on how we use every square meter effectively in those uh stores. Watch this space.

A lot to uh happen in the coming years. I'm also uh talking about the very positive impact that the introduction of data analytics around pricing, in promotion, on shelf, making certain both value is delivered to the customer, that we're competitive while making more profit, and it's actually very positive signs in the first part of F27.

I'm now moving to uh New Zealand, page 19. It's fair to say that the economic environment in New Zealand uh broadly is very challenging.

Revenue uh declined year-on-year was 2%. The New Zealand uh dollar uh to the Australian dollar had a very significant uh uh decline, and that is also impacting when we bring these uh revenues and profits back into uh the Australian numbers.

Total growth, however, with new sites uh was 4.5 uh percent over that period. EBIT declined.

It is a very competitive uh landscape, but I'm happy to say that there are very positive signs with a number of margin recovery activities now in place and starting to build momentum in F27, but not reflected in F26 uh results. Positive uh like-for-like sales uh growth in Q Q2 and 3 were certainly impacted in uh Q4 as we saw an even more constrained economic uh environment.

Actions are underway to uh under uh underway to strengthen the uh performance momentum, uh focused around better customer interactions. We've introduced a customer call and contact center that can better serve the branch uh customers as uh well as uh activating customers in that uh market.

We've opened a new Dunedin superstore. We're actually uh uh commencing uh our new uh DC, which is transitioning in Auckland, which will have positive impacts on the cost of doing business, and we stood up a brand new DC in Christchurch to get stock closer to our uh customers.

Hopefully, that gives you some insight as to uh what the actions are and uh and what we're doing to continue uh positive momentum in F27. On that note, I'll hand over to uh Kim Kerr, our CFO, to walk through the financial results.

Thank you, Kim.

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I will start on slide 21.

Slide 21 outlines the main external factors that affected operating costs and consumer demand during the year. The Middle East crisis created a number of pressures across the business, including higher fuel, freight, and oil-related product costs, against a broader backdrop of elevated interest rates and softer consumer confidence.

First, higher fuel prices increased the cost of operating our vehicle fleet in the fourth quarter by approximately $2.2 million, most of which was absorbed by the group rather than being passed through to customers. Separately, freight providers imposed domestic fuel surcharges.

The graph on the left shows the increase in this surcharge. We responded by implementing freight optimization initiatives, negotiating with providers to minimize the increases.

The crisis also placed upward pressure on oil-related product costs. While crude oil prices have declined, the base oil benchmarks underpinning lubricant import costs have continued to increase due to ongoing demand and supply constraints.

This has resulted in higher product costs and required targeted pricing actions. The second graph was consumer confidence across Australia highlighted in The second factor, sorry, was consumer confidence across Australia highlighted in the middle graph.

The softer consumer environment affected discretionary demand, particularly in retail, but also the level of car servicing activity. Management actions included price rollback initiatives in trade and in retail, targeted promotional activity, and ensuring the business is ready to participate when demand rebounds.

The third factor was the significant weakness in the New Zealand dollar against the Australian dollar, impacting the results of the New Zealand segment in Australian dollars, which Chris discussed earlier. We are taking actions to address the impact of the currency movement.

These external pressures do not change the need for Bapcor to execute better, but they do provide important context for the FY26 performance and the actions being taken. Turning to the income statement on slide 22.

The statutory result for FY26 was a loss of $431.6 million, including $442.4 million of post-tax significant items, which are largely due to the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets across each segment. This was flagged as a possibility in the 14th of May 2026 trading update.

The impairment charges reflect impairment testing assumptions that place a greater weight on recent trading performance and current market conditions over the benefits expected from future turnaround initiatives or improvement plans. In the appendix on slide 28, we have outlined the significant items and provided a commentary on each one.

Revenue declined 1.8% to $1.924 billion, although, as Chris outlined earlier, positive signs were evident in the final 5 months of the year. Gross margin was $872.1 million, down 3.3% on FY25.

The gross margin percentage was 45.3%, down 72 basis points. This reflects the impact of pricing actions to improve competitiveness, mix effects, and market pressure, although the gross margin percentage improved in the second half as the turnaround initiatives gained traction.

Cost of doing business increased 7.6% to $719.6 million. The increase reflects continued investment in information technology and supply chain initiatives, together with higher employee costs and other expenses.

Underlying EBITDA was $152.5 million, and underlying EBIT was $51.4 million. Higher depreciation reflected historical investments in the network and distribution centers, as well as investments in technology projects.

Finance costs reduced 4.4% to $35.6 million due to lower debt levels following the equity raising, as well as working capital initiatives in the second half, although pressure remains on property lease costs. Underlying NPAT was $10.8 million.

Turning to cash flow on slide 23. Operating cash flow was $166.9 million.

Cash conversion improved materially to 109.4% from 86.5% in the prior year. A key driver was the second half working capital program, which delivered $68.5 million of cash flow from inventory, overdue debtor collection, and other cash improvement initiatives.

This was in line with the $60 to $75 million guidance range provided in February. Second half cash conversion was particularly strong at 125.8%.

Capital expenditure reduced to $29.2 million this year. This reflects lower expenditure following the completion of major network consolidation projects and a more disciplined approach to capital allocation.

Free cash flow increased to $55.2 million. This reflects lower CapEx and improved working capital management.

The net cash movement was positive $35 million compared with a cash outflow of $26.5 million last year. Closing net debt reduced to $135 million, supported by the free cash flow positive free cash flow and the equity raising during the year.

Turning to the balance sheet on slide 24. The key item to highlight in relation to the balance sheet is the decline in intangibles and right-of-use assets, which is due to the impairment outcomes.

The second half working capital initiatives improved the quality of receivables, with a $14.5 million reduction in overdue debtors, and inventory reduced by $20.4 million since June '25, driven by targeted actions to optimize ranges, lower minimum order quantities, and reduce excess stock. This program continues into FY27.

Turning to net debt and capital management on slide 25. Net debt decreased by $229.8 million from June 2025.

This was driven by the $200 million equity raising, as well as the cash flow improvement initiatives delivered during the second half. Bapcor complied with all debt covenants throughout the year.

At 30 June 2026, the net leverage ratio was 1.72 times EBITDA, compared with a covenant of less than 3.5 times. The fixed charge cover ratio was 1.62 times EBITDA, compared with a covenant of greater than 1.4 times.

During the year, we repaid the maturing $100 million MetLife facility and reduced available debt facilities by a further $135 million. This is to align better to the needs of the organization.

Total facilities are now $585 million, and we have an average remaining tenor of around 3 years. Importantly, the balance sheet has been materially strengthened and provides the financial flexibility needed to continue executing the turnaround.

I'll now hand back to Chris for the summary and outlook. Over to you, Chris.

Thanks very much, uh Kim. Uh, I'd also, uh just before turning to the um the trading uh outlook on uh page uh 27, just uh want to thank the uh Lachlan Edwards as the uh Chair and the uh the board and our shareholders for the honor that uh has been given to me in being a part of this turnaround with the the new executive team in place.

This business is good at the uh the core. The uh the focus on team and customer and value returned to our uh customers is setting us up to really take benefit in the uh the future as we see a more stable uh trading environment uh come back into our economies.

If I looked at the sales now in the uh first 6 uh weeks of F27, we're slightly ahead of uh prior comparative um uh periods. Trade uh and the parts very specifically in our trade uh business is building positive momentum, and I talked about 2+% growth.

Networks uh continuing to uh to grow uh strongly. We are absolutely focusing on some of the areas that we've outlined that are still uh being challenged, and we still see certainly significant upside around retail, New Zealand, and also our trade uh businesses.

I'm happy to say that the margin enhancement activities through the introduction of data analytics is starting to build momentum in most of our trading uh business units. We are also continuing to look at cost-out activities in the uh the business, and we can certainly see that that will build momentum as we continue to to take cost out of our uh business in the coming month months.

Bapcor expects modest uh growth in F27 at a revenue line, particularly because of the conflicts and the economic uh impacts that have been felt in Australia and New Zealand very specifically. The benefits of our improvements will continue to build momentum as we move towards the full uh year.

The capital expenditure, depreciation, amortization are expected to be in line with F26 levels. While capital utilization through effective planning and closer management will continue to build our capital uh benefit uh delivery on investments that we make, underlying NPAT is expected uh to be material weight uh materially weighted to that uh second half of the uh the year.

Enhanced uh pricing analytics, promotional performance, improvements on effective management of uh costs throughout the business will be significant contributors to our uh future recovery. As mentioned before, we're reviewing some $300 million worth of non-stock purchases in the uh the business, and there are some really positive signs of being able to reduce those costs.

Strategically, the uh turnaround program is stabilizing the uh the business, while very clearly, the comprehensive strategy that I outlined before that we are building starting in uh April, it is certainly coming to a point of maturity and I can absolutely uh confirm that it will be addressing and simplifying our business as we uh we move forward. Turning to slide uh 28.

There's no question, it was a tough uh year, uh bottoming out a multi-year uh decline. We've got a credentialed automotive executive uh team now in place.

That enhanced leadership capability, especially through the appointment that I mentioned throughout the uh the presentation, gives me great confidence that we have now the right people in place to execute both the turnaround and the strategic plan that we've put in place. The skills that Kim Kerr has brought to the organization, the government in governance improvements around our uh financial uh controls are significant and should give us confidence in the uh the future of the uh the business.

The equity uh raising has actually put us into a good place in line with our strong uh and improving uh controls around generating uh cash into our uh business. With clarity of the of the strategy, improving capital management, we are going to continue to deploy and monitor very carefully our delivery to our uh plan in the coming year, and the early uh the early 6-week uh period is certainly giving me confidence in the year to come.

The five priorities are very clear: team, customer, trade partner, and returning the uh the business to both growth and improving profitability, while actually optimizing and reducing the cost of doing business. The longer-term strategy uh will certainly be well-developed and it won't be that long before we'll be able to share that more fully with uh with people.

We're under no illusion uh that the work still ahead is significant. How the Bapcor enters F27 with stronger foundations, momentum that is very clearly starting to gather uh pace, we've got a clear set of uh priorities.

The reset's been established, and F27 is about disciplined execution and translating that progress into sustainable uh performance uh growth. Uh thank you very much uh for your time uh today.

We're handing back to the operator for the Q&A. Thank you.

Thank

Good morning, Chris and Kim. Thank you for taking my questions.

Um could you maybe just elaborate uh on your plans for the store network across the various divisions? There's been a few store closures um during FY26 and and we just want to get an idea of how comfortable you are with uh the current size and and what might happen through '27 across the banners.

I'm looking forward.

Garth, uh I mentioned the trade um uh business will actually be expanding uh with additional sites coming online. There There is no question that when you've got 900 sites, you need to continue um to prune uh to ensure you've got a healthy network, um but if you looked at networking, again, it uh will be a growth in the Networks business.

In the uh the retail business, until we are very clear about footprint is is optimal to deliver performance, uh we will be resetting how we're using that um space. I'd equally say that there is no question in my mind that we have excess space in the network, renewing you you may actually move to a smaller um site in particular geographic areas, but we need to more fully complete that review of space utilization uh in the retail uh business.

However, we have completed a network review on retail, which very clearly calls out quite a significant opportunity for growth in the future. We just need to be clear about what the optimal box to deliver um improved uh performance uh is before we start moving forward.

Hopefully, that answers your question.

It It does, and and perhaps just to follow on from that, you did mention earlier in the call when you're talking about the retail division that you were looking to improve space productivity in those stores. Can you talk to the measures that you're tracking there and whether those will be disclosed so we can track that progress outside of a a like-for-like improvement, for example?

Right at the moment, we're working through the the detail of the average performance at a uh rev and also a profit per square meter. Not at this um point am I in a position to give that to you.

That's what we're working through at the uh the moment. Then, we'll equally be looking at what's the optimal performance out of what size of uh business, notwithstanding, I talk to the rebuilding of, very clearly, brands, ranges uh into that space.

We just need to be a little bit careful not to jump too quickly before we actually uh introduce those programs that are going to better utilize the space that's available to us, and what ranges that are actually in those uh businesses relevant to the geographic areas. A bit of work to be done before I can share more detail around that.

Great. Thank you.

Hi, Chris. Hi, Kim.

Uh just wanted your thoughts on how much of the modest sales improvement you're seeing has been driven by sustainable market share gains versus promotions, pricing resets, or easier comps.

Good uh good question, uh Sam. Uh certainly, the belief and looking at the lower-level detail around uh customers where those um those growth's occurring from, whether it be trade or or retail businesses, would say would say that it's sustainable um share uh growth that's being achieved and uh equally, it would give me confidence that there's more upside uh in that, uh while saying to the uh forecast that the reason we still believe it will be um modest is quite clearly, there's a lot of headwinds uh in the uh market, consumer confidence, available income.

I think it's uh very clear that it is uh trend and sustainable. The fact that in the last 5 years, this is the first two quarters that we've actually seen momentum continue, rather than just one uh up and then back down again.

It would um certainly appear that the activities we're taking are giving momentum,

that is now multi- uh period uh upside. That's good.

Thanks. Can you talk to the major drivers of the profit being materially weighted to the second half?

Is it is it margin is it margin recovery, phasing of cost savings, sales acceleration, easier comps? Like, what what's the main reason?

I think uh when you talk about the implementation of data analytics into pricing, for example, uh Sam, you know you you can get the insight relatively quickly. Actually getting then the embedment of a method methodology to apply that across um multiple customer types, channels, you know the maturing of that capability in your business takes a little longer.

Uh where where I can give a very uh clear uh um why we're so confident that that will build momentum, uh in one of the first divisions where we actually introduced the capability around pricing analytics, we're now seeing very significant margin in uh improvement and they are maturing that skill very quickly. Um so now, we're rolling that capability out into the other business units and that's why we are very um confident about that momentum building.

Equally, I made mention about the uh tremendous support from our trade partners in helping us to get the range absolutely relevant to car park with a C, i.e., the cars that are on the uh the road uh now. For a number of years, uh we were not keeping our ranges relevant as could be to the car park.

Generally, if you've got the right uh range and certainly more contemporary, you can actually achieve better margins out of it. That working cleansing has uh started, but building momentum, we'll have fresher, more relevant um merchandise on the ground, again, achieving higher margins from those sorts of activities.

Uh data analytics around pricing elasticity, the pro- promotions we're running, uh very clearly looking at what's the optimal value equation for customer without giving away too much margin, or or margin that's actually not beneficial. We're looking at that uh capability out of data uh analytics as well.

There is a number of fronts that as those sort of capabilities are maturing, that will continue to uh build and deliver momentum. The other element is we've clearly uh talked about refreshing ranges with those trade partners, the renewal of the uh and the retirement of older stock that is being returned to trade partners.

Again, that's helping. Uh there's a number of the areas that are helping.

The final point that I would say, which was talked to during the presentation, you know we were seeing uh, very specifically in trade business, but remember that trade Networks, the uh call it discretionary discounting running at around about 16 is now down to 8. Again, the the although in the uh second half that was very materially uh supporting the winding back of prices to be competitive in market, uh we're certainly starting to see that that's a significant opportunity to be materialized in a gross profit coming and building uh momentum as we uh progress through the year.

Hopefully, that answers your question.

That's good. There's a lot there.

Thank you. Um, well well done on the working capital improvements.

How much further in opportunity remains into FY27? Look,

there's certainly a number of uh different things that we're we're doing. Uh we continue to uh focus on the rationalization of uh ranging and uh and not not reordering, call it, um poor or sub- um substandard commercial performance uh ranges.

Uh if you look at the work that we continue to optimize ranging right through the uh business units, we will see significant um uh release through uh range rationalization. Uh but as I also shared, while we're improving in-stock and relevance to car park, we're actually proving that can be done with lower inventory.

Confident all those initiatives are going to continue to improve. We've actually introduced uh enterprisewide open to buy as of 6 weeks ago, uh that was a new capability that's been embedded and we're actually rolling out, which is mentioned through the presentation, planning capability, uh forecast demand planning capability in all the business units that hasn't been there before.

Uh we're also uh working with uh partners to help us continue to improve our uh overdue accounts, and also uh reconciliation of accounts, looking at machine uh learning, AI uh solutions that can help improve that um space of recovery and cleanliness of our accounts. That again will be positive um impact on on uh cash and uh capital held in the business.

Hopefully there are a few things that give you a bit of a sense of directionally uh we're confident and I'd say pretty consistent with what our previous announcements have been, that uh we continue to build momentum in releasing um uh cash capital out of what uh actions we're taking around inventory and debtor management.

Thanks. On that, you did 68.5 in the second half.

Do you think you could do another 68.5 over the full year '27 or is that too much of a stretch?

I I think that it's fair to say that it will be material what we can continue to uh to do, and our budgets and forecasts reflect a material improvement in that um that space. I can say the first um call it 6 weeks, we're consistent with what we would expect it to continue to uh deliver.

Excellent. Thanks, Chris.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my call.

I just want to drill into the um the capital stuff. Actually, first I'll just say the the deck and kind of putting out all the information is um really, really helpful and and I appreciate the the candor and the amount of detail that we're getting now.

Um as as for questions, just on working cap Uh sorry. Just on questions, um working capital.

What I'm hearing in lubricants is like like repeated double-digit price rises and I think it's a significant um inventory category. Then, I'm just trying to get a feel for like oil-based or petroleum-based product inflation and how that's impacting working capital, and then sort of what you're seeing in in the other parts, and and um and, can you pass that through or are you absorbing?

Um yeah.

Look, a uh terrific um question. Uh I I'd just caveat it, however, by saying that uh lubricants uh, if you were a traditional business um uh retail business like Supercheap, uh you would be far more worried about lubricants cost escalation than you would be in our business, as lubricants is significantly lower in terms of the mix of the overall uh business across all of our operating business units.

It is significant. The annualized uh impact of cost increases through the inflation of the uh barrel of oil is about $24.7 million increase across the um COGS over that uh full year.

Uh what I've said previously, and it was certainly reflected in the second-half-year results, and I said this very publicly, that the business had done quite significant damage to itself around its price uncompetitive position to market, whether it be retail or trade. I said very openly, we would not be the first movers when it came to pass uh prices through, because we have have to rebuild uh trust with our our customers.

Uh yes, we have very clear programs in place to make certain that we are passing through prices, but we are not leading putting price uh increases uh through. Uh, but my comment would be we would be a fast follower with um relevance to uh to market on those sorts of um um escalations, and the early escalations that have already occurred, uh we are tracking uh very uh carefully.

I can say about 2/3 of the prices that have uh come through, we are actually seeing um an improvement in the profitability in those lines, but there's still 1/3 that we need to to better uh understand and and uh and improve on in that process. My honest opinion in this space will be we will continue to see not just uh lubricants increasing over the coming months, the cost of container movements, uh local freight uh movements, all of those are putting pressures on not only oil-related, but many other products.

Uh what I am confident to say is we have processes and systems and visibility through reporting, and the data lake that was stood up that marries our 16 ERPs together to give us trend analysis. We'll be very close uh closely looking at that to ensure that we're not seeing erosion that uh can impact uh our um our performance results in the coming uh coming months.

Thank you. I I guess, just just to sort of try and square that up to the sales guidance um because, I guess you want to be conservative because you want to put a set of numbers out there that isn't that that's that's can handle some volatility in a pretty unpredictable market.

If if we're looking at 5% to 10% price inflation, then flat sales guide would imply volume losses, which kind of contradicts some of the um discussion around market share. Just just trying to get a handle of um, I always thought of this business having a tailwind from a rising price environment as well.

That that guidance is kind of confusing me a little bit, if if you could maybe add some color there.

I think our comment was modest um uh growth. Uh and I think anyone that uh was not taking into account what's happening with the consumer, the average consumer's uh very short on what they had in their uh wallet or purse 12 months ago.

I I think it'd be uh naive to think that the the inflationary pressures on non-discretionary staples, utilities, insurances uh isn't taking money out of the more discretionary areas. Now, retail, quite clearly, more discretionary by nature um in automotive, but uh you can't underestimate the fact that when you look at the car park that we serve through our trade workshops, they're generally cars that have moved out of the OEM workshop environment, and I can tell you very clearly talking to those large owners of multi- uh trade workshops across Australia and New Zealand, they have uh customers coming in that are saying, "We don't want the full logbook service uh done.

We want other uh items: oil, filter, things that are critical um or brakes, but they may not be doing some of the other um repair and service items." There is a bit of moderation that we need to also be aware in that that place.

Thank you. Just the last one, just on CapEx, I know there's sort of an IT debt that at some point needs to be um uh dealt with.

You've come out of this uh distribution center reorganization period, sorry, investment period. Um, plant equipment, depreciation versus CapEx, like like how much how much reinvestment into the stores do you need to keep up just for stay-in-business purposes and and also to kind of get that inventory visibility out to the stores with an open to buy set up?

Uh

look, I I think my first comment would be you mentioned technology. Part of the strategic roadmap is very clearly looking at what we need to do to better provide technology um enhancements that can connect us more effectively with our customer, uh can actually take um poor process, enhance system to deliver efficiency and cost out of out of our business.

Uh some of the simplification that I just talked to at a high level will certainly be about the continued growth of consolidation of how many ERPs that we're operating in. We also stood up obviously a data lake to bring those elements together.

My my comment would be, uh would would you like to invest more in technology to accelerate um uh components? Uh possibly, but I don't think we're putting ourselves at a disadvantage.

We will be moving through our technology-targeted technology investments forward, uh but certainly uh that that investment as we get clearer about what the business shape is in the future, what the strategic elements are to enable, what we need to do in technology, uh that that will be something that will mature in the uh coming uh months, certainly year. I couldn't say much more on that one at this point.

In terms of um refurbishment, for example, in the retail network, uh what is quite clear, and it's been called out uh previously, is that our capital management and return on capital investments uh needed to be at a higher level. We're currently uh looking very clearly at what we need to have to have the the right store footprint to deliver maximum performance as much as what is the future BAPSONS or BNT uh branch environment to get optimal performance, what's the size of it, what goes into it.

I would say to you that we've um taken a pause on investing more into refurbishing until we're clear about what the return benefit is for doing that. That's really this year where we really look at what those stores can be.

There'll be some light touch, but uh it will be a a year of fairly modest investment in um refurbishment of um sites. Hope that gives you a bit of a sense, or answers your question.

Excellent. Thank you so much.

Hi again. Just a couple of quick follow-ups.

Guess, what's the biggest factor that you think could derail the turnaround today? Six months ago, probably would have said the balance sheet, but you guys have done a great job bringing down leverage to 1.7.

Right now, what do you see it? Is it is it the macro?

Is it execution? Is it competition?

Uh what Be good to get your thoughts. Thanks.

I think when we announced the turnaround uh in February, there was no war uh in uh the Middle East, and inflation and uh and the pressures on the consumer were at a very different level to um to mortgage rate increases. Look, I I think the volatility uh globally would be the the area that um I think we're we're all very sensitive um to.

What I'm very clear about is we've got the right team at an executive uh level. We're reducing turnover.

We're starting to satisfy customers with the right price, the right items in the branches. Uh now, the disciplined execution of the turnaround, as we evolve into the strategic, um I think we've got the elements in place, uh uh Sam.

The biggest the biggest watch-out for me would be the biggest variable that none of us know what would happen uh or what is going to unfold uh globally. Um hopefully, Okay.

bit of clear air and gives a bit of stability.

Sure. I guess, if sales are now improving and the balance sheet has been de-geared, how come you're still selling assets?

Uh [whispers] Best friends? [/whispers]

Sorry, what

uh How come we're still, we have commented in there around doing a portfolio review for simplification.

Oh. Right.

I think, Sam, it's it's really if you work through the strategic and I'm not in a position to share broadly what that that means, but if you look at the landscape of where an organization plays, the strengths of an organization, I I don't think you would not be able to form a view that there are areas within our business that are not necessarily complementary and value-adding to provide the right solution for the customer in the ecosystem we serve. When you've got multiple ERP systems and the complexity around that, you've got subscale businesses that perhaps don't show um growth paths in the future, you you would have to consider that to create a better environment so you can put more energy into the core uh businesses that can deliver the the most growth for the future.

I I think it's pretty clear why we would consider it, without saying there's any that uh are at that point right now, but I I think you would have to consider that in really forming the view of what what a healthy business is going forward.

Right. Then, last question.

At what point do you think we can stop describing Bapcor as a turnaround, and start describing it as a growth company again? What specific metrics uh need to be achieved um for that to occur?

I think

I think the first will be to to continue being uh able to deliver uh in in line with what the expectation in the market is and beyond. Um Uh clearly, there's guidance in market, which I would say I think is um is appropriate to uh today.

There's a lot of initiatives that we're putting um into the uh the business now that will undoubtedly uh continue to build momentum. I I think I've been pretty consistent back from when we talked in um February and said that there is a stabilization.

I think we've proved we've been able to stabilize and start getting momentum in the right direction, which was the last 5 months of last year. It was in building momentum uh in F27, and as you start maturing those and moving into strategic execution, moving into F28.

I think I've I've been pretty consistent with saying it's that 6 through to 24-month um period.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

thank you um very much, uh Operator. Uh look, just a uh a thank you to um to the interested um uh parties on the uh call to uh today.

A uh a very big uh thank you to the uh shareholders, that have certainly had a uh very tough number of uh years. I'd equally uh just uh very uh clearly call out there is a new leadership in place, the turnaround is building momentum, the right strategic um plan will be uh maturing over the coming uh months, and uh certainly, I look forward to uh continuing to talk the next time we're together about the uh build on where we are to uh today and back uh to the uh the recovery of where we want to be over this next uh 12, 24 months period.

Thanks very much um for your time and attendance today.