Operator
I will now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Martin Nicholas, Group CFO.
Please go ahead.
Martin Nicholas
Thank you very much, and good morning to everyone joining today's call. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the presentation of our full year 2026 results.
As normal, I'll walk you through the group's financial results, and then Jim Clayton, our CEO, will provide an operational and strategic update. I would however like to start our presentation today by acknowledging and paying our respects to the traditional custodians on whose land we meet today.
I would like to pay respects to their elders past and present and further extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders joining us today. We celebrate their continuing connection to and custodianship of this country.
Turning to slide 4, we start with the headlines of this year's result. FY26 was an operationally complex period, which we navigated remarkably well to deliver a very solid set of results.
We substantially completed our manufacturing diversification program, with 85% of our 120-volt gross profit dollars now sourced outside of China. We collaboratively managed our value chain in response to the ever-changing tariff landscape, and we sustained our investment in the long-term growth drivers of the business.
We did all this whilst delivering another record year, with sales of over $1.8 billion. In terms of categories, coffee and cooking both grew in double digits revenue terms in constant currency, supported by new products, store-in-store investments, and the exciting growth in our young markets.
In total, the global segment grew revenue by 9.7% in constant currency terms, with the second half strengthening to double digits. As forecast, our rapid and successful diversification of manufacturing played through in the second half, with this sourcing mix helping to drive improved gross margins.
Across FY26, we actively managed the challenges of a volatile US trade policy. All year our approach has been to manage this impact on a net basis.
The full value chain leant in to help mitigate the initial cost impact, and we are now taking the same net approach to the IEEPA refunds, with a minimal net profit impact in FY26. Our full-year EBIT was delivered in line with budget and guidance, and as you will see later, our balance sheet remains healthy, as were our cash flows, leaving us ready and able to continue investing in growth opportunities.
Overall, a robust year of performance against a rapidly changing backdrop. Turning to slide 5 and the group summary results.
Strengthening double-digit growth in the second half lifted our overall global constant currency revenue growth to 9.7% for the full year. The marked second half weakness in both the US dollar and the euro significantly dampened our reported Aussie dollar revenue, with growth of 6.7%.
Gross margins of 36.0% against a prior year of 36.6% reflects the balance of headwinds and tailwinds in a complex year. As mentioned, our diversified sourcing mix helped strengthen our gross margins in the second half to 36.8%, outstripping both the first half and the pcp.
Across the year, we continued to invest in the long-term growth drivers of our business and delivered an EBIT of $207 million, in line with both budget and guidance given at the half year. A strengthened net cash position of $104 million reflects our healthy underlying cash flow.
Turning to slide 6, and here we see key segment results. Our Global Product segment constant currency growth grew by double digits in the second half and 9.7% in the full year.
New products landed well, with the Oracle Dual Boiler, the IQ toaster, Baratza Encore ESP Pro, and the Lelit Marax 3, all performing strongly. In category terms, coffee and cooking delivered double-digit revenue growth across the year, while food preparation grew in single digits.
As noted at the half year, our young direct markets of China, Korea, Mexico, and the Middle East continue to excite, growing at over 70% in FY26. This growth trajectory will be increasingly important to the group as they continue to scale.
In margin terms, both product segments experienced cost volatility arising from tariffs and the Middle East conflict-led inflationary spike in both transport and material costs in the second half. The Distribution segment fulfilled its strategic role by delivering $4 million of incremental gross profit.
Turning to slide 7, here we see our geographic performances in the Global segments. The Americas grew total revenue by 10.8% in constant currency terms, with coffee and double-digit growth led by premium NPD launches and a strong performance from the Barista Express.
Cooking also grew in double digits, with food preparation in single-digit growth. Exciting also to note that the 300 extra store-in-store installations were completed in Best Buy in the USA in November, and we are delighted by their performance in driving both sales and upgrade.
In EMEA, our direct markets, the UK, the EU, and the Middle East, again grew in double digits, led by coffee and NPD. The Middle East continued to thrive despite obvious challenges, which confirms the encouraging outlook for this coffee-centric region.
Overall theatre growth of 8.5% includes a more moderate performance in distributor-led markets, which are still normalizing after a strong FY25. In APAC, our direct markets, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and now China, delivered double-digit constant currency revenue growth across the full year.
NPD landed well, and although still small, China sales were very encouraging, while Korea continued to grow from strength to strength. Total APAC growth of 8.3% for the year included a second half strengthening to 11.5% as cyclical sales in distributor-led markets normalized.
Turning to slide 8. Here we graphically see our EBIT growth drivers across the year, with EBIT meeting both budget and guidance.
Gross profit grew by 5% or $30.9 million on a nominal basis, as FX also flowed through these numbers. In terms of operating expenses, we maintained our discipline of investing in the future growth drivers of the business, investing $25.8 million or approximately 90% of the OpEx increase in supporting new markets and business growth drivers.
This consistency and commitment is important to our sustained future growth and saw our investment in product development, marketing, solutions, and tech services increase to 14.4% of revenue from 14.2% in the prior period. Investment in AI emerged in FY26, though our total spend on the program is deliberate and controlled, and in his section Jim will walk through the progress and potential of this program.
The increased spend on our other operating expenses, as you will see, was very modest. Finally, as noted, EBIT growth of $2.4 million or 1.2% was in line with both budget and guidance.
Slide 9. Turning to the balance sheet, it's a story of healthy underlying cash flow supporting an improved net cash position of $104.4 million.
The $40 million inventory growth seen here reflects the transition to new manufacturing facilities for our 120-volt products, necessitating an earlier build of inventory for the US peak season. Inventory was broadly flat in all other theatres.
Our receivables collection was strong in the second half, and the year-end balance was seasonally normal, with days outstanding in line with the prior year. FY26 also saw PP&E and development costs grow, reflecting the continued investment in these key drivers of our business: new products and solutions, store-in-store fixtures, and diversified manufacturing assets.
Some specifics: the PP&E increase here includes $18 million of store-in-store expansion, including Best Buy in the USA, as well as a further $5 million of additional tooling associated with our diversified manufacturing drive. The growth in capitalized development costs and software is a good leading indicator of the level of investment in product development and the maturity of projects in the pipeline.
The growing balance seen here signals that we have a healthy pipeline of projects moving towards launch or recently launched. Finally, the movement in goodwill, brands, and licenses is again largely accounted for by FX translation effects.
Looking forward into FY26, our balance sheet is in good health. We start the year in a net cash position, with significant unused debt facilities and cash in place for our normal seasonal working capital investment, as well as funding further growth opportunities as they arise.
Slide 10. Before passing over to Jim, just a few remarks on the environment we face as we enter FY27.
For those in the audience who are tempted to utter the words "now we know" in regard to US tariffs, I would posit that the situation remains fluid. There are multiple policy initiatives still in play at the same time that could result in a variety of outcomes.
We'll know when we know in terms of tariffs. I can probably say the same with regard to the oil price and its knock-on impact on plastics, materials, and transport costs, still very much in flux.
What I can however say is that we are far better placed to withstand this volatility than we were at this time last year. Firstly, our diversified manufacturing base affords us significantly more optionality.
Secondly, we are in many terms battle-hardened, working well with our value chain, and are well practiced at tactically managing the unexpected. Indeed, as we plan, we plan to deliver reliably through volatility.
Lastly, we start the year with a healthy balance of relatively lower-tariffed inventory in the USA. All in all, we've put ourselves in a far better place to withstand volatility than last year, and we start the year with momentum.
Building on this in FY27, I fully expect us to continue to use our cash flow and balance sheet to invest in growth assets and inventory where relevant as a mitigant to uncertainty. Of course, consistent with our normal practice, we currently expect to give guidance for FY27 with our first half results.
I hope this outlines where we are today, how robustly we performed in '26 against a more than challenging backdrop, and our readiness for the landscape we face as we move into FY27. With that, I'll hand over to Jim.
Jim Clayton
Thanks, Martin. What I want to do this morning is give you a perspective on the operational progress we've made in FY26 beyond the diversification of our supply chain.
Specifically, the US retail channel structure, new country performance, the Beanz expansion, and where we are on the AI transformation program. Turning to slide 12.
In the first half of '26 earnings announcement, we talked about the new Best Buy partnership. While this is an important partnership for sure, the structural channel implications of Best Buy's brand consolidation decision is equally relevant for premium brands in the United States.
To understand this, you first need to understand the channel structure itself. Mass brands can enter the market through Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, or Target.
While getting into Best Buy could be helpful, there's plenty of runway given the size and scope of the mass retailers. Premium brands, however, play at the specialty retailer level, which collectively has 300 doors, and then use Best Buy to deliver geographic presence with its 1,000 doors, an important ingredient for reach and brand building.
Best Buy's decision, however, to consolidate the entire SDA category to a handful of brands forecloses the scale-out opportunity for any premium brand not chosen. Turning to slide 13.
Breville has always had very solid relationships at the premium end of the channel. Our execution through this channel is consistently strong, and FY26 is no exception.
Williams-Sonoma and Breville partnered with Kelly Wearstler, a famous interior designer, for the launch of the mixed metals range, which is performing exceptionally well. We made the front cover of the Crate & Barrel catalogue, among other activities.
Turning to slide 14. As we mentioned at the half, we rolled out 300 store-in-store installations in Best Buy.
We and Best Buy have seen a significant step-up in the performance of the stores with this execution, and we've seen a material increase in the ASP in these stores. As a result of this joint success, Best Buy has asked us to expand this execution into more doors, which we are currently evaluating.
The structural point here is the 4-year term. If you're a premium brand that wasn't chosen when Best Buy consolidated, that door doesn't realistically reopen for 4 years.
That's not a 1-cycle setback, it's a structural repositioning of the competitive landscape. Turning to slide 15.
We also had great execution in Target and Amazon. In FY26, we were the only appliance brand that was allowed to build an end-of-aisle display.
To promote Prime Day in June, Amazon chose the Barista Express to promote on the 3D display in Times Square in New York. Over the last decade, and particularly through disruptive periods like COVID and Liberation Day, we've invested heavily in our retail partnerships, consistently delivering new, innovative products, supporting them through volatility, and being the brand they can count on.
This consistent support of each of our retail partners and the role they play in the channel for their customers is a foundational underpinning of the Americas' consistent delivery over the past 10 years. Slide 16.
Now we'll take a look at the performance of our newer direct markets. Slide 17.
As a group, Mexico, the Middle East, South Korea, and China grew revenue 74% year-over-year. As you can see from the slide, FY26 was the first year where we weren't absorbing a distributor-to-direct cutover cost across these countries, which in part accounts for the step-up.
To be fair, we also have the Middle East and China coming online. At the half, I said that China and the Middle East were off to a good start, and here's the next level of detail.
In FY26, the China team, in its first year, delivered 7.1 times the revenue of our previous distributor, and the Middle East came in at 6.6 times. These are the year-1 deliveries you hope for when making the call to go direct.
Slide 18. The teams in these four geographies are executing well on building brand and market presence.
The Mexico team expanded into Palacio de Hierro, the most premium department store in Mexico. The South Korea team did a takeover in Shinsegae to tell Breville's coffee story coupled with their store-in-stores.
The China team has executed pop-ups, participated in coffee festivals, and collaborated with other leading brands. Lastly, you see a picture at the World of Coffee in Dubai, where the team is receiving the Best New Product award for the Oracle Dual Boiler, a well-timed event for introducing Sage to a hall full of coffee enthusiasts.
Slide 19. Now a quick update on the Beanz service.
Slide 20. Beanz is now live in the Netherlands.
As a part of this expansion, the team resolved the cross-border complexity of VAT, giving German and Dutch customers choice across 26 roasters, 12 in the Netherlands and 14 in Germany. With Beanz operational in the Netherlands and the cross-border VAT capability in place, we'll take the Fast Track Barista program live there in September, which will continue the expansion of our solution offense.
Slide 21. Now I'd like to spend some time on the status of our AI transformation program.
Slide 22. Before getting into the program itself, I want to first frame where and how AI is relevant to BRG.
In 2018, I presented this innovation flywheel framework. Investing more in NPD to launch more new products will increase revenue.
Take that increased revenue and invest it into GTM to pull forward the revenue curve, and you'll get more revenue. Use that to expand the TAM by going into new countries, and you'll accelerate even more revenue, which can be reinvested into NPD for the next cycle.
The flywheel compounds. This is how we've doubled the size of the company in the last 6 years.
From 2016 to 2025, the levers we had for feeding this flywheel were headcount and money. This is the flywheel feedstock.
If you want more NPD, hire more designers and engineers. For 2026 forward, we now have an incremental lever: AI tokens.
We can now drive the flywheel with headcount, tokens, and money. This is the acceleration potential AI provides.
With the macro framework set, I'll now take you down a level to show you where we are in this journey. Slide 23.
At the half, I walked you through our three-layered approach to the program: AI infrastructure, agents, process automation, and training and enablement. We're now at the point where we're moving into the second phase of the program, which is the step change from individual amplification, the me, to team functional-level amplification, the we.
We've made quite a bit of progress on the individual amplification front. As a result of our capability-building efforts, over 50% of our employees are now amplified, meaning they are competently using AI as a tool to make themselves more effective.
The rest are still progressing and learning how to get the most out of the tool. If you want to truly flex the ROI of AI, you need to move from individual amplification to team amplification.
In part because of the immaturity of this technology, this is a very different kind of challenge. Slide 24.
A fundamental requirement to move from me to we is getting the core infrastructure in place to support this step change. In phase 1, we exposed our structured data and put the governance platform in place.
For clarity, structured data is data organized in fixed fields and tables, like sales figures in an Excel spreadsheet. This by itself was a huge step forward.
Business users and AI agents can now get directly at source business data without the need for the data science team to spin up a new dataset. This was a major unlock for individual amplification, myself included.
To enable the me-to-we step-up, we've recently gone live with the two incremental components required to unlock team functional amplification, which are, one, the collection and access to BRG's unstructured data, which is data without a predefined format, like a PowerPoint deck or a Zoom transcript, and, two, a SaaS application deployment platform native to our infrastructure. With this complete stack in place, business users can now build AI-enabled applications for their teams and deploy them on our corporate platform, inheriting its security framework and scalability.
Instead of teaching someone how to use AI, you're teaching them how to use a functional application to get real work done. Slide 25.
Full disclosure, given the breadth of the change, I struggled with how best to help you understand the impact we're seeing. At the half, I showed you what 3 weeks of work delivered for our global customer service team.
This time, I'm going to start with the customer benefit and work my way back to how AI made it possible. Next month, we'll be launching our NFC Coffee Experience, an extension of our solution offense.
It delivers a premium customer experience across the entire ownership journey, from choosing the right machine at retail to the last cup of coffee you make with it at home. It starts in the store.
Tap your phone on the tap-and-know card or the machine itself, and you get an engaging, customer-validated experience that walks you through the machine's key features and lets you compare across machines. No hunting for a sales associate or reading a spec sheet.
Then at home, during unboxing, you'll find a Breville card with an embedded NFC tag, plus a backup tag on the machine itself. Tap either one, and it walks you through setup and making your first coffee.
It keeps working for you over the years that follow: finding your favorite coffee on Beanz, creative coffee recipes, leveling up your skills, upgrading accessories, troubleshooting, and support. What you need, when you need it, from a single tap.
This is what premium should feel like. That's the customer experience.
The question that matters for this part of the discussion is how did one team build all of that in 8 months, 17 machines, 17 languages across 40 countries? This is where the AI storyline intersects.
Slide 26. Four SaaS AI applications, all run on the BRG platform, make this experience possible.
The UX Design application designed and consumer-validated both the retail and at-home experiences. The Recipe Production application produced the 120 hero recipes and extended them to the 660 machine-specific variants.
The Translation application will transform this output into 17 languages, and the Customer Support application, when incorporated, will give consumers AI-enabled troubleshooting support. Project kickoff was last January, go-live is September, across the entire coffee range in 40 countries, with some at-home experience functionality being added over the next couple of months.
For calibration, the most comparable program we've run is the Fast Track Barista pack program in 2025. This pre-AI deployment took 14 months to take eight markets live.
AI has driven a step change in our operating velocity. Here's the me-to-we point: three of the four applications were built by business users with no coding background who self-deployed the applications onto our platform.
Their teams aren't learning how to use AI, they're using a new application to get work done, which compounds because all future work runs through it. This is the ROI that derives from the productisation of AI.
Slide 27. Here's the magnitude of acceleration we're seeing from the recipe and UX applications.
The 120 hero recipes that will make it into the NFC experience would have taken roughly 425 hours under the team's 2025 process. With the recipe application, they produced the 660 variant recipes in 67 hours.
That's a 6.3x improvement the first time they used the app. Couple it with the translation application pushing 660 recipes into 17 languages, and the benefit will go exponential.
The UX Design application is broader. That team designs product experiences like the Oracle Dual Boiler touchscreen, application experiences like Breville+ and the NFC program, and our websites across five brands and 17 languages.
With this new application, they are developing consumer-tested prototypes 5 times faster and handing off to the firmware team 2 to 3 months earlier. That handoff drives ROI leverage.
It shortens the development cycle of the product itself, which means products with a heavy UX component get to market faster, accelerating revenue. Back up to the flywheel I opened with: NPD to GTM to geography.
The NFC program and the supporting AI applications touch all three, and tokens are enabling the same team to cover more ground faster. While we are on the front edge of our progression from me to we, the compounding is already visible.
Every application we deploy makes the next project faster and better, permanently. I've said that with this enterprise transformation, you eat the elephant one bite at a time.
With the requisite infrastructure deployed, we are now doing this at pace. Rolling all of this execution together, we now have a geographically diversified manufacturing base, a compelling premium channel structure in the US, our new markets are firing on all cylinders, and we have continued innovation in NPD, and an expanding solution footprint with Beanz and Fast Track in the Netherlands and the global NFC Coffee Experience, all of which are being accelerated by the AI transformation program.
As always, there is much more to do, but I continue to be bullish about the hand we are playing. With that, I'll hand back to the operator for questions.
Operator
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.
If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question.
We kindly request that each participant limit their questions to one per turn. Please refrain from asking multipart questions in order to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate.
If you have additional questions, please rejoin the queue. Your first question comes from Shaun Cousins with UBS.
Please go ahead.
Shaun Cousins
Thanks. Good morning, Jim and Martin.
My question's just around the revenue uplift in '26 from the store-in-store with Best Buy. Could you just discuss the sell-in benefit that you got from those 300 Best Buy stores?
Was that material to growth? How do you cycle that in 20 '27?
Or does it sort of annualize a little bit more in '27 plus?
Jim Clayton
I think it's some of it. I think what's really driving the step-up is actually the sell-out, in a sense, where you get the sell-in.
I think the difference in whatever the first half of '27 is those store-in-stores didn't go till November. Effectively from July to November, you don't have a prior year.
Martin Nicholas
We will get annualisation for that piece, yeah.
Jim Clayton
What I mean? You have the sell-in that happened pre-November, but now you have the July to November period this year where you then catch up, and you go on a forward run rate in November.
I wouldn't think it wasn't, not material. You'll take it, but it's not what's driving it.
Martin Nicholas
The annualisation benefit will be there, but I think the question is more around how do you feel those stores are going, are we pleased with the implementation?
Jim Clayton
That's the real trick. Is it working?
The short version, which I said in the script without disclosing something I shouldn't, is it's going really well, which is why Best Buy is asking us to expand.
Operator
Your next question comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Craig Woolford
Good morning, Jim and Martin. Can I just clarify the tariff impact?
You've obviously highlighted a negligible impact on the P&L, that makes sense. There's two numbers that have been disclosed.
One was the cash flow refund of $59.6 million, and then somewhere buried in the annual report, there's a provision amount in there of, I think it was something like $55 million.
Martin Nicholas
Yeah.
Craig Woolford
You just clarify that?
Martin Nicholas
Yeah. Happy to speak to tariffs.
It hasn't been an easy year with tariffs, it's been volatility all over the place. Probably the headline, Craig, is I'm genuinely proud of how we've managed this, robustly, collaboratively, and, critically, on a net basis with our value chain.
When we paid tariffs, our value chain, our supply chain, leant in to help manage the cost impost in all of our interests, and we're treating the refunds with the same net approach. We've provided accordingly.
That's the provision you see in note 6 in our accounts. You're correct, we did receive $59.6 million in.
They're not quite a one-for-one match, but they're pretty close. Therefore, net-net on FY26, the profit impact was minimal.
Operator
Your next question comes from Apoorv Sehgal with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Apoorv Sehgal
Hey, good morning, Jim and Martin. My question's about gross margins.
Can we talk about the gross margin trajectory into FY27 compared to the second half '26 outcome of 36.8%? I think one key sort of upcoming tailwind seems to be the opportunity to localize component sourcing, which was something you discussed at the first half result.
I think back then in February, you were saying that localization opportunity was more of an FY27 story. I guess net-net, if we assume no further changes in the US tariff environment or the oil-related supply chain backdrop, would it be fair to expect FY27 gross margins to potentially move a bit higher versus that second half '26 outcome of 36.8%?
It's a
Martin Nicholas
good question, Apoorv. There's certainly some tailwinds.
There's certainly some company-specific tailwinds, the first of which is we finished the half at 36.8%. The second of which is we've now got our manufacturing base just where we want it, and that's given us the benefit at the moment of slightly lower tariffs.
The mix of tariffs is slightly in our favor, certainly versus first half last year, even versus second half, as that mix has moved towards 100% from the new sites. I guess the third tailwind that you've got going forward is the localization and the efficiencies of those new plants.
As they get up to full speed, we get benefit from that, and as we get localization, which is progressing well, we get a benefit from that of not moving parts from China and then manufacturing locally. The other point that's important about that is it also gives us the locally contributed content.
If rules in tariffs start changing around what defines something as local, we're moving on the right side of that equation. There's definitely tailwinds in our favor.
Headwinds, a little bit more uncertain. The Middle East situation and oil prices remains unknown.
Could get worse, could get better. As I said in my part of the speech, tariff rates at the moment, reasonably happy with them, but there is some thought that they would move higher in the second half.
Yes, we've got tailwinds against that 36.8%, which if you like are in our hands, and then we've got external, possible headwinds of the oil price and of tariff rates pushing against us, and then we'll see how we balance out.
Operator
Your next question comes from Shaun Soo with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Shaun Zhu
Morning, team. Thanks a lot for taking my question.
My question is around the young market or you call emergent market here. It's good to see the 74% growth for the full year FY26.
I'm just curious to know what's the revenue growth in the second half '26? Also, is China and the Middle East looks like it's contributing to the biggest of growth here?
Thank you.
Martin Nicholas
The growth in the second half was better than in the first half. I can give you that, Shaun, but I think Jim can talk more broadly to how we're performing in those markets.
Jim Clayton
Honestly, all four of them, they have different levels of maturity, the sense that the Middle East and China have just posted their first year. I think both of them did exceptionally well and continue to.
I find the Middle East most interesting given all the activity that's been going on there. Mexico and Korea went a little bit earlier, but they're still firing as well.
I look at all four of them together in a sense, from a construct of magnitude. Korea has been on a run since we got there, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down.
I think all of them are doing well. I think this bit of a step-up that we see is a function of I guess three things.
One, we're not eating the cutover cost for one, and you now have China and the Middle East at the same time, coming into that group, and both China and Middle East came out very strong in their first year. You just wrap all that together.
Do I think it's going to hold 74 for the next 10 years? No, but it's
Martin Nicholas
It will be bigger. It's
Jim Clayton
getting bigger fast. They're not growing just a little bit faster than the enterprise, they're growing a lot faster than the enterprise, they will fight above their weight as we move forward.
Operator
Your next question comes from Sam Haddad with Petra Capital. Please go ahead.
Sam Haddad
Hi, Jim. Hi, Martin.
Congratulations on the strong cash flow result. In terms of suppliers, what you've seen in terms of supply of raw materials, availability of raw materials, particularly on the back of the flare-up of the Iran war, I understand it moved into sort of an auction-like market in plastic resins.
What are you seeing right now, and how far forward have you secured supply both from plastic resin, and also just talk about stainless steel and what does the backdrop looks like there as well? Thank you.
Martin Nicholas
Thanks, Sam. You're right in terms of the longer the Middle East situation goes on, the tighter some of the materials are getting.
We have deliberately bought forward in plastic resins, substantially forward, which we'll find out in the fullness of time if that was a good move or a bad move. It's a good move in terms of securing supply.
We'll see what price does during the year. We're starting to see the same in stainless steel.
Jim, I don't know if you want to talk about how we worked with chief operating officer and how that was pushed through?
Jim Clayton
Look, whether it's COVID or everything else that happened, right, all of these volatility things that hit our supply chain, because we plan every single SKU out for 104 weeks rolling, it allows us to, confidently is maybe the word I would choose, make forward decisions. On the resin front, we took two steps, which is when things kicked off, almost immediately,
Martin Nicholas
Yeah.
Jim Clayton
We moved on getting physical possession that took us through roughly by January, February.
Martin Nicholas
First half covered. It
Jim Clayton
was kind of round one. Then when we got into June, I signed off on the rest of '27.
I think within the next I don't know, month and some change, plastic resin will not be relevant in that conversation other than on that 2020 hindsight of how did Martin do on price. Right now it looks like it was a good decision.
It's a good decision, period. Then it's just dollars and cents after that.
Martin Nicholas
I feel good about security of supply. It's one of the minor headwinds in terms of, yes, that plastic resin in FY27 is going to be a bit more expensive than we paid in '26, but I'd rather have it in the barn.
Jim Clayton
Yep.
Martin Nicholas
Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from Tim Lawson with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Tim Lawson
Hi, Jim, Martin. Thanks for taking my question.
Just in terms of new markets, obviously principally China and MEA, how material was that performance at 74% to the overall group, and should we anticipate any other new direct markets impacting sales in the outlook?
Jim Clayton
How material is it? I'd say I haven't run the number.
Martin Nicholas
Yeah. I would be using the words not material yet, Tim, but more material than it was last year.
It's growing the whole time. Did it help us hit the 9.7 constant currency?
Yes, it was definitely a help. Is it big enough to yet compensate for other major markets?
Not yet, but potential is exciting. In terms of new markets, Jim?
Jim Clayton
We continue to work on that vector as we always do. Whether that hits in '27 or '28, it's a little early to call.
New markets will be coming online in the next 2 years, for sure.
Martin Nicholas
For sure.
Operator
Your next question comes from Tom Kierath with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Oh,
Tom Kierath
morning, Jim. Morning, Martin.
You guys always kind of target double-digit EBIT growth, so that 10%. This year, you're saying, well, this year you've delivered 1, and if I read out from February, your guidance, you say here, "Given the magnitude of US tariff increases, our value chain is absorbing in '26, we're going to do lower growth."
As it turns out, to answer to Craig's question, you didn't actually absorb higher tariff costs, you got that refund. I'm just trying to work out why earnings growth wasn't your usual 10%, or is it something that you kind of going to catch up potentially over the next few years?
Martin Nicholas
Thank you, Tom. A couple of things on that.
IEEPA tariffs is one of the tariffs that have been faced in the year, and certainly the neutralization of those doesn't turn '26 into a low-cost year. We also had steel tariffs, and then applied to all steel, then to the total value of the goods.
We had global tariffs introduced in April when IEEPA rolled off, and we had the small matter of transitional costs as we were rapidly diversifying our manufacturing base from China to outside of China. Yes, IEEPA tariffs late in the day were neutralized, but it didn't turn it into a low-cost year.
What you did see as we exited the second half was improving gross margins, you are seeing some of the benefit of a lower-tariff position as we exited the half. As I sit and look at FY26, it certainly wasn't a low-cost year, it was a high-cost year, that's why as we've kept investing in the growth engines of our business, we've delivered a lower EBIT growth than, in inverted commas, normal, and as we move into next year, yes, let's see if we move back to a more normal cadence.
Operator
Your next question comes from James Lee with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
James Lee, your line is now live. Please proceed with your question.
James Lee
Hello, can you hear me?
Martin Nicholas
Yes.
James Lee
Thanks for taking my question, guys. My question's around the US consumer.
I know we had an earlier Amazon Prime Day this year. What sort of reordering activity have we seen post that day?
Any comments on the US consumer for the start of '27?
Jim Clayton
I'd say the same thing I said at the half, which is the premium consumer remains resilient, maybe is that the way I would describe looking at the US. I know we're talking about '26, but we're all of 1 month into '27, I'd say we're seeing the trends of '26 carry into '27.
Far the premium consumer continues to do well, and both coffee and cooking seem to have a tailwind behind them.
Operator
Your next question comes from Wei-Weng Chen with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Wei-Weng Chen
Hi, guys. Just on the valuation provision of 55.2, just wondering to double check that the difference between the money in, the 59.6, and that 55.2 was the P&L impact for this year?
Also just kind of what the confidence level you have in that number that you provided for, are these obligations contractually sort of binding, and is there a scenario whereby you might need to reverse these provisions?
Martin Nicholas
Look, they're absolutely my best estimate of the liability that exists today, otherwise it wouldn't be in our balance sheet. Yes, if you just take those two binary numbers, that is the difference between those two.
One was a cost to P&L, one was a benefit to P&L, yes, you would get a net number coming out at the end. The provision represents the fact that when tariffs came on, we shared the burden.
When tariffs come off, we would expect to share the refund.
Wei-Weng Chen
Are they contractually obliged? No,
Martin Nicholas
contractually, no. It's more of a recognition of a commercial reality of how tariffs were managed on a collaborative basis all year.
Operator
Your next question comes from Jared Gelsomino with Morgans. Please go ahead.
Jared Gelsomino
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question.
Just trying to understand the composition of the half. I think we've seen some pretty strong updates from peers through the second quarter, and just trying to understand how you guys performed relative to that, in terms of market share, how would you view what your performance in the second quarter in terms of holding, growing, or potentially losing some?
Jim Clayton
Second quarter, you mean, I think you mean second half. We we saw a step-up in the second half.
Martin Nicholas
The second half of the second half, I think the question is.
Jim Clayton
The second half of the second half.
Martin Nicholas
Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Clayton
I don't look at the second half of the second half. If I look at the second half as a whole, look, my read is if you look across the whole subset, you come up with the same kind of storyline that we've had for years, right, which is there is a coffee tailwind, everybody in the coffee space benefits from that tailwind and rising tide lifts all boats.
Depending on who you pick, we all kind of have our parts of the market in which we play, and my read is that tailwind is robust and wide. I think everyone's doing well, which is what you want to see.
Operator
Your next question comes from Olivier Coulon with E&P Financial Group. Please go ahead.
Olivier Coulon
Hi, gents. Just on the contribution from the distributor markets.
Obviously, they lag a bit, some of those are quite mature. Is it fair to say that they're probably being a bit more cautious in terms of investing in sell-in and inventory levels than certainly you have?
Jim Clayton
Honestly, Olivier, it isn't that. It's actually just how long that cycle is, how long their lead time is with us, and, in a sense, they have to guess forward.
In a way, it's almost like if I pick on China and the team delivered 7.1 times the revenue of our distributor, why didn't the distributor deliver that the year before? Because obviously the market was there.
The distributor market is what I would call relatively inefficient, and kind of has been since 2015, which is one of the reasons why we go through the conversion. It's just a function of how long their lead times are in ordering from us, and so it's kind of an 18-month cycle through and through.
If I lined up all of the distributors, you'll see in any given period, any given snapshot, you'll see some of them growing faster than BRG, some of them slower, this and that, and it's all because they're at a different point in their wave. I don't think it's not anything related to their individual market or whatever.
I think their relative performance is a function of how effective they are in that market, but basically you just see this kind of sine wave that plays through, and that's really what you're seeing.
Operator
Your next question comes from James Casey with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
James Casey
Good morning, gentlemen. Just given all the distractions and challenges you encountered in FY26, I just wonder if you could make some broad comments around NPD and how the outlook looks for the next year or two.
Jim Clayton
The good news about NPD is they ride below what I call ride below the waterline. If I think about COVID, that would be a distraction that was much bigger than '26.
The operations team runs around with their hair on fire every day, and the NPD team, like a metronome, continues to do what they do. I think the one thing that was different, to be fair, in '26 was a part of the NPD team was heavily engaged in the diversification of the supply chain, so that's, in a way, the first time really since I've been here in 2015 that anything affected them.
What I would say on the NPD pipeline is that the pipeline that I see in front of us over the next 24 and some change, I would describe as the strongest pipeline I've seen since I've been here. We'll start to see the front edge of that release in the first half of '27, and then you're going to see just one after another after another.
I think what you do get a little bit, because we had to put some of the team onto the diversification exercise, the extent to which we had to allocate that capacity pushed some delay in the products that they were associated with. If you go out to 24 months, that all washes out.
Very very encouraged by the pipeline that I'm seeing over the next 24.
Operator
Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions today, and that does conclude our conference for today.
Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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