Simon Henry
FY26 was a tough year for DGL. We have suffered significant losses in production and profit due to the hold-ups caused by the rollout of a complex group-wide ERP system.
We have also suffered significantly as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. We've also invested heavily, um, to support future growth, which has impacted on profit.
We continue to relocate to larger and more efficient chemical storage facilities. Um, we have worked tirelessly to integrate the 30-plus companies we have bought since listing to form one large industrial group.
Turning to slide six. As I've stated, FY26 was a tough year, with management focused on building out the infrastructure necessary to support future growth and integrating the various companies we've acquired over the last four years.
The good news is most of the heavy lifting has now been done, and we are poised for growth. Let's turn to slide seven.
Health and safety. We have made great progress building the internal systems and controls necessary to ensure we operate safely and in full compliance with all the relevant legislation.
Turning to slide eight. DGL is a vertically integrated chemical manufacturing and logistics group with an annual throughput of over a million tonnes of materials a year.
The group is divided into three divisions: chemical manufacturing and formulation, warehousing and transport, and environmental services, mainly focused on the treatment of liquid industrial waste. Turning to slide nine.
Since DGL was founded in Wellington, New Zealand, 25 years ago, we have built an extensive and integrated network of assets across Australia and New Zealand. We have an ongoing program to rationalize and improve the efficiency of our network.
I'll now hand the pack over to Gaggan, our CFO.
Gagan Singh
Thank you, Simon. Next slide, please.
We delivered higher revenues in manufacturing and logistics in FY26 despite global volatility. However, Environmental Services revenue was significantly lower.
This was mainly due to closing our loss-making battery recycling plant in Victoria in late FY25. Higher input costs reduced margins, and low-cost import competition added pressure to pricing.
Driver shortages led to more use of contractors, which increased costs. The higher cost and reduced availability of lead acid batteries for recycling also impacted margins.
We expanded capacity in both manufacturing and warehousing, but in the short term, that reduced margins due to underutilized capacity. The driver shortage has been largely resolved, and we are seeing better utilization of our transport fleet.
We are also increasing utilization in our larger warehouses in particular. Next slide, please.
Our focus on productivity reduced operating costs by $11 million in FY26. This included lower headcount along with other productivity gains.
Most of the cost reductions occurred during the year, we will not get the full annualized benefit until FY27. The large statutory loss is driven by non-cash write-downs.
These include write-downs of plant and equipment in our Environmental division, and a write-down of goodwill in our Logistics division to more conservative levels. A large part of the drop in operating cash flow is the payment of tax liabilities, which were an adjustment from prior years, but paid in FY26.
Next slide, please. Manufacturing profitability fell despite higher revenues.
This was driven by higher operating costs following a significant expansion at one of our major facilities, reduced demand for crop protection products, which was weather-driven, and competition from cheap imported chemical products. The ERP system implementation also impacted some production for a period, but this has been resolved.
We are positive about improving utilization and profitability in this division. Next slide, please.
Logistics revenue was solid, but earnings were impacted by fuel costs and driver shortages. We pass on fuel costs where possible, but volatility makes it difficult to recover the full increase.
Our driver recruitment practices have improved along with utilization of larger warehouses. However, it was a drag on earnings last year.
Next slide, please. Environmental Services revenue dropped, largely due to the sale of our loss-making battery recycling plant in Victoria.
This improved annual profitability, and we have also reduced overheads. Pricing and supply of used lead acid batteries has improved recently, and we expect our new liquid waste treatment plant will contribute to earnings next year after extensive delays.
Next slide, please. On the balance sheet, working capital improved due to lower inventories.
Net assets declined, due in part to our underlying operating loss, but mainly due to our conservative approach to nearly $30 mil of non-cash write-downs on goodwill and plant and equipment. Next slide, please.
Managing our operating costs is a key focus. We have improved productivity and reduced headcount and overheads.
Maintaining our focus on costs and realizing efficiencies across the business is a key part of improving our profitability. Next slide, please.
Operating cash flow was reduced by lower margins and payment of tax liabilities, mostly from adjustments relating to prior years, prior periods, but paid in FY26. Our investing cash flows included $30 mil in sale of non-core assets and $18 mil investment in new plant and equipment.
Financing cash flows include the repayment of debt and lease liabilities of $23 mil. Overall, our operating cash flow cash conversion remained solid at 100% in FY26.
I'll now hand the pack over to Simon.
Simon Henry
Thank you very much, Gaggan. Ah turning to slide 20.
Strategic priorities for FY27. Health and safety: the ongoing investment into systems, trainings, and controls to ensure that we operate at the highest achievable standards possible.
Increased profitability: our hard work is paying off and we are seeing the early signs of a significant improvement in profitability in the uh in the in FY27. Organic growth: DGL will continue to reinvest its free cash back into the business to drive organic growth.
Integration and consolidation: we continue to fully integrate the companies we have acquired uh since listing to create one scaled industrial group. Turning to slide 21.
Trading update and outlook. We are seeing significant improvement in profit thus far in FY27 as a result of the hard work and tough decisions we made in FY26.
We do expect ongoing challenges from the conflict in the Middle East. DGL is now a well-structured industrial group of significant scale, and management is very much focused on improving profitability throughout FY27.
I thank you for listening and we'll uh now open up the floor to questions.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you, Simon. We've got a few questions coming through, I'll hold.
Just bear in mind that some questions, if you have typed in a question, um other people may have asked a a question of the same nature, it won't necessarily be read out verbatim. I will be um uh collating questions as they come in.
Uh the first question is, "The board highlighted that the recent capital investments that have dragged on earnings, but provided significant growth capacity for FY27. What specific capacity utilization targets and/or revenue uh thresholds across the DGL production and storage networks needs to be reached to bring the group back to underlying net profitability?"
Simon Henry
It's quite a complex question, of course. Um any utilization less than 100% is not ideal, but it's extremely difficult to get all assets to 100%.
We do have an internal ambition of driving revenue above half a billion dollars a year, and we are tracking well towards that target in the early signs here in FY27. We are looking to achieve uh EBITDA margins between sort of 8% and 9% on that, but it's very early days yet.
They are the internal targets that we are working towards.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you. Um one shareholder has pointed out that the that the business was worth more arguably um prior to IPO without the use of the uh shareholders' funds.
Um to that end, what is DGL doing to correct the flawed capital allocation process? Are you considering adding people to the board that have a track record in this regard?
Simon Henry
Look, it's a valid question, or a valid criticism if I can say that. I believe that we have far better internal controls and disciplines now um uh uh surrounding or regarding how we allocate capital.
I've got a solid and experienced CFO at my side. I have an experienced board, and we are much more careful about how we spend capital capital, and we are much more cynical about some of the promises have been that have been given to us in business um cases of why we should spend here and there.
Um we don't actually need to spend much capital now. We've got the assets and we've got the capacity to achieve the profit targets that we've set for ourselves.
Next question?
Andrew Draffin
Thank you. Um there's several questions regarding um the impact of Chinese imports, I'll paraphrase a few of them, but the first one is, which product categories is this specifically impacting?
Simon Henry
I'm not going to go into the commercial granular details of it. Um China has excess capacity across the board with chemicals.
We've faced competition in the past from China. They're also our biggest provider of raw materials.
It's about being smart and understanding what products um are best formulated locally and not actually competing head on with some of the commoditized products coming out of China.
Andrew Draffin
Why have Chinese imports only now become an issue, and how can Australian manufacturing compete?
Simon Henry
They've always been an issue, or they've been an issue for a number of years. They come and go.
Um how does Australia's manufacturing compete with the cheap Australian imports? It it really goes back to my answer before.
It's about identifying those products that need to be made locally. Keep in mind that it's expensive to ship liquids.
A lot of chemicals are obviously in liquid form, and that's where we come in by buying the dry, raw ingredients and formulating them locally for for consumers.
Andrew Draffin
Following on on the topic, what's the value of DGL's integrated services if clients are simply willing to shift to lower-cost China Chinese products, and what strategic changes is DGL [made?] to adapt to this problem?
Simon Henry
Can you read the question again, please, Andrew?
Andrew Draffin
What is the value of DGL's integrated services if clients are simply willing to shift to lower-cost China Chinese products?
Simon Henry
Once once again, um our customers, our clients, have always sourced some of their materials directly from China and they have sourced other materials from us, and that that's the case today. There's always competition from China that keeps us honest and causes us to have to run a very efficient um um company.
Um there is for for every challenge we face from China with fully formulated materials, there's an equal number of opportunities in Australia for us to tap into other markets and other consumer products that we're not currently involved with.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you. Um some shareholders have expressed some frustration at the continued delays in delivering commitments.
Um the New South Wales environmental project is highlighted as one of those. Um what strategies have you got in place to make sure that commitments can be met year-on-year?
Simon Henry
There are two sides to that question really. There are a number of projects that we have executed on that have come in on time and on budget.
Um the liquid waste treatment plant at Unanderra has been delayed um primarily um as a result of the incredibly complex and frustrating licensing processes we have to go through with the authorities, with multiple authorities, with overlapping and conflicting um um um regulations. That said, we are treating liquid waste there.
We have treated some liquid waste through the new plant on a trial basis, and I am confident, as the largest shareholder of DGL, that that plant will come on stream in the coming months and will, over time, prove to be a very, very significant um uh contributor to our profit.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you.
Simon Henry
Now, there's another part of that question I want to answer, and it's valid, and that is what are we doing to sort of stop this happening again in the future. Um it's really about having a quality project manager at the at the outset of the project with a clear program and timetable and expectations.
In the past, we've tried to do it internally, and that has failed, and we acknowledge that. Um
Andrew Draffin
next question is, how confident is DGL of filling the capacity and over what time frame will it be filled?
Simon Henry
The capacity of the liquid waste treatment plant?
Andrew Draffin
No, sorry. This would be related to storage.
Warehouse capacity.
Simon Henry
We run a network of licensed chemical storage facilities. Um some of our competition has gone out of business.
We've expanded our capacity by 20% to 30% over the last 18 months, and we are well on track to have it to have the entire network—I think it's 120,000 tonnes—um near full capacity over the next 6 months. We are in discussion with a number of large customers who are looking for that national service footprint, and DGL can provide it.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you. Um is there any update on the cause of the Envirostream fire?
Uh
Simon Henry
no. There's lots of uh rumors and suspicions and suggestions, but there is no factual um report um or evidence of how the fire started or even where the fire started.
Andrew Draffin
No problem. Uh next question will be, what are the expected cost savings estimated to hit the bottom line in FY27?
Simon Henry
From what activity, Andrew? It doesn't
Andrew Draffin
The question doesn't specify what activity, but it would be across cost-saving initiatives. Okay.
That's fine.
Simon Henry
Yeah. Look, it might be directed towards our administration and shared services, um which has been one of our key focuses, and we've invested millions of dollars building a sophisticated and professional and efficient service hub in Parramatta.
Um it's effectively built now and the departments are all established and running well. Um we believe that the current framework and structure we've got in Parramatta will be able to support a significantly bigger business than we have today without additional expenditure.
Um as we continue to roll out this ERP system and other um um um standardizations of other software systems, um further savings will be achieved over FY27. We are committed to getting our administration costs down to less than $0.02 in the dollar of revenue, and we're well on track to that.
Um
Andrew Draffin
what do you expect to be the the scale of the liquid waste water treatment plant, and could we see the environmental business expand back to its size prior to the collapse of the battery processing business?
Simon Henry
To answer the question um um honestly and bluntly, I don't believe that the liquid waste treatment plant in itself will replace the um significant profit we were making at the end of COVID out of recycling lead batteries. Um but I do believe it will be a significant contributor to DGL's profit, and it will certainly lift the Environmental division up, um as as being a um I'm not going to say a third of our profit, but a a significant contributor.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you. Um are there any road shows planned with investors, uh brokers, super funds, etc.?
Constant.
Simon Henry
I'm constantly engaged with fund managers and investors throughout the year. Um I would have to check my diary, but I don't know if anything is booked at this time.
Andrew Draffin
Um there's a couple of other questions relating to directors' shareholdings. That's not something that Simon can answer, uh what their um what their plans are about acquiring shares, etc., there is quite a few there, but I'll just point that out that we can't answer that.
Um apart from that, I think we're getting near the end of the um the questions. I guess one more back to the um Chinese competition, oh and I don't know if you can answer this, Simon, but what are the formulations we are making locally that are are uncompetitive,
Simon Henry
and
Andrew Draffin
are we looking to cease some product lines?
Simon Henry
I'm not going to disclose um the the commercial granular detail of individual product lines. Um but as as with all businesses, we continually assess the lines that we're involved with, those that are profitable and those that are unprofitable.
Obviously, we cease those that are unprofitable and we focus on those that are profitable, and we look to grow those that are profitable.
Andrew Draffin
Thank you. There's another question here as to why is the board absent today?
Simon Henry
My understanding is that this is a presentation for Gaggan and me, and the board is present at the AGM.
Andrew Draffin
That concludes the questions that I have in front of me. If there is a question that you believe that hasn't been answered, uh please email that through to Barbara.
Her details were on the uh invitation email, and uh we will certainly come back to you. Apologies if I have missed anything, but I think we have captured most of the questions that have come through.
Simon Henry
Thank you very much, everyone, for dialling in, and thank you, Andrew, and thank you, Gaggan.
Gagan Singh
Thank you, everyone. Thanks, Simon.
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