Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the 2026 half year results for Michelmersh.

I know there are a quite a few of you on the call, and I just want to sort of give you a bit of a sort of plan, running order of the presentation. I am just going to give a brief overview.

I know lots of you will know us very, very well. Then I'll I'll try and cover the half year results in in relatively quick order, give you a bit of an outlook, and then try and allow lots of time for questions.

Those of you who joined very kindly in March will know that there was quite a lot of interest in terms of questions post presentation, we'll try and ensure that that's facilitated and everybody gets a chance to ask ask what they want to ask of me today. About Michelmersh, we are a a premium brick and prefabricated brick manufacturer.

We operate throughout the UK with a further facility in Belgium. We have four principle lifetime revenue sources.

Really that's reflective of the life cycle of our, the nature of our quarries more than anything else. We start by digging the clay out of the ground to manufacture the bricks.

We put those bricks into prefabricated brick components and systems. Once we've consumed what we need or want from the land, that becomes what we call non-core and surplus, and that becomes treated as investment land.

Before that element, if we need to fill the holes back in from digging out the raw materials and the clay, we operate and have licenses at our sites for landfill operations. They are all dormant because all sites are currently active or in investment land status.

We've got the capacity for 120 million bricks to be made across our manufacturing facilities. We're we're not quite at those levels at the moment, and I'll give you a bit more detail of that through the presentation.

We operate six market-leading premium brands, and we have about 180 core products within our range, and you can see on the on the right-hand side there our areas of operation. Just turning then to the page on the key elements of our strategy, very much focused on the premium end of the of the market and you know very much focused on innovation and sustainability within that space.

That does cover, as I said, premium bricks, pavers, and special threats, special-shaped bricks. We look to address the full market demand, and particularly in what has been a very long trough, and those of you who've had the opportunity to read the RNS, again, you can see that the broader market is circa 25% down from our recent highs in 2022.

The manner in which we try and navigate those markets is very much focused on targeting new builds, RMI, repairs, maintenance, and improvements, as well as then a sort of bucket of others, which is architectural specification, schools, hospitals. At any one time where, our plan very much is at any one time if one of those markets is quieter, we look to try and drive opportunities in in one of the other two major pillars there.

We tend to sell through distribution, and again, that limits the the sort of the size and the scope of the commercial team. Again, that's been very much the run of of how we've sold for many, many years.

As a result of that, we have very long-standing customer and distributor relationships, which again, we see that as a as a really crucial part of underpinning our resilience. Again, those of you who have had the opportunity to see the RNS will see that word resilience in in in many places.

Fundamentally, our strength is underpinned by by a strong balance sheet. That's allowed us to take lots of decisions over the last few years, particularly as I say, the markets have been undulating and unpredictable, given the state of the broader construction markets.

Very focused on maintaining that balance sheet strength as we look out, and again, I'll come on to talk about that in a bit more detail. Just in terms of capital allocation framework, we we really clarified this first and foremost in September 2024, and those of you who joined calls back then will remember me talking about this.

Really trying to just be very, very clear with shareholders and stakeholders about how to to think about the business and how we allocate our capital. I've talked about strong the strong balance sheet, it underpins all decisions really.

First and foremost, maintaining safe and efficient plants is absolutely a a major priority. You will have seen if you followed results in '24 and '25, we've had an above normal cadence of capital investments.

We put £11 million into our sites over those 2 years. You'll have seen if you've seen today's results that we're again back to that sort of normal level.

Normal level we talk about is £3 million to £4 million investing in enhancing our facilities. That's really the number to think about on a on a sort of steady state.

Very much focused and respecting regular returns to shareholders. You can see that while the dividend hasn't grown over the last 2 years, we've maintained the dividend.

Again, I feel like where there are not too many examples of that within the construction sector where that dividend and maintaining that steady dividend yield has been an important facet of what we've been really looking try to achieve. Again, sitting alongside dividends is the the more flexible share buyback program.

Again, you can just see on the box on the right in terms of the target there, very much talking about returning excess. What we mean by excess is once we're into a net cash position again, really explaining why in a low net debt position at the moment, albeit today, you can see in in the morning statement, we flagged our expectation of returning to cash next year.

That the sort of the -5 that's on the balance sheet at the 30th of June, we expect that to be a a low point in terms of where that borrowing position is. Now, the the important bit really in terms of the interim results and the overview, the key messages, if if if you leave with nothing this afternoon, it's really about the fact that this is a self-help period of the business and has been really for the last 12 to 18 months.

This is really been about managing, adapting, and flexing the business model and the manner in which we manufacture and operate to allow us to adjust to the market conditions. I I think, by my reckoning, we probably had five false dawns since the start of 2023, where we thought that the recovery was building some momentum, only to be impacted by another major macro factor, which you'll all know on the call what they are.

In terms of the bit of detail and why we talk about that resilience, the broader market is is now down back again over 25%. Really that's the reflective of just how challenging the construction sector is.

We measure that number by UK brick dispatches, which is a which is the government statistics. We know that that is a a good indicator of where we are.

Within that performance, our own revenue, our own top-line performance is down 9.5%. Just unpacking that number a little bit, there's This is really made up of three major items: Our own dispatches are down about 2% period-on-period.

Again, if you see that that delta in terms of 9% for the broader sector, that's really where the outperformance has come from, and where the indications are of having grown market share against the absolute UK brick dispatch volumes. The second part of that is average selling prices.

Again, if you've known and joined me on previous calls, you'll know that we've really been trying to target stability of selling prices for our end customers. We've had a small 2% drop on average selling prices.

That is in a market which is highly, highly competitive. There are about half a billion, 550 million bricks on the ground in terms of inventory volumes across all the manufacturers in the UK.

That is really facilitated a lot of pricing competition in terms of the behaviors of of of the brick manufacturers as everybody tries to chase cash-generating opportunities and to to to gain market share in a in a difficult market. The third element, and again, we try to be really clear on this, this is about a little bit of product mix: London and the Southeast particularly, where Freshfield Lane and Michelmersh sort of southern sites, which are both soft mud producing sites.

London and the Southeast has been difficult for about 2.5 to 3 years. That really started with the legislation changes that came off the back of the Grenfell tragedy.

What essentially that did under Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 legislation is that pushed forward the need for complete planning applications as opposed to, in the old days before Gateway 2 and 3, you would do those plans in stages. What that allowed for was more progress to happen on site.

What then happened was an absolute period of about 12 to 14 months, where the market was delayed in London and the Southeast. Now, whilst that is alleviated, that has been replaced with challenges around consumer confidence and the changes in the cost space for developers.

Therefore, the gross development values of the sites, particularly around London and the Southeast, have been under quite a lot of pressure, and therefore the ability to commit those sites has been more challenging. There is planning in place for lots of sites, but unfortunately, again, that sort of consumer confidence environment and that sentiment has been impacting progress there in terms of that specific part of the marketplace.

Then the other element just to throw out is is where the prefabricated portfolio is quite new-build-focused. We've been really trying to integrate those assets around our own brick sites, on our own freehold sites.

Equally, we have also had to move away from lower-margin manufacturing, and that's been a deliberate, a deliberate part of decision we've taken across the last 6 to 12 months really, which is just to start to really try and take this portfolio into the more premium part of it. Lots of self-help that I talked about there, very much has supported the margin improvement you can see on the second bullet on the left of the slide there.

Again, whilst revenue has obviously dropped, and I've just run through that, very focused on self-help in terms of the cost base, controlling those elements that are within our gift, and you can see that coming through in the margin margin improvement. Whilst we are in a sort of a 5 million borrowing position, I've talked about that being the the sort of the high point for us in terms of that level of debt.

We see a stronger H2 in terms of cash collections and cash conversion in terms of taking that back towards that cash-positive position. What have we done, I suppose, with regards to that self-help?

This middle column is really facilitated that. We've been very focused in those 2 years, I talked about in terms of more clear CapEx investment.

What we're really trying to do there was pull forward the timing of capital improvement activities to give ourselves time for the market to improve. We've done that, and those sites have responded well off the back of that.

What we've had to do now is, for particularly at Freshfield Lane, we have had to take a more deliberate and targeted response, and we have slowed down production there by 30% at a key site in the South. Again, that's really because of the unique challenges within London and the Southeast.

Equally, Michelmersh, which is the other southern site below the M4 corridor, that site was closed at the start of the year. We kept our people on, who did a lot of work themselves.

They know their sites the best. Then we reopened that site in May, and it it moved towards full capacity in August.

Again, that was to facilitate for prefabricated expansion on that site, but also some facility improvements as well to drive the efficiency of of the operation there. I think what we'd largely say now is those reorganization activities have largely now completed, and our expectation is in the guidance in terms of the second half, in terms of margin improvement, cash improvement, that a lot of the hard work over the last 12 to 18 months, we expect to now deliver and start to help the business get back towards a more steady state.

Again, we will continue to monitor, we will continue to be agile, and we will continue to flex the business if we need to. Then the last section here, in terms of the discipline around capital allocation, you've seen me talk about normalized CapEx.

As I say, just repeating that £3 million to £4 million is the way to think about the business. That visibility of that net cash position again continues to allow us to take the right decisions through our capital allocation strategy as we see them.

Clearly, again today, declare an interim dividend, which was in line with last year. We think that's a really important indicator, given the state of the broader sector.

I'll move over the financial highlights that's, and cover those within the income statements. With this, I'll I'll try and talk to moments by exception.

You've seen me talk about the gross margin improvement there. Within the central costs again, you can see that there's been a really clear effort to make sure that we're not growing central costs ahead of anything on the top line, or indeed coming through from from costs of production.

Very focused on ensuring that whilst top line has dropped 9.5%, you can see that through our own self-help, adjusted EBITDA is showing that pickup at 1.7%. Likewise, the adjusted basic shares at the bottom there.

Again, you can see that really is starting to bear out now in terms of how we're focusing on the earnings progression through the income statement. Then just to draw the attention there to the finance costs, in a borrowing position, and a lot of that was around the timing of working capital, which I'll come and talk about on the balance sheet.

Again, very focused on getting that back, because we don't want the unnecessary leakage through through the income statement. The balance sheet, generally, again, the shape of this stays pretty consistent.

Amortization of the intangible fixed assets, you can see there, rhythmically moving down in line with with with how that we assess the intangible assets within the business. Tangible assets there, we we fair value our assets every year.

We do that in December in line with our full year-end process. That moves with both depreciation of asset bases and indeed where we're capitalizing costs to where we've enhanced our enhanced our assets.

The key there you can see is the networking capital, and I just want to talk about this in a in a little bit of detail. The really key bit to think about within the networking capital is the inventory position.

We have invested in inventory, and and really it was a crucial thing for us to do because number one, over the last 2 years, it allowed us to continue to fulfill customer orders in those sites at Floren, at at Carlton, at Blockleys, at Michelmersh, where we were doing work. It ensured an uninterrupted supply to our customers.

A lot of that inventory is now at at Freshfield Lane. Again, what this allows us to do is to reduce costs by 30% at that site, but we still have capacity to deliver in line with normal cadence, in line with the best of times at Freshfield Lane.

What we're able to do here with a strong balance sheet is to say, well, look, we've got we we bought ourselves here a window of time to monitor the market over a 12- to 24-month period to allow us to re-recruit those 30 people that we sadly lost in April. Really importantly, with Freshfield Lane, we've maintained a really high core quality of people there.

Rather than starting from scratch again if you've mothballed the whole site, you've got the core competencies and core skills on site there, so that you are training and embedding, rather than starting again. That was a really key consideration why we approach Freshfield Lane differently to to looking at the timing of capital improvement works.

You can see the net debt moment on the slide there, that sort of -5. The worst of our revenue window it is always December, January, and February.

Again, those collection months therefore then fall in January, February, and March. Q1 is always our lowest collection month.

There's a little bit of timing in there, and those of you who've who've who've had the chance to look at the full balance sheet in the RNS, you can see that in terms of the quantum of the receivables. Very little in there is doubtful.

We monitor that incredibly closely as you'd expect us to. That is a good number in terms of collections.

At the bottom of the page there, you can see NAV NAV per share, and you can obviously see there's a a decent dilution there in terms of current share price. We hope that that will improve over time.

Cash flow, very important statement for us. You can see there, again, the timing of working capital cycle there at the top of the page.

Again, normalizing of property, plant, and equipment there, 1.5 against the 3.8, very front-loaded. A lot of that 3.8, again, those of you who've joined before will know that we closed Carlton, which is one of our bigger sites, for 3 months for for capital improvement works.

A few other things on the page there: proceeds of loan drawdown, you can see 4 million borrowed in the first half. As I said, we expect to start paying that number back, expect that proceeds to start to be offset against against repayments as we move through towards the end of December.

Dividends on the page there, again, recognizing the importance of that, that's last year's interim declaration coming through on the page. Now market outlook and you know this is the bit I know lots of you are interested in.

I think what I would say in terms of the main takeaway from this slide is, if you if you look at the the gray bars that that that are now resembling Manhattan there on the right-hand side, you can really see the impact of the budget coming through. The budget last year, if you remember, was a longer process.

A further month was added to allow the Chancellor and the Prime Minister more time to look at budgeting plans, decision-making. Unfortunately, the impact there, as you can see, is by the end of November, by the time by the time that pronouncements came out, really the impact had happened on our sector.

Really pleasingly, since then, discipline to match deliveries against production has been much closer. You can see that illustration there in terms of that steady state 65 million period-on-period change.

As I said earlier, that does come with the risk of highly competitive average selling prices. Those people who are very focused on cash, of which we of course are one, but we are in a slightly better position with regards to our current level of borrowing and gearing, we need responsibility in the marketplace to to continue, but as I say, at the moment, it is highly competitive on the pricing front.

In terms of imports, those of you who are Sun readers or or Telegraph readers or Times readers will will will get different views on on imports. My view on imports has not changed.

It will represent 20% of the market. It will rise and fall.

Some of the headlines around British builders choosing European imports because of brick pricing, I I simply don't believe that is true. The the bigger part of that story is the need for a level playing field.

A need for a level playing field in terms of the cost of carbon and indeed utilities, they're the bigger factor. We can compete on price.

This is about the need for a product. If I take you back to 2007, we had 89 brick plants in the United Kingdom.

We are now down somewhere in the region of 43 to 44 because of because of sort of mothballing. UK capacity is about 1.9 billion.

That hasn't changed by the way since 2022. The more capacity that's been brought on by my peers has often been replacing capacity where indeed other sites have been closed permanently, so that 1.9 billion.

Therefore, in that number, European brick imports have replaced some of the products that we can no longer make. That's the reason why European imports are there and they're to stay.

You can see at the bottom, highly illustrative, the Belgians export 60% of their production. We know that market well, we've got a plant there.

We ourselves do import into the United Kingdom, albeit we work very hard to maintain a a strong local market, which for local for us is is West Germany, Holland, and and Belgium itself. You can see the level of exports from the UK very, very negligible.

A very small percentage, less than 1% probably of what we do. Very different markets, and again, very important that the government understands the need for that level playing field, albeit do understand that these products are required to match what has been built before in this country.

Just in terms of market structure, again, I've I've talked through these. Very indicative now, because it's so difficult to understand in absolute detail what my peer group are doing.

You can understand hopefully the clarity that we try to wrap around that in the RNS this morning, and indeed what I'm covering with you today. You can see there full market numbers at about 28 billion.

You can see normalized numbers, again, that that sort of illustrative drop back on the prior period coming through. We're once again expecting full-year numbers at around that 1.4 to 1.5 billion.

Really staying in the foothills of of of a challenging market. Again, it's about us having grown our market share within those challenging markets, as I say, and we measure that by our own brick dispatch volumes versus the broader market as reported to the government.

It's This slide is a is a it's a good slide, and I want to cast your mind to the medium term rather than the short term. We know the short-term challenges, and I'll cover those again in a little bit more detail.

In terms of the medium term, there is a critical shortage of new housing. It it is critical.

You can see the government's efforts to try to unblock the housing market, but it is difficult to turn, and it's difficult to turn quickly. As I say, the number one issue we face as a country is the confidence of us.

It's the confidence of of yourselves on the call to make decisions around improving your home, moving home. That is the key moment that we've got to look at, and we've got to try and look at supporting, improving that.

That just comes from sentiment and how we all feel in terms of making our own capital commitments against our own balance sheet and how we're feeling about our own longer-term financial security. We know inflation has remains above the Bank of England target, and that has sadly meant that we haven't had the sort of the three or four interest rate cuts that I think we can all sort of do business at, at around that sort of 3% level.

There is good mortgage availability. The banks are being more flexible with regards to interest-only, and I think that's an important part where people can make their own decisions for the short term while we expect things to improve if we get steady-state stability.

Of course, all of this is underpinned by what we believe is UK population expansion, but also, for those of you who've joined the call before, you'll know that there is a rise in single dwellers as well, which is also consuming the UK housing stocks. The government are committed to a target of the 300,000.

They keep doubling down on that. Of course, we're delighted to support them.

The number I always talk about is something approaching 200. At something approaching 200, we're all busy; at 220,000, that's what we did in 2022, by the way.

That is the 1.95 fully consumed with 550 million coming in from from overseas, for which the absolute lion's share is coming from those sort of Benelux countries. Again, anyone who's reading anything about India or China or Turkey, they are part of the market, but tiny as things stand, but again, not being complacent.

You can see the government are also talking about improving the planning process, reducing barriers, red tape, planning approvals. We don't know what this detail looks like in terms of mayoral decision-making, funding for for you know council housing as well.

You can see that stated commitment to quality social housing as well as rather than just simply being a volume game, and I think there's real recognition that how people live, where they live really makes a difference to the longer term. Then the bottom, the one that's very important for us, as I talked about, we always target that take here a third of our portfolio is the repairs, maintenance, improvements.

180 core bricks, nearly 300, another 120 of other. That is designed to mirror and, make sure that that gap where we close the 89 down to the sort of 44, 45 plants, we can fulfill that legacy.

When you want to build an extension in an area that no longer has a brick brick plant, we can assist you by a very broad range of of products, and it's a big part of what we do. I think we are winning the battle in terms of brick.

In terms of brick is best, you've heard me before talking about brick being best. It is a favorable material of choice for high-rise cladding, remedial work as well as well as specification projects.

The point I really want to get across is it's the lowest cost for the consumer. I don't just mean that in terms of banks like it, insurers like it, you'll like it because you don't have to spend as much on the facade.

Anyone that's got a painted property will know the cost of maintaining that is a steady state of of of repairs and maintenance. For us, the brick, we see it as having that 200-year lifespan, but it looks better pretty much every day from the day it's laid.

Really is an important part of the market for us. Again, addressing that full space is very important.

Again, trying to be true to my word of giving lots of time for questions, I just wanted to finish on the summary and outlook for us. Again, I hope it's really coming through that the markets are challenging, but our job is to be resilient within it.

Our business strategy has and continues to be very tested, but I think we're responding. Again, it it's our ability to flex our operations, be dynamic, and be agile, which is very much part and core of what we're trying to achieve, alongside being so focused on the elements that are within our gift in terms of cost control to support that margin improvement.

Strong order intake, look, it it remains a huge indicator of the demand for our products. Whilst the ability for us to predict the timing of that, and a lot of that is linked to our customers committing to full sites.

I'll give you a quick example of what that could look like. If you've got 100 houses through planning, for example, ordinarily you may build those out in three or four phases over a period of 12 months, and there'll be a call-off cadence from our brick sites to facilitate the build profile.

What we're seeing at the moment is some of the uncertainty within the consumer space is meaning that developers are tending to build only the show homes, rather than a deeper part of that particular site. That's what we're seeing.

When we talk about unpredictability of call-offs from our brick sites, really that's what we're making. In terms of the longer term or even the medium term, we know that our product is being specified for planning.

Our customers are committing to that process, and that's a really important indicator for us in terms of the longer term for our business model. We have seen improved momentum in in Belgium, which is which is important.

We are trying to build out the commercial team, and have built out the commercial team, as we look to grow our our market share in some of those other peripheral markets, of which the Netherlands we believe is a is a big one in that very brick-centric space. As I said, in terms of the strength of the balance sheet, look, I believe as strong as of the 30th of June on a on a 12-month basis as a as a net debt to adjusted EBITDA, we're at 0.4 times.

On anyone's metric, that is low gearing, but I want it to be back towards that net cash position, because very much that's what we've said is our is our capital allocation priority. You can see in the statement again, repeating that facts, I think it's important.

It really does land, really targeting getting back to net cash for next year. We've tried to add and we have added the sort of the consensus trading bandwidth, which you can see at the bottom of the page there.

Again, we know that you don't all have access to research materials, we hope that's been well received in the marketplace that when we say we are trading within that range for full year, that is the range to to assess us by. Look, the the caveat there at the bottom of the page clearly is you're all intelligent, you all follow the markets, there are a plethora of macroeconomic uncertainties that we are facing, and they change daily.

Whilst we're sitting there today saying that, please do recognize there is risk within that second half. As I say, we are doing all we can to mitigate that and control the controllables within our business.

That, of course, precludes us to say that we are really looking at those stronger H2 margins, and that earnings and cash generation being very key to that. Look, I think it's clear the UK demand is difficult to predict.

We we There are lots of catalysts that we could talk about, and I'm sure you'll ask questions on. I don't have a a clear moment in time when they could come to pass.

Lots of these factors take time to improve. I suppose the one I would absolutely talk to as a near term is stability of policy.

That I think could be the moment that just starts to help all of us make decisions for the medium term, because we understand what the government approach is going to be, rather than you know changes through the budget or an interim budget indeed. That's That would be our ask of the government.

What I would finish on before I open this up to questions is we have done an awful lot within this business to position it not for improving markets, but for current markets. I do think we are well-placed for those recovering markets, but equally, I have to say to you, I believe we're well-placed as well to continue to trade through what are difficult trading conditions.

We got the right portfolio, I believe, and the right strategy to continue to do that as we all wait for for better times. With that, I'll I'll pause for for questions, if I may.

Yes. If you follow the the other UK-listed brick brick manufacturers, I think everyone's won market share.

Look, I think there are there are many ways of cutting this. The way I simply look at it is what have we what have we dispatched from our portfolio, not about assets that are mothballed or anything else, what have we dispatched from our from our current portfolio?

On that basis, we have absolutely won market share. The most important part is we continue to hold it, because as I said earlier, the challenge we are facing is if sites are going to be mothballed because they're full, that there there is lots and lots of examples of aggressive pricing that's out there, because if businesses are going to start to run for cash, they'll start to drive those prices down, and that's the bit I really do watch for.

My job is to try to hold discipline of average selling pricing whilst holding on to our core customers. Look, I think the fact I haven't tried to put prices up, I haven't tried to yo-yo with my customer base, we've tried to be really clear and concise on our message to them.

You'll see the word collaboration isn't in this announcement, actually, but we remain so collaborative with our with our distribution partners. I do believe that that long-term relationship, but also the manner in which we carry ourselves and conduct ourselves with them, that matters hugely to really protecting our our market share.

It can't be just about price, because we're at the premium end.

It's a it's a good question. I think, look, there's a it would be really easy for me to just bash the government.

This is a very long-standing challenge within utilities that is a global issue. There are elements within our own pricing construct that absolutely are related to how the government approach things, chief amongst them, of course, is that the improvements within the networks and everything else is is priced in through through energy pricing as opposed to through general taxation.

That is that is swings and roundabouts. Whilst utilities are higher, there'll be other ways and means with with which the continent does challenge as well.

I say again, the point that I really want to make, really emphasize is we've asked for a level playing field. If if there are elements within utilities, or carbon pricing, or indeed, people and other costs that are coming through with employment right changes, be fair to us with regards to how those imports are assessed, because that's the bit that I think we would need the government to to support us on.

Because we're there to help them with taxation. We're there to help them make sure that we can manufacture the products, help us with with a level playing field with regards to our cost base.

I think again in terms of what they could do, I do come back to that point around stability. You can see that there are other things that that we could ask for, Help to Buy, stamp duty reform, that all of those would be hugely helpful.

As I say, I think we've got to be able to say to them, give us stability. If their hands are tied in other ways politically, that's the bit that could really support the industry, but do keep an absolute laser focus on that level playing field.

yeah, it's a it's a good question, and look, I'll I'll answer that with absolute fact. I think if you go back to 2007, we did not import products in any grand volume.

As I said to you, because of the fact that we have gone from 89 brick sites down to 45, 46 now today, that is an an indication that we have opened the door to European imports because of the need, because we took away the the actual manufacturing capability for products that are needed to match local vernacular in whatever town, city, or village that people are looking to make improvements, or indeed, put down new new housing. I hope that answers what could come next.

It's a long, long trough. Further sites have been closed over the last 24 months, and more may.

I think, the inevitability is that imports may continue to support UK house building. As I say, it is an important part of the model.

You can see that on the Belgian statistics: 60% of manufactured Belgian bricks are exported from their domestic markets. The other thing just to say about a lot of those European distributors is, a lot of them are family-owned, they could take different decisions than all the The lion's share, about 98% capacity percent of capacity in the UK is either domestically listed or listed via Wienerberger in Austria.

It is important that everyone does think about that, but yes, I do believe there is a risk that imports would grow if the markets don't improve in the United Kingdom.

I think the absolute keyword in that question is the word eventually. Yes, I'll answer that really in the shortest of answers: Yes, eventually, it would help in terms of you've essentially got less less demand for, sorry, more demand for a a diminished pool of of UK-manufactured products.

I want the whole industry to be busy. Let me be clear.

If we're all busy, as I say, if we're looking to get towards 200,000 houses, 180, 190, we are all busy again, I can assure you. That keeps us all going.

We stay out of each other's markets on that basis, and we actually don't overlap hugely because we've all got quite particular miles in which we sell in the markets we sell into. It's a key point is the word eventually.

Near term, as I said, it creates an awful lot of undulation in the average selling pricing because commercial teams become more unleashed in terms of how they approach their their efforts to win market share.

In all honesty, the latter, absolutely, I'm sure that happens, but please do look at the statistics that I've that I've quoted today. The market is down 25% period-on-period, down 9%, we ourselves down 2%.

Now that is, for me, an important indicator that, as I say, the depth of our customer relationships, the quality of our product, and service, please do always and service that premium. It's not just about price.

It's about how we look after our customers, how we look after delivery profiles, how we help them if they've got to change their their their own sort of on-site cadence in terms of deliveries. All of that is wrapped up underneath that premium [kind of product?]

products and service. That that is an important part.

I would say because of the depth of the quality of our relationships, because of the depth of the quality of our portfolio, because we try to address the full market, we continue to be resilient in in what are challenging market conditions.

Bold. I like that question.

Absolutely. Last last acquisition November 2022.

I think it's probably will go down as the as the worst moment to buy another business, because that was the high point probably in terms of housing activities, particularly the new-build space of which that prefabricated asset was really squarely aimed at. Of course there are good assets out there, absolutely there are.

Please do look at where the market is at the moment. The ability to chart a improving market, even if you take the construction activity at brick dispatch levels, it's so difficult.

I'll go back to one of my points I said earlier, the five false dawns where we thought we had momentum, only for it to be pulled away again. Yes, there are of course assets, but it's a difficult moment for us.

As you can see, I'm really focused on delivering against the capital allocation priorities, really trying to reward shareholders with a steady and consistent dividend. I think they're the moments for us to assess our capital allocation priorities, rather than doing something more ambitious in the acquisition space, as things stand.

No, it's a good question. Look, I think there is absolutely a commercial sensitivity to that valuation.

We said and again, just reiterating, there are two two parcels there: the old quarry, which hasn't seen action since 2023, when when brick manufacturing ceased on site; and then the actual land of buildings, which have been used for Hathern Terra Cotta clay production up until the end of last year, and then also in terms of the prefabricated portfolio. Two parcels of land, one's about 4 acres, the other's about 20 acres.

The point around value is, I I can't give you an indication because that will compromise us commercially, but what I can say is, it it absolutely is under review, and we've very much, we wouldn't have talked about it so openly if we didn't see that as part of the non-core part of the portfolio. Going back to one of those four pillars I talked about, we will look to convert that into cash in due course.

Indicative timings, I can't do any better than we expect something in the short to medium term.

It's a good question. I think I hopefully I'll go back to what I said earlier.

We we aren't expecting change. It is important to know that that sort of December, January, February time tends to be quiet anyway.

It is also important to highlight that Q4 has been unbelievably difficult to predict for the last 3 years in a row. I'm focused on self-help, and again, you can see we've done a lot of activity in the first half to self-help, and we expect some of those benefits to come through in H2, and you can still see the bullet there on the page.

We're focused on what we can do ourselves, rather than expecting catalysts from the broader market to to drive those improvements, because I think they're going to take a little while to come through, despite everybody's best endeavors.

Macro factors, the elements that are sitting outside us. Again, I'm sorry to keep repeating this point, it comes down to the consumer.

If the consumer pivots to become more cautious again, or even more cautious, we see that very, very quickly with regards to the cadence of call-offs from our sites in terms of how many bricks are leaving our our factory gates. That can be impacted by those macro macro factors.

They could be domestically around the budget. There are rumors around elections being called, and you'll all have views on on those, but there are clearly also some major geopoliticos as well with regards to Ukraine, the Middle East.

Of course, there's scope for any one of those two things to drive other other flashpoints. It's it's really those elements that are outside of of our control.

That's the bit I really do focus on in terms of that's the bit that makes predicting the forward demand for our portfolio so very difficult. That's the bit I that that really keeps me up.

It's a very good question. Look, I I think some of it was from the year before.

Let's, I'm afraid, I've sadly had to thank an awful lot of people for their contribution to my business over the last 12, 18 months. Some of that is is permanent.

Again, I think before I go on, let me just emphasize the point again. We can get that capacity back, in terms of that's that's prefabrication and that's brick manufacturing volumes as well.

It's not a permanent exit at all, by any stretch of the imagination. Freshfield Lane is a is absolutely a a I was going to say permanent, but it's a it's a near-term delivery of of costs, because Freshfield Lane as a site is about the cadence of manufacture.

It's not like a long tunnel kiln, which you're either switching on or you're switching off. It's people, it's a handmade process, you can speed up or slow down that site.

Again, those 30 people that left us are absolute costs. Likewise, the reductions in raw materials, reduction in utilities at those sites.

Likewise, the sites that we've closed, which are leasehold sites, costs of Charnwood as well. Also, as I said at the very start, that other tranche that isn't dispatches, ASP, and product mix was us exiting low-margin business within the prefabrication space.

Again, I see a lot of this as being quite permanent. I say again, the revenue performance that we've done within these markets, we still need that to stay there, because whilst we can do as much as we can to pull levers on costs, we still need to make sure we're holding that revenue performance.

We're very pleased with progress, and we've we've got more to do, and we expect to get more done in the second half.

Not really, I'm afraid. I think that's that's just me in terms of conversations with them.

That's the narrative we get through our commercial market intelligence. That is also what you can read within their own market reports.

You can see there's an awful lot of caution around land banks, there's an awful lot of caution around cash protection. There are brighter pockets.

I think Persimmon have been more upbeat in terms of, a more clear commitment to improving the volumes within their own spaces. It's not all doom and gloom at all.

As I say, I think within the London and the Southeast particularly, which, given given that they're key key markets for us, they're key markets for lots of people, but key markets for us, there's a there's a lot of caution. Again, we watch those markets very, very closely.

As I say though, the key is we know there's appetite for our portfolio, and that's the bit that really gives me heart, that we're not losing our customers. Their caution is is impacting them, but again, they are very prepared to take us through planning, because they want the product that we are selling, and that's an important indicator that underpins the resilience of that model.

We've Of course, we watch all of them very closely, but I think they are cautious in terms of the consumer sentiment in the same way as we are.

Sorry, Josh, do you mind just saying that first bit of the question again? I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that first bit.

That's a good question. Generally, the former.

We would generally lean into the expertise of others in terms of how they develop those sites. If you you can see if you I'm sure lots of you really monitor very closely the timings of developments.

The gestation period on them can be enormous. Often what we've tried to do in the past is is make sure that there is planning consent or surplus sites have been adopted within local planning plans for for the councils.

That's a good point for us to realize realize value. It tends to, historically, lean towards the former.

I'd say never say never. The whole point of being flexible and agile is you're always asking yourself the question, we would also always ask ourselves the question what's the right approach for that individual site.

They are very different. All the councils, all the sites where we're operating have got different opportunities based on the environment in which we are surrounded.

Some are within industrial spaces, some are within housing developments already, because lots of lots of towns and villages have had their own brick sites, some are in the villages. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but generally speaking, if you want a clear answer, it is the former that we tend to do in the past.

It's a it's a good question. I hope as shareholders, you can see that what we've tried to do is return value as and when we can and consistently.

The dividend has grown up until 2024, and has stayed steady in 2025 and 2026. You can see with with the interim declaration at 1.6, that is in line with last year, but better than any other interim declaration we've had aside from the singular 2.5p in 2019, which was slightly COVID-interrupted year.

Now that is a long history since we paid our first dividend. I would certainly answer that by saying I believe we've been consistent returning value to shareholders, and indeed have operated two buyback programs within that period as well in 2022 and then in 2024.

My job, as I see it, is in what is now the worst trough for UK construction activity by the sheer length of time that this has been going on, is to continue to flex and adapt the business such that you as shareholders do continue to see those returns. I really hope it's clear in terms of the capital allocation strategy, so that you can make any decisions to buy further shares, which we hope is the one that you you move towards.

Constantly trimming or raising dividends, in my view, is is something that we've really tried to avoid. Again, I hope you can see from our track record that, to date, we've been successful with that.

I hope you continue to support us. I hope you continue to see that we're doing all we can within that self-help space to drive and improve those margins back towards that 20% EBITDA margin.

As a result, we'll continue to try to deliver against the capital allocation strategy. I I think we've done an awful lot to put ourselves in as good a position as we can to either trade through these markets as they continue or such that we're well-positioned for when that market recovers.

Look, I thank you for those of you who are shareholders for your support. Please please stay with us, because I can assure you we're doing all we can to navigate what are exceedingly difficult markets.

Thank you. Look, I think hopefully I've covered all, and there were some really good questions in there.

This is always a brilliant call for that, thank you for your interest. I know you all, really closely monitor the market, as well as following ourselves very carefully, thank you.

As I say, we continue to do all we can. I'm sorry I can't point to those moments in the time that those catalysts will start to come through to to improve our markets.

In the meantime, I can assure you we'll continue to do all we can to try to resiliently trade through. As I said, for those of you who are already shareholders on the call, thank you so much for your support, and we hope to see you again in March for for for a further update.