KMD Brands Limited

Good day and welcome to the KMD Brands Limited 2023 Full Year Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Kindly note that there will be no online submitted questions taken. Only audio questions shall be taken for today. For those who have questions, please dial into the audio line at Q&A time. To ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow the signal to reach our equipment. Again, press star 1 to ask a question. At this time, I would like to hand the call over to Michael Daly, CEO and Managing Director of KMD Brands. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's presentation of KMD Brands' financial results for the 2023 financial year. My name is Michael Daly, and I'm the CEO and Managing Director of the group. I'm joined on the call by Chris Kinray, our Group Chief Financial Officer. We will be talking through the presentation logs from the NZX and ASX this morning. Unless otherwise specified, all financial numbers are in New Zealand dollars. Today's presentation will begin with the full year highlights. We will then discuss the group's financials, brand results, and we'll conclude with the trading update and our gross outlook for FY24. I will begin with the 2023 financial highlights and achievements of the year, and mainly our biggest milestones. reaching over $1 billion in sales for the first time, a milestone that we're very pleased with in our first full year of uninterrupted trade post-pandemic. Drawing your attention to slide four now, all of our iconic brands grew sales, with the group Rip Curl and Oboz achieving record sales delivery, growth of 12.6% on the previous year. Gross margin remained resilient, increasing 20 basis points to 59.1% of sales. Improved direct-to-consumer channel mix, wholesale pricing, and international freight costs offset currency headwinds. As a result, underlying EBITDA was up by over 15% year-on-year to $105.9 million. Statutory impact was $36.6 million, while underlying impact was up 8.6% year-on-year to $43.3 million. This year, our dividends declared will return over $43 million to shareholders at $0.06. Moving to slide five now, another year of significant milestones are delivered on our group strategy. I'm going to start with leading ESG because I want to express how proud this makes me as the CEO. Earlier this year, we announced our B Corp certification. This was and is a significant achievement for a business as complex as ours. We are one of only 45 listed companies globally to be able to call themselves a B Corp. As a reminder, B Corps are businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. B Corps envision a better economic system where businesses can benefit people, communities and the planet. This really aligns with our group's vision to be the leading family of global outdoor brands, designed for purpose, driven by innovation, best for people and planet.

This is a conference operator. Everyone, please stand by. Do not disconnect your line. Again, please stand by. Hello.