Bunzl plc

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for the Bonzo results for half year ending 30th of June 2026. My name is Chach and I'll be coordinating your call today. After the presentation there'll be a Q&A session. To register to ask a question please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad and if you change your mind please press star followed by two. I'd now like to hand over to Frank to begin. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to Bonzel's 2026 first half results presentation. I appreciate you joining us today. I will start by summarizing our performance over the period. Following this, Richard Howes, our Chief Financial Officer, will take you through our financial results, capital allocation and outlook for 2026. After that, I will return to provide an update on North American distribution and continental Europe, as well as discuss why Bunzl is well positioned for continued long-term growth. I am pleased to be presenting a good set of results today, with the actions we have taken over the last 18 months delivering a much improved performance and supported by the business ability to respond effectively in an inflationary environment. Over the first half, volume growth was particularly encouraging with growth delivered in all business areas but led by growth in our North America distribution business. The stabilization and recovery of the distribution business follows from actions taken to restore responsiveness, agility and high service levels. While there is still work to do, these are having a positive effect. I'm also pleased with how our businesses globally have successfully navigated product and operating cost increases resulting from the geopolitical environment. This agility is core to Bansal's fundamental resilience. Furthermore, Bansal's strong and annual cash generation continues to support attractive capital allocation opportunities. While we have an active pipeline of bolt-on acquisitions and deal momentum is building, our improved performance, alongside the level of excess cash we see, allows us to announce a £500 million share buyback today, while maintaining headroom for acquisitions. Overall, Bansal's performance over the first half is a testament to both the strength of the business model and the dedication of our people who have been able to deliver good growth in what remains a challenging external backdrop. I believe Bansal can now deliver on the attributes it has long been known for, attractive compounding growth and resilience, and I expect 2026 to be the foundation for future profit growth. Turning to the financial highlights over the period. Revenue growth at constant currency was 4.1% in the first half, driven by underlying revenue growth of 3.2%. Pleasingly, we have now delivered five consecutive quarters of underlying revenue growth. Operating margin increased by 30 basis points to 7.3%. Whilst this is largely driven by the net impact of inflation in the second quarter, much of which is temporary in nature, we have also benefited from the annualization of initial NISBIT synergies, the stabilization of our distribution business, and have delivered results despite some increased variable operating costs. Adjusted operating profit growth was 8% year-on-year. Bonsall's performance in the first half has led to an upgrade of our 2026 outlook. We now expect broadly flat operating margins year on year and modest growth in adjusted operating profit. Pre-cash flow rose by 6% with cash conversion of 90% and leverage was 1.8x which is below our target range. We have announced an interim dividend which is 3% higher than the prior period and completed two acquisitions year to date. With deal momentum building, we continue to expect higher annual acquisitions spent in 2026 compared to 2025. And lastly, as I have already mentioned, we have announced a new share buyback in line with our capital allocation policy. Importantly, this maintains significant headroom for continued bolt-on acquisitions, which remain our priority given the strong returns they achieve. With that, I will hand over to Richard.

Thank you, Frank, and good morning, everyone. As usual, my comments are at consensus exchange rates and less otherwise stated. In addition, within our results, you will see adjustments for refunds we received related to US IEPA tariffs paid in 2025. While the position will become clearer in the second half, our view is that this cash will be paid back to customers. In accordance with accounting standards, this reduced our statutory reported revenue by 1.2%, effectively offsetting an implied revenue benefit in prior periods. A corresponding reduction in cost of sales means there is no impact to adjusted operating profit, and throughout, we state operating margin and gross margins excluding this impact. Starting with revenue. Group revenue increased by 4.1% in the first half of 2026, excluding the tariff refund. We delivered underlying revenue growth of 3.2% with approximately two thirds of this being driven by volume growth and one third from selling price increases. We saw growth in all business areas led by North America. Both volume growth and inflation accelerated in the second quarter, driving total underlying revenue growth of 4.3% in Q2 compared to 2% in Q1. Acquisitions net of disposals and the hyperinflation impact contributed 0.9% to revenue growth. U.S. tariff refunds impacted revenue by 1.2%. Now turning to the income statement. Gross margin was 29.4% compared to 28.8% in the prior period, driven by the profit impact from turning inventory in an inflationary environment as well as currency. Much of the inventory impact is expected to be temporary in nature. Gross margin expanded in all of our business areas except for North America, which saw a moderate decline driven by business mix. Operating cost growth over the period included the impact of fuel and freight inflation and some meaningful variable costs linked to improved profit performance, particularly in North America. Overall, the operating cost to sales ratio increased from 21.8% to 22% at actual currency. Adjusted operating profit for the year was £441 million, an increase of 8% on the prior year. Operating margin was 7.3% compared to 7% in the prior period. This was largely driven by the net impact of inflation, as well as the annualisation of NISBIT synergies. Moving down the P&L, adjusted net finance expense of £60 million and a tax rate of 26% are both consistent with our four-year guidance. Adjusted earnings per share increased by 11% over the period, further supported by the timing of share buybacks in 2025. After a few years of deflation and market price normalizations, we thought it would be helpful to provide some color on the inflation trends we are seeing. We started to put through price increases in certain product categories like disposable gloves in the second quarter as product costs increased due to the geopolitical backdrop. The impact of higher selling prices in the second quarter benefited our top line but also our operating margin given the positive impact of selling through previously purchased inventory at lower cost. The cost of plastics which accounts for around 30% of our purchases has increased meaningfully and drives the overall impact seen to date. However, we are already starting to see selling prices reduced from peak prices in certain categories and are expecting to see more in Q3. Paper accounts for another 25% of our purchases, but we saw limited change in pulp and paper prices in the first half. When it comes to operating costs, wages and property cost inflation have been at more typical levels across our businesses. However, we have seen increased fuel and freight costs, some of which has been passed on through surcharges. As usual, we'll continue to look to offset operating cost inflation through ongoing efficiencies where possible. Turning now to the business areas. In North America, we saw underlying revenue growth of 4.6% supported by both volume and inflation, although the inflation benefit was partially offset by reduction in US tariff rates. Revenue growth was led by recovery in our distribution business, which saw strong growth driven by new business wins in Q4 2025. Encouragingly, we also saw good growth in our food service redistribution business, supported by both volume and inflation. Strong growth in our safety businesses was largely supported by inflation. Operating profits were flat as the net benefits of higher inflation were offset by business mix, particularly the growth in lower margin grocery, as well as higher variable costs relating to the improved profit performance. And there were continued end market challenges in our retail, Mexico and convenience store businesses. Nonetheless, margins did increase in our distribution business. Return on average operating capital declined, with the stronger profit performance in the second half of 2024 supportive of the prior year metric, and with an investment in working capital. In continental Europe, underlying revenue growth was just over 2% and accelerated through the period, driven by improved volumes across most countries and higher selling prices, which also supported a strong increase in gross margin. Inflation was most prevalent in Turkey, where we sell disposable gloves, as well as in some of our online businesses and in Spain. Spain saw very strong revenue growth, also supported by acquisitions, and the performance within our online businesses continued to improve. France delivered some volume growth, which was partially offset by selling price deflation, which has been moderating. Our largest business in cleaning and hygiene completed its warehouse consolidations, offsetting operating cost inflation to drive a strong improvement in operating profit. The increase in operating margin was driven by the positive net inflation impact. Higher working capital offset the business area's higher margin, resulting in a broadly stable return on average operating capital. The UK and Ireland delivered slight underlying revenue growth, mostly driven by volume with price increases only seen towards the end of the second quarter. Both gross margin and operating margins were higher in the period. Growth was driven by food service, cleaning hygiene and our businesses in Ireland, with a partial offset from a decline in safety due to the completion of some larger infrastructure projects. Adjusted operating profit increased 9% and strong operating margin expansion was driven by the annualisation of Nisbet synergies and a one-off property-related gain, despite overhead inflation. The increase in operating margin also translated into a strong increase in the UK and Ireland's return on average operating capital. Then finally, in the rest of the world, acquisitions were the main driver of a 5% increase in constant currency revenues, with underlying revenue also contributing almost 2%. Underlying revenue growth was driven by Asia Pacific, particularly our healthcare businesses, although within this, our operations in New Zealand have been impacted by reduced public healthcare spending. While Brazil benefited from inflation in certain categories, which supported moderating deflation overall, there was more limited inflation impact in Asia Pacific. The rest of the world's operating profit grew by just over 15% as gross and operating margins increased strongly, particularly in Brazil. This offset a healthcare-related margin decline in Asia Pacific. The higher adjusted operating profit drove an increase in return on average operating capital. This slide provides an overview of our performance across sectors in the first half. Overall, we delivered modest organic revenue growth across safety, cleaning, hygiene, and healthcare, driven by strong growth across our Asia-Pacific healthcare businesses, as well as higher inflation in North America. Growth in food service and grocery were both driven by the strong performance of our North American distribution business, Within distribution, groceries saw strong volume growth driven by new customer wins in the second half of 2025, as well as good growth at some of its largest grocery customers. Moving on to cashflow. We generated 328 billion pounds of free cashflow in the period, which includes an inflow of 71 million pounds related to tariff refunds. Excluding this inflow, cash conversion was 90%, slightly lower than usual due to an investment in working capital, but in line with our target. And free cash flow increased 5.6% year on year, driven by higher adjusted operating profit and lower net interest paid. Inclusive of the tariff refund, Total cash generation prior to acquisitions, disposals and share buybacks was £268 million. £26 million was spent on net acquisitions resulting in a net cash inflow of £242 million. Turning to the balance sheet and actual exchange rates with comparisons made to the position at the end of 2025. Working capital was largely unchanged overall, with an increase in payables, which includes the US tariff refunds, partially offset by an increase in receivables and slightly higher inventory. Deferred consideration relating to acquisitions decreased by £12 million to £213 million, driven by earn-out payments related to previous acquisitions. There was an increase of £164 million in other net liabilities, which primarily relates to our final dividend, which was paid in July. Our adjusted net debt to EBITDA was 1.8 times, excluding the cash inflow related to the tariff refund. Over the medium term, we aim, on average, to manage leverage within our target range of 2 to 2.5 times adjusted net debt to EBITDA. Before the pandemic, we consistently operated within this range. Returns were slightly higher in the first half, driven by a higher operating margin, with return on invested capital of 13.3% and a return on average operating capital of 38%. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. to invest in the business to support organic growth and operational efficiencies, to pay a progressive dividend, to invest in value-accretive bolt-on acquisitions, and finally, to distribute excess cash. In the 21 years up to and including the first half of 2026, Bunzler has returned £2.7 billion through dividends, committed £6.2 billion in acquisitions and returned £450 million through share buybacks. When we are deciding where to deploy capital, we have a strong focus on the return on invested capital and the relative value creation of different opportunities. As a result, we have a strong preference to prioritise capital to invest in our own business and in Bolton acquisitions. Acquisitions represent a significant opportunity for Bunzl, as we operate in large and fragmented markets, and we have a very strong track record of consolidating the market. Of the 77 announced acquisitions between 2020 and 2025, 74 were Bolton acquisitions, where committed spend per deal averaged around £25 million. Over this period, we spent an average of £300 million per annum on Boltons. The average multiple that we have paid for these businesses has been consistently around eight times our product profit. Recent deals have demonstrated a strong two-year return on invested capital of 13.3%, comfortably ahead of our project WAC. We have over 1,300 potential acquisition targets identified across countries and customer end markets, but the timing of deals can be uncertain. Periods of lower acquisition spend are not unusual and annual spend varies. In 2019, we spent just over £100 million on Bolton acquisitions, whilst in 2023, we spent nearly £500 million. Our pipeline is active and we continue to expect committed spend to be more in 2026 than 2025. With current leverage of 1.8 times and strong annual cash flow, we have significant headroom. This is supported by the fact we have spent less than £150 million on acquisitions over the last 20 months, compared to a typical spend of around £600 million over a two-year period. On this high-level illustration, we have headroom of 0.1521 times net debt to EBITDA, Every £100 million allocated to Bolton acquisitions initially impacts leverage by a little under 0.1 times. We therefore have a level of excess cash that supports a £500 million share buyback over the next 12 months without compromising our pursuit of Bolton acquisitions and the increasing acquisition momentum we are seeing. As part of our capital allocation framework, we commit to a progressive dividend policy and have delivered dividend per share CAGR of circa 9% since 1992. Today, we have announced an increase of 3% in our interim dividend. Our expected dividend cover for 2026 is 2.4 times in line with last year. Looking ahead to the full year, we upgrade our 2026 guidance. We continue to expect revenue growth at constant exchange rates, excluding US tariff refunds, to be driven by modest underlying growth, supported by some inflation alongside a small benefit from acquisitions. We now expect group operating margin to be broadly flat year on year. Thank you very much. Within this, there are a few things to remember when considering our expectations for the second half. Comparatives get tougher. You will remember that we had significant business wins towards the end of last year, which will annualise. We are already starting to see some selling price normalisation, with this expected to be a margin drag for the group. Gross margin peaked in June, with July already declining from that level. and with price reductions in certain categories building since July. In addition, the second half will also continue to be impacted by an increase in variable operating costs linked to improved profit performance. Tax guidance is unchanged at 26% while net interest is expected to be between 125 and 130 million pounds. I will now hand back to Frank to take you through our business update.

Thank you, Richard. Firstly, let me give you an update on North America. As part of this, we thought it would be helpful to provide you with some updated disclosure, including our end customer revenue split. Although, as a reminder, our operating companies operate across customer sectors, and so our businesses are not run simply in our accordance with the chart here. As you can see, distribution accounts for around 60% of North America revenues. Therefore, a now stabilized distribution business is very important for the resilience of North America and the group. Within distribution, approximately half of its revenues are generated from grocery customers, with another quarter coming from food service redistribution. The remainder is made up of customers across retail, food processor and cleaning and hygiene. The other 40% of North America is diversified across many sectors. This diverse sector mix supports the resilience of North America and the group. North America's largest 40 customers are mostly distribution customers and have an average partnership with Bonsall of over 20 years. Customers are very sticky in our industry and we enjoy very high retention rates in general given the essential nature of our products and services. While North America has a more concentrated customer base than other parts of the group, its top 3 customers account for less than 25% of revenue, with this weighted to our largest customer. And customers 4 to 10 account for less than 15% of revenue. There is then a very long tail of smaller customers. In terms of financials, margins vary across best businesses, but those with lower margins tend to have higher inventory turns, and as a result, return on average operating capital is broadly similar and attractive across sectors. Focusing now specifically on our North America distribution business, where we have continued to make strong operational progress. I've spent a lot of time in this business and the actions we have taken have significantly improved execution within our new organizational structure. The new sales and operations model, which enables a much greater focus on long-term growth opportunities, now has the right processes in place to enable effective servicing of both local and national customers. The model is working well. As part of actions taken, we have reinforced our leadership structure within local food service and that has brought greater focus in that sector. Importantly, agility has now been restored in the local business with local teams responsible for pricing and inventory decisions for local customers as well as for local sourcing decisions. As a result, our availability and commercial responsiveness are now back at our desired levels, as are our service levels, with on time in full now back to 2019 levels. Our sales teams are motivated and engaged, and collaboration between teams has noticeably improved. Staff turnover, which we believe has always been well below industry averages, but increased in 2025, has fallen meaningfully over the last 12 months. And finally, we have strengthened our relationship with customers and our engagement with third party suppliers. This has included a more balanced approach to own brand that also focuses on growth we can achieve with preferred branded suppliers. For example, on the bottom right is a recent promotional program we ran for hygiene products alongside multiple branded suppliers. Customers are also noticing these improvements as highlighted by the quote in the top right of the page. The operational improvements outlined on the previous slide are now visible in distribution's improved financial performance. Distribution delivered 8% underlying revenue growth in the first half. This was mostly driven by volume growth, including the new business wins in the fourth quarter of last year and success with established grocery partnerships. In the second quarter, volumes grew by 2% in our redistribution segment, which helped service customers. This is an encouraging performance given continued market challenges for customers in that particular segment. Inflation was also positive in the period for distribution. The business saw a moderate increase in operating margin, outperforming North America as a whole. The improved performance of the business alongside the net positive impact from inflation more than offset The mixed headwind from strong growth in grocery, new business wins that are typically lower margin initially, and higher variable costs as a result of the improved performance. Whilst the end markets remain challenging, we are now in a good position from which we can focus on increasing market share through new customer wins and increased wallet share. Near-term priorities for the business also include hiring a new CEO of distribution and opening two mixing centers on the East and West Coast, which will hold imported products for our distribution centers. This will improve product availability across the business, enhance warehouse productivity, and create commercial opportunities with customers. The actions we have taken and continue to take will strengthen our distribution business and provide it with a strong platform to deliver sustainable long-term growth. Turning to continental Europe. A significant warehouse consolidation project is now fully operational in our largest French business where we have gone from 15 to 6 warehouses. This has been a large undertaking by the team and it will make a big difference to our operational efficiency, improving product availability and delivery time for our customers. We are already benefiting from some tangible improvements with higher service levels, lower inventory, increased warehouse capacity, as well as improved health and safety. There will be further productivity improvements as we fully roll out a number of digital tools, including warehouse management systems and demand management planning. Whilst this was a bigger project, warehouse consolidations are a key lever for operating efficiencies across the group, and we are always looking for these types of incremental opportunities. We've also entered into an existing exciting partnership with Adidas, which is a great example of the group's entrepreneurial culture and continued focus on driving organic growth. This focus achieves net new business wins worth around 30 million euros of annualized revenue in the first half in Europe overall. The Adidas partnership is a global exclusive license agreement for the design, manufacture and distribution of safety footwear. The initial launch is in a number of European countries across different businesses. The partnership is testament to our safety expertise and global network of safety distribution businesses. These benefits were recognized by Adidas, an instrumental in them choosing to partner with Donzel to introduce Adidas workwear shoes. Looking forward, there is a significant growth potential as we look to expand the product range, product categories and the number of geographical markets. Turning to our long-term growth model. Bansal is fully focused on delivering against its well-established compounding growth strategy and a good first half performance reaffirms our expectation that 2026 will be the foundation for future profit growth. I therefore want to take a moment to briefly remind you of its building blocks. Firstly, Bansal's growth opportunity is supported by its underlying resilience. This resilience is driven by the geographic and sector diversification of our 150 businesses and their focus on essential products. The group benefits further from its scale, strong cash generation and its entrepreneurial culture. These fundamentals underpin our growth strategy which is founded on profitable organic growth and disciplined value creative acquisitions. We also continue to drive ongoing operational efficiencies and, where appropriate, distribute additional returns of capital. Bunzl has a strong total return model. Part of the group's resilience stems from its geographic and sector diversification. We provide you with an updated snapshot on this slide. This resilience in part reflects the fact that grocery and food service revenues are relatively similar in scale and tend to have opposing trends. When people eat out more, they eat at home less and vice versa. Furthermore, around half of Group's profit is now generated from the three sectors that we see the greatest growth opportunity and that have the highest operating margins. Safety, healthcare and cleaning and hygiene. However, it is important to remember that while these six sectors have different margin profiles, their return on capital employed are all attractive and broadly similar. Those with lower margins tend to have higher inventory turn. All are highly cash generative. Organic growth remains a key focus for all of our businesses. We drive volume growth through exposure to grown customers, increased share of wallet with existing customers and through winning new customers. These factors all contributed to our volume growth in the first half. Across our diversified operations, activity in our end markets is important. Therefore, on average, we expect group volume growth to be driven by real GDP in our markets. We drive price growth to offset inflation and we have shown that we are very good at navigating volatile trading conditions while also focusing on long-term customer relationships. We also target ongoing operating efficiencies where small incremental improvements compound significantly over time and support our management of cost inflation. We completed 15 warehouse consolidations and relocations in the first half of 2026, a larger number than we would typically expect over six months. And in the first half, 78% of our orders were processed digitally. This compares to 76% across 2025. As we implement new systems to improve productivity, artificial intelligence is playing an ever increasing role. Our entrepreneurial and data-driven culture lends itself well to adopting new technology and AI is becoming embedded into everyday sales, operations and support processes. On top of organic growth, Bonsall has an excellent long-term track record of delivering growth through acquisitions. In large and very fragmented markets, Bonsall is one of very few scale players and a natural consolidator. The sticky nature of customers in this industry makes bolt-on acquisitions at attractive valuations a compelling growth lever. Having done over 230 acquisitions since 2004, we have very strong acquisition capabilities and processes across the organization. Central expertise alongside local market knowledge reduces the execution risk of acquiring businesses. They are also an attractive acquirer for potential targets, a long-term home for businesses, with benefits from our scale, investments made for the benefit of all our businesses, knowledge sharing opportunities, and our entrepreneurial culture. And as Richard demonstrated earlier, hold-on acquisitions are highly value-accretive. Between 2021 and 2025, Hold on Acquisitions contributed on average annual revenue growth of 2.6%. We also actively recycle capital including four disposals since 2022. In summary, Bonsall has delivered a good performance in the first half of 2026 with broad-based volume growth led by North America distribution, effective management of inflation and strong profit growth. In particular, the period reflects a turning point for our distribution business. The Group has also continued to demonstrate the strength of its resilient business model in an uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. Overall, I'm pleased that we can now guide to modest profit growth for 2026 and look forward to this year being the foundation for future profit growth and a return to Bonzo's successful compounding growth algorithm. Thank you for your attention. We are now happy to take your questions.

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star 4 by 1 on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star, fold by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. We'll pause here briefly as questions are being registered. Our first question today comes from Zach Alcoyuti from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Frank, Richard. I have two questions, please. Firstly, could you please unpack the moving parts for the operating margin in the second half, i.e. what is embedded in your full year guidance? For example, how is gross margin developing so far and how do you assume that that will evolve over the remainder of the year? And then similarly, your assumptions around OPEX. And then the second question on M&A in the context of still a lower deal spend relative to history. How has the M&A landscape evolved? I appreciate you called out unexpected acceleration in the second half. So should that signal to us that the landscape has improved recently or is it driven more by the timing of you getting certain deals over the line? Thank you very much.

Let me take the operating margin one to begin with. So we are, when we When we look at the first half, margins have improved 30 basis points, which has been largely benefited from the inflation effect by the inventory gain, net of fuel and freight increases. If we take those out, actually margins are still slightly up in the first half, but the effect is largely down to the inflation inventory gain. When we look into the second half, we are expecting margins to be lower year on year. The extent is essentially the same as we talked about at the pre-closed statement back in June. The factors and the parts of the bridge, I mean, firstly, we do expect to see this inventory gain unwind. We have already seen gross margins peak in June and reduce in July. We're effectively also seeing selling prices reduce alongside that. The first half also benefits from NISBIT synergies, which analysed in the first half and therefore will not repeat in H2. Obviously, we've got the new business wins, which we achieved in Q4 last year, which will analyse in the second half. And we'll continue to see ongoing higher variable costs linked to profit performance. Those together explain the reason why margins in the second half will be down year on year as opposed to up in the first.

Let me take the M&A question. Obviously, we are operating in large fragmented markets. We have about 1300 targets in our database. We are the largest business in our field that consolidate these markets. Let's say sometimes uncertainty in markets can make people wait in selling their businesses. We certainly have seen that effect in the last 18 months. I would say the magic word in an acquisition strategy Bonzo follows is discipline. We want to do the right things. We see an active pipeline, so we feel good about that. But I also say, we always say champagne at the finish. I'm not getting worried if we are not able to close an acquisition in December and it ends up to be January. We want to do the right things. We've seen years where we did 100 million on acquisitions, bolt-ons. We've seen years of 500 million. So these things can be a bit lumpy, but I'm building this group for the long term. We have a massive opportunity. Our overall market shares are still relatively low in most markets, but we are leading and I feel good about that. So I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, very clear. Thank you both.

Thank you. The next question is from Rory McKenzie from UBS. Your line is now open.

Morning all, it's Rory here. Thanks so much for taking my questions. Firstly, I just wanted to clarify the modelling of the tariff refunds. Is it effectively removing £70 million of revenues at a 0% operating margin? And then on what basis are you now guiding for FY or full year margins? In the presentation, you throughout referred to a 7.3% margin in H1, but technically it's a 7.4% margin. So how does that accounting change fit into the changed margin guidance language, please? And then secondly, I had two questions about the inflation tailwinds. Just to follow up on that point you made on the guidance, Richard, if we attribute all of the 60 bps gross margin improvement to that inventory gain, and that's about a £35 million gross benefit in H1. Why would that necessarily all reverse in H2? I'm just not clear why it would be symmetrical as I don't think prices have quite fallen in the same pattern as they rose. And then finally, Frank, can you just talk about how you've seen customers respond to the inflation spike and what your teams are doing to try and manage this new environment? It sounds like volume sensitivity has been high, but at a group level, you've kept good volume momentum through H1. So what do you think has been behind that? Thank you.

So let me take the first two. On the accounting for the tariff refunds, Overall, what we're seeing here is we're expecting this refund that we received just before the half year to be repaid over time. I would imagine quite a lot of this being repaid in the second half. As a consequence, we are reflecting a deduction against our reported revenue, our underlying revenue of 1.2%. and we are then making adjustments to cost of sales to effectively mean there's no profit impact on this adjustment. We do, as you'll have seen throughout the statement, in the financial statements themselves, obviously includes all of the refund in all of the areas where it should be. When we're looking at the key metrics, we've sought to adjust them to try and get back to what we believe is true trading, i.e. not trying to show true revenue growth and indeed, to your point, not to show actual operating margins which look higher than they really are. So including the refund, you'll see that margins are at 7.4% reported, but when we take it out, actually, The real underlying margin is 7.3%. And we're forecasting forward on the same basis. So when we talk about margins around 7.6% for a full year, that would be excluding any impact of tariffs. On the inflation piece, our view is very much that we are already seeing both selling prices reduced and obviously we're increasingly selling through higher priced inventory as we've gone through Q2 in particular and sold through the pre-tariff inventory or the pre-price increase inventory. So we do expect to see prices, selling prices reduce. We are seeing that and we're seeing gross margins decline. As to the pattern of change, We saw these prices increase quite quickly during Q2. We are seeing prices come down quite quickly as well. And I think that talks to the fact that there is a heightened sensitivity to volumes in our manufacturer base who are wanting to make sure they don't, they want to protect volumes and don't hold prices high for too long. We're also of the same mind. We want to make sure that we bring our prices down appropriately, protecting volume.

Yeah, just in terms of how our teams do, I think Ponzo's, the management teams around the world are very effective in terms of managing margins. It's a bit different than it was in COVID where there were strong margins Availability issues. This is a bit more like oil price related. Plastics, we've seen some big increases in disposable gloves, for instance, as a category. These things change also. We run what we call an overwatch group where we have the 150 top buyers across the world having weekly calls, monitoring the biggest product groups. Thank you both. Thank you. The next question is from Will Kirkness from Bernstein. Your line is now open.

Morning, thanks. I just wanted to follow up on the margins and then I had a couple of other questions. So I think you said your margin assumptions are largely unchanged from the first half pre-close. But if we looked at oil pricing, which should feed into that plastics component, I mean, they're up sort of 20, 25%. So I just appreciate you probably got prices coming back a bit and then we have the dynamics with your suppliers. But is there not a view that there's potentially a resurgence in pricing that happens and maybe flows through a little bit later? And I guess it's maybe a little bit early, but how would that feed into a view on 27 margins? And then linked to that, I guess thinking about margins longer term, is flat the right way to think about that? Or does... Mix, Own Brand, Warehouse Consolidation, all the stuff you've talked about, drive longer term accretion. And then my final question was just on North America. I think in the presentation distribution saw underlying revenue growth of eight. So does that mean the rest of the business was about flat? Thank you.

Let me take the short-term margin point. I hear what you're saying, Will. I think despite the fact that we've seen... When we did our pre-close, oil prices dropped significantly. And on the day, I think we were back to pre-war prices at the time. Subsequent to that, we've seen oil prices rise again. But actually what we've seen on the ground is... Thank you very much. All we're seeing is actually prices reduced. Is there a potential for resurgence? Look, we don't think so. It's not what we're seeing. If it did happen, then yes, presumably there will be some level of price increases, albeit it's often harder to put prices up if this is just a very volatile movement up and down. Short term, and this obviously being played out very publicly, which would make that harder. So I think the right assumption is the assumption we're guiding to, which is the margins, selling prices and margins decline, we see lower margins H2 than the second half of last year. And that provides a sensible exit rate when looking at 2027. As to margins for the longer term, we don't give margin guidance in the longer term, but what we do see is that we're very focused on making sure that profits improve and grow. And as we've said, I think on a number of occasions, we see 2026 as a mechanism or a base from which we think we can grow profits organically and inorganically. there are plenty of things actions we take you mentioned some of them to make sure that our margins in the longer time term are either progressed or indeed are protected we need to grow volume and we do see further potential for own brand growth and of course acquisitions will be tend to be a net positive for us on the inorganic side so so there are plenty of routes for us to protect stroke grow margins but our focus is mainly on growing profits from a base that 2026 is establishing and sorry Frank

Yeah, I think the question on volume growth, North America. So North America has been leading the pack, but actually we're quite pleased that we have seen a broad-based volume growth in all the regions. Inflation was strongest in North America and in continental Europe, especially in the second quarter. But what makes me very happy is actually in the business where we have seen some of the execution issues that we're now seeing there the strongest growth. So, Bonzo Distribution is leading the pack. which is clearly something we've been working very hard on and to see that it's happening there is fantastic to see.

And just on the point on growth in North America, obviously distribution growth of 8% is very strong and accounts for a very significant proportion of the total. We do have some parts of North America which have been under pressure our businesses in Mexico retail and in our convenience store business have also seen market softness our convenience store business has also lost volume so there has been a mixed a relatively mixed picture in some areas but our distribution business has been very positive great thank you very much thank you

The next question is from David Brockton from Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Good morning. I wanted to pick up where that last question ended on the US distribution business and the 8% underlying growth you've seen there. You rightly cautioned that some of that growth reflects the annualization of wins from the prior year. Can you just touch on what the outlook is for similar volume wins to what you secured in Q4 of last year? either with new categories with existing customers or new customers and how should we think about the sustainable growth opportunity for the distribution business going forwards on an organic basis and finally related to that, do you feel that you've now got that sales channel for local customers fully restored and embedded in the business? Thank you.

Yeah, so, well, basically, I think what is fundamental is to see that the distribution business, let's call it the machine, is operating in terms of on time in full. I would say, you know, distribution, there's three things important, on time in full, on time in full, on time in full, a bit like property, property, location, location, location. Agility has returned and the motivation of the team is very effective. So I think that is something that should be contributing everywhere. At the same time we see that there is some disruption in the market with some competitors that are going to change processes or have a very difficult time. Thank you very much. is obviously very important. The sales channel you were referring to in terms of the local business, yes, we spend a lot of time on that particular part of the business. People locally are now able to make local decisions on price exceptions. We have their visibility on the true cost prices. They can bring in stock from the suppliers they prefer. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. and then sometimes it takes a while and then you bring something else in. But I think I'd say the broad-based organization is functioning, is set up for growth and ultimately that should help us develop the business in a positive way.

Thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star four by one on your telephone keypad now. We have a question from Tim Ramsgill from Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Thanks. Good morning, gents. A few questions for me, please. I'll start with the, again, some of the dynamics around growth. So I guess you asked a moment ago about whether the rest of the US business X distribution is delivering any growth. It doesn't look like it is to me. and then I guess your growth rates outside of of North America are somewhere between one to two percent which again given the backdrop of inflation being a feature everywhere I'm just interested in your thoughts as to whether those growth rates are are sort of acceptable to you whether you think there's improvement potential perhaps you haven't spent enough time talking about about the other geographies and then Richard, as you pointed out in your pre-prepared remarks, the comps are obviously going to be a bit more challenging in the second half of this year. But indeed, now we can see that the comps going into the first half of next year are going to get more challenging still. So just your thoughts early as they might be on the early shape of 2027. Then the last one, if I can, just on tariffs, just to sort of help bring us all up to speed on all the different moving parts. I guess part one is, Do you think this is all done now? Is there any sort of residual effect you might see in the second half? And then just how does it work through the supply chain in terms of these tariff rebates to your customers, from your suppliers to you, et cetera? Just interested in how that all flows and how it impacts on the cash flows. Thank you.

Can you take this, Richard?

Yes. So look, I think the growth across the group. But we're actually pretty pleased with the fact in the first half of this year, we're seeing not only good volume growth in North America, but actually volume growth across all of the business areas that we operate in. There's no doubt there has been an inflation benefit. I think as Frank talked to on the call, These price increases don't put themselves up. Our sales teams have to manage that process, and I think they've done that very effectively. As to is this an acceptable level of growth? Well, look, we also, and Frank covered it in his section, we think bonds should grow volumes by real GDP in the markets that we operate in. Now, real GDP at this point is... It's probably quite low in many of our markets, but nonetheless, I think it's we essentially service the activity in the economy, not necessarily some of the more peaky capex type spend in data centers, for example, but general activity on the high street or main street is what we do service. And that would lend itself to being in line with real GDP. I think a separate question is, do you think there's going to be ongoing inflation in our markets? I mean, certainly since COVID, we've seen a lot of inflation, the post COVID inflation. And now, of course, one link to the Iran war. if you believe there's more net inflation around then that's also additive to our growth and would be part of what we would see as our growth algorithm alongside of course an ability to grow our to grow by acquisition and consolidate these highly fragmented markets so that's the first question on comps in 26 h2 and exit rates into 2027 but we will we do see The annualization that we've talked about of that new business wins in North America. It is absolutely fair to say that all of our businesses around the world are very active in reviewing pipelines, looking to grow the top line. And I think we're seeing good levels of success. I mean, the Adidas initiative that Frank talked about is an interesting organic opportunity for us with a very, very well respected brand. Now, I don't think that changes really second half trends and into 2027. But nonetheless, it is a real focus for our businesses. But as we exit the year with revenues lower than they have been during the year, particularly in volumes, yes, I do think there's an impact on 2027. We're not in a position to give any sense for 2027 at this stage. We'll come back to that later in the year. But I think shape wise, there is some impact. And on tariffs, how's this going to work in the second half? Look, it's, as you'd appreciate, this is uncharted territory for most people. I don't think anybody's really ever seen the US government handing back this sort of money to suppliers. We don't see any further tariff refunds coming. There might be, if they are, they'll be very small. I think we've had the lion's share of it. Our businesses litigated early in the process to make sure that we were towards the front of the queue and that's how it's turned out. As to how it happens with the supply chain, the supply chain point is really us to customers. We will have and are having conversations with customers around the returning these refunds. But look, we will know more as we go through the second half and we'll keep the market updated.

You've had the cash and you expect the cash mostly to flow out in the second half, I think is what you said on that point. yes look that's that's that's our sense Tim I think you know let's see how we how it goes but yes I think we will be paying it back up a lot of it in the second half okay great if I can be really cheeky just there's probably about six parts to my my first question but just on distribution more broadly in North America sort of where are you guys at relative to the high water marks in other words how much recovery potential does the business still still have

Yeah, so what I said is we really focused on the fundamental issues we had in the business. And just to put in context, this is a $5 billion business. The change process we went through was never going to be easy. So it's a fundamental change. So yes, we had some issues, but we fixed them relatively quickly. Thank you very much. I think the focus now is on growth, on winning back. Sometimes you can't win back what you have lost, but you win back something else or other categories or newer customers or newer types of customers. So we're in this phase of the business is operating well and there's more focus on growth and opportunities in the markets. and I assume in the next couple of years we will see the results of that coming true.

Great, thanks Frank. Thanks Richard.

Thank you. We have no more further questions so I'd like to hand back to Frank for closing remarks.

Thank you very much for attending our 2026 half-year results presentation. I hope you have a good day.

This concludes today's call, thank you for joining, you may now disconnect your lines