PZ Cussons Plc

So good morning everyone and welcome. Thank you to those who have joined us in person and to those who are on the line. Today Sarah and I will update you on our results for the financial year ending May 31st 2024 and provide some colour on the strategic steps we are taking. Let's take a look then at what we'll cover this morning. I'll start with some overall comments before Sarah takes us through the financials in more detail. I'll then provide an update on our strategic progress and the key priorities for FY25 before handing over to you in the room and on the line for Q&A. So let me start with some overall comments on our journey to transform PZ Customs into a business with stronger brands and a more focused portfolio. First of all, we have executed against the strategic priorities we set out last year to make continued operational progress, strengthening business fundamentals and driving in-market performance. I'll go through this in more detail later, but it is important to note up front that we have had to deal with the challenges of operating in Nigeria. While our reported numbers are obviously heavily impacted by the 70% devaluation in the Nigerian Naira, we have delivered operating profit in line with our guidance. We have clearly flagged this before, and Sarah will take you through the detail of the impact on our numbers. Later, I will cover the comprehensive actions we have taken and continue to take to mitigate the risk involved while sustaining competitive operations on the ground. Secondly, alongside the operational progress and following a detailed strategic review, we announced plans in April to reduce the complexity of our operations and to mitigate risk, thereby enabling us to maximise shareholder value in the years to come. As we announced this morning, we are progressing with our plans to sell Saint-Tropez and have received a number of expressions of interest in our Africa business, recognising the potential of our brands and our people there. And these expressions could possibly lead to a partial or full sale of our African business. Finally, the momentum of our business last financial year, both in terms of revenue and market share performance, has continued into the start of our new financial year. Today we're reporting 4.7% like-for-like revenue growth for our first quarter, including 2% revenue growth outside Africa, underpinned by 3% volume growth. And I'll touch on our priorities for the rest of FY25 later as we look to maintain this growth momentum for the full year. In summary then, we've made operational progress while dealing with the significant challenges of operating in Nigeria. We're getting on with evolving our portfolio to focus where we have more confidence to win in the future. And we're off to a solid start in the first quarter of FY25. With that, I'll hand over to Sarah.

Thanks, Jonathan. And good morning, everyone. I'm going to share a summary of the FY24 full year results, walk you through the key movements year on year at a group level, and then by regional reporting segment, before moving to guidance for FY25 and finishing with current trading. As you'll all be aware, and as Jonathan has already briefly touched on, our financial performance this year has been defined by the material impact of the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira, which declined 70% during the year. This has clearly posed operational challenges for our Nigerian business, materially impacted our sterling reported financial results, and put pressure on the group's balance sheet. And mitigating this impact has been a key focus for us this year, and we have made good progress repatriating cash and reducing the reliance of the Nigerian business on the wider group so that it is now overall self-funding. We've also continued to make targeted investments and have reprioritized spend across the business and have as a result seen continued strategic progress. So turning to the key lines, Revenue declined by £128.4 million, of which £130.6 million is attributable to the devaluation of the Naira. More encouragingly, underlying revenue trends improved across each geographic region throughout the year, with growth in both overall group like-for-like revenue and volume in Q4. Like-for-like revenue growth for the full year was 4.4%. Excluding Africa, like-for-like revenue declined 2.6%, but saw good sequential improvements to end the year in growth. And as Jonathan mentioned, those favourable trends have continued into Q1. Adjusted operating profit declined by £15 million at reported exchange rates to £58.3 million, in line with the guidance given at the Q3 trading update in April. And were it not for the depreciation of the Naira at the very end of the financial year, we would in fact have been at the top end of the guidance range. Adjusted earnings per share declined by 28.6% versus the 39.7% decline in profit before tax due to a reduction in the effective tax rate and a lower non-controlling interest in Nigeria. In light of the devaluation of the Naira and in line with the interim dividend reduction, the Board has today proposed that the dividend payable in December be reduced to 2.1 pence per share. This equates to 3.6 pence for the year and is in line with our target of an earnings cover of approximately two times. Free cash flow was 41.6 million and our net debt was 115.3 million as compared with the net cash position at the end of FY23 due to the 141 million reduction in the sterling value of cash held in Nigeria. Adjusted profit figures exclude the impact of material and one-off largely non-cash items to provide a clearer view of the business's underlying operations. The statutory loss of £84 million was driven primarily by the £108 million forex revaluation loss in our Nigerian subsidies and the impairment of the Sanctuary Spa brand in half one. Details of this and a more detailed description of what makes up the 108 million forex figure are in the appendix. Turning then to group revenue, the first bar on the chart rebases the FY23 revenue to FY24 forex rates with a movement of 149.9 million pounds. And we've provided a breakdown of those impacts in the appendix. Like-for-like revenue growth in the year was 4.4%, as I said, driven primarily by a continued strong performance in Africa. Europe and America's overall declined as underperformance in the beauty division more than offset the encouraging return to growth for UK personal care, which was a key focus for us last year. APAC declined with continued growth in ANZ, offset by a decline in Indonesia. And finally, the central revenue shown here, which is not included within our like for like branded sales calculation, is due to the closure of our seven cent fragrance house as we transition to a lower cost and higher quality outsourcing arrangement. Turning now to profitability, overall adjusted operating profit was down due to the significant impact of the Naira devaluation on our Africa business. Europe and Americas and Asia-Pac reported higher levels of operating profit, and I'll come to the regional details shortly. Central costs increased by £3 million on an underlying basis, with some savings allowing us to continue to invest in key capabilities. The FY24 reported figure includes a charge of £9 million, attributable to debt forgiveness in our Nigerian business in order to strengthen the local balance sheet. This had no net impact on earnings for the group overall, and we expect FY24 central costs to be broadly flat. Let me now give a little more detail on each of our three regional segments. Firstly, Europe and Americas. which has again been a tale of two divisions. Our UK personal care business, consisting primarily of Carex, Original Source and Imperial Leather, has delivered double digit revenue growth and a significant improvement in profitability. Carex returned to growth for the year as a whole, the first year of growth since the pandemic, and delivered improving trends throughout the year. Original Source and Imperial Leather both saw double-digit revenue growth and Charles Farm also continues to perform well. We're pleased with the performance of Charles Farm, reporting a second full year of double-digit revenue growth under our ownership, driven by continued strong commercial execution. Our beauty business unit declined double digits, driven primarily by Saint-Tropez. where we experienced destocking from a major customer, and we had a difficult year in Sanctuary Spa. We've taken actions already in the year to reorganize the previously separate personal care and beauty divisions into one business unit, both to bolster our commercial capabilities, but also reduce operating costs. So despite the reduction in revenue, adjusted operating profit and margin improved by 200 basis points. driven by revenue growth management and cost-saving initiatives throughout the year. In APAC, performance has differed markedly within the region, very much reflecting the trading environment in the different markets in which we operate. ANZ delivered another strong revenue performance with good volume-led growth in Morning Fresh and with Radiant now the third largest brand in the laundry market, up from sixth previously. In Indonesia, revenue declined as a result of overall economic softness and a reduction in consumer spending across the baby toiletries category. Kassan's baby returned to revenue growth, however, in Q4 and has grown again in Q1 of this current financial year. Adjusted operating margin grew by 160 basis points, principally due to a further significant improvement in profitability in ANZ, plus cost savings across our wider operations in Asia. In Africa, performance should of course be seen in light of the Naira devaluation, with reported revenue lower by 41%, despite nearly 30 rounds of price increases in the year. We saw only a 5% decline in volumes, with trends improving through the year and into growth in Q4. Increasing prices to the point of fully recovering the 70% drop in the value of the Naira in FY24 would see any multinationals brands uncompetitive versus local players. And indeed, the withdrawal of a number of those multinationals has created market share opportunities for PZ Customs. Our focus continues to be on mitigating the immediate impact of the significant Forex-related inflationary pressures, whilst also maximising the future profitable revenue growth prospects of the business. And with this in mind, the continued progress to expand the appeal and the distribution of our brands is helping, as Jonathan will come on to explain. Our joint ventures continue to perform well, with revenue in our electricals business up over 20% as we continue to focus on profitability, and the PZ Wilmar cooking oil joint venture contributing £10.7 million to operating profit. Overall margin for Africa was marginally lower than the previous year, including the debt forgiveness charge. Turning now to cash flow and the balance sheet. So this chart bridges from last year's reported cash and debt position to today, illustrating the impact of the Forex movements. We've reduced gross debt by 85 million down to 167 million in line with the guidance range of 160 to 180 that we provided in June. meaning the headroom on our borrowing facility is significantly higher than it was a year ago. Net debt has increased by around £120 million, almost entirely due to the reduction in the sterling value of the Naira cash balance, and sees us with the 1.5 times leverage that we had previously indicated would be the case. as at the end of May, we had a normal level of local Naira cash for operational needs and can now use that Naira, not only scarce US dollars, to purchase raw materials. So turning to guidance, the chart shows the operating profit movement into this financial year, essentially rebasing the FY24 profit to exchange rates prevailing during quarter one of this financial year. Impacts from both the translation of earnings into sterling and from the revaluation of balance sheet liabilities have been included. In FY24, in the year of devaluation, Forex losses on the trading liabilities of our Nigerian subsidiary were treated as an adjusting item in the P&L. And as has always been the case, any forex gains or losses on intercompany loans considered to be permanent in nature were charged directly to reserves. However, in FY25, we are now recording all Forex impacts in our headline operating profit as a result of the increased likelihood that these intercompany loans and liabilities would be repaid in the event of a full or partial sale of our Africa business, and so cannot be considered equity-like in nature. Had that accounting treatment been appropriate in FY24 and at today's exchange rates, adjusted operating profit would have been 40 million pounds. Then if we assume these Q1 rates hold for the balance of FY25, we expect to deliver underlying profit growth of between seven and 13 million pounds, led by the continued momentum in our UK businesses. So on this basis, our adjusted operating profit guidance is between £47 and £53 million. Naira rates will highly likely move, however, and we have provided here the sensitivity to them doing so. Firstly, a translational impact of around £1 million per every 100 Naira move against sterling, which I would consider to be a cash number as a given Naira profit is translated at a different exchange rate. There is then also a further impact of around seven million pounds per 100 Naira move to the US dollar as we revalue the loans and liabilities at the balance sheet date. This is a sensitivity that has always been present for PZ Cussons, but following the changes in accounting treatment that I mentioned, those movements are now charged to headline operating profit. I would not consider this to be a cash charge insofar as the Forex revaluations do not change the cash flow of the business, nor does the accounting change to how the Forex impacts are shown change the underlying net asset position of the group. And as we go through this year, we'll look to reconcile between these movements so you can understand the figures on the various bases. Additionally, the 7 million volatility is a gross figure and is shown before any potential mitigating actions we might elect to take, such as accelerating the repayments of any loans. And so we do expect this sensitivity to reduce throughout the year. That said, we see this level of P&L volatility and complexity, as well as the overall economic exposure to the Naira, as being too high for a company of our size. And this is a contributor to our decision announced in April to evaluate our strategic options with regards to our African business. In the event that the business is sold in full or in part, then this volatility and complexity will be removed or significantly reduced. We experience this volatility as a UK PLC with a sterling reporting currency. And it doesn't directly impact the underlying economics of our Nigerian business, nor the prospects of any potential transaction. Or put another way, the decision to account differently for these intercompany loans and liabilities has no bearing on the Nigerian consumer, nor our teams there. So in summary, and to the extent one can put Naira volatility aside, we're forecasting good underlying profit improvement elsewhere in the PZ Cussens group. Finally, then, a word on current trading. where we've continued the FY24 exit momentum with a like-for-like revenue growth of 4.7% in Q1, that is the three months to the end of August, with Europe and Americas remaining strong, with continued both volume and price growth in our UK brands, including Sanctuary Spa, as well as a more encouraging Saint-Tropez trend in the US. We saw a slight decline in APAC, with Indonesia recording a second successive quarter of growth, offset by the timing of some shipments in our wider Asia export business. And Africa continues to deliver strong pricing-led revenue growth. So with that, I'll hand back to Jonathan.

JONATHAN MCGUIRE- Thank you, Sarah. Now let's move on to a broader assessment of strategic progress. You should all be familiar with this slide. It summarises our strategy that has guided us for the past three years in its simplest terms. Ten words. Build brands so that we serve consumers, we reduce complexity, we develop people and we grow sustainably. Then we distill this overarching strategy into specific priorities for each financial year, as we did going into FY24. And as a reminder, we let you know this time last year, in fact, using this very slide, that we would be focused on continued simplification and strengthening of our Nigerian business in the face of the macroeconomic challenges, getting our overall UK business back to sustainable profit growth, And then as we strengthen our core, exploring and driving expansion beyond that core. And finally, continuing efforts to build the capabilities the group needs to win with our brands. Let's take a look at progress against each of these in turn before moving on to our subsequent actions on portfolio transformation. Starting with Nigeria, our primary focus has been addressing US dollar sourcing challenges while strengthening the fundamentals of the business. Thanks to sustained efforts from the teams involved in Nigeria and the UK, good progress has been made. Firstly, through improvements in cash generation and funding. Historically, we, like other multinationals, have had significant challenges repatriating cash from Nigeria, in large part due to the difficulty of obtaining U.S. dollars. Over the past year, not only have we reduced our requirements for U.S. dollars, thanks to a focus on cash, unit profitability and increasing local sourcing of raw materials, but we have also expanded and diversified how we source U.S. dollars. And these actions have enabled us to repatriate 50 million pounds, contributing to the overall reduction in gross debt of 85 million pounds. At the same time, though, we've continued to strengthen the competitiveness of our operations in Nigeria, for example, increasing retail coverage. We now cover more than 150,000 stores directly, improving the quality of our in-store execution versus the previous reliance on wholesaler coverage and driving the productivity of our distributed network. As a result, we have largely maintained our market shares despite nearly 30 rounds of inflation-driven price increases that we needed to put through in the year. As Sarah mentioned, this has involved us balancing our cash and unit profitability targets with maintaining competitiveness in the market and the ability to invest in our brands. Moving a little closer to home, our number two priority was returning the UK to sustainable, profitable growth. And I'm really pleased that the turnaround that we reported at our interim results has continued, not least demonstrated by the significant improvement in profitability of the UK personal care business. This is as a result of strengthened leadership and our determined focus to build back core commercial executional capabilities to focus on the right brands in the right sizes, in the right retailers and channels at the right prices. And looking at some of our brands in turn, original source grew revenue by over 20% due to strong marketing campaign activity and increased listings, with distribution points up 12%. Carex returned to growth for the full year for the first time since the pandemic, supported by effective revenue growth management, the launch of one litre refill packs and the successful activation of partnerships such as the Gruffalo Deep Dark Forest Fruits for any of you with young children or grandchildren in the family, right? And it was really good to see that for the first quarter of getting Carex back to growth in the last two, three years, we were able to say something. And now it's even better to report a full 12 months of growth. And finally, we've had continued success with Imperial Leather alongside the launch of Customs Creations. Revenue for the combined brands grew double-digit in FY24, with customs creations becoming one of the fastest-growing brands in the washing and bathing category. Imperial Leather maintained its market share, with new packaging and new bottles laying the foundation for the return-to-share and revenue growth that we have now seen during our first quarter of this financial year. In summary, the renewed momentum and in-market performance underlines why we see the UK as a key market for us today and in the future. Turning to our third priority, expansion beyond the core, and I want to call out Child's Farm, which has seen its second year of double-digit revenue growth alongside continued business integration. The team has delivered another year of market share growth in the UK, as well as opening up new international distribution, just as we set out at the Capital Markets event dedicated to Charles Farm last year. Growth was driven by strong commercial execution, including a 5% increase in distribution points, and we're delighted that awareness also continues to grow, up 4 percentage points based on our tracking, along with a near doubling of social media followers over the past two years. Notably, this summer saw us broaden our UK distribution footprint with the launch of five SKUs into M&S, displacing other brands and their private label offering. as well as the brand's introduction into Holland and Barrett stores, extending their online success into bricks and mortar. And that's a blueprint we've used to launch the brand in other markets too. In fact, as we look beyond the UK, we have now successfully moved Child's Farm in the US from online to in-store, with the introduction into premium grocery chain Wegmans, targeting mid to high income shoppers in the East Coast states of the US. That move followed the earlier launch in Germany into the retailer Diem in late 2023. We're delighted with the positive reception in Diem, where the Child's Farm Sleep Mist innovation became the number one SKU in their online baby category. More recently, August 2024 was also a significant milestone, marking the beginning of in-house production of Child's Farm at our UK Agecroft manufacturing site, which I know a number of you have visited. Clearly, the integration of Child's Farm into the broader PZ setup will only continue over time, helping us accelerate growth while also delivering improved efficiencies and cost savings. And finally, I want to touch on our fourth priority, transforming capabilities. This is an effort that involves all of our markets, but let me focus here on the UK to highlight the actions we've been taking. During the year, we combined the resurgent UK personal care business unit and the UK beauty business unit as we look to address the underperformance of some of our beauty brands. Previously, operating as two separate business units with two leadership teams, two commercial teams, sometimes even calling on the same buyers as our customers, and two sets of supporting functions, we now have one combined leadership team overseeing one integrated organisation. We're already seeing benefits emerge and we anticipate more to come. They include scale. The combined business is 30% than personal care alone. It improves our access to buying teams in the retailers and enables a more integrated approach to growing a wider range of brands with our retail partners. Simplification. We're harmonising ways of working, integrating systems and reducing duplication. And last but not least, capabilities. Teams are learning from each other. For example, leveraging personal care's commercial in-store executional focus or beauty's influencer and digital media expertise. Not only are these actions addressing some of the top line underperformance seen previously in beauty, but we also expect to generate material cost savings as part of the integration. Let's turn now to look at the actions we set out in our April trading update, which are all about crystallizing value for shareholders. As we said then, our portfolio has been too complex for the overall size of our business. And this complexity has meant that historically, resources have been spread too thinly. At the same time, our significant exposure to Nigeria, given the size of the business there as a proportion of the total group, has represented risk as well as opportunity, especially as the Naira has devalued and access to US dollars has been constrained in the past. Following a strategic review, we set out to focus on where we can be most competitive and create value for our shareholders as we also seek to reduce that complexity and mitigate risk. Accordingly, we have initiated plans to dispose of Saint-Tropez. Saint-Tropez is a fantastic brand, but it's also our only material presence in the US and in the premium beauty category. We see enormous potential for the brand, but under new ownership. And the process to divest the brand is underway. Meanwhile, as you know, we have been evaluating our strategic options for Africa. With the portfolio including non-core categories such as cooking oils and electricals, and the significant volatility the group has faced as a result of its exposure to Nigeria, we are exploring a range of potential outcomes. And the update today on our review of those strategic options for Africa is that we've received a number of expressions of interest underlining the potential of our brands. Remember, brands such as Premier, Stella, Devon Kings, Thermacool are highly prized and have strong market positions with long histories in Nigeria. As such, these expressions of interest could possibly lead to the partial or full sale of the African business. While we do not have anything further to say at this time, we will, of course, keep you updated on both processes. Now, looking ahead, I want to cover our priorities for FY25, which is going to be a year of significant change. As noted by Sarah, we have already seen good growth in Q1, and our focus for the remainder of the financial year is to maintain and build that momentum in our UK, ANZ and Indonesian businesses. to continue to strengthen our brand building and innovation capabilities as we develop a multi-year glide path of profitable revenue building blocks, and to get on with transforming our portfolio to maximize shareholder value. So before turning to Q&A, a quick reminder then of the key messages from today. First of all, we are intervening on our portfolio with actions underway to maximize shareholder value following a strategic review. Secondly, we have continued to deliver underlying progress and strengthen the business fundamentals in FY24 while driving in-market performance. Finally, we're working hard to transform PZ Cussens into a more focused business in attractive geographies and categories in which we can win as well as generate superior returns. We have clear priorities for the year ahead and remain optimistic about the future. With that, we would be delighted to take your questions, and I'll pass over to the operator. Ah. Do we need a microphone? All right. We'll do it sitting down. All right, we've been standing long enough.