Wickes Group plc

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us here today and also for those of you who are joining by webcast. I'm here with our CFO Mark George and together we would like to take you through the performance of the business for the year ending 27th of December 2025. Sharing how our proven growth levers are continuing to drive strong market outperformance. We'll also share with you our plans to accelerate our store rollout as we see an exciting opportunity to bring the Wix brand to even more customers across the UK. First, turning to last year's business performance, this was a stellar year for Wix with both retail and design and installation showing strong volume out performance. More customers shopping with us has resulted in volume-driven sales growth in our retail business as we have grown market share to record levels. In design and installation, the momentum from the transformational actions we took at the end of 2024 and into 2025 has continued and we have seen a fifth consecutive quarter of ordered sales growth. And at a group level, our sales growth of 5.9% is driving operational leverage, resulting in an increase in adjusted profit before tax of 14.4% to 49.9 million. So it really has been a great year for Wix, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of my fantastic colleagues for their incredible work in delivering these results. We have continued to invest in our store network with the opening of five new stores and 11 refits. This investment in our store estate delivers consistently good returns and shortly I will share with you why we believe we should accelerate this investment as we have the opportunity to go faster and further to a revised target of 300 stores versus the 250 we had previously announced. We continue to deliver attractive returns to shareholders and I'm pleased to announce that we've maintained our final dividend at 7.3p and have announced today a further 10 million share buyback. Trading in the first 11 weeks of this year reflects the strength of our balanced business model. With outdoor product demand having been impacted by the weather, we've experienced continued volume growth across indoor projects and design and installation. I'll now hand over to Mark to take you through the numbers in more detail.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. As David mentioned, 2025 was a strong year for the business with good growth in sales and profits. Revenue for the half was 1.64 billion pounds, up 5.9% versus 2024. Within that, retail was up 6.5%, and design and installation delivered sales were up 4.4%. we had a strong profit flow through with gross margin up 44 basis points and a 14% increase in PBT to 49.9 million pounds. We continue to operate with a strong balance sheet, ending the year ahead of expectations with 92 million pounds of cash and averaging 153 million of cash across the year. So this profit performance and the strong balance sheet have enabled us to continue delivering good returns to shareholders. As David said, we've announced our full year dividend of 10.9 pence per share. We've completed the 20 million share buyback for 2025 and today announce a further 10 million buyback. So we'll break out more detail in the next few slides. But here we have a summary of the P&L. As I just mentioned, we grew sales in both retail and design and installation, in total increasing sales by 92 million across the year. Gross margin rate increased by 44 basis points as a result of volume growth, category mix, and lower consumer credit costs for design and installation, which when combined with the sales growth resulted in the pounds gross profit of the business increasing 7.2% year on year. Operating costs increased by 6.7%. A good productivity programme enabled us to mitigate some but not all of the significant cost headwinds facing us, in particular the increases in national living wage and national insurance. In addition, as previously guided, we stepped up our investment in tech this year by around £8 million, building the foundations for future growth. Even with this significant step-up investment, we delivered an 11% increase in operating profit and a 14.4% increase in adjusted PBT, demonstrating healthy operational leverage of the business as it grows. So let's look at the P&L drivers in more detail, starting with sales. In retail, we delivered a consistently strong performance with sales growth above 6% in both H1 and H2. We saw good positive light for light growth driven by both TradePro and DIY. The number of TradePro members, active members increased to 643,000 and TradePro sales grew by 9%. DIY sales were in mid single digit growth. As you can see from the table on the right, this growth in retail like for like has once again been exclusively driven by volume with mild deflation for most of the year. So turning now to design and installation, our sales performance has continued to improve following the initiatives that were launched in the second half of 2024. The order book has now grown for five consecutive quarters, and with the usual time lag, delivered revenue has now had three quarters of consecutive growth. The dark blue blocks on this chart show the non-like-for-like sales growth, which comes from a combination of new stores plus sales from Wix Solar prior to the anniversary of the acquisition, which happened towards the end of H1. The profit bridge on this slide helps to highlight the key drivers of our 14% growth in PBT in the year. The strong performance in retail margin came from an increase in both sales and margin rates. And on the equivalent chart last year, design and installation was actually a drag to profit. But as you can see here, the progression we've made into delivered sales growth has meant that D&I profit was in growth, adding to the overall profitability of the business. On costs, we've shown here first the impact that the strong volume growth has had on our cost base, with around 17 million of costs directly linked to the additional volume going through the business. We can also see 17 million of inflation in costs, which is quite a bit higher than on the same chart last year, which was around 13 million, reflecting the increasing pressures of national living wage and national insurance, among other cost headwinds. Our productivity program delivered 12.4 million of savings in the year, in line with last year, but not quite enough to completely offset the cost inflation. We continue to invest in the business for the future. And investment initiatives that hit the P&L resulted in 12.9 million increase in costs. The biggest component of this was the 8 million step up in tech that I mentioned earlier. We also had around 3 million of net P&L impact from new stores in terms of pre-opening costs and losses in the first few months of trading. This will of course become increasingly a factor as we roll out the estate further. So overall, this shows a very healthy performance across the year. We increased PBT by 14% whilst absorbing around 16 million in costs for initiatives that will benefit growth and sales and profits in future years. So turning to cash, we are a cash-generative business, and even in a challenging economic environment, we can generate enough cash to reinvest in the business, pay a healthy dividend, and buy back shares. We ended the period with 92 million of cash, but as we know, December is a low point for us in our seasonal working capital cycle. We averaged 153 million of cash throughout the year. A couple of things to draw out from this bridge. The first is the strong working capital contribution of 25 million pounds, which last year was flat. This was driven by a strong growth in the design and installation order book, improvements in payment terms with some suppliers, and the timing of certain projects where the cash will go out in 26 rather than 25. We expect some of these benefits to unwind in 26 and result in a five to 10 million drag on working capital this year. The strong cash flow from our growing profit and our healthy balance sheet give us flexibility to invest further in growth initiatives. Our CapEx plan, which is predominantly invested in new stores and refits, was 28.7 million of spend in the year, a little lower than our guidance of 30 to 35 million, as one or two projects have taken longer to come to fruition and will now be launched in 2026. Also in 2025, we returned 45 million pounds to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks. We spent a further 12.5 million buying shares for our employee share schemes. So overall, a very healthy cash position. And this is the foundation on which we can now accelerate investment in our business, which David will talk you through in a moment. I'll end with some comments on outlook and guidance. So far in Q1, we've seen the benefit of our balanced business model, as David said. Whilst outdoor categories have been impacted by the wet weather, we've seen good growth in our indoor categories, and we've continued to grow market share. We remain comfortable with market expectations for growth in PBT in 2026. And in terms of our other guidance, I wanted to call out a few from the list here. Firstly on tax, after a lower than normal effective tax rate in 2025, due to a successful capital allowances claim, we'll return to a more normal level of ETR, slightly above the standard 25% tax rate. Our capex will step up to between 40 and 45 million pounds, partly as a result of some of the projects that were left over from 2025, and partly as the plans step up as we look to accelerate our investment. As I mentioned earlier, we anticipate a partial unwinding working capital. Today we've announced a 10 million share buyback, which as David will explain, will be the last one for the time being as we look to step up CapEx investment in the business over the next few years. In addition to the buyback, we will also be buying shares for our employee share plans rather than issuing new shares. And finally, on dividends, we plan over time to increase the dividend and the dividend cover so that we are operating within the cover range of our capital allocation framework of 1.5 to 2.5 times. So in summary, the business has had a very good 2025. We delivered good growth in sales and profit whilst increasing the levels of investment in the business. We now plan to build on this with a new bolder ambition for future growth, which David will talk you through now.

Thank you, Mark. It wouldn't be a Wix presentation without our strategic framework for growth. The very fact that I presented as every results announcement demonstrates just how the consistency and clarity of our strategy is working so successfully, enabling us to drive growth and market out performance. Over the next couple of slides, I'll share the actions we've taken across our growth levers and the results we've achieved in the past year. But before I do that, let me touch on some consumer trends that we are seeing across the UK home improvement market. As you are aware, we keep a close eye on trends for our monthly Mood of the Nation survey. Our local trade customers tell us they continue to be busy, with over 30% having a 12-month plus healthy pipeline of work. For customers in the market for a new kitchen or bathroom, we are seeing that planned spend has been stable over the last few months, whilst remaining below historical norms. And turning to DIY, people are still keen to improve their homes and with one in two consumers planning to decorate a room this year. And speed and convenience is increasingly important to them. In a recent survey, almost 60% said they expect faster deliveries and that they are happy to pay more for same-day service. Our TradePro membership scheme goes from strength to strength, with sales up 9% on the back of an increase in active members to 643,000. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that these are our most strategically valuable customers, spending on average 10 times more in a year than a typical DIYer. In DIY, we continue to broaden the Wix brand appeal through our range reviews, innovation, and communication. Once again, this has resulted in growth in this customer base. We know that customers value the products and services we offer as we see this coming through strongly in our customer satisfaction metrics. For example, 85% of customers rate our click and collect service as excellent or good. That rises to 89 percent for our home delivery service, which we operate from all stores. Value, convenience, and speed really matter to our customers. Our digitally-led service-enabled business model enables us to provide all three seamlessly. We continue to maintain a market-leading price position, and during the year added a number of new initiatives to offer customers even faster, more convenient service. including a new 15-minute click and collect and the launch of Wix Rapid, whereby customers can have home delivery of products weighing up to 800 kilos same day in under three hours. This is proving a game changer for local traders, saving them time and money when they're on a job. Although it's still early days, the customer satisfaction scores have been very positive, generating a healthy number of repeat customers for this service. I mentioned earlier that last year has seen us reach record levels of market share, and you can see from this graph the impressive step up we've seen over the past 12 months, a clear output of the outstanding execution of our consistent strategy. This year has been pivotal for our design installation business as the transformational actions we took at the end of 24 and last year have yielded results. As this chart shows, the performance of delivered sales has been strongly positive for the last three quarters with momentum continuing into Q1 this year. Many of you came to our D&I Investor Insights event at our Stains store last October, and all the exciting new initiatives we shared with you then are having a positive effect on the customer experience and translating into sales. Founding on a deep understanding of what matters most to our customers, we continue to innovate our ranges. For example, we've added paint to order to our bespoke kitchens offer and extended our furniture colors in our value-led Wix lifestyle range. We have also made significant digital and physical enhancements to simplify the customer journey, including our new design tool. While its full benefits are still to come, it is set to really transform how customers will be able to visualize and create their new kitchen and bathroom in the future. Crucially, our customers are telling us that we're hitting the mark, giving us a 4.4 excellent score on Trustpilot. Turning to our solar installations business, Solarfast is now fully integrated in the Wix Solar brand and we are focused on building the foundations for future growth. Wix Solar is on prominent display in all our stores and we're also growing our digital presence to build brand awareness. We have been delighted to welcome customers into five new stores in the year at Leeds, Moore Allerton, Bury St Edmunds, Dunfermline, Southport and Northampton, all of which have got off to a great start and are performing well. We have refitted and refreshed a further 11 stores with 83% of the estate now in the new format. And our property plans for 26 include another four to five new store openings, along with 15 to 20 refits and refreshes. Shortly, I'll talk more about our property ambitions, but before that, let me just conclude with the key highlights from across our responsible business strategy. In 2025, we had a number of highlights, including being ranked as the UK's number one retailer in the Financial Times Best Employers Survey. Our community program continues to support local charities and community groups up and down the country with over two and a half thousand projects benefiting from free Wix products and volunteer support. In April, we launched a new two-year partnership with CALM, the suicide prevention charity. We are well on our way to hitting our 2 million fundraising target, having already raised an incredible 1 million to date. And it's fantastic to be recognized for all the work we do as part of our responsible business strategy with highly positive ESG ratings, achieving a strong A- rating in CDP climate change and maintaining a AAA rating in MSCI. Now I'd like to take a few minutes to outline our future growth ambitions for our store network. As you know, we operate in a large market with strong fundamentals. If we take both product and installation services across the UK's home improvement, kitchens, bathrooms, and solar markets, we calculate our addressable market is around about 35 billion. Within this market, we see a significant opportunity for long-term growth. With a relatively small share of around 5%, there's plenty of headroom for growth through taking more share. which is why on the back of another year of successful growth and market outperformance, we are reframing our expectations about our opportunity to materially grow share by expediting our property ambition. Our proven operating model and strength of our balance sheet means that we now see the opportunity to dial up the growth drivers within the business, working within our capital allocation framework. The store performance of existing and new stores together with our proven ability to operate successfully in smaller footprints provides a body of evidence that gives us the confidence to go faster and further with our new store rollout program. And as a result, we're increasing our ambition, as I've said, to 300 stores across the UK. Back in 22, we said we had plans to open around 20 new stores over the next four to five years. We're on track with that program. And in the past three and a half years, we've opened 13 stores, which are performing well. The store's sales and margins are maturing as planned. We're on track to meet our Roki target of 25%. And just to give you a sense of how a store typically builds up to maturity, the design and installation element of the store will be the first to grow sales, followed by DIY, then local trade as that customer base strengthens over time. Our new store opening strategy is focused on identifying white space opportunities and building our brand presence in underserved larger towns and cities up and down the UK. Our proven ability to operate successfully in a smaller footprint store opens up a greater volume of potential sites that we can consider. And just to be really clear, I'm not talking about a new format, but our ability to execute Wix in a smaller footprint than the current group average. These stores will have a full and compelling retail offer and a kitchen and bathroom showroom similar to any existing Wix store. Our efficient 4C operating model and fantastic colleagues enable us to deliver the same customer proposition just from a smaller footprint of 15,000 to 20,000 square feet, rather than the 27,000 square feet average that we have across the estate. You can also see from the table we deliver a similar EBITDA to the group average from a smaller store. We are trading a number of these smaller footprint stores already, including our Stains store, which many of you would have visited recently, which generates in excess of 10 million revenue a year from a 20,000 square foot footprint. So we've proven our capability to successfully deliver the Wix customer proposition and make the financials work in a smaller store. And it's a critical component of our property strategy. giving us access to a greater number of economically viable sites, typically in catchments with a lower population and also infill of major urban areas. Of course, the key to a successful property strategy is picking winning sites, and we are very mindful that as we look to accelerate our network growth, we do so in a focused, disciplined, and highly selective manner. Over the next couple of years, our property team will be identifying locations, undertaking commercial negotiations with landlords, seeking planning permissions, and managing construction to secure a healthy long-term pipeline. And it's worth mentioning that Wix is viewed as a very good tenant. We have the highest 5A1 covenant rating. We add to the diversity of a retail park as a speciality home improvement brand. Plus, we are a growing business, all of which is very attractive to a landlord. Once we have secured the pipeline, we will then be in a position for our rollout program to accelerate from 28 onwards with around 10 plus new store openings per year. At the same time, we'd expect to increase our refresh and refit program to around 20 stores per year. The majority of these will be refreshes as 83% of our store estate is already now in the new format. This means that over the next few years, the refit program will evolve into an ongoing maintenance capital refresh program. And as you can see here, how we expect to effectively double our investment in store capex in 28 from the 20 to 25 million we will spend this year. So we are very excited by the growth opportunity that presents itself. And we are equally confident in our ability to realize our 300 store ambition. We have a well-versed and proven approach to picking winning sites. We have the capacity and resources in our property function to effectively manage the accelerated rollout. And most importantly, we have a model that works. Wix deserves to be in more locations across the UK, giving our customers the chance to experience the Wix brand. Our ambition for 300 stores will create over 2,000 new jobs supporting communities nationwide. Our capital allocation framework is well established. Within that framework, we are now focusing more on growth investment. We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet and a revised store rollout program increases property capex by 20 million per annum in the medium term. The strength of the business's cash flow generation will enable our plan to increase both dividend and cover as profits grow. And as always, any surplus cash will be returned to shareholders through share buybacks. So in summary, it's been a super year for Wix. Our highly differentiated business model has served us well as we continue to win market share and grow volume. We see significant headroom to increase our market share in the UK's 35 billion home improvement market, and we are scaling up our property ambition to go further and faster with our new store opening program. This is underpinned by our strong cash flow generation, enabling us to increase investment in our proven growth levers, in addition to delivering attractive returns to shareholders through our dividend and share buybacks. Thank you for listening. Now Mark and I will be very happy to take any questions you have.