Associated British Foods plc (ABF) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

And thank you for coming to this review of the interim results for the 24 weeks ended the 2nd of March, 2024. Obviously, these are a strong set of results. They're in fact the best I've been able to talk about in 19 years. Margins have built back to more normal levels, both within Primark and across the food businesses. That is the consequence of, quite frankly, a restoration of normality in our supply chains and in our inflationary environment. So, return to normality. We're also benefiting, though, through that normality. We're beginning to see the consequences of, in some cases, years of investment and strong strong execution. We've been adding, for instance, a million square feet or so of space in Primark. We just haven't seen the benefits of it until this year. We have made good progress within Primark, in particular on digital strategy, another piece of work that's been going on for a long time, high quality work. And included in digital strategy is the Clicking Deck service, which we have more to say about today. With normalized working capital with supply chains allowing us, running better and allowing us to take safety stock out, we've seen very strong cash flow in the first half. And then with the strong shareholder returns, those flow through into increased dividends. We're also going to take you through what's going back, what's going on with our share buybacks. Geopolitical risks remain. And I don't want to say too much more about that, but I think it would be negligent to me not to salute the fact that the world may look normal at the moment, but these things can change. Great. So, look, thanks, George. As George has said, look, these really clearly are a strong set of results. As you see in the financial highlights, we've had significant progress acros...