Bellway p.l.c. (BWY) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to Belway's full year results. Keith and I are joined by Simon Scougal, who you may recall joined the board back in August as Chief Commercial Officer. Simon is going to provide an update on the land and planning environment and also set out our plans for a new timber frame facility. Keith, as you know, will be leaving early in the new year, so this will be his final presentation. Keith is a difficult act to replace, having spent almost 13 years on the board, but he's also a very good act to follow. And as you would expect from him, he's leaving with an experienced finance team in place and with the balance sheet in good order. Simon joining the board offers me continuity and with a strong leadership team already in place, some of whom are here today. We've got two regional RCs, Stuart Gray and Ian Goulds just sitting up the back there, Gavin Jago, who you're familiar with, our Group FC, Phil Hope, and of course, our chair and industry veteran, John Tuck. And I also look forward to welcoming our new CFO, Shane Docherty, to the board on the 2nd of December. Now, today's presentation, in addition to our results, is about providing an update on strategy and our organic growth plans. FY24, as expected, was a year of reset following lockdowns. market uncertainty and leading to a reduced PBT of 226 million. Importantly, despite those challenges, we have built a strong platform from which to grow. Bellway is in healthy order to drive both multi-year volume growth and return on capital employed. And that's because we have a larger order book. We have a high quality land bank because we kept investing. We have the ability to continue growing outlets, a healthy WIP position, capacity within our divisional structure, and we have the balance sheet to inv...