Bunzl plc (BNZL) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and thank you for attending Bonsall's 2024 Full Year Results presentation. I appreciate you joining us today. After my initial introduction, Richard Howes, our CFO, will cover our financial performance, capital allocation and outlook for 2025. After that, I will summarize our strategic progress during the year. But before we begin, I would like to say thank you to all my colleagues for their diligence and dedication in delivering another year of excellent strategic progress. I want to start today by highlighting the strong and resilient compounding nature of Banzel, driven by our business model and consistent strategy. Since 2014, we have delivered an adjusted EPS CAGR of 8% with strong consistency of growth over the years, driven by both organic and acquisition growth. This, along with our progressive dividend, has delivered significant shareholder value over an extended period and we have achieved this alongside a broadly stable adjusted net debt to EBITDA. The Group has a very disciplined capital allocation framework to support this growth, demonstrated by the Group's high and resilient return on invested capital. This return remains well ahead of the Group WAC and has been achieved with a cumulative 2.6 billion committed acquisitions spent over the last 5 years. The consistency of our growth is demonstrated by the very low volatility of our EPS growth over the last 10 years which is markedly lower than the Fuji Support Services Index and significantly lower than a selected basket of US distributors and compounders. This is driven by the structurally resilient nature of our business, with Bonzel distributing essential products across a diversified mix of sectors and geographies. Furthermore, it is supported by the consistency of our growth strategy an...