Howden Joinery Grp Ord (HWDJF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call

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Replay transcript excerpt

WEBVTT 00:00:00.149 -- 00:00:03.451 and welcome to the Howden's 2023 00:00:03.451 -- 00:00:05.791 results presentation. 00:00:05.812 -- 00:00:11.255 So I'll begin with an introduction of our performance for the year, 00:00:11.255 -- 00:00:16.657 and then Paul Hay, CFO, will then review our financial results for the period. 00:00:16.657 -- 00:00:21.800 And then I'll share my perspective on our 2023 performance and outline our 00:00:21.800 -- 00:00:26.942 plans for 2024, and then we'll take your questions. 00:00:27.608 -- 00:00:31.893 The group delivered a resilient performance in 2023 00:00:31.893 -- 00:00:35.156 against record prior year comparatives 00:00:35.156 -- 00:00:40.219 and in, as we anticipated, a more challenging marketplace. 00:00:40.501 -- 00:00:45.186 Sales and profits met expectations and we continued with our investment program, which 00:00:45.186 -- 00:00:47.869 is focused on our key capabilities, 00:00:47.869 -- 00:00:51.971 which give us end-to-end a stronger business. 00:00:52.588 -- 00:00:56.579 Group sales were in line with those of 2023 and were 46% 00:00:57.111 -- 00:01:03.034 up on 2019, being the year prior to the onset of the pandemic. 00:01:03.236 -- 00:01:08.279 In the UK, we believe we gained market share by volume in 2023, which 00:01:08.279 -- 00:01:15.163 helped us mitigate the impact of a decline in overall size of the kitchen market. 00:01:15.345 -- 00:01:20.647 Entry-level kitchens represented a higher proportion of kitchens we sold, 00:01:20.647 -- 00:01:26.849 with sales of products in our joinery category representing more of the sales makes. 00:01:26.849 -- 00:01:31.430 We maintained an industry-leading gross margin with gross profits at around the same 00:01:31.430 -- 00:01:36.512 level as last year, as we balanced recovery of...