Howden Joinery Grp Ord (HWDJF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

and welcome to the Howden's 2023 results presentation. So I'll begin with an introduction of our performance for the year, and then Paul Hay, CFO, will then review our financial results for the period. And then I'll share my perspective on our 2023 performance and outline our plans for 2024, and then we'll take your questions. The group delivered a resilient performance in 2023 against record prior year comparatives and in, as we anticipated, a more challenging marketplace. Sales and profits met expectations and we continued with our investment program, which is focused on our key capabilities, which give us end-to-end a stronger business. Group sales were in line with those of 2023 and were 46% up on 2019, being the year prior to the onset of the pandemic. In the UK, we believe we gained market share by volume in 2023, which helped us mitigate the impact of a decline in overall size of the kitchen market. Entry-level kitchens represented a higher proportion of kitchens we sold, with sales of products in our joinery category representing more of the sales makes. We maintained an industry-leading gross margin with gross profits at around the same level as last year, as we balanced recovery of significant input cost prices rises with our commitment to providing competitive pricing across the board for our customers. Excluding investment in strategic initiatives, active containment of operating costs kept those to 2022 levels, despite ongoing inflationary pressures. Profit before tax was lower than in 2022 in line with market expectations and 26% higher than in 2019. Our builders remain busy. We made good progress in our strategic plans for the UK business and sales and our international operations increased. The business delivered strong operating cash flows and we mai...