Luceco plc (LUCE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call

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Replay transcript excerpt

WEBVTT 00:00:00.031 -- 00:00:04.583 Okay, good morning everybody and thank you very much for coming here this morning to 00:00:04.583 -- 00:00:09.370 hear the results from Luceco for last year for 2023. 00:00:10.499 -- 00:00:13.527 So I will 00:00:13.527 -- 00:00:16.349 use the bleeper. The highlights. 00:00:16.349 -- 00:00:21.697 So revenue of 209 million last year, 206. 00:00:21.697 -- 00:00:25.924 Adjusted operating profit of 24 million 00:00:25.924 -- 00:00:28.507 last year. It 00:00:28.507 -- 00:00:30.230 was 22 00:00:30.230 -- 00:00:32.230 million. 00:00:33.475 -- 00:00:38.940 I would say that was an OK year in a very difficult market. 00:00:39.204 -- 00:00:44.909 Although the top line actually grew by 3 million, 00:00:45.526 -- 00:00:50.573 If you look through the overstocking, destocking, our sales actually 00:00:50.573 -- 00:00:54.599 fell by approximately 5%. There 00:00:54.599 -- 00:00:56.582 was a 20 00:00:56.582 -- 00:01:01.650 million overstocking in 2021, and there was a 5 million destocking 00:01:01.650 -- 00:01:03.512 in 2022. 00:01:03.512 -- 00:01:07.739 So if you look through that, our sales actually declined. 00:01:07.739 -- 00:01:09.843 And we think they declined 00:01:09.843 -- 00:01:14.790 slightly less than the market. We think our markets were down about 6%. 00:01:14.790 -- 00:01:19.437 Our sales looking through destocking were down about 5%. 00:01:19.437 -- 00:01:23.743 But the headline number is that the revenue was actually up. 00:01:23.743 -- 00:01:29.731 Operating profits also up. Obviously overheads increased a lot. 00:01:29.731 -- 00:01:34.498 We gave a significant salary increase at the start of last year. 00:01:34.498 -- 00:01:36.877 But our gross margin 00:01:36.877 -- 00:01:42.964 that started last year quite weak in the mid-30s 00...