SSP Group plc (SSPG) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Okay, are we all right to get started? Yeah. Okay, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us here today, either in person or on our live webcast. I'm Patrick Coveney, the Group CEO of SSP, and I'm joined by Geert Borellen, our Group CFO today. In a minute, I will briefly summarize the progress that we've made in the first half. Geert will then cover the financials before I return to provide you with more detail on our delivery against Focus 26. and our outlook for the remainder of FY26. We said in December that we had to do more as a team to strengthen operational performance and to create value for shareholders. We shared our Focus 26 plan to drive sustainable improvements in profitability, cash generation and returns on capital, structured against the five pillars that you see on this slide. To be clear, there is more that we can and will do but we're seeing the benefits of that focus coming through in what we would characterise as a resilient first half performance with tangible progress against each element of the strategy. Sales for the first half have been where we planned them to be as we delivered like-for-like sales growth of 5% for the group in quarter one and critically sustained it in quarter two. Delivering a stronger, more profitable and more focused continental European business is paramount. With the actions that we've already delivered, And with more in flight there already, we're on track to deliver the planned increase in operating margin from 2.2% to over 3% for this year. And we're also setting out today the future direction for our European rail business, following our wide-ranging review in that region, with the implementation of that plan now getting underway. We recognise the critical role of productivity and cost efficiency in del...