Theworks.co.uk (LSE:WRKS) — FY25 Preliminary Results Presentation

0:00 Good afternoon and welcome to the wrks.code. UK PLC FY 2025 preliminary results presentation. Throughout this quarter presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you up to CEO, Gavin Peck. Good afternoon to you, sir.

0:30 Thank you, Alessandro. Good afternoon all, and thanks for joining us today. Rosie and I look forward to updating you on the great financial and strategic progress that we've made in the past twelve months and the strong momentum that we've carried forward into FY twenty six. I've got plenty of time at the end to answer any questions that you may have. So in summary, it's been a year of significant progress operationally, financially, and strategically. Excitingly, we launched our new strategy to elevate the works in January this year. That starts with a clear ambition that supports our new brand position, which is to be the favorite destination for affordable, screen free activities for the whole family. We've got clear plan plans that underpin bringing our ambition to life. We are already delivering tangible progress with momentum building.

1:19 Delivery of those plans will step change financial performance over the next five years. We'll deliver over £375,000,000 of sales and EBITDA margin in excess of 6%. We're embarking on delivery of that strategy from a solid foundation, having delivered a strong financial performance in FY twenty five. We're pleased to have delivered like for like sales growth ahead of the wider sector and in a fragile consumer environment. Particularly strong performance in our stores, which remain the life of our business and over 90% of our sales. We're really encouraged by the acceleration of like for likes in q four as we started to deliver on our strategy and build momentum from it. The like for like sales growth together with significant margin growth and cost reductions means we've offset the cost headwinds faced and significantly improved profitability with EBITDA of 9,500,000 for the year, which is significantly up from 6,000,000 the previous year and ahead of previous market expectations of 8,500,000.

2:16 We're confident in the outlook for our year ahead and expect further profit growth during it. Further delivering on our Elevating the Work strategy will drive sales growth, margin improvement, and cost savings, offsetting further cost headwinds that we face primarily from the government's bottom budget. We've already made a strong start to FY '26 with like for like sales growth of 5% in the first eleven weeks. We're also seeing strong margin growth year on year, and we're delivering further cost savings. And all of that means we're comfortable with recently upgraded market expectations for 11,000,000 EBITDA in f y twenty six.

2:50 I'll talk more about the strategic progress that we've made later, but for now, I'll hand over to Rosie to take you through the financial review.

3:01 Thanks, Gavin. I'll start by taking you through some of the highlights before we get into the detail. We've delivered revenue of 277,000,000, slightly down year on year as a result of the additional trading week in the prior year along with a focus on optimizing the store estate, which I'll talk more about later. We delivered like for like sales growth of naught point 8%. Store sales, which represent over 90% of total sales, were the key driver behind this strong growth with positive like for likes of 2.3%. This was driven by more customer focused events, new products across all categories, and improved store standards and product availability. Online sales declined by two 12.1%. They were impacted by the temporary capacity constraints at our third party provider during peak and also a focus on improving the profitability of this channel.

3:55 The action we've taken has delivered significant product margin growth and a year on year cost savings, which have mitigated significant cost headwinds such as the national living and minimum wage. And as a result, we've delivered year on year EBITDA growth of 3,500,000, which resulted in FY '25 EBITDA of 9,500,000 in line with our recently upgraded market expectations. Statutory profit before tax includes a 3,800,000 credit for adjusting items. This includes net impairment reversals of IFRS 16 right of use assets of 6,500,000, which are off partially offset by exceptional fulfillment costs and restructuring costs in the year. Net cash of 4,100,000 is ahead of last year by 2,500,000 with improved cash flows reflecting the increased profit and a net working capital inflow.

4:50 So let's take a look at sales performance. Sales performance has been ahead of the nonfood retail sector. For the equivalent period of our financial year, f y twenty five, the British Retail Consortium reported minus naught point 1% like for likes for the nonfood retail sector. Our comparatives are positive point 8% at company level, which reflects plus 2.3% in stores, which make up over 90% of total sales. In q four, which is February to April, we increased this outperformance versus the BRC as we reported plus 6.4% total like for likes versus the BRC's 2.1%, with stores nearly hitting 7% like for like growth for that period.

5:38 We've seen our competitors come out with declining like for likes, so we're really pleased with our strong performance in the market. It demonstrates the action taken and the progress we're making against our strategy. As we mentioned during our interim results, one of the key priorities for FY '25 was to improve product margins, and we're really pleased that the strategic action taken has delivered strong product margin growth increase increasing from 57.3% to 59.4%. Negotiations with suppliers to lower cost of goods sold has been supported by a focused effort to control product mix and reduce promotional activity, and this has accounted for a combined 320 basis points improvement. An FX tailwind in the year of approximately 40 bps due to our hedged US dollar to GBP rate of 1.26 versus 1.11 last year.

6:33 And there was an approximately 100 basis points headwind in container freight costs as a result of the higher average container rates over the year due to the disruption in the Red Sea. So let's take a look at the costs. Significant cost savings have driven an improvement in our profitability. EBITDA benefited by an increase of 5,600,000 from the significantly increased product margins that I've just talked through. Focus on profitability and lower volumes through proactively optimizing online sales in response to the third party challenges resulted in lower web variable costs. Through our labor efficiency program and changes to our store labor model, we mitigated the majority of the 9.8% national living and minimum wage increase, which was a £4,000,000 headwind in the year.

7:25 Improved ways of working in our retail distribution center along with the strengthened management team saw distribution costs reduced significantly.

7:35 Property costs increased by 1,100,000. Savings from renegotiations of leases expiring in the year along with favorable electricity costs were partially offsetting cost pressures from the prior year release of one point seven million of COVID nineteen rent credits along with an additional $800,000 dilapidation provision in the year with respect to expected costs for planned store closures as part of our ongoing store optimization program. Increased admin costs of 1,300,000 reflect the lower central costs due to the restructuring of the ops board and the transfer to AIM at the end of f y twenty four. These costs were offset with bonuses payable to colleagues reflecting our improved performance year on year as well as a headwind from one off releases in the prior year from a VAT provision release and long term incentive plan charges.

8:27 We continue to optimize our store estate during the year. We closed 15 stores in the period, opened seven, and relocated four. This resulted in a higher quality estate that is more profitable. Over the last five years, a 150 stores have been newly opened, relocated, or refitted, helping to improve the consistency and overall profitability of the estate with 98% of the store now being store estate now being profitable versus 96% last year. We focused on reducing the tail of marginal stores through negotiations with landlords to lower rents along with making operational improvements in stores. Our average payback for new stores is around eighteen months, and we've seen slightly lower contributions from landlords, which means payback has got slightly longer.

9:16 We've seen great performance from our relocations in Bolton, Wroking, and Carlisle during the period, along with good performance in new stores such as Sale and and Stafford Riverside Retail Park.

9:30 So let's take a look at working capital. Stock at the year end of 35,000,000 reflects lower shrinkage provisioning. This is due to the timing of all our stores being counted at the end of the year compared to a phasing across the year in the prior period, and therefore, a reduced provision of estimated shrinkage. An improved stock position with less terminal stock resulted in lower obsolescence provision year on year. And our increased gross stock levels reflect investment in new stock across strong performing ranges to support higher sales. CapEx was broadly flat year on year as we made the decision during FY '24 to lower investment levels for FY '25, but we're expecting to increase those CapEx investment levels next year, and I'll talk more about that next.

10:19 Cash generation in the period reflects improved operating profit supported by working capital inflow due to reduction in prepayments and improved working capital management. So we're pleased to end the year with 4,100,000 cash, in line with expectations and ahead of the prior year. So let's take a look at FY '26. We'll deliver sales growth, offset significant cost headwinds, and improved profit margins. We've identified strategic initiatives to drive sales, taken action on prices, and continue to focus on reducing cost of goods sold and controlling promotional activity and will create further product margin improvement. Gavin will talk through some of these strategic plans next. We're targeting significant cost reduction across central costs in the year. And as a result of our transformation project in FY '25, we identified over 2,000,000 of central cost savings for FY '26.

11:17 All of this will offset the significant national living and minimum wage pressures of 4,500,000 along with the 2,000,000 increase in employers' NI contributions. We'll therefore deliver EBITDA growth in line with our revised FY external forecast of 11,000,000, a year on year increase of over 15%. We'll look to invest in a net new five stores along with investment in our current store estate and systems transformation, spending approximately 8,000,000 in f y twenty six versus the 5,000,000 in f y twenty five. As a result of profit growth, good working capital management, and increased CapEx spend, we expect to finish with cash of approximately 5,500,000. So thank you for listening. I'll now hand back to Gavin who will take you through the strategy update.

12:08 Thanks, Rosie. As mentioned, we introduced our new strategy to elevate the works in January this year, and I just wanted to play you a short video that we've pulled together with the support of some fantastic colleagues across the business that summarizes this strategy and what it is looking to achieve. So, Alessandro, if you could please play the video.

12:33 At THEWORKS, our purpose is to inspire reading, learning, creativity, and play. We want to share time spent with our customers old and new. We're turning the page and starting our next chapter. We are elevating the works. Our strategy will bring us closer to fulfilling our ambition to be called. The favorite destination for affordable, screen free activities for the whole family. Elevating the works is our strategy, our three pillars all supported by our people and planet commitments. THEWORKS is a favorite among our loyal customers, but we want even more people to discover and love what we do. We will. Promote THEWORKS with creative marketing that highlights our brand and our time well spent message, improve our understanding of and engagement with new and existing customers, continuously excite and delight customers with innovative products at great value all year round.

13:28 And make every visit feel welcoming, family friendly, and full of inspiration. Our customers love shopping with us, and we want to make it even easier for them. We will. Deliver our product offer and trading plans consistently and to high standards. Tailor store space to ensure our project ranges better meet the needs of local customers. Introduce THEWORKS to more customers by opening stores in new communities. And enhance our online offer with a seamless in store and online shopping experience. To continue to offer our customers great value, we need to be more efficient and keep our costs low. We will work with suppliers to improve our product margins. Transform the way we work by using new and improved systems and simplified processes. Reduce our operating cost to every penny spent wisely.

14:16 And grow our customer average transaction values to maximize cost efficiency. Our strategy is supported by our people and planet commitments. By improving our colleague experience and giving something back through our charity partnerships. And by making a conscious effort to protect our planet and use ethical suppliers. We are committed to doing business better for our people, our communities, and our planet. Our strategic drivers will come together to help us win more loyal fans, improve customer experience, and support long term growth. This is more than art supplies and work. This is inspiring people to read, learn, create, and play. Together, we are elevating the works. I still get goosebumps listening to that myself, but I hope he gave you a good introduction to our new strategy.

15:16 So in summary, we're looking to elevate the works, transforming our business and our performance. We've got really clear long term goals, new ambition to become the favorite destination for affordable screen free activities for the whole family, and clear financial targets, as I mentioned earlier, to step change our sales an excess of 375,000,000 and grow EBITDA margins to at least 6%. All of that being delivered through the strict three strategic drivers that you just heard about. There's lots to do to deliver the strategy across all areas of the business, but importantly, we've got a clear plan of what we're going to do, when, and what that will give us. We're already making great progress with a lot of it, and we're already seeing the benefits from that. So I'm excited about what it can do for our brand and our performance. And since launching it, I can see, feel, and hear that it's also resonating with colleagues across the business and also with suppliers at a recent supplier conference and with other investors that we've spoken to.

16:16 A big part of the strategy is bringing to life what's on this page, which is the output of the brand work we completed last year and I shared back in January, but just thought it's worth recapping. It builds on our purpose, which remains unchanged and is to inspire reading, learning, creativity, and play. It ensures we establish a clear brand position and a reason for the works to exist for generations to come. We're clear on the custom need that we're addressing. You know, the increasing research around the negative impacts of the overuse of screens and screen addiction, particularly for parents in relation to their children. I feel passionately about that, not only as CEO of THEWORKS, but also as a father of two young girls. In a world full of screens, it's clear that people want to find other ways to connect and spend their time. And we're perfectly positioned to support with that by connecting people with feel good ways to spend their time.

17:05 And that's what we call time well spent, and that's our brand's top line. So be that reading a book whilst on holiday, crafting with kids on a rainy day, playing a board game as a family on a Saturday night, all time well spent courtesy of the works. We started rolling out the drop line at Christmas, and it resonated really well with pretty much all stakeholders we've spoken to. Again, whether that's colleagues, customers, suppliers, or investors. So we're now really clear on what we want to be famous for as well, great value, fantastic ranges, and screen free activities. We're continuing to refine our brand and product proposition to align to this. We're bringing our brand identity to life will help us establish a differentiated proposition and realize our mission to be the favorite destination for affordable screen free activities for the whole family.

17:52 It's really important to have this clear position in UK retail, and it's the foundation of our strategy. So taking each of three key strategic drivers in turn, the first one is growing our brand fame, and that really is all about bringing our new brand identity to life. And we know that THEWORKS is loved by its core customers, but we still remain one of the best kept secrets in UK retail, and we want to address that. In the past year, we've completed the brand projects that I just summarized. We've launched new customer focused campaigns that I'll cover on the next slide. We've continued to evolve our product proposition. In the turn of this calendar year, we increased the amount of new products coming through in all categories and ensuring that that newness is hitting our stores regularly. And the customers are responding really well to this, as you can see from our recent like for like performance.

18:40 We've also improved our seasonal offerings outside of Christmas. We had a really strong back to school season last summer. We had a bigger and better Halloween, which was 30% up year on year and sold out early, which has given us more opportunity for the year ahead. And earlier this year, we've just had a fantastic Easter as well. In the year ahead, we've got plans underway to, first and foremost, get out there and market our brand, you know, mostly through social media and other digital channels, but bringing that time well spent and brand position to life. We're looking at introducing extended ranges in our larger stores. They will be typically sort of new brands, slightly higher priced items to complement what we currently sell. We're looking to test the success of those in those larger stores and then roll them out through the rest of the estates.

19:27 We've done some of that this spring. We've then taken the initial learning. So we had a Bay Of Crayola, kids art and craft, bit of stationery, trialed in 28 stores. That's worked really well. We're taking that into a 141 stores this autumn. We're gonna continue to grow the all year round appeal of THEWORKS. We're gonna increase the strength of our key seasonal events, Easter, back to school, Halloween, and Christmas, which we're already quite well known for, but more importantly, further develop customer focused campaigns that create reasons to visit outside of those seasonal events. I'll cover that shortly. We'll continue to drive that newness across all categories to help drive repeat visits and continue the success that we've seen in recent months. We'll also continue to provide a fun, family friendly, and inspiring experience for customers that will give them reasons to visit and revisit the works. We're gonna give improve customer service training for our store colleagues and run exclusive events in stores such as book signings, character visits such as Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Bluey.

20:33 So I mentioned we've been running more customer focused events since the turn of Christmas. These championing screen free activities, much more lifestyle and emotion in the way that we communicate with customers rather than just shouting about products and price. We still want to be valued for when we still got great products, But it's about the the softer way of talking to customers and giving customers all year round reasons to visit. So coming out of our January sale, we went into a kid's favorite event in February. That was a license campaign at the front

21:05 of stores, seven key licenses that you see there across all four of our categories, giving real brand authority and choice for our customers alongside our own brands. We then moved into a Books Our Magic campaign that highlights our kids' book proposition and the benefits of reading for children. That coincided with World Book Day and included our market leading 10 for 10 kids book offer.

21:27 At Easter, we moved away from just sharing about products from a pound. We still had that message there, but it was very much about how we can focus on providing customers with hundreds of ideas for activities for the ones. In the new financial year, we moved into a make made mindful campaign. That was a campaign that was in partnership with Mind, bringing out the benefits of pressing pause, doing an outdoor craft project, and that being time well spent. Then most excitingly, this summer, we've got the board on board, which is three young kids who have taken over the board who are gonna suggest screen free fun activities to help parents with an alternative to just giving the kids a screen this summer when they hear, I'm bored. And that will help give families a sum of our spends.

22:12 It's supported by research and expert opinion. We did a survey, and 40% of parents want to limit screen time this summer, but they need ideas for practical alternative to keep the kids entertained. That's where our three cheeky little kids of the boredom board will be providing them with. So it's a huge step for us in terms of how we talk to our customers, giving them a real reason to visit more regularly, and it does seem to be resonating well as we can see in the recent performance.

22:42 Second strategic driver is improving customer convenience. As I said on the video, we know customers continue to demand increased convenience. And as a retailer with 500 stores and a transactional website, that's great news for us. It's a real differentiator for us against some of our key competitors, for example, the general merchandise discounters. In the past year, we've improved store standards and customer experience in existing stores in two key ways. We've improved product availability and stock allocations as we continue to realize the benefits of the investments that we made in our new stock allocation software and merchandising team two years ago. And a couple of examples of how that's worked, had a much better support for our top turnover stores, 50, what we call, platinum stores, and that drove like for likes of nearly seven percent in those stores in the last year and over double digit like for likes since Christmas.

23:33 We've also improved the availability on launch of new ranges to consistently ahead of 90% with further improvements to come in FY '26. Alongside that, we've delivered a much more consistent store standards supported by the restructure of our retail leadership team just over a year ago. We've brought real clarity as to what good looks like, and we're providing support and driving accountability to teams to ensure that we deliver that.

23:59 And as Rosie touched on earlier, we've continued to optimize our store estates. Our stores remain the lifeblood of the business and will do for many years to come. And as Rosie mentioned earlier, our five zero three stores, over 90% of sales, 98% are profitable. We continue to deliver positive like for likes and margin growth through them. Rosie talked about the portfolio activity we've done, and alongside that, we've continued to drive rents lower in our existing stores. This year, we're on with better using our store space, which is a huge opportunity as part of our new strategy, and we believe that's a multiyear opportunity by tailoring the store ranges to better meet the needs of local customers. We appointed the resource to lead on this work earlier this year, initially focused on undertaking the analysis of the performance of our current layouts to inform trials in a current year and beyond.

24:52 So we're looking at broader ranges in university towns where we can see art and stationery over indexing. We're looking at those large store range extensions I mentioned and seeing how we can push those successful ones down through the store states supported by proper analysis. And then also starting to look at where certain categories over and under index, for example, kids versus books, where we see demographic differences. If English language isn't the first language for many, then we don't sell many English language books. I mean, different shopper profiles and different store formats. So garden centers versus retail parks. So this year is all about trials to inform what we do in the future. We're building our store standards through further iteration of what good looks like driving the delivery of that. As Rosie touched on, opening a net new five new stores.

25:46 We're building the pipeline to accelerate growth in f y twenty six and beyond as part of our ambition to add a net 60 new stores over the next five years. We've just recruited a senior acquisitions manager to lead on this.

26:01 You'll see here pictures of four recent store openings from left to right, Edinburgh Fort Kennard Retail Park, relocation on Edinburgh Princess Street, Halton relocation, and Stafford Riverside Retail Park. All really fresh, inviting, and show the new look and feel of the brand. As I said, new store openings are a key building block of our new strategy. We're looking to add 60 net new stores in the next five years from around about a 100 priority locations that we don't currently trade in, but we believe we can deliver the strong payback of less than two years from. As Rosie said, we're achieving better than that currently. Those opportunities are across a range of formats and locations within The UK. Importantly, we're working proactively with landlords to help educate them on our evolution as a retailer.

26:49 There's still many landlords out there who see us as a pilot high, sort of cheap discount that isn't financially stable and remembers from old. But we've had some great meetings in recent months. We're increasingly getting the message across, and they can see the benefits of our proposition and what it can bring to their centers in terms of being a destination for family fun. Then the final strategic driver is being a lean and efficient operator. So we want to continue to offer our customers great value. We want to deliver sustainable profit margins. And to do that, we need to be a business that's lean, efficient, and simple. We've made good progress here in the last twelve months as Rosie covered, driving significant product margin growth and delivering significant cost savings both through the actions that we took a year ago and the more recent cost transformation project.

27:37 We also completed a lot of our new e plus software across the store states that replaced previous end of life software and provides a platform for introducing further capabilities, including new physical sales in the future. We've got lots more planned for FY '26. Again, as Rosie's touched on, further improving our product margins through continuing those supply negotiations, supplier rationalizations, and taking a partnership approach with key suppliers, continuing to benefit from better stock management and therefore seeing reduced markdown cost for obsolete stock. And we have put through some selected price increases this spring in response to the cost headwinds faced from the government's autumn budgets, and that will clearly help improve our margin.

28:21 On top of that, we'll be delivering the 2,000,000 plus operating cost savings identified as part of the recent cost transformation project. That will see us reviewing and simplifying our processes across the business and looking to reduce other operational support costs where appropriate. One example I'll talk through shortly is what we're doing in our distribution center. And on top of that, we'll start investing in replacing our outdated and inefficient systems. Looking to add new functionality and improve the efficiencies of our colleague colleagues that was focused on our buying and supply chain areas to start with. Now, admittedly, not the most exciting pictures on this page, but nonetheless an exciting project. We've had capacity challenges at our main retail DC since we moved into there eight years ago. We brought a new DC leadership just over a year ago, and as Rosie's mentioned, they're driving significant efficiencies in in our DC. But alongside that, they've been identifying future opportunities, and one of the biggest ones to date has been to invest in building a mezzanine floor in our DC.

29:24 That's around about £600,000 CapEx investment, and it gives us increased capacity, about 17% extra floor space and pallet locations and 21% extra pick locations. What that means is it will significantly reduce the peak capacity challenges we faced nearly every year since I've been at the works, and that's has resulted in the past in inefficient ways of working as a team have had to work around sort of gridlocks, and it will reduce the need to use expensive third party storage. And the benefits of that significant that we will see payback of that CapEx investment within a year. So just to come back to what the strategy will deliver us, again, a slide that I shared in January, but just to recap, you know, delivering on the strategy gives us multiple levers to support step change in sales, adding over a £100,000,000 over the next five years.

30:15 I believe £25,000,000 sales growth from 60 net new stores, balance of 75,000,000 coming through our existing channel channels. We'll do that through attracting new customers to the works, increasing spend from existing customers, getting more repeat visits by having a more relevant all year round proposition, improving availability from the more consistent execution of our plans in stores, increasing our sales densities through better using store space, and growing our online sales through improved customer experience and improving the links to our stores. There's multiple levers there. It means there's a lot to do, but it also means we're not overly reliant on one particular aspect to deliver the growth, and that's both exciting, and it helps to derisk the plan.

31:03 In terms of the step change we expect to see in EBITDA margin improvements, again, shared this slide in January, but just to summarize, delivering on the strategy, we'll see like for like store sales growth on a larger fixed cost base, a 200 basis points further margin improvement in product margins, 5,000,000 plus reduction in our operating cost base as part of being a lean and efficient operator, and improving our cost to serve ratio by growing the average selling price. On top of that, as Rosie touched on earlier, savings from our ongoing optimization of the store portfolio, which will see us continue to close any loss making stores and save rents in our existing store estate. So overall, $375,000,000 sales, 6% EBITDA margin gives us EBITDA target in excess of £22,500,000 versus the 9,500,000 just delivered in 9,500,000.

31:54 That's hugely exciting. There's a lot to do, but we're on with progressing most areas and starting to see real tangible benefits from those as these results show. And putting all of that together, you know, we believe we have a really compelling investment case, and that's what excites me. We've got highly relevant purpose and a meaningful ambition as we discussed earlier, a clear position in value retail with all year round appeal, and that's a reason to exist for generations to come, which isn't something that many retailers can say. Much loved by our core customers, but still a well kept secret amongst many, meaning we have a significant opportunity to grow brand awareness and win new customers. We've got an accessible and convenient multichannel proposition with over 500 stores and a transactional website, and we've got significant market share growth potential across all our categories.

32:44 And we have a meaningful share of our end markets, but it's still relatively small. You know, BOOKS is one of our biggest at 10 share by volume, 4% by value, And that gives us huge headroom to take share and support, adding another £100,000,000 of sales in the next five years. And then on top of that, we've the new five year strategies to transform the business. And as discussed, that's already delivering results. We're doing it from a position of strength. You know, we've improved profitability. We're generating cash, and we've got cash on the balance sheet at year end. So we embark on our new strategy from a position of strength. Just to summarize again, you know, a year of significant progress operationally, financially, and strategically as I said upfront. We've launched our hugely exciting new strategy to elevate the works. You know, we've got clear ambitions, clear targets, clear plans. They can and will transform our business and performance, and we're already on with delivering that and seeing that come through in our results.

33:41 We've delivered a strong financial performance in f y twenty five. Like for like sales growth ahead of the wider sector in a fragile consumer environment and a significant improvement in profitability with EBITDA of £9,500,000. And we expect further profit growth in f y twenty six. By further delivering our strategy, we've already made a strong start with like for likes plus 5% year to date, and we've come to go with recently upgraded market expectations for 11,000,000 EBITDA in FY twenty six. So we're excited about the year ahead and what the five years beyond that can can deliver. So I say that ends the presentation. So thank you for listening, and we will now take any questions. That's great. Well, Gavin, Rosie, thank you very much for your presentation. What I'll do is I'll just bring your cameras back up at this point. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions. You can do that just by using the q and a tab sits here in the top right corner of your screen. We have received a number of pre submitted questions and live questions and I want to start the Q and A session off with the first question here which reads as follows.

34:42 Have you got a clear assessment of which stores are meeting your ROE targets and which are not? You Do have a plan to rationalize stores which are failing to hit your targets? Thank you. I'll take this one. Yes. So I've already mentioned that we, on average, see a payback of around eighteen months. We look to target under two years, and that's measured through store contribution against that original CapEx investment. And for our existing stores, we're comfortable with anything that's making a positive contribution, but we have a real focus on what we call marginal stores where we'll really challenge rents and operating costs when they're making anything sort of around 30 k or less contribution to the estate. I've already mentioned the f y twenty five portfolio optimization, and we're look looking to do the same in f y twenty six.

35:29 We're constantly reviewing our portfolio to make sure that we've got the right mix of stores in the right locations for our customers. So in f y twenty six, as we as we've mentioned, we'll target a net new five, but that will mean some closures, but we plan to open more new stores, better quality, and in the right locations. That's great. Thanks very much, Rosie. The next question we have here is having a wide range of books at USP, and how does this strategy compare to online book retailers and competition? Product categories, books. Sorry. I've muted that. We have four third product categories, books, toys and games, art and craft, and stationery. Meaning that books are essential to our proposition. They're in the heritage of the business, and they're one of many reasons why customers love shopping at the works.

36:18 Part of our new strategy is all about men staying ahead of the curve, bringing in new releases. That's in contrast to our old strategy where we wouldn't have sold those new release lines. It would be more clearance and back catalog books, that's proved really popular with customers in recent years. In the last twelve months, we've seen a real strong performance from our adult fiction ranges driven by a lot of popular book top titles and exclusive editions of sprayed edges. Also seeing kids books, in particular, our 10 for 10 kids picture flat softwares and our famous author books performing well. But we do face competition from other retailers, so we're constantly looking at ways how we can evolve our proposition and drive footfall to stores. I think it's important to note that, you know, books are only one of our four categories, and our stores are relatively small.

37:08 So whilst it's they are key to ensuring we set the right ranges for books against our specialist competitors. They're always gonna have a broader range of books. So for us, it's about how do we get the right offering of books at great value prices for our customers. That's great. Thanks very much, Kevin. Next question I do believe you touched on in the presentation. But how do you plan to maximize sales during festive periods such as Easter, Halloween, Valentine's, Christmas, back to school, etcetera? Yeah. So it's really about taking the learnings each year and building on it. We're already a destination at Christmas and increasingly so for the other seasons mentioned, Easter, back to school, Halloween, you know, as we saw in the last twelve months.

37:53 So we want to keep growing those seasons, but the priority of the strategy is about how we grow outside of those seasons and get customers coming through all year round through different calendar events. You know, we we always have been and we're ever increasingly becoming a destination at school holidays. And as I talked about with the board and board, you know, we know that 40% of parents want to limit screen time this summer, but they need practical alternatives. And 30% say if they had more inspiration for screen free activities, then they'd do even more. So that's been a success about school holiday ranges as we become the favorite destination for screen free activities during half term and the Easter holidays. And as we've seen year to date, we've had a really strong start to the spring and summer ranges.

38:44 Thanks very much. The next question here, how are you creating brand awareness, and what is your USP? So kind of the thoughts about that brand framework side. So we know that we've got a number of loyal customers. We want even more customers to discover the works and and love what we do, and that is all what the growing our brand fame strategic drive is about. So that brand project has given us a brand framework that we are clear on who we are, what we want to be famous for, and the role we can play for our customers. And it's importantly, it's it's addressing a known customer need. You know? Customers are looking for ways to spend their time and connect with family members away from screens. So our focus in iUSP is how we provide affordable screen free activities for the whole family.

39:32 We're bringing that light to life through our time well spent offline. As I mentioned, that will be mostly on social media and the digital channels. We don't intend to spend a lot of money on TV advertising, but we're seeing great success and great feedback from customers so far to date from the activity that we've undertaken. Thanks very much, Gavin. Who do you consider as your competitors, and what type of comparative data do you use? Yeah. I'll take that. So we've got a broad range of competitors. We have what we call the full price specialists. So the likes of what was WH Smith and RTG Jones, Hobbycraft, the entertainer, Vymans, who sell what we sell, typically at higher prices and where the value alternative to them.

40:19 We then got the general merchandise discounters, the B and M's, the Hound Bargains, the ranges, who sell similar items to us, often at similar and and cheap prices, but not as typically as good quality and not with the service that we offer in our stores. And then the supermarkets. But no one competitor does exactly what we do, putting all four categories together under one roof and providing affordable screen free activities for the whole family. So I think for us, we look at really the BRC data in particular as a key sort of benchmark, and we've seen that we've outperformed that. We've also seen that we've outperformed the like for likes performance of many of those other competitors that I've mentioned there. We also have access to toys and books market data, both of which we've significantly outperformed in the second half of FY twenty five and then FY twenty six to date.

41:19 Thank you very much. So the next question we've got here, what is your payback period after launching a new store? I'll take that one. Yeah. I think we've just covered it, but on average, we aim for under two years and on average see payback of around eighteen months. Thank you for that, Rosie. The next question, last year, you had some challenges with online services. Can you please provide your breakdown in online sales and progress against key metrics? Yeah. I'll take this one as well. So online accounts for less than 10% of our total company's sales. We did see online capacity issues, as I mentioned in the presentation, around peak as a result of our third party challenges. But we're really pleased that those subsided once peak demand resumed back to sort of normal levels. And we've now appointed a third party online fulfillment provider, so we're just transitioning to them and we expect sort of a higher standard of service for customers and cost savings in future years.

42:16 That's great. Turning to the next question. How do you record footfall per store in terms of number of customers entering and the conversion rate in sales? We don't have footfall counters in store, but we don't do sort of look at external footfall data for the general market such as the BRC. Perfect. Thank you very much. The final pre submitted question we've got before we move to some live questions. In your stores, you have a range of products with different pricing points. Do you have data on the sales results for each product and which product lines are best sellers, the profile of customers, and location? Yeah. I think another one for me. We do have the data for product lines and what what which products are selling well and in which locations. But, unfortunately, we don't have customer data to advise us on which products those customers are buying. But we do know from customer survey and research that we families make up the proportion of our customers.

43:14 That's great. This next question has a few parts, so do bear with me. You've paused dividends and buybacks to focus on reinvestment. What specific financial or strategic triggers will prompt the resumption of buybacks? Is there a target net cash position or EBITDA margin threshold? And finally, will buybacks be prioritized over dividends as profitability improves? I'll take that one as well. Yes. So naturally, we look to profit growth when looking at the opportunity of capital distributions, but a key focus to us is excess cash. So at the moment, a massive focus is reinvesting in the business where we know we can get a return on that cash. But as our profits grow and we start looking at our internal excess cash thresholds, we'll look to reassess capital distributions that might be in the form of dividends, but also in terms of buybacks.

44:07 That's great. I've had a question here from David. Hi there. Please, can you tell us EPS for year '25 and '26 if possible? Yeah. I can. I think you'll also find it on the r and s if that's helpful for after this. There's a link on our website, but our adjusted EPS was 7.1p. That was versus 4.2 last year. And our basic EPS was 13.1p, and that was versus 10.2 last year. We don't provide an f y twenty six forecast EPS, but as we've stated, we are expecting EBITDA growth of around 15% in FY twenty six. That's great. We have an another question, which I do believe you've covered, but if you have anything else to add, please do. With net cash up to £4,100,000 and no dividend proposed, how do you plan to deploy capital in FY '26?

44:55 Yeah. Think me and Gavin have probably both covered this, but looking at spending around 8,000,000 of CapEx this year versus 5,000,000 in FY twenty five, and that will cover new store openings. We won't just be opening a net new five. We'll have to open more stores to cover some of those store closures that we'll see in the pipeline. And we're also looking to do that systems transformation that Gavin's mentioned as well as the DC Mezzanine Floor. So really reinvesting it where we can make good returns internally within the business. That's great. And perhaps time for one final question. By how much is the weaker dollar help helping you gross helping your gross margins now? And will it be a delayed benefit due to forward hedging? I'll take this one as well. So, yes. So it's definitely a benefit, as the question mentions, we do forward hedge. So we look to hedge twelve to sort of eighteen months out, and we saw a 50 basis point improvement in FY '25.

45:51 We're probably likely to see a sort of similar impact in FY twenty six as a result of hedging. That's great. Well, thanks very much for answering those questions for investors. Of course, the company can view all the questions that have been submitted today and we will publish their responses out on the Investor Meet company platform. But just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to the company, Gavin, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? Yeah. Sure. Well, first of all, thank you, everyone, for your interest and for joining today. It's been a really significant year of progress for us. We've delivered a fantastic financial performance in FY twenty five. We've launched a new strategy, which we're really excited about what that could deliver for us over the next five years. And as you can see from the start of FY twenty six and confidence in our outlook for the year ahead, it's already delivering results. So we're excited about the future and I look forward to updating you on more progress in the months ahead.

46:45 That's great. Well, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback and all the management team can better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team of THEWORKS, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.