Travis Perkins plc (TPK) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and a warm welcome to all of you in the room and those of you who have joined us by the webcast. I'd like to thank our advisors Linklaters for hosting us here today. There are no planned fire alarm tests today so if the alarm does sound then please make your way through the double doors to the back of the room that you entered through and down through the foyer and out of the building. I'm joined in the normal way by Duncan Cooper, our CFO, and together we will take you through the financial and operational updates for the group for the first half of 2024. Before I start, I'd like to point out that on the front row is our interim chair, Jez Maiden, who would be available after the presentation if you'd like to catch up with him. So let me turn to the update. As we set out in March, our key priority for financial year 2024 was to continue to improve the business and enhance cash generation. And we have made good progress despite persistently challenging market conditions. We have reduced our overheads by £19 million compared to prior year, with significant cost inflation absorbed. We have delivered a strong cash inflow, resulting in our net debt before leases reducing by £81 million in the first half. In Toolstation UK, we have expanded our operating margin by 130 basis points, driven by improvement in both gross margin and cost to serve. We expect that we will exit Toolstation France by the end of FY24, taking a £16 million loss out of the grouped P&L next year. And we have completed the strategic review of our Toolstation Benelux business, putting in place actions that will deliver a break-even performance next year. I'll talk more about these later. So, simply, we have done what we said we would do. These actions are necessary as weak demand continues ...