Half Year 2024 Howden Joinery Group PLC Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Group sales increased by 4.3% to GBP 966 million, demonstrating resilience in a challenging market.
- Maintained an industry-leading gross margin with gross profit ahead of last year.
- Strong operating cash flow and a robust balance sheet, allowing for continued investment and an increased interim dividend.
- Record number of customer accounts at the half-year mark, indicating strong customer engagement.
- Successful international expansion with revenue growth in both France and Ireland.
- Operating costs increased by GBP 22 million, primarily due to investments in strategic initiatives.
- Higher inflationary costs, particularly in property and labor, impacted existing depot expenses.
- Continued geopolitical uncertainty affecting stock levels and supply chain management.
- Challenges in the French market with slower-than-expected depot maturity and profitability.
- Increased container costs expected to add GBP 5 million in additional costs in the second half.
Welcome to the Howden 2024 interim results presentation. I'll begin by introducing our performance for the first half. Paul Hayes will then review our financial results for the period and then share my perspectives on our 2024 performance to date and our plans for the remainder of the year. And then we'll take your questions.
The group delivered an encouraging first half performance in as we anticipated a challenging marketplace. The results met our expectations for the period, and we are on track for 2024. We continued with our investment program, which is focused on our key capabilities and which gives us end-to-end a stronger business.
Group sales in the first half, which included an extra week trading in January were 4.3% ahead of those in 2023 and were 48% up on 2019 being the year prior to the onset of the pandemic. In the UK we believe we gained kitchen market share, which helped us mitigate a decline in the overall size of the kitchen market. Entry-level kitchens represented a higher
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