Trifast H1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 19, 2024

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Margin improvement continued: First-half gross margin rose to 27.4%, the highest since 2020, while underlying EBIT margin reached 6.2%. Management said all four regions improved and reiterated its medium-term goal of a 10% EBIT margin.
  • Positive Sentiment: Cost-saving and efficiency initiatives remain on track. The consolidation of five U.K. distribution centers into the Walsall facility and a roughly 10% reduction in non-operating headcount are expected to deliver about £3 million of annual cost improvements from FY2026.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance-sheet metrics strengthened: Net debt declined, leverage fell below one, working-capital management improved, and return on capital employed increased. The company maintained its interim dividend at 0.60p per share.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Revenue was broadly flat amid weak industrial demand and subdued PMI readings, with the company also exiting approximately 1,100 lower-margin or strategically unattractive customers. Management said it remains confident of delivering FY2025 results in line with expectations.
  • Positive Sentiment: Focused growth is progressing: About 95% of new business wins are in automotive, medical equipment, and smart infrastructure, with a £20 million–£25 million pipeline. North American smart-infrastructure revenue grew by more than 20%, while the new China joint venture and Shanghai distribution facility are now operational.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Trifast H1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Trifast Plc half-year results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that is just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please 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 questions submitted today and will publish those responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, as usual, we would just like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I am sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from Trifast Plc. Jason, good morning, sir.

Speaker 1

Good morning, Jason. Good morning, everybody. Thanks very much for taking the time to join us. I hope you are all keeping safe and well. For those who do not know me, my name is Iain Percival. I am the Chief Executive Officer for Trifast Plc.

Speaker 2

Yep. I am Kate Ferguson. I am the CFO.

Speaker 1

Together, we will be talking you through our half-year presentation. Let me start, first of all, by making three key statements. First of all, we are on track to deliver a successful FY 2025 financial year. Secondly, we have got a clear strategy, and we are laser-focused on executing and implementing that strategy successfully. Thirdly, we are delivering on the commitments that we made internally to our workforce, externally to our customers, and of course, to you, our investors. So let me take you through a summary of the first half year. I will then hand you over to Kate, who is going to talk through the financial details, and then I will come back and give a little bit more color on the strategy execution. Starting at the top line, as expected, our revenue was broadly flat versus this time last year. Really coming from a combination of two things.

Speaker 1

Of course, like many other industrials, the economic environment remains challenging. PMI indices in most parts of where we operate are still stressed and below a growth number. Certainly, that plays into the broad economic demand that we see in most of our geographies. Not all, but most of our geographies. Secondly, you will also recall that when I announced our business strategy, I said that we were determined to drive margin improvement, and we would be prepared to sacrifice revenue if we couldn't achieve an acceptable level of margin.

Speaker 1

Also, we're seeing the result of executing that strategy with circa about 1,100 customers that have exited our business, we've chosen to leave, including both transactional, low-value, low-revenue type customers, but also some strategic, longer-term customers that, for example, in the home area of our business, where we did not reach an acceptable level of margin to really drive profitable growth for our business going forward. So tough actions, but necessary actions to get the business back where it needs to be. I think at the same time, we're really encouraged by the momentum that we've got when it comes to margins. You will see as Kate goes through the financials, improvements in both gross margin and EBIT margin, driven from our focus on both pricing and sourcing activities.

Speaker 1

We committed to deliver operational and organizational efficiencies, in this financial year so that we would phase in circa GBP 3 million of cost improvement into next financial year. We're on track to deliver that, both through the consolidation of our five distribution centers here in the U.K. to our purpose-built brand new national distribution center in Walsall, which is now fully operational, and by making the reduction in non-operating headcount, the circa 10% reduction that we committed at the start of this year. Both of those programs on track and will deliver as committed. It's really great to see that our net debt improvement continues to make progress. I won't steal all of Kate's thunder, but a significant improvement again, and we're delighted that our leverage ratio is now below one. It's not only about driving margin, it's also about driving profitable growth for the future.

Speaker 1

It's great to see that 95% of our new business wins are in our three target strategic market sectors of automotive, smart infrastructure, and medical equipment. It's also really encouraging to see our accelerated growth in North America with more than 20% growth in smart infrastructure as an example, year on year. So some really super examples of delivering that focused growth. We announced earlier this year, and I was delighted to attend the inauguration of our Chinese joint venture with our partners, Chai Yi, in Guangdong Province earlier this year. I'm delighted to say that that facility is operational, fully operational, fully loaded, and contributing to our China profit strategy. Two weeks ago, I was also in China opening our new Shanghai distribution facility. So good examples of investing for future profitable growth and the delivery of our China for China strategy.

Speaker 1

Finally, we've made a lot of progress in strengthening our organization and our team along the One TR organization model that we launched earlier this year. I'm delighted that Kate is confirmed as CFO for the business. We've also brought on board a new managing director for our North American business, a new chief technology officer, and a new chief people and transformation officer, all of whom bring significant industrial transformation and turnaround experience to the leadership team and to Trifast. So a really strong, capable, committed team to deliver the strategy going forward. With that, let me hand you over to Kate Ferguson, who's going to talk us through a bit more of the detail on the financials.

Speaker 2

Hi, everybody. Good morning. As you can see here, we have quite a lot of green on this slide showing that we've made improvements on most of our metrics. As Iain mentioned before, especially pleased to say that we've kept our premium class as we said we would at the end of FY 2024 when we spoke last. That's notwithstanding exiting some low-margin customers, which was part of our strategy towards our margin management objectives. We have had headwinds in the markets. Obviously, demand has been down. We've been impacted by lower PMI index, particularly in Europe, and also some softness in the markets in Asia. I'd like to point out our gross margin percent of 27.4. We're especially pleased with this as it's the highest margin that we've reported since 2020.

Speaker 2

Our improvement in underlying EBIT has been driven by our self-help initiatives, such as our reduction in non-operating headcount and also the consolidation of the national distribution center in the Midlands. We've also had some very strong cost control, and we've made sure that we've put good governance throughout the business and guardrails to make sure that we're controlling our spend. The underlying EBIT at 6.2% shows that we are heading in the right direction to achieve our 10% EBIT margin in the midterm. I'm also really pleased to let you know that we actually have achieved improvements in all regions, showing a full commitment of the full group in order to achieve that 10% objective. Our underlying profit before tax has also improved.

Speaker 2

Some of this is due to the decrease in interest costs as the interest rates have come down compared to this time last year, but also due to the lower average borrowings. That's been driven by our reduction in working capital, and the work that we've done to strengthen our balance sheet. I'll just move to the next slide. This slide shows the revenue by region and sector. As I called out before, we know that the PMI index is down, and that's really impacting Europe and also the U.K. and Ireland, and that impacts mainly the automotive and distribution sectors. We have, however, seen some really good increases in automotive in North America. North America has benefited from an EV program, and it has also benefited from some good increases in smart infrastructure. Smart infrastructure is a growing segment.

Speaker 2

It is one of our focus areas, and we are seeing growth throughout the whole of the business, and that's mainly driven by the increase in data centers and the global investment in artificial intelligence. In the U.S., the growth in smart infrastructure has also been driven by demand for our engineering products, which are manufactured by our Asian manufacturing entities. That really shows the importance and underscores the importance of our value proposition, and engineering and manufacturing within that. We've also seen good growth in medical equipment. Again, this is one of our three focus areas, and this illustrates that we are executing our strategy and really driving that strategic positioning. Distribution, as I said, was down as expected, but we've also seen some good increases in other, and that's mainly coming through from the home appliance business, at the home appliance sector, through Asia.

Speaker 2

I'll just go to the next slide. In terms of the underlying profit before tax, it's not surprising to see the revenue decrease, as I mentioned before. That is because of the challenging market conditions. However, what is great is the gross margin enhancement, which shows that decline in revenue is being outpaced by the improvement in the margin, which was related to the execution of our strategy and achieving those four key strategic objectives: the margin management, the focus growth, the operational efficiency, and organizational effectiveness. We're also very pleased with the reduction in our overheads. As I mentioned before, this links back to our self-help initiatives such as the reduction in non-operating headcount and also the very strong and stringent cost controls we're putting into the business. The foreign exchange is one of the things which is outside our control.

Speaker 2

Actually, if you look here, you can see the two things that have gone a little bit against us on this underlying profit bridge is the revenue and the foreign exchange, both of which are somewhat outside our control there. The foreign exchange was impacted by an adverse movement on the U.S. dollar in the Taiwanese business. All in all, we're very proud with the increase in underlying profit before tax, and we look forward to presenting an even better bridge next time. Adjusted net debt bridge. This is actually one of the bridges that we presented FY 2024, which shows the most improvement. As you may recall, we had an improvement in our inventory levels of GBP 15 million in FY 2024. We're not likely to be able to replicate that success in FY 2025. However, we have made some really good progress.

Speaker 2

What we're seeing in the first half of FY 2024 is a real improvement in receivables as the team works really hard to make sure that we manage aged debt. Stock has increased a little bit, and we partially had expected this mainly because we expect most of the decline in stock to happen in H2, but also because we had some planned customer orders, and that resulted in a higher balance there. Also, with our creditors, we have a higher balance due to a timing issue with the goods receipt from customers, and we are holding some higher accruals and balances which are related to the strategic objectives for incentivizing staff.

Speaker 2

In terms of CapEx, as you would expect, CapEx is a little bit lower than what we showed last year. That is because we have now completed the consolidation of the national distribution center. Also, we have completed Project Atlas. If we go to the next slide, you can see that we have also improved our return on capital employed. We are especially proud of this. It is not only important for us to improve our EBIT margin, but also how efficiently we utilize our capital. This is also demonstrated with the improvement in working capital as a percentage of sales. We have a leverage below one. We were particularly pleased with this.

Speaker 2

It is the first time since we have been with this banking facility, and we continue to deleverage as we work hard to manage the working capital, to manage the inventory levels, to manage our receivables, and to really reduce that net debt so we can also manage the interest costs. With that, we are proposing a dividend of 0.60p, which is in line with what we did last year. It is in line with our strategy to make sure that we strengthen our balance sheet on our journey to Recover, Rebuild and Resilience. Thank you, Iain.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Kate. I said I would come back and share some more color on the execution of our strategy. I think it is worth just taking a minute to recap on that new business strategy. In essence, this is the strategy on a page which highlights there are really 10 core elements defining our strategy and the execution. Remember, we said that we are going to focus our growth into three core markets: automotive, medical equipment, and smart infrastructure. All of which we currently service, so we know those markets. All of which demonstrate CAGR growth over the mid to high single digits over the three to five-year plan period. All of which, importantly, the customers that we serve have a very strong alignment to the needs and the value proposition which we deliver. That value proposition is highlighted in the bottom left.

Speaker 1

Again, three drivers of our value proposition, supply chain simplification. In essence, we take complexity out of our customers' fastener supply chain. Engineering excellence and manufacturing capability. The ability to design in, work with our customers on application engineering is a differentiator in our market and a real value driver for our business. Our ability to support our customers with our own manufactured products. As Kate gave that great example, supporting North America with a very technically complex cold-formed component manufactured in Asia and delivered into the North American customer. All of that, by the way, done, developed, and serviced to the customer within one week of the problem being identified. So a great example of the agility and responsiveness that that value proposition delivers.

Speaker 1

And then how to deliver the margin is driven from the four key margin drivers: margin management, operational efficiency, organization effectiveness, and focused growth. By driving those 10 elements of the strategy successfully, we will deliver this business back to at least 10% or better EBIT margins. Let me give a bit of color on how we're implementing and executing on each one of those margin drivers. Let's start with margin management. Remember, this is about driving price increases with low-margin customers or low-margin products. It's also about driving leverage benefits and savings through our procurement and supply chain. Remembering that around 70% of what we sell we're procuring from a third-party supply base to deliver that supply chain solutions offering.

Speaker 1

Working on both ends of the value chain is critical, and I think clearly we're seeing a significant benefit from the investment that the business has made over the years into Microsoft D365. That data and analytics capability is allowing us a much sharper focus on low-margin products customers, which we can then prioritize and address, rather than trying to go for everything at the same time. Lots of good management reporting. It's also important to say we're investing in capability here. A lot of training for our commercial teams in negotiation, in contract management, and analytics to support this drive for improved margin over the planned period. This is not a one-time change. This is very much embedding a culture of managing margin in a much stronger way. Then focused growth.

Speaker 1

I touched on the fact that great to see 95% of our new pipeline wins are coming from our three target markets. Again, important to recognize that we're using the implementation of D365 to really provide guardrails about where we focus our engineering and commercial efforts on driving that pipeline of profitable growth. Great to see that we're delivering on that. Again, just like in previous years, that pipeline is delivering between GBP 20 million and GBP 25 million of new profitable targeted growth for the business going forward. Again, important to say that we're investing in that focused growth initiative. We're adding engineering resource that is so critical as part of that value proposition in North America and in Asia in particular, where we've been under-resourced for a period of time.

Speaker 1

Clearly, driving additional resourcing in those two growth markets will only accelerate that profitable pipeline growth. Really good progress being made and certainly more to come. On operational efficiency, again, I highlighted that really positive to see we're executing on that commitment to deliver operational efficiencies here in the U.K. through the consolidation of five distribution centers to our new national distribution center in Walsall, fully operational, servicing customers, providing great service and quality for our customers here in the U.K., and also still some export customers as well. Really big project. A lot of transformation, but successful. That, combined with the improvements that we've driven in our organization efficiency around the non-operating headcount reduction, those combined are on track to deliver the committed GBP 3 million of cost savings year on year. I think a really good example of delivering operational efficiency.

Speaker 1

Here also, it is about building a better approach for the future. Using our D365 data gives us far better real-time data on the performance of our distribution centers and manufacturing units, whether it is the number of picks per man-hour that we are achieving in each DC or whether it is the utilization of our manufacturing assets in our manufacturing units. Having that data allows us to target efficiency improvement projects at each of those locations and provide an ongoing pipeline of cost efficiency. Then finally, on organization effectiveness, this is as much about delivering, as I just mentioned, the 10% reduction in non-operating headcount as it is about driving a change in the culture and the organization approach. We are deliberately, and have deliberately changed to a One TR organization model rather than the differentiated 18 standalone P&L centers.

Speaker 1

We are very much all focused on delivering a common strategy in common markets with the common margin drivers. As Kate said, great to see that in the first half year, we are seeing margin improvement in all four regions through executing that strategy. We are investing, as I have mentioned, in our teams where it is strategically the right thing to do. So in procurement, engineering, commercial, where those link directly to the delivery of those margin drivers. Again, really committed progress in executing the strategy. There is more to do on all four elements, but I hope we have conveyed some color in terms of delivering on and executing the strategy that we laid out. I wanted to highlight this really nice project in Italy. One of our values is about caring for the environment, and I think it is a super example of investing for a better future.

Speaker 1

Manufacturing capacity and capability in Europe for fasteners is critical for the long-term profitable success of our European and U.K. business. We have a fantastic well-invested facility in Italy, and we just recently completed and switched on this first phase of a solar power project, working with a third-party industrial energy partner who added the solar panels to the roof of our building, and the switch on gives us now 30% of the electricity demands for that facility. There is a second phase that we are looking to implement in Italy as well, that should lift that electricity consumption, self-generated to at least 70% of our requirements. This, combined with the work that Stefano Pisoni, pictured in the photo there, and the team in Italy are driving on things like using green steel, is really creating a leading green, environmentally friendly, fastener factory for our European and U.K. customers.

Speaker 1

Great project, and I think a good demonstration of living our values. Just coming towards the summary, in terms of current trading, the environment around us remains tough. The economic environment is not getting any easier. PMIs are still suffering in many parts of the globe where we operate. However, we continue, as Kate said, to stay focused on the elements of strategy execution that are within our control and are confident in delivering a good second half of the year and delivering in line with the expectations that we set out at the start of this year as we execute that Recover, Rebuild and Resilience strategy. I think to close, this chart summarizes the commitments that we are making and what I think our teams and you, our investors, should expect us to see as we talk about closing out the full year.

Speaker 1

Clearly, as we look forward into FY 2026, we should expect to see the efficiency and overhead improvement on track, that GBP 3 million coming through into next financial year. We should expect to see the pipeline of profitable growth in our target markets of automotive, smart infrastructure, and medical equipment coming through, and we should expect to see that those key performance metrics in our business are demonstrating step-by-step improvement in performance and delivery. Look, to close, I would say, as I said at the start, we are confident in the delivery of a successful financial year in FY 2025. We have got a clear strategy and we are laser-focused, as I hope I have shown you, on executing that strategy effectively. And we are delivering on our commitments for our people, for our customers, and for you, our investors.

Speaker 1

To close, let me just say a huge thank you to all of our 1,200 employees who work so hard in driving and delivering this successful set of results that Kate Ferguson and myself have been able to share with you. And with that, let me close and open. We will take the questions that have come in over the screen.

Operator

Perfect.

Speaker 1

Just going to grab a water before I start that. So Jake, maybe you can just remind people how they raise questions.

Operator

Absolutely, sir. Iain, Kate, that is great. And thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab that is situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. But just while the team take a few moments just to review those questions that were submitted already, I would just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can all be accessed via your investor dashboard. Kate, Iain, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions throughout your presentation this morning. And thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions.

Operator

But guys, at this point, if I may just hand back to you just to read out those questions and give your responses where it is appropriate to do so, and if I pick up from you at the end, that would be great. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Jake. Thanks for giving us a minute to grab our breath and a glass of water. Maybe the first question here, Kate, you can give the response to. So the question has come from Mustafa, thank you for your question. The question is, "What impact will the autumn budget here in the U.K. have on your results going forward, especially national insurance changes?

Speaker 2

Sure. We have looked at the changes that the autumn budget are likely to cause for our FY 2026 budget, and we have estimated the impact to be about half a million GBP. So that is including the impact of the national insurance and also the change to the minimum wage. Obviously, we will have to work hard to mitigate that additional cost, and we will be working with all our teams to do that. I think that is all we need to say on that.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Okay. The next question I can see on my screen has come from David. And David has asked us, "Where was the bad debt of 1 million and what steps are being taken to prevent reoccurrence?" So this bad debt refers to the entering into administration of a Swedish automotive entity. So as clearly disappointing to see that we had to take a provision of 1 million as a bad debt. I think, as Kate said, importantly, we have tightened significantly our control on receivables.

Speaker 1

That is the obvious first action to be taking to make sure that we are getting paid what we should be paid. We also use our D365 data to be able to look forward rather than just look at the current stock and inventory that we hold to make sure that we do not expose ourselves to excess and obsolete inventory. Of course, specifically in this particular case, because it is an automotive entity, actually in Sweden, the trading is still continuing through that entity. So we continue to trade and support our customers in the Scandinavian territories. That is important that the trading is continuing. Of course, we are seeking recovery of that debt through the administrator of that entity.

Speaker 1

A number of actions I think that we are taking both to make sure we protect ourselves and also that we recover as much as we can, if not all of that bad debt from that particular situation.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Do you want me to have a look at the next question?

Speaker 1

Do you want to go for the next one?

Speaker 2

Yeah. We've got Colin B. He has asked, "Any significant CapEx or other one-off cash costs required this year?" What I can say is that we've had lower CapEx in the first half, I think, as I mentioned, when we were looking at the net debt bridge. We are expecting a high level of CapEx to come through in the second half of the year. That really is just in the interest of long-term growth to make sure that we're keeping up to date with production distribution capabilities and keeping up to date with technology. Yes, you can expect a little bit more CapEx in H2 compared to H1 and also going forward, you would expect a little bit more than what we've had as well. We don't have any other one-off cash costs forecast other than just in CapEx.

Speaker 1

Okay. The question from Gavin. Gavin is asking us: Interested to know how many robots you use and the way forward. Well, I think in the manufacturing and distribution activities that we do, Gavin, they tend to be not long large batch, high volume. So, there is automation for sure in both our manufacturing and distribution centers. But the use of robotics per se is not something that has really made a significant impact into either of our distribution or manufacturing units. Having said that, clearly, and just to the last question on capital, it was great to see that when I visited Asia a couple of weeks ago, I was in Singapore and in Malaysia, and great to see that we're investing in new, modern, high efficiency, capital equipment to support that operational efficiency and focus growth drive in our manufacturing centers.

Speaker 1

Clearly also investments like the new Chai Yi Shanghai distribution center and, of course, our national distribution center here in the U.K., represent significant investments in automation and modern distribution and manufacturing technologies.

Speaker 2

Should I pick up on a question from Dave K, which is, what are the target EBIT margins for FY 2025 and FY 2026? What I will reiterate is our strategic initiative or key objective is to get to 10% EBIT margin in the midterm. So we are already seeing a trajectory towards that. Without elaborating too much on what specifically we've got budgeted, we would expect to improve from what we've got for FY for the half year, which is 6.2% on constant currency or 6%. So we would expect to see the trajectory across that period to get to the 10% in the midterm.

Speaker 1

There is a question here from Iain, who asks, any early view on how Trump tariffs may impact the business? First of all, it is too early to see what the real tariffs impact or what tariffs, if any, will be implemented. Clearly, the Trump administration has made a big commitment to implement some form of tariffs. We, of course, like everybody, will need to see what those are and how they get implemented. For us, what has not changed is our strategy of driving our North American business and the growth in our North American business forwards using a North American strategy. So developing, for example, partnerships, relationships with cold-formed component manufacturers in North America, making sure that we service demand in North America through our distribution centers based there.

Speaker 1

Those are strategic actions that we have already committed ourselves to and that we will continue to invest behind.

Speaker 2

Mm-hmm. We have a question from Lawson M, which was, do you have a target for return on capital employed, and if so, what is it? Like the EBIT margin ambition, we are hoping to get to 12%-15% in the midterm.

Speaker 1

Okay. There is a question from Gavin Elk, who asks, what spare capacity do you have to grow the order book? Well, having just completed a visit to our manufacturing facilities in Asia, I am delighted to be able to say we have got capacity to be able to support growth in our manufacturing environment, and that will help drive utilization of assets and operational efficiencies. We have also got capacity within our distribution centers in terms of physical space to be able to support continued growth in all of our regions. Right now we are not capacity constrained. We are not, of course, also, as I think the example of the U.K. consolidation demonstrates, we are also not trying to do a complete build it and they will come type strategy of over-investing in capacity. It is a balanced growth picture.

Speaker 2

I'm sure we've got Peter D, who's asked us: Can you say a little more about how the Microsoft ERP system is helping to identify further efficiencies? I think we've touched on this a little bit before. I think Iain mentioned number one, D365 is giving us better reporting for inventory so we can measure our excess and obsolescence. It's also enabling us to forecast inventory better in terms of the aging of inventory. We've also got TruProfit, which is the system we use to understand the profitability of our customers. D365 is providing us with more up-to-date information, so we're able to generate that information faster and take actions where we feel that customers are not as profitable as we'd like them to be or where the costs to serve are too high.

Speaker 2

We're definitely getting more up-to-date information faster, and we're able to act on that to give us those efficiency gains.

Speaker 1

Okay. There's a question from William G, who asks, "Defense is unfortunately likely to be a significant growth market looking forward. Does the company have exposure to this market?" Like many industrial markets in Trifast, yes, we serve some parts of the defense industry. However, and I think this is an important strategic choice, we have decided and chosen to focus our energy, our efforts, our resources, our time into the three target markets of automotive, smart infrastructure, and medical equipment because we see those as being both geographically, market sector-wise, customer orientation-wise, and linked to the value proposition that we offer the best markets to drive profitable long-term growth in this business.

Speaker 2

We have a question from Anand K, which is, "Given the inventory optimization and disposition gains will taper off, how do you see sustainability of free cash flow generation?" I think the answer to that is the old-fashioned way, and that is by simply generating operating cash flow. It is about growth. At some point, the focus will not just be on margin management like we've been on FY 2025. There will be more focus on growing the revenues as there's a return to growth in the industrial markets, and we hope to grow with that, and just by driving better profitability.

Speaker 1

Okay. There's another question from Anand, who says, "Do the new target market require new product launches and new CapEx? Or they are new cases for existing products?" Well, I think what we defined when we did the very detailed deep dive into all of these three market sectors, Anand, was a strong link between an alignment between the expectations of the customer, and we did quite a bit of work through a third party on Voice of the Customer, which you can see on the previous video if you want to go and replay that, or it's on our website, of course. The definition of the products that we are in the market serving and that we continue to work on developing with our customers is a very strong alignment with the value proposition in these three target markets.

Speaker 1

Will there be new CapEx requirements to support profitable growth? I certainly expect so, and I would hope so. Our expectation is we would manage capital investment within depreciation unless there is a really strong investment case for us to step outside of that financial management discipline. But for sure, we invest, and the example I gave in Singapore and Malaysia are examples of capital investment to drive profitable growth in our chosen markets.

Speaker 1

There's another question here from. There's a couple of questions actually. Similar questions, I would say, related to acquisition. Anand and Iain both ask a question about our thoughts, in effect, our thoughts on acquisition strategy. I think our answer to that is, look, our focus right now needs to be on driving and executing the strategy that we set out organically. Of course, there are and will be opportunities for inorganic or acquisitive growth. I think a good example of a balanced approach to that has been the joint venture that we've made with Chai Yi in China.

Speaker 1

Strategically positioning us in the world's second largest industrial market, but doing so with a very smart, I would say, use of our own financial resources, but allows us to position ourselves to support customers in China with a manufacturing, engineering, and distribution center or supply chain solution service offering. So a good example of how we've delivered that in that market, and clearly, we will continue to work on building a pipeline of potential further acquisition targets. But right now, our focus is on executing the organic strategy.

Speaker 1

Okay. Lawson M has asked a question. "You refer throughout your presentation to smart infrastructure. Could you give me a concrete example of Trifast involvement in this market?" First of all, Lawson, and indeed anybody that is interested in the market and the kinds of products and solutions that we are providing, there are some amazing videos that our team pulled together on how fasteners are applied into each of our three target markets. I would certainly urge you to, because we won't be able to cover all the detail in answering the question. So, if you have a few minutes, please go to the website and check out those videos. They're incredible. They're really good examples that show what we do and how we do it.

Speaker 1

But for example, to give a few cases of smart infrastructure, whether it's air conditioning units or cabinets for servers, as Kate Ferguson said, that are growing incredibly quickly because of the need to install more and more server capacity because of AI generation. Whether it's water meters or power meters or power transformers, all of these are examples of smart infrastructure. And if you think about a connected city as a mega theme, a mega trend, smart infrastructure is very much a growth driver behind that mega theme.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I can't see any.

Speaker 1

I think that's all the questions. There are a couple of questions which we've already answered, Jake, related to the U.K. budget impact. I think we've already covered those, and I think we've also covered the issue of the customer that went into administration in Sweden. I think we've managed to cover all of those quick-fire questions. But hopefully, thank you for everybody who raised the questions.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Let me hand back to you, Jake, before I conclude.

Operator

Absolutely. Iain, Kate, that's great. Thank you very much indeed for being so generous with your time and addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this morning. If there are any further questions that do come through, we'll of course, make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended, just for you to review to then add any additional responses, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. We'll publish all those responses out on the platform. Iain, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that'd be great.

Speaker 1

Sure. Thanks very much, Jake, and thanks for hosting the call. Thanks very much everybody for taking the time to dial in. We really appreciate it, Kate and myself. Thank you for your time. I think I would just close and leave you with the same three key messages. We're on track to deliver a successful year for Trifast. We've got a clear strategy, and I've spent some time articulating how we are laser-focused in executing and delivering on that strategy. Important, as a core value and integrity of how we manage ourselves and our business, we're delivering on our commitments. When we say we're going to do something, we commit ourselves to deliver it. That we expect to be able to demonstrate again when we celebrate our full year results in next year, and Kate and I have that opportunity.

Speaker 1

Look, thank you very much, everybody, for taking the time. Again, a huge thank you to all 1,200 Trifast employees who work incredibly hard day in, day out to service our customers, deliver great performance for customers, and drive value for our shareholders, and give Kate and I the opportunity to be able to share the great work that they are doing each and every day. Thank you very much, everybody. Stay safe, stay well, and we look forward to speaking to you again in the future.

Operator

Perfect. That's great. Iain, Kate, thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Trifast Plc, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, so good afternoon to you all.

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