Trifast H2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 10, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Margin Improvement: Delivered a 300 bps increase in gross margin to reach a 6.8% EBIT margin in FY25, with 100% cash conversion and leverage falling below 1×.
  • Negative Sentiment: Revenue Decline: Reported a 4.4% drop in revenue to £227.4 m driven by strategic exits of low-margin operations and softer automotive and industrial demand.
  • Positive Sentiment: Growth in Target Sectors: North America sales rose 15.2% and smart infrastructure revenues increased 10%, supported by EV program wins and 100% fastener spend awards in key accounts.
  • Positive Sentiment: Strategic Initiatives Delivered: Achieved £3 m in operational cost savings through UK distribution consolidation and margin management, enabling the first company-wide bonus for all 1,200 employees.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Forward Outlook and M&A Options: Despite headwinds from US tariffs and currency weakness in Q1 FY26, management remains confident in progressing toward mid-term 10%+ EBIT margins and may pursue bolt-on acquisitions with >10% margins.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Trifast H2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Trifast plc investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the q and a tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. 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.

Operator

However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll, and I'd now like to hand you over to Ian Percival, CEO. Good morning, sir.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you, Lily. Good morning, everybody. I hope you're all keeping safe and well, and thank you for taking the time to join this call. My name is Ian Percival. I'm the CEO of Trifast plc.

Speaker 2

And I'm Kate Ferguson, and I'm the CFO.

Speaker 1

So our agenda for today looks like this. I'll talk us through the highlights for FY twenty five results and also give an overview of the strategic progress that we're making. Kate will then talk through more of the detail on the financial performance, and I'll come back and go through more about how our strategic self help initiatives are transforming and driving performance in the business, not only in FY twenty five but beyond. Finally, for those who might be new to the Trifast story, we'll do a brief strategy recap, and of course, we'll close, with the outlook, and then we'll move to, q and a. So let's start with, the highlights, and, it's great to be able to report on a strong performance in f y twenty five.

Speaker 1

And that's really driven on our laser focus on executing the strategy that we launched last year and delivery across all four of our strategic self help initiatives. We said that it was critical in f y twenty five that we delivered progress in our margin as we walk towards our goal in the midterm of 10%, EBIT margins, and it's super to be able to report that we delivered 300 basis points improvement in gross margin, and our EBIT margin moved up to 6.8%. I think demonstrating really clearly the execution of those strategic initiatives. It's not only in terms of profitability, it's also, cash. We delivered really strong, cash generation, cash conversion as you see at a 100% of EBITDA, bringing our leverage below one time.

Speaker 1

So financially speaking, our business is in a completely different position than eighteen or twenty four months ago. We have a very strong balance sheet, and we have a financial resilience to allow us to take opportunities going forward. In in terms of the walk, last year, we set out in the midterm, we expect to deliver EBIT margins of more than 10%. And in the first year of that transformation program, we've delivered the recover phase and the 6.8% EBIT margin. So a significant step in the direction of travel and momentum to carry us on as we now start our rebuild phase.

Speaker 1

Talking about, the performance in each of the initiatives. In margin management, remember, this is about making sure we're, getting value for the great service and great quality that we deliver to our customers. It's about addressing, with confidence, with data, with professionalism, low margin customers or products, and we've been doing that successfully, during f y twenty five. It's also about making sure that we're leveraging and getting value out of our supply relationships. And again, the team has done a great job in driving procurement savings across the business, helping contribute to that margin growth.

Speaker 1

In focus growth, we've been targeting growth in our three, sectors that we called out last year, automotive, smart infrastructure, and medical equipment. And great to see that, particularly as you'll hear from Kate, some significant progress in smart infrastructure during FY twenty five. In operational efficiency, we delivered on the commitment that we made that we would complete the consolidation of our UK distribution footprint. And through that and efficiency savings deliver £3,000,000 in cost improvements in f y twenty five, and we've done that. Also in f y twenty five, we launched our manufacturing utilization focus, how to ensure we're driving asset utilization and efficiency across manufacturing.

Speaker 1

And it's great to be able to report our group utilization is over above 60% for the first time. More to do, but a six significant step forward. And in organization effectiveness, we've been leveraging the technology that we've already implemented, and implementing significant investment into our people, whether it's engagement, performance management, talent management, all of these, investments in training and and development of our people helping to drive that culture shift as we move towards the one tier culture. So on the right hand side, what you can see is the walk that we set out last year strategically, how each of those four strategic initiatives we expected would deliver and contribute to the delivery of that double digit margin. And on the left hand side, what you can see is the achievement of against each of those four initiatives in f y twenty five.

Speaker 1

Couple of callouts. Clearly, we've more than offset the impact of the macroeconomic and revenue related headwinds that we faced in f y twenty five and delivered strongly in all four, but especially, I'm I'm really pleased to see the progress we've made in margin management and in operational efficiency, all of which are muscles that we are building, making us a stronger, more capable, a higher performing business for the future. Back to you, Kate.

Speaker 2

Yep. Now I'll present the financial results for the year ended thirty first March. Let's start with revenue. We reported revenue of 227,400,000.0, and this is a 4.4% decline from last year. And part of this decline is because of two strategic deliberate decisions that we made.

Speaker 2

The first one being the sale of a Norwegian operation and the second one being the decision to exit some low margin customers. In addition to that, of course, we had the market backdrop. We saw softness in volumes in automotive, particularly in UK and Europe, and we were also challenged by supply chain disruptions and weaker industrial PMI. But we more than made up for that with margin improvements through our focus on sourcing and also pricing. Our gross margin rose by 300 basis points, and EBIT increased 30% to 15,600,000, and this was supported by tight cost control and productivity gains.

Speaker 2

We achieved our target to 3 millions in annualized savings from operational improvement program, and this included the consolidation of the National Distribution Centre in The Midlands. Importantly, for the first time, we are awarding a company wide bonus to all 1,200 employees. We are incredibly proud of this achievement as it's the direct result of working together and a cultural shift towards shared success that has driven this. It is through our joint ambition to achieve the EBIT margins, that we set out early on when we were setting the strategy. You can see that our underlying profit before tax, has also benefited from the 900,000 reduction in interest cost.

Speaker 2

And our undiluted our underlying diluted earnings per share has doubled to 4.31p. We have gone from a loss reported last year to a profit this year, and of that, we are incredibly proud. I think these results clearly demonstrate that our strategy is working and that we can deliver margin growth even when top line conditions are challenging. Let me go on about the revenue concentration in regions and end markets. On the left hand side, I think you can see that the standout performance is North America, where revenue increased 15.2% from 29,200,000.0 to 33,700,000.0.

Speaker 2

And this was driven by robust demand in automotive and smart infrastructure. North America's automotive growth was driven by EV related programs and innovation partnerships, an example being the bespoke solution for EV sliding console that many of you have seen at the NDC. And this is a really good example which showcases our early stage collaboration and also our technical capability. The UK and Ireland, as I pointed out before, its revenue declined partly because of the exit of low margin customers. And we also had a warehouse move in PTS, which is one of our distribution companies in The UK.

Speaker 2

This led to some disruption at the end of the year, but is back on track. Europe's revenue also saw some decline because of the sale of the Norwegian operation, and they also saw some customers postpone business wins into f y twenty six. In Asia, revenue remained stable with modest growth in smart infrastructure and medical equipment, and we continue to drive more intercompany business into our Asian manufacturing to support our global demand. On the right hand side, you could see that smart infrastructure, is where we've driven most revenue growth with a 10% increase there. This growth was driven by the demand for data centers, smart grids, and also connected cities.

Speaker 2

And during the year, we were proud to secure a 100% of fastener spend for an important long standing customer in The Middle East, and this was reported as revenue in The UK. In terms of automotive, we have seen softening of demand, but this has mainly impacted our OEM customers. We have seen encouraging growth in tier one and tier two customers, which is really great for us as these generally are higher margin customers, and also as example of engineering led opportunities. Medical equipment continues to grow steadily, but it, however, has longer qualification lead times, and therefore, will take longer for it to grow as a share of revenue. This sector saw increased engagement, particularly with entrepreneurial startups and global brands.

Speaker 2

And, of course, we continue to support our customers in other end markets, but only if they meet our strict requirements on profitability. In terms of the EBIT performance, we're really pleased to say that 90% of our new business wins were aligned with our strategic sectors. And I think this is a clear sign of execution of our focused growth initiatives. For some context on the North America performance, EBIT margin increased to 8.8%. That's up from 5.3% in FY 2024, And this was mainly driven by focus growth and some new business wins and also margin management.

Speaker 2

On the previous slide, you would have seen that Europe's revenue was down. However, here you can see it's contributing to the group's EBIT growth. They particularly benefited through Ithley's performance, where their EBIT margins increased from 2.2% to 8.6%. And this was attributable to office operational efficiency improvements. And I should call out here too, you know, an example where they had the solar panels implemented implemented and have managed to drive, 25 to 30% energy savings there.

Speaker 2

Encouragingly, Hungary also reported double digit EBIT margins, showing stronger performance than previous year. Central also improved, and this was mainly through operational improvement programs and result and resulting reduction in headcount. Underlying profit before tax, this has actually increased by 69%. And I think the standout bar here is the margin management or the margin improvement, gross margin improvement that you can see here. This margin impact more than compensated for the decline in revenue.

Speaker 2

And it's also important because margin along with the operational savings that we achieved helped fund the bonus that we will be paying to all our staff later in the year. Another call out is the 900,000 reduction in interest costs as a result of the lower interest rates and our reduced borrowings. In terms of adjusted net debt, you can see that most of the improvements in our net debt position was driven by really strong operating cash flow. We have materially reduced our inventory and receivables balances, but it's not so evidenced on this graph here, as it's based off cash flow, which uses average FX rates, whereas the balance sheet uses end of year. A couple of more points to draw out, and I will come back to the working capital on the next slide.

Speaker 2

But just on this one, draw out capital was CapEx was actually lower in FY '25 than '24, and this was mainly because of the investment in the NDC that we made in FY '24. But this was offset by some higher lease rentals, and this was the NDC coming out of its strength free period. The dividend remains unchanged, and our tax cash outflow was lower in FY '25, notwithstanding the fact that we had improved profits, and this was just simply down to timing. Our improvement in ROCE was significant in the year. We improved from 5.7% to 8.1%.

Speaker 2

And I think this is a clear indication that we're using our capital more effectively. Our working capital as a percentage of sales was in line with last year, and we continue to work hard to make an impactful improvement in FY 2026. Our inventory levels, as I said before, have reduced on the balance sheet. However, they are still higher than the targets that we had set ourselves internally. And this was partially because of the inventory purchases made in advance of Q1 sales for a specific customer.

Speaker 2

And we also saw higher levels in North America in advance of the tariffs. During FY '26, we will roll out our TR inventory management solution, or we refer to as Trim, which will help streamline inventory levels by providing better visibility and more accurate customer demand forecasting. This should also reduce our excess and obsolete inventory and also help us manage our customer buffer stock better. I was really pleased at the year end with the team's work in reducing our our debtors, in particularly the focus that we had on aged debt. And this has also helped us in terms of our performance.

Speaker 2

We have sustained strong cash conversion at 100% of underlying EBITDA, and our operating cash flow, before the changes in working capital increased remarkably 31.7%. With leverage below one, we are now getting asked, when are we going to make a bolt on acquisition? And I'll address that on the next slide, which covers off our capital allocation policy. During the year, we refreshed our capital allocation policy with the board, and we continue to prioritize our organic investments. But the big change or the big shift is that we're also now going to consider bolt on acquisitions as a growth strategy.

Speaker 2

Strategy. As I said, this is a strategic shift. We have been relatively quiet on the M and A front with the last acquisition in 2021. However, we are now ready to integrate a new acquisition following the improvements that we've made to our ERP and the groundwork that we have done on one TR. North America would be a great strategic fit for us, as we have distribution there, but we don't have any manufacturing capability.

Speaker 2

We would also focus on accelerating our progress and market share in smart infrastructure and medical equipment through a bolt on acquisition. However, any acquisition that we make or any investment for that matter will need to meet our strict requirements on price discipline and accretive margins. For example, we would be unlikely to consider any acquisition which did not contribute greater than 10% EBIT margin as we need to continue to focus on our medium term ambition of exceeding the 10%. There's some really good examples during the year of CapEx that we've made, which also illustrates our capital discipline and commitment to our strategic initiatives. An example is the new solvent cleaning machine at our Singapore facility.

Speaker 2

This ticks many boxes for us, in particular, that everybody goes home safe culture, as it completely eliminates kerosene use and also improves operator safety and air quality in the factory. And importantly, a CFO for me, the return on investment being that it will actually improve our operational efficiencies through the reduction in manual handling and also the recycling of solvents. As you've probably noted with our success, a lot of that has been the result of our the use of data and the use of systems. ERP and data are the cornerstone of our transformation strategy. And this year, we are rolling out d three sixty five to the remaining sites.

Speaker 2

And this will enable group wide state standardization, automation, and also data driven decision making. The platform is already delivering tangible benefits, and it's important to us that we continue to drive those improvements and unlock further operational and commercial benefits. This policy is not just about allocating capital. It's about us being more dynamic with the initiatives that create the most value. And I think that's it about it for me, other than to add, we are incredibly proud of our success in FY twenty five.

Speaker 2

Our strategic focus on rebuild, free carbon resilience has positioned us really well to achieve our double digit EBIT margins, notwithstanding some of the additional challenges we have presented by the current economic backdrop. Back over to you, Ian.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Kate. So just a little bit more color on the achievements across those four strategic initiatives. And I think the the intent here is to really demonstrate how through transformation we're building a stronger, more data driven, as Kate just referred to, more process consistent approach in how we drive our business. In margin management, using the data and the tools like true profit analytics that we have available now to really focus and target our efforts on the lower performing profitability accounts or components, and then have data driven, fact driven professional conversations with our customers in order to ensure that we deliver the value based pricing that is necessary to enable us to continue to perform for customers going forwards. In terms of focus growth, again, an approach around using data driving, for example, how to improve picks per man hour in each of our distribution sites or how to improve the manufacturing asset utilize utilization in each of our manufacturing units.

Speaker 1

And that's all supported by, from a focused growth perspective, supported by our engineering teams who are driving new product innovation, new development, and some great examples in f y '25. Our EPW screw used in, typically sheet metal applications, helping customers take weight out of their product from a sustainability point of view. It ticks boxes. It's also a process efficiency for our customers. So a real great, win win solution.

Speaker 1

Plastic thirty twenty, again, solution across plastic applications, but which covers all three of our core market sectors. And most recently, if you followed us on LinkedIn, please do. We've we've also launched recycled content plastic fastener solution. So significant work in progress supporting the focus growth pipeline with customers.

Speaker 2

In

Speaker 1

operational efficiency, we talked about the delivery of our UK distribution consolidation. That together with the improvements in the organization delivering the £3,000,000 of cost efficiencies that we had committed to, and again, that data driven approach to improve performance across our operations. We're also now extending into the supply chain, looking at logistics flows, supply chain flows, how to optimize, and you can see already a step in the right direction for FY twenty six within Europe just as an example of the opportunities that present themselves. And then in organization effectiveness, significant progress as we seek to transform the culture and the approach with our 1,200 employees, all focused on a common strategy, all supported by consistent people processes, performance management, talent management, engagement. These are processes that help ensure that our people enjoy and feel fulfilled in coming to work for Trifas, but also ensure that we deliver the best performance out of that key asset.

Speaker 1

Kate already mentioned that we're seeing significant benefits from the ERP investment that the business has made, both in terms of margin and in terms of cash, so profit and cash. And our intention is to continue to roll out that ERP platform into those parts of the business that don't yet have Microsoft d three six five with the intention of creating a consistent process driven, data driven business on which we can then apply other technology advanced tools. In terms of the progress in the three markets, in automotive, we've seen in FY twenty five strong growth in our North American business, and in particular engagement for from a focused pipeline build perspective with tier one, typically tier one automotive suppliers who are manufacturing and assembling products that are either agnostic to power train. So think about seating, lights, interior trims. Those are products with complex ranges of fasteners where we play very strongly and where our engineering expertise and value add helps our customers.

Speaker 1

Also in the world of hybridization and electric vehicles, battery systems, those complex components also require advanced engineering solutions, and our our engineering teams work closely to drive growth in that in those examples. In smart infrastructure, it's the fastest growing sector in FY '25. And with the investments that we've made in engineering capability to supported by the economic environment of investment in data centers and which don't only use racks and servers. They also use power and water and HVAC, and lights. So it really supports, as a great example, the, the drive into smart infrastructure.

Speaker 1

And medical equipment, again, investing in engineering and commercial resources with some nice wins in niche fairly niche robotic surgical equipment, as an example, in a smaller scale and with some larger scale customers who are manufacturing, large equipment for hospital or laboratory, use. So for those who are new to the TRIFAS story, we've talked quite a bit as we've gone through the presentation about the strategy that we launched last year. Just a quick recap of the 10 key elements of the strategy. We're focused on three core markets, automotive, smart infrastructure, and medical equipment, all of which over the three to five year period have CAGR in the mid to high single digits, and all of which the customers that we serve have a requirement that fits really well with our value proposition, which is in the middle there, engineering support, manufacturing capability, and supply chain simplification, removing complexity out of our customers' bill of materials. And delivery of the margin story will be supported by those four strategic initiatives that we've spoken about, margin management, focus growth, organization effectiveness, and operational efficiency.

Speaker 1

And from a cultural perspective, transforming the business using a consistent set of values, integrity, agility, respect, care, and passion, and courage. So consistent approach, laser focused on executing that strategy, and as I said, the FY '25 already a good demonstration of delivery. So more to do. We've got positive momentum. I hope you've you've you've you understand that we're building a stronger, more capable, better business.

Speaker 1

In margin management, we'll continue to raise the bar this year in terms of acceptable levels of profitability. We've been successful in mitigating the direct cost impacts associated with tariffs, US led tariffs. In focus growth, we'll be accelerating the solution capability into smart infrastructure, medical equipment, and automotive. And as Kate highlighted, we have the opportunity to invest in growth growth opportunities, whether they're organic or inorganic. Operational efficiency, you again, using data to drive improvements in our distribution and manufacturing assets, and looking at how we can optimize using the ERP platform, the process, and the data using more advanced technology tools.

Speaker 1

And certainly in the future, AI machine learning will be a core part of our technology strategy. And in organization effectiveness, continuing to invest in our people, continuing to invest in health and safety, in performance management, talent management, engagement, and as Kate called out, in technology, that's ERP or this exciting new supply chain technology, Trim, which is coming to the market in FY twenty six. So significant progress in FY twenty five. And I before I talk about the outlook, just let me thank, as I know many, colleagues from TRIFAS dial into this, this presentation and many will watch it on, on catch up. And I want to say a big thank you, on behalf of, the leadership of the board for all the contribution and effort in delivering a successful and tremendous set of results in f y twenty five.

Speaker 1

Now as we look into f y twenty six, the macroeconomic headwinds are, significant. I think not helped by the impact of US administration trade tariffs. We've seen that in terms of our first quarter revenues are behind where we would have expected them to be. Particularly, we see, softness in the automotive sector with the most complex supply chains. It's probably not surprising to see that that industry in particular has been harder hit.

Speaker 1

We're also spacing into challenges associated with the weakening US dollar. So that's an environment that we're playing into, and it's a certainly a an a challenging macroeconomic headwind. However, we have, as a business, a strong position with our customers. Our products may be small, but they are critical. Nothing gets built without our fasteners, and each of our fasteners is a specified engineering component, and our customers rely on us to ensure that we support their complex supply chains, and we do that incredibly well.

Speaker 1

So our position in the supply chain is strong, and I think it what we've demonstrated is we are building that stronger, more capable, more resilient business to face into those challenges associated with a macroeconomic environment. So I want to close, before we go to questions with three key messages. We've demonstrated that we are executing on that clear business strategy. We've delivered a really successful f y twenty five, and we've completed the recover phase of our journey. We've got positive momentum in all of the strategic self help initiatives with plenty of opportunity to drive further in f y twenty six and beyond, and that gives us confidence we will continue to make progress despite the macroeconomic headwinds in margin growth during f y twenty six, and we're confident we're on track to deliver our medium term commitment of double digit margins.

Speaker 1

So with that, thank you very much, and I'll hand back to you, Lily, to just help with everybody understand how to ask questions.

Operator

And, Kate, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Just while the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via investor dashboard. As you can see, we received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. If I please ask you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you. So thanks for those of you who are raising questions. Let's go to the the first question, which is from Mark. What was the impact on the EBIT margin in The UK due to the warehousing move?

Speaker 1

I think what we've seen overall in The UK is progress in margin. I think there was some challenge associated with with revenue certainly, but the disruption it caused, which which frankly is kind of inevitable when you're doing a major operational transformation like consolidating five distribution centers into one. I have to say the team did a fantastic job in completing that move and delivering, successfully and safely, a significant operational transformation, and the the the business is, performing back at the levels that we have always been known for and have a reputation for in, in TI. I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add, Kate.

Speaker 2

No. There was also the PTS warehouse move, which just also you know, it's a disruption. You know, you do generally incur some additional overtime. I it it was recoverable is the main point there. I don't think I've read anything to

Speaker 1

So our next question comes from Ben. Ben asks, given the continued external headwinds, particularly in the automotive sector and The UK and Ireland, what specific and quantifiable self help initiatives beyond the achieved 3,000,000 in cost savings will drive the next phase of margin expansion towards 10% EBIT and beyond. I think the answer to that, Mark sorry, Ben, is as you say, we are seeing and have seen in the first quarter challenges from a revenue perspective also in automotive here in The UK. I think it's fairly well publicized and the challenges of some of our manufacturers here in The UK. However, I would also say, the broader automotive industry is confident that, it will stabilize as we move through, FY '26, and indeed, there is certainly plenty of growth potential.

Speaker 1

In terms of the second part of your question about driving margin, it's not only about driving margin in in The UK or in UK and Ireland, of course. Given the focus and momentum that we have in those four strategic self help initiatives. We have opportunity in all four. And as we, use the data and the insight that the data provides, it allows us to, a, focus our resources on the best returns in terms of getting margin accretion and also prioritize where, for example, whether it's in in certain products or certain geographies or certain customers where we need to target the next phase of our of our margin management pricing or sourcing actions. And every year, as I said earlier, we raise the bar in terms of what the expectation is.

Speaker 1

Anything to add, Kate?

Speaker 2

No. I think that that's covered it. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Okay. And then another question from Ben. Just scroll down. I can't quite see all of that.

Speaker 2

It's very small.

Speaker 1

Thanks. Thanks, Lily. So be sorry. Ben asks, beyond the general macroeconomic headwinds, how is TRIFAST assessing and responding to the competitive landscape within the specialized engineered fastenings market? Are you seeing any shifts in competitive strategies, for instance, in pricing innovation or market share focus that might impact your ability to achieve your medium term margin and growth targets.

Speaker 1

I think what we see, Ben, is and and bluntly, I see this only increasingly as I talk to and engage with customers. Our value proposition is really strong, really strong. And in particular, I would call out our did the demand that our customers have for our engineering support. We are one of only few fastener, multi regional fastener suppliers in the market that are able to work with customers on how to solve engineering problems, whether that's application problems, how to put things together with the most effective solution from a fastener perspective, or whether it's design and development, or value engineering, how to reengineer a product in a in a lower cost, efficient way. So very few of our competitors have that capability, and we are really good at that.

Speaker 1

So I think that that's a real call out and the core part of our value proposition. So we don't see significant changes in and I don't know if that's underneath the question in behavior from from the the market. What we see is our own value proposition only being reinforced and customers needing increasingly the support that we can provide, whether it's supporting them with simplification, taking complexity out of their supply chain, or whether it's the engineering sport, or whether it's helping them design and develop a critical cold form fastening component, which we do through our manufacturing assets. Thanks for the question.

Speaker 2

Yep.

Speaker 1

Do you wanna take the next

Speaker 2

one from Mark s, Kate? Mark S. Let me okay. So UBIT, UK EBIT margins are materially below the rest of the group and declined in FY twenty five. What are the reasons that the transformation program has yet to have any impact on EBIT margins here?

Speaker 2

I think the call out here is the, impact of the lower volumes, through automotive. I think, you know, there's been a lot in the news lately about JLR, Lotus, you know, a heap of automotive, companies which which are struggling at the moment. And and frankly, that has had an impact in The UK. It's not just North America, which is feeling the heat, you know, since the tariffs came in. So that is the main reason for that.

Speaker 2

And obviously to address that, you know, we are focusing on more getting more business through smart infrastructure and medical equipment. And that is the real way that we will address that through focused growth. And, of course, we do continue to have the opportunity to improve margins as well. So there's more to come in terms of margin improvement, and there's more that we could do in terms of self improvement programs. We have plenty of self help leaders that we can use, and we will be using them, you know, making sure that we do address the challenges that we face into f y twenty six.

Speaker 2

Do you have anything to add to that?

Speaker 1

No. I think that's right. We're confident that all all regions have the potential and will drive margin enhancement as we go through this rebuild phase.

Speaker 2

Yep. For the next one, should I Yeah.

Speaker 1

Do you wanna take the next one? Yep.

Speaker 2

Thanks for the great progress on profitability. On working capital, 41 sales still seems very high. Where could this ratio improve to with the improvement measures that you have outlined? I completely agree that 41% is high, and we can certainly improve on that. We'd be looking for a couple of percent improvement, I would say, over the next year.

Speaker 2

And, you know, I think that can come back down much closer to 30%, you know, in the medium to longer term. So, yes, we are working on that. That is a key, you know, objective for me and my team, and we will be doing that through, again, that focusing on inventory, management and also, managing receivables better. There's still work that we can do on both inventory weeks with 24 at the end of the year. You know, we can target twenty two weeks in the midterm, and we can certainly get below that in the longer term.

Speaker 2

You know, our debtor days were higher than we would have liked to have been, and they have historically been. They are starting to come down, but has been slow progress and still a lot of improvement that we can make on those. So, yes, it's absolutely possible for us to come substantially lower than, you know, the current working capital as a percentage of revenue levels that we're currently at.

Speaker 1

Okay.

Speaker 2

Next one. I'm gonna head to the James n one.

Speaker 1

Yeah. So

Speaker 2

we have the question. If I am planning to demonstrate my confidence in Trifast by building my shareholding further in the coming periods, I think yes is the answer to that. I'll certainly be building my shareholding. You know, as I said, you know, I think we are doing great work. We're delivering on the strategy, and I can only see, you know, the share value improving with the good work that's being done, notwithstanding, you know, the the headwinds that we're facing.

Speaker 2

I've got Leo. Where are you at the moment? You go. Sorry. We've got a lot of questions here.

Speaker 2

It's just tricky to navigate through.

Speaker 1

This this question.

Speaker 2

Frederick? Yep. So Frederick J, how was the sequential development in q one f y twenty six? And I can that's I'm assuming that is how his performance in q one followed through from f y twenty five. And I think Ian's called that out in the outlook.

Speaker 2

You know, it has been a challenge since Liberation Day tariffs, which came at the April. We are seeing reduced demand. It's not just, you know, the disruption of having to manage the impact of the tariffs. It's not just, you know, having to pass through the cost of the tariffs into pricing, which we've done successfully. There is this disruption on demand, and it's not just impacting North America.

Speaker 2

It is impacting UK as well, as I've pointed out in terms of the automotive softness that we're seeing there. We are also having, challenges at the moment, with the US dollar weakening. Most of the challenges that we are having, relate to unrealized gains and losses on the balance sheet, particularly with US dollar denominated assets that we have in Asia. I think that answers that question.

Speaker 1

Mine's stuck for some reason.

Speaker 2

Yep. I'll ask the neck mine keeps moving around. Okay. So Leo h has a question about revenue visibility and inventory. Taking automotive as an example, do you have visibility of which end products use your fasteners, and do your customers mostly draw down your inventory on a just in time basis or bulk order ahead or something else?

Speaker 1

Okay. So so in the case of demand visibility, as you as you call out, Leo, it's different across different markets. In some cases, we will have a up to a twelve month forecast of demand. But in typical typically, even where you have that, there will be a a very short period which is fixed demand and then maybe some some, you know, volatility beyond that. So we do get some levels of of forecast demand, which gives us some level of visibility into into, yeah, the the expected volumes in our business.

Speaker 1

In the case of auto, it's it's of course, yes, we can see how that is linked to the fasteners that we supply that link then up to the ultimately up into a a vehicle program. So we can do that analysis, and we have that analysis. I think in terms of the you know, how customers receive product, again, it's it's varied. It can go from everything from actually, we feed the line. So we refill the bins of fasteners on line side for a customer right the way through to them holding some safety inventory at their their facility.

Speaker 1

But typically, the reason that customers would use supplier like TR is because they expect us to manage the inventory and to be able to fulfill their requirements on a close to just in time basis.

Speaker 2

Mhmm. Yep. Okay. Yeah. We've got a question from Gavin.

Speaker 2

How many customers have been removed in the margin management example? And I can answer that. We've exited approximately a thousand customers. Many of them have been transactional, but they have been throughout the whole of the the group, not just UK. And I think that answers that.

Speaker 2

Yep. Peter d, how many design wins did the company achieve in FY '25, and were was the company happy with that? I think you can answer that.

Speaker 1

Yeah. I mean, I I think I think, as I illustrated, our engineering capability is something that our customers call on increasingly and not only in in one sector, but across all sectors. There's a nice example in here in The UK of a customer where we effectively wrote all of their quality manuals and design manuals associated with fasteners. So sometimes it's not only about a a product solution, sometimes it's about offering that broader engineering capability solution. What I would say is it is a differentiator in our market.

Speaker 1

And whether it's designing and developing specific products that can solve problems like EPW or like Plastic thirty twenty that I spoke about, or whether it's working with customers on specific design or development challenges, how to reduce the number of components in assembly, how to standardize the number of components across an assembly, or how to bring effectively and and create the right, you know, engineering requirements, performance characteristics. Our engineers are working with customers each and every day to do that.

Speaker 2

Mhmm. Yep. And I think that's the end of the questions.

Operator

Ian, Kate, thank you for answering all those questions you can from investors. And, of course, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses on the Investor Meet company platform. Just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to the company, Ian, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments?

Speaker 1

Yeah. So first of all, my thanks to you for taking the time to join our call this this morning, this afternoon. So thank you for that. Again, a huge thank you to all of the Trifast team for their contribution and effort in f y twenty five. I think I would leave you with the same three key messages.

Speaker 1

We've demonstrated we've got a clear strategy, and we're laser focused on executing that strategy. We've demonstrated delivery successful delivery in f y twenty five of of that strategy and execution of the four strategic initiatives, and we've got momentum in all those self help strategic initiatives that will help us drive margin progression again in f y twenty six, and we're confident in delivery of that mid term double digit margin goal. Thank you very much, everybody.

Operator

Ian, Kate, thank you for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Trifast plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.

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