Johnson Service Group H1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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September 2, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Neutral Sentiment: H1 organic revenue grew by 1.4% in Horiker and 1.3% in Workwear, driven by modest price increases and volume shifts.
  • Positive Sentiment: Adjusted operating margin rose to 11.1% (from 10.3% a year ago) and management reaffirms a full-year margin trajectory toward 14% by 2026.
  • Negative Sentiment: Energy costs remain elevated at 7.8% of revenue despite hedging ~90% of gas and 75% of electricity for H2, versus a historic 6.5% level.
  • Negative Sentiment: Labor expenses climbed to 46.4% of revenue following a 6.7% minimum-wage hike and increased insurance, pressuring margins.
  • Positive Sentiment: Strong cash flow supported £65.3 m of buybacks since 2022 and a new £25 m program, with net debt at 0.9× leverage, underpinning capital return and M&A capacity.
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Earnings Conference Call
Johnson Service Group H1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning, everyone. Yvonne and myself will take you through the operational and financial results for H1. I'll start with some highlights on the operational side. Organic growth in HoReCa 1.4% and in Workwear 1.3%, respectively, details of which we'll go through in a few moments. Volumes, we mentioned earlier in July that a slightly slow start to the season, things began to pick up from July onwards, and that was maintained throughout the summer period to date. Crawley, pleased with Crawley, the site had opened earlier in the year. We've started production clearly. We've moved work in, continued to move that work in from our current estate, and new business one continues to move into that site as well. Workwear retention, pleased with the Workwear retention levels at 94%, almost back to historic levels of 95%. Energy costs continue to improve, albeit remain slightly elevated.

Operator

As a reminder, we forward purchase on our energy. Yvonne will go through that in detail in slides to come. From an investment perspective, we continue to invest in productivity and improvements, and innovations where we can. We've invested over the last number of years in Workwear and our Workwear facilities, and then some of our flatwork facilities, that I'll touch upon in capital allocation, in a few moments. Back in March, we started our consultation with regards to moving to main market, that has been successful. And we spoke with a number of investors and explained the move. And then also we continued with our share buyback, and this morning we announced a further GBP 25 million buyback, to start.

Operator

So all of that brings us confidence that in reporting the full year adjusted operating margin in line with current market expectation, and adjusted operating profit margin improvement on track for at least 14% into 2026. I'll hand over to Yvonne now to take us through the financial highlights.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yeah, so just on the summary on page six, as we said, revenue increased to GBP 257 million, reflecting both price increases and the acquisitions, made last year and some contracts this year. Organic growth overall 1.4%. Adjusted EBITDA increased to GBP 75.4 million, giving an improved margin of 29.3%. Last year it was 28.3% in the H1. Adjusted operating profit 28.7, with an improved margin of 11.1%, and that compared to 10.3% last year for the H1. Adjusted PBT 24.9 after an interest charge of 3.8. EPS GBP 0.046, an increase of 17.9%, and this morning declared an interim dividend of GBP 0.016. The next slide, just a reminder of where we've come from over the last five years or so, improving return on capital employed, and then leverage remaining below one times.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

You know, we've said our target is one to one and a half, so just below one at the moment, and then share buyback, so that's GBP 65.3 million returned since 2022 to date, and then, as we've just said, another GBP 25 million, launched this morning. In terms of costs and cost pressures, we've been sort of demonstrated there the impact of cost pressures on the margin and margin recovery as we've gone through, so we're still seeing the 14%. Energy costs are slowing, slowly reducing. We're 7.8% of revenue in the H1, that compared to 9.4% in the H1 last year. A reminder though, they were only 6.5% of revenue back in 2019 H1. So trending down but still quite a bit ahead.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Continuing to fix gas and electricity prices, such that we're approximately 90% fixed for gas and 75% for electricity the H2 of this year. Then we're building positions as we normally do with 2026 and 2027. So we're 60 or 60% or 50% fixed for gas and electric in 2026 and 40% and 30% into 2027. And we will continue to build those as we go through. Hedged diesel prices, and they were 95% fixed or hedged, technically hedged for this year and 80% into 2026. So disappointingly, labor costs have increased as a percentage of revenue, and it was 46.4%. And that, so that reflects the increase in minimum wage, the 6%, 6.7% increase that we dealt with in April, and not to mention the National Insurance costs, which are costing us about GBP 6 million per annum.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

So we're continuing to try to drive efficiencies through the plants to try and offset that. And I'd expect it maybe to slightly tick down in the H2 and then be maintained. We're doing our best on energy and labor as we go through to try and improve that margin back. In terms of cash flow, still cash-generative business and hence the share buybacks. Net debt at the end of June was GBP 145 million, including IFRS 16, or GBP 99 million, without. And that's after completing GBP 16.8 million in terms of cash in the H1 of the GBP 30 million, and the balance has gone out by the end of August. Debtor days 42, which are pretty consistent. We've been 40-42 days for some time. Rental stock depreciation, slightly higher to GBP 30 million, to over GBP 30 million.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Rental stock spend is about the same, similar amount as depreciation, so net impact on cash. Then PPE spend, we spent GBP 23 million or so in the H1, probably a similar amount in the H2, but I am expecting CapEx on PPE to drop in 2026, a lot of the big projects we have completed. Tax payments, slowly increasing, so we spent GBP 3.3 million in the H1, a similar amount in the H2, and then it will increase in 2026. There's the benefit of the first year allowances worked through the system and how it all pans out with deferred tax. Then the GBP 25 million buyback, obviously with that going out, depending on the timing of that, so we said up to March 2026, but it could go out sooner than that.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

So depending on that, I'd expect debt to be slight, if it all goes out in this calendar year. I would expect debt to be slightly higher by the end of June. Sorry, end of December, sorry. And then just a few other bits and pieces. So total interest, GBP 3.8 million. Our bank facility was increased to the GBP 135 million. That's drawing down the accordion that we had in place. Margin is still 1.45% on both sterling and euro borrowings. Gearing, as we said, was 0.9x of June, and I'd expect it to be similar at the end of December.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Tax rate, 24.1%, just slightly lower than the 25% UK rate. And in part, that's due to the ROI rate, which is only at 12.5%. And then just a quick word on pension schemes. So our surplus has increased. So net of tax is about GBP 5 million at June.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

We've no deficit contributions going into the scheme at present. There's a valuation due at the end of this month. Return on Capital Employed, 15.5%. I'd expect it to be slightly higher by the end of the year.

Operator

Thank you. Moving on to slide 12, investments I touched on earlier, and as I also mentioned earlier, we've invested heavily in our Workwear plants over the last number of years in automation. We've invested clearly in Crawley, bringing on more capacity within HoReCa, in H1 of this year. In Ireland in particular, in our plants in Wexford to the south of Dublin and Naas Road just outside of Dublin, we invested in both those complexes to generate more capacity and to drive more efficiencies. They're coming to completion as we speak. We also have a number of other investments as we continue with ongoing CapEx and refurbishing CapEx within our wider estate, including new commercial vehicles. Moving on to sustainability on slide 14. Continuing to work with our suppliers and meeting our goals and our targets that we set there for 2030.

Operator

We were awarded a silver medal for EcoVadis, which we're pleased with, and continue to work on that. We published our fourth sustainability report just recently, and we continue with our reduction of using plastic within our estate, having removed plastic from two of our sites, with our target to have zero plastic use in our estate by 2030. Clearly, we've brought Crawley on board, and as you would imagine, being able to open a new plant and new facility, we've done a lot of work there with regards to heat, heat recovery, water recovery, and sustainability, ESG, overall. We're also looking at some investment within solar, particularly in our sites that have got freeholds, and we'll continue to look at those projects for the back end of this year.

Operator

Then 8% of our fleet, as we stand at the moment, are running on HVO, and we've got a number of vehicles running on electric where the payload allows us to do that. Moving on to slide 16, operational performance and financials.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yeah, so in HoReCa, revenue for the division increased by 7.2% to GBP 185.4 million. That's a combination of the acquisitions in 2024 and some contracts added. Organic growth 1.4%, probably split about 2% price increase and 0.6% down in volume, as a rough guide. EBITDA margin was 29% compared to 27.8% in the H1 of 2024, so good improvement. Operating margin improved to 12.1%, benefiting from lower energy costs, which HoReCa uses more energy than Workwear, but so we're 8.7% of revenue compared to 10.5% in 2024. So Empire business, which we acquired back in September last year, almost 12 months ago now, has settled in well and we're pleased with that performance. And we're expecting the margins to continue to improve as we continue to invest in the plants and go through the rest of this year and into next year.

Operator

Moving on to slide 17, operational performance in HoReCa. We touched on the 1.4% organic growth. Sales pipeline remains strong. We deliver the service on time and in full, which is the foundation of everything that we do. We deliver on what we say we're going to deliver and have got good relationships with our customer base throughout. As you know, we opened a new depot on the hotel linen side just outside of London to help us penetrate further into the London area, and our new Crawley site, as I already mentioned, is live, up and running and producing, and we'd love to get that plant into breakeven into 2026, rebranding with recent acquisitions, so Ireland as well on the way. Johnsons Celtic Linen branding within Ireland both for vehicles, plants, and general marketing over there.

Operator

And then we'll look to Empire and Regency as we go through within the luxury linen element, as well. As I said earlier, we continue to invest in our sites and all of our locations, and particularly in areas that we have and can see increasing capacity or improving our efficiencies. And then any investments that we do within HoReCa or Workwear, we look through the lens clearly of sustainability and what that might give us in return, as well. So overall, from an operational performance, I guess in HoReCa, as I said earlier, volumes were a little light earlier in the summer. That was improved into July and maintained throughout. It could have been stronger, but I think the whole industry in the UK and Ireland could have been stronger in hospitality.

Operator

Be that as it may, we're still confident in delivering our, our adjusted profit margins for the end of this year and into next year with good tight control on costs. Workwear financials, slide 18.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yes, revenue increased to GBP 72.1 million, which is 1.3% increase, and an improved EBITDA margin of 35.9%. Adjusted operating profit GBP 10.4 million, giving a margin, operating margin of 14.4%. Rental stock depreciation was GBP 11 million in the H1, slightly higher than 2024, but expected to remain stable as we go through the year. Energy costs in Workwear, as I mentioned, are lower than in HoReCa, and we're about 5.5% of revenue. Last year, we're about 6.7%, so that has helped the margin and has largely offset the increased labor cost. The Lancaster work, if you remember, we announced the closure of the Lancaster site, small plant up in the northwest, and that work has now been moved into the Manchester site with no impact on customers, pleased to say. New sales in the H1 are encouraging, and new installations are starting to come on stream.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

I think we were pleased with the organic growth in Workwear. You know, if you look back, that's the best increase we've had for quite a few years now.

Operator

And then on to slide 19, staying with Workwear operational. We are also pleased with the organic growth in Workwear. We are also pleased with the retention levels, 94%. If you remember, we used to be at 95%, 96% historically. 94% is a very good result. It shows our customers stay with us. We retain them, and on the back of delivering a really good service. Yvonne already mentioned we moved Lancaster into Manchester at the back of investment in Manchester on more productivity and more innovation. Also, one thing to note, we had a unit fire in our Bristol plant in our Workwear, in our Workwear section. So in our industrial Workwear unit within our Workwear plant in Bristol, we had a fire that took out part of the plant, and it's currently not operational. We have moved work out to neighboring plants in line with our business interruption.

Operator

We had no knock-on effect to our customers. So overall, Workwear, pleasing with the recovery, to date. Outlook, more of the same. You know, continue to do proactive management of costs. That's generally what we do. We do it well. We're laundry operators. We know how to run laundries, and we know how to adjust our cost base, even sometimes in a challenging environment. Adjusted operating margin will continue to improve and hit our expectation for the end of this year and into next. Our strategy of acquisition will continue as well. In the absence of acquisition, looking at potentially where we can add on capacity if it's needed and where it's needed.

Operator

Strong balance sheet, as we mentioned earlier, to support good organic investments and M&A, and obviously look at return to shareholders as well by way of buyback that we've been consistently doing over the last couple of years, so confident in the medium and long-term growth of our prospects and of our business. We remain confident in reporting full-year operating margin in line with expectation, and on that slide, we mentioned buybacks that have already covered in previous slides. Just to slide 23, again, we just put this slide in as a reminder of how our business has evolved from, you know, 2012 to current state, where we are truly a HoReCa and Workwear business and dedicated textile rental provider, and in line with the number of acquisitions that we have done. We're laundry operators.

Operator

We know how to manage in the laundry environment, and we'll look for further opportunities to add to our estate. Onto slide 24, essential provider. I already mentioned we provide an on-time and in-full service. Without our service, hotels can't service their rooms, can't sell their rooms, but it's important that, that they also appreciate that we provide that service with a very, very good quality and on-time, and in full. We provide a local service. We're a national operator, of course. We are across the UK and Ireland. We'll be looking at providing a local service nationally. That's how you drive good customer service, and good delivery of the service. Sustainability, you know that we are working and have been working hard on that, with regards to our sustainability policies, and our reports that we've done, generated within the targets that we've set within sustainability.

Operator

And the limited substitutions, I guess, in the market for our service, particularly on the flatwork side, hotel side. Moving to slide 25. Again, it's just a recap of organic growth revenue, you know, consistent track record of delivering organic growth, you know, underpinned by really, really good service and long-term relationships. You know, we have a good relationship with our customer base. Operating margin, you know, we continue to look at that. We continue to recover our margin, and as I said, we're in line for this year and looking to next year for the 14%. From a capital allocation perspective, a strong balance sheet. We're cash generative. We invest back into our business. We invest in innovation. We ensure that we keep ourselves agile. We're looking for opportunity within acquisition.

Operator

And also we return to our investors excess cash, and we'll continue to monitor and review that. And that brings us through to the end of the slide deck. Thank you very much for listening and happy to take any questions.

Operator

Thanks. I'm Carolyn, Investec. Just one on sort of the organic investment program. So, I just wondered if you could give us an idea as to, you know, maybe medium- to long-term view where the opportunities are in terms of organic investment, you know, beyond BAU, maintenance, CapEx. Where can you invest to drive, you know, improved productivity, increased automation, whatever it is? Are there any obvious blank spaces where you can, that you can fill in?

Operator

We've clearly continued to look at any innovation, and given the business of our size and shape, you'd expect us to look at any machinery or equipment that's out there that potentially is coming to the market that we're happy to test. As I touched on earlier, we've invested in innovations, particularly within Workwear, over the last number of years and robotic tile folders. All of that we look through the prism of sustainability and what it can get return, whether it's a saving on gas, electricity, water. That brings us, I guess, to also looking at other innovations within sustainability, for example, solar panels that I mentioned earlier, particularly in our sites where we've got freeholds. Look at the return on those, I guess, with the most improvements over the panels over the last number of years.

Operator

It's something that's on our radar at the moment as well, see can we benefit from that even further. And I guess to the question, it's a little of everything. It's a good deployment of CapEx to see where we can eke out a better return and better efficiencies. Chris.

Chris Bamberry
Chris Bamberry
Senior Research Analyst at Peel Hunt

Chris Bamberry, Peel Hunt. I've got three questions on HoReCa. Just doing one at a time if that's okay. Could you perhaps give us a little bit more on the variations in terms of geographical performance and any differences between performance of luxury against volume linen?

Operator

Geographical performance, not significantly. We didn't have any particular slowdown in the north versus the south. I think it's just performance overall in hospitality. It's been a little quieter than we would have liked given the summer that we've had, weather-wise. If you remember last year, we had quite strong volumes, but a quite wet summer. This summer we've had, yeah, not volumes. They were good, but they could have been stronger, but it was across the piece, UK and Ireland. I think across hospitality overall, not just JSG. The luxury side held up quite well overall. We've got two luxury plants, Regency and Empire. But different climate, I guess, for those type customers, but they held up quite well.

Chris Bamberry
Chris Bamberry
Senior Research Analyst at Peel Hunt

In the H2, does that mean you've gone from negative volumes to positive volumes so far with the?

Operator

We don't look at it that way. We look at it and you know we'll have an expectation of where we want to see where we expect to see volumes as we go through the summer period and then into the autumn period. Even now in September, we have some of our plants that will actually get quite busy as the kids return to school. People take the opportunity to have a staycation, and that's good for us. We look at volumes in line with what we expect within the geographic, within the type of work, and the actual mix of work coming from different customers. You know, as I said, yeah, we'd expect to see that to continue throughout the year. Again, it could have been stronger, but let's be that as it may.

Operator

We'll see what the rest of the year brings.

Chris Bamberry
Chris Bamberry
Senior Research Analyst at Peel Hunt

And finally, in Ireland, yeah, I think it's 1,300 rooms, I think. Was that new customers, existing customers, or a mixture, just a little bit more?

Operator

A little bit of both. Yeah, a little bit of both, and we've invested in Ireland, as I said, in the Wexford plant and in Naas Road. Naas Road, Wexford plant is a healthcare and hospitality plant. Naas Road is a hospitality plant. So we've increased the capacity there given its proximity to Dublin, but the volume increases have come from both internal and external.

Chris Bamberry
Chris Bamberry
Senior Research Analyst at Peel Hunt

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thanks, Chris.

James Fletcher
James Fletcher
Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg

James Fletcher from Berenberg. Just a couple, if I may. Just, can we talk about pricing expectations, particularly in HoReCa? Kind of how did, how have they gone thus far this year versus your earlier expectations? Has it been tougher conversations or, or have customers been quite receptive, given the kind of cost headwinds? And then just, one on the buyback. You've done quite a lot of buyback activity over the last few months. I wonder if that means on M&A there's kind of nothing, kind of short, medium term, or that's reading it wrong. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. I'll take the second part of the question or second question first. No, it's not an indication that everything has slowed down. We generate and have been generating quite a lot of cash. And clearly we've done a number of buybacks over the last two years. With regards to our capital allocation waterfall, nothing has changed. You know, acquisitions don't come along one after another. You know, you may have none for a short period and then you have two come together. But there's nothing that we do, particularly with even with the buybacks that restricting our opportunity on acquisition. And we still see opportunity there. Price expectation, Yvonne?

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yeah. I think we said HoReCa was about 2% price in terms of that organic growth number. I think it has been more difficult to get price increases through. I think we do say that in the statement. It's been challenging, but you know, having a good service reputation, good service level is, you know, is one way of trying to push price increases through. You know, I think we are seeing some resistance, but we have managed to get some price increases through. It's always been nice to get more, obviously.

James Fletcher
James Fletcher
Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg

Thank you.

James Fletcher
James Fletcher
Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg

Hi, Benoit from Deutsche Numis. And first of all, congratulations, Yvonne. I think this is your last set of results with John. So congratulations. Three questions really for me. Firstly, on a shorter-term basis, pricing in Workwear, is that running at a similar level to the 2% in HoReCa? And in terms of that customer retention, can you maybe discuss the drivers? You talked about service. Is there any pricing element to driving higher retention as well? I think secondly, on capital allocation, since the last set of results, Synergy was acquired by Cabro. You have talked in the past about looking at entering the healthcare sector in the UK. Is that still feasible for you with Synergy out of the picture?

James Fletcher
James Fletcher
Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg

Coming back to the share buyback and the size, with that larger deal now off the table, would you consider doing a larger share buyback given the headroom that you have on the balance sheet? Thank you.

Operator

Okay. Thank you. I'll take those in reverse order. The share buyback we'll consider at each, I guess, milestone of when the previous one is completed and what market conditions are and what the opportunity is back to the previous question. There's always an opportunity to increase it or decrease it. Those levers we can pull and remain quite fluid on those. With regards to healthcare, yeah, we've never made any secret of it. We would enter the healthcare market providing the entry levels are at the right points for us. If they're at the right points for us on entry levels, then we would not rule out movement into healthcare. Don't forget, we've got a significant healthcare portfolio in Ireland, both private and public in Johnsons Celtic Linen in Ireland, that we've run very well.

Operator

So no, we would never rule that out. And then under the retention within Workwear, Workwear retention, our customer base, it really is about the customer service, being close to your customer, delivering on the expectation from that customer. And if you try and drive retention by reducing your costs, it's a short game. Or reducing your prices, sorry. That's a short game. So we look at driving retention on ensuring that our customers are satisfied with what we do. Hence why we do an annual customer survey on asking our customers, are they satisfied with the number of questions? And also we'll review those questions on an ongoing basis with our customers, as well. But pleased that we are and have continued to improve our retention in Workwear. Pricing, Yvonne, do you want to touch on that price increase?

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yeah. So I think we've probably netted around 3% on price in Workwear. And you know, it's a bit of a mixture. So it might be a bit higher on some customers, a bit lower on others, average about 3%. And that is tough as well. You know, we are not the cheapest in the market and we sell on service. And you know, we don't want to be the cheapest, but we do want to give a good service. So it's a balance, and it's convincing customers that it's value for money. You know, paying a bit more on the per piece price, but that's it. I suppose it is our simple invoicing structures, etc. So it's convincing customers that that is the best way to do it.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Thank you.

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yep. Tom? Yeah. Just picking up on the energy price dynamic as well. Just based on that 14% margin target that you've put into the market for next year, where do you think energy as a percentage of revenue needs to get to based on my consensus at the moment?

Yvonne Monaghan
CFO at Johnsons Service Group

Yeah. So I think, you know, 7.8% is the H1. For the full year, it should be slightly lower than that. And then I'm expecting it to be lower again in 2026. You know, we're already locked into a certain extent for 2026, over half locked in. So I'd expect it to be low sevens.

Operator

Percent.

Operator

Yeah.

Operator

Yep. Chris?

Operator

Thank you. You reduced the other cost bucket by 90 basis points to 16.5% revenue. Just wondering if there's anything particular within there you could identify?

Operator

Within the cost reduction?

Operator

Yeah.

Operator

Again, a multitude of cross-brief after trying to ensure that we become as steady as efficient as possible. We adjust our plans with volume. We adjust our plans with what's happening in the local environment. And we've got good operators that can flex up and down. And clearly that's challenging, as Yvonne said. You know, price increases are challenging. They're always going to be challenging. We've got cost headwinds we've got to deal with, we've got national insurance we've got to deal with, the increases, the living wage and everything that comes with it. But we've structurally always set our plans up to deliver on time and full service efficiently as possible. And we're constantly looking for those marginal gains, little marginal gains that can help us with reducing our cost base.

Operator

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. I think that wraps up the questions. Thank you very much, everyone. Appreciate everyone in the room and your support. And thank you to everyone online.

Analysts
    • Analyst 2
    • James Fletcher
      Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg
    • Chris Bamberry
      Senior Research Analyst at Peel Hunt
    • Analyst at Deutsche Numis
    • Analyst 1
    • Yvonne Monaghan
      CFO at Johnsons Service Group
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