LON:SRAD Stelrad Group H1 2026 Earnings Report GBX 153 +1.00 (+0.66%) As of 12:07 PM Eastern ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Stelrad Group EPS ResultsActual EPSGBX 7.43Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/AStelrad Group Revenue ResultsActual RevenueN/AExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/AStelrad Group Announcement DetailsQuarterH1 2026Date8/7/2026TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateFriday, August 7, 2026Conference Call Time4:00AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckInterim ReportEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Stelrad Group H1 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 7, 2026ShareShareShare This ReportLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Adjusted operating profit rose 4.9% to £16.7 million, while the operating margin expanded 1.8 percentage points to 13.5%, supported by exiting a loss-making contract, favorable mix, and manufacturing efficiencies. Negative Sentiment: Revenue declined 9.1% and sales volumes fell 14.6% amid subdued demand in the U.K., France, and other markets; management also cautioned that contribution per radiator of £24.32 is above its sustainable medium-term target of more than £21 and may normalize as volumes recover. Positive Sentiment: Cash generation and balance-sheet metrics remained strong, with 102% last-twelve-month operating cash-flow conversion and leverage falling to 1.29 times EBITDA. The company proposed a 5% increase in its interim dividend to 3.19 pence per share. Positive Sentiment: Stelrad plans to pursue market-share gains in Germany and Poland over the next 12 months, leveraging its cost leadership, customer service, and manufacturing capacity; Netherlands and Poland already recorded double-digit volume growth. Neutral Sentiment: Management said it continues to trade in line with expectations despite market weakness and cost inflation, while expecting only a modest rise in steel prices in the second half. It highlighted long-term growth opportunities from premium, hybrid, electric, and higher-heat-output radiators linked to heating-system decarbonization. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallStelrad Group H1 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xThere are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning. I'm Trevor Harvey, the Group CEO of Stelrad, and here with me today is Leigh Wilcox, Group CFO. The agenda is as shown on the slide. After a brief overview of our results, we'll have a detailed review of Stelrad's financial performance from Leigh, followed by a business review where I'll go into more detail about our progress, priorities, and positioning in the current market environment. Following the summary and outlook, I'll then move on to a Q&A session. Next slide. I'd like to begin with a brief overview of Stelrad and our performance in the first half. Slide 4. For those of you who are new to Stelrad, and those of you who need reminding, we are Europe's leading radiator manufacturer, operating through our market-leading brands of Stelrad, Henrad, Hudevad, Termo Teknik, and DL Radiators. Operator00:00:53These brands are all united by our highly agile operating platform, which facilitates cost leadership. Our industry-leading customer service underpins our market leadership with a 24% market share of steel panel radiators across the territories we operate in. As we'll see, the majority of our revenues are derived from the U.K. and Ireland, along with mainland Europe and a smaller segment in Turkey. We have now been listed for 5 years and sit in the climate control sub-sector of the FTSE All-Share Index. Our listing aligns with the long-term thinking and strategic positioning of Stelrad to our shareholders' interests, positioning us to build sustainable value throughout market cycles. It has obviously been a challenging period in our end markets. Although I remain immensely proud of the work that the team has done and continues to do in continuously improving Stelrad. Operator00:01:57As this presentation will show you, we are more competitive, more efficient, and more agile than ever. Turning to the matter at hand, I'll quickly run through the overview of the half year. Next slide. As I said, despite challenging market conditions, we've delivered further progress in the half. At our full year results, I outlined a number of actions that we had taken to further optimize our cost base and embed commercial excellence throughout our business, namely the exit of a loss-making contract with a European customer. These actions are beginning to bear fruit, driving an adjusted operating profit growth of 4.9% and a 1.8 percentage points increase in our operating profit margin to 13.5%, and taking our KPI of contribution per radiator to over GBP 24. Operator00:02:58I think it is important to emphasize from the start that this is not a sustainable level of contribution per radiator and primarily reflects the reduced volumes in lower margin territories and sectors in the period. We need to carefully balance product mix at Stelrad. These lower margin areas of our business drive throughput and the operational leverage at our sites, facilitating our cost leadership. Therefore, we expect this to begin to move towards our sustainable medium-term target of over GBP 21 as we drive further volume growth through our sites. Operator00:03:39Our cost leadership, hand in hand with our leading customer service and product availability, underpins and drives our market leadership, which we reinforced further in the period with the latest BRG data published in May for 2025 showing that we continue to be either the market leader or one of the top three in the majority of our top 10 territories. Next slide, financial review. With that, I would now like to hand you over to Leigh for a more detailed review of the group's financial performance. Speaker 100:04:17Thanks, Trevor. Good morning, all. I will now run through the group's financial performance for the period. We start the financial review with our highlights page, with the headline message being that we continue to demonstrate strong margin management and balance sheet control. We cover the specific detail of the various measures later in the presentation, but we can see from the colors displayed on this slide we have made good progress despite an ongoing subdued market backdrop. We now look through some of the group level KPIs before moving later on to segmental level performance. Revenue is reduced by 9.1% or GBP 12.5 million year on year. Revenue has been impacted by a continued reduction in market demand during the period, but is also reduced due to commercial initiatives, namely the exit from a loss-making contract at the end of 2025 and the decision to reduce low margin sales in Turkey. Speaker 100:05:12The combined impact of the commercial initiatives account for circa GBP 9 million of the revenue drop, but these have had a beneficial impact on profitability and margins. Overall, sales volume was down by 14.6% in the period. Group revenues have, however, benefited from a positive sales mix underpinned by the commercial initiatives undertaken, but also from reduced volumes in lower margin countries and market sectors. We will examine the market trends in more detail in the segmental section. Supported by successful delivery of our commercial and operational initiatives, including our 2025 Turkey restructuring, the group has delivered adjusted operating profit growth of GBP 0.8 million or 4.9% with adjusted operating profit increasing to GBP 16.7 million with a 1.8 percentage points increase in margin. The absence of loss-making volume, strong overall country mix, and efficiency improvement in our low-cost manufacturing facility have all combined to enhance profitability and offset market weakness. Speaker 100:06:23Adjusted operating profit is stated before exceptional items of GBP 1 million, with redundancy costs incurred in the period to right-size operations in response to the period of subdued demand. Adjusted earnings per share has increased by 16% in the period, supported by the increase in operating profit and also lower interest rates, interest costs, which have in part fallen due to lower debt levels, but also due to rate reduction secured during our 2025 refinancing. The final chart shows proposed 2026 dividend, interim dividend of 3.19p per share, representing a 5% increase. We previously increased 2025 final dividend by 5%, and the continuation of this increase reflects the board's confidence in our cash generation potential and balance sheet strength. A detailed income statement, which highlights the movement in interest and tax, is included in the appendices. We continue now with our KPIs. Speaker 100:07:20On this slide, we examine the volume and premium panel mix trends in more detail. In respect to volumes, we can see the 14.6% reduction, of which 9.3% is directly related to the loss-making contract and the decision to reduce Turkey volumes. The remaining volume reduction is due to ongoing challenges in the U.K., where RMI and new build activity is still weak, and also lower levels of activity in France. There has been more stability in other markets with volume in the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden all up year-on-year and volumes to Belgium and Germany, excluding the exited contract, stable year-over-year. The group's premium panel mix as a percentage of steel panel radiators increased by 0.1 percentage points in the period to 6.2%, despite a subdued market environment. Speaker 100:08:18The group continues to promote the sale of the premium panel products into all of its markets, recognizing the additional margin these products generate, and we expect further progress in premium panel volumes as markets recover. Supported by mix, price management, and proactive cost initiatives, contribution per radiator grew by 19.6% to GBP 24.32 in the period. Our contribution margin has benefited from commercial and cost initiatives undertaken in 2025, but also due to subdued volumes in some lower margin territories and market sectors. We expect contribution per radiator to move toward our sustainable medium-term target of GBP 21 in the future, reflecting our intention to grow volume in select territories. Now we turn to revenue by operating segment. Despite a 6.6% decline in sales volumes, U.K. and Ireland revenue only fell by 4%, with inflationary selling price increases and sector mix helping to partially offset the volume decline. Speaker 100:09:27Within Europe, sales volume declined by 14.4%, with the exited loss-making contract responsible for 70% of the volume reduction. European revenues have benefited from a weaker euro and sales mix benefits, with the average selling prices increasing due to reduced sales to the lower margin French market and to the loss-making contract. Additionally, high margin territories such as Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden are all up year-on-year, in addition to Belgium and Germany being broadly flat year-on-year. Sales volumes in Turkey were down by 62%, with the reduction down to the commercial decision to reduce sales to Turkey in the period. Now we examine segmental adjusted operating profit in detail. In U.K. and Ireland, profit reduced by GBP 0.9 million or 6.3%, driven largely by the revenue reduction of 4%. Speaker 100:10:29Contribution per radiator has improved year-on-year, benefiting from good margin management, but the impact of adverse volumes on a stable fixed cost base has reduced the operating profit comparatively. Adjusted operating profit in Europe has increased by GBP 2.7 million in the period, with the margins in the sector improving by 5.1 percentage point to 10.8%. The results in Europe have been significantly impacted by the exit from the loss-making contract at the end of 2025 and subdued volumes in the lower margin French market, which was in part due to overstocking by customers at the end of 2025. Additionally, positive volume trends have seen some profitable markets such as Netherlands and Poland being beneficial. We are pleased with the progress in Europe in the period, but the profitability of this segment remains an ongoing focus. Speaker 100:11:24Turkey and international operating profit decreased by GBP 0.5 million, with the decrease driven by volume reductions linked to commercial strategy. Now we turn to the group's cash flow statement and leverage position. Cash flows and leverage at the half year were in line with expectations. Consistent with previous years, we have seen a seasonal investment of working capital which will unwind in the second half. On an LTM basis, cash flows are strong with operating cash flow conversion at 102%. We have made an underlying investment in inventories with local stocks being added in Turkey to further enhance the flexibility of our business model. Speaker 100:12:06Although CapEx is in line with 2025 at the half year, we do expect a modest increase in the full year CapEx year on year due to the one-off IT costs we outlined at the full year results. The increase in tax payments is linked to profitability and an increase in dividends received from Turkey. Interest payments have benefited from interest rate reductions and a lower debt position. Aided by strong free cash flow on an LTM basis, leverage based on net debt for all liabilities has fallen to 1.29 times EBITDA, which is a strong improvement on prior year, and we expect a further reduction in the second half. Now we turn to some other key financial areas. For taxation, the effective tax rate remained consistent year on year. Speaker 100:12:57For dividends, as mentioned in the overview, we reiterate our intention to increase the interim dividend by 5%, in line with our progressive dividend policy. Return on capital employed has increased by 2.1 percentage points to 29%, with the year-end measure expected to exceed 30% due to the timing of working capital movements. This measure has benefited from increased operating profit and lower fixed asset values year on year. Finally, for group credit facilities, the new loan is operating effectively in providing the group with a margin benefit. At the end of the period, we had generous headroom on both facility and cash. I will now provide some technical guidance for use in analyst modeling. Steel prices are expected to rise slightly in half two, albeit from an historically low level. Speaker 100:13:50We currently expect other key input prices to remain stable, but we are mindful of current global events and their potential impact on pricing. Capital expenditure and working capital investment are expected to continue to be in line with previous guidance. Finally, leverage based on net debt for lease liabilities is expected to fall further in half two as the working capital reduces. Thank you. I will now hand you back to Trevor for the business review. Operator00:14:18Thanks, Leigh. I will now run through our progress and priorities for the second half. You will have seen this slide before, but it is an important one for us and sums up our positioning, prospects, and opportunities. Stelrad has clear, consistent strategic objectives of growing our market share, improving our product mix, optimizing our routes to market, and positioning effectively for decarbonisation. As I alluded to earlier, our objectives are interconnected and, in combination with our competitive advantages, underpin the group's sustainable future growth. Progress against each must be carefully balanced to ensure we maintain our competitive cost advantage and market leadership, which is underpinned by the operating leverage within our manufacturing sites and positions us to maximize on the opportunities presented by a market recovery. This market leadership point is critical. Operator00:15:21It not only positions us for that recovery, but also positions us to drive the adoption of higher margin, value-added products, both through increasing premiumisation and through higher heat output and hybrid radiators as the drive to decarbonize home heating systems continues. Taken together, the group's market opportunity, structural growth drivers, and competitive advantages translate into a set of ambitious and sustainable medium-term targets, which balance the position of the business for a market recovery with the ability to deliver clear stakeholder value in the meantime. The latest BRG data shows that we have reinforced our position as the clear leader of the steel panel radiator market with a combined 2025 share of 24%, retaining a 3.9 percentage points lead over our nearest competitor. As I said, our market leadership is key to unlocking our future growth. Operator00:16:25It positions us to both take advantage of a market recovery and replacement cycle and to drive adoption of premium and higher heat output radiators. Our operational excellence underpins this with a low-cost manufacturing base, significant production capacity, and critically, the best On-Time-In-Full delivery rate in the industry. All of these factors carefully balanced alongside each other give us an incredibly agile and resilient operating platform, which has allowed us to navigate the market landscape over the last few years. That minor share reduction in 2025 you saw on the last slide was driven by the specific market mix across the countries that we serve, and I would note our position in the U.K. and Ireland as a contributor here. What I would say is that we see specific opportunities in Europe, in particular to target market share growth underpinned by the highly agile platform that we have built. Operator00:17:32If you look at the chart here, it shows that there is a significant portion of the market that we can grow our exposure to. The European opportunity is something that we have actively been addressing for some time, as is shown on this slide. The latest BRG data shows us consistently growing market share in select European geographies as we reinforce and grow our market leadership positions. It also shows several markets, some of which are large, where we feel there is an opportunity to grow our market share further. This is important for one key reason. Market leadership underpinned by our competitive advantages makes us the supplier of choice for our customers, regardless of the volume environment. But particularly in the market recovery scenario, this will be the key volume driver for Stelrad. Operator00:18:30We have made significant progress in both protecting and improving our product mix over the last few years, reflecting both the progress that we have made in our premiumisation and decarbonisation strategic initiatives. In terms of premiumisation, while we continue to see designer radiator volumes being impacted by reduced RMI spend, the penetration of premium panel volumes remained solid during the period, with a further increase in total proportion of premium panel sales increasing by 0.1% to 6.2%. For us, this is very encouraging. We have worked hard to protect our premium panel mix and drive volumes against a backdrop of further volume declines. Our strategic actions here have helped to protect this category throughout the current market cycle. Operator00:19:25We continue to see long-term structural tailwinds from the decarbonisation of commercial and residential property stock, which will serve as both a demand and margin driver for us as we further expand our sales of higher heat output, hybrid, and electric radiator sales in our key markets. This trend has continued, and in the Netherlands, Belgium, the U.K., and Germany, we have seen volumes grow by 58% over the last two years. As you saw earlier, we are the market leader in three of these countries, with our market leadership again helping us to drive the adoption of these systems. We set out ambitious medium-term targets and goals for sustainable growth a little under two years ago, and we continue to make pleasing progress against them. Operator00:20:19It is equally important to be clear that the strategic actions and progress we have made have been accentuated by the volume environment, where suppressed volumes in low-margin territories have had a significant skew on our product mix and contribution. The real test of these targets, which will be a nice problem to have, will be our ability to maintain them sustainably at a higher volume environment as lower-margin market segments recover and we drive operational leverage through our manufacturing sites, which will naturally result in a change in market mix. I will now talk through the outlook for the second half and beyond. As you have seen and heard throughout this presentation, we are happy with the progress that we have made in the last six months, with several of the long-term conscious strategic actions that we took in 2025 beginning to bear fruit. Operator00:21:20We have reinforced our market leadership while strengthening all of those critical competitive advantages that underpin it, providing a strong platform for targeted market share gains and positioning us well to deliver long-term growth, building sustainable shareholder value throughout the cycle. While we are mindful of continued cost inflation and end market weakness, we are positioned well to continue to deliver in the current environment and continue to trade in line with expectations, with our confidence reflected in the 5% increase in the interim dividend. Many thanks. Any questions? Speaker 200:22:03Thank you much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask an audio question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and just make sure your line is not muted to allow your service to reach your equipment. That is star 1 for questions. Our first question this morning is from Aynsley Lammin, calling from Investec. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Speaker 300:22:27Thanks very much. Morning, Trevor. Morning, Leigh. I have 3 questions, actually. Just the first question on the market share gains, and obviously Germany and Poland look to be good opportunities there. I just wondered, is it price, cost leadership? Is it service? How do you expect to gain market share in those countries? Secondly, on steel prices, just interested to hear what is driving that, how big an issue that is for the second half, and how confident you are of passing those prices on into the market. Then, I guess, just thirdly, if volumes were to stay weak for the next 6-12 months, are you confident there is a bit more you could do on the cost front, kind of commercial initiatives, taking share to offset some of that? Thanks. Operator00:23:16Shall I answer that, Leigh? Speaker 100:23:18Ben, do you want to go for the first one and I can pick up the second? Operator00:23:22In terms of our geographic diversity, we clearly see Germany and Poland as significant commercial opportunities where we are currently underrepresented. We have a very strong balance sheet. We have cost leadership, and we believe that it is right and appropriate, it is the right time for us to look at increasing our market share in those markets. It will be a combination of leveraging our cost advantages in those markets. These are markets which are not only attractive and large but also have a significant premium panel element, which we find very attractive as well. So, we will be investing in commercial initiatives. We will be looking to increase our market share presence in both Germany and Poland in the coming 12 months. On the steel front, Leigh? Speaker 100:24:17Steel prices, I think we have called that a marginal increase in the second half. I think steel prices are still at very low levels across the geography, especially in the steel prices we get into our Turkish factory. It is probably some of the lowest levels we have ever seen. I think we probably expect maybe a 5% increase in the second half, so nothing significant. As we have talked about before, the industry and the sector is very used to steel price increase and the passovers on. We have mechanisms in place to do that with our key contracts. The market is very kind of adept in dealing with those price increases. In terms of volume weakness, it is something we are very much alive to as a management team of the ongoing potential for this to be a more sustained, subdued market environment. Obviously, we keep an eye on that. Speaker 100:25:10We have not gone out of idea, and we continuously assess what we do. For us, it is very much a case of the tightrope between having the operational capability and flexibility and making sure we are fit for purpose for the future recovery. Speaker 300:25:27All right, clear. Thank you very much. Speaker 100:25:29Thanks, Anthony. Speaker 200:25:31Thank you much. Thanks, sir. Our next question will be coming from Sam Cullen from Peel Hunt. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:25:39Hi. Morning, both. I've got a couple also. Just first one is coming back on the European PC. What's your view of what you think the competitive reaction's likely to be in these markets? Just trying to get, coming off of Anthony's question, really, whether this is how much of this is going to be price-led versus just investing more in the distribution base and the sales force in those markets. Then the second one is really just a wider thing on should we read anything into your initial comments, Trevor, about Stelrad being in the climate control sub-sector? Obviously you clearly focused on heating and whether there are other areas of the climate we should be looking at in the business over the medium term. Operator00:26:25In terms of the competitive reaction, I think you're right to highlight the point, Sam, where I think at some stage we need to take advantage of the agile and low-cost platform that we have built. If you're a genuine European market leader and you believe that you have a strategic competitive advantage, then it's inevitable that you're going to have to use that at some stage to continue growing your business and share, particularly in challenging times. I am expecting competitive reactions. It's the realities of business these days that you've got to flex your muscles occasionally, and that's what we would like to do in the coming 12 months. In terms of the categorization of us in the climate control sub-sector, I think that's a reflection of how differentiated we are to a lot of our peer group. Operator00:27:33We do see benefits and opportunities by being differentiated in this way. Our geographic presence is differentiated from our peer group and being included in the climate control sub-sector we see as a specific advantage. Speaker 400:27:54Great. Thank you. Speaker 200:27:57Thank you, sir. Next question will be coming from Edward Prest of Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is open, sir. Speaker 500:28:04Hi. Morning, Trevor. Morning, Leigh. I have a couple on premiumisation, please. Firstly, obviously premiumisation improved from 6.1% to 6.2%. How much of that relates to exiting Turkey, not exiting Turkey, reducing sales in Turkey and the loss-making contract in Germany? Secondly, I know you called out at the Capital Markets Day a couple of years ago that the key would be increasing premiumisation in the U.K. given that penetration is low. How has that progressed in H1? Has there been an increase in premiumisation as new build has dropped off, or is it struggling in challenging markets? Thanks. Speaker 100:28:47I'll go for that one, Trevor, if that's okay. I think in terms of there has not really been a significant mix shift of premiumisation as a result of the commercial action. Turkey is lower. The loss-making contract probably had a reasonable percentage of premium panel products. So on balance, the two probably net out to not really give it any impact. Albeit I would call out that the premium element of the loss-making contract would have probably been lower than premium prices. So there probably has been a mix shift benefit there. The U.K. is still an area of progress. We think we've made some good ground on putting in place the right initiatives in terms of product availability, lead time, 48-hour delivery, a color coordination process, which will benefit the future of that premiumisation strategy in the U.K. Speaker 100:29:44A lot of premium panel products will be dependent on discretionary spend and consumer confidence. So it all goes hand in hand with what's suppressing market demand is suppressing premium panel products. So to maintain the same percentage in the U.K. we think is a good result, having the right strategy for the future. Speaker 500:30:03Cool. Thanks, Leigh. Speaker 100:30:05Okay. Did I miss the second question there? I probably got carried away with the first one. Speaker 500:30:08Oh, no. You got both. It was a couple in relation to premiumisation. Operator00:30:13Okay, fab. Thank you. Speaker 500:30:15Cool. Thank you. Speaker 200:30:17We have a question over the phone. Toby Torrington from Equity Development. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:30:22Yeah. Thanks. Morning, all. A few questions from me, please. Well done on the margin performance. Pretty exceptional that. I think that is the record gross margin since listing, actually. Marked obviously on its settling back at some point. In the near term, rest of the year, it looks as though some of the contributing factors for that gross margin contribution per radiator performance are still going to be around. Either loss-making contracts dropped out, France is still subdued. Not too sure what you are going to be doing in Turkey in the second half. But should we expect similar gross margin contribution per RAD for the full year? Is that fair? Speaker 100:31:15I think you are right to note that there is some natural underlying progress in contribution per radiator in what we have done. That is not to be dismissed, and I think that is correct. The note of caution in contribution per radiator coming back to our targets is probably one where we look through the time period is more difficult to call. We look through that probably in more of a medium term. So I do think there will be some Speaker 600:31:42Yeah Speaker 100:31:43ongoing benefit in the second half from ongoing margins. But Trevor Harvey and Leigh Wilcox are just very keen to call out that we do have the ambition to progress opportunities elsewhere, and we do expect markets to come back. With that, there will be normalization at some point in the future. Speaker 600:32:01Yeah. Understood. Okay. European markets, ex the loss-making contract looks reasonably good for you, relative. Were volumes flat there and a bit of the price inflation? Ex France I am talking about. I think you called out four markets in particular being a bit firmer relative. Are they flat volume markets and a bit of price inflation? Speaker 100:32:29I think there is a significant volume benefit in some of those key markets. We called it out Netherlands, Poland, and they are more double-digit growth year-on-year for us. Obviously, that is probably part market stability and part of our strategy of growing volume in those markets and utilizing sustainable advantages. That is good progress in those two. Then we have highlighted Denmark and Sweden has given ongoing benefits in terms of volume. I think in terms of Europe more broadly, on a like-for-like basis, it has shown a higher degree of stability, with the exception, obviously Speaker 600:33:12Yeah Speaker 100:33:12as you mentioned on France being a bit of an outlier. Speaker 600:33:17Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Just while we are on Europe, could you just remind us what the loss-making turnover that is going to be dropping out over the last year in the second half, please? You called out 5 in the first half, I think. Speaker 100:33:32Yeah. I think it is probably going to be broadly consistent. We run that contract till the end of 2025, so it is going to be a full year impact and maybe a slight tail off towards the end of the year. I would imagine doubling EUR 5 million is not going to take you too far wrong. Speaker 600:33:51Okay. All right. Finally from me on working capital, noting that you are saying that net debt is going to be lower at the year-end. Clearly chunky inventory investment for well-understood reasons, I think in the first half. Do you think you will get back to working capital neutral for the year or is that a bit too ambitious, do you think? Speaker 100:34:14I think there may be a small investment. I think the end of last year finished very strong. December is always a short sales month, so December is abnormally low. So there is a natural skew in terms of at the half year versus the final year. So I think we would get much closer to the prior year, if not all the way. Speaker 600:34:35Okay. Great. Very clear. Thanks very much. Well done. Speaker 200:34:40Thank you very much for your questions, Toby Torrington. As we have no further audio questions at this time, can I look to turn the call over to you for webcast questions. Thank you. Speaker 700:34:49Thank you, George. We have one question from James Tetley from Equity Development. Contribution per radiator is very strong in the period. Is this a short-term spike or could this be expected to remain above the GBP 21 target until volumes meaningfully recover? Speaker 100:35:08I think we've probably covered that one largely to the question from Toby. I think there is probably some embedded benefits in there that may last for a shorter period. But without growth initiatives and market recovery, that would be what brings that down over the time. Speaker 700:35:28Thank you, Leigh. As there appear to be no further questions, Trevor, I'd like to hand back to you for closing remarks. Operator00:35:36Can I just thank everyone for their time today. It's greatly appreciated by Leigh and myself, and we look forward to seeing you again in the near future. Thanks, everyone.Read morePowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckInterim report Stelrad Group Earnings HeadlinesStelrad Group's (SRAD) Buy Rating Reiterated at Berenberg BankAugust 10 at 1:18 AM | americanbankingnews.comStelrad Group PLC Announces Executive Share Awards Under Long Term Incentive PlanMarch 17, 2025 | tipranks.comThe cat is out the bagAlmost 80,000 tech jobs vanished in the first three months of 2026. Meta cut 14,000 roles, Microsoft offered separation packages to 8,500 workers, and Oracle is reportedly eliminating up to 30,000 positions. Goldman Sachs estimates 12,400 Americans are being financially displaced every single day. Analyst Porter Stansberry says the real driver runs deeper than AI - and two Nobel Prize winners have issued the same warning. He calls it the Final Displacement, and he's releasing a full investigation with specific companies to buy and sell before the next wave hits.August 12 at 1:00 AM | Porter & Company (Ad)Stelrad Group Awards Shares to Executives Under Bonus PlanMarch 17, 2025 | tipranks.comStelrad Group’s Executive Purchase Signals ConfidenceJanuary 29, 2025 | tipranks.comSee More Stelrad Group Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Stelrad Group? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Stelrad Group and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Stelrad GroupStelrad is a leading specialist manufacturer and distributor of steel panel radiators in the UK, Europe and Turkey, selling an extensive range of standard and premium steel panel radiators, low surface temperature radiators, towel warmers, decorative steel tubular radiators and other steel “column” radiators.View Stelrad Group ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Latest Articles Nebius’ Q2 Beat Shows the AI Bottleneck Is Capacity, Not DemandCoreWeave's $129 Billion AI Backlog Changes the Bull CaseGE Vernova’s AI Power Boom Faces a Profit TestCardinal Health Earnings: Can Perfection Get Priced In Twice?Legacy Jet Builders Stall While Embraer Accelerates to New HighsFastly’s Q2 Rally Shows Investors Are Buying the Edge AI TurnaroundA Westinghouse IPO Could Reset the Nuclear Stock Conversation Upcoming Earnings Brookfield (8/13/2026)NU (8/13/2026)Applied Materials (8/13/2026)BHP Group (8/17/2026)Palo Alto Networks (8/17/2026)Home Depot (8/18/2026)Medtronic (8/18/2026)Keysight Technologies (8/18/2026)Lowe's Companies (8/19/2026)TJX Companies (8/19/2026) Unlock superior investment research and tools. Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools and reports. Get MarketBeat All Access MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In Email Me a Login Link or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning. I'm Trevor Harvey, the Group CEO of Stelrad, and here with me today is Leigh Wilcox, Group CFO. The agenda is as shown on the slide. After a brief overview of our results, we'll have a detailed review of Stelrad's financial performance from Leigh, followed by a business review where I'll go into more detail about our progress, priorities, and positioning in the current market environment. Following the summary and outlook, I'll then move on to a Q&A session. Next slide. I'd like to begin with a brief overview of Stelrad and our performance in the first half. Slide 4. For those of you who are new to Stelrad, and those of you who need reminding, we are Europe's leading radiator manufacturer, operating through our market-leading brands of Stelrad, Henrad, Hudevad, Termo Teknik, and DL Radiators. Operator00:00:53These brands are all united by our highly agile operating platform, which facilitates cost leadership. Our industry-leading customer service underpins our market leadership with a 24% market share of steel panel radiators across the territories we operate in. As we'll see, the majority of our revenues are derived from the U.K. and Ireland, along with mainland Europe and a smaller segment in Turkey. We have now been listed for 5 years and sit in the climate control sub-sector of the FTSE All-Share Index. Our listing aligns with the long-term thinking and strategic positioning of Stelrad to our shareholders' interests, positioning us to build sustainable value throughout market cycles. It has obviously been a challenging period in our end markets. Although I remain immensely proud of the work that the team has done and continues to do in continuously improving Stelrad. Operator00:01:57As this presentation will show you, we are more competitive, more efficient, and more agile than ever. Turning to the matter at hand, I'll quickly run through the overview of the half year. Next slide. As I said, despite challenging market conditions, we've delivered further progress in the half. At our full year results, I outlined a number of actions that we had taken to further optimize our cost base and embed commercial excellence throughout our business, namely the exit of a loss-making contract with a European customer. These actions are beginning to bear fruit, driving an adjusted operating profit growth of 4.9% and a 1.8 percentage points increase in our operating profit margin to 13.5%, and taking our KPI of contribution per radiator to over GBP 24. Operator00:02:58I think it is important to emphasize from the start that this is not a sustainable level of contribution per radiator and primarily reflects the reduced volumes in lower margin territories and sectors in the period. We need to carefully balance product mix at Stelrad. These lower margin areas of our business drive throughput and the operational leverage at our sites, facilitating our cost leadership. Therefore, we expect this to begin to move towards our sustainable medium-term target of over GBP 21 as we drive further volume growth through our sites. Operator00:03:39Our cost leadership, hand in hand with our leading customer service and product availability, underpins and drives our market leadership, which we reinforced further in the period with the latest BRG data published in May for 2025 showing that we continue to be either the market leader or one of the top three in the majority of our top 10 territories. Next slide, financial review. With that, I would now like to hand you over to Leigh for a more detailed review of the group's financial performance. Speaker 100:04:17Thanks, Trevor. Good morning, all. I will now run through the group's financial performance for the period. We start the financial review with our highlights page, with the headline message being that we continue to demonstrate strong margin management and balance sheet control. We cover the specific detail of the various measures later in the presentation, but we can see from the colors displayed on this slide we have made good progress despite an ongoing subdued market backdrop. We now look through some of the group level KPIs before moving later on to segmental level performance. Revenue is reduced by 9.1% or GBP 12.5 million year on year. Revenue has been impacted by a continued reduction in market demand during the period, but is also reduced due to commercial initiatives, namely the exit from a loss-making contract at the end of 2025 and the decision to reduce low margin sales in Turkey. Speaker 100:05:12The combined impact of the commercial initiatives account for circa GBP 9 million of the revenue drop, but these have had a beneficial impact on profitability and margins. Overall, sales volume was down by 14.6% in the period. Group revenues have, however, benefited from a positive sales mix underpinned by the commercial initiatives undertaken, but also from reduced volumes in lower margin countries and market sectors. We will examine the market trends in more detail in the segmental section. Supported by successful delivery of our commercial and operational initiatives, including our 2025 Turkey restructuring, the group has delivered adjusted operating profit growth of GBP 0.8 million or 4.9% with adjusted operating profit increasing to GBP 16.7 million with a 1.8 percentage points increase in margin. The absence of loss-making volume, strong overall country mix, and efficiency improvement in our low-cost manufacturing facility have all combined to enhance profitability and offset market weakness. Speaker 100:06:23Adjusted operating profit is stated before exceptional items of GBP 1 million, with redundancy costs incurred in the period to right-size operations in response to the period of subdued demand. Adjusted earnings per share has increased by 16% in the period, supported by the increase in operating profit and also lower interest rates, interest costs, which have in part fallen due to lower debt levels, but also due to rate reduction secured during our 2025 refinancing. The final chart shows proposed 2026 dividend, interim dividend of 3.19p per share, representing a 5% increase. We previously increased 2025 final dividend by 5%, and the continuation of this increase reflects the board's confidence in our cash generation potential and balance sheet strength. A detailed income statement, which highlights the movement in interest and tax, is included in the appendices. We continue now with our KPIs. Speaker 100:07:20On this slide, we examine the volume and premium panel mix trends in more detail. In respect to volumes, we can see the 14.6% reduction, of which 9.3% is directly related to the loss-making contract and the decision to reduce Turkey volumes. The remaining volume reduction is due to ongoing challenges in the U.K., where RMI and new build activity is still weak, and also lower levels of activity in France. There has been more stability in other markets with volume in the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden all up year-on-year and volumes to Belgium and Germany, excluding the exited contract, stable year-over-year. The group's premium panel mix as a percentage of steel panel radiators increased by 0.1 percentage points in the period to 6.2%, despite a subdued market environment. Speaker 100:08:18The group continues to promote the sale of the premium panel products into all of its markets, recognizing the additional margin these products generate, and we expect further progress in premium panel volumes as markets recover. Supported by mix, price management, and proactive cost initiatives, contribution per radiator grew by 19.6% to GBP 24.32 in the period. Our contribution margin has benefited from commercial and cost initiatives undertaken in 2025, but also due to subdued volumes in some lower margin territories and market sectors. We expect contribution per radiator to move toward our sustainable medium-term target of GBP 21 in the future, reflecting our intention to grow volume in select territories. Now we turn to revenue by operating segment. Despite a 6.6% decline in sales volumes, U.K. and Ireland revenue only fell by 4%, with inflationary selling price increases and sector mix helping to partially offset the volume decline. Speaker 100:09:27Within Europe, sales volume declined by 14.4%, with the exited loss-making contract responsible for 70% of the volume reduction. European revenues have benefited from a weaker euro and sales mix benefits, with the average selling prices increasing due to reduced sales to the lower margin French market and to the loss-making contract. Additionally, high margin territories such as Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden are all up year-on-year, in addition to Belgium and Germany being broadly flat year-on-year. Sales volumes in Turkey were down by 62%, with the reduction down to the commercial decision to reduce sales to Turkey in the period. Now we examine segmental adjusted operating profit in detail. In U.K. and Ireland, profit reduced by GBP 0.9 million or 6.3%, driven largely by the revenue reduction of 4%. Speaker 100:10:29Contribution per radiator has improved year-on-year, benefiting from good margin management, but the impact of adverse volumes on a stable fixed cost base has reduced the operating profit comparatively. Adjusted operating profit in Europe has increased by GBP 2.7 million in the period, with the margins in the sector improving by 5.1 percentage point to 10.8%. The results in Europe have been significantly impacted by the exit from the loss-making contract at the end of 2025 and subdued volumes in the lower margin French market, which was in part due to overstocking by customers at the end of 2025. Additionally, positive volume trends have seen some profitable markets such as Netherlands and Poland being beneficial. We are pleased with the progress in Europe in the period, but the profitability of this segment remains an ongoing focus. Speaker 100:11:24Turkey and international operating profit decreased by GBP 0.5 million, with the decrease driven by volume reductions linked to commercial strategy. Now we turn to the group's cash flow statement and leverage position. Cash flows and leverage at the half year were in line with expectations. Consistent with previous years, we have seen a seasonal investment of working capital which will unwind in the second half. On an LTM basis, cash flows are strong with operating cash flow conversion at 102%. We have made an underlying investment in inventories with local stocks being added in Turkey to further enhance the flexibility of our business model. Speaker 100:12:06Although CapEx is in line with 2025 at the half year, we do expect a modest increase in the full year CapEx year on year due to the one-off IT costs we outlined at the full year results. The increase in tax payments is linked to profitability and an increase in dividends received from Turkey. Interest payments have benefited from interest rate reductions and a lower debt position. Aided by strong free cash flow on an LTM basis, leverage based on net debt for all liabilities has fallen to 1.29 times EBITDA, which is a strong improvement on prior year, and we expect a further reduction in the second half. Now we turn to some other key financial areas. For taxation, the effective tax rate remained consistent year on year. Speaker 100:12:57For dividends, as mentioned in the overview, we reiterate our intention to increase the interim dividend by 5%, in line with our progressive dividend policy. Return on capital employed has increased by 2.1 percentage points to 29%, with the year-end measure expected to exceed 30% due to the timing of working capital movements. This measure has benefited from increased operating profit and lower fixed asset values year on year. Finally, for group credit facilities, the new loan is operating effectively in providing the group with a margin benefit. At the end of the period, we had generous headroom on both facility and cash. I will now provide some technical guidance for use in analyst modeling. Steel prices are expected to rise slightly in half two, albeit from an historically low level. Speaker 100:13:50We currently expect other key input prices to remain stable, but we are mindful of current global events and their potential impact on pricing. Capital expenditure and working capital investment are expected to continue to be in line with previous guidance. Finally, leverage based on net debt for lease liabilities is expected to fall further in half two as the working capital reduces. Thank you. I will now hand you back to Trevor for the business review. Operator00:14:18Thanks, Leigh. I will now run through our progress and priorities for the second half. You will have seen this slide before, but it is an important one for us and sums up our positioning, prospects, and opportunities. Stelrad has clear, consistent strategic objectives of growing our market share, improving our product mix, optimizing our routes to market, and positioning effectively for decarbonisation. As I alluded to earlier, our objectives are interconnected and, in combination with our competitive advantages, underpin the group's sustainable future growth. Progress against each must be carefully balanced to ensure we maintain our competitive cost advantage and market leadership, which is underpinned by the operating leverage within our manufacturing sites and positions us to maximize on the opportunities presented by a market recovery. This market leadership point is critical. Operator00:15:21It not only positions us for that recovery, but also positions us to drive the adoption of higher margin, value-added products, both through increasing premiumisation and through higher heat output and hybrid radiators as the drive to decarbonize home heating systems continues. Taken together, the group's market opportunity, structural growth drivers, and competitive advantages translate into a set of ambitious and sustainable medium-term targets, which balance the position of the business for a market recovery with the ability to deliver clear stakeholder value in the meantime. The latest BRG data shows that we have reinforced our position as the clear leader of the steel panel radiator market with a combined 2025 share of 24%, retaining a 3.9 percentage points lead over our nearest competitor. As I said, our market leadership is key to unlocking our future growth. Operator00:16:25It positions us to both take advantage of a market recovery and replacement cycle and to drive adoption of premium and higher heat output radiators. Our operational excellence underpins this with a low-cost manufacturing base, significant production capacity, and critically, the best On-Time-In-Full delivery rate in the industry. All of these factors carefully balanced alongside each other give us an incredibly agile and resilient operating platform, which has allowed us to navigate the market landscape over the last few years. That minor share reduction in 2025 you saw on the last slide was driven by the specific market mix across the countries that we serve, and I would note our position in the U.K. and Ireland as a contributor here. What I would say is that we see specific opportunities in Europe, in particular to target market share growth underpinned by the highly agile platform that we have built. Operator00:17:32If you look at the chart here, it shows that there is a significant portion of the market that we can grow our exposure to. The European opportunity is something that we have actively been addressing for some time, as is shown on this slide. The latest BRG data shows us consistently growing market share in select European geographies as we reinforce and grow our market leadership positions. It also shows several markets, some of which are large, where we feel there is an opportunity to grow our market share further. This is important for one key reason. Market leadership underpinned by our competitive advantages makes us the supplier of choice for our customers, regardless of the volume environment. But particularly in the market recovery scenario, this will be the key volume driver for Stelrad. Operator00:18:30We have made significant progress in both protecting and improving our product mix over the last few years, reflecting both the progress that we have made in our premiumisation and decarbonisation strategic initiatives. In terms of premiumisation, while we continue to see designer radiator volumes being impacted by reduced RMI spend, the penetration of premium panel volumes remained solid during the period, with a further increase in total proportion of premium panel sales increasing by 0.1% to 6.2%. For us, this is very encouraging. We have worked hard to protect our premium panel mix and drive volumes against a backdrop of further volume declines. Our strategic actions here have helped to protect this category throughout the current market cycle. Operator00:19:25We continue to see long-term structural tailwinds from the decarbonisation of commercial and residential property stock, which will serve as both a demand and margin driver for us as we further expand our sales of higher heat output, hybrid, and electric radiator sales in our key markets. This trend has continued, and in the Netherlands, Belgium, the U.K., and Germany, we have seen volumes grow by 58% over the last two years. As you saw earlier, we are the market leader in three of these countries, with our market leadership again helping us to drive the adoption of these systems. We set out ambitious medium-term targets and goals for sustainable growth a little under two years ago, and we continue to make pleasing progress against them. Operator00:20:19It is equally important to be clear that the strategic actions and progress we have made have been accentuated by the volume environment, where suppressed volumes in low-margin territories have had a significant skew on our product mix and contribution. The real test of these targets, which will be a nice problem to have, will be our ability to maintain them sustainably at a higher volume environment as lower-margin market segments recover and we drive operational leverage through our manufacturing sites, which will naturally result in a change in market mix. I will now talk through the outlook for the second half and beyond. As you have seen and heard throughout this presentation, we are happy with the progress that we have made in the last six months, with several of the long-term conscious strategic actions that we took in 2025 beginning to bear fruit. Operator00:21:20We have reinforced our market leadership while strengthening all of those critical competitive advantages that underpin it, providing a strong platform for targeted market share gains and positioning us well to deliver long-term growth, building sustainable shareholder value throughout the cycle. While we are mindful of continued cost inflation and end market weakness, we are positioned well to continue to deliver in the current environment and continue to trade in line with expectations, with our confidence reflected in the 5% increase in the interim dividend. Many thanks. Any questions? Speaker 200:22:03Thank you much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask an audio question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and just make sure your line is not muted to allow your service to reach your equipment. That is star 1 for questions. Our first question this morning is from Aynsley Lammin, calling from Investec. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Speaker 300:22:27Thanks very much. Morning, Trevor. Morning, Leigh. I have 3 questions, actually. Just the first question on the market share gains, and obviously Germany and Poland look to be good opportunities there. I just wondered, is it price, cost leadership? Is it service? How do you expect to gain market share in those countries? Secondly, on steel prices, just interested to hear what is driving that, how big an issue that is for the second half, and how confident you are of passing those prices on into the market. Then, I guess, just thirdly, if volumes were to stay weak for the next 6-12 months, are you confident there is a bit more you could do on the cost front, kind of commercial initiatives, taking share to offset some of that? Thanks. Operator00:23:16Shall I answer that, Leigh? Speaker 100:23:18Ben, do you want to go for the first one and I can pick up the second? Operator00:23:22In terms of our geographic diversity, we clearly see Germany and Poland as significant commercial opportunities where we are currently underrepresented. We have a very strong balance sheet. We have cost leadership, and we believe that it is right and appropriate, it is the right time for us to look at increasing our market share in those markets. It will be a combination of leveraging our cost advantages in those markets. These are markets which are not only attractive and large but also have a significant premium panel element, which we find very attractive as well. So, we will be investing in commercial initiatives. We will be looking to increase our market share presence in both Germany and Poland in the coming 12 months. On the steel front, Leigh? Speaker 100:24:17Steel prices, I think we have called that a marginal increase in the second half. I think steel prices are still at very low levels across the geography, especially in the steel prices we get into our Turkish factory. It is probably some of the lowest levels we have ever seen. I think we probably expect maybe a 5% increase in the second half, so nothing significant. As we have talked about before, the industry and the sector is very used to steel price increase and the passovers on. We have mechanisms in place to do that with our key contracts. The market is very kind of adept in dealing with those price increases. In terms of volume weakness, it is something we are very much alive to as a management team of the ongoing potential for this to be a more sustained, subdued market environment. Obviously, we keep an eye on that. Speaker 100:25:10We have not gone out of idea, and we continuously assess what we do. For us, it is very much a case of the tightrope between having the operational capability and flexibility and making sure we are fit for purpose for the future recovery. Speaker 300:25:27All right, clear. Thank you very much. Speaker 100:25:29Thanks, Anthony. Speaker 200:25:31Thank you much. Thanks, sir. Our next question will be coming from Sam Cullen from Peel Hunt. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:25:39Hi. Morning, both. I've got a couple also. Just first one is coming back on the European PC. What's your view of what you think the competitive reaction's likely to be in these markets? Just trying to get, coming off of Anthony's question, really, whether this is how much of this is going to be price-led versus just investing more in the distribution base and the sales force in those markets. Then the second one is really just a wider thing on should we read anything into your initial comments, Trevor, about Stelrad being in the climate control sub-sector? Obviously you clearly focused on heating and whether there are other areas of the climate we should be looking at in the business over the medium term. Operator00:26:25In terms of the competitive reaction, I think you're right to highlight the point, Sam, where I think at some stage we need to take advantage of the agile and low-cost platform that we have built. If you're a genuine European market leader and you believe that you have a strategic competitive advantage, then it's inevitable that you're going to have to use that at some stage to continue growing your business and share, particularly in challenging times. I am expecting competitive reactions. It's the realities of business these days that you've got to flex your muscles occasionally, and that's what we would like to do in the coming 12 months. In terms of the categorization of us in the climate control sub-sector, I think that's a reflection of how differentiated we are to a lot of our peer group. Operator00:27:33We do see benefits and opportunities by being differentiated in this way. Our geographic presence is differentiated from our peer group and being included in the climate control sub-sector we see as a specific advantage. Speaker 400:27:54Great. Thank you. Speaker 200:27:57Thank you, sir. Next question will be coming from Edward Prest of Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is open, sir. Speaker 500:28:04Hi. Morning, Trevor. Morning, Leigh. I have a couple on premiumisation, please. Firstly, obviously premiumisation improved from 6.1% to 6.2%. How much of that relates to exiting Turkey, not exiting Turkey, reducing sales in Turkey and the loss-making contract in Germany? Secondly, I know you called out at the Capital Markets Day a couple of years ago that the key would be increasing premiumisation in the U.K. given that penetration is low. How has that progressed in H1? Has there been an increase in premiumisation as new build has dropped off, or is it struggling in challenging markets? Thanks. Speaker 100:28:47I'll go for that one, Trevor, if that's okay. I think in terms of there has not really been a significant mix shift of premiumisation as a result of the commercial action. Turkey is lower. The loss-making contract probably had a reasonable percentage of premium panel products. So on balance, the two probably net out to not really give it any impact. Albeit I would call out that the premium element of the loss-making contract would have probably been lower than premium prices. So there probably has been a mix shift benefit there. The U.K. is still an area of progress. We think we've made some good ground on putting in place the right initiatives in terms of product availability, lead time, 48-hour delivery, a color coordination process, which will benefit the future of that premiumisation strategy in the U.K. Speaker 100:29:44A lot of premium panel products will be dependent on discretionary spend and consumer confidence. So it all goes hand in hand with what's suppressing market demand is suppressing premium panel products. So to maintain the same percentage in the U.K. we think is a good result, having the right strategy for the future. Speaker 500:30:03Cool. Thanks, Leigh. Speaker 100:30:05Okay. Did I miss the second question there? I probably got carried away with the first one. Speaker 500:30:08Oh, no. You got both. It was a couple in relation to premiumisation. Operator00:30:13Okay, fab. Thank you. Speaker 500:30:15Cool. Thank you. Speaker 200:30:17We have a question over the phone. Toby Torrington from Equity Development. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:30:22Yeah. Thanks. Morning, all. A few questions from me, please. Well done on the margin performance. Pretty exceptional that. I think that is the record gross margin since listing, actually. Marked obviously on its settling back at some point. In the near term, rest of the year, it looks as though some of the contributing factors for that gross margin contribution per radiator performance are still going to be around. Either loss-making contracts dropped out, France is still subdued. Not too sure what you are going to be doing in Turkey in the second half. But should we expect similar gross margin contribution per RAD for the full year? Is that fair? Speaker 100:31:15I think you are right to note that there is some natural underlying progress in contribution per radiator in what we have done. That is not to be dismissed, and I think that is correct. The note of caution in contribution per radiator coming back to our targets is probably one where we look through the time period is more difficult to call. We look through that probably in more of a medium term. So I do think there will be some Speaker 600:31:42Yeah Speaker 100:31:43ongoing benefit in the second half from ongoing margins. But Trevor Harvey and Leigh Wilcox are just very keen to call out that we do have the ambition to progress opportunities elsewhere, and we do expect markets to come back. With that, there will be normalization at some point in the future. Speaker 600:32:01Yeah. Understood. Okay. European markets, ex the loss-making contract looks reasonably good for you, relative. Were volumes flat there and a bit of the price inflation? Ex France I am talking about. I think you called out four markets in particular being a bit firmer relative. Are they flat volume markets and a bit of price inflation? Speaker 100:32:29I think there is a significant volume benefit in some of those key markets. We called it out Netherlands, Poland, and they are more double-digit growth year-on-year for us. Obviously, that is probably part market stability and part of our strategy of growing volume in those markets and utilizing sustainable advantages. That is good progress in those two. Then we have highlighted Denmark and Sweden has given ongoing benefits in terms of volume. I think in terms of Europe more broadly, on a like-for-like basis, it has shown a higher degree of stability, with the exception, obviously Speaker 600:33:12Yeah Speaker 100:33:12as you mentioned on France being a bit of an outlier. Speaker 600:33:17Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Just while we are on Europe, could you just remind us what the loss-making turnover that is going to be dropping out over the last year in the second half, please? You called out 5 in the first half, I think. Speaker 100:33:32Yeah. I think it is probably going to be broadly consistent. We run that contract till the end of 2025, so it is going to be a full year impact and maybe a slight tail off towards the end of the year. I would imagine doubling EUR 5 million is not going to take you too far wrong. Speaker 600:33:51Okay. All right. Finally from me on working capital, noting that you are saying that net debt is going to be lower at the year-end. Clearly chunky inventory investment for well-understood reasons, I think in the first half. Do you think you will get back to working capital neutral for the year or is that a bit too ambitious, do you think? Speaker 100:34:14I think there may be a small investment. I think the end of last year finished very strong. December is always a short sales month, so December is abnormally low. So there is a natural skew in terms of at the half year versus the final year. So I think we would get much closer to the prior year, if not all the way. Speaker 600:34:35Okay. Great. Very clear. Thanks very much. Well done. Speaker 200:34:40Thank you very much for your questions, Toby Torrington. As we have no further audio questions at this time, can I look to turn the call over to you for webcast questions. Thank you. Speaker 700:34:49Thank you, George. We have one question from James Tetley from Equity Development. Contribution per radiator is very strong in the period. Is this a short-term spike or could this be expected to remain above the GBP 21 target until volumes meaningfully recover? Speaker 100:35:08I think we've probably covered that one largely to the question from Toby. I think there is probably some embedded benefits in there that may last for a shorter period. But without growth initiatives and market recovery, that would be what brings that down over the time. Speaker 700:35:28Thank you, Leigh. As there appear to be no further questions, Trevor, I'd like to hand back to you for closing remarks. Operator00:35:36Can I just thank everyone for their time today. It's greatly appreciated by Leigh and myself, and we look forward to seeing you again in the near future. Thanks, everyone.Read morePowered by