Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is David Gordon, and on behalf of the board, it's my pleasure to, as Chairman, welcome you to the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Accent Group Limited. I'm advised that a quorum is present, and I now declare the meeting open. I begin today by acknowledging the traditional custodians and owners of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. As we have done previously, today we are holding a hybrid meeting where we can welcome shareholders in person as well as online via the Computershare platform. Those attendees joining us virtually can hear a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies attending virtually also have the ability to ask questions and submit their votes via the online platform. To ask a question, virtual attendees can submit questions at any time by selecting the Q&A icon at the top of the screen. Select the topic your question relates to from the drop-down list, and then type your question into the text box. Once finished, please press the send button. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I'll only address them at the time when the relevant item of business is discussed. Please also note that your questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on the same topic, amalgamated together. For those shareholders who wish to ask a question via the telephone, please follow the instructions below the broadcast. For our shareholders attending in person today, those in possession of either an orange voting card or a blue non-voting card are welcome to ask questions, while those with a white visitor card are kindly requested to only observe during the meeting. If you believe you have not received the correct card, please go to the registration desk where a Computershare representative will assist you. I'll give all shareholders who wish to speak a reasonable opportunity to do so, but please keep your questions to the matter at hand and as succinct as possible. Voting today will be conducted by way of poll on all items of business. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I'll shortly open the voting for the resolutions on items two and three. The resolution in item one carries no vote. As we announced to the stock exchange today, we've withdrawn items four, five, and six from the agenda following engagement with proxy advisors and shareholders. For our shareholders attending virtually, if you are eligible to vote, once voting opens, select the vote icon and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of those options. There's no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You'll receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. For those attending the meeting in person, if you are eligible to vote, you will have received an orange voting card at registration. If you believe you're entitled to vote and have not received the correct voting card, please see the Computershare staff at the registration table. To cast your vote, simply complete and sign the back of the card. A Computershare representative will collect your orange voting card at the end of the meeting. I now declare voting open on resolutions in items two and three. For online shareholders, the voting options will soon be activated, so please submit your votes at any time. I'll give you time and a warning at the end of all items of business before I move to close voting. Our CEO, Daniel Agostinelli, is unable to be here today as he's unwell and sends his apologies. We currently anticipate that Daniel will be away from the business for a number of weeks, and we have a strong senior executive team who will take on additional responsibilities during this time. Joining me here today are our non-executive directors, Lawrence Myers, Michael Hapgood, Donna Player, David Forshaw, and Anne Loveridge, AM. We are also joined by our Group Chief Financial Officer and Joint Company Secretary, Matthew Durbin, and Group General Counsel and Joint Company Secretary, Nikki Nuttall. We're also accompanied by the company's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, represented by partner Alison Milner, and a number of our executive leadership team and other Accent team members are also in the room. At today's meeting, we'll be considering a number of matters set out in the notice of meeting dated the 20th of October, 2025. Before we address the resolutions set out in that notice, I'll make some introductory remarks and provide an overview of our FY25 results and how we are continuing to create value for our shareholders. Our Group CFO, Matthew Durbin, will then give the CEO address. I would like to begin by saying that in the context of a more challenging consumer environment, despite not delivering the results that we had hoped for, Accent Group delivered total company-owned sales of AUD 1.46 billion in financial year 2025, with a net profit after tax of AUD 57.7 million. Over the past financial year, the company opened 54 new stores, and its contactable customer base now sits above 10 million. The company remains focused on growth and return on investment for shareholders, with banners such as Nude Lucy, Stylerunner, HOKA, and UGG performing well, alongside continued growth in The Athlete’s Foot, Hype DC, and others. The company continues to invest in key areas as it maintains a focus on its growth strategy. The ongoing renewal and expansion of the store network, development of digital capability, growing our distributed brands, and improving our vertical brands are all investments that have been targeted towards continuing the company’s long-term growth trajectory. We also announced our strategic partnership with Frasers Group and our securing the rights to launch and operate the Sports Direct business in Australia and New Zealand. We are very excited about this opportunity, and I’m pleased to announce that our first store opened in Fountain Gate here in Victoria last Saturday on 15 November. I take this opportunity to acknowledge and commend the entire Accent team for their work, dedication, focus, and energy. These achievements build and reinforce the company's strong and defendable market position, as well as increasing our relevance in target markets across Australia and New Zealand. The Accent business today is scalable, with future growth opportunities through online and new store growth, our large and diverse brand portfolio, and our new businesses. Our business is flexible, with proven capability to leverage digital and online reach and to quickly respond to trends through our diversified portfolio of brands across footwear, accessories, and youth and lifestyle apparel. The market position of the business is also defensible. Our distribution relationships provide access to global product innovation and exclusive access to product. Our vertical-owned brands add to product differentiation and support underlying gross margin growth. Turning now to the results, total sales for FY25, including the Athlete's Foot franchisees, was AUD 1.62 billion, up 0.8% on the prior year. EBIT of AUD 110.2 million was down 0.2% on the prior year, with net profit after tax of AUD 57.7 million, down 3.1% on the prior year. Gross margin percentage was 54.9%, down 85 basis points to the prior year. In financial year 2025, gross margins were impacted by a challenging consumer environment and heightened promotional activity. While the company maintained disciplined inventory management, this focus placed additional downward pressure on margins. Over the last 10 years, Accent Group has delivered a total shareholder return of 9.7% per annum compounding. While we are proud that we've been able to deliver long-term growth to our shareholders, we continue to strive to improve. The Accent Group sustainability framework gives our commitment to ESG through three core pillars: our people, our responsibilities, and our environmental stewardship. At Accent Group, we prioritize our people because they are the greatest asset, and their dedication is the foundation of our business. In financial year 2025, our team completed over 600 safety audits in our stores. We also rolled out emergency response and respect at work training for team members, and we're committed to providing a safe working environment. As such, we have strengthened our internal safety training program. Our responsibilities pillar centers on integrity and ethical practices. We are dedicated to supporting the communities we serve and protecting the information we manage. In ethical sourcing and modern slavery, we've continued to share with our partners and suppliers our modern slavery statement and our ethical sourcing policies, which set the standards of what we expect from our partners and suppliers. We've continued our local community partnerships and events, which have been led by various of our brands. With data security top of mind, we've enhanced our anti-phishing measures and improved our critical incident response programs. Our environment pillar is a priority, and we're committed to initiatives that minimize our environmental impact. Through our recycling program with the Australian Sporting Goods Association, we have 370 consumer collection points in our stores and have successfully collected over 105,000 pairs of shoes for recycling. Finally, we've calculated our scope one and scope two emissions and are prepared to meet the new carbon reporting standards by FY26. We also remain an APCO member for packaging compliance. Together, we're working towards a more sustainable future. I'll now hand over to Matt Durbin, our Group Chief Financial and Operating Officer, to tell you more about our results in financial year 2025. Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Total group sales, including The Athlete’s Foot, are now over AUD 1.62 billion. In FY25, we opened 54 new stores across all formats in Australia and New Zealand and maintained our total number of retail and online stores at 892 stores. Nude Lucy was the recipient of several new stores, with 44 stores now open, representing a fast-growing, world-class lifestyle apparel brand. We continue to see strong retail performance across Hype DC, TAF, Nude Lucy, and others. Our contactable database is now over 10 million customers. Pleasingly, our vertical brands and product sales continue to grow. Sales are now around AUD 130 million, representing 9% of total owned sales. Wholesale sales were around AUD 155 million, down 5.4% on the prior year. As already mentioned in April, the company entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Frasers Group PLC to launch and operate Sports Direct in Australia and New Zealand. We will open at least 50 stores over the next six years. I'm happy to report that we successfully opened our first store in Fountain Gate last weekend. Massive thanks to the team who opened that store. It was a huge effort to get it open and trading on time. As part of our growth strategy, we will also continue to roll out new stores with a focus on growth brands, including performance lifestyle footwear and apparel, including Nude Lucy, Stylerunner, HOKA, and UGG. Finally, we are also continuing with our franchise reacquisition program, TAF franchise reacquisition program, which is going very well. I hope this gives our shareholders a clear idea of activity and growth the company has planned in the upcoming future. We continue to build a defensible business in Australia and New Zealand. Our portfolio of global distributed brands, owned vertical brands, integrated digital capability, and large store network are core assets for the group and position the company well for growth into the future. I look forward to working with our team to continue to deliver the strong results. I'll now hand back over to David. Along with our AGM presentation, we released a trading update to the ASX this morning. For the first 20 weeks of FY25, based on trade to date, the total group owned sales year- to- date are up 3.7% compared to the prior year, with like-for-like sales down 0.4%. FY25 gross margin percentage is down 1.6% to the comparable period last year. The sports category, including The Athlete’s Foot, HOKA, Saucony, and Merrell, continued to perform well. Lifestyle footwear sales have been soft and below expectations. Our cost of doing business and inventory continue to be managed well and in line with plan. On the basis that like-for-like sales have been below expectations of low single-digit growth and gross margin has been below prior year, EBIT for the first half of the year is expected to be in the range of AUD 55 million-AUD 60 million, inclusive of non-recurring losses associated with the closure of the MySale operations. For the full year, EBIT is expected to be in the range of AUD 85 million-AUD 95 million. The full year guidance assumes the range provided above for the first half and for the second half, EBIT in the range of AUD 30 million-AUD 35 million. As mentioned earlier, we successfully opened the first Sports Direct store in Fountain Gate and launched the online store with a further three physical stores planned for the remainder of this financial year. That concludes the business update, and we will now progress to the formal business of the meeting. As I mentioned at the start of the meeting, voting is being conducted today by way of a poll, and voting is currently open for the resolutions in items two and three. At the end of the discussion on these items of business, I'll give you a warning before I close the voting. The first item of business is to receive and consider the financial report, the director's report, and the independent auditor's report for the year ending 29 June 2025. These documents are contained in the 2025 annual report, which was sent to shareholders on the 20th of October. There is no formal resolution required for this item, but I invite any questions you may have about the financial statements or about any aspects of the company or the business generally. This is the time for any general questions, as I will restrict questions about the specific resolutions to matters pertaining to those resolutions. I'll now take questions from the floor as well as through the Computershare virtual platform and telephone. I'll take questions from the floor before moving to the questions from shareholders attending virtually. For shareholders holding an orange or blue card attending in person, if you wish to ask a question, please raise your hand. Once you're acknowledged, a microphone attendant will pass you the microphone. Please state your name clearly and show your shareholder registration card. Are there any questions or comments on the financial report or any aspects of the reports of the auditors and/or the report of the directors, or any other questions about the business generally? Excellent. Yeah. Rachel Ollison just made it in time. Regarding the Glue Store thing, it seems to have been a bit of a problem child ever since it was acquired. Delivered a couple of good brands, but finding the right store format appears to have been elusive. If the announcement in April to move Glue to a high-end retail experience selling denim and premium streetwear doesn't bear fruit, how much more management time will be put into trying to what to do with Glue before it's not worth the management time and use the stores for another brand? Sure. Good question. Thanks, Ray. We've certainly been glued up by it. Look, the truth is that we are constantly trying new formats, new brands, new banners. Sometimes we find something, a bit of a gem inside of a business, and we might spin that out and do something with it, like we have, for instance, like as we did with the Stylerunner stores out of an online business, and as we did with Nude Lucy and more recently with Ode out of the Glue business. It is not always clear that the thing we start with is going to be the thing that we grow with. We've had a challenging time with Glue, and we continue to look at ways in which we can improve those operations. Like all things, there will come a time, if we cannot, that we will, as you say, either convert those stores into other banners in our portfolio or do other things with that business. We have done that before. It is part of the ordinary course of business of the group. Rest assured that the board and the management team are hugely focused on making sure that every hour of energy goes into creating value and doing something productive. Where we find things are less productive, we move them on one way or another. I can assure you that your interest is magnified in terms of the interest by the board in relation to Glue and other things in the portfolio. We will do what we can to either improve it or find the gems inside it to grow, as we have already done, or deal with it appropriately. Thanks. Any other questions? Excellent. One moment. I'll bring over the microphone. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, board, ladies and gentlemen. If you can state your name just for a second. Oh, sorry. Yeah. My name's Chris Lobb. I'm representing the Australian Shareholders Association. Chris, welcome. Back again for the regular annual visit. Firstly, a couple of things I'd like to acknowledge. First, the holding a hybrid meeting. Very much appreciate that. Obviously, not everyone can physically get here, so our association very much supports the holding of such a meeting and allows everyone to participate. Thank you. The second would be remiss of us not to recognize your—we saw the announcement. You'll be stepping down as chairman at the conclusion of this meeting. Again, we'd like to recognize your cooperation and assistance with our association over a long period of time. Thank you. Having said those couple of things. All the good stuff. Daniel Agostinelli, come on, go for it. Go for it. You always do encourage us. I love questions. They're great. Trading update. Sales are flat, pretty much, like for like. Margins continue to be under pressure, entering in a critical trading period now leading up to Christmas. Perhaps could you add a little bit more color to the current trading environment, what you foresee, new competition, or just give shareholders a bit better understanding of the environment in which we're operating currently? I'd be happy to do so. Now, despite your glowing commentary about me, I don't have a crystal ball. Like everyone, we look at the past to try and work out what might happen in the future. The reality is, as you know, there's a soft consumer environment at the moment with the pressures of higher costs on everybody. That invariably has its impact on discretionary consumer spending. It has an impact on our business. What's interesting is that we were speaking about this just yesterday at our board meeting we are seeing signs that the difficulty is becoming less difficult and that consumers are back to spending to a greater extent than they were. It's still very much a value-driven market. There's a huge focus on value. We respond accordingly. The balance between creating value, reducing prices, and increasing sales versus maintaining margin is a balance that we pay our management team heartily to prove. I think that in terms of the sales that are taking place, the November period, the cyber period, which we're in, obviously Christmas coming, January sales, it is a huge part of the year in terms of our sales. The planning for that goes in months in advance. That's all been intricately planned out by the team. They act with speed, depending on what's going on in the market in the time. All I can say to you is that we've included in the announcement to the ASX our best estimate of what we think is going to happen for the balance of the year. It's clearly not a story that I'd like to see more. We do believe that the figures that I read out earlier are likely to be the earnings for the business based on our best estimates at the moment. Now, consumer sentiment can go down, and it can also go up. It is affected by many things, as you know. We feel that we have, in our existing portfolio, a spread of businesses which give us access to areas that are growing when there may be other areas that are not. For instance, as I mentioned earlier, the sports part of the market seems to be growing and strong, maintaining its position, whereas the lifestyle part of the market is having greater difficulties. That is a good thing for us because we have got a great exposure to the sports part of the market in The Athlete’s Foot in particular. Of course, with our strategic initiative in the opening of Sports Direct stores, which are front and center in relation to that part of the market. Our job is to ensure that we've got a spread of businesses that can get access to those parts of the market that are going up or doing well, and that we can manage those other parts of the business effectively so that we can profitably and efficiently provide value to customers. I think that there have been challenges in the last 12 months, and there are certainly challenges going on at the moment. History tells us that the strategy of this business over a long period of time, and more importantly, the quality and dedication of the team that are there executing, planning, and working through has ultimately proved to be the single greatest asset of this business, and I believe it will be into the future. I cannot say too much more about what we expect other than what we have already said. I am confident that the strategy of having a diversified portfolio and the passion, enthusiasm, and hard work of our team will see the delivery of results for shareholders as we have for many years. Any other questions? I really do enjoy the questions. When I have a go at him and say he is going to whack me, you should go ahead. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. I have a question for Nikki. If you could mention your name, please. Yes. My name is Andreas Lopez. I'm an actual shareholder at Ordinary. Andreas. Crime is rising in Victoria. What measures does the company have in order to protect, A, customers, and B, team members when it comes to assaults? That is the first part of the question. The second one will be, why are there no security cameras in all stores? Andreas, I think I might answer those questions because it's usually my role to do that. Save, Nikki. It is something that I, as Chairman, and every member of the board is acutely aware of. I said earlier that our team is the single greatest asset of our business, and in particular, the front of house team that are in all of our stores. That is thousands and thousands of young Australians who are in stores all over the country, 850-something stores. The average age of those staff members is around 23. That means we have people from the ages of 18 through to more than that. We are particularly concerned about their health and well-being. You asked about safety and what is being done, and you asked about cameras in the stores. Both of those get very significant attention from the board. Each and every board meeting, health and safety is a priority item. In particular, the health and safety of our team workers who are in the front line. There has been an increase in incidents of customer aggression over the last few years. It does seem to have greater levels of impact in Victoria than it does in other states. Having said that, it is not just restricted to this state. It is an area that we are very concerned about. We tell our team members that the customer is always right up to a point. There comes a point when they cease to be a customer and they start to be a problem. We are in the fortunate position, by the way, that unlike many other stores, stealing is not so much of an issue for us because you'll find that if you go into any of our stores, you need to have two left feet in order to be able to make anything work if you're going to take our shoes because you only see one shoe on display. We do not have the same problems that others do. We do have problems with increasing abuse of our staff. We train people at initiation when they first join us and throughout their time with us about what sort of behavior is acceptable and what sort of behavior is not acceptable. We have cameras in our stores. You may not see them, but they are there. There is a reason for that. Now, at the same time, we also have to respect the privacy of our customers and the privacy of our staff. Our view is that their safety comes first. We have measures in place and very clear rules about what happens if someone becomes aggressive. Whilst we cannot guarantee that there is not going to be a problem in stores, there has been, and unfortunately, I suspect there will continue to be, what we can do is arm our store members with the knowledge and training necessary to be able to respond appropriately to diffuse situations or to call authorities where that cannot be the case. I think we actually have a pretty good track record. We monitor those statistics daily, weekly, monthly. The board gets reports on that information every single time we sit down, and it is a priority item. As I said before, our team is our single most important asset, and we will fight fiercely to protect them. Go ahead. Yes, Chris. It's necessary to reintroduce myself again. No, you don't need to. Just a follow-up question. I was fortunate enough to go out to Fountain Gate yesterday and look at your new store. Congratulations to all involved. Much bigger store, of course, to a much bigger concept. A couple of observations were that the only paypoint that I could see seemed to be at the very rear of the store. In line of your comments around concern about shoplifting and the like, it's a personal dislike of mine that I have to go right to the back of the store to pay for my goods. I just wondered whether that's a format that's going to be adopted across the board. The other observation I made was that there was a security guard, of course, at the front of the store. Is that going to have to be rolled out as a result of the much larger concept stores that you're going to roll out under the banner? Thank you. We are fortunate, and it's not a matter of luck, it's a matter of good planning, that we are the recipients of decades of experience that Frasers Group have in opening and operating Sports Direct stores all around the world. Formats, inventory, visual merchandise, and in particular, security are all things that we have the opportunity to draw on the expertise of that organization. It's no accident that the store is laid out in a particular way. I won't apologize for the fact that the cashier is at the back. We want you to walk through the store. That's part of the exercise. As far as security is concerned, it is common practice, indeed, every Sports Direct store that I'm aware of overseas employs security guards because they're large format stores, there's lots of stock out. That has been something that has been present in the Sports Direct model, not just recently, but for many, many years. In keeping with, if they've thought about it and it makes some sense, we'd like to do the same thing, we will have security guards at the front of our Sports Direct stores, yes. That has a number of benefits. It has the benefit that you referred to in relation to stealing. It also means that there are additional elements of security around to answer Andreas' question about the potential for customers getting out of hand. Look, it's a sad thing that we have to do that, but it just simply reflects what's going on in this country and around the world in relation to these issues. Yes, there will be security guards outside the front of our Sports Direct stores. Any other questions? If not, no more questions from shelves, on the floor. Let me turn to the online and telephone. Nikki, are there any questions online or from the phone? There are, in fact, quite a number, actually, David. I will start from the bottom and work my way up. The first question comes from Stephen Main. He has asked, how many full-time equivalent staff do we currently have? Is this likely to fall over the coming 12 months with the rapid rollout of AI? Which parts of our business and operations are most prospective for AI productivity gains, and how energetically are we embracing those opportunities? Okay. Hi, Stephen. I always enjoy your questions. I enjoy them more when you're here face to face. As a Melbourneite, I'm surprised you're not here, but in any event, let me answer your questions. Look, I don't need to tell people about the importance of AI. You read about it every day. It has clear application in many parts of business and will continue to do so. We remain vigilant and very keenly looking at ways in which we can incorporate AI to improve customer experience and to improve our position in the market and profitability. We're not yet at the stage where you'll go into one of our stores, whether it's one of our footwear stores or a Sports Direct store, and get served by a robot. We have lots of people in our stores, and I suspect we will do so for many, many years to come. I mentioned before, these are young Australians who are working, and there's about, I'm going to say, 7,000 of them or thereabouts. Depends on the time of the year. There are more towards this time of the year. 7,000 of them that we employ at this time of year in those roles. I don't see the impact of AI having any—I don't see any impact of AI on our store people. In relation to our support center, I see AI not as a means of reducing headcount as much as arming people and providing greater tools for them to be able to do their job faster, better, more efficiently, and to do things that they don't currently have the time or the capacity to do. I think it's a great enabler, like many technologies can be. In terms of the impact on our people, I don't see that there's going to be a huge impact from AI other than the ways that I've mentioned. I think from a productivity point of view, we are already using AI in many areas. We'll continue to expand that. We do so carefully because we value our customers and want to make sure that we're maximizing the value of our customer experience. It's a hot topic here as it is throughout boardrooms and companies around the country and the world, and I'm sure it'll continue to be so. That comes from Peter Richardson, who asks, total store numbers have reduced this year for the first time. What plans do you have for FY26 for store opening and closings? Hi, Peter. Thanks for your question. Store numbers move subject to which elements of our business are engaging best with consumers. Whilst you might say that total store numbers have reduced, you might also have seen that our online store sales have increased. We respond to where customers want to deal with us. We're an omnichannel retailer. You can deal with us by walking into a store. You can deal with us online. You can order online. You can pick up your goods in a store. You can go into a store, and if the product isn't there, you can purchase from endless aisle and have it delivered to your home sometimes before you even get home. Our responsibility is to be present for customers wherever they choose to be. In terms of the store openings and closings, some of our banners reduce their footprint at times and then expand it into other areas. That may be a function of consumer demand. It might be a function of terms that landlords are either prepared to accept or not. We very much vote with our feet. If we can't get the right terms for the business, then we'll find a store somewhere else. Equally, we've got stores of different sizes. Sometimes a small store or two small stores might close and a larger store might open. In the case of Sports Direct, as Chris mentioned, we've got much larger footprints. Some of our other banners are also slowly increasing the size of their store footprint. Store numbers themselves are not necessarily indicative of growth or otherwise. They're more a response to the issues that I mentioned. Thanks, Nicky. Who asked, we've seen the company's gross profit margins decline over the last 18 months. Another listed footwear retailer has also reported falling margins. Does management consider that the industry structure for sports and lifestyle footwear has materially changed to an extent that lower margins will continue for the foreseeable future? Look, as I said before, I don't have a crystal ball, but let me try and address what underlies your question. Margins and prices are a response to consumer demand and also the quality and variety and newness of product that we have. We are constantly moving those factors around. I'm confident that we will be able to pick parts of the market where there's growth and opportunity, as I mentioned before. Sports happens to be one of those. We have very strong growth in both sales and profitability going on in that sector at the same time as lifestyle might be a bit softer. This really is a question of the strength of having a portfolio such as we do across so many different banners and so many different parts of the market. Our strategic initiative to expand into the Sports Direct business is a direct example of us seeking to do quite that. Sports Direct is a business that has not only footwear sales, but very significant apparel sales. It gives us a chance to expand our offering to consumers. It has a large online site as well. As I mentioned, the various ways in which we engage with our customers will extend into the Sports Direct business too. I think that there are constantly trends that are moving up and moving down in Australia and across the world in relation to different parts of our business. Our job, the job of the management team in particular, is to be adroit, to be able to pivot where necessary, take advantage of opportunities, seek to maximize gross margin, but at the same time, ensure that we're providing a good customer experience and that we're growing our sales. It's easy for me to say that. It absorbs the time of lots and lots of people in this building looking at ways in which we can do it. Our strength is that we have the footprint to be able to pivot and to be able to capture demand across a wide variety of different customer types. Stephen Main, when did we last tender the external audit contract, and when will we likely tender the next audit? We changed our auditor here several years ago, and we are currently with PricewaterhouseCoopers, whom I might say do a fantastic job for us. We are blessed to have professionals of the talent and skill of people like Alison as our auditor and the entire team that we have servicing our account. I can't recall exactly, Stephen, the last time that we reviewed our audit arrangement. We look at all of our third-party arrangements on a regular basis, as you imagine that we would. Frankly, I think that if we've got a capable and competent auditing firm working with us as we do, I favor the benefits that come from the long-term knowledge and experience that they provide for us by knowing our business backwards over many years. As I've indicated before, our business moves. It's not the same thing year after year. We need an expert and a quick-moving business that can move with us. PwC have proven to be that year after year here. I do not think there is any need for us to look elsewhere just for the sake of it. I am very, very pleased with the arrangements that we have in place. Having said that, we are always keen to ensure that we are getting value for money for the business and for our shareholders. That is a discussion we have with Alison every once in a while, and we reach an appropriate agreement. David, I can confirm it was three years ago that we tendered it. Peter, you said you've been our auditors for the last two years. Excellent. Great. Thanks, Matt. Yes, Nicky, next. One final question from Peter Richardson. Think you've probably answered, but I'll read it out anyway. Hello, David. You mentioned growth a number of times in your introduction. Compared to 2019, your sales have grown and are nearly doubled, but profit has not increased at all. Can you please provide details on why sales are growing, but profit is not? Following that, and given the trading update, can you explain how you will grow earnings, EPS, which is the matter that matters most to shareholders? Sorry, how will I grow earnings what? How you will grow earnings and EPS? EPS, sorry, right. Okay. All right. I think I've addressed most of that question in relation in previous questions. The fact of the matter is that we are a business that is focused on creating long-term value for shareholders. We've done that over a long period of time. I'm never satisfied with our performance. I always want more for shareholders. I tend to be a rather impatient fellow. I think we've done a pretty fair job in difficult circumstances. I can assure you that the board and the management team are singularly focused on growth, on constantly improving shareholder value. I look forward to us returning to the days where our growth rate in EPS terms is double-digit% year on year for many years to come. That's my personal view, I should state, not the view of the company, and certainly not an assurance as to the future. That is where we will aim to get back to. Nicky, any other questions? Thank you, David. All right. Are there any more questions anybody has in the room? I do enjoy questions. I think it's a great opportunity for shareholders to find out more about the business, but if there are no more. In respect of the actually, let me just make sure. Yes. In respect of the remaining items of business, I'll put the resolution to the meeting, then invite discussion and inform the meeting of the proxies received. Item two is the adoption of the 2025 remuneration report. I note that in accordance with the Corporations Act, the vote on this resolution is advisory only, and the outcome will not be binding on the board. The FY25 remuneration report outlines the group's remuneration strategy and framework and decisions taken by the board in relation to the remuneration of key management personnel. This report sets out how the board has approached remuneration in the context of the significant business growth achieved over the last five years and the financial results achieved in FY25. Accent Group continues to invest in the strategic priorities of the business, both for future growth and to continue our journey as a regional leader in the retailing and distribution of performance and lifestyle footwear and apparel. In a year characterized by a more challenging consumer environment and inflationary pressure, the company has remained focused on growth and return on investment for shareholders. The company's banners, including Nude Lucy, Stylerunner, HOKA, and UGG, have performed well, along with a strong contribution from Skechers, The Athlete’s Foot, and Hype DC. The management team's continued focus on improving the efficiencies and capabilities of its digital operations has also resulted in an increase in the profitability of digital sales. Accent Group opened 54 new stores during the financial year. Having regard to the results achieved last financial year and that Accent Group has over the past 10 years delivered compounding total shareholder returns of more than 9.7%, still not enough in my view, the board determined the following remuneration outcomes. A short-term incentive award for the CEO and Chief Financial Officer based on measurable strategic objectives of 24.7% of a total opportunity of 30% was awarded. In respect of tranche five of our long-term incentive plan, which applied in relation to the financial years FY21 to 2024, and tranche six, which applied in relation to years 2022 to 2025 of our performance rights plan, the compounding growth paradigm in adjusted earnings per share was not met, and as such, no performance rights vested for these tranches. In relation to the company's long-term incentive program, the board still considers that using EPS as the measure is the best approach for the delivery of a scheme that is easy for the Accent Group team to understand and thus creates real incentive during the year and aligns management performance with shareholder value creation most closely. Your directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of adopting the remuneration report for the financial year ended 29 June 2025, as set out in the annual report. I'll now put the resolution to the meeting as an ordinary resolution, as shown on the screen, and open this item for discussion. Let me start by inviting shareholders on the floor to ask any questions in relation to the remuneration report. Go ahead, Ray. Thanks. I'm rather shocked at that, but then again, I wonder how many people actually understood what was going on. I mean, it was that AFR article, which totally they got wrong, and there was a correction put out. I'm just really supportive, and as a member of Tim Invest, EPS is definitely what we want. I can only assume that people didn't understand what was going on with that. I'm not speaking on behalf of Tim Invest here, but I have no problems whatsoever with the adjustment that's being made for the senior people and the people not, well, other than Daniel. Yeah, just ignore it. I know you can't, but. That's not a question, but still. No, no, it's a statement, I suppose. That's all right. I don't know what else you could do. That is very kind of you to say. Look, let me make a few comments because that is not the sort of result that we like to see either. The vote on a remuneration report seems in this country to be a vote not just about remuneration, but sometimes it is about performance or it is about other aspects. Let me deal with the remuneration context because that is specifically what is related. We have for many years had an incentive scheme operating with our team that, as you know, is focused solely on EPS. As I said a moment ago, we believe it to be the right criteria for determining success. It relates directly to the profit that gets distributed to shareholders, which relates directly to the share price. Other aspects of performance schemes that other companies might seek to include tend to make things more complicated, tend to mean that the management team can't, on a day-by-day or week-by-week basis, see whether or not they're performing to deliver results out of an incentive scheme. What that means is that we set hurdles a long time in advance, and we run a three-year scheme that rolls. Each year, we issue another tranche of performance rights that vest over a three-year period, depending on performance by the end of that three-year period. We set growth rates that we expect the management team to achieve going forward. We ran through, as everybody did, a rather unique situation during COVID, and we saw very, very significant sales that took place during that period, and our growth rates were very high. Perhaps we got a bit greedy because we started to increase the thresholds, the return on capital that we expected our management team to deliver. We set hurdles at an earlier stage that we thought we would be able to, that would be a good incentive for management to achieve that would deliver outstanding outcomes for shareholders. Life is not so simple, and the world turned into it was more difficult to achieve sales and earnings. We are left in a situation where you put in place a scheme that is not going to operate years in advance, and it seems to be, if you like, well beyond the ability of the management team to achieve. You have really two choices. You can leave it there, in which case it does not operate as an incentive and retention scheme anymore because the management team know that there is no way that they can achieve those hurdles, which I think is a great missed opportunity. You can take the view that you realign the objectives. You still ensure that there is a stretch, but you realign the objectives so that the management team are incentivized, there is a reason for retention, and you create an opportunity where value improvement occurs and flows through to shareholders. We like to take the second approach. That is, we do not just sit there and do nothing. That meant that we had, and we did this last year too, we reassessed the efficiency of our incentive scheme to provide both an incentive and a retention of our senior people. I said before the people are the most important part of this business, and I firmly believe that. It is important in our view that those people are incentivized and that we can provide incentives that retain them in this business because we've got the best people in the market. We sought to realign the pressure, the targets for that tranche of the performance rights. It was tranche eight. The feedback that we got, and as you can see from the proxy count there, is that others did not share our view and felt that readjustment was not the right thing to do. There are many arguments and many points of view in this discussion, and I've explained what we believe to be the right thing to do. Ultimately, the company and the board exist to create value for shareholders. If shareholders have a view that what we did was inappropriate, we have to reconsider whether or not we have to go about it a different way. I want to stress that anything that this company does is always going to be focused on the importance and value of its team, the importance of incentivizing that team, and putting in place measures to retain that team because we believe that is fundamental to creating long-term shareholder value. As it turns out, the message that we've received from our shareholders at the moment is that they're not pleased, and that's the reason why we withdrew the resolutions in relation to those items. Whilst I appreciate your suggestion that we just ignore it, I think it might be perhaps more productive for us to take a step back, think about ways in which we can do it in a different way that is still going to provide the appropriate incentive to what is the best retail team in the country, but at the same time, meet the requirements and the objectives that our shareholders feel are important. We will do just that, consider what alternative steps we might take, and come back to our shareholders with our best thoughts on how to move forward. I share your disappointment. We're probably not going to do nothing or ignore it. That's not our way. We tend to be more proactive. What we propose to do is to rethink the scheme and come back to our shareholders. I do want to stress that our scheme, we will have a scheme, and it will be a scheme that is based on the creation of increasing profitability, and it'll be a scheme that has at its core the creation of long-term shareholder value. They are tenets that are central to this company. I would only suggest that if there are shareholders who are not looking for the creation of long-term shareholder value, they might invest elsewhere. Are there any other questions on the floor? Chris. Yes, Mr. Chair. Maybe the gloves come off here a bit because I think there's a clear message from shareholders with respect to Ray and his views. There's a clear message here from shareholders. They're not happy with the remuneration scheme that the company's put in place. I think in the four years I think I've been attending this meeting, you were proposing to vary the rights for the third time out of four. Clearly, they're swapping and changing the goalposts every year. It's not acceptable. We appreciate you do want to remunerate employees, and we support employees and management holding shares in the company. We've all got skin in the game, and what better way than to have everyone involved and feeling the pain of what the current situation is. Clearly, and you've withdrawn some of the resolutions today because clearly the numbers were either similar or perhaps even worse than what you're showing on screen today. There is a clear message to the board, and I'm pleased to hear you accept that message that you do need to go back and revisit your remuneration because clearly it's not meeting the expectations of shareholders. I'd also add, we're looking at the fixed remuneration. In your notice of meeting, you've noted, well, you haven't noted, but you can pick up that the CEO's base salary is increased by 17.65%. Now, I'm not sure how you justify such an increase given the performance of the company, but again, we welcome your comments on that point as well. Right. Okay. I think I need to address again the first part of your question. We do listen, and we are going to take steps. I might also add that historically, the business had a very simple approach, which was to look for 10% compound growth in earnings year after year. I suspect that the solution here might be to have something that is consistently applied year after year at the 10% level because I think that is a decent improvement. If you can improve your EPS 10% year after year when you have a company the size of ours, that is not a bad achievement. However, I do not want to try and prejudge what the board might consider and what it might take to shareholders in the future. Let me just deal, though, with your point about fixed remuneration. We increased fixed remuneration last year after we had not done it, I think the previous year and perhaps even the year before that. There is no question that we pay our people well, and I would not have it any other way. We pay our people well because we have great people. If we did not pay them well, they would go elsewhere. The reality is that the market is very competitive. Now, a large proportion of the compensation which our team achieves is through performance-based plans, whether it is their short-term incentive, which applies year after year, one year at a time, or their long-term incentive, which applies on rolling three-year periods, as I mentioned. I make no apology for the fact that we pay our people well. What that means is that when the performance is not there and the company's not achieving what we sought to achieve, the short-term incentive and the long-term incentives do not kick in, and that is exactly as it should be. Now, for the last two years, at least for the last two years, there has not been a payout in relation to the long-term incentive scheme for our executive team. Our short-term incentive has been well and truly reduced as a result of the performance. Our team shares the same pain that our shareholders face. Let me tell you, everybody on this table is a shareholder, and in some cases, quite large shareholders. We are all aligned in looking to achieve long-term shareholder value. I accept that a 17% increase might seem like a large number, although it is not an annualized number. At the same time, we pay our people consistent with what we believe to be market salaries in order to retain the best people. I think it's particularly important that we have the best people when times are tough. Some people would say that when the market's doing very well and everybody's making lots of money, you could employ anybody and they'd be able to run a business. The time you really want to have the best people is when times are tougher and when you really need to grind out and work out how to make money in a difficult environment. I'm very proud of the fact that we pay and retain the best people. We can have an argument about what the right number should be, but we constantly review our salaries against market norms. In having the best people, we have the best chance of improving value in difficult times, especially in difficult times for shareholders and creating long-term shareholder value. We are not misaligned in relation to our objective in terms of the argument you just put to me. I do think that the position that we take is that our team is the most important asset that we have. We want to have the best possible team we can have, and we will pay competitive market salaries to attract and retain the best people. I can also assure you, and I say this flatly, that if people do not perform in this business, they do not last in this business. We have a very performance-based culture here. Everybody who joins Accent knows that. They are the sort of people who want to be remunerated based on performance. What that means is when the performance isn't there, the remuneration reduces very significantly, and that's what's happened. Go ahead. Sure. Thank you. Given that you've had to withdraw the variation, can you give us an undertaking that that therefore won't be made up by other means? I mean, what are you going to do? Because you've obviously made some sort of undertaking to employees and management that part of their salary will be made up of performance opportunities. You haven't gone forward with that option now. Where does the company stand in relation to their undertaking to existing employees? Exactly as I said before, we will reconsider the form in which we provide incentives to the team and come back to shareholders to put in place an alternative that will do just that. You won't be actually making up by other means the fact you had to withdraw the proposal today? First of all, we did not have to do anything. We elected to. The more important point is that our duty and our obligation and our objective is to incentivize and maintain the best possible management. I am not going to make a comment about what the company may or may do in the future. Number one, I am not going to be around after today, so it would be inappropriate for me to do so. Number two, the company's obligation to its shareholders, including your organization, is to put the best possible team in place. I do not think that any organization would want to have one hand tied behind its back. The business will use every means possible to incentivize and retain the best possible management team. To the extent that it does so, where it requires shareholder approval as it does every year, we'll come back to shareholders as we are obliged to do. Andreas, go ahead. Hi. I just have a follow-up question in relation to his question. How does the company actually ensure that the pay matches the market? Because I'll point out to you the example of Braden. He was managing the East Coast. For who's this? Braden. Braden. Braden. He was managing the East Coast of Merrell, right? For various circumstances, he happened to be in that position. I don't know why. He was paid under AUD 70,000 a year for all of that. Okay. I don't know the individual you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What I'm trying to tell you is there are some positions that are being paid at a rate of pay that is way, way below the market. How do you ensure? I can't comment on a specific example. What I can say is that we review our compensation against other similar roles. Ultimately, it's a competitive market. Slavery was abolished many years ago. If someone doesn't like the terms that we're offering, they'll presumably go somewhere else to get a job. We want to attract and retain the best possible people, and we do so at competitive market salaries. Our team are experts in determining the prices, the wages that need to be made available in order to attract people. I can't comment on a particular example. I don't know about one. What I can say is that it's constantly reviewed and it's constantly reviewed against market. Thank you. Any other questions from the floor? No other questions here? Okay. Nikki, are there any questions from the online or the phone? Just one question from online from Stephen Main. Which of the proxy advisors covered us this year and did any recommend a vote against today's resolutions, including the REM report? If so, what reasons did they give, and did this translate into any material protest votes? Please do not say they are confidential. It is a standard for the companies to be across the detail on voting recommendations and inform shareholders where relevant. I can show you more than 50 chairs responding positively to that question. Also, next year, please disclose the proxies earlier to the ASX along with the formal addresses so I do not have to ask questions like this. Okay. That was not one question. That was about 10, but let me see if I can do my best at trying to answer them. There are a number of proxy advisor organizations in the country. Stephen, you are aware of them as well as I am. They publish reports for their clients, the institutions for whom they act. In some cases, they publish those details beyond that and share them with us. Clearly, there were a number of proxy advisors who took the view that they recommended against our remuneration report, and that is evident in the numbers that have come through. I cannot, off the top of my head, remember which of those firms did so, but there was more than one. We engage with proxy advisors every year. We state our case, much as I have stated it today. They form their own view. They form their own view for a bunch of reasons. These are the reasons they state in their report, and there may be other reasons as well. It is not for me to comment. That is more for them. I think what is more important is, rather than teasing out the detail, that there was a message. What I am trying to explain is that we heard the message, and we are responding to it. I think that is the appropriate thing for a board to do. Ultimately, we are here to create value and represent the interests of shareholders. If our shareholders have a collective view on something, then it is more than appropriate for us to listen. I do not think there is anything sinister or wrong in us withdrawing resolutions that clearly our shareholders did not share our view on. It is up to us to go back and come back to our shareholders with a more considered view that we hopefully will gain more support. That is the intention. I do not know that that addressed all of the 16 questions that you included in your brief, but that is certainly my response. Nikki, are there any other questions? Fantastic. Yes, thank you. All right. Great. Thanks. I'll now move on to the next item of business, item three, which is the reelection of David Forshaw. Item three on the agenda is for his reelection as a Non-Executive Director of Accent Group. Due to his employment relationship with Frasers Group PLC, just so everybody knows, David is an executive of Frasers Group, a long-standing executive and senior executive of Frasers Group, who are our largest shareholder, David is not considered to be an independent director in accordance with the ASX Corporate Governance Council's principles and recommendations. In accordance with the ASX listing rules and Accent Group's constitution, David retires from office at this meeting and, being eligible for reelection, offers himself for reelection as a Non-Executive Director. I'll now invite David to address shareholders as to his reelection. David, nice to see everyone. I've been with the group as a non-exec director for about a year now. I have a wealth of experience going back over 40 years in both sporting goods markets and other parts of the sectors as well, including very relevant categories for the Accent Group. I think I bring a wealth of knowledge, as I said, experience, and look forward to contributing to the discussions around growth opportunities and the way the business sets it up for success, supporting both my fellow board members, if reelected, and the excellent senior management team, which has been mentioned a few times today, and I very much endorse. I look forward to being hopefully reelected. Thanks, Dave. Your directors, with Mr. Forshaw abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of reelecting David as a director of the company. I put the resolution to the meeting as an ordinary resolution, as shown on the screen, and open this item for discussion. I now invite shareholders on the floor to ask any questions. Are there any questions here in relation to the reappointment? Yes, Ray. Given the discussion around remuneration, just wondered what your thoughts were on the use of EPS as basically the sole measure. Because what we're just wondering is, as a group, and once again, I'm not speaking on behalf of the group, but there are sentiments that have been raised. There's a major shareholder now, well, there was before, but another one. And you obviously, as a company, got thoughts on the way remuneration is determined and whether Frasers, as a principle, accepts that EPS is the best way to remunerate people. I think it's more appropriate for David to answer the question. I'm here on behalf of, and represent my role today is on behalf of the Accent Group, not representing Frasers Group in this discussion. I think it's more appropriate for David to answer. Ray, I understand the reason for your question. Clearly, in terms of engaging with our shareholders, thinking about this issue, we will engage with Frasers. Their remuneration policies are a matter of public record. They are a listed business over in the U.K., so you can see how they put their framework together. Certainly, we have had our scheme in place for many years and well in advance of the time when Frasers came along. I think you can assume that there is a level of concordance in relation to our objectives. That is not the only way to do it. What I am trying to say is that I think we need to review it and come back to shareholders, including speaking to Frasers. Obviously, they are a 20% shareholder in the business. They are not a majority shareholder. They are a large shareholder. The job of the board is to ensure that we put in place something that is in the best interest of all shareholders and, frankly, acts as a tool for the team. Perhaps rather than putting Dave on the spot, it might be easier if you give us the time to give some thought to it and come back to you and others with some considered views about how we want to move forward. Is that right? Chris. Hi, Mr. Chairman. Direct a question to Dave, please. First of all, welcome, Dave. Obviously, you've been on board for a little while now. Could you give us some insight as to your availability in terms of coming to Australia? Where do you reside? Will you be attending board meetings? How will you get a feel for what's happening in Australia and New Zealand retail? Please. Thank you. I was going to ask you a question about the cricket, of course, but I thought it's probably inappropriate. You might be coming out here a little bit more regularly in the next month or two, depending on how the results go. I probably ask that after the meeting. Okay. Maybe after the meeting, we can discuss the cricket. We haven't got a great track record, so I think that's quite a short and easy answer. I'm based out of Malaysia, so my role is for Asia-Pacific, and I also look after Middle East and Africa as well. I'm out for all the board meetings. I've attended four in the last 12 months, sort of in both Sydney and Melbourne. I'm getting very much up to speed with the whole group, not just the Sports Direct part of the business, but it's obviously something that I am very keen to support from my team as we have other partners as well as the Accent Group rolling out Sports Direct stores across the region. That's primarily, I think I'm quick to learn the sort of nuances of each individual market. Australasia, Pacific region is very much on the radar for the very top brands, the Nike, Adidas, big brands. The global partnerships that we have from a group is also sort of helping me understand the market and my wider contribution to the group, not just the Sports Direct rollout. If that answers your question. Dave's perhaps being a little bit reticent in terms of talking about his value. Let me just say that when he refers to being at full board meetings, he's attended all of our board meetings in person and all of the structured board meetings and has been a huge supporter of the business. We are very fortunate to have Dave, not just in his role as Chair, but also from an operating point of view. There's a huge degree of knowledge that we get from the Frasers Group and Sports Direct in particular as we roll out our Sports Direct network. Dave's been front and center. If you were at the store on Saturday, you might have noticed him in a black shirt standing behind that counter that you spoke to me about before, because the one right down the back, exactly right. Attending to some stock or doing any of those sorts of things, he's a very hands-on guy. He knows the Sports Direct business backwards and forwards, and he's been a huge contributor to our planning and a huge support to our executive team in the early stages, and I believe in the continuing stages of our Sports Direct business. We are absolutely thrilled to have Dave on the board. We are also thrilled to have his support and the support of Sports Direct in so many ways as we roll out what we believe is going to be a very successful business across Australia and New Zealand. He is hoping. Indeed. Are there any other questions in relation to this item from the floor? If not, Nikki, what about online? All right. If there are, as we've concluded the questions, I'll now close the meeting as items four to six have been withdrawn. Shareholders and attendees, that now concludes all items of business. I want to give you an opportunity to complete your voting before I close the poll on items two and three. Please take your time. A representative of Computershare will come round with the voting box for you to put your completed forms into. If you have any questions about voting, please do not hesitate to ask them that you've completed the form appropriately. For online, the process is, as I indicated earlier in the meeting, I want to make sure that everybody who is voting has a chance to lodge their vote. I'll now declare the poll closed on the resolutions in items two and three. The results of the poll on all resolutions will be announced to the stock exchange as soon as they are available. As you know, I'm retiring from the board at the conclusion of this meeting and will be succeeded by Lawrence Myers as chairman. It's been an honor and a privilege to work with Daniel and the Accent team over many years. I leave the company in very capable hands with Lawrence and your board, and I wish them and the entire Accent team all the best for the future. That concludes the formal business for consideration, and I now declare the meeting closed. On behalf of the board, I thank you for your attendance, for your ongoing support of Accent Group. The directors would like to invite all attendees to join us for a refreshment outside. Thank you.