Welcome to the Michael Hill Full Year 2024 Results Update. Following the formal presentation, there will be a Q&A session for investors and analysts. Participants can ask a live audio question during today's call. To ask a live audio question, press the Request to Speak button at the top of the broadcast window. The broadcast will be replaced by the Audio Questions interface. Press Join Queue, and if prompted, select Allow in the pop-up to grant access to your microphone. If you have any issues asking a question via the web, a backup phone line is available. Dialing details can be found on the Request to Speak page or on the homepage under Asking Audio Questions. The audio queue is now open, and I will hand over to Daniel Bracken. Good morning! Thank you for joining Michael Hill International's FY twenty-four Full Year Results Update. I'm Daniel Bracken, CEO, and I'm here today with Andrew Lowe, our CFO. Today, we will be taking you through a review of our FY twenty-four results, current trading updates, and providing you with further insights on the group's strategy before ending with a Q&A session. There is no doubt that FY twenty-four was a challenging period for the business as we cycled record performance and tough retail trading conditions continued, driven by low consumer confidence and macroeconomic pressures. Notwithstanding the difficult conditions, it is pleasing to see external third-party transactional data demonstrating that Michael Hill is performing better than the broader jewelry market and taking market share. Clearly, margin was under pressure from both input costs and promotional activity due to the market conditions, with inflationary forces driving elevated costs across many aspects of the business, which together impacted our EBIT. Omnichannel continues to be a key strategic focus for the business, with further advancements across ship from store, click and collect, virtual selling, all contributing to annual growth in digital sales of 16% to AUD 48 million. Critical to the Michael Hill Group strategy was to establish a clearly defined portfolio of brands, on which we made significant progress throughout the year. The complete refresh of the Michael Hill brand across digital platforms, new brand logos, color palettes, in-store visual merchandising, packaging. Partnering with our first-ever global brand ambassador, Miranda Kerr, who perfectly embodies our brand values and sustainable business practices. Aligned with the brand relaunch, Michael Hill opened its first true global flagship store at Chadstone, Australia's number one fashion destination. These key milestones have been years in the making. The meticulous planning that took place is a credit to the team, as all elements came together seamlessly. Additionally, in the year, the business further demonstrated its commitment to sustainability with the launch of its Re:new ecosystem, including gold recycling and jewelry repairs, and the creation of the Michael Hill Foundation. In what was already a very busy year, the group also expanded the store network and integrated the operational systems and the newly acquired Bevilles brand. Furthermore, we soft launched our new digital startup brand, TenSevenSeven, which is designed to deliver a completely unique and elevated proposition, capturing an entirely new high-end customer. And excitedly, Medley successfully trialed its first-ever pop-up kiosk at Chadstone. With our new and existing brands in place, the business remains committed to its group multi-brand strategy, and I will speak to this later in the presentation. In what was both a challenging and busy year, I could not be prouder of how the teams came together across all functions and geographies, embracing change and prioritizing customer experience. I will now hand over to our CFO, Andrew Lowe, to update you on the financial results. Thank you, Daniel. The group reported a decline in performance, with comparable earnings before interest and tax of AUD 15.9 million for the year ended 30th of June, 2024. This result was driven by a combination of lower gross margins and inflationary cost pressures. The group delivered revenue of AUD 645 million, up 4% on a 52-week basis, including Bevilles, and up 2% on a statutory basis, where FY 2023 was 53 weeks. Pleasingly, average transaction value grew by 6% during the year, further demonstration of the traction of the Michael Hill aspirational brand journey. Higher input costs for both gold and mined diamonds continued through the year and, combined with heightened competitor activity, resulted in gross margin of 60.6%. During May and June, there was a deliberate focus on clearing inventory to make way for newness at higher-margin product in FY25. In addition, to reflect inflated gold raw material pricing, the group periodically lifted retail prices. Inflationary cost pressures impacted the majority of operating expenses across the business, the most significant being store labor and occupancy. With this in mind, throughout the year, management took action to reduce discretionary spend, corporate roles, and overheads, reflecting the underperformance of the business, and with many of these savings annualizing through FY25. Active management of inventory saw year-end holdings reduced by AUD 7 million to AUD 196 million, as the group took deliberate steps to ensure the right product mix, newness, and higher margin profile. During the year, the business deployed cash for a number of strategic initiatives, including refresh of the Michael Hill brand, the Chadstone global flagship store, development of TenS evenS even, along with digital and data investments, resulting in a closing net debt position of AUD 39 million. As a proactive capital management measure, the existing debt facility has been increased by AUD 40 million for the four-month period from fifteenth September 2024 to support seasonal working capital requirements for Christmas trade. In addition, the business has taken action to reduce capital expenditure across both technology and stores throughout FY twenty-five. Given compressed earnings in FY 2024 and in conjunction with a commitment to prudent investment in operating and capital expenditure in FY 2025, the board has decided that no final dividend will be declared for FY 2024, resulting in a total dividend for the year of AUD 0.0175 per share. In line with our store network strategy, the Michael Hill brand has continued to optimize its store network throughout the year, while at the same time expanding the Bevilles store network. The group finished the year with 300 stores. In Australia, retail segment revenue increased by 10.3% to AUD 359 million for the year on a 52-week basis, including Bevilles, and increased by 8.5% on a statutory basis. Gross margin for the year was 60.4%. The Australian store network finished the year with 171 stores, including 36 Bevilles stores. In New Zealand, retail segment revenue decreased by 11.8% to NZD 115 million for the year on a 52-week basis, and decreased by 13.3% on a statutory basis. Gross margin for the year was 59.6%. Given the heightened level of security incidents experienced in New Zealand and in order to protect our customers, teams and stores, significant investment in security measures continued throughout the year and had an approximately AUD 5 million direct impact on earnings. During the year, two stores closed, resulting in 44 stores at year-end. In Canada, retail segment revenue increased by 0.6% to CAD 157 million for the year on a 52-week basis, and decreased by 1.1% on a statutory basis. This result is a credit to the segment, considering last year was another record performance. Gross margin for the year was 60.6%. During the year, one store closed, resulting in 85 stores at year-end. Moving on to our current trading update. We are pleased by the first eight weeks of FY25, which saw group same-store sales up 2.7% on prior year, and same-store sales for the Australian segment up 5%, Canadian segment up 4%, and New Zealand segment down 6.2%. Total sales for the group were up 3.2% for the first eight weeks of FY25. We are encouraged on positive momentum in sales for FY twenty-five so far. I will now hand back to Daniel to provide further insights on the group strategy. Thank you, Andrew, for your insights on the financial results and our encouraging current trading update. For the rest of the presentation, I will provide you with an overview of our group strategy, which is divided into four phases. Starting with the repositioning of the Michael Hill brand, which has been gradually taking place since 2020. As the Michael Hill brand successfully elevated, we then moved to establish a portfolio of brands which saw the acquisition of Bevilles and the launch of TenSevenSeven. We're now in the current phase, which is focused on clearly defining and articulating each brand's market proposition. Leading into the final phase, network expansion and productivity, and the overarching growth ambitions for the group out to 2030. Much of the company's strong performance over the recent years can be attributed to the strategic transformation of Michael Hill. The strategy to elevate and modernize the brand has underpinned the overarching vision for the business. The aspirational brand journey to a more premium market positioning continues with consistent customer-led business imperatives. From a brand perspective, the business moved away from a primary focus on price-led marketing to brand-led emotive campaigns, featuring a strong heritage brand based on innovation, artisanal craft, and quality jewelry. In 2020, the business launched its loyalty program, Brilliance by Michael Hill, which led to higher ATV and gross margin, while attracting new customers and providing us with the foundation to build customer insights and customer segmentation capability. The loyalty program now has over 2.5 million members, and in conjunction with technology investments, the business is now able to undertake targeted, personalized messaging. The company has demonstrated the success of the aspirational brand journey strategy, firstly, through an increase in average transaction value of 30% over this period, validating our focus on elevated customer experience, high-quality product, and attraction of a new modern customer, and secondly, through retail productivity, which has lifted considerably across all markets, delivering increased revenues from an optimized store network. With the Michael Hill brand having been repositioned to a more premium positioning, the acquisition of the Bevilles business provides a vehicle to take market share at the value end of the fine jewelry category. Additionally, in the first half of FY twenty-four, the company soft launched its new bespoke brand, TenSevenSeven, focused on servicing the high end of the market with its unique personalized diamond ring proposition. With these additional brands, the Michael Hill Group now services all significant customer segments of the fine jewelry category and delivers multiple new growth pipelines. In addition to our core fine jewelry brands, Medley continues to establish itself as an emerging brand in the fashion demi-fine jewelry category. With the group multi-brand strategy now in place, each brand is uniquely positioned for different customer segments and price propositions, and its own strategic priorities. TenSevenSeven, uniquely modern, high-end bespoke. Michael Hill, premium contemporary classics, milestone moments. Bevilles, everyday essentials, great value, and Medley, fashion-forward, accessible style. April 2024 saw a complete brand refresh of Michael Hill, delivering a new elevated aesthetic across the brand assets, color palette, and logos. These assets combine to bring both a contemporary and a feminine perspective to the brand. Over the months that followed, elements of the new brand assets were gradually brought to life across digital platforms, stores, and brand packaging. This was soon followed by the exciting milestone of the brand's first Store of the Future. In late April 2024, a new global flagship store came to life in Chadstone, the most premium center in the Australian market. The new store incorporated all aspects of the new brand, product, and proposition, with a new high-value product offering, elevated in-store experience, and private selling spaces. To coincide with the brand refresh and our first flagship Store of the F uture, Michael Hill partnered with its first ever brand ambassador, Miranda Kerr. Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be? The sweet love story that is older than the sea. The simple truth about the love he brings to me. Where do I start? How long does it last? Can love be measured by the hours in a day? I have no answers now, but this much I can say. I'm going to need him until the stars are blown away, and he'll be there. Miranda Kerr's timeless elegance resonates in all our markets. She embodies our brand values, is aspirational, and yet accessible. Michael Hill has the ambition to be one of the world's most sustainable jewelry brands, and this aligns perfectly with the sustainable business practices that Miranda follows. Product evolution continues with a focus on quality, innovation, and sustainability, and simultaneously, the development of key signature ranges that embody the premium brand positioning. These are best demonstrated by the new Signature Lock range and the exclusive proprietary cut 101 Facet Diamond Collection. The Michael Hill Foundation was launched in late February, representing our ongoing commitment to meaningful change and our dedication to a better world. The Michael Hill Foundation encompasses two key areas of focus: empowering women and nature restoration. Since the launch of the foundation, we have been able to plant over 50,000 trees across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and we have donated over AUD 48,000 to the Collective Good Foundation in India, kickstart projects to empower local women. We expanded our renewed sustainable jewelry ecosystem by extending our recycle offering to Canada and New Zealand, launching our Diamond T rade-Up program reimagined in New Zealand, and investing in our repairs network to grow our restore capability and service offering. During the year, during the first year of ownership of Bevilles, the store network expanded into the new territory of Queensland, with five new stores and two converted stores, along with three new stores in existing territories, increasing the total store network to 36 stores. In the second half of the year, the business transitioned across to the group operational IT systems and relocated its Melbourne headquarters and distribution center to Brisbane. Further focus was applied to enhance the brand's differentiated proposition to increase disruption in the value jewelry segment. After trading the all-important Christmas period, an extensive range review was undertaken with a view to rebalancing the product offering and visual presentation, to take advantage of clearly identified market opportunities and in turn, maximizing sales and margin opportunities. Reestablishing the brand's dominance in its core and everyday value product offering with a more productive and streamlined product range, and in support of the clearly defined network expansion plan, building a cost-effective marketing strategy that resonates with both existing and new customers. I am very excited by the opportunities for this brand. Our new TenSevenSeven start-up brand will remain focused on its unique and elevated proposition, which is capturing an entirely new buying customer. There will be continued enhancements to the digital customer experience, with product extensions and an increased unique diamond offering. As the group performance returns to growth, staged investments will be deployed to attract both connected and new clients. Meanwhile, our Medley brand will continue to build on its fashion positioning across both demi-fine and fine jewelry to a younger demographic. The business will optimize its digital multi-channel investments and continue to explore new channels, both physical and digital. With each brand uniquely positioned for their target customer segments, and with both product and brand propositions established, the group will be well-placed to grow revenue and profits through a more productive and expanded distribution network. For Michael Hill, store productivity has proven to be a key lever of growth over recent years, and as the brand continues to attract new target customers, it is anticipated that this will continue. This will be further supported by incorporating elements of the Store of the Future design in new store fit outs and refurbishments. The images on the slide are new fit outs of stores in New Zealand and Australia, which include private selling spaces and an elevated in-store experience. As the network aligns over time to the elevated product proposition, and with the continued focus on brand evolution, it is expected that average transaction values will continue to remain high to support revenue growth. The brand refresh of our direct-to-consumer digital platforms will deliver improved customer experience and conversion rates, which, in conjunction with investments in data and insights, will increase productivity across all channels. Gross margin recovery will be a key focus, underpinned by product evolution, increased penetration of higher-margin product, category mix, and leveraging the Brilliance by Michael Hill loyalty program. Beyond the brand's leading position in bridal, promoting other key milestone moments, like birthdays and anniversaries, provides a significant revenue opportunity for the business while leveraging the data in our loyalty program and growing the opportunities with self-purchasing customers. Even with the challenging trading conditions in the fine jewelry sector, the business has held firm on its strategic intent to grow the footprint and strengthen Bevilles within the market. During the first year of ownership, the Bevilles network grew from 26 to 36 stores. With the expansion of the network into Queensland, the business will focus on optimizing the store layout, optimizing the product range, and building brand presence prior to rolling out further stores. Leveraging Michael Hill experience, data insights, and competitor analysis, the opportunity to grow the network to over 100 stores in Australia remains firmly in place. As the Michael Hill brand elevates to a more premium position, this presents opportunities with select stores to transition to the Bevilles brand in a cost-efficient model, as shown in these images. Three trial conversion stores are already underway as a test and learn, and further conversion stores will be subject to performance. And a streamlined product offering will enable a step change in visual presentation and customer experience, leading to a more efficient store footprint and an increase in productivity. In addition, the business will invest in its people with training to upskill leadership, lift performance, and drive productivity. The multi-brand strategy is underpinned by a philosophy of leveraging group capabilities to drive productivity across all brands. This presents an exciting opportunity for the business as well as our team members, as we leverage group capabilities to drive productivity and efficient cost management across all brands. This will be delivered through group technology and investments, customer data insights, distribution and logistics synergies, portfolio vendor management to support product quality and margins, digital capabilities to drive efficiency and growth, property management to both grow and optimize the real estate network, and of course, our support and specialist functions across HR, finance, and legal. I'm extremely enthusiastic by our group multi-brand strategy that I've just taken you through. No doubt, you will have many questions. That brings us to the end of our presentation. I would like to thank you for your continued interest in Michael Hill, and we are now happy to take any questions. Thanks, Daniel. If you have not yet joined the live audio queue, please do so now. I will introduce each caller by name and ask you to go ahead. You will then hear a beep indicating that your microphone is live. Our first question comes from Kieran Carling from Craigs Investment Partners. Kieran, please go ahead. Hi, guys. Thanks for the presentation. First question from me is just on the performance in Australia. Can you just talk us through why margins for that division were so weak relative to New Zealand and Canada, particularly through the second half? Is that comparable EBIT figure that you referenced capturing any costs associated with the acquisition of Bevilles? And I guess just to follow on from that, just keen to understand what you see a normalized margin being for that business unit going forward? Morning, Kieran. Daniel here. How are you? Yeah, very well, thank you. Good. You're referring to the 60.4 margin from the Australian segment? So I'm referring to- Oh, the eight point two. The comparable EBIT. Oh, the eight point two. Yeah. So... Yeah. So... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Australia overall does bear some incremental costs because of the weight of the corporate cost center sitting here. It's not. It's probably fair to say, Andrew, it's not proportionately allocated, so- Yeah. Australia always feels the extra burden. And you would see that historically in the comparable EBIT. I mean, I think from a normalized gross margin perspective, we still have anticipation to lift, you know, back up to the sort of 62% level for FY25. I think that's what we've articulated previously, and we certainly continue to have that ambition in mind. Do you want to add, Andrew? No, I think just historically, Kieran, we've seen New Zealand probably at the best in terms of EBIT as a% of sales. Clearly, this year, as called out in the presentation, security costs have impacted that result, but notwithstanding that, structurally, New Zealand typically the lowest occupancy costs and lower labor. And I guess- I think to that point, Australia has higher stock occupancy costs and higher labor. Higher labor. And I think against that, from a Canadian point of view, really pleased with the sales result in Canada, compared to the other markets. So I think Australia, unfortunately, see really strong sales performance Canada, and it just isn't structurally as efficient from a cost point of view around labor and occupancy. Your question on comparable EBIT, we've provided in the pack a reconciliation. It's in the accounts, but they're a bit boring. But in appendix A to the pack does provide a breakdown of that bridge between statutory and comparable EBIT, and that does set out for FY 2023 and FY 2024 for the group, what those Bevilles related costs were, both acquisition and integration. Yeah, and I appreciate the points that you've made. I guess it was just, you know, you look at Australia last year, from the first to the second half, EBIT as a percentage of sales went from 20% down to 10%, and then this year it went from 12% down to 2.6%. So it's just, I guess, the relative decline was a lot larger. So it was really just to that point. Are you able to give any sort of steer on where you see a normalized EBIT margin for that division sitting going forward? No, not at a segment this level, Kieran, and we would typically not be providing forward guidance outlook on either group or individual segment EBIT percentage performance. Okay, no problem. Next question. You know, you've commented that there was a deliberate focus on clearing inventory in FY24 to make way for higher margin products in FY25. Can you just tell us exactly what type of higher margin products you're referring to, and what your gross margin expectations are for the year ahead? Sort of yes and no. I'll be a bit cagey because of competitor impacts here. But you know, we wanted to reduce our inventory holdings by year-end, which we successfully did, and we were very happy to do that. And that was a key strategy for us. But as highlighted in the presentation, we do have three or four specific product categories, but I don't - I can't give all the details away because of competition. But our categories that we have often played in, but not to the same level of depth that we're going to play in in FY twenty-five. And we have resourced those categories to new vendors, which are providing us a higher margin contribution. So all four of those product initiatives are designed to underpin that margin recovery that I talked about in the previous question. And are you able to give us any sort of steer on the quantum of that margin recovery? Are we talking- I think I said earlier that we were aiming to get the margin back up into sort of the 62 range for FY 2025, and these are key levers for us to do that. 150-200 basis points would be sort of what we're targeting for the full year. Cool. Thank you. And then just the last question. You've signaled that CapEx for FY twenty-five will be reduced. Can you give us sort of a number around CapEx and net debt expectations? And then perhaps just any indication of, you know, your Bevilles store rollout from here over the next twelve months, and, you know, how many core Michael Hill stores you plan to close for FY twenty-five? I'll do the Bevilles bit first. Andrew can give you the exact number pretty easily. We're very much, as we said in the presentation, we've opened 10 new stores. Three of them are what we're calling these transition stores, which are former Michael Hill stores that we've converted. I think it's fair to say between now and Christmas, we're very much watch and learn. We're understanding those investments, and we'll get back to looking at further store rollouts for Bevilles in the second half, subject to the performance of those new stores and those conversion stores over the next three or four months. I think in terms of our broader CapEx spend of the year, Andrew, we do probably give a- Yep. Yeah, absolutely. So, Kieran, FY 2024, the CapEx profile was circa AUD 30 million for FY 2025, broadly looking to halve that down, so to circa AUD 15 million, and that will be split across both from a digital and IT perspective, and then also the store perspective. I think it's fair to say, Kieran, we spent a lot of money on stores in 2024 with Chadstone flagship, our Bourke Street flagship, which hasn't quite opened yet, but we incurred the costs in 2024, and then a big intense program around refurbishing Michael Hill and 10 new Bevilles stores. So, it's right for us to be prudent with limited expense in the first half, sort of roughly just below half of what we spent last year is what we're anticipating. Thank you. The next question is from Kate Madigan, from E&P Capital. Kate, please go ahead. Morning, Daniel and Andrew. My first question was just on the trading update. So how should we think about the next six to twelve months in New Zealand from a sales perspective, given the trends you're seeing in early FY twenty-five? It's a great question. We obviously, out of the three markets, New Zealand is the one that continues to be our, I guess, the disappointment. We're really happy with the way Australia and Canada have got away, in the first eight weeks. Really, really happy, actually. The New Zealand market has for sure been the most challenged economically, and maybe I'll let Andrew expand on that. Thankfully, it has had one rate cut, two or three weeks ago. What we didn't see in New Zealand that we did see in Canada, was when Canada had its rate cut, it almost immediately converted to consumer confidence. I think New Zealand probably needs another one or two rate cuts for that to flow through to consumer confidence. But at least there's now speculation of a second and a third cut, which I have to say, touch wood, we are trending in a better direction in New Zealand than the first eight weeks in aggregate suggests. So we're pretty confident that New Zealand will start to get back to flat, if not growth, reasonably quickly. Excellent. Thanks for that. And maybe just to follow up, how's the security situation in New Zealand? Did that improve at all over 2H 2024? Because I know you called out the AUD 5 million impact to earnings. Uh- I'm wondering if there's any... Yeah, I'll let Andrew respond. We don't wanna touch a lot of wood with anything we say here, because we have had a better run of late. But of course, now, the second we talk about it, things will go wrong. But Andrew? Yeah, you're right, Daniel. So the fact that you asked this question, Kate, and I answer, probably means an event will happen, but we actually haven't had any events in New Zealand since mid-late June. So we have invested in some particular measures in the stores. We've also partnered strongly with the police, as we always do, with the landlord forums, and one of our own team has been employed to a role with government around security. So in a sense, we're almost doing everything there is possible to be done, and we are seeing that seem to slow the rate of incident, but touch wood, nothing triggers. But we would like to think we're coming through it, but it's an issue there, obviously, in New Zealand society, that we're just going to have to navigate for some time ahead, we expect. Okay, that's, that's helpful. Thanks, and yeah, touch wood on that one as well. Well, I mean, this gives you some- Just one more, sorry. Sorry, just to help out, add to that. We are not budgeting the same level of investment in security this year as we did last year. If that gives you some sense of our confidence in the situation improving. We've made a lot of capital investments that we envisage will allow us to reduce our operational expenses over time. Okay. Yeah, that, that is very helpful. Thanks. And then, yeah, just the last one on costs. So you noted that you took steps to reduce discretionary spend, corporate roles, and overheads. Just wondered if you could provide any further information about what specific steps you took there, as well, if you can at all, anything on the quantum of the savings and on the timing? I would have thought you probably did a lot of that in the third and fourth quarters, so we should see some annualization benefits coming through in FY twenty-five. Yeah, you're absolutely right. So the measures predominantly we're talking about around structure and labor. So we did take steps around some of the leadership roles and the structure for some of the functions and team composition. Because they are labor savings, that will start to annualize monthly. And you're right, it'll be towards the back end of 2025 that we see most of that benefit come. Our next question comes from Guy Hooper from Jarden. Guy, please go ahead. Yeah, thanks. Good morning, team. Maybe to start, there was, like you say, a concentrated effort on clearance activity, particularly through May and June. Can you just talk a little bit about how that, I guess, impacted or possibly impacted sales in the back end of the second half? And to what extent has that clearance activity carried through into the eight-week trading update? Look, I think it's fair to say, Guy, whenever you push higher promotional activity, it does normally translate to sales, and we did have a good June, as you know. But equally, June is a sale period for us, and we would always have reasonably high levels of clearance activity in the month of June. So moderately, maybe moderately increased our sales through that period and equally moderately impacted our margin downwards. We finished that clearance activity, though, at the end of June, and it did not roll into FY 2025. That's not to say we don't have promotional activity in FY 2025, because we know that we still need to stimulate the market, but the clearance activity finished at the end of June. Now, we do have another clearance event planned in the first half of FY twenty-five, but that would, again, that would be competitor insight if I was to say when that was gonna be. Yeah. Thanks. And I guess the inventory position, I mean, can you give us a bit of a sense of, like, how clean that inventory is and how, I guess, how big a discounted period is yet to come? Look, we were thrilled to get our inventory down at year-end, Andrew, in particular. You know, it's when you've been in retail as long as I have, when things are tough, inventory is the first place you want to make sure you've got your focus, and a well-run business knows how to manage inventory when things are tough, and that's what we displayed here. So we were thrilled to get the inventory down. You know, as we've said many times before, we're not a business that has to worry about its inventory like others, because it's not perishable stock like fashion. And as you know, in certain times, we've even converted inventory to cash because you can do that with gold and diamonds. So look, we're happy with where our inventory level is now. We're anticipating, I think, Andrew, the gains we made at the end of FY 2024, is kind of our new run rate for inventory for the core business moving forward, and we've got a really good focus on that, and we feel pretty confident and comfortable with our inventory. Okay. And, mention of the higher input costs, I mean, to what extent is that going to remain a bit of a headwind into FY25? Tell us what gold's gonna be in six months, Guy. In fairness, we don't have the fear on diamonds that we had a year ago. Diamonds have definitely calmed down. There's so much activity going on in the world of De Beers and what's going on with Anglo and the De Beers business. So that side of our conundrum is a lot calmer, thank goodness. And lab-grown diamonds, that pricing has very much calmed down. It's really only gold we're having to watch now. And as you know, you know, it can take up to twelve months for new inventory costs to flow through our ecosystem. But we certainly would prefer the gold price to come off, not keep going up. But, you know, I think I'd be a foolish man to think it's not at risk of still going up further. But gold, you know, gold, gold is not our biggest input cost. Diamonds is our biggest input cost. Yeah. Understood. Okay, and just, I know you've talked a little bit about the movement on the operating cost base. I mean, there's a few big shifts, occupancy up a lot, but as you've previously mentioned, you've made some changes on the labor side and did some annualization of costs out, plus- presumably some benefits from the integration of, of Bevilles. Can you maybe give us a bit of a sense of what, you know, the annualized, benefits, might be as we look into FY25 of, of those buckets? I think you've hit on occupancy, Guy, is challenging at the moment. Landlords, and this is universally for all retailers, this isn't a Michael Hill story. It is challenging, particularly with the large landlords at the moment, who are looking to elevate on their renewals, effectively to make up for what was COVID. So I think there's gonna be continued headwinds from a leasing point of view. I think on labor, we'd like to hope with inflation coming down, CPI and that annual indexation also slows, and we don't control that, but what we do control is our rostering and our structures, and what we would look to do is to try and optimize the rostering and structure, to try and offset that labor cost lift. So, looking to tread water, hopefully on labor, but occupancy is absolutely a headwind. And like any retailer, we have constructive discussions with the landlords. But it certainly would seem in the market that it's in the landlord's favor at the moment. Thank you. Our next question comes from James Wang from Citigroup. James, please go ahead. Hey, good morning. Morning, Daniel. Morning, Andrew. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, yes. Great. So my question, there's a lot of questions being asked, but my question is to follow up on the primary guy about the rostering. Is this how much have rosters been optimized for, or is this kind of like the initial kind of look into this area to cut costs? So, we implemented what we call dynamic rostering about two years ago, which is a technology-based solution. But rostering, while you can apply data and science to it, there's absolutely an art to it, so, you know, you can't literally, it's impossible to roster 100% perfectly. And particularly in our business model, where you have to open with two members of staff and close with two members of staff every day from a security perspective, and you have to put most of your stock away once the store is closed at night and get it out again before the store opens in the morning. We do have an acceptance that we carry, a chunk of, let's call it, unoptimized labor at the start and end of our days when we're not trading. I'd like to think if I had the head of retail sitting here in front of me, she'd say we're probably about halfway to full optimization of my network, Andrew, and we might get half of that again this year. But there's still more to come as we optimize the tools, as we elevate our store network. As we actually narrow our store network to the right network, it is easier to optimize your rosters. So there's a bit more to come, which is why I think Andrew said, we'd like to think roster optimization could offset, if you like, wage rate increases this year. That certainly was the case in FY 2024, and that's certainly our goal as we move forward. And on, just on labor costs in general, if I look at the second half, it grew by, based on my calculation, about 10%-11%, whereas sales are flat. Can you give us some color around what drove those, that growth, in costs, please? So I think there's a couple of things in play on labor. Bevilles, as an addition to the group, wouldn't have been in the prior numbers in the second half from an overall labor costing point of view. That would be the biggest That would be the biggest explanation. In terms of those comps and also just the seasonality of the business to James, we do have quite an elevated casual workforce that we engage through that Christmas period. So half on half, it's not perfectly aligned with the sales profiles. But I think the inclusion of Bevilles in that second half, it would've only been one month in the prior year. We had the full six months run rate at the end of 2024. So that will be more comparable then as we go to 2025. Great. And if we go towards just the strategy, the repositioning of the Michael Hill brand, that's been going on for a couple of years, and thinking about the brand power, one key reflection of success is repeat customers. Are there any metrics that you can share around that, please? We've always refrained from sharing customer data information publicly. What I can tell you is that it is a key area of focus for our Brilliance program, and you know, we're not a category that traditionally has high repeat customers. You know, it's not like supermarkets or even fashion, so for us to be able to move a customer from shopping once a year to twice a year or twice a year to three times a year is a really, really big benefit for our business, and that's a big focus for us, but we don't disclose those data points externally, James. I guess I'm trying to get at, if I think of other jewelry brands, the repeat customer probably wouldn't be month to month or even twice or three times a year. It'll probably be they'll purchase two years ago, and they want another piece and another set, then they'll purchase now. So it's kind of that kind of thinking. Yeah, I mean, you've heard us talk about... I think you've hopefully heard us talk about the key milestone moments, and it's, that is, a key strategy for us, is picking up on, you know, how do you capture a customer when they purchase the first promise ring in the earliest part of their relationship? It moves to an engagement ring, to a wedding band. They have their first child together, they celebrate that with jewelry. They have a fifth anniversary, a tenth anniversary. Those children become sixteen-, eighteen-, twenty-one-year-olds. That is a key area of focus for us as a business. Historically, we have leaned very heavily into bridal being our key, revenue-driving customer behavior, but we see this opportunity in so many other behaviors in the life, of our customer, particularly self-purchasing customers as well, that give us these further opportunities for incremental sales. So while I don't disagree with you, a traditional fine jewelry customer, you know, isn't probably buying jewelry every year or, two or three times a year. As we get them into that circle of life in our ecosystem, we're definitely seeing a success rate of them repeating more often with us within a single year. Great. Thanks for taking the questions, guys. Thank you. As there are no further questions, I will now hand back over to Daniel for some closing remarks. Thank you, everyone, for joining the Michael Hill International call this morning. And thank you for your continued interest in our business. And many of you, I know we're gonna be catching up with in one-on-ones over the next couple of days, so, looking forward to catching up then. Thank you very much indeed. That concludes today's call. Thank you for joining us. You may now log out.