Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Peter Wilson, Chair and CEO, Reece Group. Please go ahead, Peter. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first half-year results call. I'm Peter Wilson, and with me today is Sasha Nikolic and Andy Young. This morning, I'm gonna provide an overview of the results and then recap the strategy. Sasha will provide an operational update. Andy will then run through the financial result in more detail, and then I'll provide an outlook, and we'll open it up to Q&A. Please note that all figures in this presentation are in Australian dollars, unless otherwise stated. Turning now to an overview of the half-year result. Our performance was certainly mixed. There was some good, some solid, and some challenged. Our result clearly reflects the complexity that we outlined last year. Housing affordability continues to be a key issue in both our regions, resulting in soft demand settings. Group sales were up 6% to AUD 4.6 billion, largely supported by network expansion. Group like-for-like sales were flat, reflecting a subdued backdrop. EBITDA declined 6% to AUD 448 million, while EBIT declined 14% to AUD 262 million. Softer earnings and ongoing investment impacted the group's return on capital ratio, which is down 222 basis points to 10.8%. The board declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.0544 per share. While the half year tracked broadly as expected in the current environment, we do want to do better. We are focused on building a stronger business for the long term, whilst at the same time operating more efficiently. If we now turn to recap on our strategy. As I've outlined before, everything we do at Reece is guided by our blueprint from purpose to promise. Our purpose, building a better world for our customers by being the best, inspires us, and together with our values, is how we live the Reece way. Our 2030 vision is to be our trade's most valuable partner, and the commitment to our blueprint, especially in these challenging periods, enables us to deliver on our customer promise and succeed in the long term. Turning to our strategic priorities, we do have three clearly defined pillars. Operational excellence is about being the best at the basics every single day. Innovation is critical to keeping us ahead of our customers' needs. Investing for profitable growth enables us to continue to expand our presence and improve our business for the long term. I'll now hand over to Sasha, who will provide some detail, more detail on the activities in each region. Thank you, Peter. Starting with our branch network in Australia and New Zealand, our network density remains a key competitive advantage, helping us to deliver our customer promise. We continue to enhance the network through targeted infill and upgrades. During the half, we added four net new branches and completed 17 refurbishments. Moving to the next slide. Our success in ANZ is grounded in our team and their deep relationships with our customers. This half, we have continued to invest in and broaden our offering, launching new product ranges and designs that enhance quality at competitive price points. In the digital space, we combined Shadowboxer and our existing team together into one digital experience team, boosting collaboration, productivity, and accelerating customer-focused innovation. We also introduced new digital tools to make complex projects easier to manage and help our teams serve customers better. Finally, we continue to invest in our people, making strong progress in rolling out core leadership training programs to our people leaders. Moving now to the U.S. We have continued to roll out branches to expand our U.S. presence, making life easier for our customers. During the half, we added 19 new branches to our network, bringing the total to 286. We continue to see a run rate of 10-15 new branches per year as a sustainable level of annual growth. In some periods, we will deliver outside this range based on capacity and development timeframes. Turning to the next slide. Developing our U.S. team is a critical factor to our long-term success. We are focused on supporting our network growth through an experienced team, well-versed in local knowledge and market dynamics. This half, we continued to invest in development programs to deepen trading skills and leadership capabilities. Alongside this, we launched a range of new initiatives to make life easier for customers, including rapid delivery and a Spanish-enabled version of our app, maX. We further enhanced our digital capabilities with tools that streamline quoting, reduce turnaround times, and enable our teams to deliver a better customer experience. I will now hand over to Andy to provide more detail on the first half results. Thank you, Sasha. Good morning, everyone. Sales revenue for the half was up 4% to AUD 2.1 billion, supported by modest volume growth, although sales performance remains mixed across states. EBITDA declined by 4% to AUD 261 million, and our EBITDA margin contracted by 104 basis points. Costs remain elevated in the ANZ region. The market for talent remains competitive, and we've continued to invest in our employee proposition to support retention and growth. We've also invested in digital projects, which are an important part of delivering our strategy and investing through the cycle to build a stronger business. In addition, our operational expenditure continues to experience some inflationary pressure in areas such as labor, IT, and property costs. Despite these headwinds, our cost run rate is trending down as we exit the half, supported by tight management of FTE and discretionary spend. EBIT was down 7% to AUD 179 million, with our EBIT margin at 8.7%, down 106 basis points year-on-year. Turning now to the US region. US sales were up 6% to $1.7 billion, driven by incremental sales from continued network expansion. On a like-for-like basis, US sales declined by low single digits during the half. The residential new construction sector remains soft, with housing units under construction still down year-on-year in the Sun Belt region. EBITDA was down 9%, with our EBITDA margin contracting by 120 basis points. This reflects higher costs from elevated network expansion over the past 12-18 months and some ongoing operating cost inflation. We anticipate year-on-year cost growth to remain elevated through the remainder of FY26 as these new branches mature. EBIT declined by 26% to $55 million, and our EBIT margin was down 143 basis points, inclusive of higher D&A from ongoing growth investment. Turning to the group's cash flow position. The group generated net operating cash inflows of $199 million for the half. Our CapEx to sales ratio was 1.8%, supporting network expansion, branch refurbishments, and technology investments. During the half, we also deployed $401 million of capital to support share buyback activity. Gross interest expense for the half year was $31 million, and based on current drawn debt, we anticipate gross interest expense in the range of $65 million to $75 million for full year FY26. Moving to the balance sheet. Our group net working capital to sales ratio was 20%, an increase of 1% since 30 June. The uplift in net working capital is driven by seasonality in receivables and payables. Our net debt position increased to AUD 1 billion, driven by lower operating net cash inflow and partial funding for our share buyback program. The group's balance sheet remains strong, with a conservative net leverage ratio and capacity to fund future growth. Moving to the next slide. Returns have been impacted by the soft market conditions and elevated costs from increased network expansion. Despite this, we remain focused on our long-term investment strategy and disciplined approach to capital deployment. We take a long-term view through the cycle and expect to see our return profile improve as the market recovers and the impact of new growth investment moderates. Turning to our capital allocation approach. The allocation and deployment of group capital is guided by our well-defined capital management framework. Our first priority is to invest in the growth of the business, both organic investments and strategic M&A. Our second priority is to maintain a strong balance sheet, retaining flexibility for growth. Our third priority is to provide returns to shareholders via ordinary dividends. When we have surplus capital or excess balance sheet capacity, we will consider returning capital to shareholders. During the half, we have executed on this framework, returning a total of AUD 401 million of capital via our off-market and on-market share buyback programs. I will now hand back to Peter to provide some comments on the outlook for the remainder of FY26. Thank you, Andy. Starting with the ANZ region, we have seen signs of a housing market recovery emerging this half. This is geographically mixed. Housing affordability does still remain a challenge. We are also cautious about the pace of the near-term recovery and the impact of the recent interest rate rise. Turning to the U.S. In the U.S., the residential new construction sector is still experiencing weak demand, especially in the regions we operate. Competitive dynamics also continue to present headwinds. We've had a challenging start to the second half with extreme weather conditions in January. Improving housing affordability will be critical for increasing demand. We don't expect a substantial change in performance in the second half. We continue to take a long-term view on the opportunity in the region. As a result of this outlook in both regions-... We are anticipating group EBIT for the full year, FY26, to be within the range of AUD 520 million-AUD 540 million. To conclude, it has been one of the more complex periods that we have ever experienced. We continue to focus on our long-term strategy and our approach. We are working harder than ever before to stay one step ahead of our customers' needs while running our business more efficiently. We do operate in large, attractive markets with compelling long-term fundamentals. Our priority is always to build a stronger, more resilient business. Thank you. We will now open the line for questions. Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now go to our first question. One moment, please. Your first question today comes from the line of Peter Steyn from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Well, thanks, Peter, Sasha, Andy, appreciate your time. Peter, perhaps just honing in on ANZ and reflecting on the competitive environment that you mentioned, a lot of focus on employee value proposition. Could you give us a sense of what it is that you believe you need to do or continue to do in that space, and how you think the your particular position in the market can withstand some of the, the pressures that are obviously, relatively newfound in Australia? Good day, Peter. Yes. Well, look, I think I mentioned that at the full year, just, obviously with the, you know, with the new owners of Tradelink, which is an owner that we know well, and we obviously respect deeply and have a pretty strong knowledge and understanding and relationship with them. Look, when it comes to Australia, really, our entire focus is really focusing on ourselves, like, just to execute our strategy and keep building our capabilities so that we can, you know, play our own game and withstand whatever gets thrown up our way. We've got, as everybody knows, everyone knows the Australian model pretty well. We've got a very strong market position here, and we've got a strong model with strong capabilities. I mean, I'm, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with where we are in Australia. I mean, the big, the big, the big challenge that we've got to solve for, like, I think if that's every Australian company, is, you know, how we, we, we navigate the future, you know, embedding and leveraging AI so that, that runs right throughout our entire business. That's probably what keeps me up more at night than the, than the, than the question, Peter. Yeah, so we're, look, it's... Australia's always been, we've always. I mean, we came from a single two-store operation. We are used to competing in, in quite fierce environments. I mean, that's, that's pretty normal. We focus on our own game. The big, I think the bigger challenge for us, which I think applies to every single Australian company, is how we, how we embed and leverage AI, which is gonna have profound impact, on everything we do. Thanks, Peter. I may just go to the other side of the the ocean here to just get your perspective on the US trading context. Given your exposure to the sort of mid and smaller end of the new construction market, it looks like a low single digit volume performance is actually a really commendal commendable one. Just your perspective on what the network expansion did to your comparative experience there, but more specifically, the evolution of the competitive position vis-à-vis some of the peers there, because it does feel like you're actually doing a little better than perhaps certainly we expected. Well, Peter, maybe, maybe that, what you're saying there, that's probably to do with the, you know, that's our strategy, really, which is that organic store rollout. We say there was quite, you know, there was a lot of stores have been opened in the last number of years. I think that is what is driving the growth there. In terms of the end markets there, like we were pretty clear, I think, in the half year. It's still in our regions, it's still quite soft. How would I, how would I describe it? I think it gets back to the whole... I mean, we've talked multiple times here, how, I mean, we've used the term, and I think a lot of people have, that the housing market is relatively frozen. It's, it really is an affordability issue in the US. You've still got over 50% of the outstanding mortgages have got, you know, they're, they're below 4%. That effectively is 200 basis points below what you could get a new mortgage for now. Yes, the, the long-term mortgages have fallen, a little bit since we last spoke. You, you're in the early 6s there, but for any real substantial recovery, you've got to see some affordability changes, and that, you know, a big part of that is the, is the mortgage rate. We'll see how that all plays out. I, I think most of, yeah, most of what you've seen from us is, is linked to the, is the store expansion, the store rollout, and, you know, we, we-- that's part of our strategy. We, we're sticking to what we can control. A lot of the environment part, the external part's out of our control. Hopefully, that gives you a little bit of color there. Thanks, Peter. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks, Peter. Thank you. We will now take the next question. The next question comes from the line of Keith Chau from MST Marquee. Please go ahead. Good morning, all. Maybe one, either for you, Peter or Andy. Andy, you mentioned earlier on the call for ANZ, and this relates to something you can control, so inside the business rather than external, externalities. I think in the last results, it was mentioned that the cost run rate was, was a bit too high, for the ANZ division, so there was gonna be some trimming of that spend, and it certainly seems as, that, that is the case. Andy, when you talk about the cost run rate is trending down due to FTE and discretionary spend, just wondering how much further have you got to go on that one? If you can give us an indication of the order of magnitude of benefits, 'cause it certainly seems like that's helped the margin in the period, and, and it sounds like it is indeed sustainable. Thank you. Okay, Keith. I'll, I'll hand that to Andy, to... I think that's who you're directing that to. Over to you, Andy. Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Keith. Look, I think, we're not gonna give an outlook on the, on the cost run rate, Keith. What I would say is, as I said in the presentation, there's ongoing inflation pressure in the ANZ cost base. We are working to offset that, but we haven't been able to mitigate the full impacts of that in the half. That said, you know, we are continuing to drive those initiatives and just balance that with ongoing investment in the business. I think that's the sort of right focus for us to control what we can. Okay, thank you. Maybe if I can step one level higher... Also, Keith, just to add, just to add, I think what Andy would probably... Well, my saying that, there'll be a follow-up question, is the majority of that cost structure, it comes from the new store expansion, with depreciation and all that sort of stuff. Andy will probably that'll be a follow-up down the track, no doubt. Definitely at the group level, it's, it's expansionary, then in ANZ, you've got a little bit of that, but that said, it is also driven by the investment in the business, Keith Chau, and then the, the operating cost inflation, and we're continuing to see. Thank you. If we go maybe a couple of levels higher, just at the EBIT margin level, I know this is... I'm not asking for you to do our homework for us, but just trying to get a gauge of whether you believe that, you know, the first half margin outcome represents the bottom for the ANZ division, from here on, we should see some margin expansion, particularly given the end market demand is improving a bit as well. Keith, I'll take this. It's, look, you know, it's been a complex period for us, which I indicated at the, at, at, in August. Yeah, what I would say is, like, we all will always be this guy. I mean, we had. There are, look, there are signs of a starting of a housing market recovery, I would say minus Victoria. That's, you know, that's when I said geographically mixed. We have to be cautious, just as that is starting to emerge, you know, we've got an interest rate rise, and it's not just one, it's been clearly indicated that there's multiple on the agenda. That. I mean, that's the caveat to all of that. I mean, we, we, we focus on trying to optimize our margin, but it's a, it's a, it's a combination of balancing what the, you know, in between customer demands, shareholder demands, and then, you know, just the competitive environment. The, you know, we've I think we've probably done more. We, we don't normally do this with the, a guidance, and it doesn't mean we're gonna keep doing it. When it's, when we feel it's, some level of uncertainty out there, which there is for lots of people, we felt it might be better just to give a guidance for the second half, just to make it easy for you guys. That's, that's probably as much as we're gonna share, but it's, it's not, it's not like it's we've got this huge recovery and we're off to the races. You know, we, we're just starting to see green shoots, and then the interest rate rise hit. That's why I'm saying it's complicated, and that's... Yeah, I don't know if that-- I mean, I think we've been more helpful on this half than in previous. But that will, that will still be just horses for courses, horses for courses, Keith. Trying to help be a bit helpful on this. Yeah. No, it's good. It's good. Then maybe just one quick one on the U.S. It certainly seems as though the competitive backdrop has settled. Sasha, I think you mentioned, you know, you guys were looking at targeting 10-15 stores, even though you're running ahead in the first half, even for your full-year target. Does that mean for the store rollout in the second half, you take a breather, kind of bed down what you've got or, you know, you can still build? Or is it the case that you can still be opportunistic in the second half? I think we might answer this in two parts. I'll do the high level. Then I reckon Sasha's just arrived back last week. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I keep saying, I've said this from day dot, from, you know, 8 years ago when we did it. Maybe some of my stuff, maybe I was a bit too vulnerable. I was taken out of context at Fraction or at the August one. Look, when we acquired MORSCO, we were very clear what we were getting, and we were eyes wide open. We did a very thorough DD, and we studied it for a long time. We knew that this was a multi-decade story, and we knew that America is the biggest, the most competitive market in the world. It is structurally different to Australia. It has big resource competitors, it's got large independents, and it's got a very strong manufacturing base, which is largely owned by very, very big family, multi-generational businesses that control lots of the margins. That, in terms of, you know, we shared a fair bit what was going on with Fortiline. That definitely, you know, we've learned a lot. It definitely surprised us at the time, but we've learned how we're gonna have to compete and fight back, and it's more BAU now. We're quite comfortable with how we're gonna respond, and we will be taking a multi-decade timeframe. We'll see who actually outlasts in that competitive threat. In the meantime, Sash can probably talk to the, you know, how we look at the sustainable rate of stores. Over to you, Sash, you've just come back and a bit jet lagged. Yeah. Thanks, Pete. Keith, look, we had a very good first half in terms of rollout, and that is part, as you described, opportunistic and the timing, and with softening, we do get to accelerate. We do have a solid pipeline in H2 also, when we look out there, but not at the same rate as H1. I will reiterate, we are looking at that 10-15 in the long term, but there will be periods where stars aligned and, and we have the capability now to be able to accelerate. Great. Thanks so much, gents. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. We will now take the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Brook Campbell-Crawford from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead. Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just the first one for me on, on the US. If we, if we go back to the last half, I think, you guys are sort of saying that there's some shared challenges in the plumbing segment in, in the US, where I think you're sort of suggesting that lack of scale was a disadvantage when market activity is low. It certainly seems like that's kind of turned around and, and now you seem to be, you know, performing at least in line with the market, if not better. Can you just provide some comments on in terms of what's changed, like what you've done to kind of improve your share performance in, in the plumbing segment in, in particular? 'Cause I think you've said, Waterworks has, is more BAU, but just the plumbing segment in particular. Thanks. You get it, Brook. No, I reckon I don't think much has changed. I think we're holding our own. No, I don't, I don't think any significant. I mean, obviously, we're, we're opening stores in plumbing, so that does, you know, but that really wouldn't make that much difference in the 6 months. Look, the residential new construction is soft. Like, I think that's well known because of the whole mortgage part and the fact that the housing market is relatively frozen. It's not like it's fallen off a cliff, so it's not like we're talking GFC part. The part that's plumbing that seems to be going well is in the commercial part with the data centers. And we, you know, we're in states, we're, we're getting, we're getting some of that work as well. I think I, I, I wouldn't say any dramatic change since the August, just maybe there's a bit more focus on the team. You know, sometimes when you deliver these, the somewhat disappointing performances that we did identify in August, it can needle your team, and you get more focused. We're, we're definitely trying to we're, we're focusing on what we can control. I wouldn't say any, any dramatic change there, at this point, Brooke. Yeah, okay. That's fair enough. Thanks for the color. Just a last question for me on inventory. Looking through the accounts, it looks like there's a AUD 9 million reduction in the allowance for slow-moving inventory in the half. Can you just confirm, does that sort of flow through to the underlying EBIT performance as that provision unwinds a bit? Then maybe some color on what actually sort of drove the change would be great. Thanks. I'll, I'll give that to Andy to, and over to you, Andy. Thanks, Brooke. Yes, there is a, there's a reduction in that provision, Brooke, in the half. I think if you remember the comments we made at full year, we talked about the provision had increased as we've seen some of the sell, sell-through rates reduce. We've actually had a little bit of volume uplift, particularly in ANZ, you would have seen in the first half of this year. That's allowed us to. ... to revise those provisioning levels. Yes, it does flow through, and we'll just continue to sort of monitor that level and, and look at what happens from a volume perspective to see what further happens in the second half of the year. That's great. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Brook. Sorry. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Harry Saunders from E&P. Please go ahead. Oh, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, thank you for providing that second half guidance. It's helpful. Just firstly, wondering if you could talk through the drivers in a bit more detail of that ANZ margin improvement versus that second half. Perhaps where, where do you think you could take this to sort of mid-cycle versus the historical levels, which, you know, were about sort of 10 to 12% if we, if we look over the last decade or, or so? I mean, are there any structural changes now, you know, such as competition, that, that need to be factored in? Thank you. Thanks, Harry. I'll hand that to Sash. Thanks, Harry. Look, from an ANZ perspective, you know, to answer the second part there, we have historically had very good margins, and this market, we have a good business. As Peter's already answered, it's very complex, it's very challenging, it's a patchwork out there across the states, and so we won't be making any calls around historical levels to get out there, nor will we be making calls around peaks and troughs. What we can say is we do control what we can control, and the team is focused on continuing to manage the things that are within our control and provide that customer experience that Reece is renowned for out in the market. We believe if we do those things, then the margins take care of themselves. Great, thank you. follow up, I'll ask it anyway, just on the US margins. you know, if we, if we look where they're sitting now versus, you know, around that sort of 5% level, over, over, you know, the last few years before the sort of deterioration last year, you know, what I guess, what, what would we, we need to see for you to take margins sort of back to that level or, or beyond that level? I mean, is, is it, is it around sort of those stores maturing, given you added a lot of stores, or is there more to it than that? Harry, look, there's, there's a whole bunch of things. As we, we said, in the operational updates, we're very focused on developing our leaders at a local level that understand the market, put the training around leadership in there. We spoke about trading skills, investment, and it is time for these new branches that we've put in, quite a few in a short period of time, to mature. That is what we see as the US strategy that we've been consistent from, for a very long time. Great, thank you. Just the last one from me. I guess, where, where would you see CapEx more normalized now, given that sort of lower rate in the first half, please? I, I might start, Harry, and then hand it over to, to Andy. Look, when you look at the CapEx, obviously, there's the timing of when we recognize the CapEx versus when the store starts trading. That is to take into account some of the half-on-half or year-to-half view in the reduction. Look, we sit here thinking that our level of CapEx is probably at that normalized level, but I'll invite Andy to add a little bit more color there. Yeah. Thanks, Harry. As you know, Harry, it's not guidance, but we tend to target somewhere in that 2 to 3% range. Look, each year, it just depends on how much network expansion we tend to have to drive that. I think, as Sash said, it's a little bit lower in the first half, but a lot of that CapEx around those new branches was occurred in the back end of 2025. That why, why the number looks a little bit lower and, and we'd expect to be somewhere in that range again for the full year. Great. Thank you. Harry, we're not, we're not looking to. We, you know, we've always, you know, through these cycles, we, we continue to invest. Normally in history, we normally come out stronger through these cycles because of that commitment to investing. We're gonna keep doing that. I mean, it might be different, it might be different this time because I think the world is we're entering a world that we have never seen before. It, it may not, it may not go exactly like it did last time, but we continue to invest to build capabilities because that is the only way we're gonna get a chance to get to where we want to get to in the U.S. over the long period of time. There'll be a few hiccups like we had last year. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Sam Seow from Citi. Please go ahead. Thanks. Morning, guys. Just quickly on ANZ, noticed you've talked to, you know, volumes being positive, but you've probably moved away, unless I missed it, from likes to likes. Is the right assumption there that price was negative, or am I just reading too much into that? I'll give it to you. Over to you, Andy. Thank you, Peter. That's too hard for me to answer. Sam, look, I think, the, the volume performance like for like, was pretty similar for ANZ versus the Q1. We said at the Q1, we had, some, you know, low single-digit growth, that's, that's really held across the half. In terms of the price volume, sort of mix there, there's very little price impact in that result for ANZ. That's largely volume. Got it. Just trying to clarify, so your, your like-for-like sales in ANZ were positive in the Q1, but... Yeah. Because you haven't talked like-for-like for the half. Just kind of trying to understand the moving piece there. Yeah. Well, so I think, so I think, Sam, what you need to say is that we, in our commentary, we're, we're definitely seeing the beginnings of a housing recovery, right? Yeah, you've got housing starts and commencements. They're, they're all, they're, they're going in the right. They're all, they're positive. That, that's definitely positive for Australia. Yeah, I'd say there's definitely green shoots there, minus Victoria. There's not green shoots in Victoria. The rest of the states, yeah, so that's, that would be that. The, the only thing is we do have to be cautious because just as you're getting started, we, this looks different to the last time or, or the last cycles. We've already now had an interest rate rise. We've forecast more to come. Now, that will actually have an impact. Okay. Okay. Maybe just talking about the second half. You know, thanks for the guide. Really appreciate it. You know, given obviously the U.S. had that weak start, does it kind of imply that a meaningful step up in the ANZ second half business? Or is there something, you know, your country is being relatively muted? No, Sam, look, we've done more than we normally do. We've, we've, we've given you a lot of help there with the guidance, right? We're in pretty narrow range, so that's probably as much as we're gonna disclose here, Sam. We're, we're doing a lot more than we've done before. Yeah, my gut sees a replay of what's happened in the first half happening in the second half in both regions. Yeah, so that's, but that's, but, but we had a challenging start to January in America. We had extreme weather, and it was so we thought we better give. We thought, given the uncertainty, if we don't, we're not watch out, we, we, we could get a whole lot of different messages. We decided that we should give guidance for the year. Got it. Got it. Can I just ask a quick housekeeping on trading days in the second half? I, I, I imagine you had a headwind last year, just trying to- Yeah. think about that. I'll pick that one up. Look, the trading is broadly, broadly evenly split across the year. Last year, we had a bit of difference in ANZ, particularly given the timing of, sort of Anzac Day and Easter holidays. But broadly, the, the profile is pretty evenly split across the halves. All depends on what happens. Thanks for the clarity. I think the bigger issue is what happens in the weather, Sam, rather than the trading days. That's America. Appreciate the clarity. Yeah, thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Sam. Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Lee Power from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Hi, Peter, Andy, Sasha. Thanks for the time today. Peter, just on the US rollout strategy, maybe just confirm the stores this half and the one Sasha mentioned for the second half are largely new greenfield stores. Then, just any color you or Sasha can give us around changes in timing for those stores to mature, both on a revenue and margin profile. I think in the past, you've said it's kind of 3-5 years stores, five years for those stores to ramp up. I'd be interested if there's any changes that you're seeing in the US now. G'day, Lee. No, no, no changes, to the, how the, how they ramp up. That, that's, that's in line with what we've experienced in the past. I mean, the only way that it might ramp up a bit quicker is if you get into really boom conditions, but that's, that's not the case. Don't know whether that, that helps. Well, maybe another way. We're not. We are not budgeting for any, any, you know. We've, we've, we've done. We've, we've reversed engineers who are trying to do it, but we. There, there's just a certain time to confidence, on, on the, what you need to do with the people. You know, maybe down the track, once we master the art of AI and robotics, the, the whole thing could be changed. Then, so, that, that, that will, that may be the next stage. That's useful. Thanks. Maybe, maybe to ask it another way. Of like the 286 branches in the US, how many do you think would still be in that ramp-up phase? Because you've obviously opened a lot of greenfield stores, and you think they, they should be coming through now, right? I'll, I'll give that to Sasha. I would normally say, "Well, that's confidential. We're not going to actually answer that." I will leave it to Sasha to see whether it conflicts me. Thanks. Thanks, Peter. look, Lee, we've been very transparent in telling you how many branches we've opened each and every year in the past, and so more than happy for you to go and, and do your work. If we go back to the strategy, we have always said we were gonna be slow and deliberate and learn, and then, you know, we had the pandemic, and as we've come out of that, we have increased. That will give you that sense. ... Okay. Also, we're also conscious not to. I mean, we've opened a lot, but, you know, ideally, we want our sustainable rate that we can do, which is not gonna have too much impact. We've, by circumstance of planning and just, you know, we opened a lot in the last. Yeah, that's not gonna be, that's not gonna be a regular occurrence, how many we opened in the last half. Okay, thank you. Would have been brave by Sasha to overrule the boss. Then, just a final one. I mean, there's obviously a lot going on with tariffs, but any sort of like, view or color as to how you think that impacts you, the announcements over the weekend? Well, no, we're, we're fortunate we have got a flexible model where we can adapt and, you know, we're obviously, we're, we're. It's more, it's more the hassle and the uncertainty of all of the work you've got to do to then notify and update and backwards and forwards. It's more, it's more of that. We, you know, we're in the same boat as everybody else, so if you have them taken away, you're, you're taking, you're, you're, you're reducing what your customer gets, or if you're getting tariffs, they're paying more. I think. No, we, we've got an ability to be able to manage that okay, so, you know, you've got. Yeah, I think we manage that pretty well. I mean, the only, the only thing is it does. You know, all it does is create a lot of uncertainty, so, which then will flow through to maybe where the long-term mortgage rates are. You know, you, you, you, you wouldn't mind just getting some certainty so that, you know, you've had the short-term interest rate cuts there, but you really haven't had that much. You've had a slight reduction in the long-term mortgage rate. We need it to go lower again, if you want to actually get the housing market moving. I mean, that would be the only, that would be the. I mean, that would be the only thing I would add on. Okay, excellent. Thanks. I appreciate the call. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Nathan Reilly from UBS. Please go ahead. Good morning, gents. Just wanted to ask a little bit more around your, your digital innovation strategy. I'm just keen to understand how you're thinking that's gonna help manage some of the increased competitive intensity that you've been seeing, both in Australia and New Zealand, maybe just sort of walk us through sort of near-term, medium-term priorities around that digital innovation strategy. I'm also keen just to get an understanding of what level of capital you think will be required to sort of fund that strategy. Well, I think, look, that's the good question. We, we've, we have had a focus to digitize the place since about 2016. You know, in Australia, we're definitely a leader, and there is, you know, there is a lot of investing going in. Then, ultimately, you know, the whole CX has got to be digitized to create all those seamless experience. You know, that, that's an ongoing part. That's just gonna be an ongoing part of how we operate. Then, a big part of the whole digital agenda, you know, that we'll, we'll all be grappling with, is how we embed and leverage AI to every part of the business. I mean, that's what, that's what we're all trying to-- That's what we're all gonna try and solve for. I don't really think anyone's really got a clue how they're gonna... You know, we're all, we're working hard. We've got lots of use cases. You know, we've rolled out Copilot to all of our people here at Support Center. We've got a different version in the US. There's a lot of experimenting going on, and so you, you can see, I mean, we're just getting started, but there's a, there's a, there's enormous transformation gonna go underway in the next 5 or 10 years, that no one's really got a clue how it's gonna play out, but, you, you, you've got to be in there having a red hot grow. Got it. That helps. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you, in terms of your approach, but just in terms of the level of capital you'd be expecting to deploy there? Look, in some parts, we're not gonna go into too much, too much detail. I don't know, Andy, whether you wanted to add any more, but, you're not gonna get anything from me. No, look, the only thing I'd, I'd add to it, Nathan, is remember, it's not all CapEx. I mean, you know, as you're building capability and, and you're, you're running these digital initiatives, there's, there's obviously an OpEx component of that as well, so it's both. Okay. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Michael from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Good morning, Peter, Sasha, and Andy. Thanks for taking my question. Just the first one I had, just around the US Waterworks business. How would you characterize Waterworks' operational health today in terms of turnover, leadership, stability, customer retention? I think, do you want to answer this, Sasha, or do you want me to have the first crack? You go first, and then I'll, I'll follow up. Yeah. No, no, I, I... Look, I think I said in the, in the, the, I said earlier that, that I think, you know, when we, when we entered the U.S., we knew that we're entering the most competitive, most brutal industry with a whole lot of different dynamics. It's structurally different. I mean, we went in, you know, for a multi-decade story, and we knew there were gonna be hurdles. Certainly we got surprised with what happened to our Fortiline business. We didn't expect to have what happened, but, you know, we, we, I wouldn't say it's BAU now, but we, we've got our response. We're fighting back. You can see we're, we're, we're holding our own. It's definitely much more contested. I think that the whole Waterworks sector has now been changed in America forever. You've got a, you've got a, a new competitor that's, that adds to the, the competitive nature of it, but you got to focus on what you can control. We've, you know, things, definitely things have stable. We've got a Waterworks leader now. We're doing different things. I don't know if you wanted to add anything more detail, Sash, you've just been back. Joe, the only thing I that I would characterize it as, building back. So we've got a team there that is actually, you know, building back capabilities, building back the relationships across the board. We are committed to Waterworks, and we will, as Peter's already said on this call, we're here for the long term. Okay, got it. Just a follow-up question on the Waterworks business. What I'd say the last time, you know, we're, we're really in the middle of it at the last, you know, the, the, the call. We're, we're definitely. We're, we've got our plans, we're fighting back. It's, it is guerrilla warfare. Once you get your head around it, I mean, that's basically how we built Reece. And I do know we've got a very, very long-term timeframe, so we'll see who outlasts who. Okay, got it. Just to follow up there, just a question around data centers, which are obviously big consumers of water. Just wondering if there's a meaningful opportunity there for, for Waterline? I'll get Sash to answer it. It's, it's more than just Waterline. Sash, do you want to give it over? Just, not just Waterline, it's Australia as well. Yeah. Although we don't do, we don't build as many here as America. We don't have the energy, Sash. No. We don't have a lot of the things in place here. No, no. Over to you, Sash. Joe, it's a very good question. I think it's no secret there are certain pockets in the US that have very heavy data exposure or data center exposure to them. I think in those areas where we've got presence, we are doing well in terms of getting our share there. To reiterate, yeah, you're 100% right. There is opportunities for the Waterworks business, there's opportunities for the plumbing, there's opportunities for the HVAC around the cooling elements, but also watch this space as chips evolve and things change. Definitely in the markets where data centers are going up in the US, we are participating. Okay, great. Just a last question I had just on the US store rollout. Just picking up on an earlier comment from Sasha, I think you said that you've now got the capability to accelerate the rollout. I'm just wondering, what is that capability? Is it talent systems? Is it a store pipeline? Can you maybe expand on that comment? Sure. you know, it's making sure that our design of the store is right to, to make it easier for customers to do business with us in that physical environment, to make sure that our team, can actually service in a, in a quicker way, to keep it safe, and organized, as well as our partners in terms of building, the facilities. At the end of the day, the bottleneck always comes down to the people and our ability to get the right, branch, leadership in place, and that's why we reiterate that 10-15, albeit, there are some times when we will take those opportunities. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Sykes from Jarden. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one from me. Just in terms of the US store openings, the 19 this half, could you just help provide some color where they were opened in terms of, whether it was in HVAC, Waterworks or plumbing? Yeah, I'll, I'll take this one, Daniel. I will say that it's been an even spread across the portfolio of the business. We're not gonna go into any details around the mix, but, you know, you can basically follow the, the size of the business, and that's a pretty good proxy of where the branches were opened. Long way of saying we've opened across all of our divisions. Great, thanks. Maybe if I could just ask a bit, one further back, just, you know, RMR was a big, strategic pivot of the MORSCO deal. Were any of them in the RMR segment and, or, or with trying to orientate themselves around the RMR market? Can you just give us some insights into those stores that you have, focused RMR, how that's going? Because that was a bit more of a new, new area for MORSCO. Yeah, RMR is still obviously a focus for us. You can see we've dropped the nature. We, we, we obviously we've got to keep building capabilities on all, all the segments. RMR is still a very small part of the business, so it will take many years before it becomes meaningful. Yeah, definitely RMR is still a focus, but as is the HVAC business, as is the Waterworks business. They're all... And the RNC part. Yeah, it's still a focus, but we are looking to improve all elements of what we've got in the US. Okay, great. Thanks. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ramoun Lazar from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, guys. Just a quick one on ANZ. Peter, last result, you were pretty frustrated with the Victorian market in particular. Just wondering what you're seeing there, any stabilization or change in that operating environment? Then also just on the ANZ business, more broadly, where do you see there are store opportunity, focused on? Maybe what states or markets that you're, you're, you're, you're focused on most? If, if you look at ANZ, the store network's very mature, so that you're just talking very, very small. You can see even from what we've done in the half, it's very mature. If, if you go to Victoria, yeah, definitely, I mean, I, I obviously expressed fru- I mean, I was taken out of context, because I don't-- I never blame anyone for anything other than ourselves. And some of my messaging was m- maybe more for our own internal stakeholders. Yeah, I was, we were deeply frustrated because we have invested heavily, both in our office here in Cremorne and our innovation center in Collingwood, and we weren't getting the benefits from it. That's when I said everything, all, all, everything's on the table. Pleasingly, since that, somewhat outburst or whatever, we have seen an improvement. We're getting more people back into the office, but that is still not satisfactory for where we are. We're going again, and we will be getting more into the office, and we feel that it's, you know, we basically... Reece is an essential service. Most of the business is done out in branches. We got a culture. One of our values is one team. We are better when we're all together, and we feel very strongly that we owe it to this Gen Z and the, the generation after that, for them to really experience what it's like to come in and to work with people, to understand relationships, to understand what it's like to give, to give and receive feedback, to have difficult conversations. Given that AI is about to totally disrupt the entire world, I think it's in everyone's interest, the relationship part really matters. Yeah, definitely improvement from where we were. Just we're not exactly where we are, where I want us to be, but we will get there. Hopefully, that answers the question. Thanks. Thank you. That was our final question for today. I will now hand back to yourself, Peter, for closing remarks. I think that's back to me. Okay, great. Thank you. Well, everyone, thank you for attending the half year results, webcast today. I will close, by thanking the Reece team for their ongoing support in what has been a pretty challenging, complex environment. I also wanna thank our shareholders for their ongoing support. On that note, thank you, and we will see you for the August one. Thank you very much.