Good morning, and welcome to the Silk Logistics Holdings FY23 results webinar for the period ending 25 June, 2023. Presenting today is Silk's Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Boyd; Chief Financial Officer, Brendan Pentland; and Chief Operating Officer, Dani Aquilina. Today's format will have the team run through the presentation, followed by a Q&A session at the end. Investors can submit questions via the Q&A function on the bottom of the screen. I'll now pass to you, BB. Many thanks, Mel, and good morning to all. As is customary, we'd just like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, live, and gather. We'd like to recognize their continued connection to country and culture, and pay respects to our elders, past, present, and emerging. On behalf of the Silk Logistics board, management, and staff, we are delighted to present what we think is a great result, particularly given some of the challenges that emerged in the second half of FY23. Importantly, the result today that we will discuss with you has met the guidance we presented at the half year. I think the key message that you'll hear from me throughout today's presentation, this result represents the resilience and the agility of our business model. We have talked time and again about the agile asset-light business model. It's at times like these that the business model comes to the fore. I hope you get that message as we go through the slides today. In terms of the financial highlights, AUD 486 million of revenue. Revenue growth of 23% on the prior year. A great result in challenging times. Underlying EBIT growth of 14.5% on the prior period, at AUD 35.5 million, in the mid-range of our guidance. NPAT growth, a strong balance sheet, continued conversion of cash to EBITDA, around at 85.8% pre-CapEx in this period. Low gearing, which I must state is before the acquisition of Secon is completed. We're really pleased at the high level with these results, we think they represent to our shareholders, a continuation of this business continuing to perform and exceed its expectations since IPO. Just quickly, in terms of our operations, significant growth in our hardstand area, attributable to the FFS business. Our warehouse area was down slightly year-on-year as we exited one of the oldest sites in our network in Pipe Road, Laverton. We were pleased to see the back of that, to be honest. Our distribution network continues to build, a lot of work is going into that part of our business. We discussed at half year some of the challenges, it's a real focus area for Dani and her team. Some of the key metrics that our team would be used to, warehouse occupancy at 89% continues to hold, although it was tapering at the back end of the half. A couple of other really important metrics here for me, our female representation in the workforce continues to grow, and our LTIFR is, is an outstanding result compared to industry peers. It's this balanced scorecard approach that we continue to drive our business in terms of growth, meeting shareholder expectations, but also looking after our key stakeholders within the business. Just to remind, some of the audience, you will be familiar, but our business model is about that port-to-door service proposition. We're operating across all major states, and our customer value proposition around that port-to-door tech-enabled service offer, delivering a time-certain outcome to our customers, continues to resonate with our customer base. You'll see that when we dive into the results and look at some of the new business that John Sood and his team have been able to deliver through the period. The Secon acquisition, we, which we anticipate may complete as early as next week, is a really, really exciting addition to our business. It's an expansion of our capabilities in Victoria around port and logistics. Most exciting, this business gives us an entree into the East Coast for the bulk logistics sector. This is a niche area of operations, it's a value-add area and high margin. In the near term, revenue growth opportunities in this space, leveraging both our Secon brand and our FFS brand in WA, represents some significant revenue upside at high margin in the near term. We are really excited about this latest acquisition that we've made. Just in terms of summarizing achievements through the half, the revenue increase I've touched on. New revenue wins across share of wallet and new customers at AUD 65.8 million. Our business model continues to resonate with customers. We continue to grow market share even before acquisitions. The business is winning. That's a really important piece of the message today. Our top 20 customers have traded up 10% year-on-year. Sorry, 20% year-on-year. The revenue base has grown by circa 10%, and the business continues to build out its share of wallet gain across the business operation. In terms of our people and safety, I've touched on the LTI result, which is a tremendous result as the business has grown significantly. The pay parity exercise conducted by our Chief People Officer has evened the playing field for our people across the board. We'll talk shortly to the work that we're doing with our carbon emission baselining program. Again, a really important step in the balanced scorecard that we're applying to our business. Tech, as always, is a really critical part of our business. This is an e-evolution. The business has had a great platform. You can't stop. We must continue to invest in technology. Dani will take you through some really exciting initiatives that we've got operationally to support the further growth and expansion of this business. We talked about our five-year plan at the last half. We are committed to driving the growth, both in revenue and margin in this business through our strategic initiatives. Finally, on M&A, the Fremantle Freight & Storage integration is well on track. The 101 Warehousing business has continued to grow, and as I said, we're very, very excited about bringing Secon into the stable, perhaps as early as at the end of August. Beyond that, we continue to have a pipeline of targets. We'd see M&A over the medium term as an important part of our strategic growth platform, and we will continue to invest in that part of our business. In terms of our ESG, and I won't go into a lot of detail here, but it's a really important step for our business as we target what we're going to do as part of our obligation to our shareholders and more broadly to the community with regard to our ESG program. We have successfully baselined our emissions during the period. We expect early in FY24 to be able to present our roadmap towards our targets that we're setting. Again, a great piece of work under Dani and her team during this period. Just on the financial performance, I'll just offer some brief comments before I pass to Brendan to go through the financial detail. I think it's obvious that the second half presented a challenging environment. It really was a tale of two halves for our financial year. I think I flagged at the half year that the inventory correction post-COVID would continue until around August, September of this year. We're seeing that. We're seeing that continued lull. We're also seeing some activity and signs of recovery, particularly amongst both our agricultural customer base and in our retail customer base. I think it's important to note that our key industry segments: food, dairy, industrial, and FMCG, have remained resilient. If you go back to the stats around customer growth in our top 20 year-over-year, we're very confident that will continue. I think the most important piece, and I touched on this in the opening, a period like this really highlights the strength of our business model. The asset right variable cost base, where we can pull levers across our business, along with cost recovery mechanisms that allow us to recover those increases from our customers, combined with new business, gives us a very resilient, robust business model, and we continue to pull those levers in the second half to deliver the result that we've delivered. I think it's really important that we understand that depth, that in-depth in terms of this business. You can see the stats on this particular slide relative to, in particular, our labor, our mix of company and contractor fleet, and indeed, the casual hire. The audience may recall in previous presentations, particularly in our trailing fleet, where we can stand that fleet down on a day's notice with no cost. It goes to the resilience of the model that we've got. Brendan, would you like to talk through the results? Thanks, BB. Yeah, just starting off on the group highlights, which really, for FY23, highlights that revenue and earnings growth over the prior year and does continue that growth story since our IPO. Revenue at AUD 489 million is up 24%. Underlying EBITDA is up 21%. Underlying EBIT at 14% up, and underlying free cash flow before net CapEx is up 6.8%. Our directors have declared a final dividend for FY23 at AUD 0.031 per share, which provides an annual dividend yield of 4%. Our underlying group margins have remained resilient in these challenging trading conditions. These conditions were largely expected, as BB mentioned, and the group's variable cost model has responded well to minimize margin impact. However, we have also continued to make investment for growth. I just wanted to call out that our overhead costs as a percentage of revenue in FY23 was at 8% compared to 7% in the prior year. Essentially, that relates to an extra AUD 5 million, invested in the overheads to, to deliver our five-year corporate strategic plan. We've spoken about these investments previously, but just to recap, that it does include our corporate development team, drive our M&A strategy, highlighted by our recently announced Secon acquisition, planned to complete in the near term, and also the integration of FFS and 101, which have progressed at a steady pace throughout FY23. Our business development, as we've spoken about previously, to secure new customers ahead of new capacity coming online over the next 18 months in WA and New South Wales, which add significant warehouse capacity to our network. Those investments are being made, whilst we are also dealing with the challenging environment, but our margins are holding up well, which is very pleasing and as we would expect. Just turning to the segment results, I'll go through these individually. Port Logistics, again, delivered profitable revenue growth and expanded margin, which was assisted by the FFS acquisition from the 1st of September 2022. Revenue growth at AUD 46 million was made up of AUD 18 million of organic growth, being that tip in from the BD team, led by John Sood, and also AUD 28 million from the FFS acquisition at an annualized run rate of AUD 34 million per annum. Our billed containers volumes in the period did retract by 4.3%. This is largely due to us continuing the theme that we spoke about in the interim results, was focusing on value over volume. We have exited some lower-yielding customers and focused on those customers seeking long-term relationships. We've also focused on integrating our FFS operations, securing new sustainable revenues, and also executing our diligent yield management program to pass on the rising input costs. That volume decline has been more than offset by revenue per container, which increased to AUD 990 from AUD 795, representing an uplift of circa 24%. In our Contract Logistics business, it also posted a strong revenue number of AUD 203 million, an increase of AUD 48 million on the prior year. EBIT margin in this business did compress in the year, largely due to warehouse congestion, in particular in the first half, which eased slightly in the second half, as also BB mentioned earlier, and also reduced productivity and pallet shortages. They were some themes that did continue through much of the year, although we, we, we do see some improvement in those areas towards the end of our full year. Also worth highlighting in our Contract Logistic s business, we did incur a one-off pallet write-off in the, in the period of AUD 2 million. We don't expect that to continue in future periods. We also did trade some margin for long-term customer contracts in this business, which we see as very important to which underpins our, our revenues in, in future periods, and also as a base from which growth will come through organic measured share of wallet opportunities. Our distribution business continued its steady margin recovery in the second half of 2023. Just talking to the revenue growth in this business, that AUD 48 million, warehousing contributed AUD 37 million of that growth, with the balance coming from distribution. Pleasingly, the 101 Warehousing business contributed AUD 28 million, and I'll, I'll, I'll break that apart a little bit on the next slide, with the balance coming from the Silk customers. Our warehouse occupancy averaged 89% in the year, compared to 85% in the prior period, and our billed consignments were up 12% on the prior year, and our revenue per billed consignment was also up 16% on the prior period, which are all pleasing numbers. This is our revenue growth story, and it's a familiar pattern of one that we really like, this slide. This really does show there's a real combination of growth from both organic and acquisitive channels, with organic growth contributing 55% and acquisitions 45%. Just included in our organic growth numbers across both, which is AUD 51 million across both port and Contract Logistics. It's important to note that AUD 14 million of this came from 101 Warehousing, which is that organic growth above its FY22 pre-acquisition run rate. A really strong growth in that business as we've onboarded a number of new customers and expanded our, our property footprint in that space. Our Fremantle Freight & Storage revenue in the period was in line with our expectations. This slide does just give a breakdown of the markets that we generate our revenue from. I think the important highlights on here are that our long-standing customer relationships, and our, our ability to grow our revenues from our top 20 customers through extensive services and our cost recovery mechanisms continue to be a real highlight in the business. BB mentioned our annualized new revenues at AUD 66 million in the period, and we grew both our organic customer base and our customers through acquisitions, which is also another pleasing number. Our contract and customer relationships averaged 8.4 years, further underpinning that those group revenues, and our recurring revenue from existing customers was at 93%. I think notwithstanding these impressive numbers, it's worth noting that 77% of our customers still only use 1 of our 3 service offers. I think there remains a really fertile ground there to continue our share of wallet, service offer, and that organic growth story. Of note on, on this slide is our, our relatively low exposure to specialist retail and consumer goods markets. So which highlights, you know, the industries that we've focused on being, those light industrial, industrial construction, and other segments that have underpinned our growth over a number of years. Just in regard to next slide on acquisitions, this, this really does tell a continuing story of the ability of Silk to acquire businesses and grow revenues. And I, I, I mentioned the growth in the 101 Warehousing revenues above the pre-acquisition revenue base, which is a very pleasing number. And the FFS revenues being in line with our expectations. I think importantly, when we think about FFS combined with Secon as it comes on board, that does provide us a very exciting opportunity to provide a national service to bulk and logistics customers, which does open up new markets and new customers to our integrated service offer. In terms of balance sheet, closed the year at a very healthy position, with cash on hand at AUD 30.5 million, and borrowings at AUD 31 million. Our finance leases were at AUD 7.1 million, with bank guarantees on issue of AUD 16 million. Our net balance sheet debt, which is measured as borrowings and finance leases less cash, was at AUD 7.6 million. Our corporate debt did increase in the period by AUD 18 million which was used to finance the acquisition of FFS. We did maintain discipline in working capital and that remains a key focus area for us as it underpins our high cash generative business model. In terms of debt and borrowing capacity, low leverage across where we ended the year. At the year-end, we did have an undrawn M&A debt facility of AUD 50 million which will be used to the extent of AUD 30 million for the upfront Secon cash acquisition consideration, and the remaining AUD 20 million is available for further M&A opportunities, and also to fun fund any contingent consideration that becomes payable. We have also presented there, even after the Secon acquisition and use of debt, our gearing does remain at very comfortable levels. In terms of cash flow, the cash generation, free cash flow generation number at 86% remains a very healthy number. Exposure to customers is low. Our outstanding debts past 90 days due, was sitting at 1.7%, and our CapEx in the year was at AUD 6.4 million, and we retain prudent CapEx controls in place in that, in that regard. I think they're the highlights for me, BB. Thank you. Dani, over to you. Thank you, Brendan. Turning to slide 21. Last year, we presented our strategy centered on our five pillars, being: 1, providing a market-leading customer experience, leveraging our integrated service offering, growing in value-add services and sectors, expanding our site network capability and footprint, and driving operational efficiency. We continue to responsibly invest in this strategy with a focus on initiatives that deliver value, growth, and operating efficiency. This is necessary to support our ambition to grow to AUD 1 billion in revenue. Thank you. We have advanced our strategy over the year, making good progress across all pillars. Our customer value proposition is strengthened by our market-leading customer experience and integrated service offering. To enhance this, we've invested in technology that will deliver improved visibility, service, and insights for our customers. Our customer service system is in rollout, phase one of our customer Control Tower has commenced, with expected completion in this financial year. We expect these systems will provide the scalability that our growing business needs and improve our operating efficiency. Our BD team remains focused on identifying share of wallet opportunities across existing and our new customer base. We continue to see significant opportunity to expand our share of wallet by expediting growth in our distribution business. We're investing in people, processes, and technology to provide the capability required in this fast-growing business. This includes the implementation of a new transport management system, which will be online early into the new calendar year. This will allow us to accelerate growth in this important arm of our integrated offer. Our growth strategy will be achieved through accessing new services and sectors and expanding our site network capability and footprint. We have executed on this with the acquisition of Secon. I'll speak to that in more detail shortly. Our network expansion continues, with 85,000 sq meters due to come online in FY24 and FY25, unlocking approximately AUD 40 million in additional revenue per annum. This is now enhanced with a further 100,000 sq meters of additional capacity in Victoria through Secon. We are exploring automation opportunities that provide efficiency and generate stickiness with our customers as part of these aforementioned facilities. We have a strong focus on cost control and identifying process improvements and process automation across the business, which is imperative in this market. Now on to Secon. A binding share purchase agreement has been entered into acquire Secon Freight Logistics in August, and as Brendan mentioned earlier, is due to complete very soon. Secon is a well-respected brand name in Victorian port logistics landscape and enjoys 50 years of proud history. This acquisition will inject AUD 70 million in revenue, 100,000 square meters of quality facilities, including bonded warehouses, cross-dock, and hardstand, and AUD 10 million in fleet equipment, including specialized equipment. Secon has strong management capability and a significant business pipeline. This acquisition will not only increase scale and sales in our Victorian port logistics arm, but most significantly, a complementary bulk logistics platform, with the expertise to realize latent demand in large bulk logistics market. We believe this opportunity to be AUD 50 million-AUD 100 million in the near term, which will require some capital to unlock. We continue to explore targeted M&A opportunities that fit our strategic imperatives around scale and capability. Passing back to you, Brendan. Thank you, Dani. Just in closing, in terms of the outlook, I think the clear theme here has been Silk will continue to invest in its strategic plan and continue to invest in sustainable growth. As we sit here today, we're not providing formal guidance, we do expect to grow our revenues and earnings in FY24, consistent with our track record to date. We expect to drive strong organic growth, I can report in the first month of this year, July, John Sood and his team have delivered over $9 million of annualized new revenue already, an outstanding result. As Dani's touched on, we will continue to execute our plan in a disciplined and structured manner across our people, our technology, and our capacity in terms of network. This business has been primed, continues to be primed, to deliver our strategic imperatives. In terms of an update on trading, we expect to be able to provide a formal update for the FY24 period at our AGM in November. In closing, I'm really proud of my team in delivering the result that we've presented to you today. It has been particularly challenging in the second half and remains so to start this year. We are confident there are green shoots, and with the work that my team is doing, you can be confident that we will deliver on our promise. We will continue to grow revenue and earnings in this business as we look ahead. Thank you, Mel. I'll close on that note and open for questions. Thanks, BB. A reminder that you can submit questions via the Q&A function at the bottom of the screen. Our first question is from Ian: Congratulations on a great year. Given the ongoing noise around Same Job, Same Pay union push, can you advise what impact this would happen on profitability if successful, given the 60/40 split casual labor to direct hire for employees? Really pertinent question in this environment, but what I am delighted to tell the audience is we have locked away all of our warehouse EAs for a period of between two and three years. We are in the throes of locking away one final agreement here in Victoria, in our transport business. I think just to close that question, Mel, the investment we made last year in our employee share plan is really paying dividends. We are one business, and too often in a, an industrial environment, with an us and them attitude, it can undo good work. I can tell the audience, we're really pleased with what work has been done by our P&C team and Dani's team. We're in a good space, and the team is behind what we're doing with this business. Thanks, BB. At this stage, there looks to be no other questions, so I'll pass to you for final comments. That was nice and easy. Thanks, Mel. Look, again, thank you to the audience for, for listening in. We apologize for some slight tech challenges we've had again this morning here in the boardroom. Thank you for listening, and we will no doubt talk to most of the audience over the next week or so as we do our investor briefings. In closing, really pleased with the result, really excited with what's ahead, and despite the challenging environment currently, we're confident that we will continue to deliver the results expected of us. Thank you.
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