Welcome everybody to The Reject Shop half year results announcement. Following the presentation, we will open the call for questions. To ask a question during this time, please press star one. I'll now hand over to our first speaker, Andre Reich. Thanks, Scott. Good morning, everyone. I'm Andre Reich, the Reject Shop CEO, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our 2022 half year results conference call. Joining me on the call is Clinton Cahn, our CFO, who'll start by presenting our first half results. I'll then provide an update on the progress we've made during the half from an operational and strategic perspective. I'll hand over to you, Clinton. Thanks, Andre, and good morning, everyone. I'll start by walking you through the group's first half 2022 results, which are summarized on slides three and four. We've again presented our financial results on both a pre and post AASB 16 basis, which will assist you in comparing the result with historical performance. Our results include sales of AUD 424.7 million, with comparable store sales down 4%. On a pre AASB 16 basis, the cost of doing business was effectively flat on the prior period, EBIT of AUD 20.5 million, down 12.2%. Net profit after tax of AUD 14.3 million, down 12.1%. On a statutory or post AASB 16 basis, EBIT of AUD 24.9 million, which was down 10.2%, and net profit after tax of AUD 15.4 million, down 9.9%. We are pleased to have again finished the year with a strong balance sheet. On the 26th of December 2021, we had cash of AUD 106.4 million and no drawn debt. In terms of dividends, the board has decided that no interim dividend will be declared in the first half. Management and the board will continue to assess our capital management strategy, and we'll provide you with the next update at our full year results in August. Turning to slide five. Comparable store sales were down 4% on the prior period. Sales were impacted in some instances unfavorably and in others favorably by government-imposed lockdowns in each of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, WA, South Australia and the ACT, as well as changing state border and travel restrictions. In addition, the emergence of the Omicron variant during the lead up to the key Christmas trading period resulted in reduced store foot traffic, with large parts of the community limiting their movement or self-imposing their own form of lockdowns to protect against increasing case numbers in some states. This resulted in December comparable store sales reducing by approximately AUD 5.8 million on the prior period. Similar to most retailers, our stores in large shopping centers and CBD locations were most impacted by customer concerns around COVID-19, with comparable store sales down 5.1% on the prior period and down 14.2% over two years. In other words, before the impact of COVID-19, metro and country stores in neighborhood and strip locations were more resilient on the other hand, with comparable store sales down 3.1% on the prior period and up 1% over two years. As stated previously, these stores are the key focus of our future growth strategy. It's also worth mentioning that during the half and in line with our stated strategy, we opened 11 new stores, seven of which opened in the second quarter. We also closed five underperforming stores, including one in a large shopping center and one located in a CBD. Moving on to gross profit, which was AUD 178.8 million on a pre AASB 16 basis, with gross margin percentage flat on the prior period at 42.1%. We are pleased with our efforts to maintain gross profit margin given the international shipping costs incurred during the period were up approximately AUD 6 million on the prior period, and were approximately five times higher than pre-COVID levels. In light of these rising international shipping costs, as well as higher raw material costs, it has been necessary to increase our retail prices on selected products where appropriate. Turning to slide six. Pre AASB 16 EBIT was AUD 20.5 million, down 12.2% on the prior period, but up 27.2% over two years. The cost of doing business continues to be well managed. It's up AUD 0.3 million or 0.2% on the prior period, but this represents a saving of approximately AUD 10 million or 6.2% over two years. The increase in the cost of doing business during the half comprises a saving of AUD 1.1 million in store expenses, offset by an increase in administrative expenses or head office costs of AUD 1.4 million. The increase in admin expenses primarily relates to supporting our growth strategy, which includes investment in technology as well as bolstering our property and store development teams to execute our store network expansion. The ongoing simplification and standardization of in-store processes during the half were the main drivers of store labor reducing to 13% of sales. This is below the 13.6% in the prior period, which is pleasing given sales were lower than the prior period. Store occupancy costs increased to 13.5% of sales, which compares to 13.1% in the prior period, again, noting lower sales. During the first half, further rent savings were achieved through the renegotiation of around 70 leases that were either in holdover or expired during the half. There is an opportunity to achieve further rent savings, with approximately 75 leases expected to be renegotiated during the second half. Other store costs and marketing spend were well controlled during the period. I also note that store expenses include the operating costs associated with opening and closing stores. These costs totaled approximately AUD 2.5 million during the half, up from AUD 0.6 million in the prior period. That includes the non-cash write-off of assets associated with store closures, as well as a provision for stores expected to close during the second half. Depreciation reduced by approximately AUD 1.5 million compared to the prior period, mainly reflecting the full impact of a number of non-store assets that were fully written down in the prior period. Turning to slide seven. The company's balance sheet remains strong with a cash balance of AUD 106.4 million and no drawn debt during the half. This compares to a net cash position of AUD 73 million at the end of June and AUD 107.6 million last December. We were also compliant with our banking covenants at the end of the half. Inventory closed at AUD 98.9 million, which is in line with the balance at the end of June and up AUD 9 million from AUD 89.9 million at the end of December 2020. Inventory cost is expected to continue to increase as a result of cost price inflation, which includes rising international shipping costs as well as to mitigate against potential global supply chain disruptions and international shipping delays. This, together with lower sales, has adversely impacted stock turn, which was 4.6 times over the last 12 months, down from 5.5 times in the prior period. Management is comfortable with the level of inventory in the business and expects stock turn to improve as business conditions normalize. On to slide eight. The operating environment remains uncertain and customer behavior is yet to normalize following the emergence of the Omicron variant in late 2021. While we are pleased with our efforts to protect profit in the first half, I'd like to emphasize that our first half performance should not be used as an indicator for the second half of the financial year. As you may know, The Reject Shop typically generates a higher proportion of full year sales in the first half and has reported EBITDA and EBIT losses in the second half over the past three financial years. We expect the same to occur in the second half of FY 2022. The Omicron variant adversely impacted customer foot traffic during January, resulting in lower than expected sales, especially at stores in large shopping centers and CBD locations. While the ongoing impact of the Omicron variant is unknown, sales activity appears to be improving slowly through February. Like most retailers, we continue to navigate through the disruption that is occurring across the global and domestic supply chains as a result of COVID-19, and anticipate the cost of goods, including raw material costs and shipping costs, to continue to increase during the second half and into FY 2023. Management's focus during the second half will be to protect our gross profit margin, continue to optimize costs across the business, open new stores in neighborhood and strip locations, and navigate through this uncertain operating environment. We continue to look for new store locations where we can conveniently serve more Australians and are targeting to open a further 15 stores during the second half. In addition, we expect to close at least a further four underperforming stores during the second half. Most of these closures are consistent with our stated intention to close stores where landlords seek rents that do not reflect the significant reduction in customer foot traffic, especially in large centers and CBD locations, which have been adversely impacted by COVID-19. In light of all takeaways from the half year result, sales were challenged during the half with customer behavior disrupted by COVID-19 lockdowns in six states and territories, as well as the emergence of the Omicron variant in the lead up to the key Christmas trading period. There was further COVID-19 related disruption in the domestic and international supply chains during the half, with international shipping costs incurred during the period being approximately five times higher than pre-COVID levels. Despite these challenges, our stores remained open during lockdowns. We prioritized the safety of our team, our team members, and our customers. We maintained gross profit margin. The cost of doing business was well managed, and we continued growing our national store network. Finally, our balance sheet remains strong with AUD 106.4 million in cash and no drawn debt. I'll now pass back to Andre to talk about the strategic and operational progress we made during the half, as well as our ongoing key areas of focus for the remainder of FY 2022. Thanks, Clinton. Turning to slide 10, which is consistent with previous presentations, sets out the three phases of our turnaround strategy, fix, reset, then grow. Our focus in FY 2022 has been to continue fixing the business while beginning to reset and position ourselves for growth. I'm pleased with the progress of the turnaround of The Reject Shop, particularly given the challenging macro environment that Clinton has spoken about. Like so many Australians, our team continues to be challenged by the uncertainty and volatility associated with COVID-19. During the half, we endured lockdowns in almost every state. We temporarily closed certain stores due to team member absenteeism, and we've been dealing with unprecedented disruption right across our domestic and international supply chains, from factory all the way to store shelves. However, we're pleased to be able to continue trading throughout each state-based lockdown during the half. As has been seen across the market, the cost of goods continues to increase and is expected to continue to increase due to higher raw material costs and elevated international shipping costs. Despite this, our team across stores, distribution centers, and the store support team have risen to the challenge and worked hard to ensure The Reject Shop continues to help all Australians save money every day. While sales during December and January in particular have been adversely impacted by large parts of the community limiting their movement or self-imposing their own form of lockdowns to protect against the Omicron variant, I remain confident that customers' shopping behavior will normalize once broader concerns around COVID-19 reduce and more of the community receive their booster vaccinations. Until that time, our team will continue to navigate the short-term challenges associated with COVID-19, refine our merchandise offering, protect gross profit margin, and remain focused on cost optimization. In light of these challenges, there's more to do to fix the business, but we're also excited to have started transitioning into the reset phase of our turnaround journey, and preparing the business for growth. I'm proud of how much our team has achieved in the initial stages of the turnaround, and on the next slide, I will remind you of the key focus areas for FY 2022, and share the progress we've made during the first half. Now turning to slide 11. In our FY 2021 results presentation, we said that we would continue to focus on customer and team safety, especially given COVID-19. During the first half, we ensured our stores were safe to remain open through the various state-based lockdowns, including the extended lockdown in Victoria and New South Wales. We worked hard to ensure our teams received their vaccinations, and continue to encourage our teams to receive their booster vaccines. We implemented on-site rapid antigen testing in our Victorian distribution center in early October, which allowed us to operate through the key Christmas trading period. COVID will continue to be a challenge for our business in the near term, and so we will continue to focus on ensuring that The Reject Shop remains a safe place to shop for our customers and a safe place for our team members to work. We will reduce occupancy costs through re-lease renegotiations, invest in growth initiatives, and continue to grow online sales. During the half, our property team has been focused on searching for new stores, predominantly in neighborhood and strip locations in both metro and country areas. As part of the reset phase, our focus is on building a pipeline of new stores to replace closures, securing opportunistic sites, and readying for growth in FY 2023. As Clinton has mentioned, during the half, we opened 11 new stores and plan to open a further 15 new stores in the second half. We'll update the market on our plans for FY 2023 regarding new store openings at our full year results again in August. We've closed five underperforming stores during the half, which included one store in a large shopping center and one in a CBD location. We expect to close at least another four stores during the second half. We've also renegotiated approximately 70 leases that are either in holdover or expiring during FY 2022, with approximately 75 leases this half that will be renegotiated. These negotiations continue to represent an opportunity for us to rebase our rental expense over the longer term. We flagged our intention to spend AUD 5 million in FY 2022 to improve our systems and technology, as well as prepare for growth. We've bolstered our merchandise property and store development teams. In addition, we're in the process of upgrading our replenishment system, which will allow us to increase the number of products we have on replenishment, and in turn, improve availability across all stores. In relation to online, we continue to grow online sales in partnership with DoorDash. We've commenced a trial with Uber Eats across 16 stores in New South Wales and in the ACT, and we continue to explore other options for online growth. In our FY 2021 results presentation, we said we would manage cost inflation through selective price reviews, continue to improve the waste levels of general merchandise product, and continue to improve the drive aisle for our events area. Inflationary pressures such as escalating international shipping costs and increasing raw material costs are a challenge that all retailers have been managing and will manage in the medium term. This will be a challenge for our low-margin business in the short term, but we're working hard to maintain our value proposition. This means absorbing as much of these costs as possible while selectively reviewing prices to maintain margins, as well as working with our suppliers to introduce new products sourced from around the world and locally that represent exceptional value. I'm proud of our team for maintaining gross profit margin in the first half, and we're working hard to protect gross profit margin going forward. This is crucial and important work that we're doing in conjunction with the turnaround. We continue working to reset the merchandise range, which is a long lead time exercise that has been made more difficult with our team's inability to travel overseas during COVID. This has required us to find new ways to source innovative and exciting products, which is the DNA of our discount variety business. We've improved availability and store execution on our 365-day product lines, which will be further enhanced by the upgrade to our replenishment system in early FY 2023. We've continued to improve our relationships with our local and overseas suppliers with new product ranges and also giving us the ability to snap up product special buys that drive excitement and value for our customers. Our seasonal events offering performed well across Father's Day, Halloween, and Christmas. We'll continue to ramp up our events in the second half and beyond as COVID normalizes and our customers return to celebrating the key events in their lives. Finally, from an operational standpoint, we said we'd implement common shelving across all stores, introduce new and enhanced customer messaging in store, and leverage our stores of trial to test new ways of working, new technology, and other innovation before broader rollout. We've invested in common shelving for all stores, which supports shifting even more products to shelf-ready packaging. This will improve team member and customer safety in store and makes our teams more efficient to enhance one-touch, one-way merchandising. This shelving is being installed as I speak and will be fully implemented by the middle of March. We've introduced new and enhanced customer messaging in store with signage that shouts out our low prices and great value products, as well as also introducing wow bins at the entrance to each store, which showcases our special buys at AUD 1, AUD 2, AUD 3, and AUD 4 price points. Finally, we've used our trial stores in each state to test simplified ways of working with technology, new sales initiatives, and certain range enhancements, as well as technology enhancements to drive compliance and minimize risk. I'm so proud of how much our team has done and has achieved during the half, and how well they have responded to the ongoing challenges and changes that have occurred in the economy and within our business. To conclude, as I've said before, we believe the discount variety sector represents a significant opportunity for growth over the medium to long term. As Australia's largest discount variety retailer, and with our strong balance sheet, The Reject Shop is well-positioned to capture this opportunity. While COVID-19 represents short-term challenges and distractions, we remain focused on executing our strategy and creating long-term value for our shareholders. I again would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication demonstrated by more than 4,000 committed and passionate team members in our stores, distribution centers, and store support center who work hard every day to deliver value for our customers and shareholders. Thank you to all of our team members across the country. And to our shareholders, thank you for your patience and your long-term commitment to our business. We are determined to transform The Reject Shop and deliver sustainable growth. That's the end of our prepared presentation. I'll now hand back to Scott, the operator, to open the call up to questions. Thank you, and welcome to the Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. We'll just pause a moment to assemble a question queue. The first question comes through from Alexander Mees from Morgans. Please go ahead. Thanks very much, Scott. Good morning, Andre, Clinton, and thanks for taking questions. Firstly, I guess congratulations on the good results in difficult circumstances. I just wondered, first question was how you mentioned the lockdowns have in some cases had a favorable impact on trading, I wonder if you could just explain how that was? Hi, Alex. Thanks for the question. I think when we talk about the first half, we probably think of it in three phases. July and August, there were six short lockdowns that took place across almost all states and territories. As we've described in the past, when there's a short lockdown, customers tend to stay home, and we see a strong drop-off in sales. Distinguish that from what we saw in July, August, September, October, where we had extended lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria. The Victorian lockdown, and given the history of lockdowns in Victoria, customers tend to find us quite quickly, and that extended lockdown is quite favorable. New South Wales, not quite the same. I'd say the impact of the extended lockdown in New South Wales was quite mixed. It was quite slow to start. As customers found us, the lockdown was favorable for the later part of its duration. This doesn't go to your question exactly, but as we talked about towards the end of November and December, there was the third phase, which was the Omicron variant, where people effectively restricted their movement voluntarily and appeared to have protected their Christmas and summer holidays, and that had an adverse impact on sales where we saw comp sales down about AUD 5.8 million in December. That's clear. Thank you. Secondly, just on the selective price increases that you've had to put through. I just wonder, are you able to detect what the customer response has been to that? Alex, it's Andre here. It's probably too early to tell. In many cases, we've introduced new product, new price, so non-comparable items. So our whole focus is still remaining the lowest price in the market on our everyday lines, but maintaining our gross margin percent, which is incredibly challenging at this time, but it's probably too early to tell at this stage. Got it. Makes sense. Just finally on the international shipping costs, up five times, which is obviously eye-watering over the course of the first half. I'm just wondering about the recent experience. Has it moderated at all from those heights? No. It hasn't moderated, and we expect it to deteriorate over the next 12 months. That's predominantly as a result of contracts being renegotiated at higher rates as the market's shifted. Some context on shipping rates. If you go back pre-COVID, the cost of shipping a 20-foot container was around $500, and it's currently sitting at around $5,000 in the market. Contract rates tend to be below that, but that uptick is what we're seeing at the moment. We've been able to protect against it. I think what I just described was a 10 times uplift. We've been able to protect against that through contract rates. Those contracts are being renegotiated, and that will put pressure on. That'll put further pressure on shipping costs going forward. Hopefully we do see some normalization over the next 12 months, but we're not expecting to. Doing a great job so far. Thanks so much. Thanks, Alex. Thank you, Alex. The next question comes through from Anna Kwan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, Anna. Hey, morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanna echo the previous comments. Congrats on a set of resilient results in a difficult environment. A couple of follow-ups if I can, please. Just around wrapping up some of the earlier questions and comments on cost. Looking at the GP margin line, Clinton, can you give us some color, particularly, I suppose, helping us quantify some of the moving parts in that GP margin improvement in the half, I suppose, you know, contribution from some of the price increases and logistic costs you quantified already and perhaps in terms of FX benefit as well? Thanks for the question, Anna. We held gross profit margin at 42.1% half on half, which is pleasing. There's a lot going on in gross profit. We've talked about shipping costs increasing. Raw material costs are increasing. We've talked in the past that there's an FX benefit given where we were hedged in FY 2021 and FY 2020. That's an offset to those costs, but certainly does not fully offset. We've been challenged, particularly over the last six months in the domestic supply chain, and you would have read about our challenges around trucking and absentees in the warehouses and productivity issues and effectively, more cost in the domestic supply chain over the last six months. There's lots and lots of moving parts. We've worked really hard to absorb those or offset those in different ways, one of which has been increasing price. We expect all of those to persist into the second half. In many cases, like we talked about shipping, they actually get worse. There's more work for us to do around price. In August last year, we talked about gross profit margin for the full year increasing. In FY 2022, our gross profit margin was about 40.3%, and we said that would increase. Our expectation will be that that will be around 41% for the full year. Either somewhere just below that or around 41% or slightly above. We're working really hard to do that. I think probably just wanna call out, there's so much that's moving every week. It's hard to give specific guidance around that. Yeah. Okay. I appreciate that. Just on the price increases you guys put through in the first half, can you give some color just around the quantum and timing of it? We're probably not gonna go into that detail. We're not gonna go into that detail at this stage. The fact that we've held gross profit margin should give you a sense that we've increased prices to offset those cost changes. I think it's also just hard to give detail given the variability in trade, the change in customer behavior, so the shift to consumables, for example, when there's a COVID lockdown. So, I think we could potentially be able to give more color on that at the full year. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. The other question I had just around delivery. Last quarter, you guys were trialing DoorDash. Any color or any update on that front, how you guys are going especially off down from roughly? Yeah. It's been good. I think. The number one focus with DoorDash has been to open a channel to get product to customers in the event that our business is shut, and thankfully, we stayed open through all the lockdowns. DoorDash has traded well. It's still immaterial in the context of our business. We've got 255 stores on DoorDash, about 1,600 products, which is a very small subset of what we can actually offer, and the products delivered in 45 minutes. We're trialing about 16 stores with Uber Eats, and our expectation is that we'll increase that to hopefully a similar number to DoorDash in the coming six to 12 months. At the same time, we're also exploring what we can do on our side in a way that's capital light and makes sense for our business. I think at the moment, it's not a distraction for the business. Our key focus is on managing through the current environment and growing our store network. Yes. I'm sorry if I can just squeeze in one last question. Just going back to an earlier question around trading in the first half, particularly around this period. We're sort of hearing or been hearing comments from some of the online retailers saying the holiday shopping has been brought forward given online has taken some market share. Have you guys sort of noticed any material changes in customer behavior around the holiday season at all from your end? Well, I think the fact that we're down AUD 5.8 million in December. We were not expecting that. I think we were expecting to grow in, Anna. How much of that is attributed to the commentary around bringing demand into, say, the Black Friday period. That doesn't seem to be our experience. I think our experience is people just stay home, given the emergence of the Omicron variant and some of the restrictions that were in place that would have forced people to miss their Christmas holiday or their summer holiday. What we've seen is significantly reduced traffic as opposed to reduced spend through the December period, and that persisted right through January. January was a disappointing month for us, and we are starting to see improvement through February, albeit it's slow. Yeah. Excellent. Thanks so much, Dave. Thanks, Anna. Thank you, Anna. Next question comes through from James Casey from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead. Oh, good morning, gents. You've been quite transparent on your shipping costs to date. The impact was AUD 9 million last year, I think, and AUD 9 million this year. Just given your comments on upcoming contract rates, is that AUD 9 million impact this year going to be higher? Hi, James. Let me clarify a couple of things. Our comment last year was that shipping costs were AUD 9 million higher than what we expected, not that they're actually AUD 9 million higher. Although it's not far off from how much higher they were, and that was on a full year basis. This is on a half-year basis. They were AUD 6 million higher on a half-year basis. We expect that number to get worse in the second half, so the impact will almost triple. As in AUD 18 million this year? Yeah. Ahead of the previous year. That's still a work in progress, and it depends on where rates end up, but that's our expectation. We'll manage through that. We're in the same place as everyone else in the market, so we've just gotta manage through it. Okay. That's clear. Just with regards to the performance of the new stores, I just wonder if you could make some comments around the new stores. It's probably been a pretty difficult period to get a real sense of how they're performing. Just in terms of their productivity and perhaps the time to break even on average of the new stores. James, Andre here. Clinton will answer the break-even question, but you're right. To get a handle, especially as we open most of our stores in Q2, to get a handle on their performance as soon as the Omicron variant hit is quite hard to do. What we are finding, though, is the few locations are more resilient. So, strip shops, regional locations, they are the ones that have been the strongest of the new ones, and they are definitely our growth channel going forward. Hard to give you an answer at this stage. Customers pretty confident, business goes back to normal, confident that they're still the right locations. Yeah. It's a hard one to answer. The bulk of the stores, our new stores, seven of them opened in the fourth quarter 2021, and then seven in the second quarter of FY 2022. They haven't been open for very long. They've been open through periods of lockdown and that Omicron impact we were talking about previously. To comment on it meaningfully is actually quite challenging at this stage. What we can say is, all profitable with the exception of one during the half, and we know why that one isn't, and we're working on making sure it is, and that's a combination of COVID and operational issues. We're working through that. I think what's important about the new stores is the average rent on the new stores is about AUD 200,000 per annum, and that compares to our portfolio, which is just over AUD 300,000. We're setting those stores up to be profitable. Our focus will be on profit as opposed to sales. James, I just wanna clarify. I think one of the things we said earlier around shipping. It's up AUD 6 million in first half 2022 versus first half 2021. When I say that's gonna triple, that's on a full year basis. In other words, another 12 in the second half to get to 18. Yeah. Just to clarify, it's not a further 18. Yes. Okay. Okay, thanks, gents. Thanks, James. Thank you, James. Next question comes through from Keegan Booysen from Jarden. Please go ahead. Good morning, team. Just firstly, just on the cost front, just picking it apart a little bit, it looks like if you remove some of the store opening and the closing costs, you've given that detail about a AUD 1.9 million delta. So if you remove that from your CODB, it actually fell about 1% despite adding some more stores, as well as investing in, like you said, admin for growth. Can you talk a bit more about this progress that you've made there? And Andre, particularly on the efficiency front with some of the new technology you're putting in, do you think that the, you know, the amount of cost that you can get out can continue to improve? Is there any more efficiency that's low-hanging fruit there again? Thanks, Keegan. Definitely. We've really only been at the efficiency plan in store operations for, let's say, properly 12 months. At the same time, we've had the decline in sales, which increases the cost in store on a percentage term. Just the time to roll out new efficiencies and new technologies taking a little bit longer. Case in point, common shelving was slightly delayed in terms of getting that into store. We've seen with the stores that we've already completed and the work the teams have done in terms of delivering product into store shelf-ready, we're seeing a material saving in labor, and that will continue to improve as we standardize our processes and become more efficient. You know, ultimately, we want the entire business to run in a cookie-cutter way, making sure that, you know, every store operates with the same standards and disciplines. Therefore, when we find an opportunity to wash through further efficiencies, all stores can benefit from that efficiency. At the same time, as we create cluster stores and bringing, you know, more stores in the suburbs that they're in, we'll be able to more efficiently move our team members around those stores and creating further efficiencies and labor savings. There's still a lot of work to do, and I do believe we do believe that there is ongoing savings we can make over the next two to five years. That's definitely an area I think you guys have outperformed on. Sorry, Clinton. I was gonna say I'll step through the numbers for you. Thank you for adjusting our numbers for us and highlighting the effort we're making on cost of doing business. Just to walk through store expenses, firstly. The main components there are labor, rent, store opening and closing costs, and then a bucket of other costs. So, just stepping through each of those. Labor, going back to FY 2019, I'm talking on a full year basis. Labor costs were AUD 122 million. In FY 2020 they were AUD 119 million. In FY 2021, they were AUD 108 million. We've taken out over AUD 14 million over two years. Our expectation for this full year will be that we hold that dollar amount flat, which is what we said we'd do in August, which we think is a good effort considering the minimum wage increase that hit us in September. As well as you pointed out, new stores coming through as well. When you think about that on a half year basis, we saved AUD 3.7 million this half versus last half, or AUD 10 million over two years. We're pleased with that. On the rent side, we spent AUD 114 million in FY 2021 and what we said in August is that we'd hold that dollar value flat, and I think we're on track to do that, broadly. That should give you a sense of what the second half looks like. As for new stores, we spent AUD 2.5 million on opening and closing costs in the first half versus 0.6 in the prior period, so AUD 2 million up. We think we'll spend another AUD 1.5 million, AUD 1.7 million in the second half. So AUD 4.2 million roughly in total for the full year. That leaves a bucket of other costs, which are generally well controlled. Expect that bucket of costs to be roughly the same in the second half as it was in the first half. That should allow you to get a sense for where store expenses will land for this full year. The admin cost bucket, which I know wasn't part of your question, but while I'm on a roll, I'm gonna grab it. AUD 36 million in FY 2021, and we guided that to be higher this year, and we flagged AUD 5 million of investment in technology and other growth initiatives. Our expectation is that we'll probably end up at around AUD 42 million-AUD 44 million for the year. That's subject to, for example, where bonus provisions and other things end up. The driver there is that investment in technology and then bolstering our team, so particularly merchandise, property and store development. Those are the main drivers for that uplift. That should help with that line. Depreciation, we saved AUD 1.5 million in the half. We expect to end the year somewhere between AUD 13 million and AUD 13.5 million. I think we've done our best to give a bit of color from gross profit margin down to depreciation, and I think the question will just be sales, and we can't guide on that at the moment given the volatility. Maybe if we can extend from there, quickly. Just on that labor front, obviously making a lot of progress there. If we think about, you know, once Omicron and COVID-19 is behind us and, you know, you can picture a world where sales starts come back, how do we think about labor incrementally as those dollars come back? Do you think that something, you know, the dollar amount of labor, do you think it's easy to manage that and keep that stable? Do you think as sales come back, you might have to put some more incremental costs into the business, obviously as sales come up? Do you think this is something that's, you know, structurally is gonna be lower for longer? I think our objective, we went into the year saying we're gonna hold that dollar number flat. That's irrespective of where sales are gonna come out. Our objective is to hold that number where it is or continue to reduce it. Obviously subject to the dynamics in the labor market and other things, but that's our objective. Okay. Then just lastly, just on the gross margin front, obviously those taking price across a couple of the product ranges you have. It's pretty clear inflation is coming through pretty thick. When you think about from a merchandising or pricing strategy perspective, whether, when you take price on products, are you looking to hold the gross margin flat? Or do you think there's some scope to enhance gross margin in certain product ranges? There's a couple ways to answer that. Keegan, through any of the COVID lockdowns, consumables trade typically better, which is a slightly lower margin. What we think as we go back to more normal and customers go back to celebrating key events, there will be a margin uptick just based on sales mix. In the short term, our number one goal based on so many moving parts around cost, supply and the increase in raw materials is to hold that gross margin. And that's a big job. I think if you speak to any retailers that have clocked what's going on, it'll probably be the biggest job we've done in decades. That's all. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Keegan. Thank you, Keegan. That concludes The Reject Shop half year results announcement. Thank you once again for joining us today. You may all disconnect.