Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for holding, and welcome to the Wesfarmers' 2024 full-year results briefing. Your lines will be muted during the briefing. However, you will have an opportunity to ask a question immediately afterwards, and instructions will be provided how to do so at that time. This call is also being webcast live on the Wesfarmers website and can be accessed from the homepage of wesfarmers.com.au. I would now like to hand the call over to the Managing Director of Wesfarmers Limited, Mr. Rob Scott. Please go ahead. Thanks very much, and hi, everyone. Welcome to our two thousand and twenty-four full year results briefing. In Perth today, I'm joined by our Divisional Managing Directors and our CFO, Anthony Gianotti. As we ordinarily do, I'll give an overview of the group's performance for the year, provide some comments on the portfolio, and then Anthony will provide more detail on the financial performance. I'll conclude with some comments on current market conditions and the outlook for the group, and then the Divisional Managing Directors, Anthony and I, would welcome any questions that you may have, so starting on slide four, a slide that will be familiar to all of you. It sets out the Wesfarmers corporate objective, which is to deliver a satisfactory return to shareholders. We define satisfactory as top-quartile shareholder returns over the long term. We acknowledge that we can only achieve this if we continue to anticipate the needs of our customers, look after our team members, treat suppliers fairly, contribute positively to the communities in which we operate, take care of the environment, and act with integrity and honesty in all our dealings. Moving to slide five, starting with our financial performance. This year, Wesfarmers' net profit after tax increased 3.7% to AUD 2.6 billion, and operating cash flows increased 9.9% to AUD 4.6 billion. Our businesses demonstrated strong operational execution as the group's profit result was achieved in a challenging market environment, with continued cost of living pressures, subdued activity in residential construction, and volatility in key commodity prices. We had expected some of these challenges, especially with persistent cost pressure and inflation, and our businesses benefited from our early proactive decisions to focus on a range of productivity measures. As a result, we're able to mitigate cost pressures and continue to provide great value for customers. Notably, all our major retailers grew sales and earnings for the year, which, for the two thousand and twenty-four financial year, is a very pleasing outcome. This year, Kmart Group's performance was a standout, with earnings growth of nearly 25%, highlighting the market-leading value of its Anko products, its unique sourcing capabilities, and ability to operate more efficiently. Due to the continued growth in profit and cash flows, the board has resolved to pay a fully franked final dividend of AUD 1.07 per share, which brings the total dividend for the year to AUD 1.98 per share, a 3.7% increase. Looking across the portfolio, our quality businesses and commitment to responsible long-term management gives us confidence that we're well-positioned to deliver returns over the long term. Turning to slide six. As mentioned, the results reflect strong execution from a portfolio of high-quality businesses, where we have trusted brands, competitive advantages in scale and sourcing, and exposure to industries with attractive long-term growth, such as health and well-being and critical industries. This past year, our retail businesses have focused on continuing to provide market-leading value, and our major retailers benefited from their everyday low price positioning, which resonated with customers in the current environment. Their focus on reducing costs and improving productivity has helped to lower prices at a time when many households and businesses are doing it tough. Importantly, we continued to retain our everyday low price positioning at Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks, which benefited households and business customers as they focused on balancing their budgets. Our customers have responded well to price drops, including more than 3,000 price drops at Kmart in the last year. Our businesses are continuing to meet changing customer needs and expand their addressable markets through providing new products and service offerings, and capturing a greater spend from younger generations, such as Gen Zs and millennials, while continuing to meet the needs of the broader market. On the industrial side, our businesses again delivered strong operating results, with WesCEF achieving increased plant production and supporting customers in critical industries. Set out on the slide are some examples of actions we're taking to drive sustainable long-term returns. Key to our success this year has been the ongoing focus and investment in technology and digitization across the portfolio. This helps unlock operational benefits, productivity improvements, as well as improving the product and service offering through a strong, stronger omnichannel experience for our retail customers. Turning to slide seven. I'll use this to talk to some of the key divisional highlights, and then Anthony will provide more detail on the financials. Bunnings demonstrated the resilience of its offer and strong execution of its strategic agenda, continuing to grow sales and earnings in challenging market conditions. This year, Bunnings continued to expand its range with innovation across categories such as Smart Home, supporting an increase in customer demand. Bunnings also continued to invest in supply chain, data and technology projects to strengthen the customer experience across channels, such as the new Bunnings local delivery service. The business continued to improve its whole-of-build commercial strategy, and in the second half, Bunnings opened a new state-of-the-art frame and truss site to supply customers with pre-made frame and trusses with greater efficiency at a lower cost. Kmart Group recorded significant earnings growth. The result reflects Kmart's consistent focus over many years on developing world-class, end-to-end sourcing capabilities to deliver market-leading own brands products through Anko. This focus has enabled Kmart to deliver a step change in performance, driven by its everyday low price positioning, and provided new growth opportunities for the future. The performance has also been supported through leveraging digitization to improve operating performance. Now that Kmart and Target integration is largely complete, Target is benefiting from Kmart's systems, processes, and capabilities. WesCEF delivered strong operating results with good plant production rates and great safety performance for the year. As previously outlined, WesCEF's financial result reflected lower global commodity prices. At our Covalent joint venture, the focus remains on developing the integrated mine concentrator and refinery, and we expect the project to deliver satisfactory returns over the long term. Officeworks continued to focus on evolving its product offer and gained market share in technology, while also progressing actions to modernize its operations, including a new automated customer fulfillment center in Western Australia. Industrial and Safety continued to improve its performance, benefiting from recent investments and a strong focus on productivity. The Health division increased earnings while continuing to invest in transformation activities, focusing on opportunities to improve returns. Sales growth in retail and pharmacy wholesale was pleasing and is benefiting from these recent investments. The Health team is focused on integrating the InstantScripts and Silk acquisitions, which were completed during the year and are performing well in line with expectations, and the Health division is now moving from a phase of building capabilities to realizing the benefits of these investments. OneDigital continues to play an important role, accelerating omnichannel growth for our Retail and Health divisions. During the year, significant enhancements were made to the OnePass membership program, with the addition of new retail partnerships, delivering even better value for its members. It has been pleasing to see these enhancements resonate with members, and OnePass is driving incremental sales for the divisions and improving customer retention. We know that OnePass members are significantly more valuable than non-members, shopping across more brands more often and spending more after joining the program, with members shopping three times more frequently compared to non-members per annum. Catch reduced its losses on the prior year, following actions to reset the operating model and reduce the cost base. It's clear that the competitive environment in Australian e-commerce retail is intensifying, with the growth of international e-commerce and marketplace retailers. In this environment, the Group's investment in Catch, which provides a marketplace platform and fulfillment capability, provides valuable insights and capabilities for the Group's broader operations, and also improves the offer for OnePass members. So Catch is now scaling up its marketplace, which is a capital-light strategy that will better utilize its supply chain assets and digital capabilities, while also strengthening the Group's e-commerce offering. Now, these actions are expected to reduce ongoing investment and improve returns, and progress will continue to be monitored very closely. Turning to Slide eight and the progress on our sustainability agenda. As one of the largest employers in Australia, with around 120,000 team members, we know our businesses play critical roles in our economy, providing the first job to thousands of teenagers, often casual, still in school, through to terrific multi-decade careers built on great experience and development opportunities across retail and industrials. We know that our success is linked firmly to the creativity and commitment of our teams, and have long recognized that we'll only achieve Wesfarmers' purpose if we continue to look after our team and provide a safe and fulfilling work environment. In this context, it was pleasing to record improvements in safety across most businesses. At a group level, TRIFR declined slightly from 11.3 to 11, albeit with an increase in the year at Bunnings. At the end of the year, WesCEF had not recorded a single lost time injury for seventeen consecutive months. The Group remains at proportional representation, with 3.8% of Australian team members identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and recognizing its link to long-term value creation, we continued to build climate resilience across our businesses. During the year, divisions achieved a 5.4% reduction in Scope One and Scope Two market-based emissions, building on improvements in recent years and working towards our targets with respect to emissions reduction and renewable energy targets. Turning to Slide 9, you can see the summarized financial performance. I'll now hand over to Anthony, who will talk in more detail on the divisional financials and the balance sheet and cash flow. Thanks, thanks, Rob. Hello, everyone. On Slide eleven in the presentation, we've provided some further detail on the sales performance across each of the divisions for the year and for the second half. I'll speak to the performance of each division on the next slide, but at an overall level, we were pleased with the sales results for the year. In particular, the strong growth across our retail businesses, which reflected the market-leading value credentials and our everyday low price proposition, which resonated with customers in a difficult trading environment. This was particularly the case in Kmart, where comparable sales increased 6.4% on the prior year, while Bunnings had a pleasing second half, increasing sales by 2.9%. The revenue decline in WesCEF was driven by lower global commodity prices relative to the elevated levels we saw in the last financial year. On Slide 12, at a total level, divisional earnings increased 1.8% for the year, with the strong results in retail more than offsetting the impact of lower commodity prices and earnings in WesCEF. Our retail businesses executed well during the period, enabling them to deliver great value to customers and benefit from the continued investment in efficiency and productivity. On a combined basis, Bunnings, Kmart Group, and Officeworks increased earnings by 6.8%. Across the retail portfolio, the focus remained on keeping prices low, which supported growth in transactions and sales dollars and allowed our businesses to further fractionalize costs. I'll now step through the divisional results in more detail. Firstly, in Bunnings, sales growth of 2.3% was supported by growth in both consumer and commercial segments, driving growth in transactions and units sold. As household budgets remained under pressure, consumer sales growth was supported by Bunnings' strong value credentials, with bulk pack quantities, own brand products, and entry-level ranges all performing strongly. Pleasing second half sales growth was supported by sustained demand for repairs and maintenance, online channel growth, and range innovation, partly offset by a moderation in building activity. Commercial sales growth reflected continued demand from trades. Demand from builders moderated through the year as new building starts were lower relative to recent years. Bunnings maintained its strong cost discipline and continued to invest in business improvement initiatives to support ongoing reinvestment in prices and improved experiences for customers. Bunnings' earnings before property contributions of AUD 2.25 billion represented an increase of 2.6%, with the impact of lower property activity for the year, resulting in Bunnings' overall earnings increasing by 0.9%. Kmart growth delivered record earnings of AUD 958 million for the year, an increase of 24.6%. We continued to see a strong response from customers to Kmart's lowest price positioning and Anko product range. Sales at Kmart increased across all categories, with units sold, transaction volumes, and customer numbers all growing on the prior year. Earnings growth for the year reflected Kmart's strong trading performance, including strong growth in apparel sales as a result of of improvements in the product offer and well-executed pricing strategies. Target's comparable sales declined of 3.6% for the year, which included disrupted period of sales with the changeover in Target's general merchandise range to Anko. Pleasingly, the core apparel range in Target performed well, with positive sales growth for the year, and the Anko range is tracking in line with expectations. Kmart Group continued to focus on productivity measures, including the integration of the Target back office, which, along with the moderation in key input costs, mitigated the impact of cost of doing business pressures and higher shrinkage. In WesCEF, revenue declined 16.9%, and earnings declined 34.2% to AUD 440 million for the year. The result was largely driven by lower global commodity prices, with strong operating performance delivering higher sales volumes across all segments of the business. In chemicals, earnings decreased significantly due to the lower global ammonia pricing and higher WA natural gas costs compared to the prior year. In Kleenheat, earnings were also impacted by higher WA gas costs and a lower Saudi contract price. In fertilizers, despite strong sales volumes from a later 2023 seeding season, earnings declined due to the lower realized margins in a more competitive market environment. Good progress was made this year on construction of the lithium hydroxide refinery, which was approximately 80% complete at the end of the financial year. Due to subdued market pricing and the high unit cost of production as volumes ramped up during the half, WesCEF's sale of spodumene concentrate in the second half contributed a loss of AUD 26 million for the 2024 financial year. This loss includes WesCEF's share of Covalent's corporate and overhead costs. In Officeworks, sales increased 2.3%, and earnings increased 4% to AUD 208 million. The result was supported by growth across key categories, including technology, stationery, art, education, and print and create, partially offset by lower furniture sales. The sales result also reflected strong Black Friday and end-of-financial year trading and solid sales growth during the back-to-school period, as Officeworks cycled the New South Wales government's back-to-school voucher program last year. The earnings result was supported by disciplined cost management and productivity initiatives across Officeworks stores, supply chain, and support center. These actions helped mitigate the impacts of ongoing cost of doing business pressures during the year. Industrial and Safety delivered a solid result for the year. Revenue increased 1.5%, supported by revenue growth in Blackwoods and Coregas, reflecting higher demand from major customers, while revenue in Workwear Group was in line with the prior year. Earnings increased 9%, with recovery in operating margins helping to offset ongoing domestic cost pressures. Wesfarmers Health continued to focus on its transformation program to accelerate growth and improve returns. Earnings of AUD 50 million reflected the continued investment in transformation activities and the integration of recent acquisitions, including AUD 9 million of integration costs associated with the acquisitions made during the year, excluding non-cash amortization expenses relating to business acquisitions. Earnings increased 20.7% to AUD 70 million. Priceline delivered strong sales growth, supported by store network expansion, promotional activity, and online sales, and wholesale delivered sales growth, despite cycling a significant reduction in COVID-19 antiviral sales. Catch reported a loss of AUD 96 million for the year, which included an AUD 18 million non-cash impairment of Catch's brand value and AUD 5 million in restructuring costs. Excluding these costs, losses improved by AUD 50 million compared to the prior year. A priority this year was to remediate Catch's in-stock business and to exit unprofitable lines, which impacted GTV. As Rob mentioned, now that the remediation activities are complete, the focus is shifting to scaling the capital light marketplace, and we expect losses in the twenty twenty-five financial year to continue to reduce. Turning now to Slide 13. Our other businesses and corporate overheads reported a loss of AUD 167 million, and consistent with previous years, the result included the impact of a number of one-off movements and items. The key driver here was the favorable property revaluations recorded in BWP Trust, with the group's share of profit from associates and joint ventures increasing to AUD 19 million. Group overheads were broadly in line with the prior year, while other corporate earnings increased by AUD 8 million. This increase reflected a favorable group insurance result and proceeds received as part of the value share mechanism agreed on the sale of Homebase. This was partially offset by lower dividend income this year, following the sale of the Wesfarmers' remaining interest in Coles back in April twenty twenty-three. Finally, through One Digital, we continued to develop the OnePass membership program and the group's shared data asset with a net investment of AUD 70 million. As we've previously mentioned, the growing financial benefits of higher customer frequency, uplift in OnePass member spend, and improved personalization are reflected within the retail division's sales and earnings. Turning to working capital and cash flow on Slide 14. Divisional operating cash flows increased 4% for the year, with divisional cash realization of 101%. The divisional cash flow result reflects favorable working capital management in Bunnings, which saw higher stock turns, and this was partially offset by higher closing inventory in Kmart due to the later sell-through of winter apparel and lower payables due to the timing of year-end payments, as well as working capital investment in the health division. This was primarily from changes to supplier and customer payment arrangements. Overall, we're comfortable with inventory health across the group, with good stock availability across the retail divisions and improved stock turn over the year at both Bunnings and Kmart Group. At a group level, operating cash flows increased 9.9% to AUD 4.6 billion, reflecting the strong divisional cash flows as well as lower tax paid due to the timing of tax installments. Free cash flows for the year decreased 11.1% to AUD 3.2 billion, which reflects the cycling of proceeds from the sale of the group's remaining interest in Coles back in 2023, and the impact of cash consideration for the acquisition of Silk and Instant Scripts this year. Moving to capital expenditure on Slide 15. The group invested gross capital expenditure of AUD 1.1 billion for the year, which was 16.5% lower than the prior corresponding period. This was driven by lower spend on new stores and development activity in Bunnings and lower development spend on the Covalent Lithium project due to the timing of project spend. Proceeds from the sale of PP&E declined for the period, reflecting reduced property disposals at Bunnings, and this resulted in net capital expenditure for the year declining 11.7% to just over AUD 1 billion. For the 2025 financial year, we expect net capital expenditure for the group in the range of AUD 1.1-AUD 1.3 billion, and this will obviously be subject to net property investment and project timing at WesCEF. This guidance includes the balance of the remaining CapEx associated with the construction of WesCEF's share of the Covalent Lithium Refinery, with first product expected in mid-2025. Turning to balance sheet and debt management on slide 16. The strength of our balance sheet continues to provide the group with significant flexibility and capacity to support investment in growth initiatives and to take advantage of value-accretive opportunities that may arise. We continue to actively monitor the group's debt mix, and we manage exposure to variable interest rates. The average cost of funds for the year increased from 3.3% to 3.9%, with the impact of interest rate increases largely mitigated by the group's fixed-rate bonds and interest rate hedging program. Other finance costs increased 23% to AUD 166 million, reflecting lower capitalized interest following the commissioning of the Mount Holland mine and concentrator and higher average interest rates during the period. On a combined basis, other finance costs, including capitalized interest, increased 8.5%. We continued to strengthen our core credit metrics and maintained our strong investment-grade credit ratings from Standard & Poor's and Moody's, and the group maintains considerable headroom, and at the end of the financial year, the group had available unused bank financing facilities of around AUD 1.9 billion, and finally, the dividends on Slide 17. ...As Rob's mentioned, the board has determined to pay a fully franked final dividend of AUD 1.07 per share, which brings the total dividend for the full year to AUD 1.98. This is consistent with our dividend policy, which considers available franking credits, balance sheet position, credit metrics, and cash flow generation. In line with recent practice, the group does intend to repurchase shares on market to satisfy the shares issued as part of the dividend investment plan. I'll now hand back to Rob to cover outlook. Thanks, Anthony. Now, turning to Slide nineteen, before I touch on outlook, I just wanted to make a couple of remarks on the portfolio. We have high-quality businesses that provide us with a platform for long-term shareholder value creation. Our retail divisions benefit from their value-based offers, leading market positions, and products with broad customer appeal. WesCEF strategic domestic manufacturing capabilities support customers in critical industries where Australia is globally competitive. The health division provides exposure to sustainable long-term growth in health, beauty, and wellbeing sectors, and across the group, we're pursuing opportunities that support decarbonization, including the ongoing development of the Covalent Joint Venture project. So turning to Slide twenty, I wanted to stress a few things with the portfolio and as it relates to growth. We have various opportunities for organic growth in our current divisions, with attractive returns available from range expansion and investment in adjacencies. Our investments in health and lithium refining are a long-term investment that are well-positioned to deliver growth in earnings and returns on capital over the coming years. Finally, as Anthony said, the group's flexible balance sheet provides a degree of optionality to deploy capital across the portfolio and to consider step-out opportunities that generate shareholder returns. Turning to outlook on Slide 21. At a macro level, as we anticipated heading into the year, inflation and interest rates remain elevated and continue to place pressure on household budgets, and domestic cost of living and cost of doing business pressures are expected to persist, persist in FY 2025. Despite these challenges, we continue to see low unemployment and population growth, providing support to overall economic conditions. In this environment, we remain confident our businesses are well-positioned, with their market-leading value credentials and an ongoing focus on productivity and efficiency. For the first eight weeks of the 2025 financial year, Kmart Group delivered sales growth broadly in line with the growth in the second half of the 2024 financial year. Bunnings continued to see positive sales growth. The growth has moderated from the second half of 2024 financial year, impacted by the continued market-wide softening in building activity, and Officeworks delivered sales growth slightly ahead of the growth in the second half of 2024 financial year. Along with our joint venture partner, Wesfarmers remains focused on developing the Covalent Lithium project, which includes the mine, the concentrator, and importantly, the refinery. The project is expected to deliver satisfactory returns over the long term due to its attractive cost structure and the improved margin available from value-added production. Covalent is expected to complete construction and commissioning of the refinery with its first lithium hydroxide product in mid-calendar year 2025. Sales are expected in FY 2026, following ramp-up activities and satisfactory product qualification with customers. Looking ahead, Wesfarmers will continue to develop and enhance the portfolio by making disciplined investments in existing operations, developing long-term avenues for growth, and strengthening the climate resilience of the portfolio. Before we stop to take your questions, I wanted to acknowledge that this is the last results presentation, where Ian Hansen, Managing Director of WesCEF, will be in attendance. As many of you would know, Ian is retiring later this year, handing over to Aaron Hood after an over forty-year career at Wesfarmers. Ian's been instrumental in the development and the success of WesCEF over the years. While we're sad to see him leave, he's not leaving entirely, because we're really happy that Ian has agreed to remain on board as the chair of the Covalent Lithium Joint Venture and to continue to provide advice to us on various projects. So on behalf of the leadership team of Wesfarmers, Ian, thank you very much, and all the best for your last analyst call. So with that, we'll now take your questions. Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star, then two. We do ask that you limit your questions to one per caller, and that clarifying questions are concise. You may then rejoin the question queue for any additional questions. The first question today comes from Tom Kierath from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead. Morning, guys. Just a question on Bunnings. It looks like the store growth was pretty slow in the back half. And that you haven't spent a whole lot of CapEx either in the fiscal year just gone. Just how are you kind of thinking about store growth? I think you've given the guidance of 10% over five years. Is that changing? Yeah, what's kind of happened there in the second half, you know, economics of stores, sites, et cetera? Thanks. ... Yeah, thanks, Tom. As I said, at Strategy Day, if you sort of look back, it's been about net 10% space growth in the last five and sort of 10% space growth in the five to come. New stores, it's pretty challenging time out there for significant construction projects. So we've got a couple, like Frenchs Forest in Tempe, that we've just been really measured and disciplined in sort of progressing those, so that's sort of slowing the capital spend up. But, you know, we've got a bit to come. We've got Frenchs Forest, Tempe, the redevelopment of our Oxley site, which is the one that's flooded a couple of times in Queensland, Portland, in Victoria, and in Bowral, in Western New South Wales, still coming, as well as some expansion projects. And then alongside that, and complementing that, is the work that we're doing inside the box to drive space productivity harder. So automotive, for example, is rolling into our stores at the moment, and that's coming as we reduce some space in flooring, 'cause we can lean more on Beaumont Tiles, for example. So hopefully that gives you a bit of a perspective that we sort of see space growth continuing to be sort of that 10% over the five-year period, but just some timing on some of the projects. Thanks, and just on Tool Kit Depot, I just noticed that's, like, slowed down quite a lot. How are you thinking about that one specifically? Yeah, I think, as I said, at Strategy Day, Tom, you know, the opportunity that we've sort of seen emerge over the last twelve months is the acceleration of our digital business, and some really pleasing performance, which is letting us sort of drive a great customer outcome, but with a lower capital spend on new stores. We opened Belconnen, I think, during the period, and we've got one under construction at Launceston in Tasmania as well. So they'll continue to come out, but we've seen some really pleasing results digitally with TKD, and we're just sort of driving that, so we'll sort of swing back to that one at the next Strategy Day as well. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Hi, everyone. I was hoping we can talk a little bit about how much more productivity you expect to be able to generate from the retail businesses over the next twelve months, and I think it would be useful if you put it in context of what you managed to achieve last year, as well as the difference in cost of doing business and COGS outlook for this year versus last year. I might start, Michael, and then I'll hand to the others. From a productivity point of view, you know, we sort of think about it as a bit of a full court press across Bunnings. Did a significant restructuring with our New Zealand support function, streamlining our merchandising, and we did similar with our Australian store operations team, so that we can be more efficient and more streamlined. You know, we've called out, I think, earlier in the year, sort of the millions of hours we've identified and redeployed into service in stores, and we sort of have an outlook on that for around about another million hours across the year ahead. That sounds like a lot, but obviously, if you break that down to stores, that comes through, you know, in lots of different ways. We're more efficient at the back dock, more efficient with some of our pricing, and we can see a very clear pathway for ongoing productivity improvement. You know, I note in other results calls, cost of doing business has sort of been called out, and absolutely, it's a challenge with electricity and rates and taxes and things that get introduced. But I think that, you know, over the last sort of two or three years, our team have done a very, very good job in a very disciplined way at identifying those cost opportunities and driving them out. As we start to leverage some of the tech investments we've made, you know, we've got a really good runway ahead of us, but we do wanna do it in a very methodical, disciplined way, because we're bringing the team on the journey, and we don't wanna disrupt the customer experience as well. Look, I agree with much of what Mike said around cost pressures. They're certainly there, but you know, I think as we talked about over a number of Strategy Days and results presentations, Officeworks has had a well-understood path to modernizing and simplifying our business over many years now, and we continue to do that. We opened a new CFC in WA during the year. We're looking forward to that delivering the returns that are in the business case, and it's on track to do that. We continue to invest in process and technology-based improvements in our support center throughout the year, and our demand and replenishment transformation program, which is significant for Officeworks, is well underway and on track, and will enable us to have an end-to-end view of inventory for the first time across the business and deliver some material benefits on the back of that. And we continue to look at opportunities to improve the store environment, whether that be through the use of technology and how our team work, but also making sure we're optimizing rosters and cost rates across the business. So all of that's really, really critical, not just to make sure we deliver long-term returns for shareholders, but also to continue to invest in price, to deliver great value for our customers. Ian? Yeah, thanks, Sarah. Hi, Michael. A couple of things from me. I think, first of all, we have the one brand, two businesses. So let's get this right again, one business, two brands, got there in the end. That gives us a significant productivity improvement in the Target business. I think last year we called out that the one-off costs were pretty much offsetting the benefits. This year, of course, we'll get the benefits, so that'll flow through, particularly in cost of doing business this year. Outside of that, we do look at our processes all the way from product design through to in-store execution, and a combination of the processes and the technologies that we've been implementing gives us a line of sight to further productivity pretty much across our inventory flow. So that's both in cost of goods sold as well as cost of doing business, particularly efficiencies in store from more efficient inventory flow. I would say in our business, I'd see that as the ability to offset the inflationary impacts, but I'd probably think of it in that context. Michael, Rob here. Just at a broader level, if I think about our five-year corporate planning process that we go through, there's very clear and ongoing productivity efficiency initiatives baked into the whole five years of the corporate plan, and... ... A lot of it also comes back to capacity, but we, each division would have a very long list of opportunities, but we're really just constrained by people, resources, time. So it will really take us the next five years to get through a lot of what we want to get through. And the other, you know, the other thing to call out, which each of the MDs touched on, is the opportunities available through leveraging technology today are very different to what they were five years ago, and I have no doubt that in two years' time, there'll be even more opportunities. And I feel that as a group, we're far more capable of getting on top of those and acting quickly with those technology changes than perhaps we were, you know, five to 10 years ago. Thank you. Sounds like you've got a lot underway. Thank you. The next question comes from Sean Cousins from UBS. Please go ahead. Thanks. Good morning. Sorry, good afternoon. Good morning, WA. This is a question for Ian, just around Kmart. Conscious you don't want to break out Kmart anymore between Kmart and Target, but maybe just to clarify, the first eight weeks, did Target and Kmart respectively achieve the second half 2024 growth in line? Sorry, was that achieved in the first eight weeks? And then, maybe just to sort of amplify your answer to the previous question, is it fair to say that as your outlook indicates that earnings growth is moderating, does that mean that all the initiatives around the digitization of sourcing, supply chain, and the store operations, as well as those Target and Kmart integration benefits, all that does is offset inflation such that we should really see revenue, sorry, earnings growth go in line with revenue growth, or is the prospect that some of those initiatives could actually sort of drive EBIT margin expansion for the Kmart Group in fiscal 2025, please? Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Sean. Good afternoon. Yeah, first of all, on the revenue line, yeah, both businesses are growing through the first eight weeks of the year. It's only eight weeks. There is volatility from week to week, but yeah, broadly in line for both over the course of the last eight weeks. In terms of that second question on productivity, I think it to a degree depends what happens in the marketplace. So, we're very much focused on trying to maintain and grow both revenue and profitability over time. Sometimes that means increases in our margin, sometimes it means it decreases, 'cause it really depends upon that market element. What I would say, though, is I do see a line of sight to further productivity savings, which I just called out. I think that will help us offset the inflationary impacts that are out there. And then it really just becomes a question of how intense is the competitive landscape. And one of the things we will do is always keep the long term in mind, and we'll always make sure that we protect our lowest price position, as we see that as critical to the long-term success of the business. To sort of amplify that a little bit further still, does that mean that you're sort of coming towards more of the end of some of these big productivity initiatives? In terms of, is the potential as great as for 2025 or 2026, as great as what you realized in 2024, or are you getting to the stage where you've just sort of, you know, you've already made a significant number of improvements, it gets a little trickier from here on to access improvements of the same size? I think what we're seeing, and I'm sure you'd agree, the step change in performance in 2024 is unlikely to occur again in 2025 to the same magnitude in terms of growth and profitability. And the inflation is a big number that sits within our cost of doing business and some parts of our operating gross profit these days. So I don't think we're at the end in sight of productivity. I think there's a lot more to come. I can see benefit, as Rob just called out, not just in the year ahead, but in subsequent years as we continue to improve both our technology and our operating model that further refines and makes it more efficient. I would be looking at this as we have the ability to continue to grow revenue because of the things that we're doing on the top line, which I feel good about, and at the same time, we should be growing profitability at the same speed, if not slightly ahead, if things go to plan. Fantastic. Thank you, Ian. Thank you. The next question comes from David Errington from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone. Rob, this is probably for you and to Mike. I mean, I've got many questions, but this is the only question I'm really got front of my mind when I'm looking at valuing Wesfarmers as an investment, and that is whether Bunnings has got a lot of growth runway or whether it's going ex-growth. Now, what worried me in listening to your answer to Tom's question, and it did worry me when I see the CapEx dropping off as significant as it does for Bunnings, and you know, it's ironic that I'm saying you know about CapEx, but when I look at, like, a Woolworths that spends AUD 2.5 billion of on CapEx and Coles are spending over billions, your CapEx on Bunnings is only AUD 260 million. It's dropped, and when I'm looking at your working capital, you've really driven working capital extremely hard in Bunnings this year, you know, a saving of AUD 230 million, despite an inflationary world, which I'm imagining inventory pressures costs would go up. So I don't wanna poke the bear, but I am in a way, but I am poking you in a way that you're running Bunnings as if it's an ex-growth business. Now, I know that there's delays in buildings and whatnot, but I was wondering if Mike can really basically talk about some of the growth initiatives that you've got, because at the moment, when I look at Bunnings' numbers, I understand it's a tough environment. But for me, in valuing Wesfarmers, the most important thing for me today is to ensure that Bunnings is still a premium growth business, and you're not the, you're not running it as a mature business that's gone ex-growth. So I know I'm poking the bear, but if Mike could respond to that and assure us that there is plenty of growth and what he's going to do to go out and get it? Even if you have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, when you've got a ROIC of 69%, we want you to go out and find those growth initiatives. So if you could answer that, that would be really appreciated. Well, I certainly appreciate the encouragement, and this bear doesn't mind being poked. So, there's heaps of growth, David, and, you know, obviously, you know, if I go back to what we talked about at Strategy Day, the philosophy's always been the same: grow the market, grow our ability to participate. We've done a really good job over my 20 years at Bunnings in constantly reinvesting into the network. So what we don't find ourselves with is the need to go back and sort of hack into 50, 60 stores and do that in a really aggressive way. We've built a lot of functionality and modularity into our racking and our layout, so that when we roll in new categories and new ranges, it's very CapEx light, but it's very revenue positive. So, you know, we've seen that with expansions in categories, expansions in space. I called out automotive earlier. I called out a range of categories at Strategy Day, and I think on the commercial side, you know, it's really validating the way that we've sort of thought through commercial. You know, we're not just exposed to the commercial building sector. We've thought very deeply about how we drive growth in trades, how we drive growth in organizations, and we're actually, notwithstanding some of the headwinds from a domestic construction point of view, we're actually seeing some incredibly positive results in those areas. But they are smaller businesses that are growing, but they are growing fast. Cracking increase in digital penetration, really strong performance in our marketplace. So I'm never been more excited really, about the opportunities to keep driving those core things that make our customers' homes better, the building sites better, the organizations better. There's certainly no problem accessing capital whatsoever. We obviously wound out of some inventory that, you know, we knew we were a little bit long on coming out of the back of the last few years, and that's probably freed up some space in store, and we're thinking differently about some of our slower moving lines and pivoting those into sort of the digital channel as well, which means we optimize inventory efficiency there. But I don't see anything for Bunnings other than being a growth business. We wanna grow the market, grow our opportunity to participate. You know, and in our heartland categories, you know, power gardening, the tool shop, you know, we've got some really exciting innovations. We've got a new tool shop concept that we're rolling into 50 stores before Christmas, that when you see them, our tool shop looks materially different. It's delivering some really interesting and very positive results, both across our consumer brands, you know, and our commercial brands. But we don't have to go and build a new tool shop to do that, David, we just have to modify and adjust racking so we can do that in a CapEx-light way. And look, ROC is a little bit like EBIT margin. It's an outcome of other things. We're just focused on the long-term sales and revenue growth. So, yeah, I'd encourage you to keep backing us. Yeah. David, Rob here as well, just to add- Sorry, Rob. Yeah, certainly from, you know, group point of view, there's the capital's available for the businesses that are performing well and delivering good returns. I think the point that Mike meant, Mike mentioned earlier is a really relevant one, that there's always a degree of phasing and judgment required around construction and so forth, and when construction costs are really high, and there's a shortage of trades, it's just often not sensible at that moment in time to be throwing a lot of money around. But then, obviously, six months later, twelve months later, you can re-engage and do things far more efficiently and cost effectively. An example I'd call out, an area where we've deliberately supported a proactive investment in growth for Bunnings is pretty significant investments in frame and truss manufacturing capabilities over the last couple of years. Now, that is unquestionably an investment for the long term. Looking at where the building space is at the moment, it's not, you know, whilst I think we are improving from where we've been, the real gains from that investment will happen in the years ahead. Can I follow up? Just a quick one. In the next five years, 'cause not worried about the next two, because there's a lot of economic issues, but the next five years, Mike, can you list in terms of the top three priorities for where you see growth coming from? Would it be new stores, number one, or what would...? If you could prioritize that so we could get a line of sight, and then we could try to, ourselves, try to monetize that growth. If you could prioritize where, in the next five years, and I think that's a reasonable timeframe, what the priorities would be in terms of that growth? Yeah, it's gonna come in a number of different ways, David. I think we'll continue to see outwardly growth in, you know, parts of our B2B business, like organizations. That's a significant one. We recently received some NDIS accreditation, for example, that opens up some real opportunities there, and we're very excited about that. Got a very strong and capable team. We've got category expansion across categories like automotive. We've got significant category expansion to come in tools. We've got opportunities in rural and regional ranging, which we called out at the Strategy Day, which will impact about 130-140 of our stores. So there's natural growth opportunities, you know, through all of those. And then alongside that, we've got opportunities to sort of source the inventory better as we sort of go further back towards factory on the categories that make sense. We are a house of brands, so we're very focused on deep and strong supplier relationships, but we see a lot of innovation. I was just in the States a couple of weeks ago with a couple of our major suppliers, and new products and new innovation within categories is going to drive growth as well, and that's gonna make our space work harder. So there's real opportunity to grow productivity within the box. We've seen about a 5% improvement in gross margin return on space in the last few years. We've got really strong ambition to drive the space harder. And then lastly, you know, right back to Tom's question about productivity, driving the productivity agenda even harder to make sure we're more efficient, we flow stock better. All of those things combine to deliver really strong earnings growth and consistent earnings growth over the long term, which is really what we've been focused on for forever, I guess. Mm-hmm. Well, thanks, Mike. Great answers. Really appreciate it. Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Gilbert from Jarden. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, Rob and team. Sorry, another question from Bunnings, and following on some line to Aero. But Mike, has the strategy changed in the last 12-24 months with Bunnings? And specifically there, what I mean is in terms of the opportunities you see from a growth standpoint, 'cause I think you put out some numbers for targeting trade, getting to sort of around half the business a few years ago. But if you look at how you're reconfiguring stores, and I think you must be a top five player in pet and cleaning now in the space of 12, 8, 10 months, you put Flybuys into the stores. It feels like it's, and I appreciate it's always been a very consumer, sort of weekend warrior-type facing business. But is that where you see the bigger opportunity continuing to expand and leverage sort of more the consumable side, as it sits next to hardware, and where you've got right to play, and potentially moving more down the lines of what we see with the Lowe's and Home Depot? But it, it just feels like that's where the opportunity is larger in the more immediate term around sort of stock turns, productivity, profitability, and a lot of white space in terms of share. It's a great question, Ben. Like, I think if I sort of look at it over sort of the last decade, you know, the beauty of our model is it's really resilient. So if we've got strong consumer performance, you know, which we continue to see as we track into FY 2025, and you know, some headwinds in the commercial space, then you know, the business continues to grow and thrive, as Rob and Anthony have spoken to. Equally, there's been periods of time where we've seen consumer quite tight and commercial very strong. And I think that ability to sort of take a 50/50 mindset is important. Spoken many times to the fact that on the commercial side, we see the margin profile not particularly dissimilar to consumer, so we don't see that as a drag on earnings. And look, we think about merchandising an assortment from everything from the front gate to the back fence of your home or your building site, and that's long been how we've thought about it. You know, I see and hear a lot of commentary about, you know, a couple of consumable categories. They make up a pretty small part of our overall offer, you know, and what we drive in timber, what we drive in paint, what we drive in plumbing, you know, these are all strong categories, and we continue to innovate in those. You know, I know Rob called out Smart Home before, but the sort of transformational change in that category in just on, you know, eighteen months has been unbelievable, and the participation and the volumes we're driving through that are just incredible. I think people wanna make their homes more secure, they wanna automate their homes more. So, you know, I definitely don't think we're trying to become more consumer. I think Flybuys has been really useful for knowing our consumer customers in the way that PowerPass lets us understand our commercial customers, and really that's all about the service proposition and going forward. You know, when we've got more tradies in our stores than ever before, and they're telling us very candidly that our offer is very strong, our CSAT scores between consumer and commercial are very close, and they're just telling us that they really enjoy the convenience, the long hours, and the range credibility that's coming in. And then their ability to get even more through TKD and Beaumont Tiles, you know, I think that's really sort of validating why we've built such a resilient model. So, just to add on top of the question, to put that together, and you sort of rank them, it feels like productivity at a store level is probably bigger options. I appreciate you probably have more homogeneous ranging across the 15,000-square-meter shed versus just a stock standard Bunnings. Is that probably where you see the biggest opportunity over the foreseeable future? No, I think it's growth through more assortment, better space productivity in store, and using those opportunities, and also leveraging online. You know, if you go back six years, we didn't have an online offer. We had to jam pretty much every product we could into every store. By the end of this year, with our order management system online, you'll be able to view the whole range regardless of what store you select, and that's a great convenience for our customers, but it means we can become much more targeted at what's right for a product assortment in your local market, rather than just trying to sort of push all the products in because we're running off a paper catalog. It's not all about productivity. It's definitely about new SKUs, more innovation, and category expansion, where it makes sense, either in Heartland categories or reaching into new categories where opportunity to participate. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Adrian Lemme from Citi. Please go ahead. Hello all. Yeah, I might follow up on the Bunnings questions. I'm quite interested in the household cleaning and pets categories. I think, Mike, you just kinda mentioned that they're pretty small part of the Bunnings sales, but I would've thought, you know, they're growing from basically nothing, driving a lot of the sales growth at the moment. And I see the cleaning product all over the front of the store and even outside of the store at the moment, where you'd normally see a lot of seasonal products. So yeah, can you just talk to your growth there? And also, you know, whether you're investing your own margin to be able to undercut the supermarkets on these price points, because they do seem to be struggling to match your pricing, please. Well, I think when you're gonna go out and say you have the lowest prices, you have to back that up, right? So we're absolutely laser focused on that. But that's not cleaning or pets, that's gardening, that's paint, that's fixings, that's timber. So that's a mindset that's been in our business for 30 years, Adrian, so there's nothing new in that. I can't speak to individual stores and tie-up, but they will vary. One of the beauties of our model is that our leaders get to think about the layout of their store relative to what's going on with weather or what's going on with, you know, a particular event or theme or something that's happening in their local community. And if you look at percentage growth, yeah, for sure, pets and cleaning have got some strong percentage, but you can't bank a percentage. You've got to focus on the dollars. And, you know, that's what we're doing across all of our categories. What we just wanna be is relevant to the family, relevant to the home, relevant to the trade, where it makes sense. Which is why there's as much innovation going on in our tool shops as there is anywhere else. There's as much innovation going on in the way that we think about paint. You know, we're just bringing the Wattyl brand back into Bunnings. You know, that's a great, you know, well-known Australian brand. It's providing, you know, some really great competitive tension within the market and customers an even better offer. So, you know, we're very focused on, you know, the whole, the whole box and making the whole box work. And for sure, we study our global peers, you know, and we've taken great learnings from Home Depot and Lowe's, as we've done from retailers in Europe, the U.K., and South America. But sometimes we're looking at what's not working for them, more so than what is working for them, so that that world's best, that we're sort of benchmarking ourselves against, you know, is coming to life in our stores. ... Thanks, Mike. And is it fair to say, when you think about these categories, we shouldn't just think about it from an individual category profit perspective, it's also about, you know, driving increased frequency of visitations to the store. So it's more about an overall strategy for the store, rather than just focusing on the category themselves? Everything we do is about engaging our customers, whether it's our digital and, you know, I think it's like 40-odd million hits to our website every month. We wanna inspire and engage our customers. We want you and your family to come in on a weekend and do a craft activity with your kids or do something where you're learning. So, you know, it's about the whole offer and the way we sort of think about that, so that, you know, we're top of mind, and we can only be top of mind if we earn that right, and the only way we earn that right is to deliver compelling value every day. Thanks, Mike. Thank you. The next question comes from Bryan Raymond, from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Thanks, guys. Good morning. Just on Bunnings again, just trying to unpick the sort of the directional comment around first eight weeks. You mentioned sort of some of those trade categories in that outlook statement, softening or the broader activity slowing, I think was the commentary. Could you maybe help us sort of understand the composition of growth as you move into the first half 2025 between commercial and consumer? Are you seeing DIY or consumer actually pick up and as people do more work themselves, and are you seeing trade go negative, or is it still positive? If you could just help us understand that comment, that'd be helpful. Thanks. Yeah, look, you're spot on. It's really early days. You know, it's particularly, you know, if you sort of think about commercial, we're seeing some particular challenge, you know, in New Zealand, which is a tougher economy, full stop. And, you know, New Zealand isn't an immaterial part of our business, but I also don't wanna overplay that. We've seen, you know, really pleasing consumer engagement. We've got more customers in store, you know, than we've ever seen. They are certainly putting a little bit less in the basket. There's absolutely a focus on value as well. And then, as I touched on earlier, you know, we've seen really great growth in parts of our commercial business, and other parts are constrained by, you know, either access to trade or concerns with interest rates or confidence in builders, but that varies state to state as well, Brian. So, you know, Western Australia performing, you know, quite strongly. We've got good quoting activity for Frame and Truss, and as Rob talked about, we've got the capacity there ready to go. I think on commercial, the thing that excites me the most is the underlying demand. You know, the conversation about housing in Australia is one that's sort of dominating, and I think there's sort of a fairly consistent effort across all levels of government to try and drive activity into that space, where we're well positioned for it. So, you know, this time of year for us is really interesting. You know, we're heading into what is, you know, a busy time. It's Father's Day this weekend. We're heading to spring. We've got, you know, the OnePass event, we've got Halloween, we've got Christmas, all on the consumer side. They're all great things, but there's a lot of, you know, a lot of activity that come later in the year for commercial. As jobs and projects get finished, so the all trade and ag space is pretty good. So it's too hard to sort of unpick it, you know, with a finite level of detail this early in the year. You know, I hate throwing the weather word in, but you know, we're sitting in Perth, where it's cold and rainy, and it's 35 degrees Celsius in Queensland. It's a bit sort of all over the place with that as well, which can be disruptive to, you know, commercial activity as well as consumer activity as well. Right. So thanks for that. That's really helpful. Just to follow up on the DIY side, is that, I mean, given your numbers are still positive, albeit moderating, would it be fair to say trade softened a bit, the DIY's accelerating, or is it sort of just holding in at similar levels to where it was? Oh, it's- Help understand directionally there. It's pleasingly strong, but I wouldn't say that, you know, you sort of, it's shooting the lights out or anything like that. I just think what we've got is good momentum, where we've just got really good participation. I think people are keen to do things around their home, and it's also a natural part of the cycle, right? You know, we start to see a little bit of warmer weather. People get out in their gardens, the weeds start growing. You get that sort of bump in activity, and that's fantastic to see, and hopefully we sort of see that continue as spring and summer roll out. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Mike. Thank you. The next question comes from Craig Wolford from MST Marquee. Please go ahead. Good, good afternoon, all. And Rob, I'll avoid a question on Bunnings. Can I ask a question? In the outlook statement, there was the comment that you continue to monitor international supply chains and shipping routes and contingencies to manage potential risks. What are you referring to there? I assume Kmart's a key focus there. I know there was some disruption in Bangladesh recently. Sea freight rates have spiked. You know, what risks does the business face on that front over the next twelve months? Yeah, I might let Ian talk to that. Yeah. Thanks, Craig. Yeah, you're right. There's been a few things going on globally. Obviously, you've got the troubles in the Middle East, which is impacting global shipping, and that has a knock-on effect to sometimes availability of ships and timing of ships, of when they sail. And there was the unrest within Bangladesh, which seems to have settled down for the time being, and factories are very much back to normal, the shipments are back on track. Yeah, so let me call that out at the group level. That's a dynamic which I think is constantly changing and one we need to adapt to. If I speak specifically about the Kmart business, we have long-term agreements in place with our shipping partners. We, not surprisingly, import a large number of containers relative to anybody else within Australia. And that gives us the ability to negotiate pretty good rates. And we've got contracted rates for the vast majority of this year, so I don't see any near-term impact on the Kmart business of any of the increases in spot rates. But of course, if those spot rates maintain over the next couple of years, then that will be something which we'll have to deal with along with the market. ... So you've got contracted rates at the end of the calendar year or fiscal twenty-five? It's through to the end of this financial year. Okay. And does Kmart have to pay the PSS or the surcharges? It really comes down to the individual agreements we have with our two primary shipping partners. But we lock in base rates, and then we do have various clauses which enable some ups and downs based upon various, you know, elements. But broadly speaking, we're happy with the rates that we're paying, and we're very happy with our partners and the work that they do. Thanks, Ian. Thank you. The next question comes from Ross Curran from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Hi, team. Can I come back to Dave Errington's earlier point around capital allocation and where Bunnings' capital allocation seems light, given the 69% ROC? You've allocated almost double the amount of capital over the year to Wes' Health versus Bunnings, even though it's got a 3% ROC. Can you just talk us through the medium terms? I know you've talked a lot of times in the past, it's a long-term journey, but it is so far below the hurdle rate that you guys called out at Strategy Day and is declining. When can we expect Health actually to turn around? Yeah, Ross, I'll, I'll comment on that. It's Rob here. Look, firstly, we don't adopt an approach of rationing capital. Capital will always be available to businesses if we believe that the returns from that investment are appropriate. So that, that's the first point I'd make. With, I think Mike answered it pretty well earlier, that we're certainly not holding capital back from Bunnings. There are some very deliberate choices that have been made, around, you know, why we're not accelerating building activity at a time when costs are really high, and there's, you know, issues with trades and so forth, availability. Coming back to Health, we've also been quite consistent with Health, that this was very much a long-term project. The higher capital was, in part related to, we've bought two businesses through the year in Health. And we're, you know, the way that we're setting our objectives for Health, we expect this business to be getting towards a satisfactory return on capital, over a five-year period. We're not judging, you know, we're not expecting two years after acquisition to be hitting our hurdle rates. We've talked about the very, very significant investment we've built, we've made in capability build. You know, you can look at the financials and look at, you know, look at the investment that Emily and Anthony spoke to earlier, around the team, technology, upgrade various distribution centers, and so forth. So look, all I'd say with Health, Health is time will tell. You know, we'd ask for a bit of patience there. One of the great things with Wesfarmers is I feel we have the capacity to make some of these long-term investment decisions, but ultimately we realize that, you know, after a five-year period, you're accountable for the results. Over the next couple of years, the Health Division's focus is converting all that investment and capability build to profit growth and improved returns. Emily, you might wanna add a bit more context. Yeah, thanks, Rob. I think specifically on the return on capital for this year, if you add back the acquisitions, and a decision we made to bring some off-balance sheet financing back on balance sheet, our actual return on capital improved. We still have a really long way to go, as you point out in that direction, but when you look at the underlying earnings uplift of 20%, I think we are starting to really demonstrate that we've got- that we're making progress. And so, because we're on a multi-year transformation journey, you know, part of that is making, as Rob said, decisions right now, that are really about setting us up for the future. So, you know, we're really forecasting and focusing on the underlying earnings performance uplift over the coming years. Thanks, Emily. In the release, you do also talk about meaningful reductions in health and beauty. Can you give us a bit of a feel around that, and does that bring you closer in price on a product level to the discount retailers? So like, you know, everyone's spoken about today, value is incredibly important for our customers. We've seen really great growth in our retail business, in the last year, and, you know, part and parcel of that is actually about thinking about how we drive value to consumers. So we have invested in key value lines. Our customers, you know, walk through the door and expect us to be competitive, and that's really what that reflects. So really focusing on value for everyone through price reductions, and also increased value for members, through additional promotions, through Sister Club, which, you know, which has really, played out well. So we've had a really strong, what I would say, promotional, plan over the last year. You know, we've done some market-leading offers, like AUD 10 mascaras and AUD 10 cleansers, and that's really, really driving foot traffic to that business. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Phil Kimber, from E&P Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Just had a question on the WesCEF result, which I know the year result was down significantly, but which you know, I think you've given a fair bit of indication that that would be the case. But the actual second half looked a lot better than I thought, and actually if you take out the losses on the lithium business, you know, it was nearly back to the levels you were doing last year, where you know you had elevated. ... selling prices. So I just wanted to understand a bit more what drove such a strong second half result and how we should think about FY twenty-five? Yeah. Hi, Phil. It's Ian Hansen. The second half result was reasonable. It certainly wasn't anywhere near the result of previous years, where we've had the high commodity prices. I'm not sure it was any more outstanding than historical second half results. We always have a higher earnings in the second half because of the fertilizer sales and the seasonality that comes with that. Also, potentially in the second half, we did have the ammonia price coming down rather than going up, so there's the price lag on ammonia, which we've talked about on a number of occasions. In the first half, we were lagging behind a rising ammonia price, and therefore, suffering from a margin squeeze there, and in the second half, the price was declining, so the margin was increased in the second half. So all those things go together to perhaps skew the earnings a little bit more towards the second half than normal, but I didn't think it was terribly abnormal. I think maybe, Phil, just to add, the AUD 26 million loss in lithium would not have been just in the second half, because as we called out, within that, that includes overhead costs and other costs as part of Covalent. They would've been incurred also in the first half, so probably not correct to just take that AUD 26 million off the second half. Great. Thank you. And is that, I mean, are we now, have we sort of rebased? I mean, that price lag on ammonia helps for a bit, and then it sort of catches up to itself, I think, is how the contracts work. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much we're seeing stability in the ammonia price in the last few months, Phil. Whether that remains stable or not, you know, very difficult to forecast commodity price, but we've certainly seen a great deal more stability in that price over the last three or four months than we've seen over the last couple of years. That's right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. The next question comes from Richard Barwick from CLSA. Go ahead. Thank you. I've got another question on Wesfarmers. So for Ian, just to follow on from where you're going there with Phil, I mean, there's always a bunch of moving parts in Wesfarmers, and you talk to the outlook for AN earnings, probably looking a bit more positive, but energy being under pressure and obviously Covalent has been a little delayed. With all those sort of puts and takes, do you see that you or are you expecting to be able to actually grow earnings across this FY 2025 relative to the FY 2024 base? Oh, look, I think, the markets that we see at the moment are challenging in terms of- Mm-hmm. You know, we look at the mining sector here in Western Australia, the nickel business shutting down, and that's a customer of ours and also a supplier of ours, so there's probably an impact from the nickel sector changes. So there's some challenges in the mining sector. In the agricultural sector, of course, that's always dependent on the weather conditions, seasonal conditions, and global prices for the grain and the meat and wool. And then you look at our energy business, and that is subject to a large extent by the cost of gas in Western Australia. So at this stage, it's very hard to provide any definitive forecast for FY twenty-five. We certainly don't see significant upturn in earnings going forward- Mm-hmm. but at the same time, you know, we do see a few challenges on the horizon. Okay. No, that, that's helpful. Thank you, Ian. Thank you. The next question comes from Nicole Penny, from Rimor Equity Research. Please go ahead. Good day. Thank you for taking my question. Just following on with this, please. On slide thirty-eight, it states you might stockpile spodumene. Can you please talk to how much capacity you have, and whether there's any potential impact on product quality? And then also on the same slide, it does reflect weaker demand for AN from mining customers. Can you provide more color around whether this is due to the particular commodities that you've mentioned earlier or some market share changes seen? Yeah, thanks for the question. In terms of spodumene concentrate, there's no real shelf life for that product, so we can stockpile it for a significant period of time, and it can still be used to feed lithium refineries. So I don't believe there's an issue there. Obviously, we're going to be looking going forward at what sales we're going to make of spodumene concentrate versus what we need to stockpile to feed the refinery, versus what's in the shareholders' interest in terms of the timing of the sales of spodumene, if we have excess spodumene, so we'll work through that. We'll need to find potentially additional storage for that material, but we believe that's probably available if we decide that we're going to stockpile it. In terms of the second question, which has just slipped my mind, I do apologize. AN demand. AN demand. Sorry, yes. No problem. Yeah. Well, obviously, the decline in nickel mining in Western Australia will impact AN demand. We've seen a short-term softening in iron ore offtake of AN, but we think that's probably more to do with timing of. ... expansions within the iron ore sector and also perhaps some weather impacts. So we'd see the iron ore demand continuing. Gold is obviously going very strong in Western Australia, but it's not a large consumer of ammonium nitrate. So nickel will be the one that's impacting us greatest, impacting us the most at the moment. Going forward, we see the iron ore demand for AN continue to increase as that sector returns to higher levels of production. Yeah, gold continues to have an increasing demand, albeit it's a small part of the market. Thank you. With no material market share changes? Sorry, I didn't quite understand the question. You mentioned that obviously that's the commodities that's being impacted and is weaker in demand, but have you noticed any particular market share changes in that? Market share. Market share changes for ammonium nitrate? No, there's- Yes. Any significant change there. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Lisa Deng from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Hi. I've got two questions. The first one's probably more for Rob or Anthony. So just trying to get a handle on the growth envelope for twenty-five. If we look at twenty-four, really it was the retail businesses, and Kmart was, like, the standout. But if we look at twenty-five, Bunnings is running run rating softer, Kmart not growing to the same magnitude in profit, Wescef low commodity costs, prices still, and, you know, Kidman not profitable first half. Like, if we were to, you know, ask you, which in building your budget, which division should be the sort of torchbearer for the growth in twenty-five? Where would you think, or how would you guide us? Lisa, if you could see the room here, there's many divisions putting up their hand wanting to be the torchbearer. I'll have very detailed discussions with them after this call to see who's gonna step up. To be serious, we obviously don't give forecasts. We feel that across the portfolio, there's every reason to think that there's the capacity to move the group forward from an earnings point of view. One of the benefits of having a diversified portfolio is it gives us that you know that flexibility that not every division needs to be moving forward every year in order for us to keep creating shareholder value. I'd start by just noting that we had a very strong performance in our retail businesses in FY 2024, and, you know, there's no reason to think that we should be going backwards in retail next this year. There's every reason to think that we can continue to go forward. And then obviously, as is always the case in WesCEF, there is a degree of volatility associated with commodity prices, and I think it's too early to predict how that will play out. And then we have other businesses. Health is obviously expecting continued strong growth in earnings, albeit off a low base. And there are a few other things that we're hoping to improve in the year ahead. So yeah, overall, we still feel that as a group, we can move forward. Got it. And then, just to follow up on the growth drivers, like, I think one very visible and tangibly profitable digital use case actually is retail media. I think, you also mentioned that, and we're starting to see that kick into more scaled benefits in, you know, call it the two supermarkets. How should we really think about, you know, capturing that in that growth envelope that we're talking about? Is it not one year? Is it two years? Is it three? Like, how should we think about it? Yeah, look, I think you're right, Lisa. There's definitely, I think, a very good opportunity in the retail media space, where, you know, we're probably a few years behind some of the other names you mentioned. The great thing that we've been able to achieve through the development of, with OnePass and OneData, is we now have, some data capabilities that give us an enormous amount of opportunity. We should also remember that a number of our businesses are already participating in retail media, like that is already happening. That is flowing through their own P&Ls, and the capabilities, continue to expand all the time. So yeah, I would expect we will see incremental improvements at a divisional level over the next couple of years. And as we better harness and unlock the broader group capabilities through One Digital, that Nicole is working on closely with our divisional managing directors, then there's a bigger profit pool to go after. But I think realistically, that's over the next few years. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Sean Cousins from UBS. Please go ahead. Great, thanks. My question's on Catch. While I don't expect this to be quantified, I'm just curious, what are the markers, I guess, across earnings or operations that Wesfarmers is waiting for before making bolder decisions regarding Catch, as your EBIT or earnings losses were worse than expected? Sales have sort of deteriorated given there's some changes to the base being made there, but this is not a strong performing business, and I would've thought that earnings of this nature would probably require bold action. So what's holding you back from being, I guess, you know, more deliberate and taking a different approach there? Because it's unclear how the current approach is in the best interest of shareholders. ... Yeah, Sean, I'd say that probably the key opportunity is seeing the growth that we're looking for through the marketplace. And as I said, the advantage of the marketplace growth is it's more capital light, accretive growth. We're not out there having to buy and take the risk around inventory. So I'd say that would be one of the key criteria. But then the other related fact is the cost and efficiencies of our fulfillment. Is when you look at the investment we're making in Catch, we have a pretty significant investment in supply chain through a number of distribution centers on the East Coast. To be fair to the team, they've done an exceptional job of improving the profitability there, but we're at only about 50% capacity. So it's underutilized from a capacity point of view. That's why, you know, to fractionalize the cost and improve the earnings of Catch, we really need to get the marketplace growth. So that's really what we're monitoring. But you're right that, you know, we're not prepared to tolerate this level of losses for a lot longer. And while there are valuable, you know, there's certainly valuable lessons that we are learning around the performance of marketplaces and e-commerce fulfillment, there's a limit to how many losses we're prepared to accept to gain those experiences. And so just to clarify there, so really, as you see the marketplace be effective and work and drive growth, that would give you comfort. Conversely, if that marketplace, revenue wasn't coming through to the way that you would expect, and you still run at a, you know, an unsound utilization, say, at 50%, after a period of time, then you would make some more bolder decision. Is that kind of what we really need to be looking for? That's right. But the bottom line is, if we're not able to scale and grow the marketplace, if it's not resonating to the extent that we'd like with customers, and the great thing is we have a lot of visibility now on what customers are spending across the group, then that would lead us to rethink how we might deploy the various capabilities we have. We have some really interesting capabilities, not just in Catch, but within our other businesses around e-commerce and marketplaces. You know, notably, I think Bunnings have done a great job with their marketplace that's continuing to scale very cost-effectively. So, you know, we'll continue to monitor the progress there, Sean, but yes, GTV growth through marketplace would be a key KPI. Fantastic. Thanks, Rob. Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Michael Simotas from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Thanks for taking another one. I've got a bit of a specific question for Mike. You've mentioned the tool shop and some of the changes that you're, or that you are planning to make some changes in that category. Just interested to know how Bunnings has performed in the tools category over the last few years. It seems to have become a lot more competitive. Some of the auto accessories retailers are playing more in that space. You've got a lot of space that's been put on the ground by the professional tool retailers, which seem to be taking a little bit of share in the consumer channel as well. Just interested in how that's performing and, you know, whether that is why you are deciding to make some changes in that category. Yeah, no, it's certainly not a, it's not a defensive play. It's really just an opportunity to grow and engage with customers more. So when you see these, and, you know, very happy to, you know, through the team, share with you the stores that it's going into, you'll sort of see what we're doing. So we're going with more height, a different look and feel, which is based off some learnings, not only out of TKD, but global study as well. And it's really letting us expand the commercial range. We're really happy with the consumer, performance. We've got, you know, exclusive brands in Ryobi and Ozito that perform incredibly well, and they're both, you know, fantastic partners to us through innovation and growth, and we've done a lot in accessories. You know, I think it's actually why we've had the confidence to sort of go harder at auto, is the sort of performance of some of the stuff in sort of the mechanical tool category. So that's why we're sort of pushing on those. You're right, it is a very, very competitive market, and that's really what's driven us with TKD to participate in the market, because it is a different customer. They are mostly different brands and specialist brands that are managed through the channel. So the market performs differently, so TKD can sort of match it with sales and rebates and discounts alongside how that industry performs, while Bunnings sticks very disciplined to, you know, EDLP and the work we do with PowerPass. So, you know, really, this is just a category that, that's continued to grow for us over 30 years and, you know, brought some new leadership into the category with some fresh thinking, and it's delivering us some really pleasing results. And, it lets us to bring together a few different thoughts on optimizing space and fits very neatly in the way we think about, you know, improving space productivity across the store. All right, thanks. I look forward to taking a look. Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Ben Gilbert from Jarden. Please go ahead. Ben, your line is open if you'd like to ask your question. Thanks very much for taking another question. Just a quick one just to Ian. Obviously, it's a cracker result. We came up for the year, and a big step change in margin on relatively low sales for the full year. Just to the extent you're annualizing these benefits coming through into 2025, obviously, Rob just said you're expecting to grow earnings. If you're annualizing it at the run rate, it still could be quite a material step up in margins into fiscal 2025. I'm just wondering why that might not be the case, or is my thinking incorrect there? Because I appreciate we don't know all the nuts and bolts of that happening within the group. ... Yeah, I think, Ben, you've got multiple dynamics at play, so yes, we do have a full year of benefits of the work we've been doing to integrate both the Kmart and Target businesses into one. Bearing in mind, of course, the vast majority of that benefit is in a business that is 20% of the size of the group, which is in Target. So that's the first part, and of course, inflation is gonna be running across the entire group, which is 100%, so I think you need to look at it in the context of the magnitude of those two sets of numbers. So that's why we see them netting out closer to a zero as opposed to a big positive or a big minus. And that is the work we're doing around productivity on the one hand and price investment in the other. Because we know it's a very competitive market at the moment, where we're seeing retailers getting more price aggressive. I think as they try to figure out how to get their top lines to move in a positive direction, which is coming off, I know, a year or eighteen months, where we saw a lot of retailers expanding GP and not being so price sensitive. So that's why there's a little bit of caution around the relativity of the profit growth relative to the sales growth, because we're expecting a pretty competitive environment out there. I would say, though, we feel very well placed for that eventuality. And of course, if there's less price intensity out there, then so be it. All right, thank you. Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Tom Kierath from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead. Oh, good day, guys. Just one on Covalent. It looks like... So are you saying you're commissioning the refinery mid-calendar next year? I'm just thinking about how long that might take to get to nameplate, and, you know, when you'll be at full run rate, and we can kind of assess the costs and all the rest, within that business. Yeah. Thanks, Tom. It's Ian here. I'm gonna throw this question to Aaron Hood, who is succeeding me as the Managing Director. Thanks, Ian. Hi, Tom. So just to clarify there, we're actually commenced commissioning of the refinery rather than, I think in your question, you said commissioning mid-next year. So as per the announcement, we're actually targeting first product production mid calendar twenty twenty-five. We're complete construction, as Anthony said, at around 80% at the moment, but we've actually started handing over packages on the refinery to the commissioning team. We're probably one to two months away from actually starting to trial some physical product in the refinery. So really, the back end of this calendar year and the first half of calendar twenty twenty-five is that commissioning process. Once we hit first product, we then have a period where you actually send off samples to our customers, and that's the product qualification process that we outlined. So really, you don't see significant sales revenue potential for the refinery until post that qualification process. Once you hit first product, the other exercise we then move into is actually ramping up that refinery. So just like we've done with the concentrator out at Mount Holland, we're going through a you know a 12- to 18-month process at the concentrator of increasing recoveries, getting production stability. We'll have to go through the same process at the refinery. So when do you think, like, how long after first product do you get to nameplate, do you think? Or does it get there straight away? Sorry, I'm not an expert here. No. So once you hit first product, our definition, I mean, that's really, you know, a modest volume of hitting the grade and quality required. You then start, you know, it can be, I think twelve to eighteen months, just like we've experienced out at the concentrator for Mount Holland. The same process will undergo for the refinery in Kwinana. Yeah, cool. Okay, that's clear. Thanks, Aaron. Thank you. At this time, we're showing no further questions. Okay. Thank you all very much for dialing in, and if any further questions, please give Dan a call, and we'll be happy to help. Thanks very much. Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.