Good morning, everyone, and Welcome to the Midwich Group 2024 Half Year Results presentation. We came into this year expecting the H1 to be relatively challenging compared with 2023, and so it's proved to be. Nonetheless, we've had some significant achievements in the period. Our group revenue grew by 8% on a constant currency basis to a new group record. Our gross margins also achieved a record for the period of 17.3%. Our North American business performed strongly, but other markets, particularly the UK and Ireland, have been soft, and we saw some price erosion in mainstream product areas caused by oversupply. Our technical sales grew strongly. I think this year our focus on technical products and our entry into the US and the Middle East, particularly, have helped to mitigate some of the mainstream product pressures. We kept our other heads under control, but as the period developed, we realized we needed to make some adjustments to our cost base, so we've gone through a realignment exercise. This will have some positive impacts this year, but of course, the main benefits will be seen next year. The 2023 acquisitions have been integrated and performing well overall. We've made two small acquisitions so far this year. Although we have a lot to do in the H2 of the year, it's traditionally our stronger half, and we continue to believe that we can achieve our full year expectations. As I mentioned, our group revenue increased to GBP 466 million, or 8% on a constant currency basis. After stripping out the impact of last year's acquisitions, you can see that our organic revenue actually declined by around 1%. Our revenue growth was made up of a decline in mainstream products of 10%, but a growth of 13% in our technical product areas. The gross margin of 17.3% was the highest we've ever achieved. After overheads, our operating profit was down 15%, which triggered an action to take cost out of the business. Cash conversion of 13% is normal for the H1. Our leverage of just under two times was as we expected, and we've maintained our interim dividend, reflecting the board's confidence in the business and prospects. In terms of the current landscape, we've not seen much change from when we reported in March. We've continued to see softness in many markets, with ongoing strength in the live events segment. Our order books remain stable. Our market shares are high. Market intelligence suggests an expected improvement in H2, with a reversal in mainstream price erosion. At the start of H2, we've seen growth in our organic sales, which is a positive feature. The next slide is a reminder of why we're here and what our differentiators are. Our role is to help our customers to win and then deliver successful projects and our manufacturers to reach a broad market. I'll pick two differentiators. We have deep vendor relationships. They're broad, long, close, symbiotic, and unique, and as example of the results of this, we are exclusive or number one distributor in 80% of the relationships with our top 40 vendors. We also give consistently high customer service. This is key to the success of our business. Our team is responsive, we're knowledgeable, we understand the needs of our customers, and we operate effectively. As an indicator of how this, this has been successful, the relationship with all our top 50 customers has been in existence for at least 10 years. There's quite a lot of market data in our sector, so I've tried to hone in on some elements that are relevant to our business. If you start on the left-hand side, this is a very high-level view of distribution sales across the whole hardware technology sector. This includes mostly IT products, which we don't sell, but it does give a general trend, and it will be indicative of how our broad line competitors are faring. You can see a big spike in sales in 2020, with significant IT infrastructure and working from home spend. Growth in 2021 and 2022 is much lower, with significant drop in 2023, with 2024 expected to be broadly flat. In our element of the market, we saw a decline in the COVID year, but then strong growth in the two years followed by two flattish years. Turning to our particular market on the right, I've looked at the large format display segment, and these are quite significant parts of our overall business. The graph at the top looks at volumes, so unit sales, and the graph at the bottom looks at the value of sales by quarter. You can see a decline in volume and value in the first three quarters of last year, then a spike in volume, but a drop in value, indicating significant price erosion. This difference continued into Q1, was expected to be less in Q2, and then both volume and value grow in H2, with the gap closing by the year end. As the market returns to normal, this supports our belief for a stronger H2 of the year. The next slide focuses on the Pro AV market as a whole. This comes from recently published AVIXA data. The numbers includes markets that we don't operate in, of course, including India and China, where growth has been and is expected to be strong. Firstly, I would note the overall market is expected to grow by 5.3% a year over the next five years. The table on the left splits the market by four interesting segments. Core Control is a market where manufacturers generally sell direct. This showed a spike in sales in 2023, following a shortage of products in the previous year. Traditional AV is our core market, and shows an expected compound growth rate of 3.1% over the next five years. IT/AV overlap includes our unified comms business. This is expected to grow stronger over the next five-year period. And finally, we have businesses, a number of businesses that operate primarily in the events tech sector. This is expected to grow at the fastest rate of all. Final market data slide looks at information that's very pertinent to our business. Our best measure of performance in the market is to look at our share of the business of our vendors. This graph looks at our share of business of the top 20 vendors in the markets we operate in. So you can see that we have 40% or more of the business of most of our top vendors, which I think gives indication of a very strong share of their business. Dave? Cool. Thank you, Stephen. Just turning to the group P&L. So, as noted by Stephen, we were pleased with our overall revenue growth in the H1 and our further market share gains against a challenging mainstream market backdrop. While markets have been challenging for the last 12 months, it's worth pausing to note the progress made in recent years. Group sales were GBP 315 million in H1 2019, so more than double since the pre-COVID period. Record gross margins of 17.3% reflect the continued strategic focus on shifting our sales mix, both organically and through M&A, towards higher margin technical products. Over recent years, we've seen good progress in net margins. This trend temporarily reversed in H1. Of the overhead growth in the period, the vast majority relate to the impact of prior M&A. We've also continued to make further investments in expanding our Middle East business and our North American businesses. Adjusting for these, we saw core overhead inflation around 5%, and in recent months, we've also started to see people cost pressures starting to ease. Mindful of the impact of operating leverage and the market challenges continuing beyond our sort of previous expectations, we've acted to reduce costs. We've now largely completed our headcount and cost-related reduction activity. This will generate about GBP 3 million of savings this year, with an annualized impact of over GBP 5 million from early 2025, and we've got exceptional costs are expected to total about GBP 3 million, with GBP 500,000 incurred in the H1 of this year. Interest costs have increased in recent years, and despite strong cash management, we expect a further increase in H2, reflecting the additional borrowing from M&A-related activities in the year. Full year, adjusted interest costs are expected to be around GBP 10.5 million. We've got fixed interest for about 40% of our debt, with the balance floating, and we'll look to fix more when rates start to come down, which we're seeing the early signs of. We have a conservative approach to tax planning, and the increase in the effective tax rate in the year to 27% simply reflects geographic mix, together with the introduction of corporation tax in the UAE, and the estimated impact of the BEPS Pillar Two minimum tax regulation requirements. It's also worth noting that adjusted EPS in the period was impacted by a successful equity raise in June 2023. Although net earnings have temporarily dipped in the period, we also recognize the importance of dividends to our shareholders, and the interim dividend of 5.5p will be payable in October. Just turning to the balance sheet. Our balance sheet was impacted by the seven acquisitions in the year to June 2024, which resulted in the increase in non-current assets. Despite these acquisitions, we achieved an overall reduction in net working capital, period on period, with net working capital percentage of annualized revenue falling to 13.4% at June 2024, from 13.8% in June 2023. As ever, our operating cash generation is seasonal, with a modest inflow at 13% of adjusted EBITDA in H1, which is in line with our expectations. Our average full-year cash conversion over the last five years has been 87% of adjusted EBITDA, and I expect about 70%-80% for the full year this year. Adjusted net debt increased by approximately GBP 50 million from the end of December. This was largely a result of deferred acquisition payments, normal working capital seasonality, and further investment in the group's ERP system, which went live in its first country in June 2024. I've included a detailed cash flow bridge in the appendix. We saw leverage at just under two times, Stephen said, at June, and expected to reduce to about 1.8, 1.9 times by the end of the year, including the recent acquisitions, and is comfortable within all of our group covenants. Our medium-term target remains leverage in the 1.5 to 2 times range, and we expect our cash generation to systematically reduce leverage over time before further M&A. As noted on the slide, we paid out around about GBP 20 million on acquisitions and deferred payments in H1, including acquiring the remaining 20% of our Middle East business. Then, we've also acquired recently Dry Hire Lighting in the U.K., and including this, we expect to spend about GBP 10 million on M&A-related payments in the H2 of the year. Again, I've added some modeling assumptions in the appendix. Just looking at the regional view, so turning to EMEA, which is our biggest region. On a constant currency basis, revenue in the region was flat year on year. Organic sales declined by 2.9%, reflecting a reduction in mainstream product sales, largely offset by technical product revenue increasing. The softness in corporate and education demand seen in late 2023 continued during the H1 of the year, although we believe that we've held or improved market share in our key markets. As Stephen noted, market data suggests an improvement in mainstream revenue in the H2 of the year. We also saw further market share gains and strong performances from our Southern European and Middle Eastern Pro Audio businesses, and we believe that these overall trends demonstrate the strength of both our diversity by product and diversity by geography within the portfolio. Our Saudi Arabian business is building scale with its leading brand lineup. It's early days, but this business contributed well in the period and is perfectly positioned for future growth in this exciting and developing market. And strong technical product growth helped increase overall gross margins in the EMEA to 16.7%. Adjusted operating profit held up well, given the impact of the challenging mainstream market and further investment in the Middle East, and the acquisitions completed in 2023 have now been integrated and are contributing well. Over the page to the UK and Ireland, as Stephen said, market demand continues to be quite subdued in the period, with revenue flat on the prior year. We have our highest market shares in this region, and third-party data supports our assessment that this remained challenging in the H1. Previous market expectations expected a stronger recovery in coming into 2024, and this resulted in a degree of oversupply and associated discounting. So despite volumes and our market shares holding up well in the period, there was a reduction in overall mainstream product sales in value terms. Stronger demands in markets such as live events, entertainment, and hospitality supported further growth in technical products, and these now represent over two-thirds of UK and Ireland revenue. After an exceptional performance last year, gross margins held up really well in the period at 17%. Overheads in the UK and Ireland increased as expected, reflecting the impact of acquisitions and labor cost inflation, and this has obviously been one of the areas we've made our cost reductions more recently. Stronger mainstream product demand and the impact of additional new brands, combined with these targeted cost reductions, we expect to result in stronger operating profit performance in the H2 of the year. The two deals we did at the end of last year have now been fully integrated, and we've also added a small lighting rental business in July this year. Coming on to North America. So North America is the single biggest strategic market for the group's future growth plans, and we made further strong progress in the period. Revenue in North America increased by 69% in the H1, reflecting both the full year contribution of SF Marketing in Canada, which we acquired last June, and further market share gains in the United States. Organic revenue, around 17%, was driven by demand for unified communication solutions, an increase in customer wallet share, and higher project activity. Since entering this market in early 2020, our focus in North America has been on expanding our sales and business management teams organically to gain market share, to high service levels, and also to win new brands. We accelerated this with the acquisition of Farm in January this year. This sales-focused business, which is now fully integrated, adds two new locations on the West Coast and also 20 new salespeople to the team. The record gross margins in the region at 19.7% attribute towards the positive mix impact of the acquisitions over the last 12 months, while standard margins were stable year on year. Adjusted operating profit in North America was significantly ahead of the prior year at GBP 5.3 million. Finally, just looking at Asia-Pac, which is our smallest region, representing only 4% of revenue. It's also the region with the highest mix of mainstream products, about 60% of sales. Revenue in this region was down 4% on the prior year. Our business in this region has faced headwinds over the last two years, both from a slow post-pandemic recovery and the high-margin project activity, and also some signs of oversupply in the display market. We've added a number of new brands in the last 12 months. These are now beginning to gain momentum in the region, with a return to growth in the Q2 of the year. Demand for large projects also showed signs of improvement, so this hasn't really turned into revenue yet. The Asia-Pac gross margin of 15.8% reflected in the higher mainstream product mix, and whilst the operating loss of GBP 500,000 was below previous levels, it's expected to recover to previous levels over time as the new management team and the new brands start to build traction. Thank you. Our M&A strategy and activity has been an important part of our success over many years. We look for businesses with a strong reputation, a good technical skill set, strong vendor and customer portfolios, and a culture and ethos that fits with our own. We were very acquisitive last year with seven completed transactions. Overall, these businesses have performed well. We expect to complete two to four transactions this year, which is the usual number that we've tended to do in a year. In January this year, we bought The Farm in the U.S. This brings us an experienced technical sales team, particular strength on the West Coast, strong services proposition, and an excellent reputation with the customers and vendors, and also particular expertise in the audio and technical video market. The business has settled in well. In July, we bought the remaining 70% of DHL, a provider of trade cross-rental solutions to the UK live events market. This complements our current UK PSCo business. We have a good pipeline of transactions and are expected to complete one to two more, probably smallish deals, later this year. I believe we have a strong investment proposition. We have a market-leading position. Our strategy is clear, consistent, and successful. Our team is strong, experienced, and engaged. Our financial track record is also strong, and our market strength means that we perform well even in a tough market. I won't propose to go through all of these points. I'm sure you can read them. The final slide really is a reminder of the key drivers for long-term growth in the business. Firstly, we operate in a market with which is expected to achieve a five-year average growth rate in excess of 5%, and where we have generally outpaced the market. We have a track record of engaging in M&A, and we use this to expand our business to give us access to new geographies and to new product markets. Our long-term gross margin growth focus makes business more profitable and defensible. And finally, we will actively look to manage our cost base appropriately. Combining all these factors together should ensure that we deliver long-term EPS growth. So as a reminder, we expect our... We're still confident in achieving our full year guidance to the market. Thank you. Thank you very much, Stephen. We will begin with any questions from the room. We look at page fifteen. Do you think the North American margin has made great progress from H1 of the current year? If you think back to Starin, it was my understanding that the US had an inherently lower margin, maybe not the lowest, but maybe a bit lower down than the other geographies. And that if that were the case, if I understood correctly, what precisely is it that SF Marketing and The Farm have done to push that uptick in the last two to four years there? I think our expectation, which has been proven, is that the margins, the gross margins in the U.S. are slightly lower than they are in the rest of the group, or actually the world, and this is just down to volumes of sales, but it's more efficient to operate a business of some scale in the U.S. So our expectation is that we can still achieve a good, strong net margin, even with the slightly lower gross margins in U.S. business. And margins there have stabilized. That's a little bit below- Yeah, this time last year, it was about 14.5%, which really is broadly the standard margin, and then SF Marketing is a highly technical business, so it brings much higher gross margins. Yeah. The Farm contribution was quite small. Since it's quite a small business, I wouldn't think that would move the dial very much in terms of the whole region. So the bigger impact on gross margin is really down to the SF Marketing product mix. Got it. Yep. Hi, my name is Ben Baylis from Berenberg. Two questions from me. On, again, on North American gross margins pushing those 20%. In due course, the markets recover, and I'm thinking about the product mix you have on the market. Should we see that as indicative of what you could easily get, and so from here, the time you could? That's a leading question. I mean, we've got a very high. There's a very high concentration of the technical products, and particularly all the brands in the SF Marketing business. We've never really given an indication of where we think gross margins could get to, so that's a very interesting question. We have continued to grow them, most, well, apart from COVID, we've grown the gross margin each year. There is further scope to improve that margin, depending on how the product mix of the business moves over time. Could we get the business to that level? I don't know, but we'll keep moving. We'll keep growing, trying to grow it each year, so. Sure. Then second question, again, on margins, but down P&L. Just thinking about the cost, you take that business in half to the annualized run rate, GBP 500 savings. Presumably, that is looking to be taken into a recovery. Do you envisage having to put that back to business, partially or wholly, just a rough piece of that? Yeah, I mean, what, what you've probably seen is some reduction in the mainstream resources we've got, but we've continued investing in the period in places like North America and the Middle East. So there's just a slow pivot over time as we deploy resources into the areas that are growing. So I don't think we'll necessarily look to invest a lot more in the short term in the mainstream categories. It's obviously critical to all of the AV projects, but it's just, we're just balancing more than anything else. No more questions? Stephen, can we look at page eight? Yeah, the market data on page eight, we look at the four really useful buckets. You've got core traditional, IT overlap, and then event tech. So it's vital, isn't it? It is. Is it possible, and the answer might be no, but is it possible to kind of map that onto the language that you use to describe the business by technical, traditional product like that, so that we can just get a feel for? Yes, I mean, this was a slightly new analysis for me, in terms of the way AVIXA has presented the numbers. I think Core Control are control systems such as Crestron and the like. Those products have generally gone. Those manufacturers generally go to market directly. Very few go through distribution. So that's kind of a bit of the market, but we can almost ignore it from our business. Right. Traditional AV, I think, includes most of our business, from mainstream, some of the technical product areas. The IT-AV overlap is quite an interesting one. A few years ago, we traditionally seen a lot of the video conferencing market as being quite IT distributor-focused and supplied, and we've always supplied an element of the products into a, video conferencing setup. But certainly in late 2019, 2020, we started through the acquisition of Starin and then other businesses, we started getting much more into that sort of full solution. So there is an overlap between our, what's now become a fairly large part of our business and what the traditional IT market. This, I think for us, this really sits in that UC&C, unified communications market, and it's quite interesting. Having made a big investment a few years ago, there's some good growth post-COVID. Probably flattened out a little bit. Some expectation it might come back quite strongly in the next couple of years. I've heard that from a few people. This is- UC? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of the overlap, and the interesting thing about there is the, the sort of five-term expected growth rate is sort of above the average for that sector. So that's quite an interesting sort of trend and expectation. And then the event tech is what we'd call live events or installed sort of entertainment products. And again, it's long-term quite strong growth prospects for that sector. We're quite well represented in there, but we've still got more opportunity to expand further into that part of the market. We've made some investments in businesses that are in that market over the last few years, and they've done very well. Our business in the Middle East and Italy, Spain, had a very good year last year. That's continued into this year. S o they're performing, they're performing very well, so it's an area that's certainly of interest to us, and again, that's got the, the highest expected long-term growth prospects. So very crudely then, ignore the first one, the other three, your 60% in technical is everything in event tech, plus everything in IT/AV, and a bit of- Yes. I think that's fair, yeah. Then the other 40% is sitting in that traditional AV bit, in that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I, and I suppose what this says is where we've been investing, particularly in the last few years, is where the market's expected to grow the quickest. So, can you comment on the Middle East? Does that mean Saudi Arabia? Anything that's pushing that? For us, Saudi Arabia has been a very interesting start, and we're doing some good business very quickly already there. Our main business in the Middle East still is in Dubai, but... Thank you very much. Moving to online questions, I would like to remind any attendee joining via the webcast to please submit any questions via the Q&A tab at the bottom of your screen. The first question is, "Perhaps, can I please check if a buyback might be of interest, given where the share price currently is? Well, I mean, buybacks, I know they're very common and very popular at the moment, and the share price is below where it has been for, well, since 2017. But it is of interest. I think as a board, we did get approval at our AGM earlier this year to look at share buybacks. We just need to get our heads around where the best place for us to deploy our capital is. We still have good acquisition opportunities. We've got other uses of capital in the business. So I expect it's something we will do at some stage in the future, but I can't give you a date as to when that might be, that might happen. Thank you very much. And as there are no more questions online or in the room, I'd like to pass back to Stephen for any closing remarks. Yes, thank you. So a challenging H1 of the year for the market and challenges for us. I think we've achieved some really significant milestones in the H1 of this year, some great margins and good revenue growth. Really, really pleasing performance in, North America particularly, but also, A ll our people and all our businesses, are performing extremely well in a tough market in many cases. So I'd just like to congratulate them all and keep up the good work. Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you to everyone for joining us, both online and in the room. That now brings this presentation to an end. Thank you very much.