Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for this afternoon's pre-close call, just before our close period in preparation for our interim results. We issued a trading update this morning to provide insight into the group's trading performance for the 24 weeks to 15 March. As you know, we issued a trading update in February, so today's update simply includes an additional four weeks of trading. Total group turnover for the 24-week period increased by 8.9%, down from the 9.3% we reported at 20 weeks. However, this deterioration is predominantly foreign currency-related, non-ZAR regions. In South Africa, the operating environment continues to be challenging. Inflationary pressures, combined with a high unemployment rate, continue to place consumers under immense pressure. Our Southern African region delivered total wholesale turnover growth of 5.7%. Within this, our core food and liquor business delivered growth of 6% against internally measured inflation of 7.2%. Our KwaZulu-Natal region is still negatively impacted by new systems, and loyalty has declined somewhat in this region. The regional team is working hard to win this loyalty back. It's worth noting that national SPAR grocery and liquor turnover retail level increased by 7.1% for the 24-week period. This number is more representative for industry comparisons. Our wholesale grocery business in EC grew at 5%, and the liquor category traded strongly, increasing wholesale sales at 12.8%, and Build it has seen a pleasing return to growth after a sustained period of market contraction, increasing wholesale turnover by 1.1%. S Buys continues to grow strongly, delivering 17.7% turnover growth for the 24 weeks, driven by increased retailer pharmacy loyalty and increased sales from our Scriptwise business. Moving on to Ireland and Southwest England. The operating environment in Ireland continues to face pressures from inflation. Higher interest rates and the introduction of a 12.4% increase to the minimum wage from 1 January. Economic growth in Ireland has been subdued, but the unemployment rate remains low at 2.4%. The U.K. market has also been challenging. Labor shortages are still a concern, and expectations for economic growth remain uncertain. That said, the BWG Group reported strong sales of 6.6% in local currency, with growth across all retail brands in Ireland. Sales in Ireland have been influenced by a combination of poor weather and consumers feeling the pressure of increases in the cost of living. The situation in England has been extremely challenging for all grocery retailers, and this has been affected in January and February for our business in Southwest England. But overall, this is a strong trading performance for this group. Coming on to Switzerland. The operating environment in Switzerland continues to be challenging, with cost of living increases in healthcare, transport, and electricity, and high interest rates, all of which resulted in a surge in cross-border shopping. This has impacted the trading performance of the local neighborhood SPAR stores. The past few weeks have been positive, though, with unseasonably warm weather and consequently more people out and about locally impacting our sales positively. Summer is always our best trading period, with our exposure to local convenience, so the early spring is helpful within this region. Sales for this region declined by 4.7% in local currency for the 24-week period. In terms of our priorities, as you know, we are working on the best possible plan to exit Poland, and we'll provide more information when it makes sense to do so. That said, sales in Poland have declined by 4.7% in Polish zloty. This is being driven by the loss of a small number of retailers post our announcement to dispose of our interest in this market. We're very focused on reducing debt levels through cash preservation. The optimal debt structure will depend on the outcome of the Polish disposal process. We acknowledge shareholder concerns in respect to our debt levels. Shareholders should take comfort from the fact that net debt has remained consistent with what it was a year ago, albeit with higher net debt levels at the half versus the full year, which is largely due to the working capital cycles in our European businesses, and it is consistent with previous years. The group continues to manage its governance performance with the support of our financiers and plans to continue operating without seeking additional funds from shareholders. The SAP issues have negatively impacted the first half more than we anticipated. The system is stable and functioning as designed. However, it is not yet at the efficiency levels anticipated. The main areas impacted are the region's ability to manage gross margin and the delivery cycles, which has as a consequence resulted in lower than expected gross profits, increased labor costs, and a higher investment in working capital in that region. A strategic view of the SAP system and rollout process has been undertaken to ensure further implementations across this region for future rollouts, as well as assessing where and whether there are quick wins that will benefit the group. Further details will be shared at the interim results presentation in June. We will decide on a new warehouse management system in the coming weeks, and we'll provide updates in respect of a rollout plan when we present the interim results in June. Before we hand over for a Q&A session, please be aware that we've decided to move our results date a week later than originally planned due to the timing of the national election. The interim results will now be released on Wednesday, the 12th of June 2024. We apologize for any inconvenience caused because of that. We'll now answer any questions you may have. Kelly, please go ahead. Question one. Can you please talk to margin trends in Ireland and Switzerland? Sure. Thank you, sir. Oh, you can. Yeah, sure. At September 2023, the Irish business reported margins of just over 15%. They are currently holding that trend, so we are confident that we will maintain margins at roughly those levels. Switzerland did see a strong improvement in their margins. They're just over 17.8% at the end of September 2023, and in fact, those numbers continue at the moment. So again, we expect to see very similar margins being reported at the interim as we achieved it year-end 2023. Thank you, Mark. Okay, perfect. Sorry, next question. Where are SA loyalty levels currently versus previous peak? How will you look to improve them? Kelly, I think if you look at the trading update, we've reported retail sales growth of 7.1% versus core grocery and liquor wholesale business up at 6%. We're seeing a loyalty drop of somewhere around 1% for the year. Impacted slightly by KZN, albeit not the whole answer. We are planning on rolling out a new rebate scheme within the SPAR system and filing something towards the end of the year, but we also have a strong promotional program coming up in the next few months targeted towards improving retailer loyalty. Thank you, Ange. Is SPAR currently trading within its banking covenants? Yes, it is, Kelly. Do you currently have more than one interested party in your Polish operations disposal talks? I'll take that. That was it, Meg. Yeah, so I think we'll give further updates when we come out with our half-year results in June, but we're comfortable with the processes as currently and what has been alluded to in the trading update. Thank you, Megan. Next question. Please, can you talk to growth and operating margins in SA, given how volatile it's been and the impact it has had on your earnings? Can you give some guidance? Not a question that we didn't anticipate. I think just given where we're at and going into a closed period, it would be proper for us to go into margins. Although, having said that, we have indicated that we haven't recovered as strongly as we wanted to in the SA business impacted by KwaZulu-Natal. And the SA EBIT margin is, yeah, it's coming in lower than what we had guided initially, primarily due to the impact on profitability in KwaZulu-Natal. Thanks, Ange. Considering the trading update over H1, is it reasonable to assume operating margins in SA are set or below 2%, somewhere between 1.5% to 2%? I think you've just answered that for the market without providing a range. Is there any definitive timing of when the Polish business sale will be completed? Can we assume it will be done by the end of this financial year? So in terms of that, we have given an indication that as a management team, we would like to have it closed up and wrapped up by the end of the financial year, and we are working towards that. Thanks, Megan. Can you provide any initial insight on what work management has done to determine what the costs are to close down the Polish operation while also considering the proceeds from asset sales, DC value, etc.? So I'm not going to elaborate too much more on that. I think previously we have said to the market that to fund the Polish operations for this financial year would be just over EUR 20 million. We are still on track in terms of that if we had to fund it for the whole year, so we're not falling outside of that range. But obviously, we are looking at all alternatives and wanting to ensure that from a stakeholder perspective, we exit in the best possible way. Thanks, Megan. This is a voluntary trading update, but no update on earnings has been provided. Will you give an update on earnings ahead of your interim results? Kelly, there's no requirement at this stage to make any comment on earnings. We're providing this update purely to guide the market on trading performance and obviously some of the strategic key issues. If we are required to make a further update to the market before the results are released, we will do so. Thank you, Mark. Okay, the next question is on SAP. Will the warehouse management system rollout continue into H2 of 2024 as previously guided? And is walking away from the implementation at all a consideration? At this stage, walking away from the implementation of KwaZulu-Natal is not a consideration. Our key pillar at this point in time is to make a call on the warehouse management system. We anticipate doing that in the next week or two. Once that's decided, we will guide the market in terms of what our rollout plans are. It's doubtful whether we implement another distribution centre before the end of this financial year. Thank you, Ange. The next question is SA profitability related again, which I suspect we'll have to unpack at the interim results. So 3% SA margin, a key pillar of SPAR investment case. High level, if we were to think about it like a waterfall chart, what are the key contributors from a depressed 1.3% in FY23 to a 3% in FY25? I don't want to talk in terms of percentage points, but the key contributors were really majorly the loss of margin because of the SAP implementation. Off the top of my head, Mark, and you correct me if I'm wrong, we're talking about ZAR 1.2 billion, no, sorry, ZAR 720 million cost to the business in margin and in additional expenditure. We then had a number of settlements in the prior year with BU or a few retailers and the like, which led to a total, including the SAP cost, of one-off costs around ZAR 1.2 billion. That added back would take us to near the 2.5% or 2.6% level. Business improvement initiatives and seeking efficiency in our operations is what will make that jump, the additional 0.4%. Thank you, Angelo. The next question, please, can you update us on CapEx plans? CapEx plans, as we guided in the SENS, our CapEx program has remained largely in line with how we've historically managed CapEx. So we have quite a robust CapEx planning system, particularly in our logistics operations, and we'll continue. So from a group normal perspective, we'll continue to see CapEx in line and depreciation in line with where we've been historically as a percentage of turnover, and we don't anticipate moving away from that. Beyond that, the only additional one is what is left in the SAP program. At this stage, we've spent slightly more than half the total cost for the SAP implementation. So just over ZAR 1 billion, I think, around ZAR 1 billion. Yeah, 1.2. The balance of that cost is expected to be spent over the next two to three years. Having said that, we are making every effort to reduce the total SAP implementation cost or ERP cost as much as we can. The next question is, there has been a lot of debate in the market regarding the franchisee model. How competitive is SPAR's offering in relation to peers, particularly from a fees and incentive point of view for retailers/franchisees? Yeah, we naturally, I think, biased in this, but we really do believe that we have the best overall offer for retailers. We believe that firstly, our positioning as a group, almost entirely focused on the voluntary trading model or franchisee model, is a differentiator. Our entire business depends on that model, and therefore we structure in such a way as to be most favorable to those retailers. Our cost of entry, other than the cost of CapEx, the cost to enter the SPAR system is relatively minor, and the ongoing cost is also quite small, other than a marketing contribution. That marketing contribution, roughly 1% of their sales. In terms of incentives, we have a rich set of incentives that we offer to our retailers in terms of rebates, settlement discounts, other incentive schemes that we run. And we really do believe our offer is the most compelling. Combined with that, a really well-developed centralized distribution system entirely focused on servicing retailers and lots of support from our distribution centers in terms of specialist skills around marketing, retail operations, IT systems, and the like. Yeah, we really do believe we have the best system available for independent entrepreneurs in the country. Thank you, Angelo. The next question is on debt covenants. The debt covenant for net debt to EBITDA was previously 2.75 times, but the financiers agreed to increase it to 3.5 times until March 2024. Any update here, please? Not at this point in time, as you indicated, until March 2024. I think this is very closely linked to the piece of work that we've guided we are currently undertaking with our lenders relating to the restructuring of our balance sheets to optimize that, and included in that, I'm sure there will be new debt covenants or new covenants negotiated with the banks once that new financing structure is put in place. Thank you, Mark. Back to SAP. What benefits is the SAP system going to bring relative to your systems prior to it? And what further benefits would come when upgrading systems in store? There's two separate questions, Ange. There's quite a lot here. Do you want me to carry on reading it? Okay. Can I deal with those? The first one, sure. Go for it. Yeah, so the implementation of the broad ERP system, and not necessarily just SAP, there's an element of that that deals with legacy risk because we have aging systems. The choice of SAP as a system was largely driven by what we view as the value it can add to our whole supply chain and making our supply chain more agile and reducing our cost to deliver quite significantly. The SAP system, and it's not the only one in the world that can do this, but it's certainly one of the better ones, really will be able to give us real-time reporting and guidance in terms of least cost to deliver model, regardless of which distribution center items are being delivered from. It also enables us to be more center-led and make more central decision-makings around procurement as well as managing cost more centrally, which will give us a lot more control. As we are at the moment, a lot of our systems are relatively disparate across our six distribution centers, a very highly decentralized decision-making structure. SAP, once mature and in place in the SPAR system, will allow us to move between decentralized and centralized decision-making seamlessly to the benefit of the business. In terms of a view to retail, at this stage, we haven't flagged that we will be going via the SAP route at retail. We are looking at a number of options, and a key decision-making metric there is going to be the total cost of ownership to retail. And we're going to have to look at making sure that we reduce the IP costs to our independent retailers while getting the maximum benefit. And where we are technologically in the world right now, there are lots of more flexible options out there, so I don't want to tie us down to saying that we will be following this through with SAP into retail. Thanks. Just a few more questions on SAP in the FY23 presentation. There was a write-off of GBP 94.1 million for SAP. Which regions does the supply to? They're bits and pieces in the three international European businesses. So that would be Ireland, Poland, and Switzerland. And the reason for that is because we've strategically made the decision not to follow a global SAP template, and we are going to be following a best-of-breed template in each country. Largely, Switzerland at this stage is on the SAP template and run their business on SAP, although it's a different version to the one we run in SA. But that business is quite mature and operates SAP quite well. In terms of Poland, naturally, we aren't going to be investing in the systems infrastructure there right now. And then in Ireland, we run a fairly complex business, which is both horizontally and vertically integrated and sells into a much larger variety of channels than we do in our other businesses. We don't feel that SAP is the right option for that particular business, and we are busy exploring what future modernization looks like. Having said that, the Irish business does have quite a bit of runway on the system it currently runs, and so there's no urgency to make a decision in Ireland right now. Thank you, Angelo. And are you able, or when do you plan to give an update on the rest of the rollout? We'll be in a position to provide a lot more guidance in June. As I mentioned earlier, we're going to be making a decision on the Warehouse Management System in the next week or two, which will then enable us to provide much clearer guidance in terms of where we're going by the June meeting. That helps us. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Please can we speak to the difference between the foreign debt being ring-fenced versus the financial guarantees provided for on the same debt from the SA balance sheet? Is there effectively recourse to South Africa? Yes, there is. The parent has provided financial guarantees to the borrowers in both Ireland and Switzerland and Poland. So effectively, there is recourse. When we refer to it as being ring-fenced, what we are trying to demonstrate to the market is the debt in those three foreign geographies was structured in such a way that it is serviced by those businesses, and effectively, the in-country covenants are sufficiently constructed to have enough headroom that the performance of those geographies does not create any risk. Obviously, the deterioration of the Polish business meant, as Megan alluded to earlier, that the South African business has been required to provide financial support to their operating overheads. So in a nutshell, yes, there is recourse to the South African balance sheet in terms of those parent guarantees, but fundamentally, the debt is being serviced by those geographies, and there is no cross-subsidization from any of the other regions. Thank you, Mark. Are there any plans to exit Switzerland in the short to medium term? And if not, can you explain why? There are no plans, no direct plans to exit Switzerland. As guided at the end of last year, we believe there's a business case to get gross margins or EBIT margin up to an acceptable level in the next while. Our focus right now is on concluding the Polish disposal. Once that disposal has taken place, we will consider the future of Switzerland. Our preferred route is to trade that business to a level where margin is acceptable. If that doesn't happen, the sale of Switzerland is also not something that's impossible to consider. Okay. Can you please explain the gap in retail sales versus wholesale sales, given KZN is approximately a third of the business, if memory serves? Are there any other areas in the business where loyalty rates are declining, or is that gap all explained by KZN? At this stage, the majority of the gap is explained by KZN. There are small parts in the other regions, but largely loyalty is static in the other regions. KZN isn't as big as a third. It's about 25% of the business. And that gap really just talks to, yeah, primarily the difference in KZN. Okay, thank you. When you mentioned higher labor costs in KwaZulu-Natal, how much of that will specifically affect OpEx as opposed to the lower-than-expected gross profits you explicitly called out? Sorry, I need to parse the question. Can you repeat that question again, Kelly? Yes. Actually, it's not clear. So how much of that will specifically, okay, so when you mentioned higher labor costs in KZN, how much of that will specifically affect OpEx? It all affects OpEx, as opposed to the lower-than-expected gross profits you explicitly called out? Yeah, so there are both those effects. So the gross profits, and if you can forgive us, gross margin internally refers to gross profit. I'm aware that the market wouldn't always see it that way. So our gross profits from the sale of goods have been impacted somewhat by a lack of visibility that our buyers have. And then the second element being that our workforce is not as productive as it was before, which will impact OpEx in KZN. So those are two distinct issues as opposed to one. Okay. Thank you. Back to the EBIT margin again, difficult for management to guide at this point in time. Do you think you can still achieve EBIT margin of 2.5% in FY24 and 3% by FY25? I think that's unlikely. We, at this stage, probably look towards 3% in FY26. Yeah. Given SPAR's debt levels and weak balance sheet as well as the relatively lackluster performance, is there not a strong argument to exit all foreign operations, including BWG? That's an interesting question. I didn't anticipate that. Look, I think we are looking at each of the markets on their own merit. And at this stage, we've made the decision on Poland, quite clearly, and intend to exit that market by the end of the year. We are in the process of evaluating the investment in Switzerland, and the outcome of that decision is really going to be driven by our ability to get Swiss margins up to an acceptable level, upward of 2%-2.5% EBIT margin. Ireland is a business that's comfortably operating now at that level in an economy that is struggling. Having said that, the Irish management team continues to show a really strong ability to turn, even in difficult times, to turn a good margin. They have taken that business with our support from somewhere around 1% EBIT margin to now comfortably over 2.5% over time. And we really do think that that geographic diversity is good for us and for the shareholder. And I wouldn't say that we are at all considering exiting BWG. Thank you, Angelo. On retailer loyalty, do you think that there is anything structural to this where, for example, multi-store franchisees are sourcing directly to the producers from the producers? I think that risk has always been there. It is not a new one. Our multi-store franchisees are exceptionally strong, and that comes with good and bad risks. I think one is when they are big, they are able to purchase at better pricing, but they can negotiate with us too, which they all do. At the same time, it also lowers our risk in terms of credit risk, and yeah, in the current period, I wouldn't say that this element of multi-store owners is impacting our loyalty so much as our issues within SAP. Thank you, Angelo. You suspended franchise fees in KZN due to the SAP issues. Are these fees still suspended? No. Okay. Here's one for Megan. What is Poland's plan B and C, assuming plan A does not materialize? Assuming A is that you are able to sell it at least the asset value. So I think we're still confident that we can dispose of Poland and find a new owner for Poland that best suits the business. We are obviously continuously looking at how we mitigate risk there and bring down costs and long-term commitments. So there's ongoing work in that space to manage it. Thank you, Megan. Angelo, is there any risk of a rights issue in the foreseeable future? Right now, it is management's considered position that whilst our debt levels aren't ideal, that we over time can pay those down, and we do not plan on a rights issue. Okay. Thank you, Angelo. Why do you think you've lost loyalty among retailers? Is it service levels, or are retailers finding more competitive pricing elsewhere? As stated earlier, the challenges with loyalty levels really relate to KZN. I think the challenges are multifold. One, during the period where we weren't able to service them effectively, they opened up new relationships because they had to keep their shelves full. Together with that, many of them have now invested in infrastructure to allow them to purchase outside of the group. Bear in mind that one of our key differentiators is how easy we make business for them. All your goods delivered on one truck to your back door, sourcing goods from individual suppliers is quite challenging. So that level of convenience was and remains a differentiator for us. In the KZN region, some retailers have invested in infrastructure to make that easier to deal with. And that really has been the lag in getting the loyalty back. Having said that, I think we're making some really good strides in that space, and we've got some really great ideas in terms of getting that back even more forcefully in the next few months. Thank you, Angelo. The next question is, is the SPAR format becoming less relevant? It seems that other retailers are perhaps making aggressive inroads into areas in which SPAR was previously stronger or relatively strong. Look, I think, and I can understand intuitively why that question's being asked. Our retail sales growth at 7.1% indicates that we're keeping pace with the market, and we haven't. In the last year, our market share has been roughly flat, and so the facts, I guess, dispel that. Having said that, we haven't made any major moves in terms of formats and format changes to be more agile and to resonate more with consumers. We're doing a lot of work in that space right now, in particular, to be able to make our store formats much more relevant to the communities they serve, and in particular, in respect of the LSM grouping. Okay. Moving on. Can you update on your major court case in South Africa as well as any potential cash flow impact on any proposed settlement? I guess this refers to the Giannacopoulos Group. At this stage, we don't expect any cash settlement with the group. We've settled virtually all our disputes with the family, with the exception of the damages claim that they put in against us for ZAR 2.1 billion. Our positions in terms of whether damages were done and how much those could be quantified are very far apart, and as guided previously, we will either go to arbitration or go to court, and we're busy negotiating that for the family at the moment. Yeah. Thank you, Angelo. Please elaborate more on the new rebate system. Is it increasing returns to retailers? We are looking at offering a slightly richer rebate system for greater loyalty, and it's something we'll trial in the next few months. Thank you, Angelo. Okay. The next question, can you give us any new insights on your plan to open up a discounter format at this stage? The business plan for the discounter is being finalized as we speak. We are considering rebranding or reusing our SaveMor brand as that format. It's a brand that's been in the stable for a long time, although we will change the basic operating model and style of trading that business. We are hoping, as I said, we're busy finalizing that business model as we speak, and we're hoping to start launching those towards the end of this calendar year or early 2025. Thank you, Angelo. How much of a headwind is declining volumes to GP margins, and would rebates offset this impact? The modeling we are doing is making sure that any additional rebates are self-liquidating and pay for themselves. So any changes to that policy, our premise is that the volumes offset any additional margin that we pass back. So it would naturally impact trading margin, but the overall net position should be better off. Okay. Has the change in net debt been driven by a reduction in euro debt levels or from a change to working capital levels? It's actually both of those two components. Obviously, we continue to pay down the term debt in terms of the amortizations, albeit the numbers are in the region of eight and 5.6, so about EUR 14 million per annum of debt reduction in terms of structured arrangements. The balance of that will be the use of revolving credit facilities at this interim date, which the European businesses generally draw down on to increase stock holdings for either the Exchequer increases in tobacco in the U.K. or in advance of the summer high season trading in Europe. Thank you, Mark. SPAR has suffered a very marked decline in returns since it commenced its geographical expansion. At the AGM, the chair seemed to be open to disclosing ROIC per geography. Is this something you'll consider implementing when the interim results are released? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have no objection to that. Okay. Thank you, Angelo. In the SA operations, you mentioned GM pressure and operating cost growth. Are operating cost growth currently showing negative draws? I'm reticent to answer that question in respect to giving profit guidance, but there are challenges there, yes. Okay. Thank you. Are you able to provide any more detail on the cost-saving opportunities that you've identified? You've got it. Yeah, I'll pick it up. So the SA management team have basically done a complete overhaul review of all their costs. I mean, we've got to look at the biggest cost element of the South African business, which is people. So not that we are suggesting any major retrenchment arrangements, but we have to look at our people costs and opportunities to save, particularly on the variable element of our people cost. Angelo has already alluded to at KZN, a lot of the increased labor cost is the variable element in overtime and shift allowances where the efficiencies of the system is adding unnecessary or additional cost. And then across the Board, we've looked at effectively all of the areas. This is not a business that historically has had high cost bases, so it's not suggestive that it's very easy to just go and cut major elements of the cost out, but we've basically forced the business to relook and rethink its way of doing business, and to the areas of opportunity and removal, we've cut them out, so everything from pallet costs to security costs to electricity costs. We've spoken previously about the implementation of solar paneling in our distribution centers to minimize, and in those instances, largely to protect ourselves somewhat against load shedding, but there's significant cost savings that come through that as well, so effectively, it's at a line item level, a detailed review of the whole business. Thank you, Mark. Are there any strategic initiatives being implemented in SPAR Ireland in the Irish business to mitigate the double-digit wage inflation? There are a number, clearly. It has been highlighted as a major risk to our retailers in Ireland. So the minimum wage increase doesn't impact our wholesale business so much as our retail partners. So in that case, there are a number of strategic initiatives where our Irish management team are working with retailers to mitigate and find productivity gains, as well as looking for areas of passing additional margin onto those retailers to ensure that they remain as profitable as possible. Thank you, Angelo. How significant has the pressure been on franchisees looking to leave the group? There's been virtually no pressure in terms of franchisees resigning, not to my knowledge at all, clearly. But there is certainly pressure on the profitability of retailers in general, but those are driven by the macro impacts that all retailers are feeling, the cost of load shedding in particular, and then minimum wage increases in the South African context as well, driving up the cost to run stores. But in terms of retailers putting us under pressure to leave for other banners, I can't talk to any pressure in that space at this point in time. Okay. Thank you, Angelo. On the debt again, as part of a group-wide debt restructure, is it inevitable that euro debt will be refinanced in South Africa, resulting in higher finance costs going forward? Clearly, I wouldn't say it's inevitable. Obviously, we have to look specifically at the Polish business and how much of the Polish debt remains after the sale, and effectively, that debt would need to be serviced by the other three remaining geographies. Whether it's necessary to bring that debt back to South Africa and house it here in ZAR or to refinance it in Europe in euros and then service it from those geographies is part of the piece of work that's currently being done. Thank you, Mark. Are you able to comment on trends or any color around overdue retailer accounts? Have you seen a need to increase provisions? So with the exception of KZN, where we were intentionally increasing their accounts to give them the breathing space to cope with the pressures that the SAP implementation had brought on them, which have since started reducing quite positively. Across the rest of the group, there are no significant negative trends suggesting that any increases in ECL provisions will be required. But obviously, we are very cognizant of the pressures that a low-growth environment is going to have on our business. At this early stage, we're not flagging any ECL provision increases, no. Okay. Thank you. The next question's on retailer rebates again. So what is the current overrider or incentive rebate retailers get based on loyalty and volumes? Is this percentage likely to increase for retailers considering the increased competition? It's quite a complex question to answer. We have a number of different rebate schemes in place. We have a loyalty scheme where, depending on the store format, they can get anywhere between 0.5% and 1% back overriders of their purchases, back overriders up to a maximum at this stage of up to 1%, depending on the size of their group. And then there are a number of other margin areas that we pass on, swell allowances, etc. And insofar as it makes economic sense for us to do so, we'd like to improve the incentives for retailers to buy through our systems. Having said that, yeah, I mean, I just want to make it clear that we will only do so if it makes economic sense for both parties. Given the trouble one of your fellow retailers has found itself in the marketplace, are there any opportunities there for SPAR? And if so, how? We've had a number of approaches across the country and had discussions, and I think there are opportunities there. Having said that, our competitors' franchise agreements in both cases are quite strict in terms of how and when contracts come to an end and when people are allowed to leave. And you really have to plan for that timing well in advance, together with some speculation about some space being available in big shopping centers. As our competitor, this particular competitor, gives up space, we will also assess those sites and see if there's anything that we're interested in stepping into the breach to take up opportunities, but only where it makes sense. Thank you, Angelo. Assuming you're able to conclude a deal for the exit of Poland by end of FY24, how long would it take to finalize with regards to the competition authorities, etc.? Generally, in Poland, how it works is that the purchaser would take on the business, and then if there were issues from a CompCom perspective, they would be given a period within which to dispose of the stores. But the CompCom process, it's probably a two to three-month process. Thank you, Megan. Can you please remind us what percentage of franchisee store footprint do you have head leases on? Somewhere between 45% and 50%. Please, can you speak to the net number of retailers gained or lost over the past 12 months in South Africa? We are net about 20 better than in the first five months of this year. Net gain. It's not 12, it's five. Five months. Yeah. Yeah. Over the last five months. Yeah. How many new sites have been added that have online delivery as an option? Why were you so late to this online trend? Are you on track for your year-end target for online? In terms of number of sites, we're now available in just over 400 sites, I think. I could get this wrong because there are sites being added every day, but we're somewhere around 405 sites around the country right now. We were late to this game really fundamentally because of the difficulty of customizing a model like this for independent retail, which made our implementation more challenging. I'm told by our team who run SPAR2U that this was the first implementation of an on-demand mobile-first app in a voluntary trading environment anywhere in the world. So it was something that we had to do bespoke and to be bold. There was no infrastructure available that we could just buy off the shelf. So we're quite proud of that. In terms of number of stores, we really are exactly where we planned to be, if not slightly ahead from a group or from a turnover perspective in that channel. I think we're going to end up slightly behind where we wanted to be, but there remains a big opportunity there, and we're growing at an incredible rate in that space. Thank you. We have time for two more questions. How confident are you that you can compete with Shoprite, Usave, Boxer, and the lower LSM market with your new discounter format? This is for people inside SPAR. I think this question becomes a little bit frustrating, and we have spoken about arranging a tour for investors so they can see this for their own eyes. In the lower LSM markets where we have stores, rural and township stores, we tend to be extremely dominant through our current format, SPAR and SuperSPAR stores all over the country. We have an exceptional group of stores. We also have those stores really are what is driving our growth at this stage. Our growth in the, let's call them, in the lower LSM communities around South Africa is ahead of our total growth, and it is an area of strength for SPAR that I think often is not broadly understood by the investment community. Having said that, we think there are opportunities for our SaveMor or discounter format to plug smaller gaps, and in particular, within smaller rural and agricultural towns around the country and in some smaller townships around the country. We know that having an independent retailer in the store makes all the difference and is able to trade exceptionally well against all the competitors you mentioned, so we have no reason to believe that won't be the case in our discounter format as well. Thank you, Angelo. So Poland lost guidance. You previously guided a likely loss for FY24 in line with FY23. Is this the PLN 166 million loss reported or the loss ex the PLN 98 million impairments, so i.e., PLN 68 million? I think, clearly, the previous guidance was at an operating profit level, so regardless of impairments, and at this point in time, we are tracking well down on or well better than that number. Thank you, Mark. And then the last question, actually two more questions. Any plans to reinstate dividends, or is it still suspended until FY25? At this point in time, I think it would only be appropriate to repeat what the Board's position was, and that was quite simply to reintroduce dividends as soon as possible. I think as far as the interim result for FY24 is concerned, the arrangement with our bankers is such that dividends will potentially be restricted, and we are finalizing those discussions as we speak. But as far as the full year is concerned and going into FY25, I think we will leave it to the Board to make those decisions based on the business's performance and obviously any restrictions that our lenders might impose on us. Thank you, Mark. Last question is, is there any funding support provided to retailers in order to renovate their stores as considering profit pressures many likely could be hesitant to invest? You wanted? No, you can take that. Okay. So clearly, just to clarify, I mean, in terms of the SPAR Guild, which is the umbrella organization all the retailers belong to, there is a fund within that business or within that operation that retailers contribute to on a stokvel arrangement where they can draw down interest free for upgrades and revamps to their stores. Obviously, the quantum would not be to the level of a major SUPERSPAR or a major SPAR upgrade, so there would still need to look to bankers. We do have arrangements in place with WesBank where retailers can apply for funding at somewhat preferential rates, at least at prime, for investment in their stores. On our own balance sheet, we at this point in time are not providing any funding support to retailers, albeit in the past we have provided, particularly to support, let's refer to them as BEE or Black retailers to invest in SPAR stores. We have managed to move that funding to bankers, so it's off our balance sheet at this point in time. But I think going forward, the retailers are clearly still showing appetite for investment in stores, looking at the number of upgrades and revamps that they've completed in the last five months. So yes, it is risky if you're a retailer in a low-growth environment to invest multi-million rand in upgrading your stores, but I think they still definitely are demonstrating appetite to do that, and the facilities and funding is available. I just want to add, I think with regard to the stokvel type arrangement, what we call the SPAR Guild Development Fund, a recent decision by the Guild together with ourselves has increased the maximum they can draw down on those loans and roughly doubled what's available in that space. That has really spurred things on. And then additionally, I think retailers are using those funds both to revamp their stores and at the same time to mitigate some of the risks around load shedding by installing solar battery solutions and the like. Great. Thank you, Andrew. There are no further questions. There's a camera. Yeah. Thank you all for joining us, and clearly, thank you very much for putting this together. And altogether, it's going to be a quiet two months for us until we speak to you at the beginning of June. And we thank you for your time and for spending this time with us. We really hope that we've answered some of your questions. Yeah. Right now, our focus is really just to drive this South African business, reduce our costs in this business, as well as take a serious view of where our debt position is. We're working alongside our bankers, and we're going to focus on, over the next while, bringing the total debt of the group down. And yeah, we look forward to sharing some exciting news with you in June as well. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Angelo.