ARB Corporation Limited (A7W.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thanks, everybody. We've got a quorum of shareholders present, so I'd like to formally declare and welcome you to this Annual General Meeting of ARB Corporation Limited. My name is Robert Fraser, and I'll be chairing today's meeting. This is a rather special meeting for us, and I'm going to have more to say on that shortly. I'd like to extend also a warm welcome to those shareholders who are viewing and listening to today's meeting via our online webcast, which will go right through the meeting this year. It's great to see so many faces and we look forward to engaging with you both during the meeting and in the time that we'll have after the meeting. Just as a friendly reminder, if you could turn your phone off if you haven't already done so. I'd like to introduce your company's directors. First, to my right is Founder, Managing Director and off-road racing legend, Eddie Brown. Independent Non-Executive Director Director and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee, Karen Phin. Next to Karen's Founder, Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee, Roger Brown. To Roger's right, Independent Non-Executive Director, Adrian Fitzpatrick, who is standing for reelection today.

Good morning, everyone.

Then Independent Non-Executive Director, Shona Faber, who is also standing for reelection today.

Good morning, everyone.

And finally, Independent Non-Executive Director and industry stalwart, Andy Stott. We've also got our senior management team in attendance today. Lachlan McCann, our CEO. Lachlan?

Good morning.

Our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, Damon Page; and our Director of Manufacturing and Engineering, Dennis Horton. I'd also like to welcome Andrew Reid, our partner from our external auditors, Deloitte Australia. Welcome, Andrew. And also representatives from our share registry, Computershare, Peter Renda, who's also a very familiar face. 10 years, is it, Peter?

[indiscernible]

Excellent. And with the conclusion of the meeting, we'll be able to join the Board for some light refreshments. And we'll also try and keep to our reputation of finishing the meeting before the additional afternoon meeting room charges kick in. I should all -- it would be remiss of me also not to acknowledge John Forsyth. I'm sure John is here. John, one of the original Directors on the listing of ARB in 1987. Welcome, John, and thanks for your wise counsel through the course of the year as always. I mentioned that this year is especially important to us. It's ARB Corporation's 50th year of operations. Tony Brown, helped by his brothers, Roger and Andy, founded ARB in 1975. Initially producing roof fracs and then bull bars from their suburban Melbourne Driveway. From these very humble beginnings, ARB has grown to become a global manufacturing leader of 4x4 accessories. A lot has changed over the past 50 years. However, 2 things have not. The company has remained steadfast to its core values of driving excellence with passion. And secondly, the focus on our planning and decision-making always remains the long term. On behalf of the Board and all shareholders, I'd like to congratulate the founders, on their outstanding achievements. And also, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to ARB's employees, all of our independent store owners who have trusted ARB as their partner over the journey and the company's customers and suppliers around the world. Congratulations to you all. We've tried to encapsulate the last 50 years of ARB's journey into a very short VIZIO presentation, which will now play. And then our CEO, Lachlan McCann, will say a few words to mark the occasion. [Presentation]

Great video. Hopefully, some good memories. For those of you who don't know, there is a screen here, so they're intently watching same thing. Roger and Andy, and I know there's a broader Brown family here and to John as well. I'd like to take the time personally and on behalf of the senior leadership team at ARB to congratulate the Brown family on this really historic year for the 50th year milestone. Thanks personally from myself to be a part of the journey and the trust given to myself to Damon, to Dennis and the rest of the team to not only be part of this 50th year but also the trust given to us to take us forward into the next 50 years. I did have a conversation with Andy a few days ago about these words. We actually gave Roger and Andy the opportunity to speak, but they politely declined us, probably no surprises there. But we did talk about reflections in what the appropriate message is for this audience. And certainly, we landed on the future. Humility and respect of values that are highly regarded ARB. This year-long celebration is less about corporate chest beating and much more about the opportunity for us to say thank you as a business. Thank you to our employees. Thank you to our valued customers. Thank you to the suppliers and, of course, to our shareholders. We spent the year grounded in our roots with team members, suppliers and customers joining in a series of adventures where we live the adventure, explore beyond, enjoy a good company and allow for some reflections and most importantly, use the products, to get ourselves and our teams home safely and a couple of creature comforts along the way. Roger and Andy's brother Tony started the AV adventure, exploring Far North Queensland. This year, we've provided this and a number of other experiences along to team members to our suppliers and customers who otherwise may not have been able to experience the why of ARB. The 50th year has also highlighted the need for ARB to be accountable and focused on our future success. In the time line shown over the last 50 years, demonstrated a business in a highly specialized industry that stuck to its knitting and made considered growth decisions. This helps explain what has been achieved and the focus and commitment to being the best form for aftermarket company in the world. We have an obligation to those who've invested in ARB to make very sound long-term decisions as we continue to grow sustainably over the next 50 years and beyond. I'll be back shortly, but I'll hand you back over to Rob.

Thank you, Lachlan. I'd also personally like to just mention that I -- my first evolvement with ARB was 1999. That was 26 years. That was 26 years ago that I met John Forsyth and then Roger and then Andy and to be able to say now that I've been on over half the journey with you as both an honor and a privilege. As Lachlan mentioned, we did ask both Roger and Andy, whether they'd like to say a few words and they did politely decline, but I did like Roger's response, he said, he's more interested in hearing what we had to say about tomorrow than the last 50 years. So that's what we'll move to. The notice of Annual General Meeting has been made available to all shareholders and unless there are any objections, I'll take the notice as read. And I'll just quickly outline this morning's formal agenda. We're going to commence the meeting with management presentations by Damon Page, Dennis Horton and then Lachlan, and I think you're going to find them as always very interesting, a good deal of thought and preparation goes into them. They're going to be very comprehensive, and I know you'll appreciate them. Then I'll open the floor to questions and comments and subject to time, we'll try to cover as many of the questions as we can, bearing in mind that in the presentations themselves we've tried to cover as many of the questions which we've received before the AGM today, and we always encourage shareholders to presubmit questions. Once we've concluded the Q&A session, we'll then turn to the formal items of business, where we'll consider the adoption or the receipt of the company's financial statements and reports. And there are 4 resolutions today being the adoption of the remuneration report and then the reelections of myself, Shona Faber, Adrian Fitzpatrick as Directors. The minutes of last year's annual January, which was on the 17th of October tabled for inspection and anyone that would like a copy should contact the Company Secretary. The disclaimer that appears on the screen that relates to any forward-looking statements that we make today. I know you appreciate the comments that we're going to make in the commentary, but you'll, of course, recognize the uncertainty that surrounds those comments, and therefore, they're all subject to the formal disclaimer shown on the screen. I'll briefly say a few words about the company's financial performance in the year ended 30 June 2025 or FY '25 as the presenters will refer to it today. The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the company's performance in the -- in its export markets with sales growth achieved in each of our key export regions. In the U.S., management has taken key initiatives to drive further sales growth. These strategies center around the sustainable development of the ARB brand and customer experience through multiple market expansion initiatives and I'll just quickly list those. These include: firstly, the acquisition and restructuring of ARB's U.S. associates, principally our 50% interest in Off-Road warehouse, or ORW, as you'll hear it referred to today and the 4 Wheel Parts business, which now has 48 stores, over 500 employees across 9 U.S. states. This investment enhances all aspects of ARB's direct-to-consumer experience and builds our U.S. market understanding to enhance our future strategies. Secondly, increasing ARB's branded product presence in the expanded ORW 4 Wheel Parts retail network; introducing new Toyota USA product, further enhancing our brand exposure; the launch of our U.S. e-commerce site; and finally, the establishment of U.S.-based design engineering team. The Board is delighted with the diverse strategic initiatives being implemented by ARB USA's management team and their drive to grow our U.S. presence. The ORW 4 Wheel Parts management teams have done an outstanding job to stabilize, transition, restructure and significantly expand the business. It was an enormous amount of effort that has gone into repositioning that business. The turnaround in 4 Wheel Parts financial performance has been outstanding, thanks to the hard work of the U.S. management teams. It's early days, but already, we are very pleased with the signs of profitability and growth, and we're genuinely excited about the long-term prospects for this business. The management presentations, which will follow, and you'll hear shortly, they're going to provide a lot more detail on those initiatives that I've just mentioned. In contrast, the Australian market remained challenging with constraints on discretionary consumer spending, vehicle sales declines in some of -- including vehicle sales declines in some of ARB's core models in FY '25. However, outside Australia and the U.S., the business achieved strong double-digit growth in key markets such as New Zealand, the Middle East and parts of Europe, demonstrating the depth of our global distribution, particularly in emerging markets. ARB's OEM business was flat as we had forecast and is expected to be relatively stable in the current year. However, the pipeline of new work for future years is promising, and we do get reasonably good visibility on that. Global manufacturing has also never been more complex with management having to adapt to frequent -- the imposition of frequent new additional tariffs and the historically low level of the Australian dollar, particularly against the Thai Baht. In this environment, the Board was satisfied with the company's overall performance in FY '25, while, of course, striving to improve. Our order book remains healthy. The program to expand and enhance the retail network continues. Our inventories are being well maintained, resulting in good cash flows. Costs have been controlled, and there's a pipeline of new products, and we are looking forward to the launch of the Australian e-commerce site, which Lachlan will touch on. In summary, despite the short-term headwinds, ARB has in place a well-defined growth strategy and the company's avenue for long-term global growth has never been better. In this, our 50th year of operations, we were delighted to be able to declare and pay from the company's existing retained earnings and cash balance, a fully franked special dividend of $0.50 per share without in any way diminishing our ability to fund future expansion projects. As noted in the annual report, there are a number of upcoming reporting developments regarding mandatory disclosure of sustainability-related information, particularly climate-related reporting in Australia. I'm pleased to advise that ARB is well prepared for the disclosures required in the 2026 financial year. The stability and deep experience of our senior management team is one of key -- ARB's key competitive advantages. Many of you will already be familiar with our senior management team. However, I'll now just take a minute to introduce them before they speak. Damon Page will be the first to present, and he will cover the financial highlights for FY '25. Damon joined ARB as CFO in 2014 and has been Company Secretary since 2019. He was previously the General Manager, Finance Executive for a large public manufacturing and export agribusiness; and prior to that, he was an audit firm Account Director. Dennis Horton. Dennis, if you could just stand for everyone, please. Dennis will follow Damon and cover our all-important engineering and manufacturing operations and our ongoing investment in engineering and R&D. This is the backbone to the future of the company's operations. Dennis commenced his career at ARB in 1996. So that's going to be an important year for you next year, Dennis, and has extensive manufacturing expertise. He's been responsible for ARB's manufacturing operations since 2006, and has served as the Managing Director of our Thai business since 2015 and has had oversight of our engineering operations since 2022. Thank you, Dennis. Lachlan McCann, who spoke briefly earlier, will finish the presentations by covering ARB's Australian aftermarket, export and OEM operations, our new product pipeline and in particular, the progress that you all want to hear that we've made in ORW, 4 Wheel Parts and the other initiatives I mentioned. He'll conclude also with an update on the company's first quarter trading and outlook. Lachlan is another long-term employee of ARB, commencing with the company in 2001. He's provided consistently strong leadership in various senior roles across our global operations and has been CEO since 2022. The composition of our senior leadership team reflects the planned and smooth transition of the company's executive management team from its founders, over the last few years to ensure our ongoing leadership, company culture and long-term focus remains. We are in experienced hands between Dennis, Damon and Lachlan, we have a total of 63 years experience at ARB. So it is now with great pleasure that I introduce Damon Page to commence today's management presentation. Thank you, Damon.

That's great. Thanks, Robert. And I think enough has been said about the 50th year, but what are thrilled to be part of ARB. I've been with ARB for 11 years, and it's an exciting company to work for. And I think congratulations to the founders, particularly for what you've built over the last 50 years. I think ARB is one of the great success stories in Australia. Well, welcome. It's great to have you here. We appreciate you being with us today to those who are here in person and to those who are participating by broadcast. I'm pleased to present the financial highlights for the financial year that ended 30 June 2025. On Slide 8, we see that FY 2025 was a mixed result. We see top line growth at the sales line, and we see a decline in profit at the bottom line. To the left of the slide, we see that sales growth was relatively consistent from 2016 through to 2020, after which very significant sales growth of 34% was achieved in 2021. ARB has since consolidated that growth and further increased the sales levels over the following 4 years. If we could move back to Slide 8. ARB achieved sales revenue of $729.9 million for the financial year ended 30 June 2025, that's a record for the company, which compares with last year's sales revenue of $693.2 million or an increase of 5.3%. It is worth noting that ARB's ownership interest in its U.S.-based associates, particularly and specifically that of ORW and 4 Wheel Parts retail network is not consolidated into the group's annual sales revenue. The sales revenue growth in FY 2025 was achieved in challenging circumstances with lower new vehicle sales in Australia and constrained consumer spending. I'll speak to sales performance by channel in a later slide. Sales have grown at an average compound growth rate of 8.3% over the last 10 years. In the center of the page, profit after tax is broadly growing in line with sales revenue over the last 10 years. Profit after tax of $97.5 million was achieved in FY 2025, representing a $5.2 million or 5% reduction on the $102.7 million profit after tax achieved last year. A number of factors impacted on the profit results and the 4 main factors were, firstly, lower gross margins due to the weaker Australian dollar against primarily the Thai Baht, which is stubbornly holding at its historically strongest level at THB 21 to the Australian dollar. This is significant as ARB manufactures the majority of it's in-house products in its 3 Thai factories. Secondly, the introduction of U.S. tariffs in the fourth quarter. Thirdly, initial equity accounted losses recognized ARB's share of the losses generated by ORW and 4 Wheel Parts and the start-up NACHO lights. And fourthly, ARB has increased its investments in its people, its marketing and distribution network to facilitate growth in future years. Profit after tax, excluding one-off transactions related to capital gains on property sales, transaction costs related to the acquisitions completed during the year and the Trackman contingent acquisition consideration from the prior year declined to 7.6%. And over the 10-year period, profit after tax has grown at the same rate as sales at 8.3% compounding. To the right of the slide, the Board's policy has been to maintain a dividend payout ratio of between 40% to 60%. In recent years, the dividend payout ratio has been at the higher end of that range. And accordingly, dividends have tracked in line with profit after tax over the last 10 years. Total fully franked dividends paid in relation to FY 2025 was $1.19 per share. This includes the fully franked interim and final dividends of $0.69 per share, which is consistent with last year. And given this company's strong cash holdings, the company announced, and subsequently paid in mid-September 2025, a special fully franked dividend of $0.50 per share. The final dividend of $0.35 per share will be paid to shareholders tomorrow. All dividends were fully funded out of cash reserves and the DRP, the dividend reinvestment take-up for both the final dividend and the special dividend was a healthy 17%. I will just move across to Slide 9, where the company -- which shows that the company generated cash flow from operations of $128 million in FY 2025. The cash flow from operations is broadly in line with the profit after tax, adding back the noncash depreciation demonstrating that company profits were successfully converted to cash. Working capital increased only marginally over the year, with an increase in revenue -- in inventories of 3.9%, slightly below the growth in the sales revenue and receivables and payables balances were flat compared with the prior year. The company invested $46.2 million in property, plant and equipment with $23.3 million spent on property and $22.9 million spent on plant and equipment. Major capital items during the year included manufacturing equipment in the Thai factories, which Dennis will speak to; the completion of the Kilsyth head office development; and the purchase of a warehouse in Dubai to better service our ARB Middle East business. ARB invested a further $25.6 million in its long-term strategic investments in the U.S. The investment facilitated ORW's acquisition of the 4 Wheel Parts business, including its retail store network and the e-commerce site, and it injected -- and we injected further funding into the start-up NACHO Lights business, along with other shareholders, and Lachlan will speak to primarily the ORW and 4 Wheel Parts acquisition later on in our presentation. We also acquired 3 businesses during the year, costing $13.3 million. These businesses include the ARB retail store, one of the most successful stores in Australia, which we purchased from a long-standing independence owner who has now retired. We also acquired the distributor ship business in Christchurch, New Zealand, where that independent owner had also retired. And finally, we acquired Mitts Alloy and trade manufacturer based in Newcastle, New South Wales. At the end of the year, the company had $69.2 million in cash and had no debt. Over on Slide 10, we see one of management's key focuses during the year being the management of our inventory levels. You'll see there that in the first half, inventories grew by $38 million and at the same time, new vehicle sales in Australia declined. The increase in inventories were also impacted by the weaker Australian dollar or the higher cost from the Thai Baht cost base in our tire factories and the acquisition of ARB Toowoomba Christchurch, New Zealand; and MITS Alloy, as I've just spoken to. Significantly, building inventories in the first half of FY 2025 effectively overrecovered factory overhead costs in the first half and then managing down our inventories in the second half, given the decline in new vehicle sales, primarily in Australia, we essentially under-recovered factory fixed costs and this created some volatility in our results between the first and second halves and continues -- or has continued into the first quarter of FY 2026, as we've continued to manage our stocks down. Slide 11 presents the sales performance across AIB's 3 sales channels, sales into the Australian aftermarket, into the export markets around the world, and also to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. Sales into the Australian aftermarket declined 0.2 of a percent to $403.3 million, a decline of $800,000. This sales channel was impacted by lower new vehicle sales, which is a key driver of ARB sales into this category. Inflationary pressures, which also impacted on consumer discretionary spending. However, we believe that this steady result in the Australian aftermarket was a solid result given that the new vehicle sales of 3 of our key models being the Toyota Hilux 4x4, the Ford Ranger and the Isuzu D-MAX were all coincidentally down 17% each for the financial year. The highlight of this financial year is the company's export business. Its sales grew 16.4% to $267 million in FY 2025 with gains recorded across all 3 export geographical regions. Specifically, growth in the United States represents the successful implementation of a number of new initiatives, which the Board and management are confident will deliver long-term brand growth and sales growth. These initiatives include the company's increased investment in its associate, ORW, providing ARB with access to the ORW and 4 Wheel Parts retail network. The launch of a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site and the expanding relationship with Toyota USA, which includes the fitting of ARB branded content to their Halo platform Trail Hunter in the factory. Sales revenue to OEMs of $59.7 million for the financial year ended 30 June 2025 was flat following sales growth of 40.5% in the prior year. Contracts for new model vehicles buffered the decline in new vehicle sales spoken to earlier, noting that sales into the OE channel can be volatile depending on the multiyear contracts. Thank you for your attention, and I'll hand the time to Dennis.

Excellent. Thank you, Damon. Good morning to those in the room and to anybody who is listening in remotely today. I'm very pleased to be here again presenting to you today on safety, manufacturing and engineering at ARB. I'm very happy to be a part of ARB after 50 years and celebrating my own 30th year next year with the company. It's been a fantastic ride. I've really enjoyed all of it and still as excited today about where we're going as what it was 30 years ago. Next slide, please. So safety is a highly integrated part of our operations and the monitoring and management of our team's safety and well-being is always at the front of mind. Obviously, safety extends throughout our entire organization. However, manufacturing and logistics carry greater risks, and we focus our attention proportionately in these areas. Some highlights in FY '25 that have supported our focused safety drive include health monitoring, including a hearing conservation program that entails noise assessments audiometric testing, training and supported by a noise management policy. Monitoring of levels in production areas to ensure we meet defined acceptable standards and strict monitoring of the health of employees who work in higher risk environments as precautionary measures. Driving positive outcomes related to injury management, particularly focused on prevention, early intervention and support for employees. We've had the introduction of the software program to help us improve how we support the welfare of our employees, our management of injury cases and to facilitate effective return to work programs, which is a critical factor for our employees. I'm pleased to see that our efforts resulted in lower time loss due to injuries. We're focused intently on forklift and pedestrian safety through minimizing interactions. We've now fully implemented driver safe zones at all of our sites where we have a risk of interaction between forklifts and drivers. We have completed updated traffic management plans at all Australian and New Zealand sites with international sites in process. And we've initiated programs to reduce forklift interaction in our Thailand factories by 90% and have decreased forklift operators by 50%, further reducing our risks. Next slide, thank you. At our core, we are a manufacturing and engineering business, and we are continuing to maintain our focus on the development and production of class-leading products. In FY '25, we invested more than $1.1 million in new equipment throughout our Australian manufacturing businesses. We have introduced robotic trimming in our SmartBar factory and have committed to the installation of advanced rotomolding technology in FY '26. In keeping with our Kilsyth site upgrades, we have completed improvements to our Kilsyth factory amenities areas. We've introduced more than 50 new products into our Australian factories during FY '25. At 30th of June 2025, we had already committed to more than $10.4 million in capital equipment with a strong emphasis on automation for delivery in FY '26 to support our global growth. Thailand represents our largest investment in manufacturing. And our factories and teams there continue to grow in capacity, sophistication and capability. In FY '25, we invested more than $8.2 million in new equipment, including laser cutters, press brakes and robotic welding cells. We have commenced and made excellent progress with layout changes in our factories to improve product flow and operational efficiency. We've increased our ratio of investment in automated manufacturing. Toyota Motor's North America programs have increased in our Thailand factories, and we've launched some new, higher-volume OEM products. We now supply 7 major product lines into TMNA. And the majority of these products are being manufactured using more advanced and automated methods. We achieved 93% on our last supplier scorecard from Toyota North America. We have commenced our new high-tech semi-automated coating line, and that's scheduled to be completed in quarter 1 of FY '27 with a total investment of around $14.5 million. Following on from the launch of the Australian version Earth Camper we have completed now pilot runs of U.S. Earth Campers in Thailand with a number of changes to align with compliance requirements in U.S. Jump forward 2 slides, please. So moving into engineering. Our ARB Earth Camper has undergone extensive redevelopment during FY '25 and to achieve U.S. compliance requirements and to generally elevate the standard of this product. The more significant changes to the camper have been listed here and they include things like adding an air conditioner, updated the gas system, a larger fully opening window that could be used as a fire escape, meeting flammability requirements, braking system upgrades, U.S.-compliant hitch, new kitchen layout, et cetera. So there's a lot of changes and all of these changes required extensive modifications to panels and components and obviously, plenty of engineering time to execute. Next slide, please. The new product development is a critical pillar and driver of business growth. And during FY '25, we have achieved the successful completion of more than 350 new products that will be manufactured in our factories and in some cases, by third-party manufacturers. To assist with the successful launch of so many new products, we've commenced implementation of a new project management system to help us drive towards improved speed to market with high quality of execution. U.S.A. and Thailand-based engineering teams are also important factors to help us achieve improved speed to market with regionally relevant content through localized and efficient design of new products. Localization of design to U.S. and Thailand engineering centers will enable our Australian design teams to focus on the fast and high-quality execution of new products into the domestic market and will support our overall growth strategies. Our USA engineering facility was launched in quarter 3 of FY '25, and we've been able to recruit high-quality design engineers with extensive industry experience in the U.S. These engineers visited our head office engineering facility at Kilsyth for training and onboarding to expedite their capability to deliver new product. And we've seen immediate improvements in speed to market for U.S. products. We've successfully launched products for Toowoomba for Land Cruiser 250. And we've launched suspension configurations that are specifically designed for the U.S. market. Currently, we employ around 47 production engineers in Thailand, and recruitment is underway today for design engineers in Thailand to establish a design center there beginning within FY '26. That's it for my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. I'll hand over to Mr. Lachlan McCann.

Excellent. Thank you very much, Dennis. And look, just touching on manufacturing. I think in our 50th year, we should be really proud of the fact that we continue to manufacture in Australia. And also noting that a lot of our competitors don't actually manufacture themselves. We believe it's a really core part of controlling our future and continuing to be able to invest and control our destiny. . Now if you had a look at the presentation online, there's a lot of slides to get through. So I'll move through them reasonably quickly, but it's a good news story because there's a lot going on. In the '25 financial year, was quite irregular with a number of newcomers to the Australian 4x4 pickup car park as well as the slowing of a couple of key models. In aggregate, ARB's A-class models declined materially in FY '25 with sales of our top 3 pickup models, the Ford Ranger, the Toyota Hilux and the Isuzu D-MAX declining 17%, whereas in FY '24, these models grew by 35%, 15% and 32%, respectively. Additionally, the Land Cruiser 70 Series declined by 12%. And the king of the road, the 300 Series Land Cruiser declined by 27%, which was more likely related to supply than demand with a model upgrade midyear. There are a couple of standouts though in the 4x4 SUV class with the Ford Everest had another great year, growing 33% on top of 88% the year prior. Following a depressed year caused by major model change, the Land Cruiser Prado bounced back with 28% growth in FY 2025. Not represented in this graph is the newly entered BYD Shark, which has grabbed a lot of attention and the Kia Tasman. The jury is certainly still out and where the buyers of the shark will spend money on accessories to the extent of a Ranger or Hilux owner expecting that we can inspire Shark owners to buy ARB product lines, including bull bars and suspension and roof rack, the Shark products are now available and as our products are the newly released Kia Tasman. Looking forward, ARB is very excited to see the Ford Super G arrive in FY 2026, which will be -- which we believe will be a prolific model through both fleet and retail channels. And additionally, an update to the Toyota Hilux is due imminently. Now moving on to domestic and international sales on the next slide. ARB's aftermarket business in Australia is comprised of sales through corporately owned stores, independent ARB stores, stockists and various forms of wholesale resellers, new vehicle dealerships and fleets. Also included in these numbers, the ARB subsidiaries of go active outdoors representing Tour Sweden, Kingsley Enterprises, SmartBar in South Australia and the newly introduced MITS Alloy in Newcastle, New South Wales. As reported by Damon, the Australian aftermarket business was flat in the prior year. Given the material reduction in ARB's A-class vehicles, we believe this was a strong result and 1 where we've grown market share on key models. Impacting this result was the slower subsidiary business, which, in aggregate, negatively impacted the FY 2025 performance for the Australian aftermarket. The flagship store development program is well resourced within ARB and remains a core pillar of ARB's Australian growth. In 2025, financial year saw the introduction of 5 all new flagship sites in addition to 4 store upgrades. This exceeds our previously reported growth targets of new stores. To help reconcile the store numbers for those of you who do track them, we did sell a very small store in Burnie, Tasmania, in the last year. I don't think there's too many tears shed on the loss of that business. John, you'll have to tell us why we bought that at some stage. Since the end of the 2025 financial year, we have transitioned the Warringal store from a privately held store to a corporate store, which will be reflected in the store numbers going forward. Important to note that when a store is upgraded, we typically increase the size of the workshop, which adds the number of fitting bays, which were occupied by fitters, which is a struggle point should increase revenue. On average, across the upgraded stores in the financial year, we added an average of 3 days per store. The Australian aftermarket business now represents 55.2% of group revenue. Moving on to the next slide. Despite its historically strong performance, the Kilsyth head office showroom was in our proudest example of a retail representation. And for those of you who don't know, who haven't been out, we're actually on the site of the former Sanitaria building, and that was when I started, but a small fund fact. And it was a building that was built probably in the 1950s or '60s and has had a renovation, which is fantastic for our employees this year. Along with the head office development, which I've just spoken about, we have an all new 475 square meter flagship showroom at head office. This is the most contemporary version of an ARB retail presentation for our enthusiast and trade customers alike. Additionally, we can much better represent the brand and product journey to corporate customers who regularly visit our Kilsyth head office. The Kilsyth store also creates the opportunity for our marketing and visual merchandising teams to explore new and different ways to showcase ARB product and the brand. And particularly, with our expansion over into the U.S., it's really important to have that facility there so that we can touch on how we're going to present our products to market, both domestically and obviously, in our new U.S. locations. Just taking a moment to thank our key independent ARB store owners who've invested in flagship stores during FY 2025. I call out to Ben and Clayton formerly of 4x4 long-term stockers to build a stunning flagship ARB showroom in Rockingham, Western Australia. Welcome to the family, guys. And a short -- and to long-term store and as the black family New Castle and New South Wales, thank you for your efforts in upgrading to flagship, very much appreciated. On to the next slide and the national sales and fitting performance. In 2025, the year -- during the year, national sales yielded mixed results. Excluding subsidiary businesses, we achieved low single-digit growth. The ARB corporate retail business performed well, offset by declines in our wholesale business through independent ARB stores and stockists, who both grew more confident in ARB's inventory during the year, but also took a more -- much more conservative position on their stock and, of course, their cash management. The dealer channel naturally decline with lower new vehicle sales. However, the ARB fleet business continued to trend positively, in line with recent years. The significant effort to improve engagement and performance in AB's workshops is an ongoing effort and a key driver of revenue domestically. The total number of fitters in the period declined, which did impact the performance of the business. In aggregate, turnover reduced and retention improved, initiatives in all aspects of employment and retention of our fitters continues. However, the most consistent and reliable addition to the team have been our employees on skilled migration visas. We have 12 team members now actively working in ARB stores, a further 10 employees imminent for arrival and another 12 employees during the next 8 to 12 months. Customer satisfaction at ARB stores is a critical aspect of the business success directly impacting customer retention, loyalty and overall profitability. NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a commonly use means to measure customer satisfaction. The ARB corporate stores are now measuring NPS in the last 12 months. We've had 8,000 customer responses from specific transactions, which is a balance of value of transaction and type of transaction, reflecting a 24% response rate, which by industry standards is huge. Pleasingly, ARB's NPS score is 68, which by industry standards, is excellent, representing high levels of customer engagement and high levels of customer satisfaction. With that, however, we have individual stores ranked much higher than 68. And of course, stores ranked much lower. There's always room for improvement, which will be a key part of our drive in the new financial year. Moving on. When COVID arrived on our doorstep 5 years ago, there was a reflection point on our retail strategy in Australia. We were unable to transact with customers online. And while we're far removed from a box in, box out style business, the need -- with the need for the majority of our products to be fitted, there is certainly a customer demographic that either prefers to shop online or are capable of DIY fitting that do make our products less accessible by exclusively being a brick-and-mortar retailer. Again, this was front of mind during COVID. And in this time, there was a really strong temptation to stand up a simple e-commerce platform, a Shopify or whatnot. But after really careful consideration, we knew that there was a much bigger long-term play in designing a best-in-class integrated 4x4 accessory e-commerce site that provides a seamless customer interaction online with the incremental benefit of being an omnichannel offering both the digital experience complemented by the in-store experience. The road to a best-in-class site requires significant investment in both proprietary tools that supported the success of the site. This included a catalog that's provided a guaranteed fit of ARB products to our complex car park in Australia. We worked extensively with our independent store network to ensure their business is integrated with this new site, and their primary market area being respected online. And we've worked with premium vendors to ensure we're using best-in-class technology. As referenced on screen, today, we have a huge amount of traffic coming to arb.com.au. We're providing an informational and product brand experience that do not allow customers to transact. Simple calculations on the conversion rates from the existing site traffic suggests this will be a strong sales channel for ARB going forward. Current traffic from arb.com.au also tells a story about a younger demographic, spending both time on our website and our social media platforms that we know that these customers are not attending our stores today. And we hope in the future to make it easier for these guys to transact. The site is largely ready to launch. We're going through the final stages of beta testing now and are confident to have the site online before the holiday season. So today, for the first time, and the Board actually haven't seen this, it will be the first time for them. We're really proud to showcase a short introduction to the new website. [Presentation]

It looks pretty simple, but just to highlight the work that's gone into the catalog that sits behind that site that really gives a truly unique and bespoke customer experience through the selection process of accessories to vehicles. Moving on. The Ford licensed accessory program, or FLAs, where ARB has partnered with Ford Australia and Ford globally to deliver in excess of 180 branded ARB products for the Ford Ranger and Everest platforms available today through Ford's dealership network with a full 5-year warranty. As an extension of the partnership, Ford and ARB have collaborated on a special interest pack for the Raptor. These special interest pack support an OEM's mid-model life cycle strategy to reignite excitement around a specific model. In recent weeks, Ford have released the Raptor Desert pack, which feature an ARB branded sports bar and four NACHO Quattro lights where there are a number of other Ford upgrades. The Raptor Desert pack is now available to order from 4 dealerships. In further news and as referenced earlier, the new range of Superduty is in market imminently. And I can't emphasize enough this vehicle is absolutely in the bull's eye of the ARB customer demographic as a heavily upgraded ranger, targeting heavy-use applications across commercial and retail customers. As was the case with Ranger, Ford has selected ARB as the preferred partner for the majority of the accessories including the MITS Alloy's service body. We're excited -- really excited to see this vehicle come to market. And if you haven't had a chance, jump on Ford's website and have a look at the feature product content from ARB. Ford and ARB are rounding at the final stages of the negotiation of a 5-year extension to the FLA program, which we'll see the agreement extend beyond 2030. Now on to ARB's export business. The 50th year celebration as important internationally for ARB as they were domestically. Over the 50-year journey and very close to my heart, in export land where my ARB career started, we've developed incredibly long-term relationships with key markets and key partners who have materially helped ARB become a significant global brand, not only in developed countries, but developing countries through Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, where ARB has become synonymous with strength and durability in the most trying of conditions. If you haven't been following our YouTube series, please do. But today, we want to share a short video showcasing the 50th year internationally with our expeditions to both Africa and Mongolia. [Presentation]

Excellent. ARB's business, which has previously been highlighted was clearly a great result for the business in the last financial year. It does demonstrate, as Rob mentioned, the diversity and the resilience of our business. Asia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands recorded incremental growth of 15.3%. Europe, Middle East and Africa performed well in a challenging environment, growing at 12.4%. revenues grew in low single digits despite a 6% decline in pickup vehicle sales in the U.K. And we are delighted with the U.S. result as reported by Damon and Rob with North America and Latin America sales growing by 21.4%. And given the political and economic headwinds in that market, a truly outstanding result. Export sales now represents 36.6% of group revenue. Moving on. China remains an incredibly exciting opportunity for ARB with a range of current challenges that have a consistent decline in revenue over recent years. We must arrest the slide in China. The brand is very strong, and there is an open market waiting for us. Despite our challenges, the 4x4 community and the engagement through our social media channels in China remain very, very strong. And to address the slide in the business, we have developed a wholly owned foreign entity in China to import, market and distribute ARB products. This entity has now been fully established. We've contracted a 3PL in close proximity to the Shanghai Port and Pudong Airport. And our in-country marketing is in full swing. Product will commence shipping to the 3PL in coming weeks, and we expect to commence trading in China directly to customers in the first quarter of the new financial year -- calendar year, my apologies. Now on to the U.S. business. If we can move forward, thank you. While we've been laying the strategic foundations for growth in the U.S. for a number of years, the results hadn't necessarily materialized. But this year, they did. We were delighted to see excellent growth from the U.S. of 21.4% in FY '25, especially given the dynamics we spoke of earlier. A brief mention to our Latin American business that has outperformed year after year and again, performed very well in FY 2025. The e-commerce business in North America had a full 12 months of trading and made a very strong contribution to the business result. We continue to tune the e-commerce business as it matures, and we learn how to digitally optimize specific product groups and regions. More recently, we added a program called which provides an opportunity for brick-and-mortar wholesale customers to fulfill ARB commerce orders, especially where there's a requirement for the product to be fitted. As mentioned by Dennis, our engineering center is now in full swing. The small team is connected with our Australian engineering team and are busy on a range of expansion of popular U.S. models, especially the Toyota platforms. The team are also supporting the product validation for our impending Poison Spider release, which I'll talk about in a minute. Early days, but the localization strategy is working with impressive sell-through of those parts, which have already landed in the U.S. market, designed and engineered by the U.S. team. On to the next slide. Off-Road Warehouse is a joint venture that originally had 11 full drive retail stores in California and acquired a further 42 stores 4 Wheel Parts stores in October 2024 across 9 states, for a total of 53 stores. The 4 Wheel Parts business was acquired out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy from Wheel Pros. So in the 8 months of trading, which at the time of the financial update, we have successfully integrated 500-plus 4 Wheel Parts employees into the business, transitioned the ERP system, closed a total of 5 stores, 3 of which were geographically close to the other stores i.e., ORW and 4 Wheel Parts in the same location and 2 were underperforming. The business has now a total of 48 stores. We've restructured a loss-making e-commerce business back to profitability. And as a result, the business has achieved small operating profits in the 5 of the last 6 months in FY 2025 and is significantly outperforming the original business case. At 30 June 2025, ORW had a positive cash balance of USD 7 million and as reported by Damon has repaid the ARB debt facility in full. We're pleased to report that in Q1 FY 2026, ORW continued to trade profitably in all 3 months at higher profit levels over and above the prior 3 months in the last financial year. This puts us in a great position to grow in the U.S. A lot of work still needs to be done in the original business as many organic opportunities exist. However, we believe this is a fantastic start and a strong shout out to Greg Adler and his team on a job well done so far. A lens now on the ARB product sales through the ORW and 4 Wheel Parts stores. And again, a great news story here, where ARB product sales have achieved excellent sales through the stores. ARB product exposure and education through both the retail and e-commerce sites have significantly improved. On a like-for-like basis, the product sales through ORW and 4 Wheel Parts are growing very well and in some months, up to double the prior corresponding period. Store ARB displays as first trials are now in 2 stores. And while the review is still underway, the layout and the presentation of the 2 pilot stores, we have placed orders for a further -- joinery for a further 10 stores. The first ore development in Gardena, Los Angeles, is mostly complete. And for those who have missed the most recent investor presentation, the following video helps provide an exciting visual on how we're presenting ARB products within the stores. [Presentation]

The U.S. team put that presentation together. So apologies to the music, but moving on. As a part of the Wheel Pros Chapter 11 process, there was also an opportunity to acquire an iconic off-road brand in the U.S.A. which is close to the heart of Jeep enthusiasts and rock crawling alike, Poison Spyder. Rock crawling legend, Larry McCray, drove the brand to its original heights and after various ownership changes and some health issues from Larry himself, the business did become part of the 4 Wheel Parts ownership, but was left sleeping. So through various ownership changes left a sleeping icon dormant for many, many years or semi-dormant. This has proven an opportunity for ax to polish the fans of the Spyder and relaunch the brand. It's important to note that the U.S. market is more heavily segmented than Australia. The category of off-road or full driver is quite homogenous here in Australia as it relates to accessories. But in the U.S., you're an overlander, rock roller or maybe lifted truck guy or girl, ARB is more synonymous in the U.S. with overlanding. And therefore, with the addition of Poison Spyder in product categories we design and manufacture today, we can be more targeted to our offering with Rock Rolling customers. As such, we've given the branded tweak, commenced production of parts that we'll be rolling out as a marketing program comes to fruition, supported by the founder, Larry McCray. User-generated content or owned media will be a powerhouse behind the relaunch. There are hundreds of thousands of Poison Spyder brand ambassadors in market today who love the brand, and they want to tell their story. And to add to the past and the future success of Poison Spyder. With own sales channels, including ORW and 4 Wheel Parts and e-commerce, we're excited about the relaunch of this icon Moving on. On to ARB's OEM business, which had a record year in FY 2024 with sales revenue just shy of $60 million, representing a 40.5% increase. In FY 2025, as was reported, revenue was flat to the prior financial year and now represents 8.2% of group revenue. The OEM business represented here excludes sales to Toyota North America. Looking forward, sales to OEM customers are expected to decline in the first half of the new financial year, but are expected to recover in the second half with a small increase in full year, largely dependent on new vehicle sales in this time, which we have some visibility to, but their OE forecasts and they're always changing and they're always in some way wrong. Really excitingly, ARB will commence the supply of a Toyota designed ARB branded roof rack for the for the highest selling vehicle in the U.S.A. in 2024 calendar year. This accessory is only available through a dealer channel fit or directly through Toyota's online channels. We're excited by the opportunity not only to supply this product to the RAV4 for revenue purposes, but the continued brand exposure of ARB to a broader U.S. demographic. Moving forward and on to products. And as mentioned by Dennis, the engineering team have been busy across both platform development and new product development. The effort in platform developed on vehicles such as the Land Cruiser, Prado 250 BYD Shark and have been a strong focus in the last 12 months. The aftermarket thrives on speed to market. And as Dennis has explained, we're making a number of changes to ensure we're the leader in design, quality and speed. The following pages highlight the breadth of products being precision engineered for these platforms. And if we can move to the next slide, and we'll lower the sound a little bit. The rugged Prado 250, which was launched also in the U.S. for the first time as the Land Cruiser. You can see here from front of the vehicle to the back of the vehicle, there's extreme really popular 4x4 model with multiple bull bar offerings, suspension offerings and storage offerings. We'll move to the next slide, just in the essence of time, to the Kia Tasman. This provides a really quick visual snapshot of how we've enhanced both the visual aesthetic, which has in fairness been criticized in the media and the off-road performance of the Kia Tasman. [Presentation]

Excellent. The final vehicle to highlight is the BYD Shark. This model continues to surprise in the volumes being sold to the Australian market and select global markets. As previously mentioned, with what we've watched with how BYD owners have updated their vehicles with products. As you can see, our initial offering is more stylized with the bull bar complimented by shock absorbers, a package that we think more directly speaks to BYD owners. Not only platform but dedicated product development happened in FY 2025 headline by the release of the brushless compressor if we move forward. already category leading in its brush form. The brushless compressor is a technological leap for this product that gives users much higher air flows for the same compressor footprint. Speeding up the time to inflate tires after day off the track. The product has a huge following in global markets. And since the launch has had fantastic enthusiast reviews, which is supporting a very early but very strong commercial outcomes. [Presentation]

We'll move forward. Let's keep going. Okay. We're almost there. On to the performance from Q1. Sales growth of 3.8% was achieved in Q1 FY 2026, including 1% growth in the Australian aftermarket, again, compressed by declining sales of key platforms; a 33.4% decline in the OEM business, largely timing related; and a 17.4% increase in export sales, where the U.S.A. growth in Q1 outpaced the 21.4% growth in FY 2025. Gross margins achieved in the first quarter of the new financial year continued to trend in line with prior reporting period. The persistently weak Australian dollar to Thai Baht is an ongoing pain point for the business. In Q1, we've continued to see the stock levels fall. Factory recoveries are well down in Q1 relative to the prior corresponding period, but we're now winding up our factories and expect to see higher factory recoveries in future months. And on a final note, ARB has reached agreement with Tor Sweden at the GoActive business will be handed back to The interest of both companies have been well considered and both companies are collaborating through the transition. The business is immaterial from a group context. And on to the outlook. ARB's aftermarket business performed well in Q1 FY 2026, considering the challenging market conditions. The order book and order intake remains healthy despite weaker sales of our core ARB models. The ARB's export business continues to trend positively, growth in markets such as New Zealand, the Middle East, Europe are performing well, which is expected to continue. The business is putting the structure in place to return to growth in China. The U.S. business has performed very well in Q1 FY 2026, continuing the trend from the second half of FY 2025. The strategic foundations late in prior years to grow the USA business are now materializing and are sustainable. The ORW 4 Wheel Parts business is outperforming expectations and has produced consistent monthly profits in Q1 FY 2026. Sales to OEM customers are forecast to decline in the first half of FY 2026, as we mentioned, but are expected to return to growth. as ARB expects progressive development of its OEM pipeline with both new customers and new products into the future. FX headwinds continue to impact margins. Inventory has been reduced further in Q1 FY 2026 with corresponding positive cash flows. But in summary, the Board believes, if we just move to the final slide, the company is well positioned to achieve long-term success through expansion of Australia and New Zealand with the new and upgraded retail stores, strategic partnerships with key OE customers in Australia and the U.S.A., continued growth in the U.S. and export business, particularly in the U.S. market, a strong balance sheet and a strong cash position, the pipeline of new products and product releases in the and a well-balanced management team with a blend of long-term ARB experienced and external executives. Okay, that's me done. I would like to take the time to thank the senior leadership team and the broader ARB employee base for their drive excellence and passion in FY 2025. We continue with a very clear vision for success and drive for sustainable growth in Australia and around the world over the next 50 years. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Lachlan. It really gives a great insight into the activities which are going on in the business, and there's a lot of long-term planning that is going into what you've seen today. And I would also like to thank Lachlan, you, for your leadership and also the rest of your senior leadership team for your efforts in FY '25. Hopefully, those presentations have covered most of your burning questions. But of course, we're always happy to take questions on anything that you'd like to query us on. However, I would ask that if the questions relate to the formal items of business such as the Rem Report or the reelection of directors, we leave those until the relevant items, there will be plenty of time. A reminder that those who may address the meeting, you should have either a blue or a yellow admission card. And if you'd like to ask a question, just raise that card and we'll get a microphone to you. And if you'd also I wouldn't mind if mentioning your name and also if you're representing an organization, who you're representing before you make your comments would be appreciated. In the interest of time, if you could just keep it to 1 question, but we will circle back when we've done initial questions from everyone in the room. Okay. So we'll now be pleased to take questions.

Right. Yes, there is right. Yes, Dennis, thank you. You seem to have carved a niche for yourself there.

Just relates to discretionary spend particularly in the Australian market. During our tour in 2017, which seems a long time ago, we were told then that the market was basically split into a 1/3 who were true off-roaders. 1/3 were trades and a third wanted others to think they were 4-wheel drivers. Is that still basically the customer mix in Australia?

Yes.

So that's where the discretionary spend is in the final 1/3, is it more?

The customer demographic that we speak to -- it's an interesting question because self-manage retires as an example, who have cash and are probably less interested in what's happening with with some of the financial mechanisms are a really important part of our customer base. Some of our fleet customers, is another example, have long-term strategic planning about the management of their fleet, and therefore, a lot of their decisions are considered years ahead of us putting vehicles onto their fleet. So there's a broad mixture, but probably to directly answer the question, that discretionary spend customer for ARB certainly an important part of that demographic. I would take the time to say that we position ourselves at the top end of the market. And fortunately, for us, the people that have money to spend on accessories and the platforms that we see key to our business like the 300 series Land Cruiser typically have the money in the good times and in the bad times to buy ARB product.

John?

[ John Lancel ], ASA member or Australian Shareholders Association. A couple of observations of several years ago, I spoke to Roger about banging on police cars. And I noticed one in the Northern Territory news. Now the other day, I know there's quite a few police card around our South area, badged ARB. So it's a form of free advertising, I suppose. Was there any restriction on getting the badging on police cars or ambulances or fire brigades or...

Yes. Thanks very much for the question. It's a really -- it's a really good one. So those vehicles are Ford Rangers, and the Victoria employee force has gone through a significant upgrade to their fleet. And as a part of our association, we fall through the FLA program. Ford has to guarantee and warranty for OH&S purposes, the product that they're putting on it. So the engineering validation our teams did with Ford gave us the opportunity to present a product to market for the Victorian Police force in this instance that says that Ford would back the product that's going on the vehicle and one of the benefits of that is we get our logo on the front of the vehicle. There's no fortunately, Victoria Police have probably got bigger things to worry about than ARB badge in the front of their vehicles. But I would take the time to say as well, if you do see ambulances in any state in Australia, typically, they are with a smart bar, renamed by ARB in South Australia and the rebar also rotomolded by ARB in South Australia. So helping our good friends in the VIC police and ambulance services.

Okay. Several years ago, I suggested that we could be a land development company and -- because of all the property we own, I was just wondering what was the actual profit for this financial year on the land sales?

That's a Damon question, that one.

Thanks, John. So the number -- the exact number is disclosed in the annual report in the Chairman statement. It was $2.5 million to $3 million. There were 2 properties sold. It was $2.5 million to $3 million. Should also state, John, we do deliberately split that out. So on the ASX announcement so that we don't -- we're not representing that that's an ongoing profit there one-off profits, but it is clearly split out in the ASX announcement.

Last one. Whenever I see a TGM badged car, I try and speak to the owner and with the comment, wouldn't you prefer to buy an ARB product, which doesn't break down in the Simpson Desert?

Hopefully, that's a statement more than a question, so thank you very much.

My name is [ Michael Milson ]. I'm a company monitor for the Australian Shareholders' Association. It's my good luck and good fortune to be monitoring ARB this year for the first time. And it's been delight to go through the report. It's interesting facts and figures. It's also bloody hard work, I should imagine. We have a couple of questions. On behalf of those retail shareholders who are not able to make it here today, would the company consider trying to make the future annual general meetings hybrid meetings in the fullest context rather than just a virtual, which is what it is today? That's the first question, Mr. Chairman.

Why don't I address them as you go, Mike. And good to see you in person. Thank you for coming. That's something we would certainly consider. We do prefer face-to-face makings. There's no doubt about that. This year, we did extend the online the webcast right throughout the meeting, including this question time and the formal business, whereas last year, we actually cut it at the end of the presentation. So we have extended it. But I think there are advantages to maintaining it as a formal meeting shareholders, we encourage and be present and we also encourage any questions in advance, which we will always address either at this meeting or throughout the course of the year. So it will be considered, and we are watching, but at this stage, we don't have any plans to change our current format.

Okay. It was just that in '22, we had a meeting with you where you really constituted your constitution? And it was included in there that it would be a virtual meeting, and we suggested taking it out. And at that time, you said you would. But anyway, we'll see what happens in the future in the hope that the poor shareholders sitting at home, unable to be here and ask a question personally satisfied.

It's a controversial topic because a lot of the institutions will vote against constitutions that enable virtual-only meetings, so yes.

On a way left question. In your annual report, you say in the greenhouse calculations, greenhouse calculations haven't been able to be concluded as yet. I understand that that's still under being undertaken in the environment study.

We've certainly -- we've engaged external consultants to assist us with that. We had -- in fact, we engaged them some time ago, as I mentioned in my address, we're well down that path, Scope 1, Scope 2. We've now got covered and will be disclosure for that. And we're well on the way for the disclosure of Scope 3.

Okay. I have 1 more and I'll wait until the Directors' comments.

Feel free to ask Mike while you...

Well, it was really relating to whether the company would consider asking any Directors who are holding less than their annual Board fee in numbers of company shares, whether they would consider increasing their shareholdings. ASA has a policy that we sort of very much like the retail shareholders very much like to see all directors holding shareholdings in the company, at least to the equivalent of the annual Board fee. And if you could undertake to have a look at that for us, it would be great.

Yes. I don't think that we would formalize that requirement, but I'd like to think that all Directors in time as personal circumstances permitted would comply with that sort of measure. Thank you, Mike, and it was a pleasure to meet you earlier online.

[ Stuart Oldfield ], Dutch Shareholder here. Congratulations on the 50 years. fan of organic store rollout and the benefits that producers for shareholders in retailing businesses. So other successful Australian listed companies, and I'm thinking of Beacon here have done third-party research on what ultimate store count they could have in the Australian market. I'd be interested in knowing whether ARB has gone down a similar path, whether you're happy to share that internally or externally? And hopefully, the ultimate store count would be particularly of corporate flagship stores would be significantly higher than where we are today.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Stuart. Absolutely. We know exactly where we want stores. And I think one of the great strengths of ARB is our ability to partnership -- partner with the independent store owners as well to expedite that growth. We like to do -- and one of the things from today has been consistent decision-making in this area for sustainable growth. We need to make sure that, a, the investments that we make corporately are the right investments. And so those locations very specifically picked out and developed over time. But equally to that with independents, making sure that they're independent store owners that are going to go the journey with us on their store development program. But [ Stuart ], probably to answer the question, we've got an outlook of beyond 100 stores that are moving as quickly towards.

John?

I was just wondering how are you coping with the Trump episode of his moods and swings and roundabouts and -- well, no comment from you guys.

Not sure if there's any Americans in the room, but I'll keep it above I know there's one, thanks No. Look, it's a really dynamic period to support and lead a business in the U.S.A. I do think that we're resourceful as an organization. We can make decisions reasonably flexibly and we're in it with everybody else. I think the key here is we're an Australian manufacturer, and we're a tire manufacturer. And we have very little product flying from Thailand to the U.S.A., which importantly has put us at a strategic benefit over a number of our competitors, which has been great.

[indiscernible]

No, we've got the rest of the global business to consider. But there's little things that we called out. We had a couple of components, for example, manufactured in China that we moved over to India and then they had a fight with Mr. Modi and we're back in the same spot. So harder to pick than a broker nose that one. But no, we'll -- look, we'll continue to be as dynamic as possible, but certainly, strategic vision of how to manage this long term is at the forefront because we don't necessarily believe the U.S. government is going to move away from its tariffs post Trump. So we're going to have to brace for the long term and think strategically about how we put ourselves in the best position for the future.

[indiscernible] some point -- we've got a lot of sales direction and take those opportunities.

I think the important point is the 1 Lachlan mentioned, relatively the bit you've got to remember, relatively to our competitors. I think we're actually quite well placed in the scope and breadth of our operations gives us more flexibility as well. Ray?

It's often being said that running a business in the U.S. is like trying to run a business in 50 different states with -- countries with different regulations and all those sort of stuff. Has that or is it likely to impede the development, for instance, vehicle regulations are different enough in states that it's going to matter to how ARB rolls out its stores?

It's a really good question. And I think having spent a lot more time with Greg, and he's father, George understanding how they've rolled out their business. What is interesting to understand is the demand, the environmental impacts of each individual state because you'll see the store positions that Greg's most comfortable with are the smile states. So California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas through to Florida. So the Northeast, as 1 example, is an area that he's historically been quite weak in. And we know through other knowledge of other industry players is a really strong market that we haven't tapped into. So we're certainly today with the size of that market, not so worried about nuances in specific markets. It's just the opportunities and where best to invest our time and resources to be able to grow all markets preferably. But even things like you don't sell to many in Arizona, but it's a good product for Florida and Seattle.

And just it seems like this has been asked my question. Just a final from me. In the AGM presentation, it preferred last year, relating to Trackman, it referred to an Isuzu ARB hub partnership. What's that involved? And how does ARB make money out of that?

Yes, if you consider an ILA partnership, if you will, is fascinated. Everything is about value stream, and I think the OEs in a number of countries that decided the car park isn't necessarily going to grow in the next 20 years as strongly as it has in the 20 years beforehand. And so the idea is there is value captured dealership for as much of that as possible. Now what does that mean for the OEMs? The OEM has got to work out, do they design and develop and spend their resources to put accessories in place so that they can capture the interest of that customer as they come in the door because ideally, the best place to sell our customer accessories is when they're buying the vehicle. Dealerships are not good at selling accessories. But I don't think the OEMs know that so much. And so what they're trying to do by virtue of these programs is really integrate strong aftermarket brands with a dealership offering so that they can capture that value at the dealership. So that partnership with Isuzu looked and smell very much like the Ford partnership where they took a bunch of ARB accessories and tried to extend that offering to the customer buying the products -- buying the vehicle at the dealership, hopefully, complemented by those accessories.

[indiscernible]

Yes. No, it is absolutely. Yes. And the interesting open because I think we always think of the recreational space. Our mine goes to a retail customer walk into a dealership buying a vehicle. But a lot of these products have significant overlap to the fleet space. And so we have things like GBM upgrades, lighting solutions, communication solutions, power solutions. The fleet operators, the most dealership groups will have sales people very focused on fleet and some of those accessory programs really talk to that type of customer. So yes, it has been successful, and it does continue today.

Any further questions? So we'll, of course, be time after the meeting. But yes, feel free. Just wait for the microphone. Thank you.

I've been to these shareholder meetings over a few years. So thanks again for this one, particularly important at 50 years since that first bull bar was probably made in Montrose in 1970, if I'm looking back on your record, so well done. Just 1 question. Just looking through your annual report, good report, is the shortage of -- impacted by shortage of technicians. And I assume that's what you spoke before about bringing [indiscernible]

Yes. Look, the most recent statistical information that we have for workshop technicians and mechanics, there's about 100,000 to 110,000 open positions for about 75,000 to 80,000 people in Australia in that workforce. And so there's a shortfall of 20,000 to 25,000 people. And it's not only a pain that we feel -- we work really closely with dealership groups and other automotive bodies and everybody is feeling the pain across the board. So we're working as quickly as possible to bring those skilled migration people in. We're working with schools to try to find young school leaders to come into our workshops and hopefully build a career for them. We have our state manager, the guy that runs the states of Australia under Anthony Reynolds, he actually grew up through the workshop side of things and now is running the most significant aftermarket business within the group and probably across Australia. So there is a career pathway for those kids that want to get on board. We've got to get out there and tell the message. But to directly address the question, yes, fitters and skilled technicians in our workshops is a continual pain point that we're working on every day.

Okay. As I mentioned before, there will be plenty of time afterwards to mingle with the Board and ask any questions there. But we'll now move on to the formal items of business. I advise that valid proxies have been received at the company share register Computershare by the designated time of 9:30 on the 14th of October, that was Tuesday. We will, on each of the resolutions, show you on the slide the proxies received at the closing time. And as in my capacity, as Chairman and I intend to vote all available proxies in favor of the 4 resolutions to be put to the meeting. The constitution of the company and the Corporations Act provides that a resolution put to shareholders shall be decided on a show of hands unless decided by a poll and a poll can be demanded by the Chairman. And in that capacity, I am requiring each of today's resolutions to be decided by a poll, and that is also in accordance with our corporate governance statement. So I now declare the poll open. You should have received on registration a yellow voting card, which provides for the holding of a poll for you to vote on the poll. I had here that in order for the vote to be counted, you need to sign the voting card, but Peter, I think that's now updated. So that card doesn't need to be signed. It just needs to be completed. And you complete that, obviously, by marking one of the respective boxes for, against or abstain on the voting card. Abstentions will not be counted in computing the required majority for the poll. And if you are a proxy holder, you must comply with the direction of the shareholder appointing you. I appoint Peter Renda from Computershare as the returning officer for the poll. And if you have any difficulties during the poll, just please raise your hand and one of the Computershare staff will assist you. The returning officer will tally the votes in accordance with the voting instructions. And at the close of the poll, those results will be released to ASX and we'll also have them available on our website. The first item of the business is the consideration of the company's financial report, which includes the Directors' report and the auditor's report for the year ended 30 June 2025. This resolution is required -- no resolution, I should say, is required in relation to this agenda item. However, the subject of the financial report, the Directors' report and the auditor's report is now open for discussion. So if anyone would like to raise a question in relation to the accounts, please raise your hand, and Andrew Reid from Deloitte Australia is also here. Are there any questions? Excellent. I will now turn to the items requiring a formal vote. And each of the 4 resolutions will appear on the screen in turn. So unless I hear to the contrary, I'll take those resolutions as read. And as noted previously, in my capacity as Chairman, I'll be voting in favor of all 4 resolutions. Resolution 1 concerns the company's remuneration report, which forms part of the Director's report contained in the annual report. The vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the company or the Directors. However, we obviously take the feedback that we get through this vote into consideration when setting the company's remuneration policies. For good corporate governance, I advise that the rem report at last year's AGM was carried with a vote in favor of the resolution of 96.61%. The Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolution -- Resolution 1, which you can see on the screen. Before putting the vote -- the motion to a vote, I'd like to invite any questions that shareholders may have in relation to the remuneration report.

The rem report as usual is probably about the clearest when you could ever get all of the companies we look at in TeamInvest. One thing that's not in there, though, is the amount allocated to the LTI performance pool. How is that amount determined and can such an explanation be included in next year's report. In other words, is it a percentage of profit or how is it the pool?

It's discretionary based on what the Board believes is appropriate. I think is the best way to answer that question. But we do have measures and certainly for Lachlan's remuneration, which is disclosed, we obviously have measures and bands within which we like to keep the quantum of that amount within certain bands. And those bands then apply to the other senior executives in the scheme. But overall, we think it's a pretty modest level and the amounts haven't varied a lot over the years, as you probably appreciate, and we see share ownership by the senior leadership team as a core objective because we think it's has been one of the success drivers for the business, the ownership of the founders in the business. We want to see that continue. Okay. We'll now proceed to voting. So as Chairman exercise my power to direct that the vote on Resolution 1 is taken by way of a poll. If you could just please take the time now to mark your yellow voting cards. [Voting]

Resolution 2, which is the next item of business concerns my reelection to the Board. And accordingly, I will hand the Chair of the meeting to Independent Director, Karen Phin, who's also Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee for the purposes of proposing and considering this resolution.

Thanks, Rob. Robert retires in accordance with the company's constitution and being eligible offers himself for reelection. The Board, other than Robert, who abstains given his personal interest in this resolution, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 2. Before opening the meeting to discussion on this resolution, I wanted to make some very brief comments about Robert's contribution to ARB. Robert is a very experienced and well-respected corporate adviser who has expert knowledge across M&A, capital markets and corporate governance. With his financial acumen, it's no surprise that Robert goes through ARB's financial accounts and market announcement with a fine tooth comb to ensure they are accurate and reflect best practice. Robert's deep understanding of the business, his risk analysis, integrity and judgment mean his guidance is critical when management and the Board are evaluating strategic initiatives. I'm sure I speak for everyone on the table here when I say, Robert makes an invaluable contribution to ARB, and we are very fortunate to have such a dedicated, well-respected and expert Chairman. The proxy voting results for this resolution can now be seen on the screen. Does anyone have any questions or comments on this resolution? No. Well, we will now proceed to voting. As Chairman, I exercise my power to direct that the vote on Resolution 2 is to be taken by way of a poll. Please record your vote in relation to Resolution 2 on the reverse side of your yellow voting card, and I will do the same. [Voting]

Does anyone require more time. No. Without preempting the final voting result, I'd like to congratulate Robert on his likely reelection, and thank you, shareholders for overwhelming majority support. Accordingly, now that shareholders have voted on Resolution 2, I'll return the Chair to Robert.

Thank you, Andy. Thank you for those very kind words, Karen, and also for the confidence of the Board. I appreciate that. The next item of business Resolution 3 concerns the reelection of Shona Faber who retires by rotation and offers herself for reelection. The Board, other than Shona, who abstains given her personal interest in this resolution, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 3. I'll put the proxy votes up for this resolution, which I think are overwhelmingly in favor, well done, Shona. Would anyone like to ask any questions in relation to this resolution? In that case, we'll proceed to voting. If you could also mark your yellow voting card. And again, on those proxy numbers, I congratulate Shona on her likely reelection. Congratulations, Shona. The last item of business Resolution 4 concerns the reelection of Adrian Fitzpatrick, who also retires by rotation and offers himself for reelection. The Board, other than Adrian who abstains given his personal interest in the resolution, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 4. The proxies are again overwhelmingly in favor. Well done, Adrian. Both Adrian and Shona make a great contribution to the Board. So very happy to see those -- that endorsement. Would anyone like to ask a question in relation to Adrian's reelection. In that case, again, we'll proceed to voting on that last item, if you could mark the yellow cards. [Voting]

And congratulations on your likely reelection too Adrian. Thank you. Well done. Okay. We will now just take a minute to collect those proxy forms. If you could all -- there's several boxes circulating around the room, if you could just ensure that you've marked them. Well done. Excellent. Thank you. As I mentioned earlier, the votes will be tallied. We should have them with ASX later today, and they will also be posted on the ARB website. There being no further business, so I declare this Annual General Meeting of ARB Corporation Limited closed. Thank you for your attendance and for your continuing investment in ARB. You're most welcome to join us for some refreshments and to ask any further questions, but thank you. We look forward to another really busy year. And yes, if we could actually -- as I close meeting, if we could move outside and to vacate the room and we'll have team coffee outside. But thank you once again. Congratulations to the company on 50 fantastic years and look forward to the long term in the future. So thank you very much.