Card Factory plc (CARD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
June 10, 2021
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorGood day, and welcome to the Card Factory results for the year ended 31st of January 2021 Conference Call. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Darcy Willson-Rymer. Please go ahead.
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveGood morning. My name is Darcy, I'm the new Chief Executive for Card Factory, and I'd like to welcome you to our preliminary results presentation for the year ending January '21. Let me kick off with my introduction. So I'm very pleased to have joined Card Factory, and I'm joining at an exciting time. It's a much loved brand with great potential. The reason I've joined is to build on the great work in the past whilst unlocking the future potential that is within the business. As we all know, the things that made Card Factory successful for the first 20 years are not necessarily going to be the things that make it successful for the next 20 years, and my job is to preserve those things from the past that are essential for the business going forward whilst making the necessary changes to unlock its potential. I've been with the business 3 months now, and I've been focused on a few priorities. Our first priority was to get over 1,000 stores reopened and back trading after lockdown. There was a lot of work to do to get all of the old stock out of the stores, the stores replanned and replenished with the new stock. And I think the team have done an amazing job in getting our stores ready for opening in order for us to welcome our customers and capitalize on the opportunity. And the second thing, I've been working with Kris and the team to get the refinancing complete and to ensure there's sufficient liquidity within the business. And then finally, I've been working on getting immersed into the business, coming up the learning curve and is meeting as many of the colleagues as I possibly could. And so far, I've met about 500 colleagues in groups or in one-to-one meetings, including in-store, video, some face-to-face. And I'm impressed by the culture in our business. We have a company where customers and colleagues love us, and there's energy from our colleagues to do the right thing. Now don't get me wrong. Not everything is perfect, and I've uncovered the aspects of the business that need improving. But it's also been rewarding to talk with customers in-store and see just how much they missed our stores being open and the great offers that we have. And when I speak to customers, they talk to me about the great value, the quality, but also the way our colleagues treat them in store. They rely on us to help them celebrate their special moments in life. And delivering on the customer experience has been at the heart of everything I've done across my career in leading and transforming a number of retail and consumer businesses. And it's clear that Card Factory has a solid platform for which to take the business forward. I spent 8 years at Costcutter, transforming that business into a destination convenience offer that now attracts leading independent retailers and shoppers from all demographics. And many of you will know that nearly 10 years ago, I oversaw the strategic review at Clinton Cards, and I was impressed then at how Card Factory had disrupted the market with its value and quality proposition. And the opportunity is to recapture that energy and for Card Factory to lead the market, lead not just in cards, not just in volume, but also in overall experience. And my aspiration is to unlock Card Factory's potential by applying the right strategic investments across the business, we can leverage our business model and unlock that inherent potential. But also to know and serve our customers better, strengthening our relationships by offering great value products and convenient shopping experiences that help them to plan and celebrate occasions however they choose, through any channel. And we have the opportunity to do better for our customers. We have the opportunity to do better for our teams and partners. And in doing so, we will deliver better for our shareholders. A year ago, the business communicated the strategic plan that was outlined at the Capital Markets Day. And I think the shape across the 3 pillars of that strategy is right. We are working through the impact COVID has had on the plan, and we're going through each element and testing it carefully, including the timing, the phasing and the investments and looking to identify any areas that we might have missed. It's early days, so there will be more to follow at the interims in September and thereafter. But Card Factory is fundamentally a solid business with a material and very attractive share of a large and broadly stable market, and we have a loyal customer base wanting to share and celebrate life's moments. Our business model offers distinct competitive advantage. It enables us to maintain our value proposition and excellent margins. It ensures we can react quickly to customer demand, but also pivot based on new customer insight. And we have the opportunity to continue to invest and strengthen that competitive advantage. I have seen the love shoppers have for what we do. However, we can help our customers to shop better with us. Starting with however they want to shop, creating a more omnichannel experience that puts quality and value cards and gifts in the hands of customers wherever they want them. Of course, the stores remain an important part of how we serve our customers, but we know we can do more to improve the shopping experience in store, using our increased digital capabilities to bring the online and store experiences closer. We're at the start of our online journey, and we have the opportunity to grow this important channel and also use it to get closer to our customers and provide more services to them. The platform is there for us to build on. Now having said that, Card Factory's business model obviously meant it had a very difficult COVID, but it has shown its resilience throughout. And for the reasons I outlined on the previous slide, with the refinancing route clear, the world opening up, there is a clear path through to delivering both strategically and financially. There was pent-up demand from customers now that we are open again. However, customers are choosing to visit the high street less but spend more, stocking up on the unbeatable value products that we have in store. Online demand has settled since the stores' reopening, but it's settled at higher than pre-pandemic levels. We know most of our customers have had a difficult time through COVID, having not been able to celebrate over the last year as much as they would have liked. But we expect that this year, there will be renewed enthusiasm to share and celebrate those special moments. There is a lot to go for and I think we are well placed to win. Kris will now take you through the financial performance and business update for our year ending January '21. Kris?
Kristian Lee
executiveJust moving on to the financial performance of Card Factory for the year ended Jan '21. On the financial summary, overall, the business was impacted by a closure period of circa 5 months leading to a 36.9% reduction in revenue. If we look at the actual performance of stores year-on-year, where they were open and trading and including online, the business actually was in a positive like-for-like of 0.1%. Card Factory stores on their own were minus 2.4%, while Card Factory online was positive 135%, whilst retail partnerships performed strongly at plus 83%. The loss before tax that we guided to in January has increased by GBP 4.7 million. This has to do with additional stock provision, which I'll come back to. CapEx has been well controlled at GBP 7.4 million against GBP 14.6 million in the prior year as has net debt, being controlled at GBP 107 million as at the year-end. Moving to the like-for-like sales performance, we've seen a similar pattern between post lockdown 1 and post lockdown 2. So post lockdown 1, we've seen the like-for-like sales recover from minus 25% to plus 2% in October. Whilst average basket value remained consistent around about plus 25%. Transactions also recovered from minus 43% to minus 20% over the same period. As I say, post lockdown 2 has seen a similar pattern, with stronger sales, about plus 2%, recovering even further to plus 18%. Some of this was due to the impact of the seasonal sales condensed into a shorter period. Average basket value remains strong at plus 29%, and transactions were more positive, minus 27%, recovering to minus 17% over the same period. And Darcy later on, on the outlook, will touch on the more recent trading performance. Turning to the divisional analysis. Overall revenues were down 41% in terms of the stores. We've seen the number of stores, 15 unprofitable stores closed and 9 new openings during the period with a net 6 reduction within the year. We do anticipate that the future store openings will reflect a gradual shift to retail parks with an increased focus on the existing estate and locations. Online performed strongly, plus 135% for Card Factory online, whilst Getting Personal also was positive, up plus 12% in the period. Traffic was up off the impact of the pandemic, but we have seen positive traffic as well post opening up, post lockdowns 1 and 2. The improved offering with the new digital platform that was launched in July has had its impact, and the mobile app was also launched in January, which is performing well. Moving to partnerships, strong performance up GBP 5.6 million against GBP 3.1 million in the prior year, plus 83%. Some of this was the annualization of the Aldi and TRS contracts. However, both have performed strong within that period. Turning to margins. The cost of goods in the year has been mainly impacted by an additional stock provision of GBP 18.1 million. This reflects the introduction of handheld terminals, which has now given us more granular SKU-level data, where we can analyze product performance in a lot more detail. We've done a thorough reassessment of the group's stock position and assessed what product lines will support the longer-term 5-year strategy. So the impact of this, we do not expect to be a recurring position. Moving to store wages, A.s you can see, the overall percentage has been controlled with sales. The period did benefit from GBP 27.5 million of CJRS support. And store property costs were significantly down, GBP 18.1 million of this did come through rates relief, we are seeing rent reductions in recent renegotiations of leases. Moving to direct expenses. These were down GBP 18.3 million on the prior year. Slightly up in percentage terms because of the non-variable element of certain property costs, such as water rates and element of the fixed electricity charges. We have introduced a new Gate 5, which has reduced the external storage cost of the business, which will show benefit through into '22. And in operating expenses, we've also seen a reduction in costs further as we've looked at some restructuring within the business. There will be further investment in IT infrastructure and online support, including the new platform. Whilst rents have been fully accrued on deferred payment terms in the year. Now moving to free cash flow. The business generated a very positive free cash flow within the year. Two main callouts driving other variants around net working capital, plus GBP 33.4 million. A large element of this was the deferral of VAT. A small element regarding a reduction in overall stock levels and an element which relates to improved payment terms with the suppliers. The other call I'll make is around lease liability payments, up GBP 22.1 million against GBP 41 million in the prior year. This largely reflects the deferrals, which I'll come on to shortly in terms of rental payments. But overall, a very strong cash flow generation in the period of plus GBP 36.1 million, only GBP 11 million down on the prior year. Just breaking out the underlying cash flows and net debt. Net debt excluding lease liabilities was down at GBP 107 million, down GBP 35 million year-on-year. But there's a couple of key timing benefits in FY '21 that I want to mention. VAT deferrals and agreements with HMRC equated to GBP 19 million, and property rent deferrals equated to GBP 21 million, totaling GBP 40 million in the period. Therefore, the underlying cash outflow in the period for FY '21 was minus GBP 4.6 million. And the GBP 40 million we expect to unwind fully within the period of FY '22. Moving on to CapEx. As I mentioned earlier, CapEx has been tightly controlled in the period, at GBP 7.4 million, down from GBP 14.6 million in the prior year. However, during the period, we have still supported key projects of the ERP implementation, new supply chain technologies that will give us improved operational efficiency. And some more limited investment in terms of the store estate. And we've continued to invest in new technologies, such as handheld terminals, which have given us improved insight into the stock of the business. We've continued with web platforms and mobile apps and investment there, and an element in terms of the 9 stores and some relocations, GBP 1.2 million. When looking to the guidance for FY '22 in terms of CapEx, this will be a reduced level of GBP 10 million to GBP 13 million, again, still supporting the key group's long-term strategic objectives including e-commerce platforms, boosting online fulfillment capacity and the SAP implementation. I'd just like to move now to the liquidity update. The business we announced on an RNS on the 21st of May about securing new debt facilities for the business, this replaces the GBP 200 million RCF facility which was in place to September '23, with a new facility of GBP 225 million. This new facility breaks down into GBP 100 million of revolving credit facility, GBP 75 million of term loan and GBP 50 million of CLBILS, all with a maturity to September '23 with the potential to extend to September '24. During the period, there will be replacement covenants. To March '22, this will include a monthly test on total net debt and a monthly test in terms of the last 12 months' underlying EBITDA. After March '22, we then move to more traditional covenant tests of interest cover and leverage. I'd just like to call out a couple of other key points in the terms of the agreement. Equity distribution is prohibited until the term loans on the CLBILS are repaid in full. And there is a requirement for best efforts to raise GBP 70 million net equity by July '22 or alternatively to prepay GBP 70 million using funds from other subordinated sources. Well, the key points from the Board's perspective is we have controlled tightly the capital investment over this period during the pandemic. The Board intends to prioritize deleveraging the business, and the capital structure, which will be conservative, yet efficient. And in terms of the overall group's capital policy, this is under review as trading conditions become more clear. Turning to the FY '22 guidance. The business has had 2 announcements of further lockdown, and we are cautious about the outlook of any potential further closures over the remainder of the year. And given the uncertain economic backdrop, further financial guidance will be given once trading performance has stabilized and can be assessed. And we believe this will be -- the next update will be at the interims in September. At that point, I'd now like to pass back to Darcy to go through the outlook.
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveThe strategy set up in July last year across the 3 pillars, as I've already said, is by and large the right one. There's been some early progress made in testing price changes and range reviews and key strategic investments were prioritized. However, COVID has had a significant impact on the progress that might otherwise have been made in 2021 as decisions were rightly made to hold back certain investments to preserve cash. We're completing a review of the 5-year strategy as discussed by finishing the COVID impact assessment, and we'll be able to talk more about this at the interim results in September when we will also have a clearer view of trading trends and the medium-term impact of COVID on shopping behavior. Thinking about current trading, obviously, we were still in lockdown for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day this year, but we were pleased with our online performance, and now that stores have opened online has settled down at above pre-pandemic levels. The recovery pattern after this latest reopening is similar to the previous 2 lockdowns. And although trading was initially better than expected, this is reflective of the pent-up demand. Our 2-year like-for-like from April opening is minus 2.9% versus 2019. However, it's important to note that the 2019 figures include Easter, when we were closed in 2021, and there is also some timing differences with Father's Day. It's too soon to tell how trends will develop, but at the moment, we are seeing materially reduced footfall completely in line with wider high street trends, and customers are shopping at slightly different times and choosing to spend more when they're in store. But it's too soon to call how things will settle down. But for now, our main focus is to ensure that we have the right ranges and layouts in our store to maximize sales and to ensure that we deliver on the key seasons of Father's Day and Christmas, and ensure that we have sufficient online capacity. Of course, it's been a tough year, but it's an exciting time to join the business. You'll appreciate that it's only been 90 days since I joined the business, and there's been a lot to do with reopening and refinancing. As I said before, I'm very impressed with what I've seen so far. Customers have great affection for us as a brand and for what we offer, but we can do a lot more to serve them better and to help them shop with us more conveniently. Our business model gives us a great deal of opportunity to do this better and more efficiently across different channels. Overall, I am confident in the long term and our ability to unlock potential. For now, I'd just like to say thank you for listening, and Kris and I would be delighted to take any questions that you may have.
Unknown Executive
executive[Operator Instructions] So first question is for Darcy, and it's from Jonathan Pritchard from Peel Hunt. Which element of strategy rebuild at the Capital Markets Day are you least comfortable with? Or will your update at interims essentially be a rehash of that presentation?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveThank you for the question, Jonathan. I think the -- as I've outlined, I think the 3 pillars of the strategy, winning with card led available in more places, however customers shop, at an advanced scalable model, I think, is right and focusing on kind of story state, focusing on building online and then building scale through partnerships. However, there's a lot of detail in the execution plan that sits underneath. And as I've said, we're working through that, doing the COVID impact assessment, making sure that each of those has the right investments and the right actions in place as well as doing a review on the capacity and the capability of the organization to deliver that. And I expect to go back with an update around about the interims. So thanks for the question.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. Next question was from [ Lee Taylor ]. And [ Lee ] was asking, can you please provide more information on the proposed GBP 70 million you're raising? Will this be via a rights issue and when will it take place? And other circumstances, which just may not take place, for example, if trading is sufficiently robust to be able to repay an existing indebtedness. I think that would be for Kris.
Kristian Lee
executiveYes, so the agreement, as we said in the presentation, is we need to do our best efforts in terms of an equity -- a net equity raise of GBP 70 million by July '22. The other alternative is that we could prepay GBP 70 million from other sources and subordinated debt. In terms of if it's an equity raise or debt and the question around if it's equity, if it would be a rights issue. Obviously, those things are things that we're considering in conjunction with discussions we will have with shareholders, and obviously, with the Board. So I can't comment further on that, but there are 2 options there, effectively. As I say, to either raise net GBP 70 million of that equity or prepay GBP 70 million from subordinated debt.
Unknown Executive
executiveAnd another question for Kris and this time from [ Paul Hawkins ], who is looking for some more information on the GBP 4.7 million stock provision.
Kristian Lee
executiveSo the additional stock provision, we've -- as you may be aware, in terms of the way the business in the past has looked at stock, we've never had the ability to get individual card SKU level data in terms of stores. What we invested in this year is you'll see GBP 1.1 million of this in the CapEx spend was to invest in handheld terminals. So we have done a granular review of every single stock line in seasons and in every day in card and in noncard to assess what products we believe will support the 5-year strategy and where the business goes from here. So as part of that thorough review, we've identified certain stock lines that we believe don't form part of the future of the proposition. And that reflects effectively what the GBP 4.7 million is.
Unknown Executive
executiveAnd we have a few questions now from Atif from Ardent Financial, starting with have do you considered a convertible bond as it'd be cheaper in terms of interest payments and less dilution for shareholders? He also was asking, is there a large disconnect between the valuation of Moonpig and Card. What can you do to close this? And his third question is what potential is it for rent renegotiation and deferred rent and future rent?
Kristian Lee
executiveYes, so I suppose going back to the earlier point, what I mentioned about the net equity raise of subordinated debt applies to that. We will look and consider all options as a Board. And in terms of the disconnect and valuation to do with Moonpig, I think it's fair to say the online piece has benefited through these periods of lockdown. What we have seen within Card Factory is, we've seen a big uptick, as you'd expect, when the stores have been closed and when the stores are reopened, we've seen a normalization of that. So I do believe once the business is allowed to trade without further interruptions, then we'll see a position where that gap will naturally close. Just in terms of the potential rent negotiations, then clearly, as a business, we have continued to get the average lease lens down, so we're on average down to 2.5 years on the average lease lens now. As part of what that means, on an annual basis, we're already renegotiating a high proportion of rents and those rents, we are getting substantial reductions on that. I won't give a percentage on that because we've got over 1,000 stores, but we are absolutely pushing them to the wire in terms of pre-arbitration, not negotiations, if need be. So rest assured, we are pushing rents extremely hard as a business.
Unknown Executive
executiveNext question is from Adam Tomlinson from Liberum, it's to Darcy. So he's asking Darcy, can you please elaborate on your thoughts after 3 months in the business on the key areas that need to improve? What are your priorities from here?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveThank you for the question. I think that the majority of my observations are things that are -- we've talked about some of those things today who are covered through our plans. So for example, the stock that we've spoken about today, once we have the full ERP implemented, that will be improved. There's some work to do on online on fulfillment. Again, the team have done a really decent job, particularly over the lockdown of increasing capacity, but we've got more work to do. So it's all the things that we've identified through the strategy and through the other work, there are plans in place. So I don't think there's anything big that hasn't been identified before and with some corresponding plans. I think the only other thing I would add is I think with over 1,000 stores have an ambition to get -- to make sure that we have better consistency right throughout our company on that. But I think we've got decent plans in place to look and build a continuous improvement mindset.
Unknown Executive
executiveWe have another follow-up question from Atif for Kris. He's asking have you received any approaches from private equity?
Kristian Lee
executiveIf we had, it'd be an announceable event, so yes.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. And we've got another question from Adam Tomlinson, again, from Liberum. Can you please summarize how the group's online proposition has improved since its strategy launch in 2020? And what are the key initiatives yet to come and what benefits are you expecting to bring?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveYes. So I think since the Capital Markets Day, quite a bit of work is being done, particularly throughout lockdown. The replatforming of cardfactory.co.uk is complete, that improved our ability to improve range as well as give us better data, better visibility. That is -- and we've launched the apps, both on Android and the Apple platform, again, with recent data and good customer feedback. We're in the process now of replatforming, getting personal, that should be complete shortly. And then that enhances our ability against both platforms to continually improve. In terms of future plans and benefits as part of us looking or the team looking at the strategy, there is a substantial piece of work that relates to our plans online. And again, I'll update you at the interims.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. And also another follow-up from Adam, he's asking is there any additional information on discussions around the future retail partnership, please?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveYes. So I think that, that piece of work in terms of the current partners that we have are progressing well. The team is identifying other potential areas. And we are shortly to appoint a Business Development Director to that position, who will take up leadership of that aspect of the business. And so yes, so looking forward to having increased strength and capability.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. And we have a question from [ Kazim ] from [ Major Travel ], who is asking, is there a plan to refresh the store strategy for the post-COVID world, e.g., looking at integration with online delivery options and refreshed product offerings. And I will also tie that question in with [ Daniel Longdon ] who asked a similar question around, do you see an opportunity to partner with the likes of delivery or last mile delivery?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveYes, so I think that -- as I outlined in both my opening remarks and in my outlook, I think there is a big opportunity to capitalize on the technology and the platform, both from a -- how we serve customers, how customers being able to access through an account but also how we communicate, how we market. And so I think there is an opportunity to do that. In terms of store refresh, so part of the work around our card-led strategy, there's a number of things already happened in terms of range refresh, pricing trials that we've mentioned, and there's more of that to come. So I think we're well placed to continuously improve the store offer as well as bringing online and the stores closer together.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. We have a couple of questions now from [ Sudant Powell ]. First question is, why announce an intention to raise equity without setting a price beforehand and well, that's going to lead to pressure on lower share prices and more dilution from raising equity? [ Sudant ] also asked in terms of new financing, how are you thinking about equity versus subordinated debt? And what is the preference here? It seems like you have the balance sheet, cash flows to be comfortable even with new equity.
Kristian Lee
executiveYes. I -- just coming back to the requirement of the -- when we went through the refinancing, which we announced on the 21st of May. Obviously, within that was the requirement for the best efforts in equity raise or prepay the GBP 70 million subordinated debt. So it was an announceable event, it's not something that we had any optionality on as part of that refinancing was the reason. In terms of the preference, clearly, we're assessing what we think is best financially for the business, also for stakeholders. So that assessment is we've got a lot of focus on that, the minute since the refinancing was put in place, but I cannot make a comment in terms of a preference at this point.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. Our next question is from [ James Gilbert ]. He's asking, given the cash flow generation of the business, the debt terms seem onerous, in particular, forcing a GBP 70 million equity issue is highly dilutive. Why is the refi so challenging?
Kristian Lee
executiveI think the situation, as with a lot of retailers, we've faced 3 lockdowns and effectively the impact of that, no covenants are set to be able to withstand that continued position. So we have no option but to renegotiate the covenants with the banks, which we've done successfully. And obviously, the terms of that refis are what I've outlined.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. And following on from an earlier question, [ Daniel Longdon ] is asking, do you see potential for a pipe investment as part of the fund raise?
Kristian Lee
executiveAgain, I'll just refer back to the previous comment in terms of the optionality we've got, yes.
Unknown Executive
executivePerfect. And Adam Tomlinson has another question. Given the work to be done to improve online performance, do you think some sales were left on the table during COVID?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveYes, I think potentially we did have some operational challenges fulfilling the peak demand at certain times. The challenge with our business compared to other retailers in our peak period, the sales increase is about 10x, and it's about making sure that you can fulfill the demand. And there's a number of tools available. Some of it is about pure capacity in the fulfillment center, but some of it is also about how you use range, how you service times in order to do that. And I think we have built up decent capability and decent knowledge to allow us to continue to improve. I think the other thing I've seen is if I look across -- because I joined the week of Mother's Day in lockdown, I spent much of my first week looking in detail at the online, and actually, what we've seen is that Valentine's Day was an improvement on Christmas. We've seen Mother's Day an improvement on Valentine's Day, and I expect to see the same level of improvement again on Father's Day. So I think we're making good progress.
Unknown Executive
executiveAnd we have another follow-up question from Adam. He's asking, can you please talk about your thoughts on the opportunity in noncard? What improvements have been made so far? And what are the next steps? And when we'll see these coming through?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveSo I think -- again, I think as much as we talk about a card-led strategy, having noncard and the ancillary products to run alongside that is vitally important and making sure that we have the right ranges, the right add-ons is extremely important. We have a new Head of Gifts join us recently and they're leading a detailed review of not just gift but gift and all the other ancillary party or wrap to go with it. So we'll have this continuous improvement in terms of making sure that we have the adjacent products to go with card.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. A question now from [ Martin Silverman ], who is asking, when do you expect card to become profitable, one with EBITDA; and two, PBT.
Kristian Lee
executiveSo for the announcement that we obviously have put out today, we're not guiding on FY '22 until things stabilize. It's still early days in terms of trading. And we will be giving an update at the interims in September.
Unknown Executive
executiveAnother question from [ Sudant ]. He's asking what type of inventory is obsolete, and its impairment charges? He says, I would imagine that greeting cards are tailored towards events which are usually the same every year.
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveSo yes, similar to not quite the same as fashion, but there are trends, so in terms of cards and design, they do change. And more modern card, smaller square cards that have become more popular, things like Flitter, environmentally less popular. So there's different things where we do need to adapt the ranges in terms of trends. And the same applies to noncard as well. Unicom was a big success a year or so ago, frozen things like that, which the trends do change. So that's not necessarily true, that position. So we phased into things in the stock, which we want to see that we think are right for the 5-year strategy. And there is a smaller element in there, which clearly due to the COVID impact did affect some seasons but there's some additional provision for that as well.
Unknown Executive
executiveOkay, we still have a few more questions coming in. A question from [ James Gilbert ] is asking, who do you regard as being your most challenging competitor today?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveLook, I think the market is split up into 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. So 1/3 of the market is coming from supermarkets. 1/3 of the market is coming from all other players, including online. And clearly, we're in the other 1/3 of the market. At a macro level, we're watching all of the main brands, but all of the main supermarkets. But an actual fact, the reality is it's trade zone by trade zone, wherever we have customers living in a trade zone, wherever they're able to purchase their cards, that's who the competitor is. And it's about making sure that we have the right macro programs trends following the market, but actually at the store level that we have educated teams and the right plans, so that we're able to compete on a local level too.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. We have a question from [ Daniel Longdon ] who is asking, will Darcy be putting his own cash into the business, not just around core incentives? And also what are you doing to connect with younger customers?
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveOkay. I think I'm going to not comment on my personal investment plans, if that's okay. And if I do purchase shares, then obviously, that's announceable, and we'll let the market know. In terms of younger customers, that's about through the strategy work that we've done is identifying who the customers are, who's purchasing, who isn't purchasing and then how we go after and attract those customers, both in terms of range, product, but also how we access and communicate them through social channels, et cetera. So plans in place to go after the target customers that we need to continue to drive the business. But I think we are probably under capacity in terms of kind of insights and data, and that's something that we're looking to correct.
Unknown Executive
executivePerfect, thank you very much. That concludes our Q&A today. So I'll hand back to Darcy for any closing remarks.
Darcy Willson-Rymer
executiveThank you very much. So I just wanted to just say thank you to everybody for joining us today, and to thank you for your questions. It's been good, on my first occasion, to be able to engage in that way. So thank you, everybody, for your participation, your time and your questions, and I look forward to speaking again at the interims. Thank you.
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