IG Design Group plc (IGR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2026 Interim Results Presentation for IG Design Group plc. I'm Stewart Gilliland, Interim Executive Chair, and I'm pleased to be joined today by our Group CFO, Rohan Cummings. The first half of full year 2026 marked a transitional period following the sale of DG Americas on the 30th of May 2025, which resulted in us becoming a less complex group. From a leadership perspective, Paul Bal stepped down as CEO in June '25, with myself serving as Interim Executive Chair during the ongoing recruitment process. In terms of today's presentation, we'll begin with a review of the half year performance, delving into the financials in more detail. We'll then move on to what the group looks like today, including more insight into each of the divisions. We'll then wrap up by looking at the future, reconfirming guidance for the next 3 years and the future strategy to deliver this guidance. Moving on to the summary. Before we do, I want to clarify that everything we are going to present for the interim results are for the continuing group. As we've communicated previously, the results delivered are against the backdrop of challenging markets. Revenue is down 13%, with adjusted operating margins down to 4.3%, driven by the headwinds highlighted in our full year guidance. Rohan will cover off the reasons behind these movements in more detail in the financial review. Importantly, we end the period with a strong net cash position as well as a robust order book, which gives confidence for the second half, and we are confident that we're still on track to deliver in line with full year guidance. The CEO recruitment process remains ongoing, and I'm committed to continuing as Interim Exec Chair until the appointment is finalized. Finally, following the successful sale of DG Americas to Hilco on the 30th of May 2025, the sale and liquidation process is still ongoing with any future net proceeds to the group contingent on the outcome of this process. However, they're currently assumed to be nil. I'll now pass over to Rohan, who will cover the financials in more detail.

Thanks, Stewart. Revenue from continuing operations decreased by 13% to $131.4 million compared to $151.3 million last year. This decline reflects previously communicated market headwinds, including softer U.K. demand, the impact of U.S. tariffs on U.K. sales and competitive pricing pressures in Europe. Additionally, $7.4 million of shipments shifted into the second half of the year, primarily in Europe. On a constant currency basis, revenue fell by approximately 16% with a modest positive impact from foreign exchange translation on reported U.S. dollar result. The shipment timing into H2 provides further visibility for recovery, which coupled with an order book of 96%, reinforces confidence in full year guidance. Moving on to operating profit. Operating profit decreased from $12.9 million to $5.7 million for the half year, reflecting the impact of lower sales volume, tariff and pricing pressures highlighted earlier. On the positive side, cost-saving initiatives delivered meaningful offsets. Freight savings contributed $2.6 million following the normalization of elevated rates seen last year. This is supported by $0.8 million of strategic efficiencies from the closure of the China site last year and $1.9 million in net overhead reductions. Additional gains of $0.4 million, including FX, helped mitigate the overall impact. Despite these improvements, margin pressures from tariffs and pricing, which were highlighted previously as headwinds in the year-end guidance outweighed the operational savings, which were achieved. These moving parts highlight the challenging environment we are operating in. Note that while the timing of shipments does negatively impact the period we are reporting, we expect these to have a positive impact in the second half. Now looking into our segmental performance. Starting with DG Europe, they delivered revenue of $58.8 million, broadly flat year-on-year despite a $2.7 million pricing decline driven by the competitive European market and a $5 million timing shift of orders into H2. These offset progress and growth from existing customers in new product categories. Adjusted operating profit was $7.5 million versus $8.7 million last year, with margins at 12.7% compared to 14.7%, reflecting pricing investments to maintain competitiveness. Looking ahead, visibility is strong with an order book of 99% of full year forecasted sales. Now looking to DG U.K. Revenue declined 30% to $50.3 million, impacted by softer demand, the impact of U.S. tariffs and the timing shift of seasonal shipments into H2. The tariff and timing impacts accounted for half of the U.K. revenue decline in the period. The impact of the tariffs on revenue was material at $8.4 million because DG U.K.'s largest customer is predominantly U.S.-based. And the introduction of the U.S. tariffs resulted in the customer reducing volumes in anticipation of lower consumer demand amid macroeconomic uncertainty. Further to this, to mitigate the decline in trading in the period, pricing support was agreed with this customer to help offset the tariff impact. Adjusted operating profit fell to $0.7 million with margins at 1.5%, reflecting lower volumes and the timing shift of shipments into H2, partially offset by cost savings from the China site closure and continued progress in overhead reductions. The second half will benefit from higher sales and margin than the prior year second half as well as a more efficient cost base. Order book at 87% is in line with prior year, giving confidence around full year delivery. Finally, DG Australia grew 8% to $22.8 million, driven by strong performance across all channels and in particular, party products. Adjusted operating profit rose to $1.7 million, with margins improving to 7.6%, supported by higher volumes and higher margin product mix. The DG Australian team have successfully completed the warehouse relocation. As a management team, we would like to thank the Australian team for their commitment and effective execution. Turning to central costs. We've taken decisive action to reduce central costs by streamlining the plc team and rationalizing headcount, lower audit and consulting fees and renegotiating bank facilities for improved financing terms. While transitional restructuring costs impacted this period, these actions will deliver long-term savings. Let's now move to the detailed financial review and start by looking at the key P&L lines and at the areas I've not highlighted already. Gross margin decreased 390 basis points to 20%, mainly due to the performance already covered, particularly in DG U.K. This led to a 25% reduction in gross profit year-on-year. Overheads decreased 8%, driven by efforts to reduce net overhead costs in DG UK, such as the closure of the China site in the prior year. The group recorded an adjusted net financing charge of $0.4 million compared to $0.6 million in the prior period. The improvement reflects reduced borrowing costs and better working capital management. The group recorded an adjusted tax charge of $0.1 million versus $2.2 million charge last year, driven by a one-off provision release as a result of the China entity closure, resulting in exceptionally low effective tax rate for the period. When looking at the reported numbers, the biggest impact of the adjusting items, primarily relating to the relocation of the DG Australia warehouse, including transitional expenses and temporary dual site operational costs. As we previously highlighted, Hilco is in the process of realizing the DGA Group entities through asset sales and liquidation and any future proceeds that we receive are contingent on the completion and outcome of this process. More detail of this can be seen in the appendix to the presentation on the website. As at the 30th of September 2025, the fair value of expected future proceeds was assumed to be nil. A loss on sale of $140.3 million was recognized, which when combined with $10.1 million of trading losses gives a total loss from discontinued operations of $150.4 million. If we now turn to the cash flow, the group closed the half year with net cash balance of $1.9 million, down $5.5 million year-on-year, mainly due to the lower opening cash position. Despite the revenue shift into the second half, cash outflow improved by 16% to $47.9 million, reflecting stronger discipline in cash and working capital management. Adjusted EBITDA was $10.3 million versus $17.9 million last year. Working capital absorption reduced to $51.2 million from $65 million, driven by improvements in Europe despite the delay in shipments. Capital expenditure rose to $2.4 million, which coupled with the adjusting item outflow largely relates to the new DG Australia warehouse. We had an interest income versus payment in the prior year due to lower borrowing costs and our new banking facility, which is a GBP 40 million receivables financing facility with HSBC and NatWest, providing flexible funding without financial ratio covenants and a favorable cost to the group. Finally, DG Americas had a cash outflow of $33.3 million, plus there were $1.7 million of disposal costs. I'll now pass back to Stewart as we spend more time looking at the group today and our future in more detail.

This slide highlights the robust foundation and operational excellence that the business has built over the years. The group's strength lies in its strong heritage, which has fostered long established and stable relationships with key stakeholders, both suppliers and customers alike. This history not only provides a sense of reliability, but also a clear pathway to continued success in the market. Made up of 3 operating segments in the U.K., Europe and Australia, we have over 730 employees and offer an extensive product range of over 22,000 SKUs. This breadth of offerings is a testament to the group's capacity to meet diverse customer needs and adapt to evolving market demands. This extensive reach is underpinned by 3 manufacturing facilities, ensuring a well-coordinated and efficient production process. Innovation remains at the heart of the business with a strong focus on product design and development. Our ability to innovate while maintaining responsible sourcing and manufacturing practices ensures that products not only meet market needs, but also align with sustainability goals. This is increasingly important in today's market where consumers and customers alike are prioritizing ethical and responsible business practices. In addition to manufacturing excellence, the company maintains a strong distribution and fulfillment network, which guarantees timely delivery and customer satisfaction across multiple regions. Finally, the commitment to market insight allows the business to anticipate trends and stay ahead of competitors, offering a competitive edge in a rapidly changing landscape. DG Europe is 45% of group revenue and designs, sources and manufactures across celebration and creative products. The portfolio is diversified across gift packaging, party stationery and homeware with manufactured gift packaging and bought-in homeware, the 2 dominant categories. This mix supports seasonal and everyday demand with a hybrid manufactured sourced model, allowing flexibility and cost competitiveness as well as control over quality and lead times. The business is strongly aligned with value and mass market retailers who are the winners in today's market, which provides scale and volume, but also requires competitive pricing and operational efficiency. Our strategic focus in DG Europe is, firstly, product differentiation to diversify revenue streams and reduce concentration risk as well as expand into higher-margin categories. Secondly, premiumization with optimizing pricing to reflect product value and support margin expansion. Thirdly, customer expansion, building on strong relationships with major retailers. Lastly, commercial capability, ensuring operational excellence and margin resilience. Design Group U.K. contributes 38% of group revenue. The U.K. business offers a broad range of categories with gift packaging as the core product, supported by party stationery, craft, homeware and goods not for resale. Seasonal ranges remain a key driver, underpinning the volume and margin behind the strong partnerships with major value and mass market retailers, complemented by independents and other channels. This diversified customer mix provides scale and resilience while enabling opportunities for premiumization. The segment has a combination of manufactured and sourced products and with the sourced products predominantly coming from the Far East to maintain cost competitiveness and product breadth. Recent efficiencies from the China site closure and establishment of a new Far East office are expected to deliver further cost savings and operational improvements. Our strategic focus in DG UK is, firstly, product differentiation, elevating average selling price and margin through expansion into higher-margin categories, leveraging our strengths in product design, quality and reliability. Secondly, commercial capability, strengthen commercial and marketing excellence to support growth and margin resilience. Then channel diversification, expanding beyond traditional into new channels to mitigate market concentration risk. Manufactured revenue growth will have a compounding positive impact on margin due to operational leverage. Design Group Australia represents 17% of group revenue and is a warehouse facility that sources all its products with no in-country manufacturing. The business is focused predominantly on the celebrate category. Design sources and distributes a wide range of products such as partyware, cards and gift wrap within the Australian market. The business is strong in independent channels and offers a higher margin, supported by national retail change, which brings scale to the business. Our strategic focus in DG Australia will shift from the warehouse relocation, improving the operational environment, which provides a platform for future growth to revenue growth opportunity, which allows us to optimize efficiency following the relocation, leveraging scale and improved distribution. The incredibly varied product mix across both seasonal and everyday demand provides opportunities for premiumization, which is another focus area, which will lead to higher average selling prices and enhanced margin performance.

In July, we reinstated guidance. Today, we reaffirm this guidance. For FY '26, we expect revenue to be between $270 million and $280 million with adjusted profit margin of 3% to 4%. We are confident in achieving these expectations. In terms of capital allocation, our strategy remains focused on supporting long-term growth ambitions while maintaining a disciplined and resilient balance sheet. Following the sale of DG Americas, there's currently insufficient distributable reserves in plc to be able to pay a dividend. There's a project underway to address this technicality and create distributable reserves, and there will be further update in due course. We are committed to reinstate shareholder distributions as soon as it is appropriate and possible to do so.

And now how do we believe we're going to drive long-term growth? We're focused on delivering sustainable growth in revenue, margins and cash generation. This growth over the coming years and beyond will be delivered by focusing on 4 key long-term drivers. First, premiumization. We're upgrading products through thoughtful redesign and improved materials, strengthening our proposition with consistent quality and optimizing pricing to support margin expansion. Second, product diversification. We're diversifying and broadening the portfolio, particularly into higher-margin and underserved categories, which will reduce concentration risk and create new, more profitable revenue streams with initiatives like DG UK licensed seasonal decor leading the way. Third, customer and channel expansion. We're enhancing customer reach and accessing new channels such as exploring our opportunity online to increase distribution and improve operational leverage across the group. Finally, commercial capability. We're investing in marketing and commercial excellence through training initiatives such as the Commercial Academy and organizational improvements to ensure sustained execution and scalable growth in line with ambitions. These drivers are underpinned by our ongoing focus on low-cost, efficient manufacturing and sourcing. Together, these pillars position the group for resilient profitable growth over the long term. The group strategy is starting to come to fruition as evidenced by the progress in performance of our freestanding display units. Sales grew 42% year-on-year off a modest base, underscoring the momentum in this category, particularly within DG Europe, freestanding display units are a growth area that demonstrate product diversification and premiumization. Premiumization is evident through the progression in the average selling price, supported by the premium licensed offering. Freestanding display units enhance the group's margin profile and provide further opportunities for growth going forward. Sustainability for us isn't just an obligation. It's central to our business with our relationship with our customers. This means alongside being the right thing to do, it's also a source of competitive advantage. Our customers have their own stated targets and what makes us a strong partner to those customers as we help them to deliver those targets. Our customers also value our focused approach on strong ethical, sustainable and compliant practices across our operations. Within product, we're leveraging our design and innovation strengths to create recyclable and plastic-free ranges like Smartwrap, where we believe we have the best solution on the market. Across planet, we've made progress on measuring our full carbon footprint and are currently working on our targets, which will drive our net zero strategy. Together, these pillars underpin the sustainable-led differentiation that strengthens our customer proposition and supports our long-term growth. Now to wrap up, looking at our outlook, the Board reaffirms the expectation that full year revenue and margin will be in line with previously guided range of GBP 270 million to GBP 280 million revenue, with adjusted operating margin in the range of 3% to 4%. We have strong visibility entering H2 with order book at 96% of forecast sales, supporting confidence in delivery. We have a continued focus on long-term growth drivers to enhance margins and ensure sustainable cash generation and long-term value for shareholders. Many thanks for joining us today. I'll now hand over for questions.

Okay. Thanks very much. I'll now open up to questions from the audience. [Operator Instructions] We've already had a number of questions submitted both by e-mail and in the Q&A. And there are a few themes which a number of people are asking about. So I think I'll combine those questions to avoid duplication. First question we have is, historically, sales and profitability for DGI have normally been much lower in the second half, yet you're guiding to a roughly equal split. Why do you expect better results this year than what's happened historically?

If we take DGI particularly, I think the profit margin split last year was about 60-40, with 60% in the first half, 40% in the second half. And as you said, it's more like a 50-50 split this year. And what's really driving it is the impact of timing that we've seen in shipments. So if you have a look at the revenue bar and the profit bar, we had $7.4 million of revenue that shifted into the second half of the year, and that's equivalent to about $1.6 million of profit that you see in the operating profit bridge. So that's predominantly the driver, which then drives more of the 50-50 split in our profitability in H1, H2.

Okay. Next up is, you've given the order book numbers. At what percentage is the order book normally at this time of the year?

It's about 96% now. I think last year at this time, we were at about 88%. So it's well ahead of what we would normally see at this time of the year.

Okay. Next question. Could you please explain how the potential value from the Hilco transaction has been calculated at 0?

Well, we've always said, I think when we looked at this, that we -- for us, when we did the deal with Hilco, the one thing that was really important for us was to get out of the deal at the end of May when we didn't go into a significant working capital requirement for the group. What we've had to do in order to assess whether there is a fair value adjustment is basically look at the assets that we passed over the valuation, and we have constant dialogue with Hilco through the process. And what we've done is we've always said that we wouldn't -- we don't expect anything to be coming back. And therefore, we've assessed that the proceeds and the fair value of those proceeds will be 0. But for us, the important part was to get out with no further exposure to the group or no further liability on the group, which is what we successfully did at a point with a strong balance sheet.

Okay. Thank you. Next question. Poundland has announced multiple store closures in the U.K. Does the business have any material exposure to Poundland?

No, we don't have any material exposure to Poundland.

Okay. This is a question about the factories and the assets. Does IGR own the factories in Wales and the Netherlands? Is the book value representative of fair value for each of these? And if not, what's the rough difference? Also, are there any other factories owned by the group, i.e., outside of Wales and the Netherlands?

Yes. So we own the 2 sites, the Wales site and the Netherlands site. They are recorded at historical book value. We haven't done a fair value adjustment to reappraise the valuations of those sites. And then on top of that, we have a number of leased facilities as well. So I think those are clearly put out in our leased assets and lease liabilities in the accounts.

Okay. Next question is, could you please update us on the competitive environment within the U.K. and Europe? And as part of that, of the major competitors, are there any others that have manufacturing facilities both in the U.K. and Europe? And can we expect the current pricing pressure within Europe to persist?

I mean I think it's a very challenged market across the whole of the U.K. and the European retail scene. We don't see any lessening of the competition. And yes, there is competing manufacturing in both the U.K. and in Europe for wrap. Having said that, nobody actually has the scale that we have in terms of the capacity and capability. So it's something we're very mindful of. But I think the reason why we're looking to diversify the portfolio and move into more premium categories is we know that if we just retain the business we have within Wrap, it will continue to be a significant challenge. So there are ways in which we can continue to improve that in terms of efficiencies and pricing. But really in terms of step forward in the business, we need to move premium products and into higher-value categories, which is what we've outlined within the presentation.

Okay. Another numbers question. For the FY '26 and FY '27, '28 guidance, what level of central costs are you assuming? Could you break this down -- this overall cost down into its component parts? And what would be a normalized level of central costs that you might expect going forward?

Yes. So with regards to central costs, we -- I mean, as I said in the presentation, we have been proactive in taking out significant costs post the sale of DGA. We have restructured the plc team, which has led to a headcount reduction. We've also renegotiated audit fees, banking facilities and fees like insurance are coming down. On a normalized run rate, we've taken out about $1.4 million worth of costs. You won't see that all in 1 year. There's a transition year that we've got this year, and it was only taken out partway through the year. So you're not going to see that all within 1 year. But I think once you take inflation on the base costs and things like that on a more normalized run rate going forward, you can expect about $6 million or GBP 5 million roughly on those costs going forward.

Okay. Next question. Have you considered partnering with Smiths News to hit more of the independents? They've already tied up with Hallmark Cards.

Sorry, partnering with who?

Smiths News.

I mean I think the independence is an area that we are looking to actually improve our reach. It's a valuable channel to us in terms of the reach of products we have in terms of margin. It's clear that at the moment, we have lost some business in that area. One of the areas we're exploring is whether a B2B operation facility portal would actually help us recover that. And we're well into a sort of 100-day sort of plan around this, which I would hope that by the time we get to year-end, we can give some update on how that might facilitate further growth, particularly in the U.K. around the independence, may also help us in terms of our Australian customer interaction as well and also in terms of our Polaris business as well, goods not for resale.

Okay. Understood. Next question, will you be looking to move the reporting currency to the British pound?

Yes, we are. So we're looking at -- I think we've said in the announcement that at year-end reporting, we're looking at moving to pounds for year-end reporting. We'll obviously show that we're committed to hitting the guidance number of $270 million to $280 million at 3.4% and we'll show what that is on the dollar and pound equivalent. And then we do reporting currency to pound going forward.

Okay. Thank you. Next question is about customer concentration. What is the level of current customer concentration? Are there any customers with over 10% of sales? And if so, how many and what percentage of sales for those large customers?

Our 2 biggest customers have over 10% and then the combined across our top 10 customers would be about 2/3 of our total business. And I think you'll see that across all markets so that the big retailers are actually winning and you have to operate with those bigger retailers. So I don't think we're going to get any further concentration. I think what we're looking at with a number of the different developments is actually to spread our business into new customers. And so things like the freestanding display units that we referenced as case study is an area that's actually taking us into new customers and generating new revenue. So I think we're conscious of the fact that we've got a strong business with the big retailers, but we need to broaden out from that, and that's what we're planning to do over the next few years.

Okay. Next question, what additional costs are expected going forward with the new Australian facility?

So at year end, we basically said that with the new facility going forward when we gave guidance, we said about $1 million was the impact of the new operating costs of the new lease, and we built that into guidance. You will see a bit of that coming through in H2 of this year. So it's $1 million on an ongoing basis. But we have built that into future guidance, and we clearly mentioned that at our year-end when we set the guidance and expectations.

Okay. I'm afraid there are more numbers questions. What is the expected CapEx for FY 2026 ideally broken down into maintenance and growth CapEx? And will that be consistent moving forward?

As I said, I mean, the company has got a strong balance sheet. I think our sites are very well invested. The guidance we've really given on CapEx is really in line with our depreciation. So the depreciation is sitting at about $4 million. We've basically said our CapEx will be in line with that, which will be more maintenance CapEx. We don't see any significant CapEx needed for investment purposes at this stage.

Okay. We've got a follow-up question on the customer concentration. The question is, are there any customers over 20% of sales?

Yes. We have one customer that has in excess of 20%. Yes.

Okay. And also returning to the Hilco divestment. This question is, when do you think the Hilco divestment process will finish?

Well, obviously, I mean, Hilco will move through it as quickly as possible, but it all depends on the Chapter 11 process that they currently got and what they're doing. I mean they would obviously try and like to do. We would have liked it to have been wrapped up towards year-end or moving that, but it's outside of our control. But I would imagine it will be around them, but it's subject to court processes and various stuff that they meet.

Okay. Understood. We've just got one question in the queue at the moment. [Operator Instructions] The one question we do have remaining is, as I understand it, the business has around $30 million of unused deferred tax assets in the U.K. What's required to make use of these?

Profitability in the U.K. So when we look at our U.K. business in whole as a tax entity, it takes the plc costs off the U.K. profitability. So therefore, because of U.K. profitability less the plc costs, we don't see net profits and therefore, the deferred tax asset builds up. We don't recognize that deferred tax asset, obviously, as you've seen. But in order for us to be able to do that, it would be the U.K. profitability exceeds the plc costs. on the foreseeable future an ongoing basis where we would then be comfortable to re-recognize that deferred tax asset.

I think it just gives us an incentive to drive the profitability of the U.K. whilst also keeping a tight control on central costs.

Understood. Okay. No further questions. I can see there's nothing come through on e-mail and there's nothing in the Q&A. So no, we've got no further questions at this time. Thank you very much indeed, both of you. I'll hand back to Stewart for any final closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you very much for joining us this morning, and thanks for the interest in the business and the questions that you've raised with us. I just take this opportunity of wishing you and your families all the best for the festive season. So thank you very much.

Thanks very much. This is the end of the webinar.