IPD Group Limited (IPG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you, Harmony, an hwelcome, everybody. hname my is Michael Sainsbury, as Harmony mentioned, and I'm pleased to welcome you all to our FY '23 results presentation. Joining me today is Jason Boschetti. Jason is the Chief Financial Officer for the group; Mohamed Yoosuff is Executive Director and the Head of Strategic Development; and David Rafter, our Non-Executive Chairman. Moving on to Slide 2. Just to give you an indication of what we'll share with you today, we'll start with an overview. We'll then move into the financial performance of the business. Some highlights that we want to call out, some transparency around our markets and where we go to market and how we take our products and some of the splits of our revenue. We'll then talk a little bit about focus moving forward and then finish off with a snapshot around the outlook for the future. Moving on to Slide 5. We'll start with our vision there because it's important that it sets the agenda for what we are and what we plan to be. Our vision is to help build a future where sustainable electrical infrastructure creates a better life for all, our mission to enhance every aspect of it, infrastructure through energy efficiency, automation and secure connectivity, while prioritizing the safety and well-being of people. Slide 6. So a little bit of a corporate snapshot there for you. For those of you who aren't familiar, our ASX code that everybody would probably be aware of IPG. Our share price as at the 23rd of August was $4.56. Our IPO date 17th of December 2021, we've got a tad over 86.5 million shares issued. We have no debt. We have a very strong cash position of $20.8 million and a market cap of $394 million at that share price of $4.56. The Board consists of 4 people, 2 non-exec with David as the Chairman; and Andrew Moffat as a Non-Exec Director; and myself as Executive Director and CEO; and Mohamed Yoosuff, as Executive Director and also a leading strategic development. Our breakdown remains very, very, very strongly skewed towards our employees, our Board and our management with 30% of our ownership still in-house and the remaining 69% external. Slide 7. So we're really proud to be able to present this to you today our financial performance, and it obviously shows the continued strong organic growth of the group with revenue reaching $226.9 million, which is up 28.3% on the prior comparative period. EBITDA at $27.7 million, up 37.1%. EBIT at $23.4 million, up 41% on the prior period. Net profit after tax at $16.1 million, up 45% on the prior period. We're pleased to announce total dividend paid across the full year of $0.093, which represents a payout ratio of exactly 50%. Our net assets at $72.9 million, up from $63.4 million at the 30th of June. Our net cash strong at $20.8 million. Our lost time injury frequency rate, which is as a factor of 1 million working hours across the financial year at 1.1 against an industry benchmark of 7. And our product revenue split is -- our revenue split from product services is at 92% of our revenue derived from the products and the solutions that we sell and 8% of our revenue coming from the services play. Return on invested capital at 20% and return on capital employed at 29%. Slide 8 is the financial performance, and I'll ask everybody just to advance straight into Slide 9, and I'll hand over to Jason Boschetti, CFO, to talk through some of the more final points of the financials for the financial year.

Thanks, Michael, for handing over. And very proud to present the financial overview on behalf of the company and our employees and our team. So we've had very strong organic operating performance over the last financial year, which has delivered organic revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, EBIT and net PAT growth during FY '23. Revenue performance key drivers, organic growth in the existing product portfolio, the strength of our new operating model after fully integrating Control Logic and HTC into IPD Group Limited during the financial year, growth in certain end markets such as data centers and our expanded product portfolio with the inclusion of Delta UPS. In light of escalating raw material costs and global inflation, diligent margin management has delivered stable gross margin across the group at 38.2%. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue improved on the prior comparative period, and we can see that operating leverage as you look through revenue at $226 million, an increase of 28.3% on the prior year, gross profit at $86.8 million, an increase of [ 28.6 again ] on the prior comparative period, EBITDA at $27.7 million, an increase of 37.1% on the prior comparative period. EBITDA $23.4 million, a 41% increase, and net PAT, $16.1 million for the FY '23 year, an increase of 45% on the prior comparative period. Sales and earnings growth on to Slide 10. Revenue -- record revenue and EBITDA results, revenue of $226.9 million, again, up 28.3%. Strong organic growth has been delivered predominantly by the existing product portfolio and growing market share throughout the year. Strong statutory growth displayed by 37.4% CAGR over the 4 financial years presented. EBITDA of $27.7 million, up 37.1% in the prior comparative period. There's been strong -- there's been ongoing strategic investments made during the year, some of which are the expansion of our Gemtek team. The recruitment of our specification focused business development managers across the country, which we now have one in each region and in each state. And the operating expansion with the new 4,000 square meter warehouse at Eastern Creek in New South Wales. Whilst the group has invested into these strategic initiatives during the year, the group continued to deliver strengthening EBITDA margins and a 44.9% EBITDA CAGR over the last 4 financial years. On to Slide 11, balance sheet. Net summary of $20.8 million in net cash as of the 30th of June 2023. We weren't materially impacted by the RBA increases to the cash rate during the year, as the group continues to have no debts. As of the 30th of June 2023, the group has $72.9 million of net assets. On to Slide 12. Net working capital and dividend. Net working capital of $39.4 million, broken up predominantly by an increase in inventory by $9.4 million on the prior corresponding period remain consistent with inventory levels from the 31st of December 2022. Our supply chains and lead times begin to normalize. The inventory build during H1 was used to support the ongoing revenue growth into H2. Net working capital has grown commencement with our revenue growth over the last 4 financial years, and this investment remains critical to continue our ongoing growth. Dividend declared -- full year dividend declared of $0.047 per share, up 27% on the prior comparative period. Sorry that's half year dividend $0.047, yes. Then the full year combined was $0.093 per share, equating to a payout ratio of $8 million and a payout ratio of 50%. On to Slide 13, I'll hand back to CEO, Michael Sainsbury.

Thank you, Jason. So I mentioned earlier in the presentation that the growth has continued and certainly the momentum continues well into the future. Some highlights there that we'll talk to that have certainly contributed to the success in the last 12 months in no small way, and Jason touched on it, the successful integration of the Control Logic and HTC business. When you're integrating businesses like this and they have been recently acquired businesses from our organization, it does come with some risk, particularly around people, but really proud to say that the way we manage it was diligent, efficient and effective, and we didn't lose anybody as part of that transition. And certainly, our customers are seeing the full benefit of an integrated organization now where they're able to place one purchase order, have one rep calling on them and access to a far bigger portfolio of products. We signed a distribution agreement -- exclusive distribution agreement with Delta, which provides us access to a new product, which is called UPS, which is an uninterruptible power supply, and we are in discussions about adding a battery energy storage products to our portfolio as well. That there certainly contributes in no small way to our organic growth opportunities. It will be by selling more of what we have today, but adding new technologies to support and to fill gaps that the organization may have. I'm really pleased to be able to say that we've won orders from multiple data centers in the last 12 months. Data centers are one of the most significant growth opportunities in our market. There is a real focus on continuity of power and the electrical infrastructure is a large -- is certainly a large part of that success there. Historically, we didn't necessarily have the product portfolio that would have enabled us to enjoy success in data centers, but it now is one of the stables of our end-user market you'll see in a future slide, the growth that we're achieving in that space. Jason touched on the business development people that we've put across the country. And for those of you who have been on the previous calls, there's a specification approach to the market, which is a significant opportunity where you're working at a very early stage to get designed and specified. And there were certainly -- although we called that out as being a more medium to long-term play, we are certainly seeing some successes as a result of that investment already in the first 12 months. One of the products that we take to market in our portfolio is a product called [indiscernible], which is really a replacement for cable. It's used in critical environments. And it's been a slow uptake over the last couple of years, but we certainly see a strong pipeline and a good order pipeline into the new financial year for [indiscernible]. And as Jason called out, we signed a lease on an extra 4,000 square meters of warehouse to free up 30% capacity in our main distribution center to facilitate ongoing growth in the stock requirements, inventory requirements to support our growing business. Moving on to Slide 15. Gemtek. For those of you who aren't familiar, Gemtek is an acquired business from IPD. It's an end-to-end electric vehicle charging business. And it's certainly clear to say that the rubber is starting to hit the road in this space around EV charging. IPD has been successful. Gemtek has been successful in securing some really, really high-end opportunities in this space, and I'm calling out 3 here. The first one there is NRMA. NRMA are putting 284 high-powered chargers around Australia for their members to be able to charge their electric vehicles. They went through an extensive tender process where they've shortlisted a group of companies to sit on a panel to be able to execute on behalf of NRMA, and we have been successful in being nominated as part of that panel, and to further reinforce the validity of what we take to market there around the end-to-end EV charging, the first 4 sites, which is between Victoria and regional Bendigo we have been engaged and have purchase orders for the early works design and the installation of the EV charges on those 4 sites of the infrastructure to support those EV chargers and the EV charges on those 4 sites. So it really is a strong validation, and it does underpin that NRMA remains the as a true value partner for them in that space. They're breaking that up into 4 areas. It will be site acquisition. It will be site construction, including the design and then maintenance and repair. And each of them will be separate tenders along the way. And as I say, for those 4 sites, we have been engaged for acquisition. We have been engaged for site construction. Maintenance and repair is yet to be let, but we remain confident about that. In terms of scale, this project in total for the -- sorry, for the 4 sites we've been successful on. The order for that is around about $100,000 for those 4 sites for the early works design. And core prospecting, which is electrifying the transport link between Port Hedland and the Roy Hill mine site. We were successful in picking up the order for the electrification of this. You can see the scope of works that we've been engaged for there. And that project in its own right, represents an order for us of -- in excess of $300,000 for the coming year. Elizabeth Key Bus Depot, we've been given a letter of intent here, we're expecting to receive the order in the coming days. Elizabeth Key Bus Depot was exactly though, the bus network over in Perth and we have been engaged to do the power distribution via our own product, which is a bus stop, all of the cables and the accessories, the control management system and the installation and the commission of the complete end-to-end EV charging solution for that bus depot. So 3 really exciting projects and a decent scale, good scale that shows the value of what we're taking to market. The last thing that I'll touch on there is it's really, really, again, validation for what we're taking to market. The New South Wales state government have given us funding of in excess of $1.8 million to do 3 charging locations ourselves. So what we'll be doing in those locations is we will be putting in our own charges and that will be 50% funded by the New South Wales state government. And we will be collect -- we will effectively be selling electrons and we will be collecting the revenue from each of the time people pull up to those public charging stations and charge their cars. Really good part of that is one of them is in Parramatta, one is in Annandale. The third one is actually in Wetherill Park at a shopping center not far from our office. So it will be a really good opportunity to showcase for anyone who comes to our office, a short drive down the road, one of those public charging, and it will give us great access to the data around how many charges per day and that sort of thing. So again, a really strong validation from the state government that what we're doing, and our capacity and our capabilities is well recognized by them by the fact that they're funding that $1.8 million for us. We put out there recently around the acquisition of a company called EX Engineering, and it's a really, really, really good business for us. both strategically and culturally. Fantastic fit with our business. It is certainly, from a financial perspective, a very profitable business. The revenue that they recognize is around about $12 million with an attached EBITDA of $2.5 million, and the purchase price of $10 million there. What they do, these guys do is they service hazardous area environments from an electrical perspective, in industries such as oil and gas and pharmaceuticals and mines and grain. They specialize in the -- in electrical solutions for these environments. The really good part about this is once you get a product installed into this sort of a hazardous environment, there is a statutory requirement to replace that every 3 to 5 years, depending upon the product, even if it's still operating correctly because of the requirements around -- the safety requirements around hazardous areas. So it's an ongoing order book. It's a complex assembled -- a large portion of their revenue -- a significant portion of their revenue is custom assemble solutions which makes it very sticky and gives us strong protection around profits because it's not just a simple product solution, it's a customized solution. And the barriers to entry for competitors become -- are obviously very high due to the specialized nature of the business, the knowledge and the regulatory hurdles that go with providing equipment in these sorts of environments. So it really is an outstanding bolt-on business for us. They are very much WA centric as a business, and our expectations are about taking their capabilities and building it up on a national scale. There will be no plans to integrate it into the business in the short to near future. We will certainly leave it out on it's -- in its own right, but supported through significant integration with -- sorry, significant collaboration with all our staff focusing on the revenue upside of the collaborative spirit between the group. People and ESG commitment, while most of you guys would be intimately -- want to talk about the financials, it would be remiss of me not to talk about the employee survey we conducted during the year, where we came out with a Net Promoter Score of 42% of our people saying what a great place that IPD is to work. And just to put some scale to that. anything in excess of 30% from a Net Promoter Score is deemed as an excellent result. So to achieve 42% Net Promoter Score from our staff is nothing short of an exceptional result and does show the care and the family spirit that sits within our business. In the interest of time, we've got a lot of information to cover, and I'm sure you guys will read through the presentation. But substantial focus on the environmental, social and governance aspects, and I'll let you guys read through them at your own time. In terms of our markets, we remain very, very buoyant. We're attached to an industry that is experiencing significant tailwinds around the electrification of the economy, around the rising energy costs, around the carbon emissions challenges. So we're well placed and are well attached to some strong tailwinds. Some things that we'll call out there, we talk about storage capacity, and this is battery energy storage. The forecast is that that's going to grow 30x over the next 27 years. And that's a significant part. And I did mention earlier that we will be looking to introduce battery energy storage equipment as part of our portfolio to certainly underpin that for the future. When I talk about grid scale, wind and solar, so we're talking about renewable energy. That's forecasted to grow by a factor of ninefold over that same period. Distributed solar PV, which is on residential and commercial app-based installations or sites that's factored to grow by a factor of 5. And despite all of that, the electricity from the grid -- apologies, that's a typing error there not form the grid. The electricity from the grid is forecasted to grow by a factor of 2x over that same period as well. So what really happens there is the infrastructure to be able to manage that upside is mammoth. And every one of our products fits right into the suite of products that we talk about to be able to facilitate the electrical infrastructure requirements to support those tailwinds. So really, really strong tailwinds for the future. In terms of our products and our end markets, we've had this question before, and I'll touch on the end markets first. You can see there that commercial construction and infrastructure represents greater than and -- on 60% of our total business. And these 2 areas are very, very buoyant and look with strong opportunities moving into the future. The one other area that I'll call out, and I mentioned it earlier in the presentation is data centers, and you can see that, that has increased to 8% of our revenue coming from data centers. And that's up from 2% or 3% -- I think it was 2% or 3% in a previous presentation. So significant success in that space, validating the portfolio and the solution approach we're taking to market. And the specification resources we've put in place to be able to get specification and those sorts of opportunities. The other thing that I will touch on there is residential construction. There's certainly some pressure in that space in the coming few years. And we are well protected by the fact that less than 2% of our revenue comes from that residential space. So despite the challenges there, it won't materially have any net derogatory impact on our revenues. The product, 46% of our revenue comes from power distribution, which is getting electricity around the site safely and securely, 28% from motor control, which is effectively staffing, stopping and controlling the speed of motors and conveyors and air conditioning and the likes and pumps. And then automation and industrial comms 13%, power monitoring 3%, and then the rest of our product portfolio represent 10% rolled up cumulative. A good spread there and a good attachment to some strong end markets. Slide 22, we'll talk about our focus. And certainly, EV charging infrastructure is a massive opportunity for growth for us. As a business, we've invested heavily into this, and we're really at a point now where the rubber is going to start to hit the road. We call out 4 different aspects there. The actual hardware itself, the EV charging hardware, the design and the load management solutions is one part of that. And when we talk about our EV success in terms of order book, this is exclusively what we're talking about in the number. However, the business has an attachment through all of its other products. But a lot of our revenue and a lot of our growth is going towards EV. And I talk about all of our product portfolio that is used in the electrical distribution and the charging equipment. I call out the distribution -- the custom distribution boards that we assemble out of Wetherill Park, and we have a dedicated EV charging panel now that is the national construction code have mandated what are those charges -- what those distribution boards need to look like in terms of design and compliance, and we have a standardized board there for EV charging. And in our Addelec business, which is obviously well attached to the infrastructure requirements for it as well as after we deliver the charges, the high-power charges the ability to be able to service, maintain and give guaranteed uptime of these charges once up and operating. So a massive opportunity for us and certainly one part of our business that will underpin our growth for the future. In that space, we've made some changes to make us more effective, more efficient and really bring to market the value proposition around we have an end-to-end solution provider in this space. Addelec, which has always been in infrastructure and predominantly around data centers and industrial sites. We've seen that getting involved substantially more in EV charging and the infrastructure requirements of that. And then we had Gemtek, which was focusing on EV. We're amalgamating those 2 businesses to give a bigger scale to that business and bring into one group, one AVN, the full end-to-end solution capabilities. It will reduce some of the margin implications and make us much more competitive in that space there. So it's very exciting initiative, and I think will be a great value for our customers and make us even more competitive in the market. While we're on that EV, just some indications for you around the future, it's estimated that will require not just 20 more charges, but 20x the volume we have in the market at the moment in the local environment at the moment by 2030, which would -- we conservatively estimate is a $1 billion opportunity for [ IP ] with a forecast -- from a forecasted $18 billion to $20 billion required investment. Now I do call out that's by 2030. So I don't want people ringing me after this call saying, are you going to recognize this $1 billion in the next 12 months because that won't be the case. We're integrating the Gemtek and Addelec business, and it will uniquely provide a full end-to-end EV solutions infrastructure. And if I talk about from a hardware charging perspective, 2 different types of charges, DC fast chargers. The estimates are, this comes from the electric vehicle charging council, an independent body, is that by end of 2027, there will be between 2,100 and 2,200 high-powered DC charges required to be installed to be able to keep up with the demand that's growing in this space. That in itself represents a $650 million opportunity just in those DC fast charging markets. This doesn't talk about the infrastructure, or anything attached to it, just the hardware. In AC, which is lower powered more destination charging at home or at work, there will be a necessity for greater than 2 million AC charges to be distributed into the market between now and 2027, and that represents a scale of an opportunity of $4 billion in AC charges. So massive opportunities available to us in that space. Australia's current EV fleet is estimated to increase 12x by 2027, where we should see 1 million EV cars on the road, which would be obviously an extra 250,000 cars per year over that 4-year period. So certainly an exciting opportunity and one that we're investing heavily in for future growth for the business. Outside of that, if we talk about our strategic priorities to deliver double-digit organic growth. We want to expand our product portfolio. We're deep in discussions on high-efficiency motors. We're about to sign an agreement with a company around high-efficiency motors and we'll announce that in coming weeks. We've already announced around the UPSs, and I've called out already that we're looking at battery energy storage systems, and we're well advanced in discussions around that. The strategic sales. We've invested in those additional resources. We're starting to see -- we're certainly seeing the results of that investment already. And it is more a medium to long-term play, so really pleasing that we're seeing some short-term results as well, and we'll continue in the education program of our consultants and specifiers to make sure that continues into the future. In terms of acquisitions, the group has a proven track record of successful acquisitions and we will continue to look target, and I'm sure, successfully acquire good, strategic, culturally fitting businesses that are earning accretive and bring them into the group's portfolio. From an outlook perspective, I say mid to long-term here our markets remain buoyant and that's certainly the case for the short-term. We are extremely enthusiastic about the opportunities attached to our business. We're in an environment that has significant tailwinds, and we remain very, very confident about the opportunities for our business. If I talk about trying to tell you what month that will materialize in or what half. We only have an order book that goes out 2 to 3 months at best. So trying to give total transparency about when that will land is difficult, but certainly very, very comfortable and very confident in the future growth. Obviously, the macroeconomic environment here in Australia is somewhat subdued. We don't think materially at the moment, it represents any risk for us, but it's important to be aware of it there that it could have an impact although, at this stage, I would say that it's unlikely to have any impact because of the tailwinds we're attached to. From a trading outlook perspective, I guess we go back to what has been common practice for the organization. We give very strong commentary around the business, but we don't put a number out there. However, we will provide an update at our company's AGM, which will be in November in a couple of months' time about the trading of the business between obviously, July 1 and November date. So at that point in time, I think that covers everything, and I'll hand over to everybody for any questions. And hopefully, the answers for you guys as well.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Philip Pepe from Shaw and Partners.

Just picking up on two things you said. So start with the labor of the month, the EV part of your business. So if I added up correctly, the current revenue are in the 3 pillars you announced about $500,000 in total over the year, was 300 plus a couple of 100, is that about, right?

You're talking of those 3 projects that we highlighted there, Philip?

Yes. That's right. Yes. What is the total...

I mean, in the scale of 300 -- sorry, 100 orders placed at the moment. Hancock in 300, Elizabeth Keys will be is project -- but 2.6 is the project, but it will be over a long period. So yes, it will be [indiscernible] some indication.

Excellent. And the total market size added up to was at $5 billion over a number of years?

That's correct. Yes.

Just [indiscernible] and will that require any further investment or if you got everything you need just likely to kind of [indiscernible]...

And I'd love to say to you, no, the scale of our business at the moment certainly wouldn't facilitate that sort. So yes, it wouldn't require additional resources. It will be good project management. It will -- feet on the street in terms of trade, people would be able to maintain and keep a guaranteed uptime as well as installation and everything else. So there will be significant increase in resources attached to it as the business grows, but we'll be diligent around how we do that, and we don't want to add significant investment to the business until such time as we start to see the underpinning of the opportunities.

Fair size market. It's not surprising. Just on the working capital on Slide 12. So obviously, the look there -- I think inventories, as you mentioned, increased $1.4 million. We're back to normal levels now. So this level of working capital is appropriate going forward?

Yes, correct. Philip. So working capital has been building over the last couple of years, and that's proportionate with our revenue growth as that -- the graph sort of represent that 37% CAGR revenue growth over the last 4 financial years. So whilst the working capital build can swing from half to half depending on when that stock movements predominantly land with sort of more back to a historical normalized position from a working capital perspective. Yes. So just to reemphasize just the way we look at that, too, Philip, is historically, in the way we look at moving forward is roughly for every $6 million of revenue, we need to invest about $1 million of working capital, and that will continue into our future growth.

Excellent. And if I could just squeeze in a last one. July, August trading conditions, what were they like versus pcp?

Yes, and Philip, it's been a good 2 months, certainly in line with our expectations around double-digit organic growth. So pleased to say that there's nothing that we would make us afraid or about any of the forecast we put out there or any of the announcement -- anything we put in the announcement today, a good solid first 2 months -- month.

Your next question comes from Sam Brandwood from Bell Potter.

Congrats on another stellar year for you. I'll start with EV charging as well and in the context of, I guess, the introductory NRMA deal that you've managed to win so far. Could you just elaborate on the scope going forward? And when you expect opportunities for further potential pull-through opportunities going forward?

Yes. So Sam, at this stage, all we can tell you is that there's 284 identified sites from NRMA that they plan to do that over an extended period. They haven't given us any indication around time lines. But obviously, we sit on that panel. So we'll work closely with them. All I can say to you with any certainty at this point in time is -- the first 4 have been identified, we've been engaged to do it. And as I say, that's $100,000. But anything further than that -- I'm confident we'll get our lion's share of the 280 sites, although, I'm sure they will spread the risk a little bit and give some to others. But considering our relationship and the recognition that our business has within the NRMA, I'm confident we'll get our lion's share of the opportunity.

Yes. Excellent. And just to be crystal clear as well, in FY '23 total EV hardware sales or a total -- I guess, yes, total EV sales for the group, excluding the 3 projects you mentioned in the slide, what do you think you did for the full year?

$3.5 million, Sam, is our EV revenue for the business. So that's growing substantially from H1, and they get a substantial growth on what Gemtek's historical revenues were, which were roughly about $1 million a year when we acquired the business. And what's really important to point out there, that $3.5 million is in EV charging hardware only and excludes any infrastructure work that Addelec are doing in that space. So that would be over and above that $3.5 million. That's just straight out in hardware.

Perfect. I've just got a couple more if you've got time as well. Just thinking about the suppliers, your key suppliers being ABB and Elsteel. And correct me if I'm wrong, but at back of the envelope, looks like for ABB, mid- to high 30s comparable growth and Elsteel possibly early 30 percent growth for the year. Could you provide some context on how that's tracking well, the first 2 months of the year? And then whether you think in particular or Elsteel that's a sustainable growth rate over a 2- to 3-year time frame?

Yes. Really good question, Sam. ABB, you're right, absolutely. It represents a bit over 40% of our total business now and does continue to grow at that sort of 30% year-on-year rate. We called out that the market share that they have here in Australia is relatively much less than it is in other global economies around the world. So the upside for us there is still significant and -- significant opportunities into the future. And they are extremely pleased with our performance, and we're well ahead of their forecast or their expectations for us in our operating model. In terms of Elsteel, that's the modular switchboard system that you're calling out there. There's been some regulatory changes around the standards there in the last couple of years, which has driven that growth, and we've been the recipient of greater than 30% growth year-on-year in that space. I expect that, that has still a couple of years to go there, Sam. Those regulatory changes haven't even been rolled out in Western Australia yet. The Western Australian utilities have grandfather that so to a large extent. So it hasn't even been implemented in that state yet. And of all the customers in the Eastern Seaboard, not all of them have changed their operating models yet. So I think we're still well placed from that modular switchboard system to see similar sort of growth pattern into the future. And it's an important part of our business, Sam, because it is a high net operating margin product and a significant contributor to our overall profit.

Just finally, as well, gross margin in the second half was up significantly 120 basis points to 38.8%. Do you feel like that's a sustainable level going forward? Or is that a bit higher, do you think?

No, I think we've done a really, really strong job of managing our pricing model over the last 12 months, particularly in light of some of the supply chain challenges. I think that's fairly sustainable and indicative of what they will be moving forward. I don't expect any material changes up or down. That's fairly consistent what I think you'll see for the future on.

Your next question comes from Matthew Chen from Moelis Australia.

I just wanted to follow on from that prior question. So -- can you give us a bit of color around the framework and you're thinking about price increases on your product range for the coming year?

Yes, Matt, look, over the last 12 months, with the supply chain challenges and raw materials are fluctuations and that sort of thing. We really had the ability of introducing multiple price increases per year, and that certainly contributed to our strong gross margin realization. However, with the normalization of those freight challenges and somewhat normalization of the market, it's fair to say that we'll probably fall back into a yearly CPI-type increase. I expect that we will have another price increase sort of February, March of 2024. And that would probably be circa sort of 5% sort of increase at that point in time. And I think then we'll fall in back into the yearly cycle of CPI-type increases from then on, Matt.

Great. That's very helpful. And then just to be clear, is there kind of a time line in that strategic priority of the double-digit organic growth? And does that kind of include what we've just talked about in terms of prices? Or is that kind of more targeted at volume.

No, Matt, that double-digit growth would be a combination of pricing related benefits as well as volume. So that encapsulates everything in that Matt.

[Operator Instructions] You next question comes from Brad, a Private Investor.

My question is around the battery energy storage systems and the communication that you've had already and whether or not you're engaging with businesses within Australia or more international?

No, it's international vendors we're talking to predominantly there may, I say that in the EV charging space, a big part of that, particularly in regional and rural applications is because the grid is not able to provide the power is using renewable solutions supported by battery energy storage. And we have access to multiple vendors to be able to use in that sort of an instance and we purposely don't have exclusivity there because different manufacturers meet different criteria in that space. So we have access to multiple partners in that EV charging space to facilitate the right outcome for the customers. From a product distribution perspective, though, the agreement that we're looking to sign will be with a global vendor, who is a market leader in this space and has a very broad suite of products that enables us to be able -- to be able to play in a broad range rather than just a very, very specific part of the market.

Yes. Nice. And in relation to that, would you be looking at more [ BESS ] sort of for commercial rather than residential?

Yes, very much so, mate. In line with the rest of our business, and we -- as I said, I called it out earlier, 2% of our revenue goes through the resi space. So it's not a massive focus for us. The battery energy storage solutions and applications we would be looking at would be in commercial and industrial environments, predominantly, mate.

Okay. Last one. There's been a lot of bad news, I suppose, around lithium over the last few months with different cars and so forth, burning on ships and whatnot. What's your take on that and the use of lithium-ion batteries in this storage, the [ BESS ] sort of facilities or infrastructure, especially around now hotter climates and even at colder climate in Hinterlands and Highlands of Victoria and New South Wales?

Yes. Look, the technology of batteries is evolving and evolving aggressively mate. At this point in time, you're absolutely right. That is the common practice there is around the technology you speak of. I think I don't have a personal opinion. And if I did it's not an education -- not educated one, so I can't talk at any sort of deep level about it. But I know that it seems to me that in the local environment, I haven't said -- I know there's been some on the ships in that lately. But locally, I don't really see there's a massive risk for us locally. I haven't heard of too much in the way of EV cars catching on fire or anything like that locally. But I've got to be honest with you and say my commentary is a non-educated one. And we focus on the charging of those batteries and the technology, the vendor that we are talking to from that battery energy storage, I say they have a very broad portfolio, and it's not just in lithium. It is in other areas as well, too. So if indeed that does become a problem in the future, the vendor we are talking to has a very diversified approach, which will give us some protection there anyway.

It's David Rafter, [indiscernible] Chairman. We've talked only preliminary levels, but the opportunity for IPD around an effective fire detection and protection solution, alloy to the charging that there's potential there in terms of putting extra products through, I think, with some smart analysis.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate that. Last question if I may. Just any thoughts on solid-state sodium chloride batteries?

You had me at the [indiscernible]. No, the answer is no. Thanks, mate. Apologies for the lack of content there.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Michael Sainsbury for closing remarks.

So in closing, I'd like to thank everybody for participating today and joining us today to say that I am very excited about the opportunities as an understatement and certainly very, very proud of the results we have achieved. And I'd like to take this opportunity to pass out my appreciation to all those shareholders that have invested us and continue to support us. Thanks very much for your support and to all of my employees that contributed to such a strong result in all of the key areas. A massive thank you to any of them that are online today too. They know how much I appreciate it and they're valued by the organization. So thank you, everybody. Have a fantastic day, and I look forward to talking to a lot of you one-on-one in the coming days.