Metro Performance Glass Limited (MPG.NZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Metro Performance Glass Half Year Results announcement conference call. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Simon Mander. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome and thank you for joining our call today. My name is Simon Mander, and I'm the CEO of Metro Performance Glass, and with me is Brent Mealings, our CFO. This morning, we'll provide you with an overview of the group's results for the first six months to 30th of September 2021, and we'll then be happy to take any questions you may have. On to Slide 2, we've noted five key messages, which summarized the half. I'd like to start by recognizing that ongoing COVID-19 related disruptions have had a significant impact on the profitability of the business in the half. In spite of this, our teams have continued to deliver our market-leading products and services to our customers. In New Zealand, Metro Glass' financial performance has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown impacts at the end of the half. Australian Glass Group, which has experienced COVID-19 restrictions for much longer than New Zealand, has continued to execute well on its turnaround plan. The ongoing supply chain disruption and emerging inflationary pressures are expected to continue, however, and they will continue to be addressed through pricing strategies. And finally, our focus on debt reduction has placed Metro Glass in a strong position to cope with the immediate impacts of the pandemic with no negative impact on the debt level. Turning now to Slide 3. We outlined some of the initiatives that we have implemented throughout the half and in response to the recent COVID-19 restrictions. Firstly, our COVID-19 response. As with the previous lockdown period, we committed to paying 100% of our staff's contracted wages and salaries for the Alert Level 4 period. We maintained a connection with customers throughout the lockdown period and when Alert Levels allowed, we successfully reopened all sites in New Zealand under COVID-19 protocols and quickly resumed glass supply to our customers. In Australia, while restrictions have been in place for considerably longer, they have fortunately been able to remain largely operational throughout the half. During the half, we've also continued to invest in staff training and development, including our apprenticeship program that currently has over 80 apprentices enrolled. And delivering our group-wide capital program, which is focused on improving capability, quality and unlocking capacity across our network. On Slide 4, we present our key financial results for the half. As we announced in September, our group results were significantly impacted by the Alert Level 4 lockdown restrictions in New Zealand and the rapid increases in input costs. New Zealand revenue of $87.8 million was down 1% versus the previous comparable period, with EBIT before significant items of $4.1 million, down 70%. Efforts to diversify the product and customer mix delivered results at a revenue level. However, this was overshadowed COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing supply chain disruption significantly affecting profitability at a lagged level. Australian Glass Group's revenue grew by 4% to $29 million. However, while our three processing plants have largely remained operational throughout the first half, disruptions to the supply chain and staff availability impacted profitability. AGG's EBIT was a loss of $700,000, which is down from the positive $400,000 achieved in the prior comparable period. Metro Glass has reduced net debt by $3.2 million to $47.8 million, down from $51 million in September 2020. The business maintained a net debt position consistent with the March 31, 2021 despite COVID-19 related impacts in the half. As you can see on Slide 5, on a nine-month lag basis, new residential consents grew 4.8% between March '21 and September '21 and has continued to strengthen and reach higher levels throughout the year. Total floor area consented has increased 4% in the same period. The mix of consent continues to shift towards multi-residential dwellings with detached housing consents remaining relatively flat on a nine-month lagged basis compared with 11.9% in multi residential. Nonresidential consents by value have risen 10.3% in the 12 months to September '21 compared with the prior. Metro Glass' commercial glazing forward books have increased 7% over the same period, in part due to the impact of a lockdown period, but also reflecting the quality of our products, consistent execution and project acceptance rates. Turning to Slide 6. Our efforts to diversify the product and customer mix delivered results; however, this was overshadowed by COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing slot supply chain disruptions. International supply chain costs have significantly impacted profitability in the half. Metro Glass received the first two tranches of New Zealand government wage subsidy in the half, although this was not enough to offset the impacts from the Alert Level 4 lockdowns. We have implemented a series of internal and customer partner and initiatives that have supported a solid performance in an uncertain and competitive market. Our improving customer survey ratings and positive feedback reinforced that we're on the right track. We remain committed to developing our people in processing capabilities, investing $7.3 million on equipment during the six months, focused on improving quality, capability and capacity. Looking at Slide 7 briefly. Australian Glass Group is primarily involved in the new detached houses and alterations and addition segments in our key southeastern Australian markets. Following 18 to 24 months of declines, housing approvals and commencements have increased significantly, and we look forward to these intentions flying through to activity and glass demand. On to Slide 8. In Australia, COVID-19 restrictions were in place for multiple months with most short-term impacts concentrated in New South Wales and Victoria. Fortunately, there was a limited impact on the Tasmanian business. Despite wide construction sector disruptions that have affected staff, product distribution, and customer operations, AGG still achieved growth. However, disruptions to supply chains and staff availability impacted profitability. Key Southeast Australian markets have remained strong, with AGG delivering 7% growth in the key double-glazing segment. AGG's success and growing double-glazing segment further illustrates the opportunity of the increasing penetration rates the double-glazing has in our key markets. I'll now hand over to Brent to discuss the financial results in more detail.

Thanks, Simon. Good morning, everybody. On Slide 9, we break our revenue down in New Zealand, and you can see that the commercial glazing sales declined by 8% to $16.6 million, primarily as a result of a lockdown period. The Residential segment declined 3% to $57.1 million. Retrofit maintained its momentum despite COVID-19 restrictions, growing sales by 17%, as customers continued to upgrade their properties. Our efforts to rebalance our product and customer mix has allowed us to offset to a degree the entry of additional glass processing capacity in the North Island. Australian Glass Group's revenue grew by 4% to $29 million. Slide 10 reflects our half year results. I'll draw you to the segmental results on the right-hand side of the page. The impact on New Zealand's gross profit margin was driven by the COVID-19 lockdown and global supply chain imbalances that introduce a rapid spike in input costs. This is a similar story in Australia, we have prolonged COVID-19 restrictions also impacted labor costs. Group results were materially impacted by the COVID-19 impact with net profit declining significantly compared to last year. I'd like to move to the waterfall on Slide 11. Movements in New Zealand's EBIT results are shown in the gray shading area, where you'll see we've tried to mention the impacts of the lockdown period. Our New Zealand EBIT result in August and September was $4.5 million lower than the prior year as a result of a lockdown. The next bar reflects the increased input costs, primarily driven by higher shipping costs that increased rapidly through the period and could not be fully recovered through price increases. The third bar reflects the change in revenue, which demonstrates the impact of new competition in the market and our focus on rebalancing our customer and product mix in the portfolio. The Australian performance in the green shaded area of the waterfall. The key drivers here being the increased input costs as a result of international shipping and labor cost as a result of the prolonged COVID-19 disruptions that they have been experiencing for a much longer period than in New Zealand. Now turning to the balance sheet on Slide 12. The increased holdings in glass inventory due to supply chain disruption and the impact of Level 4 restrictions was offset by a reduction in trade receivables in New Zealand due to the same impact late in the reporting period. Net operating cash flows were lower than last year, driven as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions and increases in material costs, which negatively impacted EBITDA. In the 12 months to September 2021, net debt decreased by $3.2 million and has remained stable over the past six months despite the impact of COVID-19. Primarily as a result of significantly reduced EBITDA and debt to EBITDA pre-IFRS 16 ratio increased year-on-year from 1.5x to 2.8x. I'll now pass back to Simon to pick up on the outlook for the second half.

Thanks, Brent. Turning to Slide 13 and our outlook for the 2022 financial year. As the New Zealand and Australian governments continue to roll out the vaccination programs and the reopening of the economy, we expect this will provide certainty in a supportive environment for the construction sector. Residential consenting activity continues to track at record levels despite the pandemic, creating a solid and elongated pipeline of work due to construction industry capacity constraints. Glass demand remains strong with forward books for both the retrofit and commercial glazing segments higher than the same point last year. As the disruptions dissipate, we are confident that activity levels in both New Zealand and Australia will return to previous levels. We also expect to run a shorter Christmas shutdown than last year as the sector looks to recoup lost work in August and September. The international shipping environment and cost inflation have created significant cost pressures impacting gross profit. We expect this environment to remain for at least the next 12 months, price increases to offset the rapid spike in costs continue to be introduced. However, there is a lag from a timing perspective. In Australia, we're seeing early signs of a snip back in demand in New South Wales and Victoria, as COVID-19 restrictions reduce. We continue to prepare the business for changes to the national construction code, educating the market on benefits of double-glazing and remaining a strong proposition in the market. Metro Glass' strategy and focus remains unchanged, as we continue to build resilience and defend Metro Glass' leadership position to further improve our positive trajectory in Australia and benefit from growing demand for double-glazing and to ensure our balance sheet remains strong and sufficient to cope with future risks and opportunities. Now that brings us to the end of our presentation, and we're now happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take the first question from Grant Lowe from Jarden.

Just around sort of, obviously, cost inflation is immaterial at the moment. Just in terms of the pricing strategies you talked about to address that. Just what are you seeing from the competition in terms of pricing? And can you give us a sense of how much ability you think you've got to lift prices given the industry capacity increases over the last 12 or 24 months.

Yes. It varies a bit by market Grant. In Australia, there's been some pretty significant price increases in the market. There was a 6% a couple of months back, and this has been another sort of 10%, 11% price increase put through in the market. In New Zealand, we've had two small price increases, the second one just takes effect 1st of December. That's been signaled out about a month or so ago. So I guess it is pretty fluid, but these cost increases are affecting everyone across -- it's very, very out a public there about these cost pressures, but it is sort of a competitive market. So we're very conscious of making sure that we maintain our position in the market. And we work very actively to make sure that the industry can operate smoothly.

Yes. And in terms of -- I guess this question is sort of related to part to that sort of gross margin sort of thing. But in terms of we -- obviously, New Zealand has had locked down the last few weeks of the period. But how are things tracking in the first quarter? And then, I guess, third quarter-to-date, now that most of the countries are out of lockdown certainly and there's building happing in Auckland. In terms of profit, how is that tracking relative to prior year?

We obviously haven't provided too much full guidance, but I guess the reality is sort of a couple of few months or quarter three, sales are, I'd say, sort of similar to last year. But the pressure of the gross margin is definitely there. We've got, as Simon said, we've got enough an additional price increase planned and announced for the 1st of December, we'll see some impact of that coming, but that's going to be more of a Q4 top impact, as we hit into next financial year as well.

So Grant, I think broadly speaking, let's say, in New Zealand, you're seeing volumes at similar level to last year. But what we are seeing is a downstream of us, there's a lot of disruption in that supply chain. So demand is there, but it's sort of that supply chain is certainly not move.

Got it. Yes. In terms of -- in Australia, was the upcoming regulatory changes, can you just give us an update on your current thinking around your competitive positioning over the year? Obviously, this is being signaled for some time, I'm just wondering what your view is what competition on the double-glazing front and the potential margins you see for double-glazing units relative to your sort of 25% this quarter, gross profit in AGG?

Yes. I guess, we're certainly seeing an uptake in double-glazing, as is seen by the growth in our double-glazing numbers. And it's pretty widely known in the market that the changes are coming. So the industries are preparing, but we're very well placed and are seen as the leaders in double-glazing, we're very focused on that. So we would expect particularly with the changes that we've seen recently in market pricing that we would expect our profitability to be improving there. And as volumes grow, absorbing those volumes into our fixed cost base is a positive thing.

Grant, a price increase in Australia, just provides the space for us.

Got it. I guess is it too early to sort of give us a sense of we think the revenue or gross profit expectations might be for that once those regulations start to take effect.

Yes. I mean I guess, we're just being very careful about, given there's still COVID around and what's happening in the wider community, it's just still a very nervous time for everything, as I think people will understand. But certainly, we've seen that as growth in AGG demand is a positive thing for us. Absolutely yes.

And we're seeing growth there.

That's great. That's all for me.

Thanks, Grant.

[Operator Instructions] It appears that there are no further questions at this time, I would like to turn the conference back to Mr. Mander for any additional or closing remarks.

Okay. Thanks, everybody. And yes, if you have any questions that you think of don't hesitate getting in touch with us. Thanks very much.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.