PZ Cussons plc (PZC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody. Oh, can you hear me, okay?

Yes.

Good. As you know when I started this, I didn't used to need to use my glasses, so this a sign of the times, unfortunately. So if you give me if I'm doing a bit of taking glasses off to look at all of you and put them back on again to read what I'm supposed to be reading. But good morning. Welcome back to PZ offices from our remote location over the road last year and hybrid the year before. So it's lovely to see you all here in person. It's now 10:30, and I'm very pleased to declare our meeting open, and to welcome you all to the 2022 Annual General Meeting of PZ Cussons plc. And as I think most of you by now know, I'm Caroline Silver, your Chair. In a moment, I will ask our CEO, Jonathan, to recap our performance for -- and set out in our full year results for the year ended, 31st of May 2022, which seems a while ago now. I can't believe how quickly time passes. And then as usual, we will turn to the formal business of the meeting. But first, I'm going to introduce the other members of the Board, again, who you should recognize from previous years. On my left, Jonathan, our CEO; Kirsty Bashforth, our Remuneration Committee Chair. Next to her, John Nicolson, our Senior Independent Director; and then Valeria Juarez, Non-Executive Director; and Kevin Massie, General Counsel and Company Secretary. On my right, Sarah Pollard, Chief Financial Officer; Jeremy Townsend, our Audit and Risk Committee Chair, keeping the numbers people together. Jonathan's sitting on the other side. Dariusz Kucz, Non-Executive Director, and importantly, our designated Workforce Engagement Director; and Jitesh Sodha, Non-Executive Director, also a numbers person. So we will all be here, and very happy to talk to you after the meeting is concluded. Now as you of eagle eyes may have spotted in our annual report, and I know there are a lot of you who read our and you report properly carefully, I reach my ninth anniversary on the Board in April '23. And in line with corporate governance code, I will not be standing for reelection at the 2023 AGM, and therefore, this will be my last AGM here. And in this regard, and as we announced this morning, I am delighted to welcome and introduce, David Tyler, who is here with us in the audience today. Go on, David. Give us a twirl.

Hello, good morning. Nice to meet you.

David will join the Board as a Non-Executive Director with effect from the close of today's AGM, and it is expected that he will assume the chair where my term of office ends. David is the former Chair of Sainsbury's, Logica, Hammerson; the former Chief Financial Officer of GUS, Great Universal Stores. He also currently chairs the Board of Domestic & General. And I am credibly pleased that he has chosen to join us, and we have chosen him. He brings considerable experience to PZ Cussons at a really exciting time when we are moving, as you'll hear from Jonathan, from turnaround to transformation. I'm proud of the progress that we've made as a business, particularly in the last 3 years, which, despite the challenges of the pandemic, have seen a new management team appointed, the setting of our new strategy, the turnaround of our business performance and the start of a broader transformation, a refreshed corporate purpose and new best values. And I want to thank all of those I've worked with in my time here at PZ Cussons, which I'll miss so much, from fellow board members to all of our brilliant colleagues and our supportive investors. And in particular, I want to recognize the incredible efforts of every colleague during COVID. I was so proud to be a part of this team. It's been an honor to serve you all on this Board, and I know that the company is in safe here. One thing that particularly distinguishes PZ Cussons is our family heritage. And I recently described us as being blessed with so constructive, supportive and knowledgeable family shareholder. And so before I move on, I would like to pause a moment to mark with great sadness the passing a few months ago of Nigel Green, a key member of our founding family. Nigel, who I know will have been known to so many of you in this room, joined PZ Cussons in 1975. He was appointed to the Board in 1990 and Chief Executive from 1996 until his retirement in 2006. He was the nephew of Sir John Zochonis, and PZ ran through his very being. He was a immeasurable quiet support to myself as Chair, and his knowledge of this business was deep, but his qualities as a lovely human being actually much deeper still, as exemplified in his tireless charity work. And he is much missed. Nigel was always particularly keen to ensure we nurture the values and purpose that he knew sit at the heart of our company. And I and the board are particularly proud of our new best values, which our teams have defined to be Bold, Energetic, Striving and To work together, underpinning our drive to build a stronger performance culture. And with this, your company has taken a real step forward in this mindset, reigniting, as Jonathan often likes to say, its pioneering spirit. This year saw the launch of our ESG Committee: E, Environmental; S, Social; G, Governance Committee, which reflects the Board's focus on sustainability and governance as a really core part of our work. Amongst other things, the committee will oversee all of our sustainability projects, including our exciting journey towards certifying our businesses as B corporations by 2026. And we're joined in this effort by our Chief Sustainability Officer, Joanna Gluzman, who has joined us recently. We continue strengthen our leadership teams, making several new important appointments. Importantly, we're promoting internal talent, and we're increasing our focus on developing our future leaders. I was recently able to join our Future Ready Summit, which brought leaders from across our markets together for the first since the pandemic. And it was fantastic, particularly with my kind of 9-year perspective on the group to see such a diverse group of people together. Lots of local representation from all of our regions, full of energy, full of enthusiasm for the challenges and really aligned in the opportunities that lie ahead. It was a brilliant event. And there will be challenges. In line with our peers and indeed all businesses, we have seen an extremely challenging macroeconomic environment over the last year. Nonetheless, I've been hugely impressed by the energy and the resilience shown by management and our employees in responding to these challenges to deliver results for you, our shareholders. And whilst the external environment undoubtedly remains challenging, it is an exciting time here at PZ Cussons as we begin to move word from turnaround to transformation, building a higher-growth, higher-margin, simpler and more sustainable business. And with that, I will hand over to Jonathan, who will tell you more exciting thing. And then I will return for the Board [indiscernible].

So good morning, everyone. And just to reassure you, after Caroline's comments, I can do the numbers as well, all right. Just in case you're wondering. And let me add a very warm welcome back home. It's our time here for 3 years. It's my first in-person AGM here ever. And it's really great that you can come to our renovated offices. It's why we were over the road last year, remember. Because you can see how we are trying to drive some change and some cultural evolution in the company here, trying to create a highly collaborative, energizing space for people to come and work. There's good coffee. You can have a workout in the gym and lots of encouragement for people to work together, whether you're in the office here or connecting with Melbourne or Jakarta on the other side of the world. So genuinely, a really, really warm welcome. I also want to draw your attention to the picture on the screen, right, as evidence of how we are trying to bring our strategy to life. And what do we mean by building brands and brand building and all the rest? This is Birmingham New Street Station. This is a little bit bolder, edgier communication on one of our slightly more out there brands' Original Source, where we're asking consumers to think about exactly where does Original Source put a tingle when you use it. I'm not going to ask any of you right now. But I do know there's one gentleman in the audience who bought a very large bottle of Mint Original Source yesterday, so I will be asking later exactly what that end-user experience was like. So hopefully, it gives you a sense of how we are trying to get on the front foot with building our brands. And let me then talk a bit about what we've done in the last 12 months since I was standing in front of you last time to do that. What a year it's been. In fact, what a busy year it's been because I did have to go and check. When we talked last, I, Sarah hadn't been anywhere other than Manchester a result of COVID. So here we are staying and we run an international business, a multi-local business, and we've been doing it from the U.K. And we had been doing it from the U.K. So what I will come on to talk about a little bit is what have we been up to in meeting our organization and meeting our consumers. But I want to give you a complete reassurance that as we have done that, we have stayed firmly rooted in where we came from, right? And actually, Caroline referred to it. And we often talk about Messieurs Paterson and Zochonis on the left-hand side and their pioneering spirit when they opened up a trading post in Sierra Leone, over 130 years ago, and it's reigniting that pioneering spirit that we want to draw on as we try to energize our organization to go forward for the future. And of course, PZ then came together with Cussons. And today, we end up with an international span of operations, with our focus on the priority markets which represent 90% of net sales. That's Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Nigeria and the U.K. And for beauty only, we sneak in the U.S. as well. That's why it's a 4 plus 1. 3,000 employees around the world. And what I want to let you know is that we have been busy trying to get to those markets, meeting the people that matter. And let's start with the people that consume our products, the shoppers, the users. So this is an incredibly humbling experience that I encourage anyone inside PZ Cussons to do is to spend time with people that buy our products and use our products. This is in a suburb of Jakarta, all right? What you can't sense is the heat and the noise. I'm going to come back to that in a moment. This is a low-income household which had 2 babies, right? And I was lucky enough, wearing my Indonesian batik shirt, to visit this household and to spend time with the mom when she -- and it's usually the mom that does the bathing in Indonesia, to spend time with the mom go through the bathing routine. Now I know there are few young or new-ish parents in the room, so I'm not going to ask you how many products you do use when you go through that bathing experience. But it's probably not 6 or 7 individual products. So you just think you're in a cash scrap house, you don't have much income. You're only living in 2 rooms. But when it comes to bathing the baby, you are going to use, not just a shampoo for the head and a bath for the body, you're also going to use a lotion. You're also going to use hair lotion. It's a real thing in Indonesia for babies, all right? You're going to use baby cologne that a real thing in Indonesia. So why do I make the point about talking around what going on in Indonesia when people bathe their babies is because we need to generate the insights based on exactly how the consumer is using and aspiring to use our products so that we can serve them better. And therefore, we make no apology for trying to spend time with our consumers when we travel. How do consumers buy the products from us, where they go to retailers, our customers, and they come in all shapes and sizes. So these are the ones that would look and feel a bit like where you go shopping, all right? So you can see me waxing lyrical on the top right, also in Indonesia. I was talking or meeting the CEO of 1 of the 2 leading mini market chains. They're the biggest retailers in Indonesia. To give you an idea of the kind of growth plans they have, they open 1,000 stores a year. Imagine that, right? 1,000 stores a year. This is Alfamart. We've been doing business with them 22 years, and we took them a cake. And we cut the cake and we celebrated 22 years, and we look forward to another 22 years of good growth with them. But what's important as well is getting into some other markets. So you can see me walking the store. Literally, we walked the store from the homegrown Australian melons at the front to the bakery of the back and then to the home care and personal care aisles. The gentleman on the left is James Hepworth. He's the Commercial Director of Woolworths. Woolworths is our #1 customer globally. Bigger than anyone in the U.K., right? So it's worth me going around the other side of the world, to walk a store with him. And we had a fantastic time comparing anecdotes, comparing insights, exploring opportunities for how we can grow their business and, therefore, grow our business as well. And then bringing it right up to date, still in a modern trade store, so a store like you would know, bottom right, there's has really impressive display of Morning Fresh, arguably the best I've seen, that's not in Australia. So I'm going to send this photo the Australians and say, "Here's a country that's doing better than you guys." That was in Lagos last week. That was rather uncharacteristically for Lagos in a spa store. I know you're all thinking spa is as a small place where I go in to get a sandwich. Spa in Lagos is the size of a Tesco hypermarket, genuinely. Sells fridges and freezers. We sell fridges and freezers in the spa in Lagos, but we also sell Morning Fresh. And that gentleman is Adekunle Salami. And when I wrote to him and said, "You're going to be famous, because I'm going to show your picture at the Annual General Meeting," he wrote back and told me, it was such an honor and a privilege, and he was telling his family that night. Just to show you how PZ has a real touching moment, even for our employees as well. So that's where you would all go shopping and you would all recognize. But I think we need to keep ourselves firmly grounded that, actually, most of the stores which sell our products don't look anything like that. Actually, most of the stores that sell our products look like this. They are table tops or stools often in the open street. And what you can't tell from this a little bit as I alluded to on the consumer home earlier, it's really noisy. It's really hot in Jakarta and Lagos. We're talking mid-30s, and it's near 100% humidity, right? And that's where actually the rubber hits the road for most of our business and most of our brands. And that is different to where you shop. It's also different to where many of the people inside PZ Cussons shops, and indeed, this leadership team and Board. And that's why you can see faces on that screen from people here and people in our executive leadership team to make sure we genuinely have a good insight and understanding of where our business gets done and how it gets done, so we're not making decisions in an ivory tower here in Manchester. So you can see on the top right-hand corner, that was us in Indonesia, looking at baby markets and baby category. You can see Jeremy also in Nigeria there. In the middle picture at the top, that is Sarah, out with 2 of our leadership in Mushin market last week -- literally last week in Lagos. And you can see me unashamedly selling our wares with a store holder on the left, trying to big up the local brand, which we called Rob, with that beautiful red display as they streaked through the middle of the table top. I think it's really important for all of us to remember our business is done as much in stores like that as it is the modern trade where we all shop as well. But I also want to give you some reassurance that we take other responsibilities very seriously when we visit our markets. And that's where the DNA of PZ Cussons comes out. And we make sure that we engage with our local communities when we're visiting our countries. And on the left-hand side, you can see that I was partnering there with Dmitry. And the guy in the middle, who was obviously intimidated by Dmitry and I towering over him, is the headmaster of one of the government schools in downtown Jakarta. And we were working with them on the hand washing, hand hygiene program to help kids wash their hands as they came back to school after the pandemic. Really good example. We support 26 schools, 12,500 children. On the right-hand side, you can see my able assistant, Caroline in Australia, working with the food banks that we have been partnering with for 5 years in Australia, where they run a program to ensure the underprivileged kids get some food. It serves over 1 million children, and we're very proud to participate. I would also say we also responded, not just to these, if you like, very well-intended proactive plans, we respond when there are problems. So you may not have been aware of it, but they have been serious flooding in the last 3 months in 3 of our priority markets: New South Wales in Australia; Indonesia and actually, the worst has been in Nigeria. And so we've made sure we've been able to step up and work with them to give them home care and personal care products in the moment of need. And actually, even this week, as I was briefing Caroline on Monday after the earthquake on the outskirts of Jakarta, we were able to make sure that all our folks were okay, all our distributors' folks were okay. One of them, a salesman, had his house damaged. In fact, has collapsed, so we're working with the distributor to make sure that he and his family are able to be put up somewhere and then we can support on repairing the house. Probably the biggest highlight of getting out to the markets in the last year has been the chance to meet the PZ family, the teams around the world. And here, you can see a little bit what I meant about the spa in Lagos, that's top right. So that's not any spa you've been into looks like, right? But that was spa last week. Bottom right, example of Matt, our HR leader, working with Dimitri, our leader in Indonesia. That was the first face-to-face meeting the Indonesian team had had since COVID, and it was great, that Sarah and Matt and some others of us were able to be there to literally bring everybody together in a positive and constructive way. You can see Caroline getting out into markets with top talent, example in Nigeria there. And there's an example, I grabbed a selfie last week with King. So I had -- I told you about Adekunle earlier, this was King. He's the other one I said I'm going to make you famous. And he was very happy, too. And that's an example of someone else who's proud to be part of the PZ Cussons family. In fact, in the last year, we have also welcomed some new members to the PZ Cussons family. And that's the Childs Farm team. So we've made our first acquisition in 8 years. They're based down in the Southeast. That's the barn in Basingstoke. You can see the Founder standing in the front, Joanna Jensen. And we've welcomed the PZ Cussons -- sorry the Childs Farm team to PZ Cussons. And it's a good example of the sort of acquisitions that we're interested in because this is a must-win brand. It's in one of our priority markets and it's one of our core categories, it's accretive at a gross margin level, and so far, so good. We continue to see double-digit growth since the acquisition. And in all of our actions, whether it's market visits, acquisitions, we are guided by some words that I talked to you about a year ago, the 6 words of our purpose, right, for everyone in the sense that we want to serve consumers, but also inclusive that we want to be a safe place for employees to show their best. For life, in the sense that we want to help people live their lives, whether that's in a flood or whether that's getting out and about because they're confident that Carex Gel in their pocket will keep them safe and secure. And for good, because we want to be around for a long time, but also for good because we're trying to make a difference, and we want to do it the right way. So if that's our moral compass for purpose, and this is our map. And this is the strategy that Caroline referred to just now. And we launched this externally at the Capital Markets Day in March '21. And this was really an important step for us because we've gotten really clear what business are we in? We're in the business of building brands. And we called it Building Brands for Life, today for future generations, too, the for good part of the purpose, right? So it's building brands, serving consumers, we need to do it bit better than the competition. So we grow market share. We do it in our core categories, hygiene, baby, beauty. We're very clear which priority markets. I've told you the 4 plus 1 already. We're very clear which brands that are must-win brands, leaders in their categories. We have seen 7 out of 8 of those grow market share. We have seen 7 out of 8 of those grow revenue again in the last financial year. And the way in which we're doing that is using the PZ Cussons growth will, which is not rocket science, but it's what we call our model to grow brands in a sustainable and repeatable way. So we have confidence that if we put some investment behind them, we're going to get a good return. And as we do those things, we focus on the other parts of our strategy that make a difference, really putting sustainability at the heart of all we do, making progress on the culture. Caroline referred to the best values. We even have it on our mugs. I hope you saw that as you were sipping your coffee earlier, and genuinely trying to grow leadership. And we don't just mean leadership along here or leadership in the ELT. We mean leaders at all levels so that everybody can come to PZ Cussons and make their mark genuinely. And we also make sure that we're focusing on the capabilities that will really make a difference for us in the future: building brands, innovation, revenue growth management, the ability to add value to our products. And as we do all of that, we tackle some of the legacy issues that we've inherited, very complex operations -- some very complex operations, particularly in Nigeria, so that we can reduce that burden of complexity and liberate an organization to focus on transformation. And actually, we take our one page internally. And on a day-to-day basis, we distill it down to 10 words, so you have the 6 words of a purpose, and you have 10 words of the strategy. And these are the choices that then guide us in our day-to-day engagement with the markets, with the functions, with the teams around the world. And the good news is that 2 years in, 18 months, depending where you draw the star line from the new strategy, we're reporting a second year of profitable revenue growth. We've absorbed some significant challenges, whether that be the impact of COVID, whether that be initially cost inflation in commodities, then cost of living crisis for our consumers. And yet we're trying to stay true to the strategy, making progress on simplification, demonstrating some increased boldness with an acquisition and being ambitious in some of the sustainability targets that we've been setting. I would like to add my thanks to what Caroline said to all of the PZ employees around the world for the work they've done to help deliver these results. And although it's many months until Caroline's last Board meeting, I would also add my thanks to Caroline for her stewardship through this period. I've only been here for the last chapter. I don't know whether you think it's 1 chapter or not. I've only been here for 1 chapter, the last chapter, and I want to thank you for all you've done for me, personally, but also for the company. It will be enduring, I promise. And I look forward to coming back a year from now and tell you what else we've done. Why do I say that? We've done a lot, but we still have so much more to do. We may be reaching for the stars, but I can tell you, our feet are firmly on the ground. And we have many day-to-day challenges to deal with, and that's what we're busy doing. Thank you very much. Caroline?

Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you. So this brings us to the formal piece of the business for today. But before we go there, and perhaps I can just pause now to see if there are any questions on either Jonathan's review that he just gave us or in respect of the report and accounts. So this is the moment for asking of questions, please. Anybody got some questions for us? If not, I'm very happy to move. We have for questions. We'll have a microphone coming to you, I think.

Yes, second one to the left.

[ Roger Braven, ] private shareholder, family of long-standing, even when it was in the name of Cussons. Firstly, actually, I'd just like to say on behalf of the shareholders and previous retired employees of PZ Cussons, I wish you all the best in the future for your retirement. And to thank you very much for the breakfast rolls, I'm meaning to say that to you. I think we were very excited, all right. On to the accounts, page -- I'll read it, 208, I think it is. The notes to the consolidated -- aimed at the financial people on the Board here. I noticed that the net debt, even though it would appear as early -- accounts person, even though it appears that the balance sheet is in good state, the net debt of the company seems to have gone up by 50% in the past year. Perhaps one of the financial people could make a comment as to -- in layman's term just why that happens to be the case on the debt.

Sarah, do you want to?

I would like to. Shall I go, Jonathan?

Yes.

Good. So we're very proud of robust and resilient balance sheet. And we think that served us really well in terms of some rather choppy economic times. And actually, last year, our net debt reduced from already quite a low level to a very low level. So we were able to generate some cash by disposing of some non-core assets, which allowed us to buy Childs Farm that you heard Jonathan talk about. And we continue to push our operational teams to make sure working capital is low and optimized. So actually, we have a strong balance sheet and generate enough cash to both be able to invest in our brands, as Jonathan talked about, but also equally importantly, maintain a sustainable dividend for our shareholders. So our balance sheet, we think, is in a good place.

Yes. It may be the table. If you read the table from left to right, actually, the net debt has reduced. It's gone from 62 to 42. So it's actually reduced. And I'd just credit to Sarah and the team. Actually, it was a positive cash flow in the year, which in the year of COVID and all the situations going on, it was a very strong performance.

See, once you get the numbers people talking, you get 2 answers for the price of 1. It's kind of like a buy 1 get 1 free.

With respect, Mr. Townsend, no, the -- the debt on 31st of May, according to this -- wait a minute. Sorry, yes, I see what you mean, yes. I misread it. That was June '20, not -- sorry. I apologize. My apologies for misreading that. Not very good. The other point was at the back of the accounts, it's where all the other companies are involved.

It's around 234 or something like that, 233, 234.

233, yes. I noticed there are about 10 dormant companies in these days of cost-cutting. And whilst I appreciate that -- well, there's 1 in England, I think, but some in Australia, U.S.A. in various parts of the world. There seem to be -- anyway, there's -- I'll range it up, there are about 10 dormant companies. Would it be worth considering putting those -- of selling them as shelf companies, perhaps. I don't know what the rules are in the various countries involved.

Well, I think you call out a really good point, actually, which is something we've all been focused on, which is simplification. You're completely right to say -- when you look at the list of companies, it looks big and complicated, with dormant companies and subsidiaries. And one the things that the management team is really focused on is just generally simplifying. Now as you know, when you speak to a lawyer, it's never quite a simple as you'd like it to be. And so yes, you're right to say there are rules and so on, but you've hit exactly on the right point, which is we're aiming to simplify this. And wherever we can, reduce complexity, increase simplicity. We're going to do it. And looking at precisely that sort of thing is exactly what we're doing. It's a really good call out.

Okay. And obviously, finally, I'm glad to note, there's been a slight rise in the dividend this year. So it's moving in the right direction.

And thank you. We produced these lofty tomes and we always like to get questions that show us, and to our auditors' delight, sitting in the room there, that you're reading them and we can work out. It makes it worthwhile for us, so we really appreciate you coming and doing that. Any more questions? Yes? And we have one over here. So there and then to the back.

Yes. Thank you. Firstly, thank you, everyone, for all the hard work over the last 12 months. Much appreciated. So thank you for that. The Board spent GBP 38.8 million purchasing Childs Farm last March. Childs Farm has, indeed, shown double-digit top line growth, but it has also been a perennial loss-making company, other than in 2018, annually losing an average of about GBP 1 million. Do you think this is a wise use of shareholder capital and is buying a jam tomorrow company a good idea?

Very, very good questions. I'm going to pass it to Jonathan, but I'm going to just give you a window on perhaps the governance went to acquiring the business. This was something which came to our boardroom 3, 4x when first the idea was put to us, so we talked about category. We talked about does it fit, then a series of meetings as we refined the financial proposal. And then actually, we got very comfortable. And we're happy to bless it in the boardroom. And now, I'm going to let Jonathan tell you the answers to your questions, specifically.

So yes, I do think it's a good use of funds, but I appreciate the scrutiny and the challenge, just like we got as a management team taking it to the Board.

We asked the same questions.

Exactly. So we are very clear that this brand has high potential to be a really good fit within the PZ Cussons portfolio. It's in one of our core categories, hygiene, baby or beauty. It's operating one of our priority markets, the U.K. It's a leader in baby and personal -- and family personal care. And very successfully challenged, particularly in Johnson's Baby, over the last 5 to 10 years. And the main reason that you're seeing the loss making is because it's been in investment mode. I wouldn't a jam tomorrow mode, because actually, the gross margins are already established at a highly accretive level to our average gross margin in the company. So we are quite comfortable continuing to invest as we then improve the bottom line delivery, as we sustain strong revenue growth. Just in the U.K., but actually, we then see real potential for Childs Farm in other markets as well. And we see in some of our international markets, some really good opportunities for us to bring it under our wing. And actually, the best example of that is Australia and New Zealand, where we already have the market-leading baby food, Rafferty's Garden. And if you go to Cole's or Woolworths, one of the retailers I mentioned earlier, the people in those companies that buy Rafferty's Garden also buy baby toiletries. So we already have the relationships. We already have the credibility with them. So we are very confident, as the Australian team take it under their wing from next Monday, actually, as we are proceeding with the integration, that we will see continued revenue growth. And we have said it will be EPS accretive from FY '24, so that we are also committed to getting into the bottom line as well.

We had a question at the back, I think.

Best of luck in the future, whatever you may be doing.

Thank you.

[ Al Pruitt, ] private shareholder. The company's name is very prominent to this sector, going back quite back a long time. I'm an oldie. I was actually stopping at the shop [indiscernible] under corporate headquarters in [indiscernible] street,[indiscernible]. But going back to those days of prominent drug name, Imperial -- Cussons Imperial Leather -- was a common phrase in my younger days. The question is, the company is very prominent in our sector, our name and its products. Who do you see in this sector as your 3 main competitors?

That's a good question. I'm going to give that one to Jonathan.

So let me pick that up -- first of all...

Really good question.

Thank you. Yes, it's a really good question. But first of all, thank you for your loyal support. And we feel the same want to the customer's name and the PZ Cussons business that you do, and therefore, we remain healthily paranoid that the competition are after us. And it's always a mindset that we should have, never to get too comfortable. We must always be humble. That's why I said, we need to keep our feet firmly on the ground. And therefore, honestly, we see big players as major competitors. And so if I just take the Cussons type of products that you will be mentioning, we would have Unilever, big multinational, endless resources. I'm sure they don't feel that, but compared to us, they will have endless resources. And they will absolutely be able to target some of our same consumers and some of our same retailers and try and take the facings in the retail store away from us. So we have to work doubly hard to compete with them. And our expertise in washing and bathing in the U.K. is what give us the edge. We're not distracted by selling ice creams. We're not distracted by selling makeup. We, in the U.K., are focused on winning and washing and bathing and that's where we should be able to compete. Another example would be -- another big player would be Reckitt or you might have known them in the past as Reckitt Benckiser. And in particular, the Dettol brand, which can have a very similar positioning to Carex. I would argue, this is now slipping into the brand building speak for a moment, Dettol will give you protection. Dove from Unilever will give you caring, but only Carex can protect and care to let you go and live the life you want to lead out there post pandemic. And so we do believe that we have the brands that will help us defend against a Reckitt. But now let me come to a third competitor. I want to be slightly enigmatic and say, it's the one we don't know about. It's the competitor that hasn't appeared on our radar screen because it could be the disruptor online brand that is being started somewhere in the world and is going to target us. And that's why I think we absolutely need to have our eyes on the big guys and absolutely look for the people that are nipping at our heels as well. So please take the reassurance that we're helpfully paranoid, but equally very proud of our brand and the name of Cussons.

I was going to add, when we in the boardroom have Jonathan and Sarah talking to us about the business, we also ask them precisely that question. And we define a different competitor set, depending on what we're looking at. So we might want to look at how we perform against other FTSE 250 companies. They're not necessarily in our space, but they're in our place in the market. They're the same sort of size and profile as us. Then as Jonathan said, in developed markets, we want to hear about what he thinks about the Unilevers, the P&Gs, the Reckitt Benckiser -- Reckitt & Colman, actually, back in the day. Or we might look at perhaps local competitors in Indonesia. So we do -- we think it's a really good question, but we have to shift the lens a little bit depending on we're holding into account for.

Thank you. I think I recollect reading a piece in the Investors Chronical magazine around the world, a Unilever product is purchased every 30 seconds.

It's a bit like Marks & Spencer underwear, isn't it? Yes. Jeremy particularly liked that one. Any more -- sorry, I've lost my -- got distracted. Any more questions? Right. Here comes -- what is it they say, it's the science bit in the adverts. Here comes the boring bits. But they're very, very important bits, of course. So we move on to the formal business of the meeting. And as I said, those of you who come each year will certainly recognize it. All business transacted at today's meeting will be voted on by way of a poll, with one vote for every ordinary share held. Thank you. The poll will be administered by our registrar, Computershare, here with us today. Only shareholders or their proxies or corporate representatives are entitled to vote on the poll. If you have previously lodged a completed proxy form and you do not wish to change your vote, then you do not need to take any action. You may sit and dream happily through this part. Your vote has been cast and will be included in the count. And I anticipate that this will be the case for most of the people room here today. For those of you who either wish to change your proxy vote or have not previously cast a proxy vote and wish to take part in the poll, you will need to complete the poll card, which can be found on the reverse of your attendance card. If you wish to vote on the poll in more than 1 capacity, you will need a separate poll card for each capacity in which you vote. And if you are unable to find your poll card or require further cards, please raise your hand and a representative from our registrar, Computershare, will speed to your side to assist you. In the interest of time, it would be helpful if you would complete your poll card as I take you through the resolutions. Again, to be clear, if you have previously lodged a completed proxy card and you do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to take any action. Should you require any assistance completing the card, please raise your hand, and a representative of Computershare will be pleased to help. And members of the Company Secretariat team are also available in the room to offer any assistance which you may require. The cards will be collected at the end of the poll procedure when I have declared the closed. So does anyone have any questions on the procedure? If not, I'll crack on. Right, the resolutions now. Unfortunately, due to an error in the notice of meeting that was sent out, we are proposing to withdraw Resolution 16 from today's consideration at the AGM. Resolution 16 relates to the disapplication of statutory preemption rights that apply if the company were to issue new shares. The Companies Act of 2006 requires this, if proposed, to be proposed as a special resolution. And regrettably, this resolution was proposed as an ordinary resolution in the notice of meeting. And therefore, with the consent of the meeting, I'm going to propose that we withdraw it from consideration. Happy to talk about that more if anyone is concerned. Any objections, please let me know. Otherwise, we'll move on. So the notice of meeting includes 18 items of business for your consideration. And the full explanation is included in the notice of meeting, but I'll give you a short summary as we canter through. So the resolutions put before you today are as follows: Resolution 1, to receive the annual report and financial statements for the year ended, 31st of May 2022. Resolution 2 seeks approval by way of an advisory vote of the Director's remuneration report for the year ended, 31st of May 2022, which you will find in the annual report and financial statements. Resolution 3, this is the good one, deals with the declaration of the final dividend. Resolutions 4 to 12 cover the reelection of all directors. And a separate resolution is put forward in respect of each director. You may recall from previous years that in relation to the reelection of independent nonexecutive directors, the company must seek the approval of, not only its shareholders as a whole, but also separately of independent shareholders, which, for these purposes are those shareholders outside of the group comprising of the founding Zochonis family and certain wider family groups. And because of its size, that group of shareholders is treated as a controlling shareholder for the purposes of the U.K. listing rules. And in order to meet these separate approval requirements, shareholders will vote on all directors' reelections just as we do with other resolutions. But afterwards, I will ask our registrar to separate out the votes of the controlling shareholders to give that separate approval on Resolutions 4 to 12. And I'll just pause a moment so that anyone completing a card in the room can have time to fill in each of resolutions 4 to 12. It just takes a second. Moving on. Resolutions 13 and 14 are our audit-related resolutions for the reappointment of Deloitte and the setting of their fees. Resolutions 15, 17, 18, remember, we've withdrawn 16, cover capital and other issues, including authorizations relating to the allotment of share capital and the notice period for general meetings, and are in line with our previous policy and with resolutions put forward at past AGMs. So nothing changing. Resolution 19 authorizes political donations and expenditures. Again, no change. And Resolutions 17 to 19 are proposed special resolutions. Any questions about any of the resolutions? Right, if there are no more questions, perhaps I could check whether everyone has had sufficient time to complete their poll card. Anyone needing more time? Just check. Could I please also, if you are completing a poll card, make sure to ask you that you've signed it on the poll card at the bottom. And if you're a proxy, please write proxy next to that. And any cards that won't -- that aren't signed will be treated as invalid. So we particularly want to make sure if you've gone through the trouble of completing it, that you sign it and we can count it. Has everyone who wants to complete a poll card completed one? Good. So I declare the poll closed. And please, could you hand your completed cards to the representatives of the registrars who are going to make themselves known around the room. This is the bit where I wish we should have music. That looks remarkably like a cool box with your lunch on it, really. Are we all collected? Any more poll cards to hand in? No. Well, thank you very much. The poll count for the resolutions put to the meeting today will be conducted by Computershare and combined with the proxy votes already submitted. And the final results will be announced to the stock exchange as soon, as practical following the completion -- the conclusion of our meeting and shown our website. But based on the votes and proxy instructions received before the meeting, I can confirm indicatively that resolutions have been passed. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that, if I'm allowed to say that nowadays, concludes the formal business of the meeting. And it only remains for me one last time to thank you all for your attendance today and over the years. When you leave the meeting, we will be happy to provide you with a little bag of PZ Cussons goodies, which I very much -- I will imagine you all taking home and using -- perhaps I won't imagine too much. But taking home and enjoying at home or giving to members of your family when you look at it and say, "Well, I don't use self-tan or whatever." But anyway, very, very good to see you here in person. Thank you so much for all your support and for questions over the years. I will miss you all enormously. But maybe I'll be sitting in the audience next time, that's all I can say. Seriously. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Be safe, and we look forward to welcoming you back next year. And the reigns will pass to David. Thank you, and I declare the meeting closed.