Reece Limited (REH.AX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Reece Limited FY '21 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Peter Wilson, Group CEO and Manager and Director. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm Peter Wilson, Reece Group's CEO; and I'm joined today by Andrew Cowlishaw, our Group CFO. So let's start the presentation on Slide 4. Today, I'm going to take you through our focus, our financial summary and our business highlights for FY '21 and then hand over to Andrew to talk to our financial performance in more detail. At the end of the presentation, we'll allow time for questions. And please note for consistency, all figures are in Australian dollars, unless otherwise stated. Turning to Slide 5. Of course, we can't share our results today without acknowledging the many challenges that well presented us in FY 2021. From the evolving environment due to the pandemic, the Texas freeze and the Australian bushfires, this year has certainly captured us, but it's also proved how resilient our business is. During the year, our people did everything they could to keep our doors open to support one another and be there for our customers, so they could continue to carry out their essential trade. Our supply chain stood [indiscernible] food with our customers busier than ever and construction activity at an all-time high. We kept up with demand when many didn't. We're really proud of how the Reece model continues to support our customers when they need us. Let's look at our focus for the year, turning to Slide 8. At Reece, we take a long-term approach that comes to life through our blueprint. From being inspired by our purpose to delivering a unique promise of customized service, we continue to stay one step ahead of our customers' needs. Turning to Slide 9. We are a purpose and values-led organization. We call this living the Reece way. Our helps our people across the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, maintain a unified focus, stay resilient and continue to improve in a rapidly changing environment. Turning to Slide 10. Doing the right thing is one of our values, and it sits at the heart of the way we approach corporate social responsibility. Last month, we were pleased to be acknowledged by The lab for the work we do through our Reece Cares program, being seen as one of the leaders in this place in Australia. This ranking was awarded due to the strong sentiment of our customers and external stakeholders, we believe we are having an impact in the areas where we can help the most. Turning to Slide 11. While this validation of our work is nice to receive, this year, we defined our sustainability approach. We use insight from customers and trades people and consumers to help us create our strategy that will support our business and our customers. We have 3 areas of focus: firstly, reducing Reece's environmental impact; secondly, empowering trades to create more sustainable ways of working; and thirdly, building resilient communities where we operate. The sustainability strategies brought to life through the Reece Cares program, and this year's annual report will take you through our sustainability strategy in more detail. Turning to Slide 12. This year, we created our 2030 vision to be the trade's most valuable partner, helping them succeed in a digital world. Just like we always do, this vision was built through insight, helping us to understand how trades will change in the years ahead and how we're going to respond to it. Our vision means that we'll become both a bricks-and-mortar and a digital business, providing the quality of products that we are known for and creating services to help trade people run their business as well. So however our customers choose to do business with us, they will have the same personalized customer experience, we'll know them on every channel and we'll be one step ahead of their every need. This vision will be achieved by focusing on 3 strategic priorities that I'll share on the next slide, 13. The first strategic priority is being brilliant at the fundamentals of distribution, an intentional focus on the foundations of the Reece model to ensure we continue to improve in the areas that our customers care most about today. The second is investing for growth, like we've always done, continuing to grow our business through expanding in adjacencies, in markets where we can realize growth opportunities. And finally, we will accelerate our strategy through our innovation approach to stay ahead of our customers' changing needs. In the U.S., we will be focusing on the first 2 areas. In ANZ, we'll be focusing on all 3 priorities and we'll bring learning realized through delivery and innovation and leverage these in the U.S. where it makes sense. So with the context now explained, let's look at our financial performance for FY '21 on Slide 15. We are pleased to share that Reece has achieved another record result. Sales revenue for the group was up 4% to $6.3 billion for the year. Normalized EBITDA was up 11% to $720 million, whilst net profit after tax was up 25% to $286 million. Due to the strong performance, the second half dividend will be $0.12 per share, fully franked, meaning the total dividend for the full year is $0.18. Moving to Slide 16 to share more detail on our sales revenue. In Australia and New Zealand sales increased by 9% to $3.15 billion. Due to our essential service status, we were able to keep our doors open during the different lockdowns, and we did not receive JobKeeper or any other government support packages. In the United States, our revenue grew 11% on a constant currency U.S. dollar basis. This translates to being flat from the prior year, reporting $3.1 billion when converted into Australian dollars. For the period, we experienced an unfavorable FX impact of $362 million due to the strengthening position of the Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar. We are pleased with the U.S. result, which was achieved through our period of COVID-related challenges and natural disasters. Now let's look at the business highlights for FY '21, starting in ANZ on Slide 21. To start, let's look at the progress we've made with our first strategic priority, brilliant fundamentals. At Reece it all starts with ensuring they are safe and well at work. This year, we cemented a new digital safety approach for our network with every branch now carrying out weekly safety walks, all tracked and audited through our app [indiscernible]. This has led to a 20% reduction in LTIFR incidences with over 200,000 safety walks completed. The safety walks were increased to a daily basis during state lockdowns to ensure we had a heightened awareness of health and cleanliness in branch. Turning to Slide 22. Our branch network continues to be the core of our business, ensuring we are where our customers need us across Australia and New Zealand. This year, we opened 3 new stores in New Zealand and a specialized 5 branches in Victoria. We also closed 3 stores, bringing the total number of stores to 642. Our footprint continues to support customer demand, ensuring network position for growth in the right areas. Turning to Slide 23. Another fundamental of our business is to provide our customers with quality and innovative products. In the last 6 months, this has included the Enviropod, a storm gully pit designed to prevent litter entering the storm water system in our ocean. We've also added to our market-leading hot water product range with the launch of the Thermann E-Plus. And these commercial units helped the end customer reduce their carbon footprint savings thousands on energy bills over the life of the unit. Turning to Slide 24. The digital landscape for trades people is getting richer and more complex, spanning accounting software, job management tools and our own maX tool, just to name a few. We see a huge opportunity to improve the lives of our customers by connecting their digital ecosystem, helping them become more efficient and getting time back in their day. We've enhanced the integration of maX into accounting applications, seeing a 25% increase in invoices being processed automatically. With more customers using job management platforms to manage their business, we've now integrated maX with 7 systems, including our exclusive platform, FieldPulse. All of these activities meant that we have more than doubled the number of customers we have connected or integrated with in some ways, and online sales have increased by 57% year-on-year. Sorry for the background noise, there's some construction work happening nearby, which is still good for business. So on Slide 27 (sic) [Slide 25], our continuous improvement team drive key initiatives across the branch network to improve efficiency, create innovative solutions and ultimately improve the customer experience. This year, we've used process automation to decrease the amount of repetitive tasks done by our teams, saving more than 24,000 hours, giving them more time to focus on our customers. Moving to Slide 27, and the investing for growth priority. The current environment has unexpectedly buoyed the construction industry and the R&R market, creating an opportunity for growth for Reece. Homebuilder and other state housing incentives have created more demand for the construction of new homes. The pandemic and lockdowns have certainly seen people value their living space and the feeling that home is where the heart is. People want to invest in their own personal living spaces or are making a big move, leaving city dwellings for the suburbs in regional areas. This has led to housing approvals rising by 26% in FY '20, and alterations and additions have also grown to record levels. The ability to keep up with supply has been challenging. Over the last 18 months, it's been difficult to source products our customers are demanding, supply disruptions due to COVID lockdowns and shipping delays have become the norm. And while we had our challenges, we've been able to supply the market which has helped us to grow. Our proactive approach to handling COVID has kept our doors open. We move fast and putting in place safe work practices in branch, ensuring our people and customers felt safe and supported. We've also had to manage inflation. Throughout FY '21, we had an unprecedented amount of price increases and especially across product categories like PVC, copper and steel, I believe we've managed the situation well due to our proactive discussions we have with our customers. This has all led to our customer base growing, and there is no doubt that the Reece model benefits from the rise of the essential work out. So just like in 1919, when the Spanish flu elevated the role of the plumbing society, the current pandemic is proving that people want to be clean and safe and that starts with creating a healthy home. Turning to Slide 30, talking about innovation. At Reece, we believe -- we believe innovation is about increasing our capability, creativity and commerciality. To enable this in FY '21, we established the Breakthrough Innovation Group or what we're calling BIG. BIG has a global mandate and enables the acceleration of our 2030 vision. We believe BIG will help us to deliver on our strategic priorities and will keep us at least one step ahead of our customers and potentially disruptive trends in the trade industry. Turning to Slide 31. Superseed, which is a part of the BIG creates new businesses and helps them scale within Reece and beyond. It has 4 focus areas: digitizing trade, reinventing trade education, connecting trades to the platforms and supporting trades through finance. Ultimately, these businesses will move into our service offering or become established in their own right. Through BIG, we are able to accelerate our vision and find innovative solutions to some of our more complex problems into the future. Turning to Slide 32. In ANZ, our 4 areas of focus to delivering innovation are: firstly, creating future leaders at all levels to enable world-class people experiences; secondly, digitizing our customer experience; thirdly, trading new services; and finally, developing the supply chain of the future. So let's look at the progress in these 4 areas turning to Slide 33. At Reece, our people are the heart of our business. In September, we ran an engagement survey across Australia, New Zealand and in America, and I'm pleased to share our overall employee engagement score is 82, 8 points above the global benchmark. This is a great indicator that our people are feeling supported, and they believe they can achieve their best by working at Reece even during a global pandemic. Turning to Slide 34. In April, this was backed up by being recognized as one of Australia and New Zealand's Best Places to Work. We scored high in well being, we're acknowledged for prioritizing mental health, sustainable working norms and encouraging smart work practices. We were also acknowledged for our diversity approach, creating an environment that promotes belonging, foster's inclusion and removes bias. It's our people who have helped us to achieve this by living our values and creating a community where everyone feels supported to achieve their best. Turning to Slide 35. This year, we've made great headway in investing in state-of-the-art technology platforms into all to create great digital experiences. One of the ways we've digitized the customer experience is through our exclusive job management platform, FieldPulse. FieldPulse is a great example of how our model works. It started with an exploration into job platform through Superseed Ventures. We then broken an investment into the platform and then exclusive rights to the service in the U.S. and ANZ. This start-up out of the U.S. has since worked in partnership with us to customize the app for our market. And by using FieldPulse, our customers are spending less time on admin and more time on supporting their customers. Turning to Slide 36. In 2021, we've also completely rebuilt our point-of-sale system to make it easier for our people to learn and faster to serve our customers with fewer errors along the way. It's been designed from the ground up to support our unique model. It is developed in-house, using cutting-end software engineering techniques and modern frameworks. It is cloud-based, natively mobile and will be easier to integrate with other platforms over time. It is now live in 46 branches, and this has progressively been rolled out to the rest of the network in financial year 2022. Moving to Slide 37. As mentioned earlier, to be the trade most valuable partner, we want to continue to offer quality products while also creating greater value by offering services that will help their businesses thrive. One such service is Power Up. When our customers are on the job, it is hard to take time out of their day to learn new skills or refine skills they haven't used for some time. Through PowerUp, this year, we launched 2 nationally courses in business leadership and management, which have been very well received. Turning to Slide 38. Another one of Superseed's ventures, Goodwork this year has become more useful than ever for tradespeople. Goodwork is Australia's fastest-growing social network built just for traders, helping them to connect and find resources and skills to get the job done. With trades people at capacity with a long pipeline of work, along with the lack of immigration, it's been increasingly difficult for them to find skilled labor. Goodwork has become an invaluable tool to help different trades people find contract labor and skills over last year, reflecting -- and an ongoing growth of the platform. There's been a 35% increase in active users in FY '21. Now moving to Slide 40, to talk about the U.S. Since acquiring MORSCO, we've taken a long-term approach and are focused on building the foundations of the business through investment in people, culture and our network. In FY '21, we have made strong progress and made a turbulent backdrop of the pandemic. Turning to Slide 41. In the U.S., it's been our priority to ensure our people get home safe. We have enhanced our operational excellence audits, innovating the process and taking extra steps to ensure we provide an exceptional and safe customer and team member experience. We've also developed a COVID reporting application to streamline the communication, cleaning, isolation and reopening process for our impacted branches, of which there have been many. And we are always aiming to keep our people as safe as possible during the pandemic. Turning to Slide 42. We've continued to focus on delivering great customer experiences across the U.S. [indiscernible] region. Our current model in the U.S. primarily services larger contractors serving the residential and commercial markets. In the second half, we closed 1 waterworks store, and we opened a plumbing branch, both of these are in Texas. Turning to Slide 43. Our continuous improvement mindset continues to be embedded in the U.S. This financial year, we have standardized policies and procedures across MORSCO. We've developed behaviors to drive adherence to our standards, which has made our approach more efficient. We've also used automation to eliminate some of our manual processes across the accounts approach, saving over 7,000 hours of our people's time. Turning to Slide 44. Building rigor around our branch processes and reporting approach has been a primary focus across our network. Our branch managers now have a clear understanding of their branch performance and the measures that matter most to lift the customer experience. One way where we made this easier is bringing in a mobile platform to enable stock taking, inventory control, saving time and reducing errors. Turning to Slide 45. We've continued to improve the people experience, too. This included capturing the promise we're making to our team and fostering a culture where everyone can achieve their best. We enhanced our benefits offering from [indiscernible] programs to flu shots and vaccine support and accelerated our training approach. We also invested in our people with over 1,000 team members enhancing their coaching, selling or pricing skills. And we've continued to focus on our talent pipeline, welcoming young people into our graduate program and our intern program as well as supercharging our approach to accelerating emerging leader pathways. Turning to Slide 46. This year, we've been really focused on aligning around our target customers, understanding their needs. This has led us to redefining our sales process and training our people to have better quality conversations with our customers and capturing these through sales force. In August 2020, we launched a Proudly Essential Pros campaign to put a spotlight on the essential work our customers do, keeping our community safe. It was the first bilingual English, Spanish focus from MORSCO to acknowledge our multicultural customers across the sandal. This leadership position promoted both our customers and our industry and was very well received. Turning to Slide 48. A key segment of customers in Australia, New Zealand is the R&R plumber, and we do see a real opportunity to grow in this space in the U.S. They are small business owners who need support, expertise and they do value relationships. We have started to build out our offering to this audience, including trailing Saturday trades, [indiscernible] for Click & Collect and instant credit approval. This is all backed up by building strong relationships with our home brands created by our people living the Reece way. Turn to Slide 49. With the new stores that have been opened this year, we have trialed different ways of working to understand the best model for our different customer segments. From waterworks, to HVAC, to plumbing, we are testing and learning before rolling out an approach for all future stores and refurbishments. Turning to Slide 50. This focus on the customer, coupled with the Reece spirit being alive and well in our branches has led to an NPS score of plus 64 in the U.S., and this is a testament to our focus this year on getting the foundations in place and growing the business. So with the whole lot now explained, let's look at the economic environment. Turning to Slide 52. And first, let's look at Australia and New Zealand. We've borders shut in both countries, virus numbers are low, but with a slow vaccination rollout, we are still being impacted by lockdowns. In Melbourne, our company's home city, the extension of lockdown 6.0 has seen the city reach over 200 days in lockdown, the longest in the world. Once again, housing and home improvement continues to be important to the consumer and as a [ traders ] are proving resilient -- and as a result, trade is proving resilient. Our customers have never been busier in R&R capacity, with the lack of immigration, labor is definitely in short supply. Residential approvals are forecast to be up 23% in FY '21, but are forecast to be down 6% in FY '22. Capacity constraints and eased construction deadlines are expected to smooth the delivery of the homebuilder projects. So we're seeing a lag in land-to-sell commencement of build and with trades people struggling to keep up with demand. Nonresidential construction is forecasted to decrease 11% this calendar year with moderate growth expected for FY '22, driven by a significant pipeline of public works and commercial projects. In New Zealand, we continue to see strong housing market, falling unemployment rates and an increased renovation activity, which we anticipate to continue for the short and medium term. Turning to Slide 53. So if we look at the U.S., residential housing continues to be resilient. We start to expect it to grow over the next 18 months. As interest rates remain at historically low levels, demand remains strong and inventory scarce. Single-family staff continue to increase, while the multifamily growth is moderating. Nonresidential construction declined by 3% in 2020, but it's estimated to rebound by a small 1.5% increase this calendar year. Remodeling activity is expected to remain strong, supported by home sales and house price growth. Like ANZ, we are seeing inflation across most commodities, supply chain constraints and stock shortages are expected to persist in the short term. The above factors, coupled with trade labor shortages are expected to lead to affordability issues, which could also be impacted if interest rates are increased as a result of macro prudential policies. So in summary, there are positive short-term indicators in both regions, but the medium term does remain more uncertain as we navigate the impacts of the pandemic, labor shortages, rising inflation, supply challenges, and a lack of availability in skilled labor. We believe our model is both flexible and resilient in the face of a continuing challenging environment. With all that now explained, I'll hand it over to Andrew to take you through our financial results in a little more detail on Slide 55.

Thank you, Peter. I'm pleased to share that Reece has delivered a record financial results across all earning metrics. For FY '21, sales revenue for the group is up 4% to $6.2 billion. Normalized EBITDA was up 11% to $720 million. Normalized EBITDA excludes the impact of business acquisition costs and finance costs, which is consistent with the prior year. EBIT increased 20% to $493 million and net profit after tax was up 25% to $286 million. Earnings per share for the year of $0.44 is up 10% on the previous period. Normalized EBITDA margin increased by 70 basis points, which was primarily driven by operational efficiencies. Total dividend for FY '21 of $0.18 per share equates to a dividend payout ratio of 41%. Moving to Slide 56. The ANZ region delivered well despite a backdrop of operational COVID-19 restrictions, which continued to impact our Australian and New Zealand businesses. Sales revenue in the ANZ operations was up 9% on the prior year. The ANZ region experienced a notable inflationary dynamic in the second half of FY '21, and we estimate this to be circa 3% of our growth for the year. Normalized EBITDA was up 17% to $496 million, reflecting the strengthening performance and EBIT has increased 23% to $382 million. ANZ normalized EBITDA margin has also increased 100 basis points, the outcome of strong operational disciplines and sales growth for the period. Moving to Slide 57. The U.S. region performed well operationally in a market that experienced numerous disruptions during the year. Sales revenue was up 11% on a constant currency U.S. dollar basis and flat when converted into Australian dollars. Excluding Todd Pipe, revenue growth would be 9.5% on a constant currency basis. Todd Pipe was acquired on the first of October 2019 and as such, only contributed 9 months revenue to FY '20. Inflation in the second half, post the Texas freeze impacted the business, and we estimate this to be circa 2% of the U.S. growth for FY '21. For the period, we experienced an unfavorable FX impact of $362 million due to the strengthening position of the Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar versus last financial year. COVID-19 has continued to impact our U.S. operations, through lockdowns in certain states, short-term branch closures and increased cost of doing business. Normalized EBITDA was flat on the prior year with margin constant at 7.2%. Turning to Slide 58. The group generated operating cash flow of $372 million for the full year. In FY '21, the group repaid $276 million of the term loan debt, which included a voluntary repayment of $260 million at 30 June 2021. The negative net working capital movement of $152 million was the result of 2 key factors: Firstly, net working capital to sales increased to 19.1% from 18.4% last year; and secondly, the appreciation of the Australian dollar created an unfavorable FX movement of $45 million relating to U.S. dollar working capital balances for the full year. The increased net working capital to sales outcome of 19.1% is a result of a number of factors. Firstly, there was a deliberate strategy to increase inventory holdings in response to COVID-19-related supply chain challenges. Linked to this is the price inflation of products in the second half, which is reflected in year-end inventory balances. And finally, our debtor days moving back towards the levels observed in FY '19. Moving to Slide 59. The group continues to maintain conservative net leverage levels with year-end cash at $829 million. The TLB loan is U.S. dollar denominated and is partially hedged for foreign currency and interest rate exposure. Senior debt was down $429 million to $1.336 billion at year-end. The [indiscernible] were the $276 million of amortization and the favorable FX impact of the conversion of U.S. dollar debt to Australian dollars. The leverage ratio was 1.7x, down from 2.2x at 30 June last year. The FY '21 leverage ratio includes $670 million of lease liabilities, resulting in net debt, including FX derivatives of $1.2 billion. I'll now hand you back to Peter Wilson for our summary on Slide 61.

Thanks, Andrew. And looking at the near term. The operating environment is still unpredictable. However, like we always do, we are focusing on what we can control and building our long-term future. We are making a big commitment to our future vision through our investment in the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand, which will strengthen our competitive position and enable future revenue streams. Market dynamics will continue to test us. Inflation and system stress will need to be navigated, supply challenges are real. And while our strong stock position will help us, we won't be immune. Our customers are busier than ever, and our capacity due to labor shortages like [indiscernible] any more work. And of course, we are still working through a lockdowns that are having an immediate effect on the construction industry and are impacting the well-being of all of us. In FY '22, we will continue to remain invested in the long term. We have large programs in place to enable us to invest in the fundamentals of the business, invest for growth and to innovate. Turning to Slide 62. So in summary, we have achieved another record result in FY '21. We have a resilient business model, and we are guided by our blueprint and we continue to focus on our customers and our strategic priorities for the future. Thank you for your time today, and we now will be happy to answer your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today will come from Ella McAllister with Morgan Stanley.

Just a couple of questions from me, if I can. Firstly, in the U.S., could you just talk about the impact of the Texas freeze on your business during the second half?

Yes, for the first -- for the Texas freeze, look it was -- obviously, it had a big short-term impact because you had all the Texas without power, without heating and cooling. So it was quite extraordinary what they had to live through. And at the time, it was a big disruption to obviously, the branch network. And then as things got back going again, you have quite large lines of customers lining up to get product and stock to try to repair all the damages done by the freeze. So I think, in balance, big disruption and then it sort of balances out from there. But it's just -- I think it just added to the toll with the guys in the U.S. have just been dealing with the pandemic so they have had to cope with a lot more than what we have. So that would be the answer to that.

All right. And then staying with the U.S., supply chains have clearly been quite disruptive throughout COVID. And some of your peers are talking about fuel rates below 50% at their DCs. I was wondering if you could just provide some color on how your business in the U.S. is managing your supply chain at this time?

Well, I think we -- again, it's Peter here again. We took a very deliberate approach at the start to invest in working capital, in particular stock. And both in the U.S. and obviously, in Australia. And I think that has served us very well because when you've got all of the -- when you've got the demand that's running now at capacity, if you don't have the stock, you're not going to be able to actually supply. So when people are trying to finish off projects, their houses or whatever the project is, if you don't have the product, you can't finish the project. So I think we've managed it with a deliberate decision to invest and then just the effort by the teams to navigate all the disruptions from their supply chain has been one of the factors for our results.

Our next question will come from [ Edmond Carrie ] with -- who is a private investor.

Look, just 2 quick questions, if I may. Firstly, have you seen any sign in the United States that suitable accretive businesses that can be justified as per their asking prices are slowly becoming available?

A good question. And what I would say, yes, part of our strategy is a long-term strategy of an organic growth strategy and an M&A part. You would have to say that value, they're all elevated everywhere in our space, in particular. So we -- as part of our long-term part, we're just going to be really patient and disciplined, but values are very elevated.

And look, the second quick question, if I may. It's obviously impossible at present due to COVID and consequent travel restrictions, Australian border force, permission required all that sort of thing even for corporate jet passengers. But has the Board over the longer term, given consideration given the geopolitical unfriendly environment in Mainland Communist China of slowly reorienting production of any imports from China to Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines and even former Eastern block countries like Poland that have got a proud history of industrial type production.

Look, Evan, that's a good question. That's, I think, what's on everyone's minds. First answer, Reece does not have a private jet, so that's just to answer that question. Secondly, with the supply chain, they are -- it's very complex. We do have a -- we've got -- we've probably got the most diverse supply chain we've ever had, and probably going to America because there's a very strong American supply base and out of South America as well. So more diversified than ever at Europe and Asia. And the Chinese manufacturers have invested and our lead is -- they're a big part of most supply chains. And certainly, our strategy is always to be as diversified as we can. What everyone's got to realize is that even if you want to diversify into other parts like the Vietnams, the Thailands, often, you'll find that it might be still trying to actually own those factories and you don't find at until later. So you've got all those dynamics, and ultimately, we're going to have to find our way through it. Because even a question about all this runoff of debt, like if you look at the U.S., if you look at who's lending to the U.S., it's actually primarily the Chinese. So we are entwined one way or the other. So there's going to be no quick unwind and one way or the other, we're going to have to learn to work our way through it. But so there's definitely no quick easy answer. We've always been committed to having a diverse supply chain and probably more than ever.

Our next question will come from [ Aditya Masami ] with Citigroup.

Could you give us some color on what drove the step-up cost in the U.S?

Yes, sure. So it's Andrew here, Aditya. So the costs in the second half in the U.S. did step up. So there are a couple of reasons for that. First one is we established a significant profit share program in line with the profit share program that we have here in ANZ, which is around effectively profit share with branch staff, which has been a driver of our success in this region. Also, other employee expenses for the second half are up. So overall branch expenses and over time. Had to pay a lot more overtime than we normally would because it's been hard to actually find enough staff to effectively service the demand we've got. And we also were investing in support center staff, particularly from a technology perspective. And also in the second half for the U.S., we charged a management fee. So those are some of the drivers of the lower margins in the second half.

Okay. Okay. Anything related on the store disruption costs if you're seeing anything?

Sorry, Aditya, we've got a bad line. Can you repeat that?

Anything related to the store disrupting? Anything that was [indiscernible] of a oneoff?

Yes. Look, there are some COVID costs, but they're throughout the year, and that's about $3 million. But they are evenly spread throughout the year.

Okay. And I have a last question on the CODB levels like as a percentage, are you happy with the current levels right now? Or is there going to be any more investment coming along?

Yes. Yes. So if you look at our inventory days for FY '21, they're about 92 days. Last year, they're at 81.4. So we managed stock very carefully last financial year as we were going into the pandemic, we were obviously fairly uncertain. If you look at the year before FY '19, closer to 90 days -- 89 days. So we're sort of happy with stock days in that sort of 90 level. What we're really keen on, as Peter has said, he is ensuring that we are in stock. So when the stock is there, we would rather buy it. The stock that we generally hold doesn't have high levels of obsolescence risk. So we're happy with our stock levels.

Okay. Okay. And lastly, on the ANZ CapEx side, what's driving the uplift in the ANZ CapEx? And how should we think about the CapEx going forward?

Yes. So in terms of the drivers of CapEx, you would see that CapEx is lower this year than it was last year. Look, there's a number of factors that are driving that from a group perspective. We've been leasing our fleet rather than buying it. We've had relatively low numbers of new branches, issues with COVID and in the U.S., also recruiting the appropriate branch manager talent. And we've also been delayed in some of our refurbishment program. Once again, it's been harder to execute because of access to trades and COVID. The way we should be, I guess, the way we're talking about CapEx, and you'd see it in the deck, is CapEx is likely to be a step change next year or in FY '22 as we try and accelerate our rollout program in the U.S. and also our technology investment programs, which Peter was talking about.

Our next question will come from James Casey with Ord Minnett.

Just following on that CapEx question, just the step change in CapEx in the U.S. You quantify that, I think CapEx was around $70 million from memory this year. What sort of step change are you talking?

We -- James, we won't quantify because we won't give guidance, as you know. But what we would say is it's likely to be material. That's why we call it a step change. And the U.S. is looking to really accelerate the branch rollout, which is going to be a large part of that.

Okay. Peter, there's some comments that seem to be attributed to you in one of the papers today just talking about the impact of the lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne, and the comments there are sales down 40% in Sydney and 30% in Melbourne. Can you just clarify the impact of the business in the first half '22 in Australia from the lockdowns?

Yes, today, James. The -- look, we started the financial year very similar to have a -- the last one financial year is finished. Obviously, the lockdowns have an impact. It's whilst the lockdown last, but yes, the Sydney one was at quite a strong lockdown for a period. And for that period, sales fell to 35% are normal in the areas that were locked out. So with the lockdowns getting loosened with the trades opening back up, it gets back to -- yes, it gets back to more where we were seeing things. So -- and in the Melbourne one, when we go into the sales force of about 80%. So we've been navigating this part -- really for the last year. And look, if you look at New Zealand, when they got their lockdowns were even tougher. So you drop to about 20% of where you were trading in New Zealand with those strong loans. So that's just the nature of it. And then when you come out of it, then there's the pickup. So I hope that helps to explain. So that's why the short -- yes. If you look at the outlook for us, we were pretty positive on the short term, but certainly, the lockdowns create yes, much more clouded and much more uncertain. So hence, why we're a bit more cautious.

Yes, okay. But just to clarify, that year-to-date trading comments, those numbers?

No,no,no. It's just for those periods for that period. So no, no, many come out of it. So I think [indiscernible] some of more things. Yes, that was an interesting article.

Our next question will come from [ Brian Banger ] with [ Shandor One ] [ Limited ].

Sorry, can you hear me all right?

We can, Brian?

Yes. Just, Peter, obviously, the market was hoping for a stronger result at [ 25 96 ] you're now the touching [ 21 77 ] briefly. Could you -- I know you're not comparable, but Reliance worldwide, a 25% increase in sales, you guys on a currency base about 4% or 5%. Are your businesses broadly comparable? [indiscernible] did better? Or is that a bit harsh?

Look, Brian, no, no, they're not comparable at all. It's very -- I mean, Reliance, we're a big customer of Reliance with their main customers here. They're a manufacturer, we're a distributor, retail or wholesale. So a very different. The -- they're obviously in Europe, we're not there. In the U.S., they're primarily are targeting the R&R part, we home deco loads and so on. And there has definitely been a step change in the renovation market as we really have a small part of that. That's where we want to [indiscernible] in America, but that's a 10- to 20-year journey. So look, they had a great performance. And I'm really pleased with that. I think our is a really strong performance given the circumstances. Yes, so -- Yes, I don't think you really can't compare the 2 companies, but we're obviously in similar market.

Yes. I mean, just to comment, I've come to your AGMs a few times and your incentive scheme, I think it's great to see that going into the states and your employee engagement scores are great. And I know plumbers love you in Australia. So hopefully, the future is will be strong. Well done.

And Brian, If we can get that loyalty, and that's what we're hoping for.

The next question comes from Alex Lu with Morgans Financial.

Most of my questions have been answered. But maybe just one from me. Can you just remind us of how many trials and new branch formats you have in the U.S. and how that's going, please?

Yes. It's a good question. Lu, in terms -- depends on the segment, but there were 4 in the plumbing space. So we're trialing in all our different segments. So there's lots of trials happening everywhere. And I would say, COVID has delayed some of that progress because we would have likely been a little bit further down. So again, we're really -- we're pleased with how the trial -- the new trials are being received. And we're still fine-tuning what we do, but the plan is, and I think Andrew with -- highlighted, we are planning to start rolling out new stores into the U.S. And so we obviously -- we're comfortable that we've learned a lot over the last 3 years. And obviously, we'll continue to fine-tune, but that's part of the step change in the CapEx.

Our next question will come from [ Ben Randall ] with [ Habra Investment Partners ].

Can you talk about the margin differences between Australia and the U.S. and whether over the longer term, the U.S. margin can sort of push higher to where Australia is?

Peter here. Look, from the day the people who have been around here a long time, we kept saying, I've said this a lot, the U.S. is structurally different to Australia in most industries. And so there is no way the U.S. is going to get to the margins of Australia. It's just -- it's a very structurally different business. We are taking on really long-term lens to the American part. This is not a margin story. This is about us creating a really sustainable business in the segments we like and that we hope to improve over the long term, but we have not factored in any margin improvement in the U.S. business. And we know we've got to invest and when you invest, you're not going to get that margin improvement and the structural differences while the U.S. is always a lower margin and more competitive environment than Australia. So I hope that answers it. Still we're committed to making this business as good as it possibly can be over the long term, and we're 3 years in.

Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand the call back to Mr. Wilson for closing remarks.

Yes. Just to say a big thank you to everybody for listening in and for the support. It's been an unbelievable period. It's definitely tested us. I think we're all looking forward to getting to 2022 and getting through this. My final message to everybody that is that COVID definitely created, in my mind, a short-term step change in our markets. And the million-dollar question I keep asking myself is, is it temporary or is it permanent? The only thing I can add to is what I think is permanent is that the way people think about their home and how they live. So today, the home is now more important than it's ever been. And we know that there's some permanent trends like people are moving from cities to regions and suburbs. And the home is a place where we obviously eat, sleep, entertain, we bathe and we now Zoom and at the moment, some of us are locked in. So they all play into the Reece story, and that's why there's been a short-term step change. So on behalf of everybody at Reece, thanks for the support, and we are looking forward to 2022. Thank you.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.