Vertu Motors plc ($VTU)

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of our latest preliminary results for the year ended February 2026. My name is Robert Forrester, Chief Executive. I'm joined by Karen Anderson, our long-standing Chief Financial Officer. So the group, I think, has proven during the year that it can focus on controlling the control of elements of the business despite significant external challenges. And the aim is obviously to deliver long-term returns to shareholders. This is the 20th year we've been in business. We've got 5% of the U.K. car and van market, and the company has never lost money in the financial year. We have an excellent resilient aftersales business, which continues to show growth. Management have been proactive in managing the business. Our strong ethos of risk management is clearly seen in the presence of the extended insurance cover, which largely protected the business from the third-party cyber outage that we incurred with Jaguar Land Rover in the period. Our use of technology to drive productivity and very, very good customer journeys comes through. That also added GBP 10 million of cost savings, which we actioned in recent months to aid FY '27 profits. We have a big focus on returns for shareholders. And to date, we have in the form of dividends and buybacks, returned GBP 112 million in cash reflecting the strong underlying cash flows of the group. We announced recently another GBP 12 million buyback program. We will make the right decisions for the long term, be it in pruning of operations that deliver poor returns, so recycling capital, in growing the Chinese brand presence to secure market share and future cash flows and to continue to invest in leadership training and future management. We've rolled out a very successful degree apprenticeship program to strengthen our pipeline for the long run. And in January, we promoted 2 new managing directors, and we're already feeling the benefits of that move. We have the financial and operational capacity to grow when we've got visibility on returns and when we will grow the scale of the group when the time is right. In terms of the performance, you can see here in headlines that we've got increased revenues, profits were back. The 0 emission vehicle mandate that the government has put in to target battery electric vehicles in the U.K. is weighing heavily across the U.K. automotive sector, including on ourselves. Overall, profit pools in the U.K. automotive sector are reduced in the new car channel. Many auto retailers are now losing money, we remain profitable, we remain cash generative and in control of our costs. Our strong balance sheet reflects in the GBP 61 million of net debt against a very strong asset base and thus before the receipt of GBP 3.4 million of insurance payouts on the JLR cyber attack, which we've included in FY '26 profits. Our tangible net assets per share is up again, 75.9p, and we continue to sell surplus property at above net book value, showing that our property book values are indeed conservative. There are other key themes present. The growing strength of Chinese brands in the new car market is clearly important for the long run. And it's a key issue for management to address making choices as to which partners to partner with and the speed of growth. The FCA stance on motor finance claims rumbles on. We've had a redress scheme announced and we've now had a redress scheme postponed, clearly aimed at lenders rather than the credit brokers such as us. Overall, we're in control of the business. We're controlling the controllables and looking to seize opportunities. If we turn to current trading in the months of March and April, we're delighted to show that we've had a strong start to the financial year with growing profitability above last year levels. There's a number of reasons for this. We've had the positive impact of last year's closures among underperforming dealerships. Our start-up and acquisition has started to mature and the cost savings that have been delivered are clearly helping. The profit bridge here shows 2 very interesting trends. The first is the growth in the new retail and motability market, which has been in a decline for much of the past 2 or 3 years. The reason for that growth is that the manufacturers are actually starting now to push the retail channel to overcome their increased reliance on low-margin fleet. The Chinese are coming into the market with a cost advantage, and that is driving growth, and we're of the view actually, that the growth in the new car market is partly and debatable how much but it's certainly there that the Chinese are switching used car customers with 2- or 3-year-old cars into relatively affordable PCPs on new cars, and we think that explains a lot of the growth. The market is also seeing increased levels of preregistration activity in new cars, which flatters the SMMT registration statistics. But it's good to see growth particularly as well the return to growth in the motability market, which was down heavily last year. That's generated more gross profit. We have seen what we think is startling growth again in our aftersales business with GBP 2.9 million more gross profit in the core business in the 2 months. Record labor sales were achieved in the month of March. We are seeing a benefit in terms of efficiency in our service departments because a lot of the portfolio now does not open for service on a Saturday, and that is increasing the efficiency and profitability of our service departments. If we turn to fleet and commercial new vehicle sales, this actually showed a modest decline in gross profit, which is unusual. Last year, in March, we saw significant deliveries of high-margin pickup sales in the commercial vehicle arena ahead of tax changes, which clearly we didn't get this year. We are seeing major growth in volumes. And if you see in the fleet car area, we were up 32% in the 2 months. However, we are seeing a knock on margins due to channel mix. Vans, historically, have a higher margin than cars. And we are entering into car markets with slightly reduced margins. We think it will benefit in the full year from growth. The van market itself remains subdued, but we're delighted that we grew by 8.5%, like-for-like taking good share. It is a major focus of ourselves to grow our fleet and van volumes this year. The used channel is very steady. We sense that certainly premium used car demand is being impacted by the growth of new cars in the Chinese, but we do expect growth in the year in the used culture. If we turn to outlook, what of the outlook, well, we can all name significant headwinds and imagine all kinds of problems ahead of us from impact of oil supply to growing inflation due to the Middle East war and lack of economic growth in the United Kingdom. So if we take the oil issue, I think the biggest concern around the Middle East and war apart from the wider impact on the economy is actually oil supply itself. We cannot service petrol and diesel cars without motor oil. That's a pretty fruitless task. However, we have stockpiled supplies of motor oil to mitigate supply disruption. So we think that will stand us in good stead if the dislocation continues. We remain very focused on cost and cost control with -- and we've got a number of initiatives to grow sales and profits going forward, including a new initiative in the used car arena, which I'll talk about more in due course. The ZEV mandate is not going away. In fact, the targets for cars and vans are the major drag on activity in the whole automotive sector and indeed profits. They remain, in fact, they ratchet up. This is the highest level of state intervention since the 1970s when the government actually owns the car plants, and it is set to get worse. We expect the government to act in regulation to wholesale feedback from the whole automotive chain from part suppliers through to manufacturers through to retailers, and there will have to be some change to that policy going forward. We look at our strategy. This slide has remained consistent and is likely to do so. We are committed to growing the scale of the group. However, in the past 12 months and actually, in the near term, the economic uncertainty and the impact of the ZEV mandate just reduced visibility of returns, and we have concluded that it wasn't the right time and isn't the right time for expansion unless there are strategic opportunities are very, very much the right value. This may happen in terms of the distress in the sector, but we will clearly look at opportunities and assess them. However, we have been allocating capital to buybacks and portfolio reconfiguring rather than acquisitions, and that is likely to remain the case. However, as things change, we will clearly look at opportunities. We've got the management, the systems, a strong core business, the financial firepower to attack when we consider it right to do so, and we feel we are well positioned to do so. So what's the external environment, and I think one word that most people would use is volatile. There are 4 key elements of change, which has affected the financial year and some of them going forward. The first is obviously the ZEV mandate. I've talked a lot about this over the last 2, 3 years. The targets set by the government for a battery electric vehicle mix will not be hit in cars or in vans. In fact, the SMMT have recently reduced the percentage of battery electric vehicles they expect in 2026 in the car side. We are not going to achieve the ratcheted up targets to 80% above BEV mix by 2030. In fact, the policy defines basic economics, it forces manufacturers to heavily discount and retailers to discount to hit targets, reducing cash flow for further reinvestment. There will be, in all likelihood, a change in the policy because of the immense pressure that is being put on the government from the impact of this policy. It's likely that the battery electric vehicle mixes will be reduced out to 2035 or even 2040 with more alignment with the European Union. The second, areas, the well-documented rise of Chinese brands, which you can see with your own eyes on Britain's road. Chinese-owned manufacturing brands had a 14% share of the U.K. market year-to-date. And indeed, Chery's 7 was the best-selling car in March. We will and are expanding with the Chinese, but it is nuanced. Not all of the entrants into the United Kingdom will be successful. Traditional players in our portfolio, make good profits around very strong aftersales from years and years of selling cars. The Chinese have no aftersales and they enter the U.K. We therefore, apply our consistent investment models to seek to maximize returns and profits over a 3-year time frame. We may indeed go slower than others, but we are ultimately seen as a desirable partner for new entrants and will gain share over time in a deliberate manner and that we could accelerate that through acquisition or indeed, brands changing their representation plans over time. So we are not concerned about the speed with which we are taking on Chinese brands. The third area is the FCA motor commission review. The Redress scheme was announced. It's now been announced. It will be postponed. And that's because it's been challenged that's well documented in the press. The redress is aimed primarily at lenders, and therefore, we have been consistent in not making provisions in this area, and that remains the case today. We will, however, be working with lenders on providing data so they can deal with claims as and when they arise. The regulatory uncertainty and the retrospective changes to the profitability of the lenders could indeed have a damaging impact going forward on the financial sector. If people are unclear that the rules might not change in the future and lose confidence, then the motor financing could be difficult with tighter supply. We're not seeing any changes in current supply, but it is worth noting that 2 of the major providers of used car finance to reduce their exposure to the U.K. or announced their intention to do so. And an independent player according to press speculation, it looks like it will go into administration. So the regulatory machinations of recent years could very well have an impact on future supply. We've clearly also got the Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack, which clearly is now finished and complete. We were very pleased with how Jaguar Land Rover reacted to the outages that they saw in September. They got production back up quicker. It is now back to normality. We originally in October set out, we thought the impact could be up to GBP 5.5 million. At the end, it was GBP 3.9 million. But the insurance policy that we had has now paid out GBP 3.4 million. And hopefully, that issue is now behind us. So we had to work nimbly and intentionally to manage the business through a period of some turbulence, which indeed continues. We have not been distracted by major acquisitions. And actually, I think that has helped because we haven't been in integration mode. We've been focusing on what we control. And here are the areas that I think are worthy of discussion. In terms of digitalization, the business has always been very tech-focused and our systems are generally seen as sector-leading. We have 60 in-house developers. And this area is undergoing absolutely major change in recent months almost with the impact of AI coding, which leads to a much faster development and our team are busy being retrained and with deeper we're taking on AI specialists. We've seen great use of AI deployed in our contact center environment and also in the sales environment, where we built our own large language model looking at 30,000 inbound sales phone calls where we could now see a projected conversion for each call, but it also prompts our teams on what the next steps are in the sales process, what are the hot buttons, what should you not say, it also helps our regulatory risk. So there's some great work being done here and there's more to come. The finance efficiency projects, which we've talked about and has been led by Karen has delivered real savings in removing manual processing. There is more to come, but we're delighted with progress there. The investment in the data warehouse and customer data platform in recent years is now being extended in terms of the number of use cases, that is helping efficiency, and indeed aiding our conversion in marketing by having a more targeted personalized marketing. In terms of the web, I think we highlighted to shareholders about 18 months ago that we thought we were off the pace with regards to the search engine optimization, and the way our websites drove search engine optimization. I'm pleased to report that the modular changes made to our website are now fairly well complete. It is now designed to drive SEO performance. And our SEO performance is now much better with a leading visibility score in the sector. That's allowed us to rebalance our pay-per-click spend, which I think we're over-indexed in. We're now investing in YouTube as a channel with car reviews that helps SEO, and especially in an age of increasing AI search and rich content. And we're increasing the number of the online car reviews, and that's driving more engagement. I'll now pass to Karen to discuss the cost reductions.

Thank you, Robert. Yes, the group took very proactive action on costs and it took for the second consecutive year, a significant cost reduction program. We anticipate that we'll deliver GBP 10 million of cost savings in FY '27, so the current financial year as a result of this latest exercise. And this included a further head count reduction of approximately 280 colleagues, and that's over and above the 290 colleagues we took out last year, and that's anticipated to deliver GBP 7 million cost saving. And we were able to do that as a result of some of the efficiency initiatives that Robert has just outlined. The avoidance of losses from closed dealerships that we identified as part of our pruning process adds a further GBP 400,000 of cost savings, and we anticipate marketing cost savings, both as a result of reduction in sponsorship and partnership arrangements as well as capturing the benefits of the One brand that we went to in April and the efficiency that gives us. In terms of other savings, the majority of this represents the introduction of charging for wash and vacuum in our group's volume dealership service departments, which generates a significant saving on costs. We also have energy savings coming through from an additional investment in solar, and we've optimized each and every one of our group supply arrangements in order to reduce costs where we could. Finally, the group started to trial building management system with some good early results in terms of reduction in utility costs. We're expecting to further extend this project in the coming months, which will help us further reduce costs over and above the GBP 10 million that we anticipated.

Okay. So let's turn to portfolio development and the big subject here is where we're going with Chinese brands. We are repositioning our portfolio with more Chinese brand exposure, either by reconfiguring existing sites to add additional franchises or removing traditional brands in some cases and replacing them with the Chinese. I visited China in March and the 2 managing directors independently visited China in April for the Beijing Motor Show. In terms of key learnings from that, Chinese car factories are currently running at about a 55% capacity, which is unheard of in the Western world. and indeed shows you the amount of oversupply in the Chinese car market. This is not helped by a major decline in battery electric vehicle sales in China since subsidies rendered by the Chinese government in December 2025. The domestic market is currently running about 22% back year-on-year, and this goes hand in hand with a switch to exports of which the U.K. is clearly very important. BYD, for example, now exporting 46% of the volume outside China. In China itself, there is massive oversupply, real problems with discounting, real pressure on manufacturers and domestic retailers from a profit standpoint. The U.K. is very much seen as the place to go. We are one of the few places in the world with very low tariffs on Chinese cars and the Chinese are coming with technological advanced cars and also with the cost advantage. We have identified 4 major players: BYD, which is preeminent in the battery electric vehicle market in China. We've now got 5 outlets. Geely, which actually also owns Volvo. We've now got 3 outlets with them with more to come. The Chery family of brands, which includes Jaecoo, Omoda and Lepas as well as the Chery brand, we have plans to engage with sites across those brands over the next 5 to 6 months. The final one is the long-standing MG brand in the U.K. owned by SAIC, and we've always been a strong partner with MG with a close relationship, and they are our 4 key pillars. In addition, Stellantis, which owns Vauxhall Citroen, actually part own a Chinese brand called Lee Motors, and we will be adding Lee Motors into a number of our Vauxhall sites over the coming months. So Chinese representation is a major area to watch going forward. In terms of identifying opportunities, we can control as opposed to relying on the market, the selling of older used cars has been on the agenda for a while. Under the first of April, we launched a new initiative in this area. Clearly, with people's living standards in the U.K. under pressure, it's no great surprise that the element of the used car market with the highest growth is for cars over 7 years old. Historically, this is not a core market for franchise retailers and only 11% of our current used car sales are in this bracket. We actually have the cars coming in, in part exchange but have been trading them to auction houses as opposed to retailing them ourselves. From the first of April, this changes to mean we attack this growing segment. We've got revised preparation standards. We've procured cheaper parts to use in reconditioning, and we got new finance and warranty products. In terms of the impact of this, a margin on average in our used cars are around 7%. But if you sell a GBP 9,000 car for a GBP 2,000 profit you can make 22%. So this really, I think, helps margins, helps grow volumes and provides us with future service work when we sell service plans. Gone down very well with management, I think we made a good start. The business is really based on having very good people. We've got a strong operational business due to stable management, long-term investment in training at all levels, including leadership development. And the results from this are very clear on the right-hand side. We have high levels of colleague satisfaction. We have high customer experience scores and measured by the manufacturers, which then aid customer retention well above national average levels, and the promotion of 2 of our operational directors to Managing Director on the first of January, the operations of the business, the operating division, now report to them and not me. That has given more capacity for the group to both operationally work much more tightly, but also make much better decisions. I'm spending my time more with the manufacturers, visiting dealerships, getting together with our strategic partnerships and close suppliers and also meeting key customers, I think we are seeing the benefits.

Thank you. Slide 16 shows a summarized income statement. Group revenues grew by approximately GBP 70 million, with this growth attributed to acquisitions and new business start-ups. Core group revenues saw a very small 0.7% decline. The introduction of the agency model in the MINI Honda franchises reduced revenue in the core group by approximately GBP 70 million year-on-year. Gross margins were stable at 11.2%, and that's despite the well-publicized reduction in fleet and new vehicle margins due to the impact of the ZEV mandate. And we managed to offset this with a high mix of after sales revenues and of course, the impact of agency I've just described. Cost as a percentage of revenue would have been stable at around 10.1% if the impact of the agency model and revenue was removed, reflecting the strong cost control in the group. Adjusted operating profit reduced on prior levels, driven by the reduction of profitability from the sale of new vehicles in both the retail and fleet channels. The group's interest costs reduced by GBP 1.1 million compared to prior year. And this is driven by reduced interest rates and the reduction in the outstanding mortgage balance as the instrument is repaid over time. Nonunderlying costs represent the cost of the group's reorganization and cost-cutting programs that I described earlier, and also includes some impairment provisions as the group reduced -- worked hard to reduce its cost base in the light of declining new vehicle profitability and cost headwinds. Turning to Slide 17. And usually for us, we have 2 profit bridges represented. The top 1 showing the normal core group in total and the second showing the separate impact of the JLR cyber attack within the overall group movement, core group movements. Core group gross profit declined by GBP 4.3 million over the prior year, driven largely by the impact of reduced new vehicle profitability and, of course, the JLR cyber attack, which amounted to GBP 3.9 million of the total. The standout negative here, as you can see, is the GBP 8.7 million reduction in gross profit from new vehicle sales, retail and motability. This is the second consecutive year of declining new vehicle profitability for the group which saw a GBP 10.9 million reduction on this measure last year. The reasons for that is a clear significant discounting of battery electric vehicles by manufacturers striving to hit government targets, which has impacted our margins and the reduction in motability sales volumes. Offsetting this new car shortfall was the significantly improved gross profit generation from the group's resilient and high-margin aftersales operations which generated an additional GBP 8.4 million of gross profit year-on-year. Approximately GBP 4 million of this uplift is due to the increase in internal rates that the aftersales departments charge the vehicle department for the preparation of vehicles for sale. With the majority of this increased cost in service having been absorbed by the used vehicle sales department. Used gross profit generation in the core group looks stable, and this was a good result considering the absorption of both the increase in the internal rate I've just described and, of course, the impact of the JLR cyber attack as a department, which reduced gross profit by GBP 1.7 million. As anticipated, core group operating expenses grew year-on-year, and I'll cover these in more detail in the next slide. Remember that the core group operating expenses include the benefit of the insurance payout of GBP 3.4 million in respect of the JLR cyber attack. I've already covered the year-on-year reduction in finance costs, and contributions from dealerships acquired or started up represents a year-on-year movement is GBP 0.1 million, with losses and start-up operations, current year acquisitions driven by timing offset by improved profit year-on-year from the Burrows acquisition. Turning over to Slide 18. This shows more detail on the core and total group underlying expenses. Core group operating expenses rose GBP 1.1 million over the year. That's below the rate of the inflation for the same period, and this excludes the impact of the JLR insurance settlement, as you can see from the table. The single biggest cost of the group is salary costs, remembering that the figures on this slide do not include the productive cost of technicians, which are included in cost of sale. Salary cost in the core group rose GBP 3.8 million or 1.5%. And this is despite the notable headwinds driven by the 2025 budget increases in employer's national insurance and increases in the national minimum wage. The group has worked hard to reduce headcount and undertook if you remember, a significant headcount reduction at the program at the end of FY '25 to offset the estimated GBP 10 million annual cost of that budget. And in light of the continued and cost pressure, we obviously took the further cost reduction exercise at the end of FY '26, which I'll describe the cost of which in more detail in my next slide, but I've obviously already pointed out the savings. Marketing costs increased, reflecting the investment in the single Vertu brand and in 3D group-wide sales events. As we've already seen, marketing cost savings have been targeted for FY '27 as we see the benefit of efficiency of the single brand and have reduced spending. The significant reduction in vehicle and valet costs has been aided by the introduction of charging for service, wash and vacuum in the group's volume dealerships. The cost saving was also aided by tighter control of our demonstrator and courtesy vehicle fleets. The increase in property costs largely relates to business rates, which represent a significant cost to the group and where we have been very successful in securing rates rebates in FY '25, following a number of successful regulatory deals. The growth in the size of the group and therefore, in the number of senior managers awarded options under the group's partnership share scheme have seen costs rise over time in terms of share-based payments. Awards for FY '27 were reduced to half previous levels, reflective of the reduction in group profitability. Slide 19 analyzes our nonunderlying items, which were incurred in the year. Exceptional costs of GBP 5.1 million include the cost of the redundancy program undertaken at the end of this current end of FY '26 which reduced headcount by a further 280 colleagues over and above the 290 colleagues taken out at the end of FY '25. Impairment charges of GBP 1.3 million include the impairment of goodwill in the group's merger of our dealerships, following disappointing profit performances from the sites in the last 2 years. In addition, lease or property impairments have been taken in respect to 2 sales outlets, where performance has been below required levels, and we are looking at changes for the locations. Dealership closure costs, which do not include the cost of redundancy of colleagues at the site, which are included in the redundancy figure I've previously described. These include clearance, asset provisions and where applicable, any remaining lease costs. Property remediation provision has been taken in respect of a failed roof at one of the group's larger dealerships. Expert reports were obtained to highlight the extent of the remediation required, and the Board is currently evaluating whether a legal claim can be made in respect of this effect. Finally, profits on the sale of surplus properties and the sale of GBP 0.9 million have been offset against nonunderlying. Turning over to Slide 20 that shows the group's balance sheet. The balance sheet is very stable and strong, underpinned by the freehold and long leasehold property portfolio of GBP 327 million prudently carried at historic depreciated cost. 4 of the 5 properties held for sale at the start of the financial year i.e., 1st of March 2025 have been sold during the financial year we're reporting on, generating cash proceeds of GBP 5.1 million and a profit on disposal of GBP 0.5 million, an illustration of the prudent level that which we carry our properties. Working capital was stable year-on-year with unencumbered used vehicle stock at a value of GBP 174 million included in there. Tangible net assets per share of 75.9p and this clearly reflects the strong asset backing of the group and has increased on last year's 72.9p, aided a little by the share buyback, which was conducted at prices below tangible net assets per share. Turning on to Slide 21. This is the group's cash flows for the year, and the group generated a free cash inflow of GBP 30.7 million. The working capital movement was minimal during the year, with notable movements within this minimal figure being an GBP 8 million outflow arising from an increase in news vehicle stock, a GBP 5 million outflow from reduced customer vehicle deposits, partly due to the move to agency and certain of our franchises. And these outflows were more than offset by a reduction in trade receivables driven by the timing of fleet customer receipts around year-end. Sustaining capital expenditure of GBP 30 million was spent in the period, with this partially offset by proceeds from sale of surplus properties and other assets of GBP 5.3 million. A further GBP 8.2 million has been spent in the period on capital projects, which enhanced the operating capacity of the group and freehold and business acquisitions during the year. Net debt at the end of the year was GBP 61.3 million, excluding lease liabilities, representing a GBP 5.3 million decrease on last year's figure. Final slide, once again, covers the group's capital allocation discipline. And the group continues to seek a balance between investment and growth, targeting returns in an exact weighted average cost of capital in order to deliver our strategic objectives and shareholder returns. As Robert has already mentioned, the key element of our approach to capital allocation is pruning where we consistently review dealership operations to ensure adequate returns on investment and contributions to the profitability. Following such reviews, the group exited several sites during the year as listed on this slide. The group has had a program of share buybacks in place since FY '18, and the group has spent GBP 10.7 million in the year on buybacks. And since the start of these programs, we brought now back over 21% of issued shares for a total of GBP 46.5 million. The group announced a further GBP 12 million share buyback program in March for execution in FY '27. And finally, the group has actually paid GBP 65.3 million in dividends since we started paying dividends back in January 2011. The FY '26 final dividend of 1.15p per share, holds the dividend overall at last year's level of 2.05p per share. And that is a cover compared to adjusted fully diluted EPS of 2.6x and in line with the group's stated dividend policy on this measure. I'll now hand back to Robert for a more detailed update on trading in the year.

Thank you, Karen. If we turn to new vehicle sales performance, you can clearly see here, it's been a mix of growth in some channels and declines in others. The financial year saw a new car market dominated by fleet, the rise of Chinese brands and massive distortions created by the zero-emission vehicle mandate, which force discounts in a market that's unrecognizable as a free market. The new retail channels saw growth by the group. However, it underperformed the SMMT registration numbers for 2 reasons. One, Chinese brand representation being lower in our group than the market, partly actually because of the like-for-like calculations, but also the growth of preregistration, which goes through our sales is used, but the market puts them through new retail registrations. Motability saw major declines throughout the year due to change cycle timings, which have now reversed in March and April. The group continued to pick up share in Motability's biggest partner. There were major share gains in fleet car market. We acted to the weakness in the van market and the pressure on the retail channel by really going out with resources and focus to grow in the fleet car channel. That remains to be the case. The market was clearly bolstered by battery electric vehicle sales through fleet as the manufacturers pushed product through the broker channels, salary sacrifice schemes and indeed, public sector fleet channels. You can see top right, the fleet market was 33% battery electric vehicle where the retail market was 15%. While it is fair to say that electric vehicle grants introduced by the government during the course of the year helped, the retail mix is still very low indeed at around 15%, considering the target is now 33%. The group, I'm pleased to say, outperformed for the second year running in private battery electric vehicle sales. The market was up 50%, but we were up 71%, and we continue to focus to drive battery electric vehicle sales through the business because it got significantly helps our manufacturers hit their targets. The van market was clearly down at 8.6% in the market, and we were actually down 10%. There are key issues driving this market backwards. One clearly is business confidence, which was on the floor during the period. The second was the 0 emission vehicle mandate for vans, which we have not discussed that much. But bear in mind that in 2026, there was a mandate of 24% battery electric vehicle mix. The market last year and indeed this year is running at about 9%. And remember that the fines for vans are GBP 15,000 per van as opposed to cars, GBP 12,000. This market is stock. We will not see big increases, and that's certainly an area that government needs to address. Fleet and commercial margins actually reduced in the period. This is actually largely due to mix. Vans up higher margin historically than car. And indeed, some of the new fleet business we did at slightly lower margins. It was the reduction in van volumes, however, which reduced our gross profit by GBP 4.2 million. Overall, we have 5% of the car and van market and are clearly pleased with that further acquisition growth with clearly enhanced. We turn to used vehicle sales. This is a period really of stability in terms of demand and supply. The weakest residuals we're seeing in battery electric vehicles, that is no surprise given the oversupply compared to demand in that market. However, I think residuals have stabilized, but they do depreciate faster than petrol and diesel cars. So also, as a result of the oil shop, we've seen recent concern over large diesel car residuals, which in an oil shot with high diesel prices tend to accelerate depreciation, and that is clearly one to watch. It was good to get back to volume growth in H2 because that is despite very strong new car offers, which have taken, I think, some used car business and indeed the Chinese coming out with cheaper payments and moving some used car business into new. We're pleased with our performance. We think we outperformed on Autotrader's metrics, the overall franchise dealer used car market. Stable margins was quite an achievement given the fact we transferred GBP 3.4 million of extra labor costs on the internal preparation of cars into the used car department. And I think it's fair to say that our insights algorithmic pricing is doing its job in terms of helping with margins and stock turn. Finally, if we turn to aftersales, we've left the best to last. This is the star of the show for sure, with gross profit growth in all areas. There are now 42.5 million vehicles on Britain's rod. That's an historic record and that clearly drives after sales demand. It will not surprise you to know that tire sales are going exceptionally well since with the rise in British vehicles, we also have the historic rise in number of potholes and the average depth of a pothole, which is driving our tight sales. There is no major impact in our business at the moment on electrification. And when we think electrification will be a very slow process. However, when we look at the fleet work less than 3 years old, we are seeing a decline in average invoice value as a consequence of electrification. However, we believe that we get more retention in battery electric vehicles, which is what we said in the past when asked the question. Also, modern vehicles with software and radar and batteries have a tendency to go wrong, particularly around software. So they do lead to rather large repair costs when they come in. The growth in March and April showed the opportunity in aftersales through execution and the appropriate strategies. We think it will be resilient for many years to come. And BEV sales are frankly unlikely to ramp up as originally planned anyway. The key to success in all these areas really is operational execution. It is driving service plans. So when a customer buys a new or a used car, they go out with the service plan to absolutely make sure they come back for a service. It's having high levels of customer experience, which we deliver and also having a vehicle health check process to make sure we're safe to check the car that we sell the additional work that's needed, including tires, and that we've significantly increased conversion and profitability in this area with our Pay Pay later product. Now accident repair centers, which are body shops in common parlance. They actually saw weaker demand. And we think that just the increasing number of cars with radar to tell the driver that there's a potential hazard ad. Is that a material impact on the number of accidents. If there's more cars and vans on the road, you'd expect accidents to go up due to congestion book, accidents are actually down about 25%. However, saying that the smart repair business continued to expand. And overall, between accident power and smart repair, we saw a GBP 2 million increase in gross profit and better margins. So we are pleased with that. All channels delivered more. So finally, we think the group is exceedingly well positioned. We are stable, we're well capitalized. We're asset backed. We do have the firepower in terms of management and financials to expand our operations and scale. Our digitalization gathers pace in terms of its impact benefiting customers and profitability. Our people are stable. They want to work here. They're delivering high levels of customer experience, and that is a good start when you're in business. So we are certainly excited by the amount of change we have to deal with. We see it as a challenge, and we think there's plenty of opportunity going forward. Thank you very much.

Thank you to Robert and Karen for the presentation. And we've had a number of questions that have been pre-submitted and also submitted live. [Operator Instructions] And the first question that we have is, are not you worried that cheap Chinese EVs could actually undercut and cannibalize some of the brands you already sell, particularly your volume franchises?

It's a good question. The interesting thing is when you look at part exchanges that are coming through franchises such as BYD, the top 3 brands where the part exchange comes in is actually BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Apart from the fact where you've refranchised the dealership and clearly, the franchise that we refranchised from biggest value heavily because the customer is used to coming in. So I don't necessarily see this as massively taking share disproportionately actually from the volume players. And I think the -- I think there's more and more evidence that rather than cannibalizing new cars generally that the Chinese manufacturers are hitting a bit of a sweet spot in taking people in, say, premium 4-year-old product that was probably bought 1 year old as a used car and converting them into a new car. And I think that's why we're seeing the growth actually in the new car market partly. So goes without saying that more manufacturers in the mix means that potentially profitability and volume in the other is like to be lower than it would have been in that true. And that's clearly why we've got a strategy for managing that to maximize profitability over time whilst reorientating the franchise mix into more Chinese.

Thanks, Robert. And does the Board see potential future issues with residual values and Chinese EVs considering the massive recent increase in the market?

Well, I think we always have to look at demand and supply issues ahead of them occurring and trying to manage them as much as we can. For example, the very high diesel price is likely to put downward pressure on residuals of large diesel SUVs, currently, for example. I think the question actually makes a fair point that if you push a lot of supply of one thing into a market that's going to have an impact, unless demand rises to meet it structurally. So I think there is going to be quite a lot of people watching when big slugs of, say, Chinese product that has been pushed in comes back, and we'll have to see where demand is at that point. But if demand is lower than supply, you will get some price reductions.

In your interviews, Robert, you talk about used cars and the potential for higher returns. How exposed are you if used car prices soften?

Well, as ever, we've got GBP 170 million worth of used car stock tends to turn just over 30 days. But as people who've studied this company and other motor retailers will note when you get significantly large falls in residual values in used pricing, then we suffer lower margins. I mean that's just a fact of the business. I'm not particularly worried about the moment apart from that point around large diesel SUVs because of the diesel price. I think to the market is pretty stable. BEV residuals actually probably strengthening a little bit, although the depreciation over time is fairly steady. So our exposure is sudden shifts down, I would say, that are faster than our stock turn. We haven't got a contract high company with a 3-year exposure. We haven't got any buyback commitments, which can also be problematic. So I think our exposure is weaker. So as night follows day, lower residual values impact profitability, just like post-COVID, when residual values went up significantly, I think we did a profit upgrade every 6 weeks.

Thank you, Robert. Next question was very similar to what you've just answered that. You've just launched the value car by Vertu going after the 7- to 14-year-old used car market. That's quite different from your usual customer. How much are you betting on this? And what does success look like this time next year?

Okay. It's not completely a different customer. Historically, 11% of our sales used car sales were in the bracket of over 7 years. So I think it's fair to say we have simplified the way we're going to approach this. We've got better finance in place. We've got new warranty products. We have taken the cost of preparation down and slightly reduce the cosmetic standards on these cars. And I think that does give us a good opportunity. It's quite clear that there are margin enhancements from selling older cars because profitability per unit is actually proportionately higher than the sales price. Are we betting on it? I think it's a useful strategy. I think the entire future of the company is dependent on it. But I think it can give us incremental profitability. And I think we'll see that if it's successful in augmentation of used car gross profit margin percentages, growth in volume and gross profit, barring other things happening, which clearly can happen in a large business like us. But I think if we can see that 11% grow further, which I think we will, actually, then I think we will declare.

And next question. Aftersales is always a big part of your story, could you expand on how you see this being part of the used car story?

I think it's a very specific question in regard to the financial results for FY '26. We increased the internal labor rate at the service department charges, the used car -- the new car department of predominantly used cars on the first of March 2025. That effectively shifted around GBP 3 million to GBP 4 million worth of gross profit from the used car department into the service departments. We have not made that change again on the first of March 2026, and we've got no thoughts of doing it again. So we're now into like-for-like territory of comparing apples with apples. I think that's, therefore, good news when you look at the GBP 2.9 million increase in gross profit from aftersales in March and April, which is a true measure. Used cars are a major part of aftersales because the internal customer is a reasonably good percentage of the work that goes through a service department any motor retailer will know. So used cars are intrinsically part of the aftersales story, as a major customer, but also providing customers. So one of the things about growing used car volumes, which we're always keen on is also making sure that the percentage -- a high percentage of that target 50%, for example, go out with a 2- to 3-year service plan, so they come back into service. The whole point, you cannot understand franchise motor retailing unless you see this dealership as a symbiotic organism only when every single department works together and is successful.

Thank you. If the market is undervaluing Vertu, why shouldn't you be more aggressive with share buybacks.

Thanks, Scott. I'll take that one, if that's okay. I don't think we've not been aggressive. We bought 21% of the company back already, and we've returned to shareholders over GBP 100 million in share buybacks and dividends over time. But there's a balance is in there to be struck between growth and executing our growth strategy and returns to shareholders. That said, obviously, at share prices below tangible net assets per share, we do see the value and that's why we've got another GBP 12 million share to spend on buybacks for the year ahead. And if you remember, we have got the ability to go above the more volume limit from time to time if we feel it's appropriate.

Thank you, Karen. I asked this, and I think it's a very similar answer probably, but why haven't you continued the share back program for 2 months instead focusing on the EBIT fund? Do you think paying down Vertu's debt would have been a better way to spend shareholders' money?

Okay. So while the EBT was buying, it seemed logical for us to compete effectively with ourselves to continue with the share buyback. We'll be pushing our own prices between ourselves -- but actually, we are paying down debt because the mortgage is being repaid over time. And with gearing as low as 17% as it was, we think that actually we've struck the right balance.

And next question, what is the structure of the EBIT? What are the triggers for payout? And what happens to the shares purchased by EBIT if performance targets are not achieved.

Okay. The employee benefit trust is merely a structure to buy shares, which can be issued in satisfaction of options granted to managers as part of their remuneration. So we give long-term incentive share awards to managers at General Manager level and above. Those awards that go to the executives are obviously part of the remuneration report, which is approved by shareholders each year, via advisory vote. And the EBT merely buys and hold shares such that when individual colleagues want to exercise options that are vested, the EBT issues those with the shares and sells them on their behalf. So the EBT if targets are not achieved, will continue to hold the shares, but there are clearly far fewer shares in the EBT than there are outstanding options. So we shouldn't be in that situation.

The next question relates to Helston Garage. You paid GBP 120 million estimated for 27 garages soon to be 24. What return are you getting on that investment? Currently, Vertu Motors plc is valued at GBP 195 million and owns 191 sites less 24 for Helston. Can you explain how the allocation of funds and debt was money well spent?

Yes. I mean I think you've got a few things in that mix. First of all, the market capitalization of the group is clearly net of the cash paid to shareholders on the buyback, which I think from memory is about GBP 46 million. So I think you've got to be quite careful with where your starting point is. In terms of Helston, it was a strategic acquisition for us that gave us 32 dealerships, I believe, at the time down in the Southwest. We have subsequently to that, disposed of loss-making and what we believe were noncore businesses, and there was some property in there as well. So that actually has generated GBP 12 million of cash receipts and reduced realized stock since then. So that's the sort of level we're playing with. I think it's fair to say that we've got a strong business now in the Southwest. We've got strong BMW dealerships, JLR businesses as well as a number of volume businesses. And we probably have the top 3 Volvo businesses that go from and to Somerset. So I think we're very pleased with the results we're getting out of those businesses. However, the elephant in the room really is that the business, I think we bought it in December 2022, the sector has seen quite a significant reduction in profitability. Since then, compared to now, if you take our group on a like-for-like basis, our new car profitability has declined GBP 20 million in the last 2 years, and Helston is clearly part of that on a like-for-like basis. But that is reducing returns as a whole in the sector. So I think we're happy we made the acquisition. If we paid GBP 120 million, we've only got GBP 60 million of debt. We've clearly generated a lot of cash to pay down the debt because we did it on a debt basis. So I think we're pleased we're in the Southwest. We're pleased with the returns we gain. We've got very strong management down there in a strong set of franchises.

And given the pressures on consumer finances, -- how are you looking at demand over the next 6 to 12 months?

The good thing about this country is there is no 1 consumer. So the older used car strategy of value cars by Vertu, the 7-year plus thing is a direct strategy reflective of the fact that quite a significant section of the population, aren't seeing real wage growth and are probably financially struggling. So therefore, buying cheaper used cars is where the growth area is, for sure. If you look at auto trade data, that's where they go to end for the last 24 months. So I think that strategy actually works quite well. But at the other end, actually, we're having a pretty good time with Ferrari used vehicles. So I think we've got to manage the business, downturns in the consumer clearly have an impact on aggregate demand for motor vehicles, but we've got to make sure that we take a disproportionate share and that we've got the strategies in vehicle sales to win out. The work we've done on new car events, on used car event using the Vertu brand, I think, is very strong. We just had a new car event, which started a week last Thursday, and we've picked up a lot of share in that. We're very, very pleased with those that marketing and that indeed the performance of the dealerships is working. Our job is to take a disproportionate share and try and come up with strategies. So we overcome challenges in most cases, likely by the government.

And at what point do higher rates materially impact affordability and conversion rates?

Yes. That's an interesting question. I think we are starting to see because of higher interest rates in the financial system. From the first of June, we think new car finance rates and PCPs will go up. We're starting to see a little bit of pressure in terms of used car finance rates. And clearly, if the price of something goes up, you tend to get less demand. So we'll just have to work harder to overcome that. It is back to life. We will probably start in the year expecting in January, rates to come down, rates are not coming down, rates are going to come up. There are a lot of elements, though, to overall consumer demand, in terms of confidence. You could argue the minimum wage has put extra money in people's pockets probably at the lower end of the used car market, which is probably helpful, again, goes back to value cars by Vertu. But we've been through many cycles in Vertu's 20 history. We're 20 years old this year. And I'll just remind everybody that this is a company that has actually never had a financial year where we lost money. So we will -- we think we are well positioned with low gearing to withstand any doubt.

Now you've gone as far as writing to the government asking them to bring forward their BEV mandate review from 2027 to 2026. Are you getting any traction there? Or does it feel like you're shouting into the wind?

Well, we haven't written 1 letter, I can assure you. I think the government and receipt of about 350 letters from colleagues and NPEs that have been written to by local general managers. And it's not just a Vertu effort. The SMMT have done excellent work with regards to putting pressure on the government around this 0 emission mandate, which, let's be honest, it's not just about cars. It's also about vans. I myself and some work on the media, I've actually been to recently see the minister. And I think there is a general acceptance that there are quite a lot of challenges. What I've communicated to the government is, let's define challenges. It's job losses, it youngsters with no apprentices and it's a lack of investment in the whole automotive sector, including manufacturing and Tier 1 supply. I think the message is there. But clearly, trying to get change in a period of political upheaval in the governing party is going to be slightly problematic. The economic and political pressure to amend the 0 emission mandate to make it more realistic and more in line with actual market reality and "align it" with the EU's position of 2035 plan, I think, is pretty unstoppable. The question is, are the politicians going to listen anytime soon. So I think in the medium term, 6 months, 12 months horizon, I'm very confident clearly, there's not much point talking to them this week.

Now you killed off the Bristol Street Motors and the Macklin Motors brand and all went in on Vertu. That's a bold call. Has it actually worked. Are customers noticing? And are you saving the money you promised?

Yes. Well, I think Karen has outlined quite clearly that we have got planned savings in marketing this year, quite substantial ones. Actually, we made a good fit to be last year. I think there's work to do in growing the brand awareness of Vertu. It's clearly lower than we started. We finished off with Bristol Street Motors but we've done it before. We had no negative feedback at all from customers. I was in Birmingham week last Saturday. There is no noise at all coming from customers. They fully understand it. As one general manager said, when he was asked by a customer, who are Vertu said they're the people have been paying me for the last 18 years, with the Bristol Street Motors brand. So I'm pleased with how it's gone. It's much simpler to operate a business with one brand and three, it makes the whole marketing piece, much, much easier. We couldn't do what we've just done on the TV last week with GBP 0.5 million worth of TV spend on new cars. If we had a group that was half the size, which effectively what Vertu or Bristol Street Motors. So it was definitely the right decision. It will prove to be the right decision, and it's gone well in the first 12 months.

So you saw GBP 1.9 million in redundancy costs this year as part of restructuring. Are these staff cuts now complete? Or should shareholders expect further restructuring charges in 2027.

I'll go first. Which is I don't think anybody could call an end to any degree of restructuring in such a dynamic and volatile economic and political environment. We've done my opening gambit, I'm sure Karen can elucidate more detail.

Yes. And I think that actually also will depend on the rollout of some of the AI and automation, things that Robert outlined earlier, which will allow us to further streamline and make more productive, which might mean we need fewer people. Certainly not in the dealership environment, but maybe in.

Yes. I think we've just had 2 years of looking at cost headcount clinically, I think we've got to the stage where in order to maintain the very high levels of customer experience and indeed gross profit generation, the next stage in dealerships would be counterproductive in my view. Clearly, in terms of looking at other areas and increasing use of technology, I think that's just an ongoing thing that. I think the speed of AI development is astonishing and the way you can make businesses leaner and more productive, I think, is very exciting. I think we're into a long period of transformation. Will there be other dealerships that we will "prune, sell, close." I think that is another inevitable consequence of quite a high period of transformation with new franchises coming in. and changes in market share, but also changes in economic circumstances. So we haven't got any immediate plans at the moment, but we will be actively managing the portfolio and managing the cost plan.

The next question is, what is the effect of your cost savings on customer satisfaction? And in brackets, they put valet, courtesy car management, et cetera.

And we did a lot of work on this. We didn't just introduce these changes without piloting it. The answer is people are used to menu-style sales. So the Ryanair example where you actually pay more for different bits. We're not at that level. But I think that circumstances where labor is expensive and where there is so much pressure in the system, you have to make logical decisions. There was actually a slide in the presentation, which may have been missed when somebody asked the question. If you actually look at our current customer satisfaction scores, we are significantly better than the national average as measured by the manufacturers. And when we've done things like give people the choice about whether they want to wash, vacuum and their service. And if they want it, they pay GBP 6.99. That has made no difference whatsoever to our customer satisfaction scores. In terms of collection delivery, we do collection delivery, albeit we charge for it and I make absolutely no apology for that because actually, we charge GBP 60. But given the high cost of labor, that actually cost us GBP 100 to deliver. So there's a little bit of a balance. I think it's not correct that Mrs. Smith who sits in the dealership. They can 3 hours waiting, gets charged exactly the same as somebody working from home, who's got a collection delivery, both here and back and isn't is intended. So I think there has to be charge. I think that is accepted by a lot most people. And the industry will be moving this way. And this is a consequence of cost pressures on the economy.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] You say Vertu is excellently positioned for sector consolidation. Are you actively looking at acquisitions right now? What size and type of deal are you targeting?

We always look at acquisitions, and we will always look at every opportunity that comes across the desk. And to be honest, it's quite unusual that something happens in the sector that we weren't aware of or able to take place in. I think at the moment, as I've said, I think given the corporation tax increase from 19 to 25 and the impact of the zero-emission mandate, returns from the sector are at a low point in the cycle. Clearly, that will change in our belief when the 0 emission mandate gets amended. And that makes investment in acquisitions harder to just to buy versus a share buyback. So I think that's the point. However, there is pressure in the system of the sector. And if you're overleveraged and operationally challenged, I do believe there can be some distressed assets come to market just as we've seen in 2009, 2010 or the back end of lockdowns or whatever. So we will continue to look. They could be at whatever size. You're looking at a GBP 5 billion revenue group near as and with a 16%, 17% gearing ratio. So we have the financial capacity to do it. We are very asset-rich, GBP 3 million to GBP 7 million of real property, GBP 170 million on incumbent no stocking loan used cars. So we have the financial capacity. The other question you have to ask yourself is have you got the management capacity to do it. And the management augmentation of appointing 2 management directors in January has helped that. I think we've got increasing capacity. I think the core business is under control, which is good. We wouldn't want to expand if it wasn't. So I think are there assets available at the right price, possibly coming in the future. Are we organized in a management capacity? Yes. The next thing then is, what's the returns outlook and what's the level of economic visibility. And I think that's a bit weak at the moment in terms of what's the interest rate environment, what's the consumer environment, what's the political environment. And I think we'd be wanting probably a little bit more visibility before we wanted to deploy much more in capital, hence, why you see the continuation of the share buyback program.

And the next question is, what do you view as a relatively normal mid-cycle PBT margin level? What is the bridge to get there to get to that?

I'm not going to answer that too much because I think that's -- are we in cycles? Or are we in transformation, I think, is an interesting question. What I would point to is that our profit in my opinion, is GBP 20 million lower than it would be if the government didn't intervene through the 0 emission mandate, and that's the sort of way that we look at it. So we see that as that change as a catalyst in improving profitability. Whether the industry gets the whole of its profit pull back, and we get the extra GBP 20 million, but we would see much improved circumstances for profitability if the zero-emission mandate was more sensible and linked to reality.

Thank you. And historically, there has a view that car dealers did not get material benefits of scale given all of your history and the industry going back to Reg Vardy, are there more scale benefits today versus 2007?

If you look at ICDP, which is sort of the industry European brainchild, range trust as it were. I think in Reg Vardy time, and that was like 2005, 2006. I think there was no demonstrable benefit of scale. However, I think today, there definitely is. I think most people would accept that if you've got the right management, management being critical backed up by the right systems, and we've invested heavily in systems, and you can run scaled groups that can drive value far in excess of what you put 20 or 30 years ago. And I would also say, and this isn't necessarily a great thing, but it's a truth that the greater complexity of operating automotive retail in terms of regulations in pretty well or areas, but let's take the FCA, make larger companies far easier to have specialists in those areas and have a very high level of compliance maybe than somebody with 2 dealerships. Even things down to compliance with the minimum wage, for example. So I think there are definitive benefits of scale without any chatter of a question, and I think most commentators would agree the fact that we've now got nearly 200 dealerships with one brand can go on TV and spread those costs over dealerships is a tangible benefit to us, and I think gets us more sales. So you could argue in the counter way that, yes, but profitability is at a low level, but I'd argue that's not a lot to do with scale. That's a lot to do with the environment we find ourselves in around cost base, minimum wage, national insurance operation tax and the 0 emission on that.

Thank you. Now with 5 of the 125 U.K. BYD franchises, do you feel that you have the right level of BYD growth exposure?

Well, I think the BYD, I wouldn't just pick on BYD actually, I'd say, have we got the right level of exposure to the Chinese. And I think this is quite nuanced. My personal view is we are growing with BYD, we're growing with Geely. We're growing with the Chery organization, and we've already got MG. Do we have the same market share in those new entrant franchises than we do in some of the core traditional ones? Absolutely not. Is our intention to do so in the short term? No. Where we do in the long term? Yes. Why are we going slower because we have established relationships with traditional manufacturers that give us a good return. And if you put a new entrant in a new building with no vehicle park and no aftersales, you are in for a gloomy time. So we need to balance finding showrooms retaining our aftersales business from the traditional manufacturers, maybe through multi-franchising or for a repair to keep those profit streams going. Our job is not to chase market share in the short term. Our job is to maximize shareholder returns to profitability, and we believe our strategy of engaging with the new Chinese brands, we're gaining expertise, gaining trust. We will, therefore, grow over the medium term and probably the short term. And while we might lose out our market share and like-for-like versus, that's not what we're paid to do. We are paid to generate shareholder value and profitability. And we think our strategy in that area will do so.

Well, that is all the time we have at the present time. So Robert, I'd like to hand back to you for any closing remarks.

Well, I'd like to thank everybody for giving up their time and having an interest in Vertu Motors. I think we're well positioned as a business. We're in the middle of a roadshow. My next step with Karen is we're off to visit and prospective shareholders in London and Dublin for the rest of the week. So if you are a shareholder in Vertu, thank you very much indeed. Thank you, Scott.

Thank you to Robert and Karen for joining us today. That concludes the Vertu Motors investor presentation. Please take time -- a moment time to complete a short survey following this event. The recording event will be made available on Engage Investor, and I hope you enjoy today's webinar. Thank you.

Thank you.