Xpediator PLC

LSE:XPD

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q2

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Xpediator Plc Half Year Results Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question it received during the meeting itself. However, all questions submitted today will be reviewed with responses published on the Investor Meet Company platform, where it is appropriate to do so.

Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO, Mike Stone. Good morning, sir.

[Michael Stone, executive]

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. It's good to be here and have the opportunity to present the results for Xpediator Plc for the first 6 months of 2022. As said previously, I'm Mike Stone, the CEO; and with me is Richard Myson, our CFO.

The agenda for today, after an overview of the management changes that both Richard and I are here today, we'll take you through the financials. We'll put some narrative around those by division. We'll give some insights on what we've found in our first 4 months in the business. And then we'll summarize it all with the final slide. Following that, we'll be happy to take any questions.

The first 6 months of this year saw some quite substantial management changes, both at the senior management level and to the Board. This was all concluded by June 2022, when Richard and I were appointed, and Gillian Wilmot joined the Board as Interim Non-Executive Chairman. I have over 35 years' experience in parcels, logistics, transportation services and postal industries, most recently in the U.K., but previously based in Europe and working in regional and global senior management roles. Richard, if you have a few words.

[Richard Myson, executive]

Good morning. I'm Richard Myson. I rejoined Xpediator in June of this year having previously been with the group for 16 years from 2004. I was also Group CFO at the time of the listing, and I've nearly 30 years' experience in the logistics sector, having worked with various companies, including Tibbett & Britten.

[Michael Stone, executive]

And as you can see from the thumbnail introduction on the slide, Gillian has significant experience in senior management and Board level across a number of industries. Okay. The subtitle of this slide is important, and I know I can speak for Richard when I say that after our first 4 months here at Xpediator, we both firmly believe Xpediator is a good business, but we are convinced it can be better still. Importantly, we're very pleased to report very strong growth in revenue in the period, with all of our European businesses and some of our U.K. businesses growing profitably. Unfortunately, as you can see from our profit before tax results, we don't have -- we do have a couple of problem areas. These are Delamode Anglia, one of our forwarding businesses in the U.K., and the U.K. Logistics business, which encompasses sites in the docks area of Southampton, Beckton in East London and Braintree in Essex.

The other major area of focus for us is net debt -- this has grown by GBP 3.2 million since the end of 2021. It's now at GBP 8 million at the end of June and it's well above what we consider an acceptable level. However, I'm pleased to report that as a result of the detailed business review carried out in the first months of our tenure, we have identified the root causes of underperformance in these 3 areas. From this review, we have already initiated actions for the return of the underperforming businesses to profitability and to reduce the net debt.

So as we enter H2, we will be ensuring that the growth we have seen in H1 is maintained in the European businesses, that we realize the planned improvements in our areas of concern, and that overall, we will achieve management expectations in terms of profit before tax for 2022. Richard will now take us through the financial results in some detail. Thank you.

[Richard Myson, executive]

So as we previously mentioned, revenue increased by 50% year-on-year, which was reflective of the group's development in the CEE region, in particular Lithuania, which is now the largest country of operation in terms of turnover. Gross margin dropped slightly to 21.7%, which is mainly reflected by the mix of activity between freight forwarding and warehousing and affinity, both of which attract a larger gross margin than freight forwarding.

Despite the increase in revenue, adjusted profit before tax decreased by GBP 0.5 million compared to the same period last year. This was mainly due to the losses we incurred in Delamode Anglia, the underperformance of the U.K. warehousing business and also the unrecovered central costs incurred in the U.K. As a result of these, adjusted EPS dropped from 1.58p to 0.27p for the same period this year. This was also impacted due to the significant growth in development and profits being generated in Lithuania and Bulgaria, both of which had minority shareholders.

Given the current net debt position which we've spoken about, the board have currently not proposed an interim dividend, but we will continue to monitor the situation throughout the rest of the year. As we said, net debt has increased by GBP 3.2 million compared to the year-end of 2021, which is due to the losses incurred in the U.K. and the increased central costs, both of which were covered by a GBP 5.4 million in funding facility. Net debt has become one of the key areas of focus for the management in order to reduce it to a more sustainable level by 2023.

As we mentioned, the first half of 2022 had mixed results. The revenue increased by 50% to GBP 190 million, but reported profit fell from GBP 2.3 million in H1 '21 to GBP 200,000 for the first 6 months of this year. Included in these results were the impairment of Delamode Anglia. Given the current trading and the expected forecast results, the group have taken a prudent approach, and we've impaired the goodwill of this acquisition by GBP 1.5 million.

Additionally, the group incurred exceptional costs arising from the cost saving program in the center, which totaled GBP 300,000. This, combined with the amortization of the intangible assets, created on the acquisition of [ previous entities ] of GBP 700,000 and a GBP 300,000 adjustment for the IFRS 16 accounting. The adjusted profit before tax for the period equated to GBP 3.1 million compared to GBP 3.6 million for the same period last year.

As mentioned, whilst the year-on-year change to adjusted profit was GBP 0.5 million, there were some significant movements across the group. Delamode Baltics continued its good development and growth on profit, with profit before tax was up GBP 3.5 million. This was due to new routes and certainties being implemented, as well as the organic growth on existing clients and services. However, this only partially mitigated the losses we incurred in the U.K. warehousing with Southampton, Beckton and Braintree all underperforming, and Delamode Anglia, which incurred significant losses in the period.

In 2021, the group integrated some of the previously acquired businesses into 2 entities in the U.K., one for freight forwarding and one for logistics. At the same time, we implemented a shared services center again in the U.K. to provide services to these new entities. This implementation had some issues, and as a result of that, additional costs were incurred to cover the loss of procedures and controls, which arose. The group also incurred significant costs associated with the procurement of the new GBP 5.5 million funding facility in the U.K.

As of the end of June this year, the group still had a strong balance sheet despite the net debt position. The group ended the period with total assets of GBP 208 million and a net asset value of GBP 27 million. This was down on the December figure for GBP 29 million due to the 2021 interim dividend, which was voted out in May of this year, and also the dividends due to the minority shareholders in Lithuania and Bulgaria. Also, the losses incurred in H1 2022 impacted our reserves.

As we said, the group recognizes that the net debt position is higher than we would like, and this is a key focus that we're looking at going forward. We finished the period with a net debt position of GBP 8 million, which was up from the GBP 4.8 million last year. This increase, as we mentioned, is largely due to the need to cover the losses in the U.K. and in both Delamode Anglia and the U.K. warehousing, but also the unrecovered central costs.

The movement in working capital also impacted on our cash. The implementation of the shared services solution, which was [ partly ] implemented, had an impact on controls and processes in place, and as a result, the U.K. delayed its debt collection. Early payments to suppliers continues in the CEE region to ensure that the group secures the best [ hauliers ] that we can, but also to attract a discounted rate, which helps improve our margins. But this has clearly been at the expense of cash. However, all these issues we've identified are correctable, and we put actions in place, which we hope will resolve these issues and give us a better performance in 2023.

[Michael Stone, executive]

Okay. Thanks, Richard. We'll now run through the results from a divisional perspective. First off, freight forwarding. This is our core service accounting for over 80% of our revenue. Revenue in the forwarding division increased by 50% against the same period last year from GBP 101 million to GBP 155 million, with the operating profit nearly mirroring this growth with an increase of 44% over the same period. Unfortunately, improvement in profit before tax for this division was not as impressive as it was impacted by the impairment of Delamode Anglia that Richard spoke to earlier.

All Xpediator forwarding businesses except one are going well, with the growth in Lithuania and Bulgaria, particularly impressive. Delamode Anglia in the U.K. is our only concern in this division, and later in this presentation, we will outline how this performance will be brought into line with our other forwarding businesses.

Warehousing & Logistics. This comprise of 6 sites in the U.K. and Romania, 4 of them in the U.K., and the first half of the year saw revenue growth of just over 31% against the same period last year. This reflects the additional space in Southampton that came online early this year and has been sold to customers in full or near full warehouses in Braintree and Bucharest. Unfortunately, this growth in revenue did not fall through to the operating profit, which saw a decline in the year of GBP 2.2 million, all driven by the U.K. sites, which are all unprofitable at half year. The root cause of Southampton's issues are the late to delivery by over 6 months of the new facility on the docks in 2021. This caused significant operational issues and cost overruns in the latter half of last year, some of which were recognized in 2022.

Beckton, a small facility in East London, is underutilized and has been since it lost its major customer, Arcadia, which was nearly 80% of the revenue for that site nearly 2 years ago. Previous management efforts to fill this site have been unsuccessful, not helped by the well-documented problems that the high street fashion retail sector is facing.

Braintree conversely is at capacity that suffers from a customer profile and pricing structure that conspires to make it unprofitable. All in all, a hugely disappointing 6 months of trading in the U.K., but is, to some degree, happily caused by issues that we are convinced will be resolved with the actions we have set in motion.

The Romanian warehouse on the outskirts of Bucharest is trading well, and our expansion strategy in Europe, manifested by the construction of a new warehouse in the Netherlands in a place called Roosendaal, will come online in mid-2023. This has been well received by our current customers in the U.K., and we'll speak more of this later.

Richard will cover off the last of our divisions, transport support services.

[Richard Myson, executive]

Affinity transport support services provide services to the haulage sector. It delivered revenue of GBP 3.7 million in the first half of this year, which was up by GBP 700,000 on the same period last year. This is due to the continued development of its services offered, including the implementation of a VAT reclaim solution for its current client base. The DKV service offering also saw organic growth, which was partly due to the fuel price increase in which increases our commissions we charge to the customer. The result of the above store operating profit increased to GBP 1.4 million for the first 6 months of this year, which is now above pre-COVID levels.

[Michael Stone, executive]

Okay. Thanks, Richard. That concludes the overview of the results by division. So Richard and I, shortly after we joined, started an in-depth review of the business. As a result of the work that we did, we have identified 3 key areas of concern across -- and across the next 3 slides, we'll outline our findings and summarize the actions we've taken to resolve these issues.

First up is net debt. Richard?

[Richard Myson, executive]

As Mike said, over the last 3 months, we've reviewed various parts of the business, which has identified possible opportunities and improvements we can make. One of the key areas we identified is clearly the net debt position. The group has recognized the net debt position is higher than they would want or like and/or was expected, and this needs to be addressed. The repayment of the new GBP 5.4 million loan needs to be factored into our future cash flows, which will require immediate improvements to be made to the profit and the cash management in the business.

The unbundling of the shared services center, which was implemented in late H1 2021, will improve controls and reduce costs by ensuring we have the right people, the right controls and the right processes in place. This will reduce the need for temporary resources and improve our cash collection in the U.K.

The trading improvements that we need to see in Delamode Anglia and the U.K. warehousing operations, will not only improve profit, but we'll also stop the cash burn. Our cost-saving program has been implemented in the U.K. at the center, which will reduce the under covered overheads and again reduce the cash requirements. Also, the careful monitoring of the advanced payments for the suppliers will be well be ongoing. This will ensure that we have the optimal balance to both profits and cash for the business.

[Michael Stone, executive]

On to Delamode Anglia. This company stands slightly alone when it's compared to the rest of the forwarding businesses. It's our only unprofitable forwarding business, and it operates at the lowest margin. This was not the case when it was acquired a couple of years ago. There are a few reasons for its current [ core ] state, some of them interlinked.

First, the Anglia business is actually the amalgamation of 3 businesses: Delamode Plc, the foundation company for Xpediator's forwarding division; and Anglia Forwarding and Benfleet, 2 later acquisitions. These were integrated in 2021 to become Delamode Anglia. This integration was not professionally managed, with a number of operational process and system issues either not properly addressed or seemingly ignored.

The suboptimal business was further handicapped in late 2021 when a shared service function, primarily IT, HR and finance, was created in the U.K. with Delamode Anglia as its first customer. Instead of bringing cost savings and better support, the opposite happened. The end result was that Anglia management was disenfranchised from these key support functions. And as this was going on through 2021, people started leaving Anglia. In the past 12 months, about 35% in total. I'm happy with the uncertainty around their roles and the future of the companies they have previously worked for.

Operational performance dropped, working capital management was almost nonexistent, financial reporting was incomplete and inaccurate, IT systems were dysfunctional and personnel costs increased as gaps in the organization, especially in the shared services organization were plugged with temps and contractors. All of this leading to further margin erosion and a lack of engagement in the people.

But not of this is irreversible, and we believe we have fought it relatively quickly. The catalyst to bring about the reverse of the Anglia situation is the appointment of Justas Versnickas, MD of our hugely successful Baltic company, to lead Anglia for the foreseeable future. This, combined with the unwinding of the shared services organization and the rebuilding of the finance and HR functions especially, will give Anglia the appropriate leadership and support structure to rebuild the processes and morale that have been damaged over the past 12 months.

I and Richard will be working closely with Justas and his management team, especially in the coming months, to make sure they have the support they require to rebuild their business and to return it to profitability. Our shared objective being to have Anglia reporting a profit at the end of next year.

Warehousing & Logistics. As outlined earlier, the problems driving the losses in the 3 U.K. businesses are all different. Southampton, due to an overspend resulting from the late delivery of their new building; Beckton due to the woes of the high street retail fashion industry it serves and compounded by some poor management practices that have left the legacy of customs clearance and customer claims issues going back 12 months or more; and in Braintree, it's an inappropriate customer base that is not providing the profitability that we would aspire to. All of these issues are now actively being rectified under the leadership of a newly hired U.K. Logistics Director. He brings hugely relevant experience and leadership skills to the company.

Southampton, as you would expect from the high cost in H1 2022, has been gold plated for the peak period this year and trading as planned over the next 3 months will result in a site being profitable and cash generative. This will be reinforced and sustained with the results of a detailed workforce -- sorry, productivity study completed last month, where it will ensure our workforce planning and customer pricing are intrinsically linked going forward.

In Braintree, we have freed up 40% of the warehouse space by raising prices, and this space has been filled from a sales pipeline of carefully profiled and targeted potential customers, the first of which is installed in the building and generating profitable revenue.

Beckton remains a bit of an enigma. We are resolving the last of the historical issues in terms of the customer claims and customs entries in the next 2 weeks, and we've won a couple of small customers in the past months. But filling the building appears to be a long-term journey. We continue to review opportunities other than fashion for Beckton, with its close proximity to Central London, a unique selling proposition we are leveraging in some recent exploratory discussions.

The expansion in Europe remains an important strategic objective for us. Two of our largest customers in Southampton have indicated they will commit to space in the new warehouse in Roosendaal. And on the back of this, we are revisiting the initial business case and updating the cost and revenue projections based on this initial interest from customers and the clearer time frame for completion that we now have. Overall, following successful completion of the actions we have initiated, all sites in the Logistics division in the U.K. will be back to profitability.

So how do we summarize this all? We have a healthy business, and we believe quite some potential to grow both revenue and profit in the back end of this year and through 2023 and beyond. Richard and I feel very comfortable that we have uncovered the key issues that have handicapped the business over the past 6 to 12 months, and we have initiated corrective actions to resolve them. Europe continues to be our powerhouse, but we are confident that U.K. logistics will start contributing to profit in the near term, and that Delamode Anglia will do so from the midterm.

As these 2 businesses returned to profitability and the cost management and process improvement actions realized their results, net debt will drop sharply and return to an acceptable level. We will not propose an interim dividend with the level of debt we have inherited, but we will review the dividend situation at the end of the year. Finally, I can tell you that we have started H2 strongly, and we are confident that we will retrieve our profit target for the year.

[Operator]

Mike, that's great, and Richard as well. Thank you once again for taking the time to update investors today.

Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. It's going to take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it will be greatly valued by the company.

On behalf of the management team of Xpediator Plc, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good morning to you all.