PBT up 208.9% on 1.7% revenue growth as margins hit records

Revenue rose 1.7% to NZ$193.9m, but pro forma EBITDA reached NZ$34.2m (the release notes +18.1% versus FY21) and PBT grew 208.9% to NZ$27.8m from NZ$9.0m. Against the company's historical baseline, PBT growth is classified as unprecedented (4-period mean −31.0%), and EBITDA margin of 17.6% is well above the historical range of 9.6%–10.4%.

Reported NPAT moved from NZ$2.4m to NZ$20.0m, but the NPAT growth percentage is flagged as an implausible outlier and is not suitable for normal analytical presentation; the comparison is also distorted by a basis discontinuity in tax, with the prior effective rate of 72.8% normalising to 28.1%. PBT growth of +208.9% is therefore the cleaner operating read, and the NPAT growth figure should be omitted rather than used as evidence of an earnings trend.

Operating cash flow rose 22.7% to NZ$29.5m, pre-lease free cash flow reached NZ$24.1m, and the group moved to a net cash position of NZ$2.5m from NZ$14.3m of net debt. A final dividend of 4 cents per share takes the FY22 total to 7.0c (the maiden full-year distribution since IPO).

EBITDA margin of 17.6% is 7.6 percentage points above the historical mean of 10.0%, and PBT margin of 14.3% is roughly three times the 4-period mean of 4.7%. With revenue up only 1.7% and management citing a 1.6pp lift in contribution margin to 27.2%, the step-up reflects operating leverage and input/freight/labour management rather than volume. The release does not isolate how much is structural versus cyclical, which makes durability the central question.

Tax distortion explains the gap between PBT and reported NPAT. The effective tax rate fell from 72.8% to 28.1%, a basis discontinuity that means the NPAT comparison is not analytically comparable as a clean trend; the 524.4 percentage point gap between PBT and NPAT growth simply reflects that denominator change. Anyone benchmarking off NPAT is reading a one-step normalisation, not a repeatable lift.

Balance sheet swung to net cash with maiden dividend. Net debt / EBITDA of −0.1x sits below the 3-period range of 0.11x–0.84x, and ROE of 29.9% is well above the supplied 4-period mean of 11.2%. The 7.0c FY22 dividend implies an 87.5% payout against NPAT and a 73.0% payout against pre-lease FCF — covered, but with limited buffer if margins normalise. The NPAT-based payout ratio should be read with the tax-basis caveat above.

Against the HY22 shape context, the first half contributed 50.8% of revenue but only 46.8% of EBITDA and 47.2% of NPAT, so the second half delivered the higher-margin earnings mix on a slightly smaller revenue base. The release confirms delivery against the prospective financial information ($194m revenue versus $186.4m PFI implied) and the successful transition of a new South Island factory, but it does not quantify what proportion of the FY22 margin uplift is repeatable. Without a stated FY23 earnings or margin target, the result supports the current period but does not anchor what the run-rate should be next year.

OCF/EBITDA cash conversion of 86.3% is above the historical mean of 72.8%, FCF pre-lease of NZ$24.1m is more than three times the 3-period mean of NZ$6.9m, and FCF of 120.4% relative to NPAT indicates earnings backed by cash — though the NPAT denominator carries the tax-basis caveat noted above. Capex was steady at NZ$2.9m (1.5% of revenue), so the FCF lift is not under-investment.

Working-capital signals are mixed and bear watching. Operating working capital absorbed NZ$1.4m versus a historical mean build of NZ$0.3m, and inventory days of 4.9 sit above the historical mean of 2.9 days and at the upper edge of the supplied 0.9–4.5 day range. For a meal-kit business inventory days are inherently small, but a doubling relative to the recent baseline raises a question about either factory transition effects or forward-stocking. Against this, debtor days of 0.4 are below the historical range, consistent with the largely pre-paid customer model.

The combined read: the cash result looks durable in this period, but the earnings uplift is concentrated in margin and tax-basis effects, neither of which the disclosure proves are repeatable.

This briefing cannot assess management's forward margin outlook, active customer trajectory, or input-cost guidance because no FY23 targets or quantified outlook commentary are supplied in the available context.