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Speaker 1: Hill a du for CLS. So some good news for

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Speaker 1: Fletcher Building. It's posted a half year operating profit of

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Speaker 1: forty five million dollars, which is up from last year's

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Speaker 1: operating loss of eighty eight million dollars. The CEO, Andrew

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Speaker 1: Reading is with us Hi Andrew Hi. Still a net

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Speaker 1: loss for the business of eleven million dollars. So how

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Speaker 1: would you describe the business right now in the turnaround

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Speaker 1: that you're doing.

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's a journey that we're traveling and I

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Speaker 2: think we're making good progress on it. The loss that

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Speaker 2: we recorded for the half of eleven million was after

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Speaker 2: fifty six million dollars of significant items, so we actually

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Speaker 2: posted a net operating profit of forty five million, which

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Speaker 2: is the first time we've done that since June twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three.

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Speaker 1: Still expecting a tough year this year.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Look, we the first two quarters this year were

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Speaker 2: very different. So the quarter one, which was coming out

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Speaker 2: of our financial year twenty twenty five, was continue the

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Speaker 2: downward trajectory, and then in October we saw things flatten

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Speaker 2: out and November December started to pick up a bit.

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Speaker 2: But it's not bubbling. It is just getting better and

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Speaker 2: very bad. So we're not forecasting great times for our

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Speaker 2: financial year twenty twenty six, and indeed think that the

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Speaker 2: calendar year twenty twenty seven is when things start moving.

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Speaker 2: All things are lined up and moving properly.

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Speaker 1: Now, I see, in terms of staff losses, you've already

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Speaker 1: cut about three hundred. Is more than three hundred hit

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Speaker 1: off of staff. How many more are you planning to cut?

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Speaker 2: Look, that's very difficult to say, because what we have

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Speaker 2: left is about four hundred and eleven. Of those, over

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Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty are involved in shared service type operations.

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Speaker 2: So there is a desire to get as much of

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Speaker 2: our overhead into the business units as possible. But we'll

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Speaker 2: try and pick up some efficiencies on the way as

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Speaker 2: we go through that. So it did very difficult to

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Speaker 2: determine put any numbers on that.

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Speaker 1: Has it been quite a significant problem in the business,

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Speaker 1: just just way too much inefficiency.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it's unfair to say way too much inefficiency,

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Speaker 2: because nobody comes to work to fail. But what we've

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Speaker 2: had is some strategies that have driven cost. So for example,

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Speaker 2: we were at one stage going to turn around and

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Speaker 2: roll out of SAPI across the entire business, and we

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Speaker 2: had to write off one hundred and fifty million dollars

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Speaker 2: associated with that. But obviously if you're doing that sort

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Speaker 2: of exercise, you have the people involved to do it.

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Speaker 2: So this is why since I've been here, we've taken

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Speaker 2: it from seven hundred and nineteen down to four hund eleven,

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Speaker 2: because we've been changing some of those strategies that drove

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Speaker 2: cost into the business.

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Speaker 1: Andrew Listen, thank you very much for time. It's good

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Speaker 1: to talk to you. Andrew Reading, the CEO of Litcher Building.

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