Operator
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Warehouse Group Limited Fiscal Year 2026 Interim Results. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. John Journee, Group Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
John William Journee
[Foreign Language] and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Warehouse Group’s FY ’26 interim results presentation. Thank you for joining us today. I’m John Journee. It’s a privilege to be speaking with you as the first time as Chair of The Warehouse Group. Joining me today are Mark Stirton, our Group Chief Executive Officer; and Stefan Knight, our Group Chief Financial Officer. I will start with an update of our first half and then hand to Mark to step through the group’s performance and progress. Stef will then take you through the financial detail, and Mark will return at the end of the talk to talk about the second half of the year. As always, there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation.
From the Board’s perspective, the group is on the right path, and we are seeing execution and proof. This progress has been delivered in an extremely challenging retail environment with volatile macroeconomic conditions. In these circumstances, the group delivered a solid result for the first half, holding sales, reducing costs and improving profitability.
Sales were $1.6 billion, up 0.3% on the prior year half. Gross profit was $520.5 million, down slightly on the