Negative Points

• Gross revenue and sales revenue were broadly stable year-on-year, with sales revenue declining 3% due to US tariff impacts and softer demand.

• The US market remains a significant headwind, with revenue down 13% in established markets and the US now representing 41% of total revenue.

• Delivered margin was impacted by higher US duties costs, which were only partially offset by reduced promotional activity.

• The company released unaudited accounts due to incomplete audit work, citing increased complexity from tariff refunds and VAT classification issues.

• Italian VAT receivables continue to grow, with a large portion classified as non-current due to slow government payments, tying up cash.

• The US tariff drawback mechanism for returned goods is not yet implemented, and the company continues to fund duties on 100% of US shipments.

Q & A Highlights

Q: How does your performance in constant currency look versus AUD terms for year to date FY27? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): Foreign exchange remains a revenue headwind post year-end. The growth rate is expected to be in the order of five to 10 percentage points higher than reported for the first few weeks of the year. For FY26, overall revenue growth increased in constant currency terms compared with a modest decline in reported terms, with the second-half growing strongly in constant currency terms.

Q: On year-to-date trading, from your commentary and growth profile in the last few months, it seems you're pointing to some green shoots. What specifically are you seeing? A: Dean Mintz (CEO): Growth outside the US has been very strong, while the US has stabilized and is no longer an anchor. The encouraging thing is that growth is coming from both customer growth and order volume growth, which had been harder to achieve given the pass-through of US tariffs. This growth has been achieved without materially increasing marketing spend.

Q: Can you provide any insights into the Q3, Q4 revenue trends, noting your comments around Q4 stabilization? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): The third quarter was tracking down in the high 10s percentage points year on year, which was always going to be a difficult quarter given the comparator. We ended up with a negative Q3 but a very strong rebound in the fourth quarter, where the US business grew. Ex-US growth in Aussie dollar terms was approximately 25% up year on year, and even stronger from a constant currency perspective.

Q: You've identified around 9 million of IEPA tariff refunds. How much have you received already in FY26, and is the $9 million just your internal estimate? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): We have started receiving the refunds, which commenced hitting the bank account in June and have been paid progressively. To date, we've received less than a million dollars, with the vast majority expected to be received during FY27, likely in the first half. The $9 million is our estimation of the tariff amount, and we feel pretty good around our estimation, though there may ultimately be some variance.

Q: Turning to Italian VAT receivables, what specifically is holding up the process? Is it a routine administrative backlog or has the Italian tax authority raised queries or objections? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): There is no conflict or dispute with the Italian tax office. For every refund requested, the amount has been paid as per the amount requested. The holdup is administrative related, as the timeliness of the refund process in certain European jurisdictions is not as simple as in markets like Australia. We are looking at all available options to potentially accelerate the conversion to cash, including something like a factoring transaction, which is a common pathway in Europe.

Q: What's the reason for no audit? Is it related to the non-current asset deficiency and what comments can you make on the company's financial strength? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): We've released unaudited accounts today simply because the audit work is not yet completed. There's no specific issue to highlight. The company is growing in scale and complexity, which naturally comes with additional audit work streams. Key topics this year relate to the tariff refunds and the VAT classification between current and non-current. We aim to release the audited accounts to market as soon as practical.

Q: Are you lifting marketing spend versus the first quarter FY26 to deliver your growth period to date, or is the growth coming from existing clients and/or better marketing efficiencies? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): There's no meaningful change in our marketing spend. We're seeing a continuation of the efficient CAC level seen throughout FY26 and very strong engagement from new customers. We continue to see strong re-engagement from our existing base, not just in terms of spend but in improving retention rates. This is one of the data points that gives us a bit more encouragement in our outlook than in the last couple of sets of results.

Q: Does CETI consider the US market still viable given ongoing tariff policies, and what contingency plans does CETI have in place if future tariff changes come to light? A: Dean Mintz (CEO): It's absolutely still viable. Tariff and duties changes are just business as usual, and we're well adept at adapting as needed.

Q: Do you have any update on your progress in getting a tariff clawback mechanism in place for return goods in the USA? A: Timothy Hume (CFO): Before the changes in the de minimis rules, less than 10% of our shipments into the US attracted duties. That's now 100% of shipments. When a customer returns a parcel and the goods leave the USA, those duties are not refunded, so our business has funded that cost throughout the bulk of FY26. We are working on opportunities to improve that flow with our freight carriers, but we don't have a specific update at this stage. It will certainly be supportive of profitability once it's in place.

Q: How is China progressing, are you on track to launch in Tmall in Q1, and where do you see the China opportunity getting to over a two to three-year period? A: Dean Mintz (CEO): China remains a long-term project for us. It's a complicated market, and we will need multiple pathways to reach customers. We're on track to launch with Tmall very shortly and will continue to build out similar partnerships as appropriate. In the long-term, China could potentially be a very meaningful portion of revenue, but there's still a lot of progress that needs to be made to get to where we want to be.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript .