Seven Group profit soars but skilled labour in short supply

afr.com:

Seven Group boss Ryan Stokes said a shortage of skilled labour is one of the few forces holding back the conglomerate’s WesTrac machinery business, which supplies Caterpillar equipment to the mining sector, after it reported a big jump in annual profit.

Seven Group boss Ryan Stokes. Brook Mitchell

The Stokes family-controlled group recorded underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $1.69 billion, up 15 per cent on financial year 2022. Net profit was $604 million, up 36 per cent, and group revenue increased 20 per cent to $9.63 billion.

It declared a flat final dividend of 23¢ a share, fully franked.

Seven’s industrial division, which spans WesTrac, Coates and its interest in building materials supplier Boral, led the way after hits from its hefty stakes in Beach Energy and Seven West Media.

WesTrac revenue jumped 24 per cent to $4.9 billion and translated to record earnings before interest and tax of $500 million. Mr Stokes said WesTrac’s growth came on the back of both machine sales and product support.

“The service revenue opportunity was constrained by skilled labour availability, particularly in WA,” he said in the company’s annual report released on Thursday. “Our customers and competitors are experiencing similar constraints as the activity demand, particularly for support of ageing fleets increases.”

WesTrac has more than 450 apprentices in training as it looks to tackle the skills shortage.

Mr Stokes noted that WesTrac continued to work with Cat and global mining companies to develop electric solutions. He said significant progress was made in the past 12 months, and that a Cat electric large mining truck was being developed with WesTrac’s key customers.

Mining billionaire Andrew