Ann: NCK FY24 Results presentation, page-10

Anyway, all this freight talk is really just noise, and is not doing anything to alter the extraordinary Gross Profit margin result (which I, wrongly, thought would have had to ease):



(Note that the vertical scale commences at 50% so the bars are stretched, but this doesn't detract from what has happened to the GP margin in recent periods).


It bears noting that the proceeds of the GP Margin bonanza is effectively being invested in Cost of Doing Business:




No doubt, what's behind these recent trends is open to speculation and conjecture, and I certainly have my own views on the matter, and while it certainly reflects a meaningful degree of wage inflation, there is also an element of  deepening and widening of NCK's commercial moat.

Notwithstanding the dour outlook commentary, the more I analysed the financials, the better I found the quality of the result to be and the more surprised I was that the stock got so aggressively sold off initially.

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