Ann: Half Yearly Report and Accounts, page-2

True to Reece's prudential style, this is another understated and conservatively presented set of financial statements.

They say NPAT grew by 12%, but really, when you analyse the result, the growth was more like 24%.

The business continues to perform like it has done for many years: impeccably.

And with the big investment in making the supply chain more efficient now coming to an end, the financial benefits of this investment programme, plus the non-recurrence of the costs associated with it's implementation (which have been booked in the past 12 months), will see FY2017's bottom-line growth end up somewhere in the mid-teens, by my reckoning. And the company will be debt-free again at the end of the year.

Verily, a thing of beauty.

Next time to think about the stock is a the full-year result.