‌STRATEGIC REPORT

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Performance highlights

FINANCIAL

+ Read more on page 28

Revenue

£2,904m

Change: (1)%

(2)%

Like-for-like1 revenue change

Change: +6 pts

39.1p

Adjusted1 earnings per share

Like-for-like change3: (6)%

32.5p

Earnings per share

Change3: (14)%

9.4%

Adjusted1 operating profit margin

Change3: (1.0) pts

8.0%

Operating profit margin

Change3: (1.3) pts

£214m

Adjusted1 free cash flow

Change3: +42%

£349m

Net cash generated from operations

Change3: +16%

Adjusted1 profit before tax

£248m

Like-for-like change3: (7)%

£206m

Profit before tax

Change3: (15)%

22.4p

Dividend per share

Change: +2%

15.2%

Return on capital employed1

Change3: (1.9) pts

ESG GLOBAL GOALS

+ Read more on pages 45 to 73

ESG RATINGS AND STANDARDS

Climate leadership score: A

Medal rating:

Platinum

Global top 50 ESG companies

2024 rating: AA

S&P: included in Sustainability Yearbook

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

At a glance

OUR PURPOSE

Why we exist

Making amazing happen for a better world

+ Read more on pages 45 to 73

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

CONNECTING CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS

We are a high-service global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers, enabling them to operate efficiently and sustainably.

>1m

customers

c. 8,500

employees

>2,500

suppliers

OPERATING IN 36 COUNTRIES

Asia Pacific

8%

Americas

31%

£2,904m

Group Revenue

EMEA

61%

Group revenue Change: (1)%

Like-for-like change: (2)%

2023/24: £2,942m

EMEA AMERICAS ASIA PACIFIC

Revenue Revenue Revenue

£1,777m £907m £219m

Change: (1)% Change: (3)% Change: 2%

Like-for-like change: (3)% Like-for-like change: 0% Like-for-like change: 0%

2023/24: £1,795m 2023/24: £934m 2023/24: £214m

+ Read more on page 33 + Read more on page 34 + Read more on page 35

OUR VISION

Where we are going

To be first choice for all our stakeholders

+ Read more on pages 12 and 13

OUR VALUES

SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS ACROSS A RANGE OF INDUSTRIES*

Share of revenue:

SMALL BATCH, CONFIGURED PRODUCTION

PLANNED AND EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE, REPAIR AND OPERATIONS (MRO)

AND MULTIPLE PRODUCT CATEGORIES

Automation & Control (A&C)

and Electrification

Share of revenue:

Cables & Connectors

Semis & Passives

Facilities & Maintenance

Test &

Measurement Other

Mechanical Personal Protection

& Fluid Power Equipment (PPE)

& Site Safety

* Other = 9%

4%

4%

6%

21%

6%

4%

13%

42%

How we do business

+ Read more on pages 5 and 6

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION

RS Group plc

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Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Investment proposition

THROUGH-CYCLE VALUE CREATION TARGETS*

Revenue growth

2X MARKET

(of GDP+)

MID-TEEN

adjusted operating

profit margin

>80%

cash conversion rate

>20%

return on capital employed

REALISING THE POTENTIAL TO DELIVER THE RS OPPORTUNITY 1WELL POSITIONED

IN GROWTH MARKETS

Global leader in a large, industrial maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) market, growing at GDP+ through-cycle

2

DIFFERENTIATED PROPOSITION DRIVING MARKET SHARE GAIN

Digitally enabled, high-service distributor

4

of a broad range of technical product and service solutions for industrial customers that demand low volumes of critical products across many categories

DISCIPLINED ACQUISITIONS ACCELERATING GROWTH

Rigorous investment discipline and clear capital allocation policy driving accelerated value creation

INVESTING TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND OPERATING LEVERAGE

3 5

Creating, utilising and optimising more efficient and flexible physical, digital and process infrastructure

SIGNIFICANT VALUE-CREATION OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS

Generating value through driving strong operational and financial performance and investing in growth opportunities that deliver sustainable cash returns on invested capital

* Economic cycle as defined by GDP growth

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Chairman's introduction

IMPLEMENTING OUR STRATEGY

Rona Fairhead

Chairman

We are happy with the progress we have made despite the challenging market backdrop.

We have continued to invest in the business in a focused way to drive improvements which will accelerate value delivery for all our stakeholders

once the industry returns to growth. In spite of a challenging market, our performance has been resilient and progress has been made in each of our six strategic focus areas.

I am delighted with the leadership of Simon Pryce and the way he has steered the business through this difficult year. Good progress has been made possible by the relentless hard work of our leadership team and our people right across our business. They have been extraordinary, and I would like to thank every one of them for their passion, commitment and professionalism.

Our strategy

Our strategy is clear and has not changed.

RS is a high-service global product and service solutions provider to >1m customers. We have a differentiated competitive proposition within the industrial MRO market and serve as the essential link between suppliers and customers

who require high-service, low-volume distribution. We help our customers build and maintain their industrial assets in an efficient and sustainable way. This has enabled us to continue to drive market share gains despite the market cyclicality.

FOR OPERATIONAL PROGRESS

During the year, RS has continued to strengthen its digital and technology platform, technical product offer, customer experience and has greatly enhanced its executional capabilities.

The market potential is significant, and we are very confident that we are well positioned to capitalise on the upcoming opportunities as the cycle turns.

While our primary focus is to build organically, we continue to pursue value-adding, strategically relevant acquisitions. I am pleased to report that our key acquisitions completed over the last few years have performed well. Risoul continues to outperform with strong growth and profits since it joined the RS family two years ago, and last year successfully expanded into Trinidad and Tobago. Similarly, Distrelec, which we bought in 2023, has operated well and integration with our EMEA business has generated cost synergies ahead of plan. In April 2024, we acquired Trident which performed well during the year; we have successfully integrated back-office functions and invested in a calibration service laboratory to accelerate growth. Our mergers and acquisition (M&A) pipeline remains active, and we aim to

accelerate our growth through further disciplined, value-accretive acquisitions.

+ For more on our strategy, please see pages 16 to 22

Our culture and values

We are fortunate to have an amazing can-do culture that exists across our operations worldwide. During the year, we underpinned this distinct advantage by continuing to roll out and embed our four values which encapsulate how our people work together to succeed. They unite us in how we should behave and differentiate us from our competition. Our values help us to build trust with our customers, suppliers and shareholders, enabling us to deliver our strategy more effectively and with better long-term outcomes for everyone.

+ See pages 5 and 6 for more on our values and culture

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Chairman's introduction continued

Effective governance and commitment to the environment and the communities in which we operate is embedded in our culture and is core to our purpose, strategy and competitive success. Our strong environment, social and governance (ESG) approach is a commercial driver that helps us accelerate the achievement of our long-term objectives; we now sell c. 30,000 Better World products, which help our customers take direct action on sustainability.

Our performance was again recognised by external agencies. RS is now included in the CDP A-list, reserved for the top companies showing advanced climate leadership, globally. The Company has also retained its Platinum EcoVadis medal, placing us in the top 1% of the

150,000+ companies rated. Furthermore, we have been listed in the S&P Sustainability Yearbook for the second consecutive year running, positioning us in the top 15% of companies in our industry.

RS has experienced significant benefits from harnessing the full potential of the diverse talents and experiences across the Company, including on our Board. We are pleased to note that RS was nominated joint first of FTSE 250 companies for 'Women on Boards'*. RS Group was also listed in the 'Women on Boards and in Leadership' ranking.

+ For more on ESG see pages 45 to 73

Our stakeholders

Our vision is to become first choice for all our stakeholders: our people, customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders. Engagement with each of them is key and feeds into our operating and strategic plans.

The Board and our leadership team continue to engage with all our stakeholders to understand what matters to them, ensuring we are responsive to their needs and taking action.

We embrace the dialogue with our shareholders - our owners - and enormously value their contribution. Our Board and executive team continued to have significant dialogue with shareholders throughout the year.

In addition to building a resilient, sustainable company for our owners, we also recognise the importance of our dividend to them. We are therefore pleased to announce a further increase in our dividend to 22.4p.

+ More details on our Board engagement with our stakeholders can be found on page 88

Our Board

Simon has brought greater clarity and strategic focus and has substantially enhanced our ability to operate. We are confident that, with Simon at the helm, supported by Kate Ringrose and our talented Executive Committee (ExCo), RS will be able to accelerate the strategy and capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead.

RS has an outstanding Board of Directors. They bring a diverse range of experience and expertise and are a genuine asset to the Company. Their wisdom, insight and acumen

are invaluable. We continue to shape and build our talent, so I am pleased to welcome two new Directors, Carole Cran and Miles Roberts, who joined the Board on 1 December 2024 and 1 March 2025 respectively. Together, they bring strong international and sector experience and have already made powerful contributions.

I would also like to thank Navneet Kapoor, who stepped down from the Board this year, for his valuable contribution during his tenure.

Looking ahead

As we navigate the challenging external environment, we must continue to drive our strategy and our operational capability and invest in our key strategic initiatives while managing costs effectively. We remain positive about the future for RS Group and feel very confident we have the right strategy - and the right leadership - to generate stronger and more sustainable growth and future returns, which will accelerate when the market recovers.

Rona Fairhead

Chairman

* Women on Boards: 2024: ftsewomenleaders.com

OUR CULTURE AND VALUES

In April 2024, we introduced four values into

our work culture and the rollout has been a tremendous success. It has given us a universal language to recognise great behaviour

and constructively challenge each other.

And because the values were shaped by the people in our organisation, it truly represents life at RS. Awareness of the values among colleagues reached 87% in the latest pulse survey, exceeding our 70% target.

We listen, respect and trust each other. We seek diverse perspectives.

We collaborate with purpose, as one connected team.

We care about our impact on colleagues, customers, suppliers and communities, today and tomorrow.

Now embedded in key processes, our values guide decisions, set expectations and foster a shared sense of purpose.

We are one team, who deliver brilliantly, by doing the right thing, to make every day better.

Our values set out what our people need to do to succeed together. They are how we work

across our business in a consistent way, uniting us and differentiating us from our competition. Our values help us to deliver our strategy more effectively, with sustainable outcomes for all our stakeholders. Most importantly, they have

become central to what colleagues say and do -day in and day out.

+ Read more on page 6

We are empowered, take ownership and deliver what customers need with

energy and passion.

We are adaptable, agile and inspired to innovate and make positive

changes, always finding ways to

improve, challenge and simplify.

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Our culture and values continued

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES TO SUCCEED

Our values shape how we work, collaborate and succeed together. These four stories showcase our values in action, highlighting real-life examples of how they drive positive change across RS every day.

CASE STUDY

COLLABORATION ACHIEVES RESULTS

When we launched RS PRO products on the Distrelec website, our goal was to expand our reach in key categories. In only eight months, sales increased to £1 million through the Distrelec website, with 13,700 customers purchasing RS PRO products. This success was driven by seamless collaboration across multiple teams working with a common

goal and strengthening our presence in key markets.

£1m

in sales in eight months

CASE STUDY

RISING TO THE OCCASION TO BEAT THE CLOCK

At RS, delivering brilliantly isn't just something we say - it's something we do, every single day. A customer was facing a six-week operational delay, costing £5,000 per day.

With the clock ticking, the team saw this as an opportunity to deliver brilliantly by owning the challenge and finding a solution that would make the client proud to work with RS. This wasn't only about logistics; it was about rising to the occasion with a positive mindset and delivering at pace.

£5,000

saved daily

CASE STUDY

SPEAKING UP ALWAYS MATTERS

We are committed to doing the right thing and conducting business with the utmost concern for our colleagues. During the year, we have updated our Speak Up policy and we now have 11 local language versions.

If employees wish to place an anonymous report in confidence, then we offer an independent Speak Up facility, which is available 24/7.

11

local language versions

CASE STUDY

WEIGHTY MEASURES TO REDUCE WASTE

Our global distribution centre (DC) in Nuneaton, UK, faced a significant challenge: humidity was causing auto pack lids and boxes to warp, making them unusable in the machinery and resulting in daily waste.

The team devised a simple yet effective pallet-and-perspex tool to apply weight and prevent warping. Now used daily, it makes every day better and has successfully reduced waste by 285kg per year.

285kg

waste reduced annually

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) introduction

DRIVING OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Simon Pryce

CEO

It has been a year of significant underlying progress at RS Group. We are executing a clear and focused plan to improve performance and deliver sustainable value for all stakeholders. Our aligned teams are addressing organisational and process inefficiencies and prioritising

our investment to position RS for accelerated strategic growth and sustainable value creation. RS is executing more effectively, with improving operating metrics, although more difficult markets mean this has yet to be reflected in absolute financial performance. I am extremely grateful and hugely proud of our great people who continue to embrace the changes we are making and are working extremely hard to deliver them.

This year, we have faced weaker than anticipated global industrial demand and geopolitical uncertainties that continue to impact business confidence as reflected in weak manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data.

This uncertainty continues and is delaying recovery in industrial production. Against this difficult market back drop, RS is performing as it should. Proxy market data, such as supplier information and digital search enquiries, are showing that RS continues to take share across most of our technical product categories.

We are also managing better the things we can control, making continued selective strategic investment and improving our execution.

The cost savings we have delivered were greater than originally planned, and we have improved cash generation through better focus. Our strong balance sheet also gives us the opportunity to accelerate our strategy through continued but disciplined consolidation within a fragmented market.

During the year, we provided more detail on our business, our strategy, our plan of action to position RS for accelerated growth and ways to improve operating leverage and business efficiency at our Investor Event in September 2024 (full details on our corporate website rsgroup.com/investors and on page 9).

We made good progress this year and have greater confidence in our ability to deliver strong and more sustainable performance as markets recover and generate significant value for all our stakeholders over time.

Our 2024/25 financial performance During 2024/25, our revenue declined 1% with like-for-like revenue down 2% reflecting the difficult industrial markets. Our performance improved during the second half of the year, especially within Americas and Asia Pacific, partly due to easier comparable data and a more stable electronics market, and in the fourth quarter delivered a small increase in like-for-like revenue albeit with continued variability month to month.

Our average order value declined slightly to

£252 (2023/24: £257) but the average order

FOR STRONGER POSITIONING

frequency increased as supply chain dependability improved and customers ordered for immediate need rather than for inventory and availability.

Our industrial product categories continued to outperform the broader Group reflecting the relative resilience of these categories, the importance of our products to customers'

operations and increased focus by our teams on a more curated and specialist offer. Our Semis &

Passives and Cables & Connectors product ranges performance remained weak, reflecting a more competitive electronics market.

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) introduction continued

Our strong balance sheet gives us the opportunity to accelerate our strategy through continued but disciplined consolidation within a fragmented market."

Our growth accelerators continue to outperform the wider Group: our own-brand RS PRO grew by 2% like-for-like and our revenue associated with our service solutions increased by 6%

like-for-like. Digital revenue in total declined by 2% like-for-like, but this included 4% like-for-like revenue growth in digital procurement

solutions, such as eProcurement, used by larger customers requiring a more integrated and automated procurement method. Pure web revenue decreased despite improved conversion, reflecting reduced web enquiries and lower demand from more transactional customers.

We are capturing some of this transactional web traffic with the continued adoption of our digital procurement solutions.

We generated £29 million of cost savings through actions, including labour, as we improve our productivity; with over £38 million of accumulated savings over the last two years. Additionally, we delivered £13 million of one-off cost benefit as

we flexed our spending to reflect the difficult economic backdrop and accelerated the integration of our acquisition of Distrelec, partly offsetting charges relating to the restructuring and integration programme. Our actions are helping offset cost inflation, more normalised employee performance-based incentives, higher variable costs from customers ordering more frequently and an increase in organic investment to support RS for further market share growth and future cost efficiencies. Our adjusted operating profit margin fell 0.7 percentage points on a like-for-like basis to 9.4%.

A much-improved cash focus led to an adjusted operating cash flow conversion of 111%

from improved working capital management. Our balance sheet remains strong, with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 1.1x.

Executing our strategy

We have made significant progress over the last two years. Our strengthened leadership team, greater strategic focus and more relevant operating model is improving consistency and

delivery. We have developed an integrated action plan to deliver accelerated growth, improved operating leverage and more operating efficiency. This has aligned our teams and improved the way the Group interacts and functions with clarified accountability enabling more agile decision making and more disciplined investment and resource allocation. We are now one year into the execution and delivery of this multi-year action plan, including continued investment in our key strategic areas of focus to further differentiate our proposition and drive efficiency benefits and are already seeing operational improvements.

People

Be first choice for employees through creating an inclusive and engaging environment where everyone is proud and excited to come to work, can perform at their best, develop and thrive.

This year, we continued to strengthen our senior leadership capability through a mix of

external hires, internal promotions and increased investment in training and mobility. We launched a refreshed employee value proposition 'Go beyond amazing' and improved our recruitment capability leading to over 95% of roles now being filled via our in-house talent acquisition team, reducing our agency recruitment costs and time to hire. We have also enhanced our early careers programme, achieving a platinum award with the 5% Club in the UK.

Our new values have been successfully embedded and we are maintaining high engagement

OUR

STRATEGIC

ACTIONS

RS has a clear identity - we are a differentiated distributor of product and service solutions. How do we win?

We are customer focused. We are product experts. Our solutions deepen customer relationships and we drive operational excellence to deliver efficient and well-invested physical, digital and process infrastructure with great people.

Be first choice for our employees

Target industrial

MRO customers

Increase and curate our product range

Scale our service solutions

Strengthen our

customer experience

Drive operational excellence

+ Read more on pages 17 to 22

levels despite the significant amount of change taking place across the organisation and an uncertain external environment. We enhanced and improved the effectiveness of our Employee Resource Groups which support the culture of belonging and overall wellbeing at RS which is core to our future success.

Our redesigned employee incentive schemes and our team recognition tools are proving effective in creating stronger alignment of individual objectives with key strategic outcomes and business performance. This has led to greater focus, empowerment, accountability and responsibility. Our key employee operational metrics remain strong with our voluntary employee turnover at 9%, better than plan

and target.

Customers

Focus on higher value customers through harnessing data, embracing strategic engagement and ensuring a suitable cost to serve for all customers.

In 2024/25, we continued to invest in tools that better utilise the extensive data we have on our customers and their transactions. This is to better support and serve customers with their infrequent and difficult to predict but critical

demand for, a broad range of technical products across multiple categories, in small volumes at often relatively high frequency, where availability is valued and key. This typically helps customers to fulfil their MRO needs for small batch and highly configured production and design requirements.

These investments also aim to improve our focus on high lifetime value customers, whilst

continuing to support all customers but ensuring that we serve them in a cost-effective way.

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) introduction continued

In the year, we completed the roll out of a common customer relationship management tool across EMEA and the US, built a global customer database for a single view of customers and segmented our customers into industry verticals and value, enabling us to provide them with a more tailored sales, service and marketing offer in the future. We also enhanced our Voice

of Customer platform to better differentiate feedback between transactional customers and those receiving sales account input. Being able to identify transaction-only customers means we will be able to provide a more relevant digital

offer and service, whilst optimising human touch for our high lifetime value customers, and an appropriate cost-to-serve.

Revenue from our high lifetime value corporate customers grew by 4% driven by higher average order value and average order frequency.

Product and supply chain Offer technically led and specialist product ranges supported by strong supplier relationships.

We continue to invest in strong supplier relationships, and in our technical product categories to develop more curated and relevant ranges for our customers and suppliers. We are also investing in global supply chain processes and infrastructure to optimise supply and delivery to customers, whilst ensuring we manage inventory and anticipated demand effectively.

Key areas of progress this year include the successful launch of our new product

management solution which has tripled the products that can be uploaded to our websites and reduced onboarding time of technical data materially. The development of strategic supplier partnership programmes better support our growth in MRO, particularly in the Americas.

Ongoing investment in RS PRO, our

quality-assured own-brand offer, and accounting for 14% of Group revenue, grew new product revenue by 8%. Our Better World product

offer has been enhanced further including development of a green alternative selling tool aimed at higher lifetime value customers. We also increased local sourcing and stocking within

Asia Pacific to lower freight costs and associated carbon footprint benefits, cut delivery times and improve availability for customers.

Revenue from new product introductions (PMI) ahead of target, growing by c. 40% in EMEA and Asia Pacific, and now accounting for 4% of revenue. Our enhanced supplier programme is driving stronger revenue performance in their brands and delivering procurement benefits.

Solutions and services

Deliver valued, scalable solutions which builds greater strategic engagement and drives product pull-through.

We are focusing our wide solutions and services offer better, prioritising our digital procurement and inventory management offer. During the year we re-platformed our eProcurement offer in Americas and Asia Pacific enhancing content and order processes through new software planning tools and expanded and digitalised our custom order solution, particularly in the US.

A refreshed strategy at RS Integrated Supply included cutting unprofitable clients, development of new client acquisitions, implementing robust cash management and delivering standardisation and automation to drive cost efficiencies

and scalability.

During the year we have seen 4% growth in eProcurement revenue. RS Integrated Supply has delivered c. 140% increase in order book and improved commerciality.

Experience

CASE STUDY

THE RS OPPORTUNITY

What was discussed?

On 24 September 2024 in London, we hosted an investor event: The RS

Opportunity. Our senior leaders showcased our investment proposition, what makes

us different and our strategic action plan to further improve the business to

generate sustainable through-cycle growth and returns.

How did we respond?

We explained how we are targeting higher value potential customers, discussing our product offerings and the types of industries we serve. We showed new measures we have taken to improve our customers' experience, enabling them to have simple and seamless transactions with us when searching for critical parts. This includes our investment in a new AI-powered search engine and data insights, which personalise and tailor the experience for customers, enabling them

to prioritise choices around sustainability, efficiency and value.

What was the outcome?

More than 70 investors and analysts attended with a further 68 joining our virtual stream. They were able to explore two experience rooms, to understand what we sell and how we market to our customers globally.

Strengthen and tailor our customer experience to provide a digitally led, seamless omnichannel service.

RS has a strong digital presence, which is a source of competitive advantage especially within the industrial business-to-business market. We are investing to unify our digital platform across the Group to provide a seamless omnichannel experience and remove complexity and inefficiencies.

In 2024/25, we upgraded and enhanced our digital platform in Americas which will then be rolled out across EMEA and most markets in Asia Pacific over the next three years. We also invested in best-in-class digital tools such as AI-powered search capabilities globally and upgraded our browse facilities within EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Our real-time product tracking system, which was several years in development, was launched in the first half with full rollout expected after

we complete the customer pilot. This should materially improve our customer experience and reduce customer service enquiries, open orders and returned or cancelled orders. We are also tailoring a localised digital infrastructure for Asia Pacific to enhance our customer experience that reflects local customer needs, provides more tailored content and facilitates easier compliance with regional regulations and standards.

AI search is enabling us to optimise the 84 million search queries per annum we receive and redirect our customer service into value-added sales functions, enhancing customer experience. There has been a 3.3% increase in search visits adding to basket and 3.4% improved search revenue generation from our AI search tools.

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) introduction continued

Operational excellence

Delivering efficient physical, digital and process infrastructure, improved operating leverage and marginal drop-through.

We are making significant progress in improving operational efficiency and reducing complexity as we harmonise and upgrade our systems, processes, technology and digital infrastructure.

We continued to invest in our physical infrastructure: expanding our distribution centre (DC) in France, increasing capacity in our US

DC through increased automation and scale and accelerating the closure of the Distrelec DC to improve the efficiency and reduce the

cost of the RS distribution network quicker than originally planned.

We are simplifying and upgrading our technology infrastructure and digital landscape, aligning our data and moving to standardised and globally harmonised, cloud native technology platforms.

This is a multi-year programme that has only just commenced but moving to best-in-class

applications for each function, module-by-module, will deliver significant operational and financial benefits in the medium term, create increased capacity, reduce project risk and importantly improve agility and scalability.

As we upgrade our technology platform and applications estate, we are standardising and modernising our middle and back office processes which will ultimately reduce our

cost base and improve productivity, scalability and flexibility. We are consolidating and better leveraging our global shared business

services, strengthening our resource allocation planning and processes and improving our operational oversight and control environment. Standardising and streamlining our project management procedures will drive greater efficiency, consistency and collaboration across the Group.

During the year we rationalised c. 40 technology applications, reduced our headcount by c. 4%, began the migration of our Distrelec customers

and rationalised our global shared business services delivering improved productivity and associated cost benefits. We are well on the way to delivering the operational efficiencies, cost savings and increased scalability, that will

equate to a c. 150bp (equivalent to c. £45 million) of operating margin improvement over the medium term.

Acquisitions that accelerate our strategy

There is a solid pipeline of acquisition opportunities that can accelerate our strategy in a value disciplined way, supported by our strong balance sheet. Selective acquisitions can

enhance our presence in key markets, accelerate our operating leverage, strengthen product specialisation and expand our solutions and services portfolio. We are, however, mindful of the current macro uncertainty and will remain value disciplined in the way we assess opportunities.

Integration of our recent acquisitions has continued at pace and remain on track to deliver returns that more than cover our cost of capital within three years. We are particularly pleased with the progress our teams are making in integrating Distrelec and RS EMEA, which is materially exceeding the initial benefits case.

This has included migrating customers to RS, exiting the Distrelec third-party managed DC in the Netherlands and utilising our facilities

across Europe. At the end of the year, we agreed the divestment of Distrelec's sales activities in Finland and the Baltics, for c. £5 million, to our long-term distribution partner in the region, Boreo Plc. RS will continue to supply Distrelec customers in these markets through an expanded distribution agreement.

The acquisition of Trident in Perth, Australia, in April 2024 has expanded our service capability, provided local fulfilment centre capacity in the region and opened opportunities with customers in the resources sector. Trident is performing ahead of our investment case despite challenging markets in Australia.

Focusing on sustainability for stronger value creation

We continue to accelerate the delivery of our 2030 ESG action plan to protect people and the planet, whilst leveraging opportunities for

commercial growth for RS and our stakeholders. Sustainability remains an important opportunity for RS and a priority for our high-value customers who expect a choice of sustainable products and services that enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs, with detailed and transparent ESG reports to comply with tightening regulations.

Working closer with our suppliers to develop an industry-leading sustainable product framework is enabling our customers to make more sustainable and responsible product choices.

This includes a dedicated range of c. 30,000 Better World products from over 132 suppliers, digitally tagged on RS websites.

We made significant progress in delivering a more sustainable distribution service (DCs, packaging and logistics) to provide a better service to

our customers and reduce our environmental impacts. During the year, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 7% on a like-for-like basis from 2023/24; logistics emissions intensity in Europe has fallen by 6% and in Asia Pacific by 15%, and 94% of packaging is recyclable with 93% of group electricity from renewable sources. Due to existing outperformance, we have extended our 2030 ambitions to reduce packaging intensity and transport emissions intensity from our 2019/20 baseline to 45% and 35% respectively.

I was delighted that our progress towards advancing sustainability resulted in us making the CDP A list this year, improving from A- to A and maintaining our Platinum EcoVadis status. These top-tier ESG ratings recognise the strength of our commitment, action and disclosure, and the robustness of our ESG action plan.

Exciting long-term potential

RS provides the essential link between suppliers of industrial products and a diverse customer base that displays common buying behaviour associated with infrequent and difficult to predict but critical demand for a broad range of technical products across multiple categories, in small volumes at often relatively high frequency where availability and service is valued and key. Our wide product offer, specialist expertise, digital-led proposition, strong distribution capabilities and global infrastructure, combined with our growing focus on solutions and services, are driving ongoing market share growth. We also continue to invest to improve our operational effectiveness and drive better operating efficiencies.

Our underlying progress to date gives us increased confidence in delivering our medium-term financial targets when the market recovers as volume growth delivers additional leverage to a more efficient operating model.

Our investment thesis remains compelling. RS is:

We remain confident of delivering our targeted financial outcomes in the medium term of revenue growth of twice our market, mid-teen adjusted operating margin, cash conversion of 80% and a sustainable return on capital of more than 20%.

Simon Pryce

CEO

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Our business model

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

THE ESSENTIAL LINK BETWEEN CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS

WHAT WE DO

We provide the essential link between suppliers and industrial customers who buy a wide range of products to support the MRO and small batch production of their businesses.

Understanding our customers' needs and providing a diverse range of product and service solutions allows our

customers to keep their businesses running smoothly and efficiently in the most cost- and time-effective way.

Our customers

Our customers buy a broad mix of industrial and

1.

specialist products across a

diverse range of categories

OUR DIFFERENTIATED PROPOSITION

2. 3. 4.

Our suppliers

5.

Our suppliers need a distributor who provides access to a broad dispersed customer base, offers

in small volumes. We simplify our customers' procurement, drive cost and process efficiencies and enable them to operate more sustainably.

Why they choose RS:

and sustainable long-

term partner.

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Our stakeholders

RS Group plc

12

GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Linked to our ESG goals

The value we create

Net promoter score (NPS)

48.5

What matters to our customers

CUSTOMERS

We are a trusted problem solver, delivering a connected experience to support our valued industrial customers to keep their industries going.

What matters to our people

The value we create Linked to our ESG goals

My Voice engagement score

72

PEOPLE

We create an inclusive and engaging environment where everyone is proud and excited to come to work, and can perform at their best, develop and thrive.

BECOMING FIRST CHOICE FOR OUR STAKEHOLDERS

It is important for us to engage with all our stakeholders: our people, customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders. We need to understand what matters to them, ensuring we are responsive to their needs and adding value.

The views of our stakeholders are fundamental to us becoming first choice and driving a long-term sustainable business and we have defined KPIs for each of our stakeholders.

Our business model enables us to create value for all our stakeholders and deliver our vision to become first choice.

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Our stakeholders continued

SUPPLIERS

We are a technically led, service oriented supplier partner of choice, providing an unrivalled and cost-effective market reach to our broad industrial customer base.

COMMUNITIES

We inspire the next generation of engineers and innovators and support our communities worldwide to

improve people's lives and create a more sustainable world.

SHAREHOLDERS

We create superior economic value through delivering reliably

for our shareholders, generating consistent and sustainable cash returns on invested capital well in excess of our cost of capital.

What matters to our suppliers

What matters to our communities

What matters to our shareholders

The value we create

Number of new NPI¹

228k

Linked to our ESG goals

The value we create Linked to our ESG goals

Number of young engineers and innovators supported

913k

The value we create

Earnings per share (EPS)

32.5p

Linked to our ESG goals

1. Excluding Risoul, domnick hunter and Trident

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Our marketplace

RS Group plc

14

GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

WELL POSITIONED

FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

A broad and deep product offering

Full offer

Partial range

Product categories

Unnamed major competitors

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

We have the product range, superior availability and responsive service capabilities that enable us to offer industrial and MRO products globally. Our electronics range concentrates mainly on the sub-categories associated with industrial requirements.

THE MARKETS IN WHICH WE OPERATE

We operate in a large and fragmented industrial market and are one of a few global distributors of industrial MRO product and service solutions. We estimate our serviceable addressable market to be c. £130 billion which includes added-value distribution (high service, low volume) within RS' chosen countries and product categories. Despite its size, much of the market is still local and many of our competitors are independent businesses and regional firms which specialise in a narrow product offering or limited service solutions and have less developed digital capabilities. Our customers have common needs, including small order size, high availability, digital methods of order and payment management, technical expertise and service capability.

Cables & Connectors

PPE & Site Safety

Test & Measurement

Mechanical & Fluid Power

A&C and Electrification

Semis & Passives (including single-board computing)

Key:

Estimated RS share of market

Facilities & Maintenance

A&C and Electrification

-

-

Cables & Connectors

- -

-

Semis & Passives (including single-board computing)

- - - -

-

Mechanical & Fluid Power

- - -

-

-

Facilities & Maintenance

Test & Measurement

-

Our solutions and services

We have solutions that span our customers' asset lifecycles as they manage their design, procurement, inventory and MRO needs.

Solutions and services

Partner

Install

Research

Maintain

Procure

Improve

Repair

Compare

Specify

PPE & Site Safety

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

TRENDS THAT ARE SHAPING OUR MARKET

We continue to see five key trends that are shaping the markets we operate in. As we execute our strategic action plan, we continue to be agile, reacting to the ever-changing market demands and future proof our business, while remaining focused on our long-term vision.

EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

PROVIDING SOLUTIONS

ONE-STOP SHOP

CONSOLIDATION

INCREASED FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY

Our B2B customers are expecting

a personalised, seamless experience mirroring the B2C online experience while providing features specific to business procurement. Our suppliers want a partner that understands their technical, specialist products and can bring their products to market successfully.

Large B2B customers increasingly require more than simply a supplier of products seeking solutions

that solve their technical and procurement challenges.

Our customers are seeking to simplify their supplier base and buying efficiency while being assured of

high-quality, authentic products. Receiving products and services from one provider saves time and reduces total cost of ownership.

Consolidation in the industrial distribution market continues to increase, doubling over the last 10 years, driven by development of geographic, technical and digital capabilities1. This will accelerate scale, extend reach and lead to improved efficiencies.

Sustainability is a top priority for our high-value customers. They expect sustainable products and services that enhance operational

efficiency and reduce costs, greater choice and transparency in sustainable products and detailed ESG reporting to comply with tightening regulations.

Our strategic response

• Maintaining a strong balance sheet to support targeted consolidation opportunities

• Disciplined focus on M&A that accelerates our strategy, expands product service or geographic capabilities, or realises scale economics leveraging physical, digital and process infrastructure

• Strengthening our corporate development and integration resources to support a pipeline of potential acquisitions

and integration

commitment, action and disclosure

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Our strategy

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

A FOCUSED STRATEGY FOR LONG-TERM GROWTH

Our vision is to be first choice for our people, customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders. This vision

is supported by a focused strategy, and associated and aligned action plan to deliver long-term and sustainable value for all our stakeholders.

This strategy aims to deliver accelerated growth and improvement in key areas, all underpinned by a purpose-led culture, clear and embedded values,

Customers

While continuing our unique service proposition for other relevant sectors, we are targeting customers with

a high lifetime value and a consolidating behaviour in key vertical markets.

Customers

Target high lifetime value customers who buy a broad

+ Read more on page 18

a clearly defined operating model and excellent people.

mix of industrial MRO

products in small volumes

Operational excellence We are improving our operational effectiveness to drive efficiencies in

our technology and digital processes and physical infrastructure.

+ Read more on page 22

Experience

We provide a digitally enabled experience, powered by human touch

Operational excellence

Leverage efficient physical, digital and process infrastructure sustainably

Experience

Strengthen and tailor our digitally enabled, seamless customer experience across all interactions with us

Products and suppliers

Focus on technically led and specialist ranges within a broad product offer, with a focus on A&C and electrification

Solutions

Scale solutions that pull through product and drive customer loyalty

People

Products and suppliers We will maintain our broad product range, with a strong focus on A&C and Electrification. We will also increase and curate a range in adjacent categories and a broader offering tailored to specific customer needs, leveraging our unique regional strengths.

+ Read more on page 19

Solutions

We make our customers' lives easier across the design and maintain lifecycle, which drives stronger relationships, recurring revenue

and greater customer

lifetime value.

+ Read more on page 20

and specialist knowledge.

Our robust tools and insights will

Our customer experience is tailored to customer type and potential lifetime value.

+ Read more on page 21

enable us to attract, develop, engage and retain the talent we need to meet our long-term strategic goals.

+ Read more on page 17

+ Read more about our ESG action plan on pages 45 to 73

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Our people plan

PUTTING

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

PEOPLE FIRST

The RS people plan details our approach to attracting, developing, engaging and

retaining an outstanding team to meet our

long-term strategic and operational aims.

Our vision for our people is to be first choice for employees and the business by creating an inclusive and engaging environment where everyone perform at their best, develop

and thrive.

Our people plan has been refined and evolved to focus on the core pillars of talent, capability, diversity and inclusion (D&I) culture, reward and

recognition, and our operating model. Guided by our values and behaviours and underpinned by communications, technology and data, this model ensures that we have robust tools and insights to

CULTURE

An inclusive and engaging culture

D&I

A diverse workforce that can bring their whole selves to work

CAPABILITY

Building leadership, manager

and functional excellence

REWARD AND RECOGNITION

Compelling reward and recognition that drives engagement and performance

TALENT

Creating a strong and diverse pipeline

OPERATING MODEL

Delivering a simple and scalable operating model

attract, develop, engage and retain the talent we

need to meet our long-term strategic goals.

Through our people plan, we are confident we will continue to build and support an outstanding RS team who will embody our values, execute our strategy brilliantly and deliver high performance to create long-term value for all our stakeholders.

UNDERPINNED BY COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY AND DATA

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Our strategy in action

GOVERNANCE REPORT

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION

RS Group plc

18

Annual Report and Accounts 2025

TARGET INDUSTRIAL MRO CUSTOMERS KEEP TURBINES TURNING

To be our customers' first choice, we must provide the relevant products and services that solve their needs. We deliver excellence through a connected experience and a suite of valued product and service solutions for industrial customers.

While continuing our unique service proposition for other relevant sectors, we are targeting customers with a high lifetime value and a consolidating behaviour in key vertical markets. Our target customers are those industrial customers who purchase small volumes of multi-category MRO or small batch production

products, ranging from global multi-site operators

to small single-site customers.

£252

average order value

AND THE LIGHTS ON

PROVIDE CONNECTED SERVICES TO ATTRACT HIGHER VALUE CUSTOMERS

In 2024/25, we launched an initiative to supply spares and parts for aging wind turbines, addressing long-standing supply chain issues. Our bespoke catalogue simplified product categorisation, increased stock of high-failure items and our new obsolescence notification process set new standards in reliability and efficiency. We started by identifying 10 strategic suppliers and expanding our catalogue with over 200 relevant spares and parts to support maintenance of aging turbines.

+ Read more on page 55

‌STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE REPORT

Our strategy in action continued

INCREASE AND CURATE OUR PRODUCT RANGE

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION

BETTER WORKWEAR

RS Group plc

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Annual Report and Accounts 2025

We offer a broad and deep range of industrial MRO products to meet our customers' needs across seven industrial categories. We will continue to increase and curate our range, with a specific emphasis on A&C and Electrification, and a relevant broad offering in adjacent categories, tailored to specific customer needs while leveraging our unique regional strengths.

Our strong and extensive supplier partnerships ensure wide product choice, availability and alternative brand choices, including our own brand, RS PRO. We have also introduced a new sales tool designed to make it easier for our strategic customers to choose our Better World product alternatives.

>830k

stocked products

FOR A BETTER WORLD

FOCUSING ON PPE AND WORKWEAR SUSTAINABILITY

We have identified sectors where we can make a tangible impact by encouraging suppliers to achieve Better World product credentials. Our first focus area is on suppliers of PPE and workwear products added to the Better World product range.

These products are essential, but typically have short lifecycles. A shift towards sustainability will reduce waste and create a commercial opportunity with customers who have strong ESG commitments. So far, we have engaged 32 PPE and workwear suppliers to add 245 products to the range.

+ Read more on page 54

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

GOVERNANCE REPORT

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION

RS Group plc

20

Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Our strategy in action continued

SCALE OUR SERVICE SOLUTIONS

IMPLEMENTING OUR RS CONTROLSTOCK® SOLUTION FOR ENHANCED SAFETY AND SAVINGS

We have helped Butternut Box, the European market leader in fresh dog food, streamline its stock management and ensure immediate availability of the right PPE for staff. With RS ControlStock®, located in satellite stores close to production, Butternut Box can perform a digital stock search through a kiosk and quickly locate and retrieve the item as required. Replenishment is automated to avoid stock-outs or overstocking.

This simplified process increases productivity and provides real-time consumption data and insights which reduces carrying costs for the company. We have enabled Butternut Box to save over 1,700 process hours, equating to £30,000+ per annum of savings, ensuring return on investment.

+ Read more on page 55

We offer solutions, mainly digital, that create customer loyalty and address customers' problems to drive product pull-through. We also have several services such as our maintenance solutions, calibration, panel building and our safety solutions, which include PPE and hygiene control solutions.

We make our customers' lives easier across the design and maintain lifecycle, which drives stronger relationships, recurring revenue and greater customer lifetime value.

25%

of revenue from

service solutions

IMPROVE STOCK MANAGEMENT TO BOOST EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY

‌STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE REPORT

Our strategy in action continued

STRENGTHEN OUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION

IMPROVE CAPACITY AND SPEED

RS Group plc

21

Annual Report and Accounts 2025

We provide a digitally enabled experience powered by a human touch and specialist knowledge. We aim to provide a seamless customer experience, tailored to customer type and potential lifetime value.

We are focusing on providing a more personalised and bespoke customer service for high-value customers as we optimise our cost to serve.

This will deliver sustainable cash returns and further differentiation from marketplaces and pure digital players.

48.5

Net promoter score

FOR GREATER CUSTOMER CHOICE

INTRODUCING THE NEWEST AND LATEST PRODUCTS ON OUR WEBSITE

Our new PMS focuses on improving our capacity, efficiency and speed to introduce the newest and latest products from our suppliers to give customers more choice and quicker access to items. We increased NPI velocity by around 700% by the end of the first phase of PMS, with a record 4,238 products going live on our website on a single day.

During the five-week phase, we also saw an average launch time of 4.3 days with more than 23,000 lines ranged and 19,000 new ones live on our website. We have now set ourselves a target of making 30,000 new products go live on our website every month at an average time to launch of seven days.

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

GOVERNANCE REPORT

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION

RS Group plc

22

Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Our strategy in action continued

DRIVE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

We are driving our operational excellence through investment in our digital, process and physical infrastructure to globally harmonise our processes to build a scalable, agile foundation, to improve efficiency and to continuously enhance the experience for our customers, suppliers

and colleagues.

We will have the ability to easily benchmark our performance against the top quartile within the industry and evolve our operations as new technologies become available.

2.7

inventory turn

TRANSITIONING TO A NET ZERO FLEET

One of the ways we are delivering operational excellence, as well as reducing our direct carbon footprint, is by transitioning our company car and van fleet to electric and hybrid vehicles and encouraging adoption by our people. In 2024/25, we increased the proportion of company cars that are electric or hybrid for the Group to 39% (2023/24: 30%) and for the UK to 86% (2023/24: 82%).

+ Find out more on page 49

ELECTRIFYING OUR FLEET ON OUR ROAD TO NET ZERO

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Accelerating growth through acquisition

OUR GROWTH AMBITIONS

As well as investing in our strategy organically, the Group sees the continued potential for acquisitions to help accelerate our strategy. We have a highly disciplined investment criteria and acquisitions must have a strong strategic fit, a clear integration roadmap to ensure successful integration to the Group, and generate material value, while achieving our cost of capital within three years of ownership.

We continue to pursue strategically relevant acquisitions that offer:

CASE STUDY

ACQUISITION INTEGRATION DRIVING VALUE CREATION

The acquisitions of Distrelec, Risoul and Trident underscore our ability to generate substantial financial and strategic value, highlighting

our growing proficiency in developing robust integration capabilities.

Distrelec has comparable products, customers and markets to our existing core EMEA business. We are exceeding our initial assumptions on net synergies.

Risoul has maintained impressive growth with strong, cross-business learning and is beginning to benefit from the Group's

digitisation expertise with opportunities to further enhance its growth potential across the region.

Trident in Australia reported strong revenue growth in the first year of RS ownership and we are continuing to create value in line with the integration plan and acquisition case.

We continue to demonstrate our ability to acquire high-quality businesses and increase their potential, in combination with our underlying core businesses and a strong focus on operational efficiency.

Operating leverage

Geographic

opportunities

Product extension and adjacencies

Product and service solutions

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Key performance indicators

FINANCIAL KPIS

Our six financial key performance indicators (KPIs) help us to run our business. They measure the successful implementation of our strategy and monitor and drive our progress against strategic and operational objectives, while enabling us to react rapidly to changing markets. The following pages provide details of our KPIs which have been in place during 2024/25.

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Key performance indicators continued

NON-FINANCIAL KPIS

We report eight non-financial KPIs

that help measure progress against our strategic actions and our commitment to our people, culture and sustainability.

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

Financial review

RS Group plc

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE

Revenue

£2,904m

Change: (1)%

2023/24: £2,942m

(2)%

Like-for-like1 revenue growth

2023/24: (8)%

£233m

Operating profit

Change: (15)%

2023/24 restated4: £275m

£274m

Adjusted2 operating profit

Overall results

2025

2024

restated4 Change

Like-for-like1

change

Kate Ringrose

CFO

Like-for-like1 change: (8)% 2023/24 restated4: £306m

Adjusted2 operating

9.4%

profit margin

2023/24 restated4: 10.4%

£364m

Net debt

2023/24: £418m

WITHIN CHALLENGING MARKETS

provisioning policy. See further details in Note 32 on pages 191 to 195.

Our strategic investment will support ongoing market share growth and ensure we are well-positioned to benefit when market conditions improve."

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Financial review continued

Revenue

Group revenue decreased by 1% to £2,904 million. Like-for-like revenue declined 2% after adjusting for a £50 million contribution from acquisitions,

£66 million in adverse exchange rate movements and a positive benefit of £28 million from more trading days. Trading overall was stronger in the second half with like-for-like revenue flat with some improvements in external market indicators, including PMI, particularly in the final quarter

in Americas and Asia Pacific, although market uncertainty increased in the last few weeks of the year.

which tends to reflect smaller, more transactional

purchases, decreased by 5% on a like-for-like

like-for-like, with a strong performance in digital procurement solutions and design, technical and custom order services. RS Integrated Supply delivered full-year positive like-for-like revenue

Like-for-like revenue development

£m

23/24 Currency 23/24 at Trading Acquisitions revenue movement constant day

exchange movement rates

Gross margin

Like-for-like change (2)%

24/25

revenue

Operating costs

Operating costs, including regional and central costs, increased 3%. Adjusted operating costs, which excludes the impact of acquisitions, currency movements, amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles and acquisition-related items, increased 1% on a like-for-like basis. Cost-management actions

have helped to offset inflation, specifically within labour, ongoing strategic investment, integration costs and the restructuring charges relating to our cost-savings programme. Higher average order frequency has increased variable costs

Our diverse product category portfolio reduced performance volatility as we have significant share in categories that are more industrial and tend to be less volatile (Facilities & Maintenance, Mechanical & Fluid Power, PPE & Site Safety, Other). Those correlated to the electronics market (such as Automation & Control (A&C) and Electrification) and the more electronics-

specific categories, Semi & Passives and Cables &

Connectors remained under pressure in 2024/25.

During the second half of the year, we benefited from product expansion as we increased the rate of new product introductions following the update of our product management solution, which allowed us to expand our technical product offer and expand our range with our strategic suppliers.

Digital, accounting for 60% of Group revenue, declined by 2% on a like-for-like basis.

Digital solutions, such as eProcurement, which are predominantly used by our larger customers and are a key strategic goal, grew by 4%. Web revenue,

growth, reflecting a strategic repositioning, new contract wins and strong customer retention rates in both EMEA and Americas with our order book more than doubling during the year. We have written off the carrying value of customer relationships where we generate no value.

We continue to strengthen our RS Integrated Supply proposition and operating model, transitioning from purely contractual unit price savings to value generation through innovative data and technology solutions.

RS PRO, which is our main own-brand product range, now 14% of Group revenue, grew by 2% on a like-for-like basis, due to extending its product breadth and end-to-end sales and marketing focus. Our competitively priced offer continues

to gain traction as a quality, but non-competing value alternative to third-party branded ranges, as we demonstrate quality through our quality assurance qualifications and design and

test facilities.

Share of Like-for-like1 Group revenue revenue growth

Gross margin was flat at 42.8%, as anticipated.

Supply-side cost inflation is normalising and is largely being passed through, although there has been some additional competitive activity within the Semis & Passives product

category. We continue to focus on gross margin optimisation through direct procurement initiatives, commercial discipline, expanding our own-brand ranges and by managing foreign exchange volatility.

During the year, we conducted a detailed assessment of our inventory as part of the Group-wide focus on tightening working cash discipline and cash management. Following this

review, instances of non-adherence to the Group's inventory provisioning policy were identified, and in order to correct its application, we restated our 2023/24 gross profit to £1,258 million (previously reported at £1,264 million). These prior year adjustments do not impact 2024/25 gross profit. For further information please refer to Note 32 on pages 191 to 195.

and, in particular, freight costs as a percentage of our revenue.

We delivered £19 million of restructuring benefits by improving our productivity and removing labour and facility duplication within the Group and a further £10 million of structural integration cost savings. There was a £17 million in-year charge to deliver these restructuring and integration benefits which is included within

our operating costs. Over the last two years we delivered £38 million of ongoing structural cost savings, above our original expectations of over

£30 million.

During the year, we also delivered £13m of one-off benefit which includes £5m from the early exit of a distribution centre lease in the Netherlands operated by Distrelec and then

in-year savings relating to management actions such as vacancy freezes and extending the life of our technology hardware.

A large proportion of our operating costs relate to our people. We awarded a low-single digit pay increase across the Group and returned

to more normalised employee performance incentive awards. As sales volumes have reduced,

‌STRATEGIC REPORT

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GOVERNANCE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION Annual Report and Accounts 2025

Financial review continued

We spent £31 million on organic strategic investment (a £7 million increase year-on-year but lower than anticipated at the beginning of the year as we actively managed investment levels in a difficult trading environment) focused on strengthening our digital and commercial capabilities, technology platform, product and service solutions capacity and improving our operating basics. This will support ongoing

Like-for-like adjusted operating profit movement

306

(11)

295 2

274

(23)

£m

Operating profit

Operating profit decreased by 15% to

£233 million. Adjusted operating profit, which excludes the impact of acquisitions and adverse impact of currency movements, saw a like-for-like decrease of 8%. Operating profit margin declined by 1.3 percentage points to 8.0% and on an adjusted basis declined by 0.7 percentage points on a like-for-like basis to 9.4%.

Profit before tax

Profit before tax declined 15% to £206 million. Adjusted profit before tax was down 10% to

£248 million, down 7% on a like-for-like basis.

Adjusted profit before tax reconciliation

£m

206

37 4 248

market share growth and ensure we are

well-positioned to benefit when market conditions

improve. We are monitoring our investment

23/24

adjusted operating profit

Currency

movement

23/24 at

constant exchange rates

Acquisitions

Like-

for-like change (10)%

24/25

adjusted operating profit

Net finance costs

Net finance costs were £27 million, down from

spend closely and implementing greater oversight around execution, progress and delivery.

As previously reported, our central costs now relate solely to supporting Group head office activities with all other costs within the Group's operating segments allocated to the regions. Central costs, under the new definition, increased by £3 million to £14 million, largely reflecting the normalisation of annual incentive and share-

Items excluded from adjusted profit To improve the comparability of information between reporting periods, we exclude certain items from adjusted profit measures. The items excluded are described below (see Note

11 on pages 154 to 158 for definitions and

reconciliations of adjusted measures).

Amortisation and impairment of

£32 million in 2023/24 mainly due to the full year impact of reduced net debt. At 31 March 2025, 34% of the Group's gross borrowings excluding lease liabilities (2023/24: 26%) was at fixed rates, with surplus cash deposited at variable rates.

Summary cash flow

24/25

profit before tax

Amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles

Acquisition

-related items

24/25

adjusted profit before tax

2024

based payments. Details on the reallocation are set out in Note 2 on pages 151 to 154.

Operating costs as a percentage of revenue increased by 1.4 percentage points to 34.8% and on an adjusted basis increased by 1.0 percentage points to 33.4%. Adjusted operating profit conversion is like-for-like 1.6 percentage points lower at 22.1% reflecting the ongoing organic investment and cost of the restructuring and integration programmes, with cost reductions broadly offsetting input cost inflation and normalisation of incentives. Operating profit conversion is 3.1 percentage points lower at 18.7%, impacted by impairment in RS Integrated Supply and other adjusting items.

acquired intangibles

Amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles was £37 million (2023/24 amortisation of acquired intangibles: £27 million) and relates to the intangible assets arising from acquisitions. During the year, customer contracts, relationships and distribution agreements at RS Integrated Supply (previously IESA) were assessed for impairment and, given we are not generating a profit in respect of the customer relationships

acquired with the EMEA business, we have written off the carrying value in full. As a result of that review, assets related to the acquisition of IESA were fully impaired, with a net book value of

£11 million.

Acquisition-related items

Acquisition-related items were £4 million, with

£2 million related to legal fees in connection with the acquisition of Synovos and £2 million associated with agreements reached at the time of acquisition for retention payments to former owners and key employees of those businesses (2023/24: £5 million directly attributable to the acquisition of Distrelec).

£m 2025

1. For details of the prior year restatement see Note 32 on pages 191 to 195.

2. Adjusted excludes the cash impact of substantial reorganisation costs and acquisition-related items.

Restated1