Bunzl (BNZL.L) - Company Research

Last Updated: 17 September 2026

Bunzl is one of the least glamorous businesses in the FTSE 100 and, for two decades, one of the most reliable. It distributes the things a business consumes but does not sell — food packaging, cleaning chemicals, safety boots, gloves, disposable gowns — across 33 countries, and it has grown almost entirely by buying small family-owned distributors and plugging them into its warehouse network. That formula produced 33 consecutive years of dividend growth and a compound adjusted earnings per share growth rate of roughly 9% since 2004. It also broke, publicly and expensively, in April 2025, when a self-inflicted reorganisation of its largest North American business forced a profit warning that took about a quarter off the share price in a single session.

This report covers what happened next. Bunzl met its revised 2025 guidance, restored service levels in North America, returned to positive underlying growth for five consecutive quarters, upgraded its 2026 margin guidance on 1 September 2026 and launched a £500m buyback. The shares have recovered from a low of 1,982p in January 2026 to a 52-week high of 2,894p on 1 September. What follows is the raw material — segments, five years of statutory and adjusted figures, cash flows, balance sheet, valuation metrics, insider dealings and dated catalysts — all taken from Bunzl's own filings and announcements. No analyst opinions, no price targets, no ratings.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Listing	London Stock Exchange Main Market, ticker BNZL (BNZL.L). ISIN GB00B0744B38. Ordinary shares of 32 1/7p. An unsponsored ADR line also trades over the counter in the US.
Index membership	FTSE 100, FTSE 350, FTSE All-Share; also STOXX Europe 600
Sector	Industrials — specialist international distribution and services. Bunzl self-describes as "the largest value-added distributor in the world in our market sectors"
Headquarters	York House, 45 Seymour Street, London W1H 7JT, United Kingdom
Founded	Origins 1854 (Moritz Bunzl, Bratislava). Bunzl plc incorporated 1940; London listed 1957
Countries of operation	33 countries, more than 150 operating companies
Employees	26,672 (average number of employees during FY2025, per the Annual Report 2025)
CEO / Leadership	Frank van Zanten, Chief Executive Officer since April 2016 (joined the Board 1 February 2016). Chief Financial Officer: Richard Howes. Van Zanten was named as Chief Executive Officer in Bunzl's half-year results release of 1 September 2026 and in a company filing dated 7 September 2026
Revenue (FY2025, statutory)	£11,845.4m, up 0.6% as reported and 3.0% at constant exchange rates (FY2024: £11,776.4m)
Profit for the year (FY2025, statutory)	£459.8m, of which £459.2m attributable to equity holders. Statutory operating profit £735.3m
Adjusted profit for the year (FY2025)	£582.5m, down 8.0%. Adjusted operating profit £910.3m at a 7.7% margin
Dividend per share (FY2025)	74.1p total (20.2p interim plus 53.9p final), up 0.3% — a 33rd consecutive year of annual dividend growth
Dividend yield	Approximately 2.8% to 2.9% on the mid-September 2026 share price
Market capitalisation	Approximately £8.4bn, derived from 322,770,643 shares in issue (company filing, 11 September 2026) at the 2,600.00p close of 16 September 2026. Third-party data providers quote £8.34bn to £8.49bn on slightly different share counts and price dates
Leverage	Adjusted net debt to EBITDA of 2.0 times at 31 December 2025, falling to 1.8 times at 30 June 2026, against a stated target range of 2.0 to 2.5 times

2. The Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• A compounding machine with a 20-year track record: Bunzl has completed more than 230 bolt-on acquisitions since 2004, committing £6.2bn of capital, and has converted that into an adjusted earnings per share compound annual growth rate of roughly 9% while also returning £3.1bn to shareholders.
• The self-help programme is visibly working: the group operating margin rose from 7.0% to 7.3% in the first half of 2026, adjusted operating profit grew 8.0% at constant currency, and Bunzl says service levels and product availability in North America Distribution have been restored. On 1 September 2026 it upgraded full-year margin guidance from "slightly down" to "broadly flat".
• Balance sheet capacity has been rebuilt: leverage of 1.8 times at the half year sits below the bottom of the 2.0 to 2.5 times target range, which is the stated reason for the new £500m buyback. Committed bank facilities of £1,250m were entirely undrawn at 30 June 2026.
• Customer stickiness is measurable and increasing: own-brand products reached roughly 30% of group revenue in FY2025 (28% in FY2024) and 78% of orders were processed digitally in the first half of 2026, up from 73% two years earlier. Both metrics raise switching costs and support gross margin, which held at 28.8% in FY2025.
• Returns on capital remain high for a distributor: return on average operating capital was 37.0% in FY2025 and 38.0% in the first half of 2026; return on invested capital, which carries the full weight of two decades of acquisition goodwill, was 13.0% and 13.3% respectively.

Bear Case

• Organic growth is thin and the engine is acquisitions: underlying revenue growth was just 0.4% in FY2025, and the 3.0% constant-currency figure was driven by deals. A distributor growing its own volumes at well under one per cent is a business dependent on capital deployment rather than demand.
• Management itself says the margin tailwind is temporary: Bunzl attributes the first-half 2026 margin expansion to "the net impact of inflation, much of which is expected to be temporary in nature". The same inflation-deflation whipsaw that hurt French and UK cleaning and hygiene in 2025 can reverse the current benefit.
• The acquisition pipeline has stalled: committed acquisition spend fell to £132m in FY2025 and to under £20m in the first eight months of 2026, against an average of roughly £300m a year over 2020 to 2025. Bunzl expects a more active second half, but two soft years in a row directly caps the growth algorithm.
• North America is a single point of failure: it is 53% of revenue and 47% of divisional adjusted operating profit, and its margin fell from 7.9% to 7.0% in FY2025 on a self-inflicted operating-model change that caused what Bunzl called a "loss of speed and agility servicing local customers". The recovery is one year old.
• Reported cash flow is currently flattered by tariff refunds: first-half 2026 free cash flow was £327.8m as reported but £256.8m excluding United States IEEPA tariff refunds that Bunzl says "are expected to be returned to customers". The company now has to guide and report on an ex-refund basis, and the clean underlying number grew only 5.6%.
• The buyback consumes the deleveraging headroom: the £500m programme will absorb most of the gap between 1.8 times leverage and the 2.0 to 2.5 times target, leaving less capacity for the large acquisition year management is guiding towards.

3. Revenue Segments

Bunzl reports on four geographic business areas. The figures below are FY2025, from the annual results announcement of 2 March 2026 and the segmental note of the Annual Report 2025.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
North America	53% (£6,276.7m)	The largest business area. Bunzl North America Distribution primarily serves grocery and foodservice redistribution customers, alongside separate safety, retail supplies, food processor and convenience store businesses plus Canada and Mexico. FY2025 adjusted operating profit £440.5m at a 7.0% margin, down from 7.9%
Continental Europe	21% (£2,442.0m)	Benelux, France, Spain, the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey. Cleaning and hygiene, foodservice, safety and packaging, including several online and e-commerce businesses. FY2025 adjusted operating profit £204.7m at an 8.4% margin
UK and Ireland	16% (£1,883.6m)	Foodservice including Nisbets, acquired in May 2024, plus cleaning and hygiene, care, safety, grocery and non-food retail. The only area to grow adjusted operating profit in FY2025, to £153.1m at an 8.1% margin
Rest of the World	10% (£1,243.1m)	Asia Pacific, where Australian and New Zealand healthcare is the key driver, and Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia). The highest-margin area at 11.7%, contributing £145.3m of adjusted operating profit
Corporate	Not applicable	Central costs of £33.3m in FY2025 (FY2024: £31.6m), charged below the business areas

Bunzl also discloses an end-market view of the same revenue. For FY2025 the split was foodservice 31%, grocery and other 28%, safety 15%, cleaning and hygiene 11%, retail 8% and healthcare 7%. Group adjusted operating profit was £910.3m at a 7.7% margin; the statutory operating profit of £735.3m equates to a 6.2% statutory margin.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Bunzl buys non-food consumables from thousands of suppliers, holds the stock, consolidates customer orders and delivers them complete and on time. It charges a distribution margin for doing so: FY2025 gross margin was 28.8%, on cost of goods sold of £8,427.7m, against employee costs of £1,238.0m and other operating expenses of £1,011.4m. The operating cost to sales ratio was 22.0% in the first half of 2026. The value proposition is that a customer can outsource an entire category — everything it consumes but does not sell — to one supplier and stop managing hundreds of small vendor relationships.

Where the moat comes from. Three things, in Bunzl's telling. First, procurement scale: own-brand products are roughly 30% of group revenue and Bunzl describes them as "underpenetrated" in North America Distribution, which is both an admission and a margin lever. Second, warehouse and delivery density, which is being actively consolidated — 36 warehouse consolidations and relocations in FY2025 (against 19 in FY2024) and a further 15 in the first half of 2026, including a large France consolidation now fully operational. Third, technical and sales expertise, with roughly 30% of colleagues in specialist sales roles, plus a sustainability advisory capability that Bunzl says it presented to more than 300 large existing customers in 2025.

The acquisition engine. This is the part of the model that actually generates growth. Bunzl completed eight acquisitions in FY2025 across seven countries, committing £131.8m for businesses with roughly £92m of annualised revenue and £16m of annualised adjusted operating profit, entering Chilean healthcare and establishing a footprint in Slovakia. Deals are defined as bolt-ons below £200m enterprise value; all but three acquisitions between 2020 and 2025 fell into that bracket, at an average committed spend of roughly £25m each. Bunzl does not publish the multiples it pays, saying only that deals are done "at attractive multiples" ahead of hurdle rates. In 2026 to date it has completed two: Scientifix Group in Australia (life sciences distribution, roughly £9m revenue, April) and Ghessu Bath in Spain (hospitality bathroom accessories, roughly £6m revenue, July).

What the model does not disclose. Bunzl publishes no customer concentration figure, no contract length, no retention rate and no named large customer. The FY2025 report refers to losing a higher-margin programme with "an existing grocery customer" without naming or sizing it. Investors relying on the switching-cost argument are relying on management assertion plus the own-brand and digital penetration metrics as proxies, not on disclosed contract economics.

5. Financial Health

Revenue and basic earnings per share below are statutory figures as reported under IFRS. Adjusted earnings per share is Bunzl's own alternative performance measure, defined as profit before amortisation excluding software, acquisition related items and certain other items. The long-term debt column is non-current interest-bearing loans and borrowings from the statutory balance sheet; non-current lease liabilities are additional and are given separately below the table.

Fiscal Year	Revenue (£m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	10,285.1	+1.7%	132.7p	162.5p	57.0p	£1,433.7m
FY2022	12,039.5	+17.1%	141.7p	184.3p	62.7p	£1,574.0m
FY2023	11,797.1	−2.0%	157.1p	191.1p	68.3p	£1,417.1m
FY2024	11,776.4	−0.2%	149.6p	194.3p	73.9p	£1,361.7m
FY2025	11,845.4	+0.6%	141.5p	179.3p	74.1p	£1,736.5m

Non-current lease liabilities, which sit alongside the borrowings above, were £359.6m (FY2021), £424.0m (FY2022), £512.4m (FY2023), £573.7m (FY2024) and £555.5m (FY2025). Adding them, total non-current debt including leases was £2,292.0m at the end of FY2025, up from £1,935.4m a year earlier. The FY2025 increase in borrowings is largely a refinancing effect: current borrowings fell from £619.2m to £203.8m and bank overdrafts from £987.9m to £212.6m over the same period as gross cash-pooling balances were reduced.

Bunzl reports on a half-yearly basis rather than quarterly, publishing trading statements without earnings figures in the first and third quarters. The table below therefore shows half-year periods. H2 rows are derived by subtracting the published first half from the published full year, because Bunzl does not issue standalone second-half statements.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
H1 2026 (six months to 30 June 2026)	£5,933.1m	87.7p	65.7p
H2 2025 (derived)	£6,085.8m	101.5p	85.9p
H1 2025	£5,759.6m	77.8p	55.6p
H2 2024 (derived)	£6,064.9m	103.5p	90.4p
H1 2024	£5,711.5m	90.8p	59.2p
FY2025 total	£11,845.4m	179.3p	141.5p

Cash flow and balance sheet, FY2025. Cash generated from operations before acquisition related items was £1,136.1m. After acquisition related items of £43.4m and income tax paid of £179.7m, net cash inflow from operating activities was £913.0m. Purchases of property, plant and equipment and software absorbed £71.5m, giving net capital expenditure of £68.8m after disposals. Bunzl's own operating cash flow measure was £834.6m and its free cash flow measure £578.5m, down 8.7%, on cash conversion of 95%. Depreciation and amortisation totalled £404.7m: depreciation of property, plant and equipment £42.4m, depreciation of right-of-use assets £197.8m, software amortisation £13.0m and amortisation excluding software £151.5m.

On the balance sheet at 31 December 2025, cash and cash equivalents were £540.1m against total borrowings, overdrafts and lease liabilities of £2,895.4m. Bunzl's own headline measures were net debt excluding lease liabilities of £1,663.9m, adjusted net debt of £1,942.8m and adjusted net debt including lease liabilities of £2,685.3m, equating to 2.0 times and 2.2 times EBITDA respectively. Covenant net debt to EBITDA was 1.8 times against a covenant limit of 3.5 times. Total equity was £2,792.8m and intangible assets £3,618.1m — intangibles exceed equity, which is the arithmetic signature of a two-decade acquisition roll-up. At 30 June 2026 adjusted net debt including leases had fallen to £2,423.6m and leverage to 1.8 times. Approximately £184m of United States private placements mature in the 18 months to 31 December 2027.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, September 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	2,600.00p, close of 16 September 2026 on the London Stock Exchange. Day range 2,554p to 2,600p
Market cap	Approximately £8.39bn (322,770,643 shares in issue per the company filing of 11 September 2026, at 2,600.00p). Third-party providers quote £8.34bn to £8.49bn on differing share counts and price dates; the buyback is reducing the count weekly
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	18.4 times, on FY2025 statutory basic earnings per share of 141.5p. On Bunzl's adjusted earnings per share of 179.3p the same price implies 14.5 times; the gap is almost entirely amortisation excluding software of £151.5m and acquisition related items, which are non-cash or deal-related charges arising from the roll-up strategy
P/E (forward)	Approximately 13.5 times, on 2,600p divided by a published consensus FY2026 earnings per share estimate of 193p. This is a consensus figure sourced from a retail data provider, not company guidance, and is normalised on that provider's own basis rather than Bunzl's adjusted definition
P/S (TTM)	0.70 times (market cap £8.39bn divided by trailing twelve month revenue of £12,018.9m, being H2 2025 of £6,085.8m plus H1 2026 of £5,933.1m)
Enterprise value	Approximately £10.75bn (market cap £8.39bn plus total debt £2.90bn minus cash £0.54bn, per the 31 December 2025 balance sheet). Total debt comprises non-current borrowings £1,736.5m, current borrowings £203.8m, bank overdrafts £212.6m, non-current lease liabilities £555.5m and current lease liabilities £187.0m; cash and cash equivalents were £540.1m
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	Approximately 9.4 times (enterprise value £10.75bn divided by FY2025 EBITDA of £1,140.0m; EBITDA equals statutory operating profit £735.3m plus total depreciation and amortisation £404.7m). The wider D&A total is used here, comprising depreciation of property, plant and equipment £42.4m, depreciation of right-of-use assets £197.8m, software amortisation £13.0m and amortisation excluding software £151.5m. On adjusted operating profit of £910.3m the multiple is approximately 8.2 times. Bunzl publishes no EBITDA figure; on its own narrower definition — adjusted operating profit before depreciation of property, plant and equipment and software amortisation — EBITDA is approximately £965.7m. Computed on FY2025, Bunzl's last complete reporting period, as it does not report quarterly earnings
P/FCF	Approximately 10.0 times (market cap £8.39bn divided by free cash flow of £841.5m; free cash flow equals net cash inflow from operating activities £913.0m minus purchases of property, plant and equipment and software £71.5m per the FY2025 cash flow statement). On Bunzl's own narrower free cash flow measure of £578.5m, which also deducts net interest paid, the multiple is approximately 14.5 times
52-week high	2,894.00p, reached on 1 September 2026 on the day of the half-year results and buyback announcement
52-week low	1,982.00p, reached on 21 January 2026
Short interest (% of float)	0.88% of issued share capital — a single disclosed position held by AQR Capital Management, last changed 29 June 2026, down from 0.98% in June and 1.29% in May 2026. The United Kingdom disclosure threshold is 0.5% of issued share capital, so aggregate short interest may be modestly higher than the disclosed total. Earlier 2026 disclosed positions from Marshall Wace and Ilex Capital Partners have both closed out
Days to cover	Not published for the London listing — the FCA short position register discloses individual positions above the 0.5% threshold but no aggregate days-to-cover statistic. For reference only, the United States over-the-counter ADR line showed 1.44 days at the 31 August 2026 FINRA settlement date, which is not representative of the primary listing. Verify at the FCA short position register or the London Stock Exchange short positions page
Dividend yield	Approximately 2.8% to 2.9%, on the FY2025 declared total of 74.1p. Dividend cover is expected to remain at approximately 2.4 times in FY2026

For live pricing, indicators and multi-timeframe charts on Bunzl and its peers, see the ChartsView Live Charts page.

7. What Are They Building

The strategy, as stated. Bunzl calls it a "long-term compounding growth strategy" resting on three pillars: organic growth, operational efficiency and acquisitions. Capital allocation priorities are stated in order: invest in the business, pay a progressive dividend, self-fund value-accretive acquisitions, then distribute excess cash. The leverage target is adjusted net debt to EBITDA of 2.0 to 2.5 times on average through the medium term, and the cash conversion target is 90%.

The £500m buyback. Announced on 1 September 2026 and to be completed over the following twelve months, this is Bunzl's justification for holding 1.8 times leverage below its own target range. The first tranche covers up to 32,421,142 shares for a maximum of £250m, to complete no later than 22 December 2026, executed through an irrevocable non-discretionary agreement with J.P. Morgan Securities. Repurchased shares are cancelled rather than held in treasury. Between 7 and 11 September 2026 Bunzl bought back 1,026,165 shares at prices between 2,548.00p and 2,676.00p, leaving 322,770,643 shares in issue. The programme is more than double the £200m 2025 buyback, which was paused in April 2025 after roughly £115m and resumed and completed in the second half of the year.

Operational efficiency. Warehouse consolidation is the main lever: 36 consolidations and relocations in FY2025 and 15 in the first half of 2026, nine consolidations and six relocations, including a large France consolidation now fully operational with reported benefits to service levels, working capital and capacity. Bunzl is rolling out warehouse management systems and an online marketplace solution, and says artificial intelligence is now "embedded into everyday sales, operations and support processes" for product recommendation, sales opportunity identification, warehouse optimisation and what it terms agentic workflows.

New commercial initiatives. Bunzl has signed an exclusive long-term global partnership with adidas to enter the safety footwear market. The vehicle is GLO Brands B.V., a Bunzl business unit, and the range is branded adidas Pro Work, with the first collection debuting in the second quarter of 2026 and going on sale from August 2026 through selected European retailers and distributors at €100 to €150. Bunzl cites it as evidence of its safety expertise and distribution reach.

The acquisition pipeline, in management's own framing. Committed spend year to date is below £20m against a 2020 to 2025 average of roughly £300m a year. Bunzl attributes the slowdown to macroeconomic uncertainty affecting deal timing, describes the pipeline as active with momentum building, expects a more active second half, and expects total 2026 acquisition spend to exceed 2025. It maintains that roughly £300m a year "remains a relevant reference point for the medium-term".

Guidance for FY2026, as upgraded on 1 September 2026. Revenue growth at constant exchange rates excluding United States tariff refunds, driven by modest underlying growth plus some inflation and a small acquisition benefit. Group operating margin now expected to be broadly flat year on year against the 7.6% reported for 2025 on a comparable basis, upgraded from "slightly down". Modest adjusted operating profit growth at constant exchange rates. Net adjusted finance expense of £125m to £130m and a full-year effective tax rate of approximately 26.0%.

Sustainability. FY2025 saw 93% of spend in high-risk regions sourced from assessed and compliant suppliers, ahead of the 90% target set in 2021, on 1,430 supplier assessments. Absolute emissions are down 18% since 2019 and carbon efficiency is up 28%. Some 87% of group revenue is attributable to non-packaging products or packaging made from materials suited to a circular economy, which also quantifies the residual single-use plastics exposure at roughly 13%.

No new numeric medium-term financial targets were set at the 2026 half year beyond the guidance above, the leverage range, the 90% cash conversion target, the progressive dividend and the acquisition spend reference point. Bunzl's last dedicated capital markets day was in 2021.

8. Competitive Landscape

Bunzl has no direct like-for-like listed peer: it competes with regional distributors in each category and country rather than with a single global rival. The comparator set below is therefore made up of industrial and foodservice distributors with broadly similar business models. Market capitalisations were captured on different dates between 4 and 16 September 2026 because no single source carried all of them on one date, and each date is stated. Figures are shown in the currency of the primary listing.

Peer	Market cap (Month Year)	Key 2025 metric
W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW)	$62.39bn (September 2026, priced 4 September)	Trailing annual sales of $17.94bn on a trailing price to earnings ratio of 33.8 times — roughly 1.5 times Bunzl's revenue at more than five times the market capitalisation, which is the clearest illustration of how differently the market values a high-margin North American industrial distributor
Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST)	$56.34bn (September 2026, priced 15 September)	Trailing annual sales of $8.20bn on a trailing price to earnings ratio of 41.6 times — roughly 70% of Bunzl's revenue at nearly seven times the market capitalisation, reflecting a vendor-managed inventory model with materially higher operating margins
Ferguson Enterprises (NYSE and LSE: FERG)	$42.80bn (September 2026, priced 11 September)	Calendar 2025 net sales of $31.3bn, up 5.0% with organic growth of 4.5% and acquisitions adding 1.0%; gross margin of 31.0%, up 70 basis points. A plumbing and HVAC distributor, and the closest comparator for growth mix
Sysco (NYSE: SYY)	$39.90bn (September 2026, priced 11 September)	Trailing annual sales of $84.55bn for the fiscal year to 27 June 2026, on a trailing price to earnings ratio of 22.8 times — the foodservice distribution giant, and the customer archetype for a large part of Bunzl's North American book
Diploma plc (LSE: DPLM)	£9.61bn (September 2026, priced 16 September)	Trailing annual sales of £1.65bn on a net margin of 9.42% and return on equity of 18.55% — one seventh of Bunzl's revenue at a higher market capitalisation. The clearest evidence that the London market will pay up for a specialist distributor when organic growth and margin are higher, and the most direct challenge to Bunzl's rating
Brenntag SE (XETRA: BNR)	$9.96bn (September 2026, priced 12 September)	FY2025 sales of €15.2bn, down 3.7%, with operating gross profit of €3.8bn, down 1.9%, and operating EBITDA of €1.29bn, down 8.6% — a chemicals distributor in outright decline, and a reminder of how the model performs when end-market volumes fall
RS Group plc (LSE: RS1)	£3.40bn (September 2026, priced 9 September)	Annual sales of £2.88bn for the fiscal year to March 2026 on a net margin of 5.62% and return on equity of 11.55% — the other large London-listed distributor, and currently rated well below both Bunzl and Diploma

Note on comparability: fiscal years differ (Sysco to June, RS Group to March, Diploma to September) so the trailing sales figures are not all calendar 2025. The Ferguson and Brenntag figures are company-reported results for the 2025 calendar or fiscal year. Bunzl's own FY2025 revenue was £11,845.4m at a 7.7% adjusted operating margin and 6.2% statutory operating margin.

9. Insider and Institutional Activity

Chief Executive Officer Frank van Zanten and Chief Financial Officer Richard Howes both transacted in Bunzl shares during 2026, but almost every transaction below is a share-plan mechanic rather than a discretionary view on valuation. The pattern is worth stating plainly: 2026 insider activity is dominated by routine all-employee Sharesave grants and share-plan vests with associated cost-covering sales. The only clear discretionary open-market purchase identified was by a non-executive director. There were no large discretionary open-market disposals by directors in 2026 on the evidence found. Bunzl is a United Kingdom issuer, so dealings are notified under the Market Abuse Regulation via regulatory announcement rather than on SEC Form 4.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Frank van Zanten (CEO)	07 Sep 2026	Option exercise	368	£23.43	£8,622	International Sharesave Plan, option granted 2023
Frank van Zanten (CEO)	07 Sep 2026	Sell	368	£26.62	£9,796	Immediate sale of the Sharesave shares on the London Stock Exchange; holding 250,404
Stephan Nanninga (Non-Executive Director)	09 Jul 2026	Buy	10,000	Not disclosed in the summary announcement	Not disclosed in the summary announcement	Open-market purchase of ordinary shares — the only clear discretionary buy of 2026
Frank van Zanten (CEO)	09 Jul 2026	Vest, net of cost-covering sale	24,610 net increase	Not disclosed in the summary announcement	Not disclosed in the summary announcement	Share award exercise with part sale to cover associated costs
Frank van Zanten (CEO)	08 May 2026	Buy and same-day sell	15,000 each way	2,391.00p buy, 2,394.00p sell	£358,650 and £359,100	Paired transaction consistent with an option exercise and settlement, not a net open-market purchase
Richard Howes (CFO)	06 May 2026	Nil-cost transfer	31,055	Nil	Nil	Share-plan vest and transfer; resulting holding 180,256
Richard Howes (CFO)	01 Apr 2026	Grant of options	1,041	£17.48 option price	Nil consideration	Bunzl plc Sharesave Scheme
Frank van Zanten (CEO)	01 Apr 2026	Grant of options	1,022	£17.48 option price	Nil consideration	Bunzl plc International Sharesave Plan
Suzanne Jefferies (Group General Counsel)	01 Apr 2026	Grant of options	1,747	£17.48 option price	Nil consideration	Bunzl plc Sharesave Scheme
Andrew Mooney (Director of Corporate Development)	01 Apr 2026	Grant of options	1,041	£17.48 option price	Nil consideration	Bunzl plc Sharesave Scheme
Dale Stokes (Managing Director, UK and Ireland)	01 Apr 2026	Grant of options	1,041	£17.48 option price	Nil consideration	Bunzl plc Sharesave Scheme

The 1 April 2026 Sharesave grants to the four persons discharging managerial responsibility totalled 4,870 options at £17.48, transacted outside a trading venue. The most significant ownership change in 2026 is not an insider transaction at all but the buyback: shares repurchased are cancelled, so every tranche mechanically increases every remaining holder's proportionate stake. Board changes in the period were at non-executive level only, with Julia Wilson succeeding Lloyd Pitchford as Audit Committee Chair after the April 2025 annual general meeting.

10. Key Risks

• North America concentration and execution: at 53% of revenue and 47% of divisional adjusted operating profit, North America is the business that matters, and in FY2025 its adjusted operating profit fell 11.5% at constant currency with margin dropping from 7.9% to 7.0%. The cause was internal — a move from a branch-based model with more than 40 general managers to a separated sales and operations structure, which Bunzl says caused a "loss of speed and agility servicing local customers, largely foodservice redistributors" and cost share of wallet. Service levels are reported restored, but the recovery is barely a year old and the failure was self-inflicted.
• Tariff distortion of reported revenue and cash flow: FY2025 North American trading was compounded by tariff-related supply chain disruption, and in the first half of 2026 Bunzl received United States IEEPA tariff refunds which it says "are expected to be returned to customers". Those refunds inflated reported free cash flow to £327.8m against £256.8m excluding them, forcing the company to guide and report on an ex-refund basis. Any change in tariff policy, or a dispute over pass-through, hits both earnings and cash.
• The inflation and deflation whipsaw: FY2025 was damaged by product cost deflation, particularly in French and United Kingdom cleaning and hygiene as post-pandemic prices normalised. The first half of 2026 margin recovery to 7.3% was driven by "the net impact of inflation, much of which is expected to be temporary in nature" — Bunzl's own words. When that benefit unwinds the margin tailwind becomes a headwind.
• Acquisition dependence combined with a stalled pipeline: underlying revenue growth was 0.4% in FY2025, so constant-currency growth of 3.0% came from deals. Committed acquisition spend fell to £132m in FY2025 and under £20m in the first eight months of 2026, against a roughly £300m annual average over 2020 to 2025. Bunzl's own principal risks list both "the inability of the Group to make further acquisitions" and "the risk of an unsuccessful acquisition" — the strategy is exposed at both ends.
• Change-programme execution risk: Bunzl explicitly names "risk relating to major change programme execution" as a principal risk, and FY2025 is the proof case. Live programmes include the Nisbets integration acquired in May 2024, with synergies only annualising in 2026 and earlier flagged slower than anticipated progress on warehouse automation, a large France consolidation, and 36 warehouse moves in 2025 plus 15 more in the first half of 2026.
• Currency translation: roughly 84% of revenue is generated outside the United Kingdom and Ireland, so sterling reported results swing with the dollar and euro. FY2025 revenue grew 3.0% at constant currency but only 0.6% as reported, a drag of roughly 2.4 percentage points; adjusted operating profit fell 4.3% at constant currency but 6.7% as reported. Other comprehensive expense included £31.8m of translation losses and the translation reserve stood at negative £356.6m. Bunzl publishes no single-currency earnings sensitivity.
• Geographic weak spots beyond North America: France suffered deflation plus operating cost inflation on what Bunzl calls a "relatively high cost to serve operating model"; Brazil could not fully pass through currency-driven cost increases into a weak industrial market; Mexican foodservice and grocery and the United States food processor and convenience store businesses saw demand pressure; and Rest of the World healthcare margins were hit in the first half of 2026 by reduced public sector spending in New Zealand.
• Cost inflation and refinancing: the first half of 2026 saw elevated fuel and freight costs from higher commodity prices, pushing the operating cost to sales ratio to 22.0% from 21.8%, while the United Kingdom and Ireland was earlier affected by higher employer National Insurance rates hitting customer sectors. Roughly £184m of United States private placements mature in the 18 months to 31 December 2027, and the £500m buyback will consume the leverage headroom that currently sits below the target range.
• Cyber, sustainability regulation and climate disruption: all three are named principal risks. On plastics regulation, 87% of revenue is already non-packaging or alternative-material packaging, which places the directly exposed residual at roughly 13% — material but bounded.

For context on the macroeconomic releases that drive Bunzl's inflation, freight and consumer demand exposure, see the ChartsView Economic Calendar.

11. Recent Developments

• 08 Oct 2025 — Two more bolt-ons, and an investor seminar on acquisitions. Bunzl completed Caterline Catering Equipment in Ireland and Northern Ireland, with revenue of roughly £5m, and Anta y Jesús, a regional cleaning and hygiene distributor in north-west Spain, also roughly £5m. These were the sixth and seventh deals of 2025. A virtual investor seminar on acquisitions was hosted the same day by Group Corporate Development Director Andrew Mooney.
• 21 Oct 2025 — Third quarter trading statement. Group revenue grew 0.6% at constant exchange rates with underlying revenue up 0.4%, described as in line with expectations against challenging end markets. Net acquisitions added 1.4% and fewer trading days cost 1.1%. Full-year guidance was left unchanged.
• 17 Dec 2025 — Pre-close statement. Bunzl reaffirmed its 2025 adjusted operating profit guidance ahead of entering its closed period and said group revenue for the year was expected to grow 2% to 3% at constant exchange rates.
• 02 Mar 2026 — FY2025 annual results. Revenue £11,845.4m, up 0.6% as reported and 3.0% at constant currency. Adjusted operating profit £910.3m, down 6.7% as reported, with margin falling from 8.3% to 7.7%. Adjusted earnings per share 179.3p, down 7.7%; statutory basic earnings per share 141.5p. Free cash flow £578.5m on 95% cash conversion. Total dividend 74.1p, a 33rd consecutive annual increase. Eight acquisitions for £132m committed. The £200m buyback was confirmed completed and leverage stood at 2.0 times.
• 22 Apr 2026 — First quarter trading statement and annual general meeting. Group revenue up 1.5% at constant exchange rates with underlying revenue up 2.0%, supported by both volume growth and tariff-related price increases. Acquisitions net of disposals added 0.6% and fewer trading days cost 1.1%. Management called it a resilient performance against significant macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, and reiterated full-year guidance.
• 23 Jun 2026 — Pre-close statement upgrades revenue guidance. First half revenue was expected to grow around 4% at constant exchange rates with underlying growth of around 3%, supported by second quarter product cost inflation driven by geopolitical events and encouraging volume growth led by North America, including good growth in the Distribution business. Margin guidance was unchanged at that point.
• 09 Jul 2026 — Director dealings. Chief Executive Officer Frank van Zanten's holding rose by 24,610 shares following an award exercise with a part sale to cover costs, and non-executive director Stephan Nanninga purchased 10,000 ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange.
• 01 Sep 2026 — Half-year results, upgraded guidance and a £500m buyback. Revenue £5,933.1m, up 3.0% as reported with underlying growth of 3.2%, a fifth consecutive quarter of positive underlying growth. Adjusted operating profit £440.6m, up 8.9%, with margin rising from 7.0% to 7.3%. Adjusted earnings per share 87.7p, up 12.7%; statutory basic earnings per share 65.7p, up 18.2%. Interim dividend 20.8p, up 3.0%. Leverage 1.8 times. Full-year margin guidance was upgraded to broadly flat year on year and a new £500m buyback was announced. North America Distribution was described as having service levels and product availability restored. The shares reached their 52-week high of 2,894p on the day.
• 07 Sep 2026 — Buyback execution begins. The first tranche covers up to 32,421,142 shares for a maximum £250m, to complete no later than 22 December 2026, through J.P. Morgan Securities. In the week to 11 September Bunzl repurchased 1,026,165 shares at 2,548.00p to 2,676.00p for cancellation, leaving 322,770,643 shares in issue.
• 11 Sep 2026 — adidas Pro Work safety footwear reaches market. Bunzl's GLO Brands B.V. unit and adidas launched the adidas Pro Work range under an exclusive long-term global partnership, with the first collection on sale from August 2026 through selected European retailers and distributors at €100 to €150.

For background, the April 2025 profit warning is the event this entire recovery narrative is measured against. On 16 April 2025 Bunzl cut its 2025 guidance because of operational challenges in its largest North American business, moving expected operating margin to moderately below 8.0% with a first half margin around 7.0%, and paused its £200m buyback having completed roughly £115m. The shares fell around 24% on the day. The buyback was resumed in the second half and completed in full during 2025; Bunzl then met the revised guidance, delivered a much smaller second half margin decline, returned to positive underlying growth, and by September 2026 had upgraded 2026 guidance and launched a buyback two and a half times larger. Discussion of these results and the wider FTSE 100 industrials is ongoing in the ChartsView Forum.

12. Key Dates and Catalysts

• 20 Oct 2026 — Third quarter 2026 trading statement, confirmed on Bunzl's own financial calendar. A revenue and trading update only; Bunzl does not publish earnings figures at the first and third quarters
• 12 Nov 2026 — Ex-dividend date for the 20.8p 2026 interim dividend
• 13 Nov 2026 — Record date for the 2026 interim dividend, close of business
• 22 Dec 2026 — Latest completion date for the first £250m tranche of the £500m buyback programme
• Expected Dec 2026 — Pre-close trading statement, not yet on the published calendar. The 2025 equivalent was 17 December 2025 and the 2024 equivalent 17 December 2024
• 05 Jan 2027 — Payment date for the 20.8p 2026 interim dividend
• Expected Mar 2027 — FY2026 annual results, not yet announced. The recent pattern is 2 March 2026 for FY2025, 3 March 2025 for FY2024 and 26 February 2024 for FY2023
• Expected Apr 2027 — Annual general meeting with a first quarter 2027 trading statement, not yet announced. The 2026 meeting was held 22 April 2026 and the 2025 meeting 23 April 2025
• Expected May 2027 — Ex-dividend date for the FY2026 final dividend, not yet announced. The FY2025 final of 53.9p went ex-dividend on 21 May 2026
• Expected Jul 2027 — Payment date for the FY2026 final dividend, not yet announced. The FY2025 final was paid 2 July 2026
• Expected Sep 2027 — Half-year 2027 results, not yet announced. The 2026 half year was reported 1 September 2026 and the 2025 half year on 26 August 2025
• TBC — Capital markets day. None is currently announced; Bunzl's last dedicated capital markets day was in 2021, and the most recent investor event was the virtual acquisitions seminar of 8 October 2025

Already passed in 2026: FY2025 results on 2 March, the annual general meeting and first quarter statement on 22 April, the FY2025 final dividend ex-dividend date on 21 May and payment on 2 July, the pre-close statement on 23 June, and the half-year results and buyback announcement on 1 September. The two dates that matter most between now and the year end are the 20 October trading statement, which is the first read on whether the temporary inflation benefit is persisting, and the 22 December buyback tranche deadline, which sets the pace for the remaining £250m.

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