Coats Regulatory News (COA)

 2 March 2023

Coats Group plc

2022 Full Year Results

10% organic revenue growth, 22% organic adjusted operating profit growth and strong free cash flow

Coats Group plc ('Coats,' the 'Company' or the 'Group'), the world's leading industrial thread and footwear components manufacturer, announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Strategic Highlights

Financial Highlights

Full Year Outlook in Line with the Board's Expectations

Commenting on the results Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, said:

"Coats produced a strong set of results in 2022, a year which was characterised by high inflation and supply chain disruption. Organic revenue growth was 10%, above our targeted medium-term growth of around 6%, and organic adjusted operating profit increased 22%.

"We made further excellent progress in transforming the Group during the year, and this has made Coats a stronger, fitter and more focused Group, enhancing our leading market positions in industrial thread and footwear component markets. The 2022 acquisitions of Texon and Rhenoflex have not only significantly strengthened our position in the attractive footwear market but also increased our medium-term organic growth and margin potential.

"Our strategic projects, aimed at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations, have been successfully progressed at speed during the year and we have today, in a period of macroeconomic uncertainty, increased our total targeted 2024 adjusted operating profit savings to $70 million, from the previous $50 million.

"As a result of the transformational work done to date, the Group remains very well-positioned in its markets with a focus on growing brands. In addition, Coats has global leadership, a wide geographic footprint, scale, product and quality differentiation and a pipeline of innovative and sustainable products. Consequently, we remain excited about the growth and margin opportunities across the Group over the medium term."

Conference Call

Coats Management will present its full year results in a webcast at 09.00 GMT today (Thursday, 2 March 2023). The webcast can be accessed via www.coats.com/investors/fy2022. The webcast will also be made available in archive form on www.coats.com.

About Coats Group plc

Coats is a world leader in thread manufacturing and structural components for apparel and footwear, as well as an innovative pioneer in performance materials. These critical solutions are used to create a wide range of products, including ones that provide safety and protection for people, data and the environment. Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE250 company and a FTSE4Good Index constituent. Revenue in 2022 was $1.6 billion. Trusted by the world's leading companies to deliver crucial, innovative, and sustainable solutions, Coats provides value-adding products including apparel, accessory and footwear threads, structural footwear components, fabrics, yarns and software applications. Customer partners include companies from the apparel, footwear, automotive, telecoms, personal protection, and outdoor goods industries. With a proud heritage dating back more than 250 years and spirit of evolution to constantly stay ahead of changing market needs, Coats has operations across some 50 countries with a workforce of 17,000, serving its customers worldwide. Coats connects talent, textiles, and technology, to make a better and more sustainable world. Worldwide, there are three dedicated Coats Innovation Hubs, where experts collaborate with partners to create the materials and products of tomorrow. It participates in the UN Global Compact and is committed to Science Based sustainability targets for 2030 and beyond, with an aspiration of achieving net-zero by 2050. Coats is also committed to achieving its goals in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, workplace health & safety, employee & community wellbeing, and supplier social performance. To find out more about Coats visit www.coats.com.

Cautionary statement

Certain statements in this full year report are forward-looking. Although the Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements contain risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Group Chief Executive's review

Purpose and Strategy

Coats is the world's leading industrial thread and footwear components company. Our purpose is to connect talent, textiles and technology to make a better and more sustainable world, with a strategy to accelerate profitable sales growth by leveraging innovation, sustainability, digital technologies and our global scale to create world class products and services, delivering value to our stakeholders.

2022 Full Year Results Overview

Introduction

We made further excellent progress in transforming the Group during the year. We purchased Texon and Rhenoflex, significantly enhancing our position in the attractive footwear market and increasing our medium-term organic growth and margin potential. The integration of those businesses is on-track with efficiency savings starting to come through at the year end, in line with plan. Our strategic projects, announced at the start of 2022, and which will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations, have been accelerated with greater in-year cost savings achieved as a result ($20 million versus the initially guided $5-$10 million). We have also now expanded the scope of these projects, with our total targeted adjusted operating profit savings by 2024 increasing to $70 million, from the previous $50 million.

In addition, we have also substantially delivered against our ambitious 2022 sustainability targets, exceeding these in some areas, with further details in the Sustainability section below. We have challenged ourselves again by setting further ambitious milestones for delivery in 2026, building on our achievements to date. The milestones will help us continue the momentum to our 2030 Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) approved targets, and our commitment to be Net Zero by 2050.

We delivered revenue of $1,584 million in the year, an increase of 16% on a constant currency basis. This increase reflects the acquisitions of Texon and Rhenoflex in the year and strong Group organic revenue growth of 10%, above our c.6% medium term target growth. This organic revenue growth reflects our outstanding trading performance in H1, which was driven by industry restocking and buffer buying in the face of supply chain disruption, and strong pricing and mix, alongside improving market demand. As anticipated, year-on-year performance slowed during the second half, in part due to the strong 2021 comparator results, as well as a softening in demand due to macroeconomic factors, with some destocking. This was most noticeable in Apparel markets in Q4 but also impacted Footwear towards the end of the year. Reported Group revenue, including adverse currency movements, grew 9%.

Apparel & Footwear delivered organic revenue growth of 9%, reflecting the demand profile across the year described above. The 2022 Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions traded in line with our expectations. Performance Materials delivered a strong performance, growing 13% organically, with its three sub-segments all delivering good organic growth. As previously announced, and reflecting the changing shape of the Group, we will report from 1 January 2023 a revised three division structure: Apparel, Footwear and Performance Materials.

In recent years our Apparel & Footwear business has grown faster than the underlying market by taking market share. This trend has continued in the year with an organic increase in market share of over 100bps, to an estimated c.24%. We have also achieved significant customer successes in Performance Materials, as we bring new innovative products to market. Our ability to gain market share is testament to the success of our strategy, including our strong customer relationships, with a focus on growing, premium brands. This is, in part, a result of our global scale, the premium quality of our products and our ability to offer value-add technical services. Our investment in innovation across all our businesses enables us to bring new and differentiated products to market. We have a particular focus on products made from recycled or biomaterials, where we are the market leader. Our significant multi-year investment in making our operations more sustainable, an investment many of our smaller competitors cannot replicate, is a real differentiator for many of our customers, who have made their own environmental commitments. This investment is consistent with the increasing trend for consumers to buy sustainable products supported by a sustainable supply chain, and we have continued to rapidly grow our revenue from sustainable products. We are confident that we will continue to grow our market share in future.

The year was also characterised by high inflation and supply chain disruption, although this has moderated in places, as we progressed through the year. Our pricing actions and proactive self-help efficiency programmes have continued to fully offset inflationary pressures in the supply chain for raw materials, labour, energy and freight costs. In the second half, the rate of inflationary increases for raw materials and freight, stabilised or moderated, although input prices remain well ahead of the prior year and are likely to remain elevated for some time.

Despite these significant operational challenges, adjusted operating profit increased 27% on a constant currency basis to $235 million. This reflects the effectiveness of our pricing initiatives, an enhanced mix, the contribution from Texon and Rhenoflex, the initial benefits from our strategic projects as well as ongoing operating efficiencies. The Group adjusted operating margin increased by 120bps to 14.8%. Both Apparel & Footwear and Performance Materials contributed to this increase. Operating profit increased 2% to $181 million, after strategic project costs and acquisition-related items.

We generated strong adjusted free cash flow of $114 million reflecting the increased operating profit alongside well- controlled capital expenditure and working capital management. Year-end net debt (excluding lease liabilities) was $394 million, with proforma leverage of 1.4x net debt/EBITDA after our 2022 acquisitions, comfortably within our target range of 1-2x net debt/EBITDA.

We have made excellent progress in recent years to reduce and de-risk the funding deficit within the Coats UK Pension Scheme. A further significant step was achieved in December 2022, with the trustee purchasing a c.£350m bulk annuity policy from Aviva. This partly de-risks our UK defined benefit scheme by fully funding all financial and demographic risks for approximately 20% of scheme liabilities. In addition, and as a result of the significantly improved funding position and de-risking actions, we have reached agreement with the Pension Scheme Trustees on a mechanism to switch off / switch on the regular cash contributions to the Scheme. This will be based on monthly estimates of the latest funding position, and gives rise to the potential for significant free cash flow benefits from lower or eliminated cash contributions, if the Scheme remains fully funded on its technical provisions basis. On a medium term basis and when market conditions permit, we aim to remove the Scheme from the Group's balance sheet in a cost effective manner.

Acquisition of Texon and Rhenoflex

During the year we acquired Texon International Group Limited (Texon) in July 2022 and Rhenoflex GmbH (Rhenoflex) in August 2022 for a combined consideration of $355 million. This is equivalent to a post-synergy multiple of around 8x EBITDA. As a result of these acquisitions, on a proforma full-year basis, around a quarter of our total revenue is now in higher growth footwear markets. We estimate medium term market growth of 7-8% per annum, ahead of the medium term Group target of c.6%.

Texon and Rhenoflex are leading footwear and accessories solutions providers, bringing a range of products, including heel counters, toe puffs and insoles, which complement Coats' existing footwear threads business. Together, the three businesses are the leading, global component supplier to the highly attractive footwear market, within a fragmented supply chain. There is a strong focus in the business on fast-growth, premium-priced quality, sports and athleisure brands.

The combined business has an enhanced portfolio of highly differentiated and innovative components, which are predominantly brand specified. These include a leading portfolio of sustainable products, including recycled and plant based components, which are increasingly in demand for new and long-life footwear products. The acquisitions present exciting opportunities to cross-sell the broad range of complementary components within the business to an expanded customer base. Early conversations with customers have been encouraging, as they can benefit from our ability to supply a wider range of premium, engineered components. This would enable them to consolidate their supply chain with a longstanding and trusted supplier. The acquisitions continue to trade in line with our expectations.

The Group remains on-track to deliver an initial $11 million of annualised cost efficiencies from the integration of the combined business by the end of 2023. These efficiencies principally relate to the elimination of duplicated roles, consolidation of back-office functions and procurement efficiencies resulting from increased scale. Good progress has been made in the year, with the business now operating under a single, energised leadership team. By the end of 2022, we had already delivered run-rate cost efficiencies of $3 million.

Focusing the Portfolio on Attractive Markets

As announced in May 2022, and in line with our strategy to accelerate profitable sales growth, we completed the disposal of our business in Brazil and Argentina. We also exited direct operations in South Africa and all operations in Russia during the first half.

On 31 January 2023, we completed the divestment of our small business operations in Mauritius and Madagascar. Production in these countries has become increasingly focused on domestic and regional customers with the more international customer base gradually migrating their production elsewhere.  

Strategic Projects

We have a strong track record of managing our costs lower and delivering operating efficiencies, and we continued to focus on costs during the year. To this end, we announced a number of new strategic projects in March 2022. These will improve margins by optimising the portfolio and footprint, enhance the overall cost base efficiency, and mitigate structural labour availability issues in the US.

We have accelerated project implementation, delivering in-year efficiencies in 2022 ahead of our expectations ($20 million versus the initially guided $5-$10 million). In addition, we now expect to deliver total savings of $70 million by 2024, a significant increase on the $50 million we had previously guided. The additional $20 million savings will primarily arise from expanding the scope of our strategic projects, with a focus on the transformation of our Asian operations, in particular in China and India. The total exceptional cash cost of the projects is expected to be $50 million (previously $35 million).

Optimising the portfolio and footprint and mitigating structural US labour availability issues

We have in-train a number of initiatives to further optimise our portfolio and footprint, including mitigating structural labour availability issues in the US. We have exited legacy facilities and technology in the US and established a new state- of-the-art facility in Huamantla, Mexico, while also making significant investment in our existing plant at Orizaba, Mexico. These sites are operational, following fit-out and recruitment and training of the workforce, with overall project timing on-track. In addition, we expect to commission a second new plant in Mexico by the end of the first half of 2023, which will further improve efficiency and US labour availability issues.

As part of this project, we have installed new, proprietary technology which reduces the number of manufacturing processes, while increasing our flexibility to meet customer needs. The development of a new employee-friendly and digitally controlled bonding process, underpinned by our proprietary infra-red bonding equipment, is a key enhancement to our operations. We have also installed the latest compressed air system resulting in lower energy intensity. To date, the project has enabled us to deliver increased output for key growth segments. Wherever possible, we have re-used equipment from our US plants, reducing the capital requirements of the project and reducing scrap.

Due to their timing and nature, the costs and benefits of these projects are expected to accrue predominantly during 2023 and 2024.

In addition, we have continued to consolidate our footprint in other geographies. Following the announcement of the closure of our warehouse in Poland in the first half, which was completed in August, we exited our warehouse in Hungary at the end of the year. This has enabled us to consolidate our European thread operations in Romania in a modern, purpose-built facility.

Improving the overall cost base efficiency

A further focus is on improving the overall cost base efficiency of the Group, and we commenced a project in the first half with particular emphasis on our higher cost UK and US locations. The objective is to move a number of our corporate and overhead activities closer to our operations and customers, making us at once more efficient and more effective. Following the progress delivered in the first half, we have continued to accelerate implementation of the project and have delivered total savings in 2022 of $20 million. These savings are ahead of our initial expectations of $5-10 million for the year, and ahead of our increased expectations of $15 million set out at the H1 2022 results. The project is continuing into 2023, with further savings expected in line with our original overall expectations.

Strategic Enablers: Innovation, Sustainability and Digital

Our strategic enablers of Innovation, Sustainability and Digital underpin our strategy to accelerate profitable sales growth while delivering sustainable stakeholder value. We made further progress during the year, as follows.

Innovation

We innovate to deliver differentiated, highly-engineered products that will deliver profitable growth. Our innovation is inextricably linked to sustainability, as many of the key market trends have sustainability at their core. These include the sourcing of natural and recycled materials for production, more efficient production techniques, the production of lightweight, protective and multi-use products and technologies that enhance the ability to recycle end-of-life products. Our success in bringing innovative new products to market that drive revenue and margin growth is based on a number of critical factors. These include the use of technology roadmaps, and our close relationships and collaboration with customers.

During the year we launched 17 (2021: 21) new products which delivered a combined $34 million (2021: $37 million) of incremental revenue across the Group in their first year. All of our businesses contribute to the pipeline of new and innovative products, with a few examples from across the Group:

During the year, Performance Materials opened a new and significantly larger plant in Spain for the manufacture of products for the global telecommunications industry. The plant has a new innovation centre specialising in the development of products for applications in telecommunications and oil and gas markets.

Our new product pipeline remains strong. We will continue to develop our innovation credentials to deliver sustainable, tailored solutions in line with customer requirements.

Sustainability

A key part of our company purpose is to make a better and more sustainable world, and we aim to set benchmark performance for our industry. Not only does this help people and the planet, it also makes good business sense. It enables us to differentiate our offerings and position ourselves to be a supplier of choice in the rapidly growing market for sustainable apparel and footwear products. In addition, by using less resources, including less energy and water, we are aligned with broader sustainability trends but also reducing our costs.

We are continuing towards our long-term commitment of being Net Zero by 2050, initially by following a pathway to our 2030 SBTi goals. As part of these SBTi goals, we will reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by over 46% by 2030 (with scope 3 reduced by 33%), with 70% of our global energy consumption coming from renewables. In addition, no Coats products will be made using new oil-extraction materials such as virgin polyester and nylon. We will also adopt a circularity approach, creating products and packaging solutions that enable recycling and reuse, within our own operations and across the wider garment industry.

Our shorter term 2022 targets were set in 2019. These were set at ambitious levels to challenge us to address at speed the key sustainability issues within the business. We are proud of what we have achieved during the period to the end of 2022, substantially delivering against our goals, and we have met or exceeded the targets for many. In particular, our energy intensity has been reduced from the 2018 baseline, achieving 143% of the 7% target. Our target of 80% of employees working within a Great Place to Work certification has also been exceeded, achieving 108% of the target. We also achieved our 25% waste reduction target.

We have delivered significant improvement in all areas although, in a few cases, we fell just short of our targets. We targeted a 40% reduction in water intensity and achieved 95% of the target. We are also just short of our target of 100% compliance with industry driven Zero Discharge of Harmful Chemicals (ZDHC) effluent standards, delivering a significantly improved 92% ZDHC compliance performance in the year. We have put in place detailed plans to remedy the remaining issues, which arose at a small number of plants.

We continued to rapidly increase sales of our range of 100% recycled products, driven by market demand, where we are the clear global market leader. Our revenue increased in the year by 37% to $127 million (2021: $93 million) at CER. We remain focused on ensuring all our premium polyester threads are made from 100% recycled material by 2024, and we are making good progress towards this.

We have now set further medium-term sustainability milestones, using 2022 as the new baseline. This will enable us to continue on the path to our 2030 SBTi approved targets and our 2050 Net Zero commitment. These specific, measurable and, once again, ambitious 2026 targets continue to focus on people, water, emissions and waste reduction, as well as product innovation and materials transition. We have added two new 2026 target areas. These relate to an increase in the number of female leaders in the business as well as to reductions in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. These 2026 targets will enable us to continue to drive our sustainability momentum.

We had previously earmarked $10 million to fund the scaling up of green technologies and materials that are relevant to our industry supply chain. During the year, we allocated our first tranche of this money to investment in water-free dyeing technology, with other exciting ideas under consideration. The re-purposing of our Asia Innovation Hub in Shenzhen, China to focus on the application of biomaterials has now been completed, following investment in top talent in a range of technologies, including textile engineering, polymer chemistry and dyeing, coating and bonding.

We also submitted our Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate Change and Water questionnaire during the year, receiving a B- and B rating respectively, reflecting our 2021 performance. We aim to improve on this in future surveys.

Digital

By adopting and promoting digital technologies we are able to facilitate closer links with our customers, increase our operational agility and the efficiency of our operations and those of our customers.

During the year, we enhanced our digital customer ecosystem, ShopCoats, through which customers can use automated bulk and sample ordering and status management.  We supported valuable key accounts through system integration, refreshed our front-end order system and used Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software to enhance our sales and customer service systems. These tools give us speed, agility, lower cost and increased customer satisfaction.

In addition, our Coats Digital business, part of Apparel & Footwear, sells software which enables fashion brands, sourcing companies and manufacturers to optimise, connect and accelerate business critical processes seamlessly. This includes design and development, method-time-cost optimisation, production planning and control, fabric optimisation and shop floor execution. Orders for this software have increased during the year, reflecting the growing importance of digital business in driving efficiency and business improvement.

As part of the Rhenoflex acquisition in 2022, we acquired the proprietary Rhenoprint™ 3D printing capability. This unique process for developing and producing footwear components provides leading brands a print-to-order solution, according to individual needs. The process facilitates enhanced shoe performance and characteristics, while delivering product as part of a completely waste-free process.

Dividend

We have delivered a strong set of results in the year and, as a result of our ongoing transformation, we are well-positioned in our markets with growth and margin opportunities. Consequently, the Board is pleased to propose a final dividend of 1.73 cents per share, a 15% increase on the prior year.  Subject to approval at the forthcoming AGM, the final dividend will be paid on 25 May 2023 to ordinary shareholders on the register at 28 April 2023, with an ex-dividend date of 27 April 2023. Alongside the interim dividend of 0.70 cents per share, this makes a total dividend of 2.43 cents per share for the year, an increase of 15%.

The Board will continue to review the level of dividend payment to shareholders, as we continue to deliver margin and earnings growth, alongside strong cash generation.

Full Year Outlook in Line with the Board's Expectations

Following a year of excellent progress in transforming the business, market share gains and increased profitability, we expect to deliver another year of strategic and operational progress. Destocking by customers has continued into the early part of the year, primarily in Apparel markets and to a lesser extent in Footwear markets, however we continue to proactively respond to the macroeconomic environment and inflationary pressures using our well-defined and tested playbook that focuses on cash, costs, self-help initiatives, deep customer relationships and tactical pricing actions.

As a result, we continue to anticipate that full year 2023 performance will be in line with the Board's expectations, with a weighting to the second half. This performance will be underpinned by the contribution from acquisitions, in addition to associated synergies and efficiencies from strategic projects.

Coats has global leadership, a wide geographic footprint, scale, product and quality differentiation and a pipeline of innovative and sustainable products. This will enable revenue growth ahead of market. Looking further ahead, as a result of the transformational work completed to date, we remain well-positioned to grow earnings and cash.

Operating Review

2022 Operating Results Overview

Group revenue of $1,584 million increased 9% on a reported basis, 16% on a CER basis (which includes the initial impact of the Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions), and 10% on an organic basis. This was driven by pricing actions which fully offset ongoing heightened inflationary pressures, market share gains and a strong market recovery during H1. As anticipated, year-on-year performance slowed during the second half, in part due to the 2021 comparator strengthening, as well as a softening in demand due to macroeconomic factors, with some destocking. This was most noticeable in Apparel markets in Q4 but also impacted Footwear towards the end of the year.

Group adjusted operating profit of $235 million increased 27% on a CER basis (2021: $198 million reported), with operating margins up 120bps to 14.8% (2021: 13.7%). On a reported basis operating profit was $181 million (2021: $178 million) after $54 million of strategic project costs and acquisition-related items.

Adjusted earnings per share ('EPS') for the year increased by 14% to 8.2 cents (2021: 7.2 cents) as operating profits grew significantly due to the strong trading performance and the delivery of savings from the strategic projects, alongside a reduction in the underlying effective tax rate. There was some offset from higher interest costs. Reported EPS of 4.8 cents (2021: 5.8 cents) was 18% lower, including the impact of exceptional and acquisition related items.

Apparel & Footwear ('A&F')

Coats is the global market leader in supplying premium sewing thread and footwear structural components to the A&F industries. We are the trusted value-adding partner, providing critical supply chain components and services, and our portfolio of world-class products and services exist to serve the needs and requirements of our customers and brand owners. Coats is also the global market leader in footwear structural components. Our highly engineered products have strong brand component specification, primarily targeted at the attractive athleisure, performance, and sports markets. The combination of Coats, Texon and Rhenoflex in this market has enabled us to accelerate our innovation and sustainability.

Our A&F business benefited from market share gains and strong pricing/mix fully offsetting inflationary pressures, along with post-COVID-19 industry inventory restocking, buffer buying in the face of supply chain disruption and continued underlying market recovery during H1. As anticipated, year-on-year performance slowed during the second half, in part due to the 2021 comparator strengthening, as well as a softening in demand due to macroeconomic factors, with some destocking. This was most noticeable in Apparel markets in Q4 but also impacted Footwear towards the end of the year. Despite these industry dynamics we have continued to leverage our key customer relationships, strong sustainability credentials, market-leading product ranges and technical services, and our flexibility and agility in a turbulent supply chain environment. 

Revenue of $1,163 million (2021: $1,048 million) reflected strong growth of 18% on a CER basis (11% reported), which included the initial contribution of the Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions, which were acquired in July and August 2022 respectively. Excluding acquisitions, organic growth was 9% for the full year with H2 adversely impacted, following the exceptional H1 (organic growth 21%), as a result of the changing market conditions described above, and strengthening comparators. The performance in the year reflects the flexibility of our global footprint and our ability to support customers during the COVID-19 recovery and ongoing uncertainty in global supply chains. Our global accounts programme, in which we dedicate customer relationship resources to our key brands and retailers, saw significant new customer and programme wins, which contributed to further overall share gains; this has included a new programme win with a major European retailer in relation to a sportwear brand launch where we are the nominated recycled thread supplier. We have also been able to further leverage our technical advisory and fast sampling service to deliver notable further sales successes in a number of Asian markets.

All of our geographic regions (Asia, Americas and EMEA) benefited from positive end market sentiment during H1, led by our ongoing ability to supply product.  Market trends towards Sports and Athleisure, as well as casualisation, continued to accelerate. In addition, increasing online activity, a shift towards premium products and supply chain digitisation trends also continued during the year. Supplier consolidation, nearshoring and the need for agility were also prominent trends and, unsurprisingly, customers continue to place increasing emphasis on their sustainability agendas. Despite the slowdown in the second half of the year, largely driven by macroeconomic factors and resulting destocking, these longer-term trends remain and are opportunities to underpin further accelerated medium-term growth and share gains. 

All A&F's sub-segments delivered organic revenue growth in 2022; A&F thread was up 9%, Zips and Trims was up 16%, and Coats Digital was up 3%. 

Adjusted operating profit of $201m (2021: $171m) increased 24% vs 2021. Adjusted operating margin was up 90bps to 17.3% (2021: 16.4% at CER). Excluding the marginally dilutive initial impact of acquisitions (which are expected to be accretive, post synergies), A&F margins were up organically 140bps year-on-year to 17.8%. This was as a result of excellent commercial and operational delivery, pricing and procurement actions fully offsetting heightened inflationary pressures, alongside strategic project benefits and general cost discipline.

Performance Materials ('PM')

We are experts in the design and supply of a diverse range of technical products that serve a variety of strategic end use markets. Building on over 250 years of leadership in thread, we incorporate specific design features to be able to provide highly engineered solutions for our customers. The segment operates across Personal Protection, Composites and Performance Threads. Personal Protection offers multi-hazard industrial applications for industrial, energy, firefighting and military wear. Composites provides products and solutions for fibre optic cables and oil & gas piping sectors and light weighting solutions for automotive components, while Performance Threads has applications in a range of sewn products like safety-critical airbags and seat belts, outdoor goods, household products like bedding and furniture, hygiene-sensitive consumer goods like feminine hygiene and tea bags.

From 2022, the Group has disclosed PM in three sub-segments. Personal Protection (in 2022, 43% of divisional revenue), Composites (18% of revenue) and Performance Thread (39% of revenue). The medium-term growth rates expected for each sub-segment are high single digits for Personal Protection, low double-digits for Composites, and global GDP growth for Performance Thread. The overall medium-term growth target for the division is a mid-high single digit growth CAGR (6-9%), as in the Revised Segmental Reporting section below.

There were new customer wins across all sub-segments, such as the nomination for our FlamePro Splash Protect fabric from a leading US-based manufacturer of protective garments for the molten metal industries and from an energy and data management provider for our extruded coated nylon, composite products used in cables for the energy and automotive segments.

Overall, PM revenue grew 13% to $420 million (2021: $399m) on an organic and CER basis (5% on a reported basis), which was driven primarily by price increases to offset inflation. Revenue growth performance vs 2021 was underpinned by strong demand in Composites (up 21%) despite some H1 supply chain issues in EMEA, and Personal Protection (up 19%), again due to strong demand but also operational improvements in the US yarns business. Performance Thread increased 4% vs 2021 despite weaker consumer demand in its Household and Recreation markets, and ongoing labour availability issues in the US. These operational constraints are being addressed via our strategic projects. In H2, overall demand has remained resilient across end markets.

Adjusted operating profit increased 47% on an organic and CER basis to $34 million (2021: $27 million). At an adjusted operating margin level, PM margins were up on an organic and CER basis by 190 bps to 8.1% (2021: 6.2%).  While still impacted in the US by labour availability issues and labour inflation, US margins have improved significantly due to the positive impact of actions taken. Excluding the US business, PM margins were c.12%, slightly lower than 2021 (13%), as a result of specific temporary supply chain disruption issues within EMEA in H1, which have now been resolved.

Revised Segmental Reporting from 1 January 2023

As mentioned above, in July and August 2022 we completed the acquisitions of Texon and Rhenoflex respectively. This has made us the global leader in footwear components, alongside our existing global leadership position in industrial thread.

As a result of these acquisitions, and as announced at our Capital Markets Day in 2022, our new organisational and reporting structure, effective 1 January 2023, is comprised of three divisions; Apparel, Footwear and Performance Materials. The new Footwear segment will consist of the existing Coats footwear thread business (currently part of A&F), and the acquired footwear components businesses, Texon and Rhenoflex.

We will report our financial results on the new segmental basis from our HY23 results. 

As announced at our 2022 Capital Markets Day, the medium-term sales growth CAGR for the new operating segments are anticipated to be 3-4% for Apparel, c.8% for Footwear, and 6-9% for Performance Materials, resulting in Group growth of c.6%. The goal for the Group 2024 adjusted operating margin is c.17%, comprising 15-16% for Apparel, >20% for Footwear, and 13-14% for Performance Materials. 

Geographical Performance

We saw strong revenue growth in all regions driven primarily by pricing actions, mix and positive end market sentiment during H1.

Our Asia revenue, 58% (2021: 59%) of Group, increased 6% CER to $912 million (2021: $850 million), despite some headwinds. While Vietnam and India delivered strong growth, following COVID-19 disruption in 2021, the market in China was impacted by COVID-19 disruption during H1 2022. Overall, Asian markets experienced significant demand and supply volatility throughout the year, with our performance underpinned by agility, customer focus and self-help initiatives.

Our Americas revenue, 22% (2021: 22%) of Group, increased 9% CER to $341 million (2021: $314 million), with a particularly strong performance in Colombia and Central America. In addition, our US Personal Protection business performed well, with strong demand and operational delivery improving significantly.

In EMEA, 21% (2021: 20%) of Group, revenue increased 25% CER to $331 million (2021: $283 million). This was driven by positive momentum in PM in telecommunication composites and transportation, as fibre optic sales remained robust. In A&F, Zips saw strong demand. Organic revenue growth also benefited from the weakening Turkish Lira, as we continued to price largely in USD, as well as from the adoption of hyperinflation accounting in that country. 

In the Americas and EMEA, we also benefited from increased nearshoring, with customers bringing production closer to their end-markets, and this trend gathered momentum through the year.

Financial Review

Revenue

Group revenue increased 9% on a reported basis and 16% on a CER basis. On an organic basis revenue increased 10%, which excludes the Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions. All commentary below is on an organic basis unless otherwise stated.

Operating Profit

At a Group level, adjusted operating profit increased from $198 million in 2021 to $235 million (including acquisitions) and adjusted operating margins increased 120bps to 14.8%. The table sets out the movement in adjusted operating profit during the year.

In the first half of the year, there were volume tailwinds as a result of the significant demand recovery in the period. In the second half, as anticipated, we saw a slow-down, particularly in Apparel. The direct and indirect volume impact of this, together with the increasingly strong 2021 comparators (due to the exceptional demand conditions, which continued into H1 2022), resulted in a direct and indirect volume headwind in the year.

In part as a result of increasing oil prices in the latter part of 2020, and throughout 2021 and 2022, we experienced year-on-year inflationary pressures for a number of major cost categories, most notably raw materials, freight and other costs such as labour and energy. As in previous years, we were able to fully offset these headwinds, by means of productivity benefits and increased pricing. These inflationary pressures continued throughout 2022, albeit with some flattening out and price moderation in certain areas in the latter part of the year. There was early evidence of this, for example, in relation to some raw materials and freight. 

Selling, Distribution and Administration costs have continued to be well controlled, despite ongoing inflationary impacts. These are below last year as we reduced our costs, particularly in the face of more challenging conditions in H2. We have also benefited from $20 million of savings in the year, in relation to our strategic projects announced in early 2022, and these are ahead of our initial expectations for the year. We have increased the total efficiencies we expect to deliver by 2024 by $20 million through expanding the scope of the projects, in particular focusing on our Asian operations, and we now expect to deliver a total of $70 million incremental benefits. 

Our 2022 acquisitions, Texon and Rhenoflex, delivered a $9 million contribution to adjusted operating profit post-acquisition. This was in line with our acquisition business case, and we moved quickly in the year to deliver the anticipated synergies ($11 million total by 2024) with run-rate savings at the year-end of $3 million. 

As a result of these factors, the Group's adjusted operating margins increased by 120bps to 14.8% on a CER basis (2021: 13.6%). Excluding the Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions, the Group margin increased 150bps to 15.1%.

On a reported basis, Group operating profit (including exceptional and acquisition-related items) increased to $181 million (2021: $178 million). This includes exceptional items, and a breakdown is provided below. Exceptional and acquisition-related items are not allocated to segments, and as such the segmental profitability referred to above is on an adjusted basis.

Foreign exchange

The Group reports in US Dollars and translational currency impacts can arise, as its global footprint generates significant revenue and expenses in a number of other currencies. In 2022, this was a headwind of 7% on revenue and 8% on adjusted operating profit. These adverse translation impacts were primarily due to depreciation in the year in the Euro and the Indian Rupee and to the adoption of hyperinflation accounting in Turkey. At year-end exchange rates we expect a c.1% translation headwind for revenue and adjusted operating profit in 2023 (excluding any future hyperinflation impact, which cannot be forecast with accuracy).

Non-operating Results

Adjusted earnings per share ('EPS') increased by 14% to 8.2 cents (2021: 7.2 cents) as operating profits grew significantly, increasing from $198 million to $235 million (due to the strong trading performance and the delivery of savings from the strategic projects). This was alongside a reduction in the underlying effective tax rate of 29% (2021: 30%). There was some offset from higher interest. Reported EPS of 4.8 cents (2021: 5.8 cents) was 18% lower, including the impact of exceptional and acquisition related items.

The increase in adjusted profit before tax was due to the increase in adjusted operating profit ($37 million increase). This was partially offset by the net finance charge which was $8 million higher year-on-year (see further details below). There was a small (c.0.1 cents) dilutive impact from the two acquisitions completed during the year, which is not expected to recur in 2023, as the business case and synergies are delivered. 

Net finance costs increased to $30 million (pre-exceptional) (2021: $21 million). The key drivers were a $9 million increase in interest on bank borrowings due to increasing interest rates on the floating elements of debt, and additional interest on the $240 million acquisition facility taken out in July to fund the Texon acquisition. In addition, there was a $6 million adverse movement on foreign exchange, largely as a result of Sterling weakness towards the year end, when we hedge a number of costs and cash flows, including scheduled UK pension contributions. These were partially offset by a $4 million decrease in interest on pension scheme liabilities, as a result of an IAS19 basis surplus at 31 December 2021. There was also a $2 million credit due to the indexation of non-current assets in Turkey as a result of the adoption of hyperinflation accounting.

The adjusted taxation charge for the year was $60 million (2021: $53 million). Excluding the impact of exceptional and acquisition-related items, the effective tax rate on pre-tax profit was 29% (2021: 30%). The reported tax rate was 37% (2021: 34%), after exceptional and acquisition related items.

Profit attributable to minority interests increased by 13% to $22 million (2021: $20 million) and was predominantly related to Coats' operations in Vietnam and Bangladesh, in which it has controlling interests.

Exceptional and Acquisition-related Items

Net exceptional and acquisition-related items before taxation were $55 million (2021: $20 million). These include strategic project costs of $31 million (of which $5 million are non-cash impairments) and acquisition-related items of $24 million.

Strategic project costs of $31 million relate to the commencement of a number of strategic initiatives during 2022; and primarily consist of severance costs of $22 million, non-cash right-of-use asset impairment charges in relation to UK and US office exits of $5 million, and legal / advisor / closure costs of $5 million, offset by a profit of $1 million from the sale of property. These significant actions have supported the acceleration of project benefits, as mentioned earlier, with $20 million of incremental adjusted operating profit delivered in 2022.

Acquisition-related items of $24 million consisted of the provisional amortisation charges from the newly recognised intangible assets from the Texon / Rhenoflex acquisitions ($8 million), related transaction costs ($13 million) and the amortisation of intangible assets acquired in previous acquisitions ($3 million).

Discontinued items

In May 2022, Coats completed the disposal of its business in Brazil and Argentina to Reelpar SA, an entity backed by a Sao Paulo Private Equity Firm. 

As a result of the strategic exit from Brazil and Argentina, the operating results of these businesses prior to sale have been reported within discontinued operations during the current (2022 operating losses of $3 million) and prior years. This has resulted in an overall increase to the Group adjusted operating margin of around 50bps.

As a result of the transaction, we have disposed of $49 million of net assets (of which $45 million relates to working capital) for a cash payment to the purchaser and fees of $20 million. In addition, $15 million of historic foreign exchange losses have been recycled to discontinued operations. The Group's statutory profit of $7 million in the year (2021: $109 million) is stated after the loss on disposal from this divestment.

The exit from the Brazil and Argentina business is in line with Coats' strategic initiatives, announced in March 2022, to accelerate profitable sales growth and transform the company.

Cash flow

The Group delivered $114 million (2021: $124 million) of adjusted free cash flow in the year. Free cash flow is measured before annual pension deficit recovery payments, acquisitions, disposals and dividends, and excludes exceptional items.

Adjusted free cash flow performance was strong, albeit slightly below 2021, which benefited from some significant, favourable non-recurring items, including non-payment of 2020 staff bonuses.  We managed net working capital closely, although there was a $22 million outflow (2021: $14 million outflow). This result was achieved after a significant investment in inventory to underpin service levels during an exceptional period of demand, supply chain disruption and inflationary pressure, which particularly impacted the first half. We continued our disciplined approach to payables and receivables management through the year. 

Capital expenditure was $34 million (2021: $31 million), as we continued to maintain a selective approach to investing in growth opportunities, as well as in strategic projects. We anticipate 2023 capital expenditure to be in the $30-40 million range, as we continue to invest in support of our growth strategy and in our environmental performance.

Minority dividends of $18 million (2021: $17 million) were paid, as cash was repatriated from joint ventures to the Group. Tax paid was $55 million (2021: $48 million).

The Group delivered an overall free cash outflow of $247 million (2021: $33 million inflow). This primarily reflects the adjusted free cash inflow of $114 million, offset by:

The Rhenoflex acquisition, which consisted of a $120 million cash payment, was largely funded by an over-subscribed £92 million equity raise.

Net debt (excluding lease liabilities) at 31 December 2022 was $394 million (31 December 2021: $147 million). Including lease liabilities, net debt was $500 million (31 December 2021: $246 million).

Pensions and other post-employment benefits

The net surplus for the Group's retirement and other post-employment defined benefit liabilities (UK and other Group schemes), on an IAS19 financial reporting basis, was $105 million as at 31 December 2022, which was $84 million higher than 31 December 2021 ($21 million surplus). This increase was primarily due to movements on the UK scheme.

The Coats UK Pension Scheme, which is a key constituent of the Group defined benefit liabilities, had a surplus on an IAS 19 basis at 31 December 2022 of $181 million (31 December 2021: $108 million). The increase in the surplus during the year of $73 million predominantly relates to net actuarial gains of $45 million. This is from an increased discount rate due to significantly higher corporate bond yields reducing liabilities, but this was partially offset by asset losses due to the high degree of hedging in place in the portfolio. There were also employer contributions (excluding administrative expenses) of $38 million, including $11 million of catch-up payments. 

UK funding update

We continue to maintain strong and collaborative relations with the Scheme Trustees around strategic planning and have established a joint working group between the Company and Trustees to review further opportunities for de-risking the scheme, beyond the significant positive progress that has already taken place.

As part of this constructive planning the Trustee of the Coats UK Pension Scheme completed a partial buy-in transaction in December 2022 by purchasing a c.£350 million bulk annuity policy from Aviva which insures benefits payable under the scheme in respect of c.3,700 pensioner and dependant members. These members represent roughly 20% of the scheme's liabilities.

The purchase of this policy sees all the Scheme's financial and demographic risks fully hedged for the covered liabilities. The Scheme will receive a regular stream of income that matches the pension payments for the covered members, making it a precise liability hedging asset. This further de-risks the Scheme and reduces future balance sheet volatility. It builds on the significant positive steps taken to de-risk the Scheme in recent years, resulting in 90% of the Scheme's inflation / interest rate exposure having previously been hedged.

The Aviva buy-in is consistent with Coats' aspiration of fully insuring the Scheme and removing it from the Group balance sheet, in a cost effective manner.

When the Technical Provisions (funding) deficit for the Scheme was last formally assessed at 31 March 2021, as part of the triennial valuation cycle, it showed a £193 million deficit. As a result of this valuation, future contributions were maintained at the previously agreed levels of £22 million ($27 million) per annum (indexing) up until 2028, which was expected to result in the pay-down of the deficit slightly earlier than originally planned. The Group agreed to continue to pay the Scheme administrative expenses and levies of around $5 million per annum.

Updates since then indicate that the funding deficit has fallen significantly and is now approaching fully funded on a technical provisions basis. This significant improvement has been due to employer contributions, favourable movements in the market (increasing discount rates) and the de-risking actions that we and the Trustees have taken, for example the buy-in transaction referred to above. 

As a result of this significantly improved funding position, and reflective of the collaborative working relationship with the Trustees, we have agreed a mechanism to switch off / switch on the regular cash contributions to the scheme based on monthly estimates of the latest funding position. As such, if the scheme remains in surplus for a consecutive number of months cash contributions will cease entirely until any trigger on the downside (i.e. a return to deficit) has been hit. At this point, contributions on a pre-agreed basis would resume. Given the latest funding position, this has the potential to significantly reduce or eliminate the existing levels of contributions made into the Scheme, and thereby increase free cash flows generated by the Group, within the short to medium term.

Balance sheet and liquidity

Group net debt (excluding lease liabilities) at 31 December 2022 was $394 million ($500 million including lease liabilities), an increase on 31 December 2021 ($147 million). This reflects disciplined cash management as noted above, offset by the acquisition-related items, payments in relation to the sale of the Brazil / Argentina business, ongoing pension deficit repair payments, shareholder dividends and exceptional cash costs in relation to strategic projects.

As previously reported, the Texon acquisition, which was completed in July 2022, was funded by a $240 million temporary acquisition facility. In January 2023, we successfully refinanced this acquisition facility via the US Private Placement (USPP) market with $250 million of notes split between 5 and 7 years tenor at highly competitive interest rates (between 5.3% and 5.5%). This maintains our total committed debt facilities at $835 million with well diversified source and tenor; being $360 million revolving credit facility, $225 million of original USPP notes (2024 and 2027 tenors), and the new $250 million of USPP notes (2028 and 2030 tenors). The committed headroom on our banking facilities was approximately $250 million at 31 December 2022. 

At 31 December 2022, our proforma leverage ratio (net debt to EBITDA; both excluding lease liabilities) was 1.4x and remains well within our 3x covenant limit, and in the middle of our target leverage of 1-2x. Our interest cover covenant also continued to have significant headroom at 31 December 2022 at 19.0x vs a covenant limit of 4x. These covenants are tested twice annually in June and December and monitored throughout the year.

Going concern

On the basis of current financial projections and the facilities available, the Directors are satisfied that the Group has adequate resources to continue for at least the next 12 months and, accordingly, consider it appropriate to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Further details of our going concern assessment, financial scenarios and conclusions are set out in note 1.

Consolidated income statement

* Represented to reflect the results of the Brazil and Argentina business as a discontinued operation (see note 1).

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

Consolidated statement of financial position

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

For the year ended 31 December 2022

Consolidated statement of cash flows