Welcome to the Wynnstay Group full year 2022 results webinar. All attendees are in listen-only mode. Questions will be answered at the end of the presentation. Written questions can be submitted at any time by clicking on the Q&A button. This webinar is being recorded. I now hand over to Gareth Davies, CEO, and Paul Roberts, Finance Director. Gareth, over to you.
Thank you, Tamsin. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the presentation of our annual accounts. I'm Gareth Davies. I've been CEO since 2018. I've been with the business since 1999, previously Head of Agriculture. My background really is commercial sales and commercial sales management. Over to Paul.
Good afternoon. I'm Paul Roberts, man and boy 55 years experience, generally our career led at Wynnstay.
For those who are familiar with the business, the background to our business is that we're a business about supplying farmers and customers in rural communities. We started in 1918 here where we are today in, on the borders of Wales and England and Mid Wales. We started as a co-op listed on the AIM market in 2004. I often use a phrase when people ask me, "So what does your business do?" We supply farmers, both livestock and arable farmers to produce food in a sustainable way. Our strategy is based upon supplying agricultural inputs and we accept we don't supply tractors or combine harvesters and our business is based within mainland GB.
We have a balanced business model, and what I mean by that is that we supply farmers, both arable farmers, which in a way is a natural hedge. You may be aware of the term horn and corn, and you'll sometimes find that arable farmers are doing particularly well if the price of grain is high. Also, at the same time, maybe livestock farmers aren't doing quite so well because that grain that the arable farmer sells will be used in feed that the livestock farmer buys, and vice versa. This natural hedge does enable us to deliver consistent results. As a business, if I just cover the operational highlights for the year. I'm very, very pleased with the performance of the business. We've had another record year and very importantly, we have seen significant strategic progress as we made throughout the year.
This strong trading performance has certainly been helped by a favorable trading environment for our customers, our farmers. 2022 overall was a good year for farmers. Picking out a couple of highlights of the year for the business, GrainLink, our crop marketing business, achieved a record performance, with volumes up 31% on the previous year. We've also had good margins as well. Glasson Grain performed exceptionally well. This did include the fertilizer division delivering significant one-off gains. Again, we'll give you more detail later on in the presentation. Our joint venture businesses, they performed well.
We have a number of joint venture businesses, which include the agriculture supplying feed to farmers. That business also had a record performance as well. The strong financial position of the business has certainly enabled us to continue to deliver our growth strategy. Humphrey Feeds and Pullets was acquired in March. Acquisition aligns very much to our strategic strategy ambitions, at the same time has given us increased geographical coverage. This was also followed at the end of the year in November by a further acquisition of Tamar Milling in Cornwall. We've continued to invest in our manufacturing capacity. Manufacturing is also key to growth of this business. Investment has been made in seed at our plant in Shrewsbury. This has doubled the grass seed capacity and also at feed.
The project at Carmarthen Mill has started in this year, will be completed next year. That project is also underway. These are strong results, but they will not be repeated this year. However, the underlying performance of the business has been exceptionally strong, and our business model of supplying products, services and advice, our balanced business model to both livestock and arable farmers has again helped us deliver this performance. We are well placed to grow the business and to deliver our strategic ambitions as we go forward. I would now like to hand over to Paul to cover the financial key points.
Thank you, Gareth. Just the financial highlights of the year. Quick reminder that our business model is what I'd like to refer to as an absolute unit margin model. We tend to price our products on a margin per ton or per unit of the category that we're referring to. Whereas our revenue is actually fairly volatile, depending on underlying commodity prices, the majority of which we have little control over because they are globally traded activities. During the year, we saw a particularly volatile period for worldwide commodities. Obviously, macroeconomic events and global uncertainty created considerable inflation in a lot of the activities that we're involved with.
Of the GBP 213 million overall increase in revenues, we've actually attributed an estimate of about GBP 180 million of that is related to underlying commodity inflation. Last year's volumes at the previous year prices would have meant that this year's revenue would have been GBP 180 odd million lower. During the period, we had a very significant acquisition, Humphreys, the Humphreys poultry business, which was acquired in March 2022. We had roughly an eight month contribution from that business, which brought in a further GBP 32 million.
These figures do mask the underlying performance, where we did experience positive volume variances in important categories, not least the grain trading activity that Gareth's already mentioned, but also very importantly in manufactured feed, which is a very strong category for us. This was offset by lower volumes in fertilizer, where the higher prices obviously acted as a deterrent to some farmers, particularly on the grassland activities, and we experienced lower seed volumes. We have reported a near doubling of underlying profits, but highlighted that this includes a number of one-off gains. The obvious question is, what is the quantum of what we are classifying as one-off?
While this isn't an entirely straightforward question to provide a simple answer for, I would refer you to those one-off gains that we are highlighting and the activities from which it's come from. They're mainly in our fertilizer activities, where our financial year started with initial increases in natural gas prices caused by increasing tensions. You perhaps recall the CO2 shortages and as a result of a reduction in fertilizer productions from which CO2 is produced for the food industry. This was then exacerbated by the commencement of the war in Ukraine in February, and then indeed continued into the second half of our financial year with disruption and tensions growing particularly between Europe and Russia and the issues with the gas pipeline.
All of these created spikes in prices of fertilizer commodities from which our Glasson business, being a manufacturer of fertilizer products, benefited from the stock gains. Our estimate of that overall combination is around GBP 9 million. Towards the year end, again, volatile prices for wheat created another one-off gain of around GBP half a million. In total, about GBP 9 .5 Million is our estimate of what we're classifying as the one-off elements. Clearly the higher profits have fed through to our earnings per share and indeed contributed to a strong cash performance at the year-end, which was enhanced by a successful equity placing that took place in August to support our wide investment plans for the future, more of which you'll hear about later on in the presentation.
We're very pleased again to highlight our progressive dividend policy, where for each one of the 19 years that we've been on the AIM market, we have been able to report increases in our dividend, a further 10% rise this year to a total of GBP 0.17 for the year. The graphs on this slide really are just demonstrating the record performance on all financial metrics. The business model, our absolute unit margin model, that I've already mentioned, really suggests that that gross profit chart is the key KPI indicator for the underlying performance of the business. You can see the 33% increase in that metric in the year is the driver of the bottom line results.
Obviously that increment includes the one-off gains that I've already mentioned, and also an approximate GBP 5.5 Million contribution from that proportionate result of the Humphreys acquisition. Just quickly looking at the financial statements for the year, it's important to bear in mind that we are comparing like with like for the acquisition. I don't know if you can. Sorry about the slide issue there. The income statement, obviously, I talked about the revenue, the gross profit. I suppose a, a factor that everybody is well aware of, input cost inflation has clearly been a challenge for the business and will continue to be a major challenge in the new financial year, where costs, particularly labor, energy and distribution, will be a challenge going forward.
Obviously now including finance costs with increases in interest rates after a period of very, very low finance costs. It's obviously a factor for us going forward. Moving to the balance sheet, again, we like to highlight the asset-backed nature of Wynnstay. We have total net assets equating to something like GBP 6.30 per share, inclusive of goodwill on the balance sheet, but also a substantial freehold property portfolio which is contained in this balance sheet at historic costs. A recent valuation that we had done during the last financial year highlighted around about GBP 10 million of difference between the carrying value in this balance sheet and the current market values for those operating locations.
Again, just another emphasis on the asset-backed nature of the business. The main story from the year is one of working capital. The inflation that we've talked about has created a working capital challenge, which I believe we've managed extremely well. You can see from some of those individual numbers, whether it's stock, whether it's debtors, there have been some substantial increases. We've had to fund effectively around GBP 16 million worth of additional working capital. If we look at the cash flow statement, you'll see that this is actually been financed from very strong cash generation, which you will see was approaching GBP 14 million. Again, I like to demonstrate that best on the next slide, which is a good old-fashioned net cash, net debt reconciliation.
You'll see our profits in cash terms, EBITDA of GBP 28 million, inclusive obviously of the one-off gains that I've highlighted. You'll see the working capital outflow that has been financed from those cash profits and where we've actually invested that activity. Reconciling down to the net cash position at the year-end, both in accounting terms, at GBP 14 million, but more importantly, after excluding property leases which are classified as debt, some GBP 18 million on a definition that the bank is interested in for covenant purposes. Again, a very strong financial year end, which we do acknowledge is always exaggerated because it does represent the best of our annual basis. Those are just basically the same numbers in pictorial form.
If we look at the cash cycle for the year, I like this chart because it demonstrates the predictable nature of cash generation within our business. I've mentioned that our October year-end is the trough of our cash utilization requirements, which actually peaks with our interim results in April. You can see the predictable seasonal swing from that. I've allowed this chart to go back some nearly 10 years just to really demonstrate the trend line, which I think shows both the growth of our business, but also the scale of our activities over that period and the way that they've actually grown, the way that we've been able to fund that expansion without any real challenges. Finally from me, the segmental analysis.
We like to use this slide to demonstrate that balanced nature of the business Gareth previously mentioned. Our two main divisions there, if we can grow both of those segments as shown by the pie charts, proportionately, our business model is designed to create equal contributions from the two divisions. You can see that that's been clearly distorted in the last financial year because of those one-off issues that have been recorded and reported in our agricultural division.
Thank you, Paul. As an introduction to the agricultural division, I'll give you an overview of the agricultural environment. The Ukraine war has certainly had an impact on both farm output and farm input prices. The top table on the right-hand side relates to farm outputs, in other words, what farmers have had for their product. The comparison there is our year start and our year end. We've certainly seen during that period of time, the majority of farm commodities have increased in value, with the exception of oilseed rape and lamb, which has been fairly constant. Grain prices certainly finished the year considerably higher than the beginning of the year. Also during the year, grain prices went significantly higher than that, to a top of about GBP 340 per ton.
Whilst milk prices have reached record levels of late, certainly December and early January, about GBP 0.50 per liter or thereabouts, this has now started to fall off as supply has started to outstrip demand. The bottom table demonstrates farm inputs. We've concentrated here on feed, fertilizer, and fuel, and you can see the increase in the year there. Post year end, some of these commodities have started to fall off. In agricultural inflation in general, we've taken two positions of comparison, one in September 2022 in comparison to the previous year. Right across agricultural inputs, agricultural inflation year-on-year was 32% at that stage. Whilst this has actually come down slightly for January, or considerably for January rather, comparison in January of last week indicates a 17%.
What that indicates really is the amount of money that our farmers have had to come across to be able to run their business. Overall, 2022 has been a particularly good year for U.K. agriculture, probably with the exception of the free-range egg sector, which has suffered from margin erosion. That sector now is coming back to as feed prices have started to fall and egg prices have started to go up. Our feed division, this in itself provides a natural hedge. Why do I say that? Because we produce feed for dairy cows, beef cattle, sheep, and also free-range hens. That gives us that internal hedge again. During the year, we have significantly increased our presence in the U.K. feed sector.
Like for like volumes of organic growth was 6%, an increase of 6%. Particularly pleased with the progress that we have made in the dairy sector and the free-range egg sector. These areas are areas that we've targeted, sectors we've targeted as part of our growth strategy. Our dairy volumes increased by 6.9% against a national trend, information provided by Kite Consulting, the dairy volumes actually dropped 1.5%. We certainly gained market share there. Margins were impacted during the year as a result of raw material volatility and also increased costs, particularly fuel, where we weren't always able to pass on those costs maybe quite soon enough. The Humphrey acquisition has certainly increased our market share of supplying feed to the free-range hen sector.
Our market share has gone up 6%-11% as a result of this acquisition. We're particularly pleased with the acquisition, ahead of our expectations as far as our contribution is concerned. It is pleasing on the basis that the sector has been under pressure, not only from margins, but also from the impact of avian influenza. Since the beginning of October, about 1 million birds have been culled within the free range sector as a result of avian influenza or bird flu. Our commitment to working with our customers and the food chain in general to reduce carbon has certainly been enhanced by the introduction of a climate-friendly range of ruminant animal feeds.
This range of feeds contains raw materials which has been sourced from a sustainable manner, grown in a sustainable manner, and also includes a methane inhibitor to reduce methane. This product has been approved by the Carbon Trust. It reduces methane by 10%, whilst at the same time, increases the efficiency of milk production and feed conversion in beef animals. Our sales have increased by 34% year on year. Looking forward, we do believe that milk and meat processors will insist that those people who supply into the chain, their farmers, will be asked to feed their animals on feed which is being sourced from sustainable resources and grown in a sustainable way.
We're certainly in a good position to be able to supply feed into those customers. Investment in our feed manufacturing is key to us. The six plants that I talked about earlier on, this will increase capacity for us. We have started the investment at Carmarthen in South Wales. This is a GBP 6 million investment to double the capacity of the site, and that will be completed in the first half of 2024. Also the redevelopment of the Calne site in Wiltshire. As part of the Humphrey purchase, we are now in the process of coming to a conclusion on the options that we have for the site, and progress will start certainly during this financial year. That will give us three multi-species feed mills, well-located geographically.
We'll be able to service our customers with quality feeds, and very, very importantly, will be produced on a local basis. What that will do for us, it will reduce our cost of delivery. The increased volumes will be able to enable us to increase our market share on a local basis. At the same time, reducing feed miles will contribute to the reduction of carbon for our customers. The arable sector has had an excellent performance, particularly in view of the December and the dry spring, that certainly impacted the sales of some products such as grass seed. The GrainLink marketing, crop marketing business, which I referred to earlier on, 31% increase in volumes. That is based on a year before that we had a significant increase on the year before that.
Once we compare that with market share, we certainly increased market share. Whilst there was a good harvest, the harvest of 2022 was 11% up from the previous year. Our market share gains has come in the eastern part of the country, and this was an area that we have certainly targeted as part of our strategic plan. Fertilizer sales volumes linked at Wynnstay Agricultural Supplies were reduced. They were impacted, particularly in the livestock sector, from the increase in price. However, contribution from the sector to the business has been strong as a result of increased margins. Certified seed sales, cereal sales were reduced. This came about as a result of a good harvest, an early harvest, and a good quality harvest, enabling farmers to effectively save some of the seed that they produced for sowing in the autumn period.
This doesn't happen every year. The difference this year was there was an early harvest which gave them sufficient time to be able to do so. At the same time, based on the cost of grain, cost of seed also went up. That reduced our sales by about 19%. We also made the commercial decision to exit some low margin wholesale trades. A highlight of the year for arable farmers in the West Midlands is the Wednesday Arable Event. This returned after an absence of two years, absent because of COVID, a very successful event, attended by 800 farmers. It is a key event in our marketing calendar for the business. It portrays the business well and showcases what we do in the arable sector.
The doubling of the grass seed mixing capacity at Astley will allow us to grow both our conventional grass seed sales and also our environmental seed offering. Farmers are now seeking the opportunity of sowing both the herbs and pollinators, particularly on marginal land, and also to integrate diversity into the arable and livestock rotations. Government support schemes will reward those farmers who adopt greener farming strategies. U.K. agriculture is certainly changing post-Brexit, we will continue to collaborate with seed breeders to make sure that we are in a position to be able to offer our customers the highest quality products and cutting-edge advice. Glasson Grain is our subsidiary business based up in Lancashire on a small dock in the River Lune at Glasson Dock. We do run the business as a subsidiary.
We purchased the business in 2006. The business has an exceptional result. In addition to those one-off gains from fertilizer trading that was all referred to earlier on, the underlying performance of the business was very much in line with our expectations. During the previous year, we acquired the site at Howden, the fourth, the fourth of our fertilizer manufacturing plants, and that has certainly contributed well in the year. While sales have been impacted by the increase in fertilizer prices, I am particularly pleased with how the management of Glasson has managed the fertilizer business through a very volatile trading period. It was also a strong performance from the raw material trading operation, which again managed that volatility particularly well with good volumes and also increased margins.
However, within the business the corn mill, the operation which manufactures specialist feeds. In the rest of our business, our feed manufacturing plants produce feed for larger farm animals. We have a plant at Glasson that produces feed for wild birds and smaller animals. Certainly volumes in that sector of the business was impacted by the consumer spend crisis as people stop feeding birds basically, and volumes as a result of that came down. As we move forward, the business is in good shape, and we will concentrate on our core activities by seeking further efficiencies, particularly within the specialist animal feed operations, and to seek opportunities to expand our successful fertilizer blending operations, particularly in the southern part of the U.K. Specialist agricultural merchant in our depots.
Our depots, the 53 depots that we have are very much similar to a builder's merchant, really. 80% of the trade comes through with farmers business to business, and the balance is anybody can come and purchase from there, whether it be by cash or card. They still remain a very, very key route for us, particularly within the livestock sectors. Very strong performance from the depots. Revenue was up 5%, which in relation to agricultural inflation, would suggest that there may be the number of items sold through the depots was lower. Certainly, our sales are impacted by agricultural inflation, particularly discretionary spend was reduced, also the dry summer, reducing sales of products such as animal health, crop packaging and also hardware such as fencing materials.
We're particularly pleased that the contribution from the division increased by 11%. This was as a result of efficiencies, particularly in relation to distribution and also the depot optimization program of closing one small depot at Ffynnon in West Wales. We also saw increased of higher margin products such as animal feeds. We make the feed ourselves. We distribute it, we've branded our own bags, and therefore we are able to capture more margin. I was certainly pleased to see an increase in sales for the depots of our own feed. We now have 2,300 customers who operate our digital portal. The majority of the customers on the platform, however, use it to seek information and also to pay their accounts. They don't actually purchase too much online.
Previous surveys that we've done with our customers and non-customers still suggest that farmers would prefer to either come to our depots or deal with our specialists on the farm. However, we will continue to build the platform to encourage our customers to trade online should they wish, while at the same time communicate with people either via social media or podcasts. Providing an added value service is certainly paramount to the success of the depots, and we will continue to invest both in the premises and also the training of our employees by increasing the number of qualified advisors that we have, particularly in key product areas such as animal health, nutrition, cropping, and hardware. ESG is a key pillar in our strategy.
We appointed a sustainability manager back in 2021, and in support of Lewis, we have now engaged a sustainable farm advisory team consisting of experienced industry experts to help advise us on the delivery of our ambitions. This is a team of six people. Includes people such as Philip Wynn, who is the chair of LEAF, Linking the Environment And Farming, an organization that is particularly strong on engaging the urban community with farm open days. He also acts as director of Dyson Farming, that you may be aware of. Tom Gill, very much involved in the sustainability of Arla Foods, will be one of the largest milk processors in the U.K. and indeed Europe.
Beyond the board of ESG, we will be preparing a full TCFD report, which we included in the 2023 annual report. As a business, we have an aim to become carbon neutral by 2040, and we are making progress. An example within the business that we have is that of those 53 depots, 90% of them now have LED lighting. The rest will be rolled out during this financial year. This has already saved us 50% in terms of electricity used. We've also agreed to install a 1 megawatt solar panel system across a number of our sites, an investment of GBP 1 million. This is the first stage of a multi-site investment rollout of renewables solar panels over the next three-five years.
Also important within ESG is how we work with our customers, and we are developing an holistic whole farm solution to help our farmers, both arable and livestock farmers, to deliver their own environmental outcomes through products and services such as nutrient management plans, working with our farmers to identify what is the right amount of fertilizer in conjunction with farming avenues to apply to the land to optimally grow the crop. Also the sourcing of raw materials that are grown and produced in a sustainable manner. Our aim is clearly to become a carbon neutral business, coupled with a sustainability strategy which supports our customers to become more efficient in the production of food and that help the farmers feed the U.K. in a far more sustainable way.
In summary, on the outlook, whilst our performance has been boosted by one-off gains, it has been an excellent performance from the group. Our strong balance sheet and financial position has certainly enabled us to further invest in our strategic plan. We have also raised funds that will enable us to invest in our production facilities and, very importantly, enable us to continue with an M&A strategy to increase the scale of the business. We are very pleased with the acquisition of Humphrey Feeds & Pullets, and thereafter Tamar Milling Limited in Cornwall, an acquisition that took place in November. This is a feed business in Cornwall. It blends feeds. It gives us a new customer base. It has a very well-respected and renowned brand and also a strong management team that will continue with the business.
At the same time, gives increased geographic and adds to the number of specialists that we have on farm, particularly in the ruminant sector. However, the cost pressures on the sector remain, and whilst input prices have started to fall, some farm outputs have started to fall from all-time highs, particularly grain and oats. Whilst this will be challenging for some of our customers, our proven balanced business model will certainly help us mitigate any variances in sector profitably. We're now three months into the new financial year, and trade is very much in line with expectations. Our group board has a clear vision for this, and we are very well placed to be able to achieve our ambitions, not only for this year and for the short term, but also beyond, in line with our strategic plan. That brings me to the end of the presentation.
I'll be more than happy to take questions.
Many thanks, Gareth. To ask your question, click on the Q&A button and type it there. We have a first question. If property which is on the balance sheet at cost were to be included at current market valuations, how would this impact the
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Did you consider buying Carr's agricultural business before it was sold to Edward Billington? Will the deal increase the competitive pressure facing Wynnstay's business?
Yeah. Did we consider buying it? Well, basically, the background to that was a joint venture between Carr's and Billington. I'm not aware that it publicly became available for sale. I think it was obviously sold to the other partner. Second part of the question, sorry, how did what?
Will the deal increase the competitive pressures facing Wynnstay's businesses?
I don't believe so. The Carr's Billington joint venture has remained as it was previously. You know, we operate in certain areas together, but predominantly that business is in the northwest and the northern part of England, where we don't have feed mills and we don't have that many agricultural depots. You know, it's a competitor, and it's always good to have competition.
Thank you very much. As a non-farmer, can you explain how critical fertilizer usage is?
Yes. Certainly in higher input systems, fertilizer is key to producing food. Therefore, in arable, it is key. It's a crop nutrient. The combination of what a crop needs is a combination between artificial fertilizer, if you wanna call it that, and also, farmyard manure. It is key to producing crops. It is very much key to producing food. I think the key point going forward is that the point I mentioned earlier on about everybody, all farmers will now be required, and quite understandably so, to operate with a nutrient management plan. That effectively means that the correct amount of fertilizer will be used in conjunction with any farmyard manure available on the farm, to optimally grow that crop. It is important for food production.
Thank you very much. Do you have a sense of whether Brexit has had a positive or negative impact on the business longer term?
Positive or negative? Well, certainly in the first few years, we've been now a few, two to three years, isn't it, since we actually come out of Europe. I think there's obviously been challenges. There's been challenges on import and export. Business has performed particularly well over that period of time. The challenge of Brexit is very much on the people that we actually deal with. We import. If I cover business itself, first and foremostly, we've continued a continuation of supply of products and materials. Most proteins that we put into our feed will be imported. We haven't had an issue with supply. Of course, in addition to Brexit, there's been a challenge of the Ukraine crisis as well.
Certain products have gone up as a result because there's extra costs of doing so. As far as our customers are concerned, there are certain sectors, the lamb sector, for example, a third of what we produce in the U.K. does get exported into Europe. There have been challenges there, particularly in the first 12 months, on imports and exports, but those positions are recovering, and those markets are recovering as well. Yeah, it's been challenging, but the opportunity also is new markets. Some of these trade deals that have been set up, Australia and New Zealand initially would suggest that they may have impact on the, on farms, on agricultural produce. There's already a quota for New Zealand lamb to come in the country.
It's 114,000 tons into the U.K. last year. 85,000 tons of that was taken up, and that's a result of better markets nearer home, certainly in China and Asia. I think, yeah, so there is challenges, but there's also opportunities. For this business, we have not been particularly impacted so far.
Thank you very much. Can you say where we are with the government's agricultural policy?
Yes. We're very much in a transition process here. When we say government, there are separate policies in the devolved nations. If we take England to start with out of Whitehall, we came out of Europe, and as a result of coming out of Europe, agricultural support was gonna change. The CAP system that was in place was now being taken over by the devolved government. There's a different system in England, Scotland and Wales.
I think the overriding view of all of those devolved nations is that while support will still be there and the same amount of money is committed to agricultural support for the duration of the current parliament, which potentially goes on till next year, post 2024, the way farmers will be supported is certainly changing. We're also in a transition period now. Rather than us supporting farmers solely on the amount of land that they farm, this will now change to supporting farmers investing in infrastructure and efficiencies of production on the farm, but also, very importantly, in the delivery of environmental outcomes. We're very much in a transition. It does vary between Scotland, England and Wales. England is in a transition of changing that support.
50% of it would've changed to environmental and economic outcomes by 2024. In Wales, the transition doesn't really start until 2025, there will be a period of between six and seven years further on than there.
Thank you very much. Can you explain in more detail what the redevelopment of the Calne facility will do for you?
Yes. I mean, the Calne facility was integral to the Humphreys acquisition. The existing feed mill from which the volume is currently being manufactured was retained by the vendors for redevelopment purposes. The plan always involved transferring that volume to a new or a different plant. We took a four-year lease out on the existing plant, that gives an idea of the timeframe that we're operating in. It was an added incentive for Wynnstay to acquire that business because Wynnstay is a multi-species business, as Gareth has already highlighted. We don't focus on any particular enterprise. We like to spread our risks across our various farming enterprises.
We obviously identified the opportunity if we were redeveloping a new feed plant or a refurbished feed plant, that we would want to produce more than just poultry feed in that plant. The opportunity to include ruminant products in that facility really gave us the ability to open up a new market in a new geography for us. That was the most exciting aspect of the redevelopment plan. We've clearly spent nine months or so now actively investigating what is the best method of incorporating that multi-species opportunity into the Calne Mill. We're now very close to being able to finalize the designs for that opportunity with a view to making sure that we complete the transaction within the timeframe that we have from the existing leased facilities.
We're clearly very committed to the project. At the time of the acquisition, we identified a spend in the region of about GBP 13 million. Unfortunately, inflation is likely to have pushed those overall costs up, which means that we've gotta make sure that we are getting value for money for the product that we end up producing from that facility. Everybody within the business is really excited by the new opportunities that will bring in the West Country as well.
Thank you very much. The balance sheet shows a considerable level of debtors. Are you finding in the current economic climate that any customers are experiencing difficulties in settling their accounts?
I mean, clearly the debtors figure in the balance sheet reflects the inflationary environment that we've been talking about throughout this presentation, really. We have been fortunate, I think, in that, as Gareth's really already explained, the farming environment has had probably its most successful year in living memory. The fortunate situation has been that farmers have had good prices for their products and been able to pay their bills. The level of the debtor book clearly takes some additional financing, but it is not high on our list of concerns. I certainly wouldn't want to sound complacent. The environment is changing. Farm gate prices will come down, and I'm sure that we'll be moving into a more challenging period.
At the moment, certainly the balance sheet that we reported last year, we are comfortable with that nature.
Thank you very much. In which areas would you anticipate making future acquisitions?
Yeah. If I refer back to strategy, our strategy is very clear. It's Great Britain and it's agriculture. Our recent acquisitions happen to be feed, but that, you know, just happened to be really. Very clearly I revert back to our balanced business model. Acquisitions would be to ensure that we maintain that balance. Whether it be arable, whether it be the depots, or whether it be feed. Talk about capital optimization, maybe suggest that we looking to reduce depots. If the opportunity should come to be able to extend regional for feed. It's where profitability goes.
Tremendous. Thank you very much. Why did you feel the need to raise GBP 10 million of new equity for acquisitions when you could have easily have financed them from your own resources and extra bank borrowing? Well, without the need to dilute?
We have quite a considerable investment program ahead of us, obviously post that fundraising which took place in August. We completed a further transaction of GBP 10 million in November. Clearly that was already in the pipeline. We have a very strong target this, continuing to do our standard strategy that Gareth's alluded to, which includes acquisitions. In addition to the Calne investment that still needs to come through over the next year or so, we have a very substantial investment in our Carmarthen Mill in South Wales, where we're investing some GBP 6 million to double the capacity of that production plant. We've recently completed an investment in our seed processing facility in Shrewsbury. We have additional warehousing, planning permission, some 30,000 sq ft of new warehousing.
Obviously we're continuing to invest in the future of the business. When you combine all of those plans together, having a sensible balance of equity versus debt, is a good and conservative position to be in. We are conservative in our nature and we recognize the debt capacity within our balance sheet, but feel that that needs to be utilized in a balanced format.
Thank you, Paul. Is lab-grown meat a long-term threat?
I guess it depends on long-term is, but I don't think so. Lab-grown meat today is a very small percentage. It hasn't particularly taken off as yet. You know, it's a threat, but we don't see it as a considerable threat to what we call maybe traditional forms of production. You know, people are particularly interested now how their food are produced and what production systems. I mentioned earlier on about ensuring that these animals are fed in a sustainable way. I don't see it as a particular long-term threat to British agriculture.
Thank you very much. I'm not sure you'll know off the top of your head, but what was your dividend in 2004, 2010, and 2015?
I'm gonna refer to one of the graphs on the slide to improve my deteriorating memory. Unfortunately, the slide doesn't show the precise numbers on that. Unfortunately, I can't give you an actual number. We've got an average growth of around 7% per year across those 19 years of our risk in on the end market.
Tremendous. Thank you very much. That's the end of questions. Gareth, do you have any closing remarks?
I'd just like to say thank you, everybody, for joining us today. The business is in a good position, and if there is anything that anybody'd like to catch up with, post this meeting, we're very pleased to do so. Thank you for joining us, and have a good day.
Many thanks, Gareth and Paul. To everyone listening, you'll now be taken to a webpage to give feedback on today's presentation. If you're unable to complete it now, you'll receive a follow-up email later. We'd be really grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete. Many thanks joining. This is the end of the webinar.