Good afternoon. Good morning to those of you in North America, and welcome to Fluorida's 5th Capital Markets Day. Thank you all for attending. I am Luis Buada, Investor Relations, Corporate Communications I'm Business Development Director of Fluorida and it's a pleasure to be here with you today. Today's presenters will be Eloy Planners, our Executive Chairman Bruce Brooks, our CEO and Javier Tintore, our CFO.
You can follow this presentation in its original English version or in its entirety in Spanish by selecting your preferred option in the drop down menu of your screen. We look forward to seeing you and hearing your questions during the Q and A session that will follow once the presentation finishes. You will be able to ask questions through the question Tap on your screen where you get the instructions and link to join us live. Once you register, Please raise your hand and switch on your microphone and camera. We kindly ask you to address all your questions in English.
The full replay of today's presentation will be made available on our website shortly after we finish. So let us start with the presentation by opening the floor to our Executive Chairman, Eloy Planes.
Thank you, Luis. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello.
Good afternoon. Good morning. Good evening, depending from where you are connecting today. You cannot imagine how strange it is to be here, seated practically alone, talking about the pool industry, just to the technicians. That's what we wanted to avoid when we moved the meeting from November to April.
But unfortunately, this pandemic They don't allow us to be together. But anyway, life must go on. And here we are Very pleased to share with you our view, our things on the company and on the sector. For those who don't know me, I'm a member of the of 1 of the 2nd generation funder families. And I've been Working in this company for more than 25 years, practically all my life, All my professional life.
And when I look back and I look what we have been able to accomplish, what we have been able to achieve, I feel really very, very proud, but not about what we have achieved that I really feel also proud about this. I really feel very proud about Our people, the founders, the organization. I would say if I try to go probably Deep and talking about the sense, I think I feel very proud about our culture. To really become The global leader. It may be it sounds a little obvious, but it takes time.
It's hard. It has been hard. We need to work very, very, very, very strong. It needs tons of commitments. And what I really what I'm really proud is about this.
I'm really proud About this quarter of the capacity of ADAP, the company having always clear a long term objective and being able to execute In a short and medium term, what it was necessary to really achieve where we are today. And if I look the last 3 years from the merge. I want to recognize or I have to recognize the extraordinary job That Bruce has done with his entire team. And we had they have been executing, I would say practically a perfect match. And for me what is more, even more difficult is that they have been able to combine The best of a global listed company to this quarter of a family business.
Thank you, Bruce, and thank you to the team. Really congratulations for what we have done. And then you can ask me, Bueno, now What's next? What's going on? I would be Very honest with you.
This is the end. This is the end of the beginning. We have just started. We have been building this platform piece by piece During all these years, to be prepared is the first time in the life of the sector and is the first time, of course, in the life of the company that this ship It's ready and it's prepared. It's now time to really go for more to be on a strength of our strategies.
And when I look the sector, I would say now is probably The healthiest moment that I've seen in this sector, I mean that we have this ship very well prepared to navigate in these waters that are today Actually, very good waters. And we have clear what is our strategy and this is what we are going to talk today. This is we are going to go deep on this one. We have clear what are these opportunities. I think that our regional This global platform with this regional vision, having these strategies, very focused into the markets It's a winning combination.
The opportunity that we have in America is huge. We are number 3 in this market. We have really make this gap smaller during these last years. We have been working and building the platform to really expand our product categories in this market, The first market of the world and the market that is growing faster. You will see us growing faster than the market expanding our categories of products there.
And when I look Europe, we have today been a better base than ever, all across the continent. And we are ready to take advantage of our position to gain market share And expand our margins based on that. From the product perspective, we have been investing extremely hard. We have been investing extremely hard on IoT, on the digitalization. It's very early in our sector.
I mean, we are just this is just starting and we are leading that. We know that IoT is going to be The new bundle of the pool, we know that this is going to create even a stronger barriers to entry. And we know that this is going to create a bigger market for us. We want to lead this transformation and that's why we have been investing so hard in the past. And now, we are ready to go for more.
And we are doing our business In a market that is completely fragmented and we have shown our track record, doing acquisitions, Reinforcing us with product, with market. And we have the balance sheet today and our cash generation that allow us This is going to be also part of our strategy going forward. And if I look internally, What I what the thing is also amazing is that we have the systems in place to really improve our efficiency year after year. The lean programs, the BI programs, the simplification programs, this is there and you will see our margins expanding going forward. I will not talk only about what we want to do.
We will talk also how we want to do things. We have been thinking always in the long term. We want to have a better company for the future generations. We won't have a better planet for the future generations. And that's why we will present to you today An overview of our blueprint, the ESG plan that we have been working in the last 18 months.
The best ship prepared very carefully with a lot of time in the best waters with the best team. A fantastic story. Now I will ask you to Take off your clothes to turn off your video. Put on your swimming Sweet. Swimming sweet.
And be ready to jump into the pool with Bruce and Xavier and diving deep on our strategy. Bruce, the poll is yours.
A lot to organize in the COVID world, all right? Thank you, Eloy, for those very kind words. I really hope the team Good to hear them because they've really been the driving force on this integration and have done a fantastic job for us. It is an absolute pleasure to be with you, at least virtually and live so we can Have a conversation about where we're going and what we're doing with the business. For those that don't know me, I am Bruce Brooks.
I had the good fortune to be the CEO The new Fluidra since the merge in July of 2018. And I spent about 7 years prior to that As the CEO of the legacy Zodiac Company, before that I spent about 25 years at Black and Decker DeWalt or now Stanley Black and Decker In the capital goods space, it was a good business and it was a good industry to be in. But I can tell you, this is a better business and it has way more opportunity. And so I like, Eloy's analogy of This is the end, but it's the beginning because we have a long way to go with this rate opportunity. So it is It's very good to be the Chairman.
You get to just speak off the cuff and say what you want. So If you will, this is kind of the executive summary or the cheat sheet to the Chairman's speech. I think what you heard is that We really have created the global leader. It's easy to do it on paper. It's hard to do it on reality.
And we have, I think, achieved that and are moving forward. And we're moving forward in a great time for the industry. The industry is already attractive and I will share some more about that, But we're definitely in a growth space. We have now established a track record over the last few years. And Frankly, one of the real needs to do this meeting today is that we have achieved the goals or will achieve by the end of this year.
The targets that we set out in our end of 'twenty two plan that we shared with you back in November of 'eighteen. So We want to remind you of what those targets were. We'll share where we think we are against those targets. But more importantly then, it's Okay. How do we go forward?
We've got this attractive market, but what are our strategies to take us to the next level and to continue to really drive A medium term, longer term outlook of growth for our investors. So to try to explain, I think which is one of the more complex slides in the deck today, Here's a look at the targets that we laid out for the 2022 plan. And to try to make it simple, we've tried to keep the math as directionally correct. I know we've had IFRS changes and various things. But if you just take a look at that line down the middle, you get a sense of what the goal was against the various targets, whether it be sales, EBITDA, Etcetera.
And in the yellow box, you see what our guidance was for 2021, How that performs against that goal and then what our guidance was once we made the acquisition of CMP, okay? So what you can see on this is that every one of our levers that we guide for, we will be Complete. So we like to say the merger is complete. The company is created and all those 22 objectives All set. Now it seems a little strange to be saying that at this time of the year, especially when we got 9 critical months to go in 2021.
But the Increase in the marketplace that we saw last year driven at first by the pandemic has continued. And so we're very confident, very confident that we can be at the high end of the range of guidance that we have given you. So the stay at home has happened. The flight to the suburbs has really pushed the new construction business. And the unfortunate situation which I referred to at the end of the 2020 Announcement, the Texas freeze, which is really bigger than Texas, includes Louisiana, even into the Panhandle of Florida, Arkansas, some other states is material.
And so, we feel very confident on that top line. But I would like to remind everybody, the same piece of information that I gave a couple of months ago. The quarters are going to be really strange. The quarters are going to be strange because the base of 2020 was strange With lockdown, shutdown to business in the end of March, April severely restricted And then the industry really turning on in the back half of the year. So the comparables are strange.
But rest assured, We're very confident in the sales as the step change continues. EBITDA will be significantly ahead of the target that we shared And at that margin guidance of 23%. Free cash flow, frankly, we smashed Last year, so we're already in very good position. That just gives us more fuel to continue to invest in the business. From a debt perspective, we shared that we want to be about 2 times.
We were under that at the end of the year. CMP acquisition put us a little bit above it, but we feel like with the cash that we're generating, we're in very good shape. And Obviously, the ROCE will flow from the strong results that you see above. So again, I'd like to kind of park 2021 now On the side, we'll come back on the 6th May, and talk to you about the results of the Q1. If we need to take a look at the guidance then we'll share something.
But we really want to focus on today is looking forward. And if I had to just use this slide as the agenda, what I would tell you simply is better market, Better, stronger company. When you put those two things together, better value creation for our shareholders. So From a market standpoint, we're no doubt in a step change. But The megatrend of moving from the cities to the suburbs has happened.
It has accelerated the overall market. That Backyard as an anchor, the pool as an anchor to your backyard experience is continuing to Expand. And so we're really pleased with what's happening with the market, and I'll share that further. As far as the global leadership is concerned, we'll talk a bit more about our footprint, About what makes us unique and about how we go to the market, I have to say I'm extremely proud of our team, Of our organization, for what they have done through the last few years of the integration. And I also feel very lucky because if we were facing the kind of Supply challenged environment right now going through an integration, I just can't imagine how we would make that happen.
Instead, We're in an excellent position to continue to invest in the business and really drive the growth and take advantage of That's strong market to bring excellent results for our shareholders, which XT will share with you A little bit later on in the presentation, Loy will come back to wrap it up and then we'll all be on the stage to close for Q and A. So let's talk a little bit more about why the industry is even better today than it was prior. We've talked about the benefits of this industry a number of times and why it's so attractive. It really Comes back to that large installed base that drives a significant aftermarket that acts like an annuity. And frankly, the large installed base is just getting better.
It's getting bigger as new construction has accelerated. It feeds more pools in. Average price is probably a place that we should spend a little bit more time on today. It is an area that has been very strong for the industry And it continues to grow. So better functionality of the product, continued inflation and pricing continues to drive the market.
Innovation is also a near neighbor to that price or average ticket As the pool experience has gotten better and better and so there's more features on a pool, which Make the experience better, which is also obviously good for us. So, the market itself is very strong. And we're seeing this step change. We're seeing new construction lift. We're seeing a significant backlog.
But I would remind everybody that we're still below the peak of where the pool business was before the GFC or the great financial crisis. We're still below the long term average of the number of pools that were constructed in the U. S. And Spain Back in that 2,005, 2,006, 2,007 type of timeframe. So very healthy, Fundamentally good market that's getting this step change.
Well, what's really driving the step change? So at first, we thought it was the lockdown, and the lockdown was important. Certainly accelerated the aftermarket at first when Kids were driving parents crazy and they wanted to open the pool as quickly as possible and early in the season last year. But what we gradually saw is demand for new pools. And then on top of that we started to see people say, you know what, I need more space.
So life in the city is not as glamorous as I thought. Let's get to the suburbs. And I'd say a trend even on top of that, which we've really seen globally inside the U. S, there's been a push To move from, let's call it the colder and often more expensive areas of the U. S.
South, and this is in particularly a favorable trend For a company like ours, it's very strong in the Sun Belt. So definitely a trend to outdoor living, definitely a trend To see that pool as the anchor to your backyard experience, and we don't see the end right now. You know that trend is a mega trend. It's a long term trend. And you put that on top of A rising housing market where equity is strong that has people more and more willing to invest in their pool.
So let's put all that together and let's look at the value of a pool and kind of go back to that average ticket upgrade concept that we talked about before. I think this is something that frankly we haven't communicated enough. If you look at a pool, pre-twenty 11 that you see on the graphic on your left, The cost of that pool was under €25,000 And you look at that same pool today On the right, and you're looking at something that's increased by 60% or over €40,000 More importantly for us, that pool experience is much richer. So before where it was at your core, a pump and a filter, maybe a heater. Now you've got the pumps, the filters, the heaters, the lights, the saltwater chlorinators, the spa, the laminar jets, the fire features And you get the sense.
I mean the value of a pool today is more than double what it was for us Just 10 years ago. And that's put us in a great position as new construction lifts, as that aftermarket Thanks, because if you think about it, we're still building the number of pools in America That were built in the late '80s or early '90s, yet our company is doing multiple volume Greater than what we were doing at that point in time. So industry is very healthy. We talk about The long term CAGR of this business and I've been quoted as saying for more than 50 years the long term CAGR of the business is 5%. And I got to tell you there's a ton of industries that would kill for that.
My old industry would have killed for a CAGR of 5%. In the beginning of 'twenty, we didn't know what would happen. We were actually quite concerned during the lockdown. And then in the back half of that, We started to see the step change. And so 2020 globally was about 8% up for all our categories Blended and it was really driven by that back half.
But so now let's start to take that as a foundation and look forward. Let's call 'twenty one part of 'twenty, part of that step change. And then what's it going to be in 'twenty two and beyond? So our view is new construction still below the peak. We see demand continuing to be very strong, Backlog very strong and pushing out, really backed by this change of people's thought process to really go To the suburbs.
That just adds more pools to the aftermarket, more pools to the base. So that installed base is accelerating. Average ticket continues to be strong as the performance of the pool gets better. There's inflation, Price as people upgrade the equipment. So we see great growth.
We always will tell you that this is a seasonal business, so let's call it still plusminus1 for weather, which takes you to a marketplace That we believe, as we look at 2022 further, will be 4% to 8%, so very attractive market. Now in 2017, we also shared what we thought was our total addressable market. And I would say that we need to update you on that. I believe when we shared that number it was about $7,000,000,000 which was quite large and quite attractive. The growth has made it better.
Also the inclusion of more categories as we've become a bigger company, as we've opened up some of these categories to different Areas of the world. And frankly, as we right size the value of distribution, what we found is Our opportunity is huge. It's $4,000,000,000 bigger than we thought. It's over $11,000,000,000 So it's a quite a sizable market With plenty of room for us still to grow. And we share on the right maybe a little bit of a new look on The dispersal between residential, commercial and chemicals, we used to take chemicals and blend it back into Residential and commercial, we felt like in this environment it's better to pull it out and separate.
And what you see is commercial is smaller. It's still a significant opportunity. And frankly, as the economies come back, as people are able to travel, We'll see commercial start to give us some tailwind again in the future. Chemicals is a big space, but then the biggest space is residential. And I guess the one point I want you to take away on residential is, although it's one big space the way it's listed here, It's made up of so many categories or segments, whether it's pumps, filters, heaters, lights, salt, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, that it's actually Quite diverse in and of itself.
So what you end up with is a market share that frankly I don't love to show At 13%, I feel like it's too small for the global leader and somebody with our strength. In our core, our market shares start with greater than 20 when we're talking about cleaners or pumps or filters. But when you look at this expanded market, we have a huge amount of market share still to go get. And it is still Extremely fragmented, over 50% fragmented, which means there's still plenty of opportunity for us to go and continue to consolidate the market. So I know we always have a mixed audience here of people that know this market well and people that are still learning.
And I will keep coming back and saying, The number one fallacy that I hear about our market is people think of it as a new construction market. New construction is important. It makes up about 25% of the market. And as we look at it today with the trends that are going on, We used to kind of refer back to kind of the trough of the great financial crisis. Right now I have to say we don't see it Going below 2019.
So if you look up at the makeup of the marketplace, let's call it a little bit more than 20% Tied to new construction pre 2019, a little bit above that for what the acceleration that we've seen in the last year. But the bulk of the market is this annuity like aftermarket or 75%. So We see a very robust market with maybe an increased backstop or more resilience than we were even a few years ago. And that really comes down to that park of pools or the number of installed residential pools where there's now over 17,000,000 And that number has started to accelerate slightly with the growth that we've seen over the last couple of years. It comes back to the life cycle of the pool.
Once you have that asset in your backyard, You need to continue to invest in it. So clearly there's a phase for new construction. Then you go into this consumable phase mostly In the chemicals, but also a maintenance and upgrade phase that really kicks in with add on features and things like that early, But significant maintenance in the kind of the 8 to 12 year phase. And then in about the 15 to 20 that virtuous cycle Basically starts over again as your pool tends to look a little bit dated. Think of it almost like a kitchen where the tiles and the appliances look a little bit rough.
And at that point, most people remodel and start the cycle over again. I thought some of the demographics or The stats on the slide were interesting for you. Just to see now just talking about our components of the pool, how the spend is going And how that looks versus about 10 years ago. So significant inflation, significant opportunity for us, Basically double the size of our opportunity. So as you look at this overall market, You get a little bit of a graphic here between the cuts between residential and commercial.
Know that we'll get Some commercial tailwind as we look out into the future, but newbuild has momentum. It is we've got a significant backlog today. It continues. We're in the step change, but we believe it will grow from this Positive base that we're seeing because we're still not where we were in the early 2000s. Consumables, The more you use the pool, the more you need.
And so people are using their pools more. That's great for this space. The more you use the pool, the more features and things you want. So from a maintenance and upgrade, this has been a good, I think, Eloy has referred to it It's healthy time for the industry. And frankly, remodel, there's not a ton going on right now because everybody's focused on new build Because of the capacity challenges in the industry.
So, remodel is actually in some ways got a bigger backlog than what we see in new construction. So just to close down on the market, the mega trends are helping here. We were on the wrong side of the GFC Tied to housing, we're on the right side of the pandemic now, and we see this continuing to give us a tailwind. Don't underestimate the value of our components on the pool. We think it's very important and shows the strength of The business and the opportunity for us as it turns on.
Addressable market is well diversified. That installed base As that new pool construction goes, it just makes us healthier and healthier for the long term. And our position today as the global leader Puts us in a perfect spot to take advantage of this growing market, to take advantage of this opportunity. So let me shift gears now and talk about the unique footprint and that global leader that is it is Fluidra. I'll start with the left side.
I know a lot of people want to go right to that bottom box on the bottom right. But let me start with the left side Of why we feel our asset is so special and why it is even stronger today. It starts with our geographic footprint. I mean, we are in almost all the markets and have great diversification, but also therefore great opportunity to grow. Eloy mentioned it in his chat.
We're really able to customize by market, especially since we grew out of them And adapt to what's the best way to get to the Pool Pro. It's a branded business. It's highly engineered. And that relationship with the Pool Pro is critical and our structure really puts us in a great position to do that. We are the leaders in innovation.
We're the leaders in IoT. And this is important to grow that value Of the pool, and as Eloy said, IoT is the new bundle and gives us great opportunity also to improve margin. Speaking of margin, the team has done a great job and I think we're now just in a continuous position where we can increase The margin of the company, the cash that we have generated has put us back into the inorganic Opportunity and we saw how big, the inorganic pie is, if you will, or opportunity is. So We're now back into that game and have a great track record here and are starting to really accelerate. I'm really happy to talk to you guys about ESG today.
When we first started, especially as an American, it seemed more of an investor driven thing. As you get into it, it's just the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do from a company perspective. And as we really have done a lot of the legwork with our teams, it's really important to our people. And so, pleased with the opportunity that we have for ESG.
I would like to talk to you guys a lot about culture. It's one of my favorite things as a leader. And as I said, I'm very proud of this team. But I think one of the neat things about this team Yes, it's a great mix of functional experts, of industry experts. But one of the things that I really am surprised about during the integration is That speed and agility that comes from being a private equity company which I came from, and I think Eloy would have said the Thing from a family was not lost.
And I worried about that combination, but in the end it's been a really good thing to really strengthen the company. So we got a great asset. We're stronger today. Market's growing. We break it out 4% to 8% as we've talked.
We believe that we can always grow a point above the market just from market share gains and look at inorganic growth of 1% to 2%. That says 2% to 3%. Ultimately that adds up to 6% to 11%. You look at that number and we go, oh, that's pretty sporty, but it's really the math. It's the opportunity that is in front of us.
So we think we can grow at least 6% as we look forward. So So let's go a little bit deeper into some of those key things that separate this asset. We are in the top 3 share position in over 90% of where pool value is spent, okay? And we're number 1 in more than 40 percent of those spaces. I think with the I'm excited about this, but with the acquisition of CMP And the great work that the North American team has done over the last couple of years.
We're now on par with Hayward, Who's a great competitor, but we now see it's, let's say, plusminus of the volume that they are doing And so excited about that. And then if you think about outside, I mean this is I think something we don't get credit enough for. I mean, we are really strong. I mean, we have 4 times more revenue than our nearest Competitor outside of North America. So we're in a really strong position.
I think when you look at that global footprint, It diversifies us. It gives us a bigger opportunity to grow. You look at America, the number one market, we're growing fast and we still I have room to expand. So we're really well positioned. I'm going to have to get a glass of water here for this one.
This is probably the toughest slide in the deck to present. I'm going to try to make it as simple as possible for you. And of course, we'll be happy to follow-up with any of you. I think what I'd really like to take away from the slide is really start with the upper right and go, this market is about The Pool Pro, they are our primary customer. They're the most important decision maker in the channel.
They can be a retailer. They can be a builder. They can be Servicer, it can be a remodeler, they can be any combination. It really depends a little bit on the geography that you're in. And There is an expanding mass channel.
There's an expanding online. But I will tell you that 70% plus of the volume To go to that Pool Pro gets to them through distribution. So for us, we really focus on that Pool Pro. It's the primary target for us and doesn't matter whether you're in Australia, South Africa, Germany or Georgia. We're going to focus our energy there.
And NatpoolPro knows Fluidra as the best partner in the industry. And it starts with our product range. We've got the widest product range to give them, so think of it as a one stop shop. We've got 6 of the top 10 brands in the industry. They know them well.
They trust our brands and that is absolutely critical to them. They're building a $60,000 $50,000 plus pool. The last thing they want to do is go back. So in a seasonal market, that product has to be available when they want it. And I think we've distinguished ourselves versus our peers in this challenging time.
I'm not going to say that our service level is Where we won, but we've gotten good recognition for the performance that we've done over the last year in this challenging environment. And then we back it up with world class technical and after sales support. And finally, we go one step further And put really strong loyalty programs together. So I think it would surprise people that The relationships with these pool pros are so strong. Many of these relationships are more than 20 years.
And so it's really from the great work that the teams have been doing, Understanding their true needs and satisfying them for decades. So now let me try to go the graphic and the more complex part and maybe the part that's Confused a lot of people. The question is how do you get to that POOLPRO? And let's say again 70% of the POOL PROs are buying through distribution. In North America, distribution is well structured.
It's very efficient. So we work with our distribution partners To get to that pool pro and to give them what they need, almost think of it more as a pool model. As you go outside of North America, distribution is not as developed as it is in the States. The offering is not the same. So I think what Eloy and the team did years ago It was brilliant.
They developed their own distribution. And now if you look at it, we're the number one distributor in Europe And we're the number one manufacturer. And I just don't think people have gotten this yet. I mean you can maybe visualize it if you sit there and say, Hey, Pentair is the number one manufacturer in the States. Pool Corp is the number one distributor.
That combination is what we are In Europe. And so that gives us a phenomenal opportunity to grow from and I think part of why we have such a strong leadership position. So now let's talk about the regions themselves and a little bit of the opportunities. Again, there's a lot Going on in the slide, but again to make it simple, let's focus down the left column first where you see strong product And new channels under North America. We'll talk a little bit about product innovation in a few moments.
But Now that Emerge is through, the flow of new product is getting stronger and that's an opportunity for us in every region. So it doesn't matter whether you're in Australia Or Europe, that's a great opportunity. In particular, I would highlight robots in Europe and say this is a great opportunity for our company. Now there are some strategies that are more specific to a particular region and even that product, I mean, they'll be a little bit slanted to the region. But as you think about North America, we have excellent share in new construction.
That's helping us today As new construction is growing, but we've been working for years to strengthen our aftermarket position and we'll continue to invest in that. It is the market where we had the thinnest catalog. And so we've been working with the Merge to work on revenue synergies. Now with the addition of CMP, we're in even better position to take some of those categories and push them forward. I'll come back and talk about IoT in a bit.
So the play ends up being a little bit different in Europe. We talked about the strength of distribution. We have an opportunity to continue to grow fast in distribution in Europe And we want to do that, so we can invest and we'll continue to drive. We also look at Europe and go, hey, it's a collection of a lot of companies that came together over Years years, there is an opportunity to really rationalize and simplify this company and make it more profitable. That same logic holds to Australia and our APAC region where we can become more profitable by doing the right work In product.
As I look at Australia a little bit further, we made an acquisition of Fabtronics. It really gives us R and D and technical capability, Great opportunity for us. And then last but not least, what I would steer you to is the opportunity that we have in commercial. That opportunity in commercial is global. We're under indexed globally against the commercial space.
But how we grow maybe Sends one last message about the strength of the various regions. In North America, we're great in new build. So we enter through HMAC or hotels, apartments and condos, which are really not much different, and oftentimes are the same builders as some of our really high end residential work. In Europe, our strength emanates from Spain, and we have a good commercial share there. And we're taking that experience And growing it to Northwest Europe and some of the other countries.
In APAC, we're strong in commercial in Asia, But we don't even participate in Australia. So we're taking those learnings and bringing them home. So we get an underpinning of global leverage And then a local customization that makes us more effective in each of the markets. I said I would come back and talk about New product development, this is an absolute strength of ours. The pictures on the right maybe go back To that whole residential segment before where I said there's lots of categories and things to look at, maybe that gives you an idea of there's a lot of complexity here which makes Hard to copy and hard to duplicate, but these are just new products that we've launched in the last 18 months.
So The team and I won't take you through the new products, but the team is really starting to fire on all cylinders. We've got the we believe the most engineers in the pool industry, over 200 engineers. We have more than 3 times as many patents as our nearest competitor. And we've got a very clear thought process on how we want to apply significant resource when you look at CapEx or R and D spend Against certain categories to upgrade the user experience, to improve the quality, to use technology To enhance energy savings and sustainability, to expand the range in the gaps that we have and then significant Investment against IoT because it's becoming material, but we believe it will be critical to the future. It's not something easy.
It's very challenging to do and very hard for, let's say smaller players to duplicate. So I'm just going to take you down the right hand side and talk about why we believe that connected pools are so important. Put very simply, it's a win, win, win, and that's a lot of wins. So if If you think about it from the homeowners or the pool owners perspective, most of them are not experts in hydraulics. They're not experts in chemistry.
And so a pool ownership can be a little bit daunting on how to manage it. And that connected pool takes a lot of that complexity out of them for them, Right. Secondly, it can be in a lot of people's eyes expensive to run. And so that's the 2nd biggest concern and we can show them ways to manage their pool in a more cost effective manner. From the POOLPRO, you've been hearing that the industry is capacity constrained and it is.
And the great thing about digitalization or connectivity here is we can increase The capacity with the pool pro, if he knows he needs to go to somebody's house but not somebody else, if he knows what component to take because of what problem he's going to face, We can make them more efficient. We can make their cost to serve go down. And then from our perspective, This information is great information for us to have. We can make better products. We can Have opportunities to cross sell.
We can make the overall pool experience better. And as we do that, we know we sell more. So it gives us an opportunity to continue to grow. Let me give you maybe a little bit more detail, a little bit more color here. Taken at the top, you take a look at a non connected pool And some of the basic products that would go with it.
Down below you start to see the connected pool. And average ticket On a pump for a connected pool versus a pump for a non connected pool, maybe about 20%, plusminus in some categories. So it definitely increases the value, but what we find is the people that can now control things in their pool Want to control more things in their pool. So they end up adding more features and they make a better experience. So it significantly helps us Increase the overall ticket.
Is this a little thing? I told you we started in 2012 and I can tell you the numbers were small then. But today in new construction in the States, more than 65% of the pools will have some form of connectivity to them. And we find it's actually growing as our pool pros get more and more comfortable with connectivity. The demand on connected products It is outpacing significantly the demand of our overall business.
So we're getting more and more users quickly. So we thought we had really ambitious goal to get over 1,000,000 connected users When we created this big goal for the team, right now at $430,000 we're significantly ahead. If we continue to grow at this type of rate, we're going to have to revise the goal. Same for the sales of connected equipment. So Still not huge, but we believe it will continue to grow and grow over time.
We're going to continue to invest to lead. We do believe we have a significant share position here and a clear leadership and we want to make sure that we continue to have it. This is one of my favorite slides in the deck. It's probably one of the least pretty. I think maybe only the my friend Javier and myself find it sexy, But improving gross margin is sexy when you're running a business.
So the team's done an Incredible job over the last several years. I mean, look at that graph on the right and say, Growing the margin percentage by over 4.50 basis points. It's great work. We've had the help Of synergy, synergy of the Merge for about 200 basis points. But the team's done a fantastic job of driving that.
And now some of those programs that we've put have just become best practices and core processes that we run, Like our value improvement and lean, which now we're targeting 1 point to 1.5 of product cost on an annualized basis. M and A, we'll still see cost synergies come through. We're closing out the PhuijaZodiac merge for about $3,000,000 this year, But then you see all of a sudden a significant opportunity pop up with CMP. I think you've seen and now we've learned exactly what the footprint that we have. We get good operating leverage in this business when we grow.
And we've got opportunity still to make our internal organizations more efficient. And the last one is still there. I just want to touch on this for a moment. We still have an opportunity to simplify this company, To make it more efficient and I would have to say right now full disclosure, we just put it on pause. In this supply challenged environment to try to think about changing the manufacturing footprint doesn't really make sense.
So we're putting the plans in place. We'll have them on pause. We'll have them ready to go. But right now, this is an additional opportunity that we just We're not executing against at the moment. You have seen us begin to execute against M and A and inorganic growth.
This is my version of an investment banker chart where you get lots of flags and company names down at the bottom. Well, we have an internal objective to now grow 1% to 2% a year, inorganically. We've got A large opportunity. We showed the pie before of over 50% of the market is still very small players. We find lots of companies that are under 25,000,000 That we can usually get with nice arbitrage.
And we've got a structure that I think allows us to do a lot of these and you See that we've done a lot over time with a little bit of a pause for when we did the merge with Zodiac. So, we've got a deal team in Spain that really acts like our internal investment bankers and then we've got farmers Planet out throughout the globe, the leaders of the various businesses that farm the opportunities and sometimes because we're talking about original owners, it takes years. And then they have to incorporate what they ultimately buy with the help of the centralized team. That gives us a lot of capacity to do smaller deals. What's the thought process that we go through?
We love looking for product We can then spread out through more geographies. The Florida Heat Pump Company built right is a great example. It was very local Heat pump company that gives us great capacity now in North America business. We look at new customers that we can then bring our larger Ag of Product 2. Aqua 5 in Belgium was a great example of one that we did last year on that.
We look for synergies that go quickly. We have basically a ROCE threshold. That's probably our most critical number that we looked at. Culture is important to us because that talks about how the integration will go and how the companies will come together. And then we have a biased That we'd like to be a little bit more leaning to America and to the commercial pool space Just because these are areas where we're under indexed, but you can see by the deals that we've done for the last few years, it's a little bit opportunistic.
If they're available, then we'll go push On those things, and we'll push maybe a little bit more aggressively, but there's plenty of opportunity all through the world. So let's take a moment and take a look at CMP, Which is our, I guess, not even our most recent acquisition, but probably the most material acquisition that we've made in a little while. There's not a ton of big ones out there, but this is a good size opportunity for us, over US100 million dollars What I love is their compound on annual growth rate organically over the last several years was above 10%. So Good healthy company growing in a good market. This ticks our boxes, helps us grow in North America.
Love the product opportunity specifically in sanitation where we had some gaps and white goods. So we now take that product and can spread it through The bigger company. It gives us an entrance to a spa OEM adjacent market that looks a lot like the pool Space in that it's pumps and filters and quality of water, the same types of things that we do on a different scale, but a nice opportunity for Synergies look excellent from both a revenue and a cost. It meets our ROCE. And importantly, we're excited about Tom Moore, Who leads that business and his team, because we really feel like the cultures were very aligned and they're Off to a terrific start in bringing this together.
Loy spoke a little bit earlier about it's important on how we do the things and We feel that strongly. I would say that we've had a really productive 18 months. The core of fluidra Had an integrated report that I think was pretty progressive for many companies at the time and a leadership position there. But let's just say it wasn't global Coming from the PE world, we now have a global integrated report. We've hired a Director of ESG, Carla Coloma, who's been a great addition to the team.
She's starting to fill out Her team, we've developed the responsibility blueprint. We're the 1st company in our space To have a true ESG ratings from S and P and CDP. And so we've gotten off, I think, to a terrific start. So then it's how do you really Incorporated into the way the company acts and I think the exterior people will say, okay, is it in the management incentives? And yes, now it is In our management incentives, I would say it's our culture that drives how we get things done.
It's kind of the unofficial Build from the base of our people of how we act. And so do a lot of coffee chats and find ways Talked to our people and what they said was, hey, it needs to be part of our culture, part of our mission, vision and values. So we talked about it and what we said is on the mission, we like our mission, but it needs to be amended. And so now we take that perfect pool experience And we talk about doing it responsibly. We created a new vision from the start from our teams.
Really, our why if you will, think about our mission as our what, our why being our vision to transform The way that people enjoy water. And then we asked about our values. Should we make a value that's specific to ESG? And the answer was Don't change the values. We love our values, but they should also be amended.
They should be adjusted. And so, we changed some of the language in just a few of them. In excellence and innovation, we aim responsibly to be the best. In teamwork, teamwork and inclusion, we're humble and consider all Perspectives. In honesty and trust, we are fair, transparent and accessible.
And I know this can be looked at as Slogan's on the wall, but our culture is really important. And I think this speaks to the fact that it's important to our people. They're engaged And they want to take ESG to the next level. Now I do think we probably haven't we probably approach this maybe in a little bit more European fashion, If I have to say the honest truth as opposed to the American style, which is really go about the regulations, understand everything, measure, Do it appropriately and get the ratings and we've done a great job. But we're also actually in a really good position, I think the best position to market ESG.
And I think this has the longest term impact on the environment. We have the capability to put together the most efficient pool system on the planet. And it can be about energy, can also be about water and conserving water. And in our minds, it can also be about reducing chemicals. And so just some quick headlines for you.
We can reduce the power that's needed to run a pool By over 70%. We can use over 50% less chemicals and we can reduce water loss by 94%. So we have the capability to do something special downstream. Now when we thought about the metrics, we believe in focus. We think focus is really important.
And I personally was worried in ESG that there's so many metrics that we could get in this, I call it, trying to boil the ocean. Obviously, we don't want to boil the ocean. So what we broke it down to is we want to be a better company, but we also want to be a better business. And so we've tried to come with some metrics that we think are really the headline metrics that we want to drive our teams to That make us a better company and make us a better business. So if you think about it from being a better company, from a carbon neutrality perspective.
We expect to be carbon neutral, Tier 1, Tier 2 by the end of 2027. From a Tier 3 perspective, we're going to need some help from lots of folks and we'll call that 1 2,050 until we have Better information. From a social standpoint and being a better company, we want to make sure that we've got equal pay for equal work. We've got gender challenges. The pool industry is historic for being male dominated, and we're going to have to work on that over But there's no reason why we can't address equal pay for equal work faster.
And so our goal is to have that done by 2024. From a rating perspective, I'm sure the targets are going to move a little bit. But we're really proud of where we started. But we know we've got room to grow and our goal is to take the S and P, which seems to be the most common metric globally right now, From our current status of 69 and move it above 80 by 2,030, that will make sure that we're doing all the little things that add up to doing the right overall for ESG. But I do think it's important that we look at things to help make us a better business as well.
And so I shared that last chart. If we can drive our current, let's call them ESG friendly, our new and developed Category, from the greater than 50% that it is today to greater than 80%, we can have a really positive impact on the environment, But we can also help the help our business and the quality of our sales. Employee engagement is really important and we're fortunate to have a pretty Strong employee engagement today. But we know that if we have an employee engagement score of over 80, we're really in world class territory And we'll perform better as a company. And then customer satisfaction in this industry is paramount.
We talked about quality. We talked about availability. We measure it religiously and we want to make sure that we're improving that as well. So that gives you a little bit of a look at some of the targets That we see for ESG. So I want to just kind of close my section, turn it over to Xavier here With a reminder, from my perspective, we're in fantastic position to continue to grow And drive value, because we've got the best asset in the pool space.
We've got the broadest geographic footprint. We've got assets to all markets. They're growing. They're diversified. Our model It is really optimal and we can adjust it to each market with the Best relationship with the Pool Pro.
We lead in innovation that feeds the machine. IoT, we believe is the Future we lead in that. We're going to continue to invest in driving it. Margin expansion is an opportunity that we still have. We'll continue to work On digitizing the company, on our opportunities and value improvement and lean, and ultimately we can simplify the company to We've got a great track record in M and A and we've got lots of opportunity out there and now we have lots of cash to go drive it.
We're in good position. I think we're now conducting the business the right way with ESG. ESG is a marathon. This is the way we'll run the company for decades as far as we see. And then we've got a great team to go make it happen.
So better market, Stronger company sets the stage for my business partner here Xavier, otherwise known as XT, our CFO, To talk about driving the value.
Thank you, Bruce. Good afternoon. Sorry, I forgot to get rid of this, which will help me speak better. So good afternoon Good morning, depending on where you are in the world. It's a pleasure to be here with you today.
I hope you're all Safe and healthy. And what I really hope is that at our next Capital Markets Day, We can have some of you with us live in Barcelona. For those of you who don't know me, I am Chaviete Tintore, also known as XT, especially for my American colleagues. And I have been with the company as the CFO for almost 11 years now. Prior to that, I had several finance, business development and general management positions in Europe, In Latin America and in the States.
And I'm going to be sharing, as Bruce was introducing, Our value creation track record and outlook. Let me start by sharing with you on the right hand side of the presentation Look at our peer set. Some analysts and investors look at us and group As with Water Thematic or Capital Good Companies, Analysts and investors that know us better, that know the industry and know Fluidera better And to group us in the pool and outdoor living space, which I'm glad to report that it used to be a Quite narrow peer group, but recently it has been expanded with a number of American companies that have gone public. And we are also starting to see some investors That group us in the best of breed category. Why?
If you look at the left hand side of the presentation, it is because we meet All these criteria that you have on the funnel. We have consistent Revenue growth, strong and improving margins. We deleverage and increase Our cash EPS, we have a very high cash conversion and we have strong rising return on capitals And the growing liquidity. And that's really what I want to talk to you about today. If we look at our growth, our growth dynamics, as you see on the top side of this Presentation.
We've delivered a 7% CAGR growth in the last 4 years. And as you look At that growth, it accelerates as you go down through the P and L to an impressive 23% cash EPS growth. If you look at the bottom side of the presentation of the slide, What you can see is 2 qualifiers to that strong growth track record. From a geography point of view, we are the most diversified company in the industry with sales in Europe Representing 47%. Sales in North America At 37% and growing fast and a small piece in rest of the world.
If you look at the 2nd qualifier, it is what we call the resiliency factor of our company. We are more than 90% resilient if you consider that 62% of our revenues are generated In the aftermarket segment, 33% of our revenues are generated with the volume of pools of new Pool builds in 2019, which as Bruce has explained, is To be considered the new law for the industry. If we look at the quality of our cash returns and the quality of our cash generation model, You have also some outstanding statistics in the top part of this slide. We have delivered 3.30 basis points of margin improvement at the end of 2020, Which means that we are well on track to beat our 2022 target, which was 400 basis points. And as Bruce has shared earlier today, we are targeting now an increase of 4.50 basis points by the end of 2021.
2nd Indicator of the quality of our returns is the free cash flow conversion, Where we turned into cash more than 90% of our EBITDA. And last but not least, Our return on capital, strong and growing, finished at the end of 2020 at 18%. If you look at the bottom section of the slide, you can see Strong track record of cash generation. At the time of the Zodiac merger, Fluiddra had a leverage ratio below 2x. And by adding the assets of Zodiac, which was Owned by private equity and therefore highly levered, we put the company at 3.7x leverage.
But we have deleveraged quite fast and we have achieved at the end of 2020 that 2 times mark That we set in our objectives. And that's really the financial policy that we want to use going forward for this company. We are now going to be using cash in very value accretive Initiatives, which you have highlighted in this slide. As said, With this financial policy of running the company at 2x, the cash generation, which as you have seen in previous slide, It's north of $250,000,000 will be deployed 1st in reinvesting in the business to drive organic growth And drive margin improvement. Bruce has spent time developing those points a little bit earlier.
2nd investment priority in a space that is very fragmented And in a company that has very high skills of integration, it makes sense to invest in acquisitions, To reinforce our positions in the market with a very disciplined approach In order to be able to generate value. And we have a track record to prove that. And last, we like To return cash to our shareholders via dividends and as such, the Board of Directors has defined a policy with a target payout ratio for dividends Of 50% of cash net income. It's important to highlight that if In a given year, we don't find enough assets in terms of acquisitions, in terms of M and A. The dividend would be increased even further than that to really run the company at that financial policy That I have shared with you before.
Now getting into the last slide of this final Chapter, we are going to take a look at the medium term strategic and financial objectives or guidance. And I'm going to focus on the right hand side of the presentation. I would like to draw your attention to the Section in the middle of that table where it's said step change. This is this era or this period of time that Bruce has shared some of the dynamics with you. You can see there Double digit growth, very good, very solid margin expansion above 100 and 150 basis points.
I want to focus now on 2021. And you can see there The high end range of our guidance, of the guidance that was given to the market When we completed the CMP acquisition with a 15% sales growth and margin expansion of 100 And 40 basis points and an even stronger growth on cash EPS with a 25% growth. We are 2.5 to 3 weeks away from our Q1 results presentation. And clearly, at that point in time, we are going to come back to you with our view on the quarter and also our view For the full year. Also, I want to point out, we keep stressing this point.
These are very unusual times. It's very important for you as you look at the company. Waters are going to have very unusual patterns. They did in 2020. They will half again in 2021.
So be careful when you analyze the quotas. And last and probably the most important Part of this slide is the column that you have on the far right of the presentation, Which is the point where we are providing guidance for the medium terms. Guidance for when the step change is over. And what do we see? We see that this that Fluidra is going to be a company that will be able to deliver growth above 6% per year.
And this 6% can be either 7%, 8%, 10% or 11%, Depending on what the market is doing, what weather impacts we have Or what sort of acquisitions we are able to materialize in a given year. We will continue our play of margin expansion, Delivering at least 50% basis points of growth through value initiatives, Through synergies, through lean manufacturing and through operating leverage. And all of this We'll compound into a cash EPS growth of at least 15% in the medium term. That combined with the dividend policy that I have shared with you a few minutes ago Will mean that also we'll be delivering an increasing dividend going forward. So in a nutshell, A very, very strong 2021 and a very bright future for the medium term of the company.
And with that, I completed My part of the presentation and I will give the floor to alloy planners to finish The session.
Thank you, Javier. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you have had a perfect pool experience swimming with Xavier And Bruce today. I would say probably even better.
I hope you have had a responsible, perfect pool experience today with us. As I said in my introduction, this is just the starting. We have been building our position for too many years. And now we have this ship prepared, prepared to navigate in waters that are today better than ever. We are now going to navigate with this ship in this pool of opportunities.
And I will add something else, I mean, we have Very clear, very clear what are what is our strategy. We will keep As investing in these rational strategies, we will keep our investment in product and we will keep our investment Focus on IoT because we want to keep leading the transformation in our sector. We will maintain Our inorganic growth, taking advantage of the opportunities that reinforce Our strategy is going forward. And we will do that taking care about our future and about our planet. The best ship in the best water with a clear plan, With a clear and very challenge not challenge, a very clear target With the best team, that means that now you can get out of the pool, Take your towel, dry yourself.
And in 3 minutes, we will be here to answer to you Any question that you have. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Aloy, Bruce and Javier for your presentation. We will now begin the Q and A session as Eloy mentioned. Let me remind you that you will be able to Questions through the question tab in your screen that will give you instructions to be able to access the link. Once you register, please raise your hand and then switch on your camera and microphone so that you can join us live. We kindly ask you to address all questions in English.
Please give us a moment as we build the question roster and we will be back with you in a minute. Thanks for holding. We will now start our Q and A session. We're about to Finish building the Q and A roster. I don't know if we have the first question already available.
Hi, gentlemen. Hi, everyone. Good to see you all well and thank you very much for the presentation. Just like to start maybe on the medium term sales growth guidance. Outside of the M and A and market Chair gain contributions.
Can you put some numbers around the building blocks? For example, what are you assuming for the newbuild growth in the medium term and also the installed base growth?
Okay. I'll start on that one. Candidly, right now what we're seeing is a hyper growth inside of new construction, But still below the peak. And so it's been hard to tease out exactly how much is tied to new construction, how much It is aftermarket. But in the step change, we're seeing double digit growth in new construction.
And we're seeing acceleration in the aftermarket, let's call it 3% type of CAGR. We think that new construction will return To kind of a normal growth from this step change. We don't know when it will happen. We thought we would see it by now, but frankly it continues to be very strong. When we say normal, then we start to say, well, it's kind of in that 1% to 2% range on new construction.
But again, we're not that precise at this point in
time. Okay. Thanks for that color. My second question would be, Some of your peers have EBITDA margins north of 25%. Is this achievable for FLUIDRA?
What are the gaps to peers in this regard?
Yes. I'll start with that one if you want. Or you want to get
it? No, you can go.
Okay. Listen, I think what you saw us do today is move to kind of an evergreen type of approach. And I think the reason for that is we do believe we have significant margin opportunity. And so that's where you see that Kind of continuous flow of 50 basis points of improvement. The one thing that I would ask everybody to remember is that we are I actually think the really strong combination of a distributor as well as a manufacturer.
So I love the targets that have been set out there. We feel like we clearly see them on the manufacturing side. And then, we are going to blend down always a little bit lower than them just because a significant component of our business is distribution.
George, just to add on what Bruce mentioned, I would just point out, as Bruce did in his Pitch to that point of simplification, which is basically making the company less complex than what we are Today, that's an opportunity that it's still untapped. I know that we wanted to address Sooner than what we have, but really the pandemic and this step change has put it a little bit down the road now. So There's still plenty of opportunity.
Okay. Thank you very much for that. And my final question would be Turning to ESG. Thanks for the color on some of the metrics there. How much of a pull has there been from the Market for greater energy efficiency products versus a push from Fluidra to introduce them and innovate to drive energy and water use efficiency?
Yes, interesting question because I would say that the U. S. Is behind on ESG versus Europe, But the one place that they're ahead is in pushing energy efficiency. So one of the key drivers of the electricity savings Ultimately, the emission saving is the use of variable speed pumps. The use of variable speed pumps is being mandated By the Department of Energy in the U.
S. In July of this year. And so that'll be a nice tailwind in a way for the industry, But also really good for the planet in making the pools more efficient. I think We now need to be a bit more aggressive in thinking about how do we market these more energy efficient pools, More chemical efficient pools, more water efficient pools, and it's probably one of the key takeaways from going through this process. It can have real downstream impact.
I don't think other than the variable speed pump, the market is necessarily calling for that, but it is a real opportunity for us to go market.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
Thank you, George. That was George Peterson at Bank of America. Next question is coming from Francisco Ruiz at Exane BNP. Paco, please go ahead.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you well. Yes, there we go. Now we can see you.
Okay. That's perfect. Well, thank you very much guys for this comprehensive presentation. And also I'm looking forward To meeting you in Barcelona or everywhere soon. I have several questions as well.
Let's start with the ESC one. I have to say also the guidance that you have given, but could you give us an idea of if there is an extra cost in order to reach these targets? And the second question on ESC is, Bruce, you talked about that the management remuneration is also linked To this target, could you explain a little bit on how this remuneration is linked? Okay.
You want the cost or you want me?
It doesn't matter, plus whatever you want. I mean, I think that In terms of cost, I will say Paco that I would say that It's not something material that you will see on the P and L in terms of cost. I think that you will find some of the initiatives that we are now taking place that At the reverse and giving us more efficiency. And there are some that are going to cost some to us. But I would say it's very not for the targets that we have Present today, the cost is not impacting really on the P and L.
We need I think that now we are in the step to analyze These objectives deeper to see if some of them we can really advance, no, and if we can go further off this one. But we want to have a more clear picture of some of the numbers and really give that. I give you just one number that we have in mind just to put you in context, no? But for the first one on the environment, That we want to be no carbon neutral on the 12 012? Okay.
I think that we will be there. I think that the extra cost that could signify for us to get there is not going to be more than €200,000 If we are not able to achieve some of the changes, but I think that is an implementation that, as I said, We are going to invest because we are investing. Some of them, the returns are high because are improving our efficiencies. And some others. We need to invest because we it's the correct thing to do.
But as an average, the impact
is Yes. I would say that those costs, Paco are already included in the guidance that we have provided in the medium term. Yes. Okay. So that's inclusive of those costs.
Yes. And I would just put one caveat going. Tier 3 is going to be a little bit more challenging, clearly Paco, but it's a little further out as we think about how to market Some of those products and how to push those downstream. So, yeah, I think the guys have answered it kind of immaterial at this point, although we've started An organization, etcetera, but so far, let's call it mostly self funding. And then as we talk about the incentive, Where we started is with the senior management level, where we have a good bit of our remuneration is based on Financial objectives, and then we have a good bit that's tied to personal objectives.
So one of the critical personal objectives of each of the senior leaders It's tied to the ESG objectives that you see. Our intent is that We feel like we've done, as I mentioned, a good job in 2018, excuse me, over the last 18 months of really laying the foundation, getting the plans in place. But if we think about the longer term, we would like to drive these incentives further down in the organization. So I think as we now Have this responsibility blueprint. We start to really detail the plans behind how we make significant progress.
Then we can start to drive the incentive down through the organization. So I would call it still early days on that one, but the senior management all has it in Our personal objectives with an ambition of taking it through our variable comp program.
Okay. My second question is on the guidance, because at the end of the day your strategic plan lasts till 2022, But you only have updated numbers on 2021. So correct me if I'm wrong, but for the 2022 and according to the guidance that you have given, should we expect something like around €1,800,000,000 sales and EBITDA margin around 24%?
Paco, what we have basically done here today is Share with you that with the guidance that we have given post CMP, we have already accomplished or we will already accomplish by the end of the year All of the metrics that we set up as our objectives on that plan. And then we are getting away From this specific guidance of setting a number of sales or a number of EBITDA and going more to an evergreen approach Once we get off this step change. So that's, if you want, a philosophical, Totally different approach to the one that historically has used the company, but we feel is appropriate now to move in this direction.
So if you wanted to start the math, I mean, you can take the high end of the guidance for 'twenty one and say that it's going to be at least 6% growth In 2022 on the top line and start to play down, which would say your numbers are not far off.
Okay. Okay. So this is what I did. And the last question is, I mean, when you talk about the different geographics, I mean, you put a lot of emphasis In North America and also in Europe. But what about APAC?
What's the because you commented on the capacity to improve Profitability or to reorganize this region, but I can't see you very attract To grow in this area, I don't know if there is a specific market or a specific product in this area in which you could develop or it's going to be something like Will I underperform the Brazil divisions?
Yes. So I might frame it a little bit differently Paco. They have underperformed The other regions and Stephen would not appreciate it, me just saying that, I'm sure our leader. We've got significant share In Australia, South Africa and I think a nice entry position into Asia. So for me as I look at South Africa and Australia, the mission is profitable growth.
And I would say in both legacy companies, we were underperforming. We've run into some challenges over the last couple of years, which We spoke about it at a couple of the results presentations. And at the end of the day, we feel like we've cleaned those up We've put this position the company in a really strong position for profitable growth. Now there's still some work that we need to do that, But I think the teams are doing it and we're on a good path. Once we're on that path or we see it there, Then I think that's becomes an area where we'd like to invest more.
In specific, and really it was not a piece of the presentation today. What we'd love to see is Asia to become more core to that region because we think that has the ability to Expand significantly. As you know, it's more of a commercial based market. So that Asia component had a tough year In 2020, but commercial will come back. And so it's focused on profitable growth.
We think we're on a really good path now After a couple of tough cleanup years and then once we get that profitable growth going, we see the opportunity to really expand into Asia.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thanks, Paco. Thanks
for your questions, Paco. Next question is coming from Christophe Graulik at Berenberg. Please go ahead, Christophe.
Yes. Thank you, Louis, and thank you, Eloy, Proust and Xavier for the presentation. My first question will be with regard to the change In the size of the addressable market, so we have an increase there of about €4,400,000,000 So you have given the 3 components that have Driven that increase in the market size. Just wondering if you could give us an idea how these €4,400,000,000 breakdown into the 3
components.
Yes. Let me just look for the exact number here for you So I can give it to you, but I would say that probably it's sort of onethree It is the categories that we have added. Yeah, I need. Onethree a little bit more than onethree, Close to sorry, close to 40% would be the categories that we have added. And the remaining will be split in 2 buckets, one being market growth and the other one being the fact that we are now considering the distribution margin Or outside of the U.
S.
Yes, that makes sense. Thank you. And the other thing I was wondering, when you speak about the talk We have the share of the aftermarket at around 75%. When you speak about Phleedra and the sales 2020, we have the aftermarket, I think 62%. So I'm just wondering what explains the gap Between Friedra and the market, is that sustainable or is it temporary?
And that would also be the question, is there difference between the Friedra business is North America and Europe with regard to the share of the off the market.
Take a crack at that one Christophe. Good question. And it's really different after 2020 than it was at the end of 2019. There is a difference between in North America. Between North America and Europe, as you may recall, we were kind of getting towards the high 60% As our overall global aftermarket, but the acceleration in new construction where we're particularly strong In North America has actually lowered our level there, blended in with Europe where we're also strong in new construction, which was also Accelerated has blended us down into kind of that low 60 plus percent type of number.
So Lower percentage aftermarket in the States, which is really a reflection of the fact we have a leading share in new construction. And new construction has accelerated, especially in the Sun Belt, which is our strength. And Really the health of new construction. So hope that answers.
Yes, that's perfect. Thanks a lot. And that's all from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Christophe.
Thank you very much, Christophe. The next question comes from Iris Tsang at Credit Suisse. Please, Iris, go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Can you can I be heard?
Yes. We can hear you great, Iris. We can now see you.
Terrific. Thank you. And I've got some follow-up questions on IoT Specifically. And firstly, could you maybe talk about the take up of IoT in Europe because you've mentioned it's very good in the U. S.
So, Wanda, how's everything developing in Europe and also in the rest of the world as well?
Yes. I would say it's significantly led by the U. S. At this point in time, I don't have a stat off the top of my head. I would say we're in the early stages in Europe.
The U. S. Has maybe a more legacy installed base of kind of a master control or a master brain That controls the pool. So it was an easier place to start and we started back in 2012. What we're seeing is really strong growth in Europe and some of the other places, but it's had to come not from controls as a starting point.
It's really come from a couple of products that we've launched after the last 2 years. One being connected robots, our robotic cleaners. So we found the take up on those has been really strong in the last really 18 months or so. And before that, We had bought a company called BlueRiot and BlueConnect which is a floater that goes in your pool that can give you the chemistry. And so those couple of products have really started it, started the trend.
I mean there was other ones that we had before, but the legacy of them was fairly small. Now we have a connected saltwater coordinator that can kind of act as that brain. We're getting to connected heat pumps. And so we think the future is bright for connectivity around the world, but it comes from a little bit of a different product angle And it's really started in the last couple of years.
Great. And can I just check on you've mentioned that the benefits It could bring? And could you maybe just elaborate a bit more on how you sell those IoT products? Is there any differences when it comes Selling the IoT products versus traditional products, once it comes to marketing channels and how they got distributed, to the clients. And basically, what are the like motivations for the pool professionals to recommend and to Push for those products to the end customers.
Yes. So the channels itself are no different. And so it goes through our traditional path. We have, I would say promoted them a bit Stronger amongst the pool pros to get them comfortable with the technology and probably pushed a little harder on the training side So that they could feel comfortable, I remember when we first started the whole connectivity and things like that was a bit of a challenge. As far as reasons for the POOLPRO to support IoT, there's a ton.
First off, it helps them sell an average ticket That is higher than if they were just selling something that it's not. Generally, they are the primary person that is connected. So you've got both the homeowner connected and the Pool Pro. So the Pool Pro can see what's going on with that pool without having to go To it directly. So that gives them a lot of information on where they can go.
Ultimately, where we're going is it makes it simpler for them to do business with us. You can See, a path where we're starting to register the product so it sets it up better for warranty, So they can do warranty claims through it. Ultimately, we started even in Europe where you can start to see what the level The availability of our product in some of our distribution. So it's got a lot of things that just makes their life easier. So they've been quite supportive of Connected Products.
Great. And maybe can you give Some early indications on the margin profile of the IoT products?
Healthy?
Yes. So or maybe let me ask it in another way. Is there what is the cost Involved of the IOC products versus the traditional products because it looks like Yes.
I think I mean, your question is a good question. And from an individual product level, it's healthy, Okay. The challenge is the infrastructure that you need to have behind it to really make it work. And that's where In the beginning, it's very expensive and I think it's maybe a bit of another barrier to entry for some of the smaller competitors Because you basically have to have a cloud infrastructure that allows you to continuously support all this product. But once you've got that set up, you can start to get that leverage through a number of products.
So Depending on how you connect that product, whether it's through Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi Fi, the on cost of the particular product Self is not that significant, but the infrastructure behind it and how you manage it is. And so now that we've got material sales, We're very pleased with where IoT can go and how it can help the profile of our company long term.
Great. And my last question on this because we're analysts So we love numbers. And if you've mentioned about the investments around the infrastructure of IoT, so can we have a sense of how much you are investing every year on that?
Not comfortable with giving that one to our competitors. So good question. We've been we started a long time ago And we'll continue to build on it. So but we will continue to invest. Good question though, Iris.
No problem. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for your questions, Iris. Next questions come from Manuel Lorente at Miraboz. Manuel, please go ahead. Have we lost Manuel? We cannot hear him.
Maybe we can go to the next question. Oh, I'm hearing it's ready now. Okay. Manuel, there you are. Thank you.
We cannot hear you.
You need to open the microphone, Manuel.
The beauty of technology. Maybe. We can't hear him. We cannot hear you.
Yes. We cannot hear. So maybe We can move to the next one, which is Eric Salsa, JPMorgan, Manuel. If you're able to solve those technical issues, we would love to hear your questions. Erik, please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you and thanks for taking my questions. A lot has been answered already, but thanks anyway. Maybe first of all, continuing On the IoT and maybe can you speak a bit about additional risks involved in Having more and more IoT products, for example, in cybersecurity risks or regulation That you need to be mindful of as you launch those products. And also And with regard to the IoT products as you roll them out, the regulation and the infrastructure that you're Putting in place, is that something you do in house?
Or are you using 3rd party suppliers Of Software Solutions for you.
Sure, Erik. As Bruce pointed out, IoT requires certain investments, not only in product development and in developing the cloud, But obviously, in the 2 critical areas that you mentioned, cybersecurity is an area that we pay a lot of attention, Not only because IoT, but also because of the infrastructure that we have for our own operations and As well, those are 2 critical areas that are part of that investment that Bruce was referring to.
As far as the in source, outsource, we do use AWS as kind of our back end. So Amazon Web Services, which is obviously a significant partner and a primary partner. We do a good bit of the development in House, just because you need that expertise in pool. And then we do also partner with, I don't know, for lack of a better term, I'm going to call it 3rd party coders, which I won't share who our partners are, but it's So it ends up being almost a bit of a triangle of infrastructure support that we have Experts inside that worked with AWS, and then we've got some software coders that work with kind of pool experts So that we can bring that right blend of performance and speed.
Okay. Thank you. That's very, very helpful. Maybe one other question. And you've spoken about the routes to markets and the importance of the POOL Pro.
Can you consider any scenario in the future where you Look to do more direct to consumer sales or is that something which is definitely not on Bomba cards at any point?
Yes. The way we think about it is, we partner with the Pool Pro to ultimately deliver A pool experience to the user. These are our partners. So even as we think about IoT, Together we have a lot of great information that allows us to market together to that homeowner. But the POOLPRO is centric to how we go to market and we'll continue to be centric.
Okay. And maybe a last question on the guidance. And sorry if I've missed it, but what is the end of what you consider Medium term and what sort of acquisition assumptions are part of the guidance, if any?
Well, we really don't have an endpoint to that guidance. Obviously, when you look at this sort of Analysis, what you analysts and investors tend to look, they tend to look at this time frame of, I don't know, 2 to 4 years out. And clearly, within that guidance, as we have said, There is 1% to 2% growth coming from acquisitions. It's true that from time to time, like it has happened in 2021, one of the medium sized players may become an opportunity, and we obviously want to play that role if there is a fit and there is A good value proposition for us and for a market position and from a value generation perspective. And those are clearly not considered there.
Okay. Thank you very much. That was all for me. Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot, Derek. We have received no further questions. So this marks the end of Today's Capital Markets Day presentation. Thanks a lot for your attention. It's been a pleasure.
And as always, please feel free to reach out to Investor Relations team for further queries. Have a great day.