Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Elis Full Year 2023 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone. You'll then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Martiré, Chief Executive Officer. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Elis 2023 Annual Results Presentation. I'm Xavier Martiré, CEO of Elis, and I am here in Paris with our CFO, Louis Guyot. After an overview of the highlights of the year for Elis, I will hand over to Louis. He will detail the 2023 results. I will then come back to provide you with an update on our CSR journey and our strategy before detailing our outlook for 2024. Finally, we will have a Q&A session to answer your questions, and after our call, Nicolas Buron will be available to answer any of your questions offline. Before we start, please take the time to read the disclaimer. I'm very happy to report a great financial performance in 2023, with marked improvement of all profitability KPIs, along with strong cash flow generation and deleveraging.
Top-line momentum was strong, with growth of +12.8%, of which 11.8% on an organic basis, to reach more than EUR 4.3 billion, a record number for Elis. EBITDA reached EUR 1,475 million, with EBITDA margin up +130 basis points at 34.2%. EBIT was up more than 25% at EUR 683 million, with EBIT margin up +160 basis points at 19.9%. Full year headline net income per share was up more than 18% and reached a record level of EUR 1.70 on a fully diluted basis. Return on capital employed also reached a record level at 13.9%.
Free cash flow was especially strong at nearly EUR 304 million, showing a 35% improvement year-on-year, with very good cash collection at year-end. Finally, financial leverage ratio at the end of December 2023 decreased by 0.5 times to 2.2 times, which is better than what we anticipated. This strong financial performance will enable us to propose a cash dividend of 0.43 euro per share at the next AGM, up circa 5% year-on-year. The remarkable financial performance achieved in 2023 results from Elis operational excellence, with many productivity gains generated throughout the year, notably on logistic costs. We also continue to record many commercial successes, especially in workwear, where outsourcing continued to develop. Finally, our ability to efficiently adjust our prices to reflect cost-based inflation was also a significant driver of our performance.
The visibility for 2024 is good, and we have entered the year with confidence. 2024 should be another year of profitable growth for Elis, with around circa 5% organic revenue growth, along with EBITDA margin close to 35% and free cash flow close to EUR 340 million. The financial leverage ratio should decrease by 0.2x at the end of 2024. I will come back to this at the end, at the end of the presentation. The next slide provides a bridge between 2022 and 2023 revenue, which increased nearly +13% year-on-year to a record level of EUR 4.3 billion. Volumes were driven by good commercial dynamism, especially in workwear, with further outsourcing. We also benefited from a catch-up in hospitality in Q1 on the back of an easy comparable base.
Around 70% of the total EUR 488 million increase year-on-year came from pricing, which corresponds to an effect of circa 9%, in line with the inflation of our cost base. Our strong pricing discipline when signing a new contract or renewing an existing one, resulted in a moderate increase in churn for the year. Our Mexican acquisition, closed in July 2022, contributed EUR 55 million entirely in H1, and other acquisitions contributed another EUR 13 million, so a total impact of +1.8% on revenue. Lastly, FX had a -0.8% impact on revenue in 2023, which corresponds to a shortfall of EUR 30 million, especially due to the evolution of the Swedish krona, the Norwegian krone, and the British pound.
Moving on to the next slide, the many initiatives we launched to improve Elis' organic growth profile are gradually bearing fruit, and commercial momentum was good in workwear in 2023. This reflects the accelerating outsourcing trend that we have noted since the pandemic. This outsourcing trend had been identified by Elis early in the cycle, and we built up our sales force in many countries to capture as many opportunities as possible. We believe that this outsourcing trend will continue going forward, driven by three main factors. First, the need for more hygiene. Second, the evolution in European regulations that change market standards. And third, the re-industrialization of Europe. Now, looking at the healthcare market, we are being proactive in opening the nursing home market in both Spain and the U.K., where we launched dedicated offers with specific sales force.
Unlike other countries, such as France, those markets are still largely fragmented among small, independent players that usually in-source washing, and there is therefore growth potential for Elis there. The post-COVID environment remains very favorable for Elis, with an increasing need for hygiene in general, notably for pest control and the clean room business, which delivered more than 10% organic growth in 2023 to reach cumulative revenue of close to EUR 300 million. I will provide you with more details on these two businesses on the next slide. In 2023, we also continued to roll out the offering of our services to small clients when our network density allowed it, as our ability to efficiently serve small clients is essentially linked to the density we have in a specific country. So far, recorded great success in 2023, in Sweden and in Brazil.
Going forward, the improvement of our network density through M&A or organic growth will make more countries eligible for the addition of the offer for small clients. This should contribute to margin expansion in the future, as a very efficient logistic in place with service to small clients generally leads to good margins. Moving on to the next slide, I would like to give you an update on our pest control business, which has been growing at nearly 30% per year over the last decade, and whose development has been accelerating since the end of the pandemic. Pest control is a perfect example of a margin-accretive service that we added to our offer portfolio. Over time, we have signed many pest control contracts with existing customers, leveraging our strong customer relationships and second to the network density.
Over the last decade, we have developed our pest control network through small bolt-on acquisitions, creating local platforms able to address more and more clients in our geographies. Today, we propose our pest control services in 10 countries with around 380 specialized technicians. The business unit has, at the same time, worked to develop innovative traceability and prevention solutions, as well as more responsible alternative solutions. In some countries, the offering is also now available to individual customers. Over time, Elis Pest Control has also increased its level of professionalism, and we believe our technical know-how is comparable to what pure pest control players are offering. In 2023, Elis' revenue in pest control was at nearly EUR 60 million.
The acquisition of Gruppo Indaco in Italy and Levante in Spain will help us create local platforms to boost the development of our pest control offer in these two countries. Going forward, we hope to continue to significantly grow revenue through cross-selling, further bolt-on, and the launch of the service in some group countries where it is not offered today. Moving on to the next slide, let me talk about our Cleanr oom business, which is another fast-growing, high profitability service that we propose. We are by far the largest European player in that field, with a network of 30 Cleanr ooms. We offer a large variety of products, such as reusable Cleanr oom garments, cleaning systems, goggles, and related contamination control solutions. Our existing client base provides us with many cross-selling opportunities in these very technical and highly profitable markets.
The business has historically delivered double-digit revenue growth, with a marked acceleration since the pandemic. To support this activity growth, we have also been active on the M&A side, like in 2021, with the acquisition of Scaldis in Belgium. The Cleanr oom business structurally benefits from the reopening of some pharma and microelectronics plants in Europe, and we believe Elis will get the lion's share of the market development in Europe in the coming years. On to the next slide. I'm very satisfied with how we have been able to offset inflation in both 2022 and 2023. This clearly highlights Elis's pricing power, which is a key component of our business model and one of the group's biggest strengths. I want to give you some color on the reasons for this success.
Part of the reason why we have always managed to efficiently pass through inflation of our cost base to our clients, is because we have always been very transparent with them, disclosing our main cost inductor. At the end of the day, the price of these cost items are public data, so our customers know perfectly well that our pricing adjustments are legitimate. Second, our services are essential to our clients' activity. Hotels and hospitals simply cannot operate without linen. The same goes for industrial clients. Uniforms are very often mandatory, and they need our service to properly run their business. Third, the cost of our service represent generally only around 4% of our clients' PNL. So even when we apply a 10% or to 20% price increase, the increase in euro for our customer is generally not material for most of them.
Fourth and last, alternative solutions to our services are very limited. Reinsourcing is not really an option, and we don't see this happening in our market, as it would result in higher costs for our clients. Furthermore, competitors have more or less the same cost base as ours, and there is no risk of disruption from an alternative way of providing the service. It means that everybody is facing the same inflation problem, and we have noticed overall rational behavior from our competitors in most of our markets. Four reasons combined explain why we have been successful with our pricing adjustments in these times of strong inflation. Nevertheless, we saw a moderate increase of our churn rate in 2023 due to our strict pricing discipline. Moving on to the next slide, price effect for 2023 was at +9%, in line with increase of our cost base.
As a reminder, salaries account for more, for around 60% of our cost base, and are by far the main trigger for any pricing adjustments. Energy costs account for around 10%, and the remainder is made up of several smaller costs, such as chemical products or paper. Looking at 2024, inflation is still present in all geographies, and wages continue to increase everywhere. This will mechanically impact our cost base, and we have already adjusted or will adjust our prices accordingly in the course of 2024, on the back of the pricing indexation formula that is in our contract. Moving on to the next slide, I would like to focus again on the Mexican acquisition we closed in July 2022, which therefore had a six-month impact on scope effect for 2023. The performance delivered since the acquisition has been above our expectations.
In 2023, it reached total revenue of EUR 120 million, with +18% organic revenue growth in H2 2023, which can be broken down between around 9.5% price effect and 8.5% volume growth, driven by stronger outsourcing momentum in the country. In terms of margin, the performance is also exceptional, with EBITDA margin above 40%. The group is the market leader, 20 times bigger than the number two, with a very experienced management team. Activity is very resilient, with healthcare clients accounting for more than 85% of total revenue. And going forward, our objective is to continue to deliver double-digit organic growth in the country, and by doing so, further improve the group's organic growth profile. The outsourcing potential in the country is big, especially in workwear.
The vast majority of industrial companies are still buying their uniforms, so we'll do our best to open the market like we did in Brazil and accelerate the move toward the rental model. Hospitality is also a very big market in Mexico, with 25% more rooms in the country than in France. Most of the hotels still don't outsource the washing of their linen, so we'll, we also see some significant growth potential there. The healthcare market is also growing on the back of public funding, with modern hospitals and clinics being constructed, which therefore represent another area of potential growth for us. Finally, the previous owners of the business have been in place for more than 20 years and decided to stay on board with some earn-outs to align their interest with ours.
Given the business' strong performance, EUR 31 million were paid in 2023, and another EUR 80 million will be paid in 2024. In 2023, M&A activity was a bit subdued, with an impact of just 1.8% on revenue, very likely because potential sellers wanted to wait for fully normalized annual results before putting their asset on the market. Nevertheless, as I told you before, we acquired a couple of nice B2B pest control business in Italy and in Spain, both of which have operations across the respective countries, which will bring additional combined revenue of around EUR 10 million per year on an annualized basis.... Looking at 2024, we recently announced the closing of the acquisition of Moderna in the Netherlands, a business with top line of around EUR 50 million.
This acquisition will broaden the group's offering in the Netherlands, especially in flat linen for hospital. This market, which is still very fragmented in the country, is showing significant growth. In addition, this operation will strengthen the group's existing offer on the workwear and wipers market, which are very profitable. As far as other potential deals are concerned, our M&A strategy remains the same, with very strict pricing discipline in terms of valuation. The pipeline of bolt-on acquisition is big, and we expect total acquired revenue to be in the range between EUR 100 million and EUR 150 million on an annualized basis, including Moderna that I just mentioned. Moving on to the next slide, productivity gains were a significant driver of the margin improvement delivered in 2023, and logistics is an area where Elis has been significantly progressing over the last few years.
The group has developed and implemented an internal software called GLAD. In a nutshell, it provides a variety of analytical data that helps optimize delivery routes based on the location of all our clients. Implementation of GLAD started in January 2022, and where implemented, GLAD generates 1%-2% of yearly savings on logistics costs, so we are doing our best to accelerate its roll out, which should be complemented by 2025, with a total of around 3,700 routes being monitored in all our geographies. Moving on to the next slide. Another path for margin improvement is industrial efficiency, which encompasses several levels, such as equipment efficiency, human efficiency, plant organization, and so on. At first glance, people often think that the laundry business cannot be very complicated from an industrial standpoint, but it is actually pretty complex and require significant know-how.
Organizing the workforce without knowing what will be coming back from the clients, optimizing the setup of complex machines, organizing an efficient flow in the plant require very deep know-how. And we have a team of in-house specialists who are going through our plants to roll out the group's best practices, optimize the consumption of resources, and assess the quality of the maintenance actions that are taken. This leads to steady productivity gains and efficiency, and significant synergy generation when it comes to a newly acquired plant. The industrial equipment is also reviewed every year as part of the yearly CapEx budget. This CapEx notably aims at improving our industrial performance, contributes to our productivity gains, and to the decrease in our consumption of resources.
As a result, we have seen steady improvement of productivity KPIs between 2018 and 2023, with some examples being listed on the right-hand side of the slide. In 2023, logistic cost and workshop costs decreased by 70 basis points as a percentage of revenue. Moving on to the next slide, I would like to share with you the great achievement we have been delivering in the U.K. since the acquisition of the Berendsen operation at the end of 2017. This is a good example of our capacity to integrate new businesses and improve their profitability and therefore improve the group's overall margin. If you remember, we had a lot on our plate in the U.K. when we took over Berendsen. The business was doing poorly, both commercially and industrially.
We first changed the organization by putting in place a very experienced COO from Elis and hiring some talents in order to reinforce the quality of local teams. We then applied Elis' decentralized approach, where Berendsen in the U.K. was totally centralized, with little to no decision-making power at plant level. We then heavily reinvested in the industrial assets, as the business had been underinvested for many years before the acquisition. From 2018 onwards, we also progressively increased the number of multi-service plants, as all the plants in the U.K. were specialized, either dedicated to workwear for, or flat linen for healthcare, or flat linen for hospitality.
Then we had to recreate a trusting relationship with the customer while putting strong emphasis on pricing discipline, as Berendsen in the U.K. was losing a high number of clients at the time of the acquisition, despite abnormally low pricing, essentially due to poor quality of service and delivery mismatch. Bottom line, the workload was very high for us, so I'm even more satisfied to see that the shape of the business today is in no way comparable to what it was back in 2017. All the KPIs, be it the commercial, industrial, or social, are showing sharp progression compared to their level at the time of the acquisition. We even managed to navigate through the COVID year quite smoothly. Our great flexibility and the strong commitment from our employees allowed us to maintain a high quality of service during the crisis...
Looking at numbers now, we have been able to generate steady organic growth with +5% per year in average since 2019. Margin is now close to 31% from 28.5% pre-COVID, and we believe there is still room for further growth. So I am taking this opportunity to congratulate all our U.K. team for the great work that has been achieved. Let me now hand over to Louis. He will give you more color on our 2023 financial performance.
Thank you, Xavier. Good morning, everyone. Let me first go through the usual revenue breakdown by activity and the markets by geography, to illustrate the group's high level of diversification, which provides us with a highly resilient model in times of crisis. Whichever way you look at this graph, you will see that Elis' positioning is well-balanced, which contributes significantly to its resilience. In terms of activity, flat linen and workwear, as well as hygiene, represent 47%, 36%, and 17% of revenue, respectively. Looking at our end markets, hospitality is now back to a normalized level, and our four end markets, which all have different growth drivers, each roughly account for one quarter of our activity, which is a key strength in times of crisis.
In terms of geographies, France represents a bit less than a third of the total turnover, and we have a balanced mix with, on the one hand, Central Europe, Scandinavia being more mature, on the other hand, Southern Europe, Latin America, offering higher growth prospects. This good diversification in terms of activity, clients, geographies, does not come about by chance. It is a consequence of a long-term strategy, backed by product innovation, commercial efficiency, and M&A. Moving to the next slide, let's have a look now at organic growth on the EBITDA margin by geography. All in, the 11.8% full year growth, organic, is largely driven by pricing for 9%, the recovery of hospitality in Q1, roughly 1%, and the other volume growth effects account for 2%.
Pricing has been strong everywhere, but especially in the higher inflation countries like Germany and U.K. The recovery of hospitality impacted mostly France, Southern Europe, and U.K., as they are the main contributors to this market. The regular volume effect was driven largely by workwear, where the volume of new contracts signed was 14.4% above last year, especially in the Netherlands, Germany, Southern Europe, U.K., and France. Healthcare also contributed with new contracts, 3% above 2022, whereas hospitality dynamics were more subdued. All that, these successes were balanced with a slight 1% increase in churn on the back of our discipline and pricing at the beginning of the year. As far as EBITDA margin is concerned, we posted 130 basis points improvement at 34.2%, and we are very happy that now all geographies are above 30%.
Globally, this improvement is driven in all geographies by productivity gains and logistics and industrial performance. Please note that in 2023, pricing and energy costs were margin neutral at group level, as they were in line with group inflation. The story, of course, can be different zone by zone. Let's have a look now per geography. For example, in France, logistic savings on industrial performance were very strong, along with good pricing and positive impact of energy hedging, leading to this record margin of 40.3%. In Central Europe, productivity progress were also good, but pricing, however strong, was lower than inflation, especially as energy costs increased in 2023, leading to this 30.5%, the lower of the group. Please note that in H2, the margin improvement was +100 basis points, paving the path for 2024 improvements.
In Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, productivity progress were also good. We faced sometimes tough pricing negotiation with clients from the public sector, but the margin improved in H2 by 100 basis points. In the U.K., Ireland, pricing and productivity were very strong, but energy was a headwind, hence the limited improvement, leading to 30.7%. There also, the margin improvement in H2 was much better at 160 basis points. Latin America, the industrial progress are regular, so inflation was less impressive than in Europe. The integration of Mexico was a tailwind to the margin, which turns now above the group average. In Southern Europe, strong revenue increase, productivity savings, along with positive impact of energy, led to a spectacular 3.60 improvement in Adjusted EBITDA margin at 30.8%. Let's now look at the full P&L.
Below EBITDA, all aggregates showed stronger growth compared to 2022. In 2023, D&A only increased by 11%, reflecting the decrease in linen CapEx recording in 2021, and the inertia in industrial CapEx depreciation in relation to inflation, its depreciation period being much longer than linen. 2023 was the last year to benefit from this lower D&A compared to normative levels, and we expect the ratio to be back at 19% in 2024. This led to a record EBIT margin level at 15.9%, a level that we'll be able to maintain in the future. The main items between EBIT and operating income are as follows. First, expenses related to free share plans correspond to the requirement of the IFRS 2 accounting standard. They increased compared to 2022, at EUR 31 million, as a result of the share price increase.
Second, the amortization of intangible assets recognized in the business combination is mainly related to the goodwill allocation of Berendsen. In 2023, the aggregate was stable compared to last year. It will sharply decrease after 2028. Third, non-current operating expenses strongly increased due to the revaluation of the earn-out of the Mexican acquisition for EUR 49 million. The financial outlook of the acquired group has been revised upwards twice, in H1 and in H2, given the performance delivered. The other items are limited on more overall, restoring direct cost, IT development and their sales, and the pollution provision. Furthermore, net financial charge was up EUR 38 million compared to 2022. This increase can be broken down between, first, around EUR 20 million, corresponding to the increase in interest charges linked to the 2022 and 2023 refinancings, with interest rates higher than in the previous years.
Second, EUR 12 million, corresponding to an accretion expense resulting from the earn-out of the Mexican acquisition, quite technical. Third, EUR 6 million, corresponding to negative Forex impact versus positive in 2022. The tax rate is around 30%, because you remember the IFRS 2 treatment is non-cash and not taxable. At the end of the day, the net income increased by nearly 30% year-on-year to EUR 2 million. Moving to the next slide. The ROCE is obviously a KPI we carefully track, as it measures the value creation from our investments. We use it daily when making an investment decision, for example, an industrial investment or a big contract where significant linen must be purchased, or of course, when completing M&A. Our pre-tax ROCE is defined as EBIT divided by the capital employed.
A detailed breakdown of the capital employed we use is presented in the appendix. Beginning of 2023, it's EUR 2.4 billion. It excludes EUR 1.5 billion of intangible assets recognized in the group's last LBO in 2007, which have been therefore nothing to do with any operation. We look back at 2018, the year eighteen, because it's the first year after the big mergers with Indusal, Lavebras, and Berendsen, where the revenue jumped from EUR 1.5 billion to more than EUR 3 billion. So it was a big transformation of the group. You can see on this chart how successful have been this integration, with the ROCE going from 9% to nearly 14% in 2023. Clear signal that the acquisition are delivering along with the traditional business. Moving to the next slide.
Now looking at 2023 headline net income per share, the main items restated are the usual ones. PPA depreciation, non-cash IFRS 2 expense for free share plans, non-current operating income and expenses, mostly corresponding to the revaluation of the earn-out related to Mexico, as well as the corresponding acquisition expense impact on the financial results. So in headline net income stood at EUR 433 million, up 23% year-on-year, which corresponds to an EPS of EUR 1.86, and EUR 1.70 on a fully diluted basis, up 22% and 18% respectively. As a reminder, the fully diluted number factors in the potential dilutive effect from the free share plans on the convertible bond, in which case we restate the IFRS 2 expense accordingly.
Moving to the next slide, you can see that Elis' fully diluted headline EPS is now more than 50% above 2019 level. We expect this trend to continue going forward, with EPS growth every year, as has always been the case historically, with the exception, of course, of the pandemic years. It's another way to look at the value creation since the big mergers on 2017, along with the ROCE we already mentioned. Since IPO in 2015, the EPS growth has been steady, circa 11% in average per year. Moving to the next slide, Elis generated a record free cash flow in 2023 at EUR 304 million, up 35% year-on-year. Let's have a look at sales first.
Just below EBITDA, you have around EUR 14 million, which correspond to some restructuring costs , which is pretty standard. The CapEx, that EUR 821 million in 2023, around EUR 130 million more than in 2022. As a percentage of revenue, they represented 19%, compared to 18.1% in the same period last year. This ratio increase reflects the implementation of square contracts, as well as, more generally, a slight evolution of the 2023 mix towards more linen products and less washroom. 2023 change in working capital was negative at -EUR 6 million, compared to -EUR 43 million in. Reflect the decrease of central linen inventories on the good cash collection at year-end. This performance of cash collection is very impressive, as the last two days were Saturday, thirty, on Sunday, thirty-one.
Usually, this has a very negative impact on DSO. It happened, for example, in April 2023, but our processes are much better since COVID times, and we were able to keep the DSO at 55 days, only one day above 2022. We estimate this overperformance to be around EUR 25 million positive impact. That, of course, we have seen in the counterpart in the early days of January 2024. All other items in the table are normative. Interest increased due to the higher cost of the new bonds, despite the reduction of the debt. Cash tax rate is 24%. In terms of capital allocation, we spent EUR 82 million on M&A, including the first bolt-on for Mexico.
We paid EUR 62 million in dividends, which is net, bearing in mind that 35% of the dividend has been paid in shares, as the option was available, and you will see that is not anymore the case in 2024. At the end of the day, net financial debt decreased by EUR 153 million in 2023, to EUR 3.025 billion, which corresponds to a leverage ratio of 2x at the end of December. Moving to the next slide. We have been active on the financing side in 2023, with the implementation of a securitization program of circa EUR 180 million on the 12-year USPP for EUR 183 million. These proceeds, added to the cash generated by the business, will be used to refinance our EUR 500 million bond maturing in April 2024.
Last October, Moody's raised its outlook from stable to positive, and in November, Standard & Poor's upgraded us to investment grade with a triple B minus rating, which is an important, important achievement for us. Going forward, we will remain very opportunistic about potential refinancings, and we will be, be committed to continuing to reduce perceived risk profile in the future. We can assume that the cash interest will remain low, as we will refinance less than the reimbursement at a cost which is now dropping fast. We see cash interest around EUR 100 million in 2024 versus 90 in 2023. So moving to the next slide, net financial leverage decreased to 2x at the end of December, compared to 2.5x at the end of December 2022.
This marked decrease reflects strong EBITDA growth, along with the EUR 153 million net debt reduction. As a reminder, the pandemic had a negative impact on the 2.0 ratio, but since then, the deleveraging has accelerated, and we expect to see 0.2x by the end of 2024. To conclude the session, first, our overall financial performance was very strong in 2023, at a record level for all financial indicators. In particular, EBITDA margin was up 130 basis points, with all geographies now above 30%, notably due to significant productivity gains in 2023. The steady growth in return on capital employed highlights the successful integration of the major deals of 2017, along with great discipline in cash allocation and continuous operational improvement.
Finally, these excellent results enable us to propose at the next shareholder meeting, the payment of a dividend in cash of EUR 0.43 per share, 5% above last year. Now, I will hand back to Xavier, who will give you an update on our CSR achievement in 2023.
Thank you, Louis. As you probably know, Elis unveiled its new raison d'être in May 2023. It embodies a long-term commitment of Elis by delivering circular services that work for hygiene, well-being, and protection everywhere, every day, in a sustainable way. The services offered by Elis are a sustainable alternative to single purchase or single-use products or disposable products, and enable our clients to avoid CO2 emissions and contribute to a reduction of their own emissions. To this day, our business model based on the circular economy is one of Elis' greatest assets. Moving on to the next slide. We also announced in September our climate strategy, validated by SBTi. Our objective for Scopes 1 and 2 is to achieve a reduction of 75% from our 2019 and 2022 baseline.
To do so, we further optimize our energy use in our laundry, increase the consumption of renewable energy, and reduce the environmental footprint for our logistic fleets by optimizing delivery routes and accelerating the transition toward alternative vehicles. For Scope 3, we aim at reducing our absolute emissions by 28% by optimizing our linen management, for example, through reduction of textile losses or reusing and repairing even more. We will work also on reducing the environmental footprint and reduce the impact of transportation, the upstream, but also by supporting our employees in the transition toward less polluting modes of transport. 2019-2023 checkpoints show that we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 14.6% and Scope 3 emissions by 3.6%. We look forward to working with all stakeholders to achieve this ambition and contribute to the global efforts required.
Moving on to the next slide, let me now provide you with a quick update on our different objectives set for 2025. Overall, the 2023 performance showcases progress on every item, and we continue to deliver some impressive results regarding our water and energy consumption, down 46% and 28% respectively, compared to 2010. In 2023, the group continued to put further emphasis on the share of women managers, and we also recorded a more than 10% decrease in the frequency rate of accidents. Finally, we further increased the funds granted to our foundation, which helps deserving students from disadvantaged social backgrounds. Moving on to the next slide, let me present you some examples of recent initiatives. Regarding our logistics fleet, the number of our alternative vehicles has nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023, with more than 1,200 vehicles to date.
We also receive each year more than 50 electric EV vehicles, positioning Elis as a pure- As I explained earlier, we also deployed the GLAD tool, aiming at optimizing logistic routes, which means fewer kilometers and therefore lower fuel consumption. Our initiative, Close the Loop project, aiming at making new textile products recognition in 2023 and reach a new step with the development in international. We made significant improvements in health and safety within the group. 11.42% compared to 2019, and we integrated safety criteria for some plant manager, drive education further. Furthermore, in December 2023, climate have been integrated, EUR 900 million sustainability-linked facility, on top of the previous CSR KPIs that were already in place.
Finally, in 2023, an internal survey revealed that 84% of Elis employees said that CSR is a key value for the group, which rewards all the initiatives taken by Elis in that field. Moving on to the next slide, the group engagement and actions have been rewarded by several CSR rating agencies. 2023, SBTi improved its rating from BBB to A, recognizing group CSR performance. Furthermore, Elis was rated A- by the Carbon Disclosure Project, positioning group in the leadership level. We are also ranked among the top 5% of 100,000 assessed companies by EcoVadis with a gold medal. Finally, we also maintain our sustainability rating to low risk. Let's now turn to our strategy and outlook. The very solid 2023 performance is a result of a sound strategy that we have been applying for years.
The strategy relies on four pillars: development of sustainable services and expansion of the circular economy, our industrial and commercial expansion of current position, and expansion of our network. First, circularity has always been at the heart of our business model, as these are client products that are maintained, repaired, reused, and reemployed to optimize their usage and lifespan. The group therefore selects its textile products based on sustainability criteria to ensure frequent washing and also operates repair workshops. Elis' conviction is that the circular economy model, which notably aims at reducing consumption of natural resources by optimizing the lifespan of products, is a sustainable solution to address today's environmental challenges. Services offered by Elis are a sustainable alternative to simple purchase-for-use products or to single-use products, which allow our clients to decrease their environmental impact. Second, industrial and commercial excellence.
Every day, we serve around 400,000 clients in our 29 countries. Geographical proximity for clients allows us to be very responsive and to create, over time, a valuable trusting relationship. Moreover, Elis has always pursued continuous improvement of its logistics and industrial processes. Our very experienced methods team defines standards for all aspects of industrial production, and then rolls out the best practices for our 400 plants. This approach guarantees the quick and successful integration of our acquisition. Third, the consolidation of current position. When we enter a new country, we aim at becoming market leader immediately or over a short period of time. Leadership position ultimately leads to a dense plant network, which enable us to provide best-in-class commercial responsiveness and to optimize our logistics costs through operating larger and more productive plants.
We become a leader through dynamic M&A activity, as well as organic momentum with the sequential deployment of Elis' whole product portfolio. This map shows we are number one in the majority of our 29 countries, sometimes number two, and very rarely, number three. At the end of the day, this strong network density is both a competitive advantage for us and a high barrier to entry for the competitor, as replicating such a network is very. Fourth, expansion of our network. Elis' story started at home at the end of the 19th century, but the European expansion only started in the 1970s, essentially in Southern Europe. And we identified that Latin America as a great area for potential growth, and after on-site monitoring, we decided we acquisition in 2014 in Brazil, and then in Chile and Colombia the following year.
More recently, we completed our presence in the region with Mexico, where we entered in 2022. Part of the rationale to invest in Latin America were to benefit from very dynamic outlook, which usually leads to double-digit organic growth rate in the region, and therefore drive the group's total organic growth number. Aside from Latin America, additionally doubled its size in 2017 with the acquisition of Berendsen, which provided the group with a geographical and market. Acquisition has proven its capacity to successfully integrate assets by size, generate profitable growth geographically. Unlock productivity, as we have in America or in the U.K. So before moving to our 2024 outlook, let's take a quick look at the path that we like to present regularly.
There you see the evolution of the top line and margin performance over the last two decades, and it is fair to say that the last few years have clearly emphasized the resistance of our business and our strong pricing power. Backbone of our resilience. First, the geographical footprint. Less than one-third of our business, and second, the diversified clients in [audio distortion] Brazilian profit. Acquisition of and the addition of [audio distortion] Subsequently, from the margin at constant, evolving at high and stable levels. The narrow range, regardless of external events and taking into consideration the impact of IFRS 16 from 2019 onward. On top of that, a very interesting characteristic of our business that we saw in 2016 is that linen investments from with top line growth, that means actually, they mechanically go down during bad top line years, have a positive effect on cash generation.
The cash generation trajectory has been impressive over the last four years. The free cash flow increased from EUR 18 million in 2019 to EUR 100 million in 2023, and we expect trajectory to continue. So let's talk about our 2024 outlook, starting with organic growth that we expect at around +5%, with the price effect slightly out of volume growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin should be expected close to 35%, driven by operating leverage, further productivity gains, and hedging effect on energy purchases, and despite an additional cost of EUR 20 million from the development phase. Adjusted EBIT margin, stable year-on-year at 8%, which corresponds to D&A returning to 90%. As a reminder, 2023 was the last year to benefit from lower D&A compared to normative levels, correlated with linear investments that were also lower than normative level during the pandemic.
All this should lead to a fully diluted headline net income per share above EUR 1.75. On the cash side, we expect free cash flow at around EUR 340 million, driven by EBITDA improvement and by further normalization of change in working capital requirements
bearing in mind, the cash collection at the year end 2023 were already very good. Finally, the deleveraging of the company will continue, and we expect financial leverage ratio to decrease by a further 0.2 times at the end of 2024. This concludes this presentation, and I thank you all for your attention. We can now move on to the Q&A. Operator, back to you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask questions on the phone, kindly press star one one and wait for your name to be announced. If you would like to cancel a request, you can press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for the first question. Our first question comes from the line of Christoph Greulich from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Xavier and Louis. Thanks a lot for taking my questions. There are three on my side. I would go one by one. Just to start with, on the guidance for 2024, so the 1.75, yeah, headline EPS, fully diluted basis, it's, I think about a 3% increase year-over-year. If I look at the adjusted EBIT guidance, I think that would be including the already done M&A, yeah, about 7% or 8% increase year-over-year. So just trying to understand why the EPS should grow slower than the adjusted EBIT.
Yeah, when you look... So thank you for your question. Globally speaking, what you, you have the model with, EBIT, I guess. So the question is, what's happening below? On the below, you can expect a slight increase of, the financial cost, on the back of, the increase of the interest rate on the recent, the recent refinancing. So you can make the modeling around that.
So if you look at the interest cost, I mean, in 2024, I mean, we had about, I think it was, if I remember correctly, about EUR 18 million of, let's call it, non-recurring expenses in 2023 with the FX expense and the earn-out related one from Mexico. So that means, yeah, we're going from about EUR 106 million-EUR 107 million in 2023 on a recurring basis towards EUR 115 million-EUR 120 million, or how should we think about financial expenses in the P&L this year?
So what we, what we say that the cash interest shall move from EUR 90 million - EUR 100 million. And as you remember, in the headline EPS, we restate what is very exceptional. So at the end of the day, the increase of the cash interest reflects into the P&L interest. Okay?
Okay. So that was actually already one of my other questions. So then just one last one, also related to the headline EPS figure, the fully diluted one. If I look at the share count, so the gap between the basic and the fully diluted share count increased in 2023. So if I remember correctly, the convertible was issued in September 2022, so that shouldn't have contributed to the increase in the gap between basic and fully diluted. So just trying to understand why this gap has increased by, I think it's about 9 million shares in 2023.
So the calculation is the difference with a normal number of shares, so it's an average, as you remember, for the number of shares. On the fully diluted, takes into account what can happen with the free shares, on the first hand. And on the second, with the convertible bond, which was issued recently and that you have in mind. So that's the way it's calculated, and the detail is in the accounts. So you can have some gaps from one year to the other, linked to the model, the modalities.
Perfect. Yeah, I will have a look at the details, and we'll get back in the queue. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the questions. Our next question comes from Ben Wild from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Three from me, please. Firstly, Louis, I think you mentioned that prices on energy costs were margin neutral in 2023. I guess the energy costs were up in line with the inflation of your broader cost base. Would you expect prices on energy costs to be margin neutral in 2024? And given the power prices and gas prices have come down quite significantly, even in the last few months and weeks, how do you see passing that benefit on to your customers over time? Second question is on the CapEx and D&A. Prices, as just discussed, have risen significantly in the last three years, driven primarily by energy and wages.
Can you just help us understand how CapEx and EBITDA are growing above revenue, given volume growth last year and this year coming up is due to be more modest? And then thirdly, on capital allocation and M&A and potential shareholder returns, do you think about that 1.8 times that you've guided to today as a ceiling going forward, regardless of any M&A that you would do? And what would be the trigger for accelerating shareholder returns going forward? Thank you.
So first question, evolution of energy, the cost for the company. You know that, we have a hedging policy in place. So that means that the cost for this is not correlated anymore fully with the spot price. It was the case in 2023, and because the spot price decreased sharply, but not the cost for this. In 2024, as we said some months ago, that we'll benefit from a better level of hedging in place for energy, and we have a savings in euros that is around EUR 30 million. So it's, of course, a good benefit for us and for the margin for the group, of course. For the years to come, we expect more or less the same kind of savings. So we should have the same saving in 2025 as the same savings probably in 2026.
And of course, all the key subject on price negotiation with our customer was more a question for 2023 than for 2024 and the years to come. And in 2023, we have been able to resist and to keep our position, putting on the table the evolution of the salaries and so on. So that's why I'm very confident that we can keep this good momentum in 2024 and the years to come, and we saw it in the negotiation of price at the beginning of the year 2024, where we were discussing much more about wages. Because view from the customer, the price of energy in 2024 are quite comparable to 2023. Slight decrease, but not significant, and that's why we were able to just discuss about the impact of wages and so on.
So it is a reason why we, when we analyze the evolution of the cost base for this, in comparison to the evolution of the price increase, we will have a positive impact in 2024, and we can guess that we will have the same positive impact in 2025. I will take the third question and give the floor to Louis for the second part. So cash allocation, so you have understood that we have a strong pipeline of small bolt-on M&A in 2024.
So that means that, if we analyze what we'll do with the cash, the EUR 340 million, something close to EUR 100 million for the dividend, and the rest will be used probably for the acquisition with the earn-out in Mexico and to pay the strong pipeline that we have in 2024. So probably, marginal amounts to decrease modestly the debt in Europe, but with increase of the EBITDA, of course, the leverage will go down to 1.8 times. For the year after, it's too early to answer to your question. We'll see, depending on the evolution of the type of acquisition and the condition on the market and so on, we'll decide later, what will be the cash allocation in 2025 and the years after.
Second question for evolution of CapEx and D&A for Louis.
Yep. So where, so you need to look at the detail a bit, to fit, for example, the... So starting with the CapEx, when you look at the linen, so the ratio linen to sales was at 13.6%, which is a bit high, as you know. In 2023, namely, you had two effects. First, inflation of linen was higher than the pricing effect at group level. And the second is that we had a lot of workwear developments. And as you know, when you sign a contract in workwear, before you earn the first EUR of a service, you have to buy all the linen, which can be like 18 months of revenue.
So of course, there are the discrepancies between the revenue and the CapEx in this case, if you run faster on the workwear development. The second item is, those are CapEx, driven mainly by the industrial CapEx, was a bit low in 2022. You remember that there was a lot of disruption on the supply chain from their providers, so it was low at 4.5% to sales. In 2023, there was a kind of catch up with some investment of 2022 have been pushed to 2023, so 5.5%.... What can we expect in the future? Probably to 19% is something to keep in mind.
Probably linen ratio shall go down a bit on the back of inflation receding. But as you know, we are very offensive on development, and so we can expect industrial CapEx to be in the region of 6%, as where we need in the future capacity on better machines to sustain our productivity roadmap. Now, when you look at the depreciation, it's even more complicated. I'm sorry. The linen depreciate on 3 years, as you know. So you have ups and downs, downs where 2021 with COVID.
But then, very fast after 2022, 2023, you had a strong inflation on linen, and of course, that will reflect in the future depreciation. So that's the first point. So you can expect circa 12% of linen depreciation to sell. And then the other round, industrial other depreciation is more regular, but encompasses, as you know, the IFRS 16 treatment for the rents, so the lease. And that is now steady in the region of 7%, which is a combination of the industrial CapEx depreciation, which can be between 5 and 50 years.
The real estate, which is not depreciated, as you know, and the leases that comes here through the regular life, the duration of life of the asset, which is financed. So that—I guess that's clear up to you now.
Yeah. Thanks, Louis. Just maybe one follow-up, particularly to, to Xavier's comments. Given the energy cost benefit that you, that you described and the pricing effect that you, that you've put through for this year, the guidance from EBITDA down seems to me to be quite conservative. I know you're putting some investment in sales and maybe some, some other investment in capacity elsewhere, but can you just comment on how much conservatism you've, you've built into, to the current guidance framework? Thank you.
I think it's a smart question, but, we are only in March.
Okay. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Thank you for the questions. As a reminder to ask question, please press star one, one and wait for your name to be announced. Thank you. We do have a last questions coming in. One moment, please. Your next question comes from the line of Sabrina Blanc from Soc Gen. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everybody. I have two questions from my part. The first one is regarding the pricing and your expectation for 2024, if you can provide more colors on what you have already negotiated, for example, and your view by areas. For example, you have mentioned in the past, Germany, we are lagging, but on which you are catching up. And the second key question is regarding the churn. You said that you were able to limit the impact of price increase on the churn, but can we have more colors and notably by countries or by segment? Thank you very much.
So pricing, we expect a global effect that will be between 3% and 4% for the full year of 2024. Of course, we will push more in countries where we have the highest level of wage increase. You can see, for instance, that in Ireland, the minimum wage has been increased by 12%, beginning of January 2024. In U.K., it will be increased by nearly 10% in April. And so of course, we will need to push more there. Or the second point that will drive some strong price increases, the lack of profitability in comparison of the balance of inflation, not yet correct, if we analyze the last two to three years.
Here we are talking about mainly Germany and LKL in Germany, where we are still pushing to come back to a more balanced level. For the rest, it will be more or less in line with the evolution of the inflation country by country, depending on, as I said, at the evolution of the minimum wage, that is a key driver of the evolution of our costs. But all in, let's say, between 3% and 4%. A significant part of this price increase has been already negotiated. It is a reason why we started the outlook for 2024, with the fact that we have a very good view on what will happen in 2024 and a high level of confidence.
For the churn, so we assume that in some countries where the level of profitability in some markets was not enough, like healthcare in Germany, we assume that we were ready to take some risk by answering to some tenders and driving more losses than usual. We can consider that in 2023, we have lost around one point of growth due to this policy, with some report effect in 2024. And our last estimation is still around one point of lack of growth in 2024 due to this pricing policy. But it is, I still consider that it is the good strategy for the group.
When we see the strong improvement of the margin all in at the group level, the strong improvement of the cash and so on, I have absolutely no regret. It is a good strategy. And with at the end an impact on the top line that is very limited, and we are still able to deliver 5% organic growth in 2024 in a context that is not so easy for all the other companies. So I still believe that it is the right strategy.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the question. Once again, to ask question, please press star one, one. At this time, there are no further questions. I beg your pardon. One moment for the next question. The question comes from the line of Tatiana Valandia from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone. I have just two questions. The first one is on the productivity gains across the different regions. How do you see this going forward? For example, there are still two regions, Central Europe and Scandinavia, that are still below the peak levels. How do you see this going forward? Do you still expect these margins to come to the peak? And in regions like France, that already reach record levels at 40%, how do you see this going forward? Do you still expect further productivity gains and further margin expansion in these kind of regions? And the second one on the U.S., the pipeline that you have today in the U.S., you are looking to buy something in the U.S., or this is still not the time? Thank you.
So I will start with the easiest question. So US, nothing on the table, and it is not scheduled to do anything at this time, at this stage. For productivity gains, and evolution of the margin, so we are perhaps more optimistic in France than in Scandinavia. I think that our position in France is probably better, and we have seen that we have been stronger in the price negotiation in France than in Scandinavia, where with some public tender for HP and the tablet, was not so obvious. And so for the years to come, I think, I think that we can continue to improve marginally, of course, the level of EBITDA in France and the improvement will be smaller, probably in Scandinavia.
Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. There are no more questions from the phone line. Allow me to hand the call back to management for closing.
Thank you for your interest and your participation to this call this morning, and I wish you a wonderful day. Bye-bye.
That does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.