Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm super happy to welcome you this morning for the Investor Day of Elis. Long time no see, because last time it was almost seven years ago in Q1 2018, after the acquisition of Berendsen. Thank you to be there and for your interest in the company. The purpose of the day will be, of course, to present the global strategy of the company and all the key strengths of Elis, of course, but also to evaluate together all the potential of value creation for the shareholders in the years to come. The strategy, the global strategy of Elis has remained quite constant over the last decade. You remember that the strategy is articulated around four main pillars. The first pillar is to deliver some sustainable services in the market, promoting a circular economy.
The second pillar that we will see together is the operational and commercial excellence of the company. The third pillar is to consolidate our current position. The last pillar, we want to regularly open some new geographies. It will be more or less the way we will articulate the day and this Investor Day around the four pillars of the strategy. To present everything, I have the chance and the pleasure to have with me a large part of the management team of the company coming from all around the world. We have some speakers, of course, from France, but also from the U.K., from Germany, from Sweden, from the Netherlands, and also crossing the Atlantic from Brazil and from Mexico. To help us in the animation of the day, I have the pleasure to welcome now Héloïse Lauret that will conduct all the day.
Thank you again.
Hello, everybody, and welcome for the second edition of the Elis Investors Day. My name is Héloïse. I will be your master of ceremony for today, and I will take you through an exciting one-day journey in the business and strategy of Elis. One quick information before we start: we will have two Q&A sessions, one before lunch and one at the end of today. If you are following this event remotely, you could put some questions in the chat. Let's open the first pillar of Elis strategy, a very, very crucial topic. I have a confession to make. Before arriving, I kind of had some clichés around the Elis business. I could see their trucks in the streets of Paris every day. I thought their job was only to deliver clean laundry in hotels and restaurants.
Being quite climate-sensitive myself, I kind of had this belief that it could not be a very clean industry. That was before I met Claire Bottineau, and I was really impressed to discover how they had become a pioneer on circular economy. Claire will join me on stage and enlighten you on the value generated by the rental maintenance-based model. Please welcome on stage Claire Bottineau. Hello, Claire.
Hello.
Welcome.
Hello.
I'm very happy to be here and with all of you here or remotely.
Big mission you have to open today, Claire. It's the first pillar of Elis strategy, sustainability. But why does it matter that much?
You know, I think CSR and sustainability more and more, it's belief that you cannot just think that the value of a company is only about its financial statement. You have to look about everything. Financial, but also human capital, environmental impact. It's only about looking at both elements that you can know where your company is standing today and, most importantly, when it can go in the future.
What's the story between CSR for Elis?
The journey started quite a long time ago, as you have seen from the video, right? Actually, during World War I and World War II, we decided to move from a traditional business model based on the linear approach where you're just selling product to a more renting approach. You know, circular, it means you're making loops. How does it mean? How does it make in practice to make loops? You can see on the big screen behind me all the loops we are doing. The journey starts where we are designing the product. We are designing the product, and we are actually testing them to ensure that they have a long lifespan. We are ensuring that the color is not fading, the textile is not shrinking, just to ensure that we can keep them very long.
We also design the product so that we can repair them. It is designed to repair because when you have a jacket with a zipper and the zipper does not work anymore, rather than throwing it away, it is better if you can change it, right? When we have a satisfactory product, we are putting it in use and in circulation. You are starting to make quite a lot of loops. The first one is the maintenance. We are maintaining the product ourselves so that we can ensure that we are adapting and, once more, trying to keep the product as much as we can. The second one is about the pooling.
We want to pool the product as much as we can, meaning that, for example, if you have an employee at the site of our customer that is leaving, we can take back the product, put out the logo, and if need be in the future, we can reuse it by putting a new logo on it. We have repair and refurbishment. In all our workwear plants, we have sewing operators that are in charge to make small repairs. We also pushed it very far because we also have a refurbishment site for the facility and the sanitary product. We have a site that is dedicated to making some repairs and refurbishing all the equipment. The same for mats. We are refurbishing about 3,000 mats per month every year. Last but not least, it is a reuse. It is very Elis ingenuity in operation.
You know, this cotton towel roll that you have, which is very blank into the office, after a couple of months, years, it's getting a bit gray, so it's no more suitable for the office application. No matter, we take them back, we dye in blue, and then we provide them to more, let's say, dirty application, like for example, garage. You can see we've made a lot of loops already. Now we have a product probably no more suitable for any use, and we are working on trying to recycle them as much as we can. Typically, by the end of this year, we are targeting to have 80% of our textiles that are recycled.
80%? That’s quite impressive. Where do they go in the end?
Most of the textiles today are recycled to become wipers or for industrial application, like insulation for a building or automotive. We have a growing share that is going to textile to textile. You think textile, recycling textile is easy because, yeah, textile recycling seems easy, right? Actually, it's very, very hard. When you look at the figure, 1% of the European garments are recycled today. Only 1% to become new textile. It's not that much, right? That's where you can see Elis is rather innovative because we invested quite a couple of years ago into trying to build a full value chain to make new textile out of the textile we already have. We have provided on the market a one-in-a-kind product called Workwear to Workwear.
We started by an apron, and now we're extending the range to a chef jacket so that it's made 100% recycled material, including 60% Elis own end-of-life garments. Honestly, it's a one-in-a-kind product. Nobody is able to provide that on the market. That is also why we get so much awards on this type of product. The last one was a couple of months ago at the French Ministry of Finance.
Circular model. How is it a major lever or opportunity for Elis, but also its clients and stakeholders?
It's bringing value, I think, for all our stakeholders, customers, environment, shareholders, of course, and also our employees. If you look at where we are standing, if you look from an external perspective, most companies, once more, have this traditional approach where you're selling product. To grow your company, you need to sell more products. On an environmental standpoint, it needs also, you mean, to consume more resources. Elis, the way is a little bit different because we can grow and make growth just by leveraging our existing product. The second point is when you look inside our operation, then you have a very strong link between finance performance, but also environmental performance. The best energy is the one you're not consuming, and the best product is actually the one that you're going to keep in use.
It's better in terms of OpEx, in terms of CapEx, as we'll see afterwards, but it's also much better in terms of sustainability. The third part is increased resilience. We are a very resilient company, and it will be showcased along the full day as well. Being able to have a product that we are renting, that we are managing, that we are challenging every day allows us also to be much more resilient on the long term. Last but not least, being a circular services at work company is really a huge advantage in terms of brand attractivity and talent retention. What we see is that more and more people want to join a company with a purpose, that they can bring an impact in their daily operation, daily professional life. Joining Elis, where circularity is really embedded into the DNA, is really a element.
Do you have any KPIs, maybe?
Yeah, I think it's a nice one. Maybe some of you are familiar with the EU taxonomy, right? That is telling what is a sustainable activity based on EU criteria. We were really happy to be able to report 69% turnover that is aligned to the circular economy. Meaning really sustainable in terms of EU regulation. You know, probably that EU is not very light on putting criteria to ensure that something can be really called sustainable.
If we zoom on your customers, how does this really bring them value?
The first value we're bringing is, of course, the quality of our service, but it's also because we are engaged that we can resonate also with them. Our biggest customers also have very advanced targets in terms of CSR. We are also positioned as a key partner where we can help them and support them. We sometimes also help them sort some of the issues they are facing. Typically, I was discussing with Cleanroom, and probably Dennis will talk about that later. We also are sometimes developing new services, new circular services for our customers, trying to help them solve their own issues linked to waste, linked to resource consumption, this kind of thing.
Another point is that just by when they are in a more linear way, using single use or using acquisition, they are basically just by switching to Elis, they are cutting their emissions by 30% at least. We are doing more and more studies on cotton roll, but also on artificial scrub suit and more recently on workwear that is showcasing the increased gain they can make, you know, just by switching to us. We actually did a study beginning of January that we released. The result is comparing workwear in rental like us against a rental workwear that you're actually acquiring and you're washing at home.
I think we have a little video that can highlight some of these points. Let's watch the video. Elis, circular services at work. So, many of the actors are positioning themselves on the circular economy. What are the trends of the market on this matter?
The trend on the market is actually, oopsie, is actually very good. When I was actually at Sustainable Investment Forum a couple of months ago, and the investors in the room were stressing the potential of circular business and market, we are talking about EUR 1 trillion just in Europe by 2050. Fantastic perspective, mostly driven by regulatory framework, but also increased customer demands. That is, I will say, the financial lens. If you look at the environmental lens, you have a very well-known association called the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. They are really a tough letter in terms of circularity. They made a study and a couple of sectors switching from a traditional approach to just a circular one can actually cut the CO2 emission of the full world by 20%.
Huge market opportunity on one side, and an environmental perspective, we can really also benefit from that as a company and as a society more globally.
You seemed quite engaged. Is that recognized by the market today?
Of course, we are monitored by many rating agencies, and I'm sure you will recognize most of the names on the screen. We have the chance to be Sustainability Low Risk. We have Grade A for MSCI, and we are Prime for ISS. Most importantly, we are very happy to be part of the CDP A List. For those of you that are very familiar, the CDP is very well known for the carbon questionnaire. When you are part of the A List, it means you're part of the top 2% of all the companies that are assessed. Also, one we were very happy about is a Platinum level for EcoVadis. EcoVadis is very well known more for the customer-supplier relationship. It is very well used by our customers. We are among the top 1% of the 125,000 companies they are assessing every year.
Really showcasing our performance and engagement.
I'm guessing you didn't get all of these prizes and awards just because of your business model.
No, that will be a bit too easy. We are, of course, getting that also because we are engaged. We have a comprehensive and solid roadmap and targets that are running until the end of this year. We are on track with already some targets that we have achieved. On some, I was mentioning the 80% we want to achieve on textile recycling. We are already at 79.6%, so really getting very close to it. On water, we are at 48% reduction compared to 2010, and we are targeting 50%. Here as well, very close to it. Then health and safety, we made tremendous progress over the past two years, getting 30%, so closing the gap to our target. We will see what is coming up in the next coming months, but we will report the performance at the end of the year.
That was my following question. That's very impressive figures, but what's next? What's coming next?
We are, of course, working on the next set of our CSR targets, but we already have some targets by 2030. Actually, some of these targets are used with our financial reporting and tools like a revolving credit facility. We also announced in 2023 our climate strategy. This climate strategy is aligned with the Paris Agreement and validated by the SBTi. The SBTi is a body that is basically telling if you have the right level of ambition to be able to try to do your share in terms of reduction or trying to maintain the rise of the temperature and trying to do your share in terms of tackling climate change. When that is being said, what does it mean in practice?
It means in practice we want to decrease our CO2 emission by 47.5% in absolute value for what we call Scope 1 and 2. Scope 1 and 2, it's energy, it's fuel, it's from our vehicles, from our plants. Scope 3, we're targeting - 28%. It's basically everything else. It's the products. It's also the people traveling. It's the employee commuting. It's a huge part. Where do we stand today? We stand at - 20% on what we say, let's say, our operation and - 4% on the rest. We're exactly where we wanted to be in terms of the roadmap we built back in 2023. As you know, Elis, very well, we are very credible and we were very engineered in many ways. We built a very comprehensive roadmap looking sometimes at plant level as a type of equipment we wanted to put into the operation.
That's why we know this roadmap is achievable and credible. Typically, on the Scope 1 and 2, 50% of the gain that we need to do are coming from energy efficiency solution. Basically, financial saving and at the same time CO2 savings. That's also because we plan the work and the roadmap like that, that we can actually stay in the financial guidelines we provided to the market and at the same time size new opportunities with customers.
I have a last question for you, Claire. If you were in this room or maybe behind your screens at work, as an investor, why would you join Elis on a CSR standpoint?
I think based on the discussion we just had, we showcase that you have market opportunities. We have a sustainable business model. Not only that, but it's also very linked between environmental performance, but financial performance. We also proved our resilience and I think we are getting more and more recognized also for our CSR engagement. If I have to make maybe one sentence, Elis is a growing, profitable, resilient company. On top of that, we are bearing additional opportunities because we are a circular business model and we have sustainable engagement.
Thank you very much, Claire, for this first presentation. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Héloïse.
It is now time to open the second pillar of this Investor Day. The second pillar is Industrial and Commercial Excellence. The very first presentation we're going to have is going to take you to the very core and heart of Elis activity. There again, I must say, I had some beliefs. Elis washes laundry. That shouldn't be that difficult, right? Maybe they just have bigger washing machines than what I had at home. If you share a bit this belief, you're in for a surprise because we are taking you in the back scenes of Elis Industrial Processes. I'm very happy to call on stage Frédéric Delthombe, Engineering, Purchasing and Supply Chain Director at Elis. Thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Frédéric Delthombe, Engineering, Supply Chain and Purchasing Director. I started in Elis in 2006 as General Manager, Hospitality Business in Paris, engineering background and experience in other industries, automotive and microelectronics before Elis. With Claire, we've been through the circularity of Elis model. We are now going to talk about operational and industrial performance. Indeed, Claire and I, and also Elis, we like each other because you will see that to do laundry, you need a strong industrial asset, logistic network, but to optimize it, the rental model and also internal design of our products helps to optimize all along the chain, the stocks, the productivity. We'll see this now. Regarding laundry, it needs industrial assets. We are talking about business-to-business laundry, but also connected to a dense logistic network.
You will see that Elis has built over the years a very strong and unbeatable logistic and industrial organization. The good news is that we've been able to scale it to 31 countries and up to 300. Sorry. Is it possible to rewind? Yes. The good news is that we've been able to scale it to 31 countries, 370 laundries and also 120 dispatching centers. What I propose to you is go through a small video so that you show inside the engine.
Elis, circular services at work.
Okay, so on this video, you saw some mid-size and big laundries that are able to produce and deliver customers with 400 tons of flat linen and up to 150,000 pieces of garments. If we look at Elis Global, thanks to our growth and acquisition, we are talking about 100 times those volumes at group level. This size effect gives us two advantages. First advantage is that from a business point of view, we are seen as a robust partner able to catch any business opportunities in all countries we are present. We are also able to provide any continuity plan to our key customers like the pharmaceutical industry for the clean room. The second advantage is that you saw that to operate laundry, you need technical skills. We are talking about production management, chemistry, process engineering, maintenance, industrial support, supply chain, logistics, and purchasing.
All those skills and costs are very difficult to leverage for a mid-size or family laundry company. Of course, with our size, we are able, and we did, build a very strong industrial team at group level and country level, able to support all of our operations in all countries. If we talk about volume and capacity, we have a total control of all our capacities in all countries through our group method teams. This size effect is visible as well on our industrial toolset. We are talking here about 10,000 heavy-duty industrial machines that are also controlled and supported by the central team for the maintenance, but also installation projects. Of course, laundry is requiring energy, gas, and water. We had also the possibility to build chemistry teams, chemistry engineers, and energy engineers that are able to audit and support the site in all countries.
We are also contracting with strong partners, for example, for chemicals, detergents, and water saving on international level. We have three to four big partners that are committed to improve water consumptions and chemicals. For gas and electricity, we have also purchasing agreements in all countries so that we are able to hedge whenever we decide it at group level. Same thing for logistics, where we are more than 6,000 routes per day covering and delivering all our customers, and that's 5 million km per week. Again, a very strong network where we can integrate any kind of customers in the different countries. At regional level, we are able to densify our network at site level. I will show you some tools we have developed for that, but also between sites, easy to reorganize our network, densify, and optimize.
This is also very useful when we have some integration of acquisitions when we digest companies into our network. The overall picture, we are talking about a team of 160 expert engineers and skilled technicians that are each of them majoring in one of the key industrial topics. All of them are working so that we have KPIs all at the group level, but also at site level to monitor any performance plan. We are also writing and deploying standards and essentials in all countries, improving those standards through benchmarking with the 300 sites, but also through innovation, internal and external innovation, and propose investment plan to optimize all those parameters. This is also useful for M&A because we are able to project teams very quickly to integrate companies. If we look at our results, let's start with flat linen productivity.
Flat linen is important for us in terms of industrial stake because it represents two-thirds of our labor cost. You see that we are posting 2%-3% year-on-year productivity. Different levels, so method, so training operations with our standards in each country. We have also tools to be able to connect to our equipment on the shop floor to measure operational efficiency, so automated tools. We are also constantly investing in new plants, bringing 20%-30% productivity gains. Also, we are reflowing the old plants or acquired companies to get the best-in-class flows and therefore get the productivity. On the workwear, we post 3% year-on-year productivity, again with methods, new plants, but also an increased use of sorting automated system and also folding automated system.
We are also working on countries like Germany, France, and southern countries where we have growth of workwear with new plants bringing productivity. In parallel, when we install new garments at customer site, we make personalization. We had action to centralize at supply chain level on dedicated warehouses specialized in personalization to improve the productivity instead of doing it in the laundries. You see that 2008 to 2012, we did for southern countries. We are currently doing it for northern countries. We have expected results for the next two to three years. Regarding energy, water, and chemicals, we are posting since 15 years, 35%-50% gains depending on the different aspects.
Energy, we are talking about deploying insulation systems, heat exchangers, also investments to try to stop using steam network and boilers to promote direct gas heated equipment so that we save energy up to 30-40% doing so. Water consumption and chemicals, we are tendering every five years with our three, four key suppliers, making gains on chemical costs, but also water savings projects. We have a new contract starting at the moment with good expectation of gains, potential 10% on the next two to three years. Regarding logistics, our business is a little bit specific with fixed deliveries, high level of customers. One site can have 5,000 customers to deliver. We had to develop dedicated software.
We developed GLAD, Global Logistic Assistant for Driver, that was designed to help at local level the logistic managers to allow them to improve and see their network and improve the productivity. It is running on PDA for drivers to give them guidance, optimized guidance for driving to the customer, but also it is a platform used for service. We have also web tools for logistic managers with an extensive toolset of optimization modules so that they can improve their logistics. It brings an additional 1%-2% savings when it is implemented, and we implemented it on more than two-thirds of our routes. We have also traditional tools, software called OrTech, where we optimize different sites together, mostly when we have integration of new companies or when we have a big growth in some countries, also providing some logistic gains.
In parallel, as explained by Claire, CO2 is a key component for us. We are investing in alternative fleet, mostly electrical trucks and completed by biofuel. We are very pragmatic, so we do it only when we have business case, that is with subsidies, making the business case favorable even compared to diesel. You see that we achieved more than 500 trucks in 2024, and we should be at 750-800 in 2025. There are some countries where it is more favorable, mostly France, Sweden, and Switzerland today, but of course, we are ready to extend that to other countries. Making performance is not compatible if we do not invest regularly in our assets, industrial assets. Here you see our investment level in our industrial network. The industrial investments are 100% controlled at central level and challenged.
When we buy machines or build plants, it's always specified with our expert team that you saw before. It means optimized investment. You see that we are able to flex investments, which we did during the COVID period. The reason is that we have two processes. One is major projects contributing to 20% of our investment for big plants in a five-year roadmap that we review every year, and a yearly investment plan where we every year adapt the investment plan for capacity improvement or performance or replacement of our plant. It allowed us during the COVID period to adapt to the reduction of activity. You see also that after Berendsen integration, we could put our policies in place. Overall, the normalized level of industrial investment is around 6%, while it was before when we integrated Berendsen.
If we deep dive in the industrial investment, you saw the big toolset we have, 40% of our investment is to replace machines. Of course, we do it with better capacity and productivity. Roughly, our machines are lasting after 15 years- 25 years, depending on the type of machines. 25% is to support the growth through new plants, so the footprint extension, but also inside our plants, replacing machines by more capacitative machines. 20% is invested on performance, both automation or energy savings, and 10% on working conditions and health and safety, which is more and more important to be attractive on our recruitment and also keep a stable workforce in our laundries. If we take some examples of major projects, you have the first example, which is Dartford. It's moving a little bit fast. Dartford is east from London.
It's the biggest healthcare plant in the U.K. and the most productive. It was built in 2019 for both replacing an obsolete plant in Basildon, but also improving our capacity. The second plant is Tarnow with workwear capacity improvement in Poland. This is a pure capacity increase investment. We are growing quite a lot in eastern countries on workwear activity. The third example is Granollers in Barcelona, where we had a big increase in clean room customers. That is our second plant in Barcelona built in 2024. All of these plants are part of our five-year roadmap, reviewed every year. We need to anticipate because the lead time is driven by real estate constraints or licensing constraints. It takes only 12-14 months to erase a full plant from starting the work to operation.
We have more or less three to four new plants every year in our roadmap. We talk about equipment and plants, but we are in a rental model. In a rental model, we need to invest in products and articles delivered to our customers. Of course, it has an important impact on the quality of service to our customers, but it is also a key topic of industrial performance as it represents quite a lot of money on a yearly basis. You see here the history of our investments. We are talking mostly about flat linen and workwear, around 13%, workwear being a little bit more intensive than flat linen. We have two levels here. One is intensity of utilization. This is more method at laundry and customer side where we try to increase intensity of usage. Claire showed the reuse of garments, for example.
Of course, upstream work with the over team plus purchasing and supply chain so that we are able to buy offshore at the best quality, but also at the best price. Flat linen, the key priorities we have for flat linen, two things. First, we need to reduce losses. You see on the chart the root cause of investment. It's surprising, but our customers are losing our linen, mostly on healthcare. That's one key topic. The second topic is to have better control of the pool of linen between us and the customer. Our ordering process is based on a customer order, and we want to move to full control of the ordering with auto ordering so that we can have better control of the pool of linen and better service level for them.
We are working on several initiatives, quick wins to more high-level initiatives. Quick wins projects, cage tracking, simple thing, but it allows us to see extreme situations with extra inventories at our customer premises. Second initiative, quick wins also is linen weighing because we are able to estimate through the customer mix the quantities sent back by the customer so that we can redeliver the same quantities. Then the high-level system, which is the full traceability on flat linen that we have on some plants where customer pays for both linen invoicing, but also for the added service on the automated ordering. We expect to reduce in the next year from 25% the loss from our customers. This is what we see on pilot plants. For workwear, we have again intensity of utilization with still potential to reuse garments.
We have got 40%-50% of customer requests that are today served through what we call the B stock, which is the second-hand garments. We are therefore driving some projects to increase warehouses, repair more, try to standardize the personalization so that we can reuse garments easily. We have also an upstream work to rationalize the portfolio of garments, which is a business where we have a high diversity still in our countries. Expecting to have more, let's say, impact on reuse, but also on the purchase price. For this upstream part, we are relying and using our supply chain network. You have got here a summary of the network where we have five big warehouses for flat linen. It is the first line. Three big country group warehouses for workwear where we do also personalization.
Thanks to those warehouses, we are able to buy offshore at the best quality, but also low cost for high series and big quantities, and also able to buy nearshore eastern countries in Europe and North Africa for small quantities or very specific workwear. This is a network that we improve. On top of rationalization, we are working on a stock strategy to still improve lead times for workwear, but also integration of our ERP systems all around the European parts and also on Latin America with different systems. You see pictures of our major warehouses for Portugal, Poland, and the U.K. Let's talk about innovation. The laundry industry is a niche market. We are protected, but the drawback is that our suppliers are not huge. It's usually family companies, so they are not always very innovative.
As a leader in the industry, we are pushing innovations whether ourselves by developing innovations, taking new technologies from outside the laundry business, or we are acting as preferred customers with them so that we work on their innovations to improve their industrialization and make them work. The first level of innovation is using more the data from our laundries and from our equipment. This is about connecting our equipment and integrating them with our production system, line management system, and maintenance systems. We have already some experience with overall equipment efficiency connection software to our equipment with 50 sites being deployed.
We are going further with some pilots with connected meters for water consumption, gas, and energy so that we are able in real time to collect data from the laundries and be able to be more reactive and also link that with the maintenance systems so that we can have actions on the equipment. This is one part of our work today. The second part is more traditional with robotization and automation. Of course, on the workwear and flat linen, there is one part of our process which is not yet fully automated, which is the soil sorting. You saw that with traceability, we are able to make things, but we want to develop other techniques like linen recognition with AI and cameras. This is on the second part. We have also classic robotization of manual steps in our production.
Feeding the linen into the machines is not yet fully automated. We have robots that are being developed for towel feeding we are working on. Water, energy, and chemical optimization. Historically, we decrease a lot the detergent usage, and this is through innovations, not really very expensive, but clever. Using enzymes, for example, that eat the soil, so you do not need to put a lot of detergents. Therefore, less water is needed for rinsing. It improves the water consumption and also the wastewater quality. Same topic with a UVC reactor, which is a system generating with UV rays detergents, but at the machine level. It allows to reduce the consumption of overall detergent. Again, water consumption reduction, better wastewater quality. Last is a modular approach to recycle water. We use it in Spain.
We have some systems installed in Spain to counter the drought. We are able in less than six months to install containers so that we are able to reduce water consumption from 80%. We did it in Barcelona last year. We have a full portfolio of ideas here. Those are just examples to improve our performance there. CO2, we have the first plant running with a heat pump that we develop ourselves with industrial partners. This is not laundry equipment maker. It runs, and we are able to dry linen with industrial heat pumps, not using gas. This is in Paris. This needs to be still to be industrialized so that we make it at a lower cost. We also have quick wins like using CO2 from fumes so that we can neutralize our water. When you wash, you have basic water.
You need to neutralize, and the CO2 helps to neutralize the water. We do that instead of buying CO2 to suppliers to neutralize our wastewater. Last is, of course, the traceability again. We have been through, but this is still an area where we are working on improving our flows, scheduling, ordering process, linen recognition, cage tracking, linen weighing, and then the full flat linen traceability that we have on 30 plants. The goal is to have a full panel of solutions that we are able to deploy depending on the situation. In conclusion, you saw that Elis has a super strong industrial asset and network. It is really a high entry barrier. It is not only on the plant part, but also on the logistics to the customers and the upstream network, supply chain and purchasing.
Thi s is the reason why usually when we compare with acquired companies, we have gaps in all KPIs at about 20% because, of course, it's very difficult to leverage all those things at the same time. We have also a strong culture of continuous improvement with an industrial organization with support services bringing 2%-3% productivity every year with a strong forward momentum. This is it for the operational and industrial performance. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Frédéric. It was quite exciting to see the backstage. As you said, the industrial process is just one of the legs of Elis' operational excellence. Because as you've seen, Elis has also always been at the very forefront of innovation. Elis is also a business of human contact, of network. Because behind every contract, big or small, there's a commercial relationship.
Elis has been really good at building long-lasting and trustworthy relationships. Our next speaker will share with you the mindset and culture and strategy of Elis and also share with you some major trends of the market. Please welcome on stage Élise Bert-Leduc, Marketing and Innovation Director for Elis.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Élise Bert-Leduc, Marketing and Innovation Director. I joined Elis a few months ago after a career in strategic consulting, tech, and financial sector with a digital and engineering background. I'm really happy to be here today to talk about one of the key engines behind Elis' performance, a sales operation that's driving sustainable and profitable growth. At Elis, growth isn't driven by hype. It's built on consistency, excellence in delivery, and a culture of innovation. Behind that growth, there is a story in three parts. First, a performance-driven sales machine that's turning ambition into results.
Second, powerful trends which are lifting Elis with a unique position. Third, a culture of innovation that keeps us moving, adapting, and leading. Let's dive in. When I tell you Safran, aeronautics leader, Disneyland Paris, entertainment and hospitality giant, and NHS, national health services provider, what do they have in common? They are Elis' customer. They are happy Elis' customer. Let's listen to their voice.
[Foreign language]. My name is Catherine Leigh. I'm the General Manager for Facilities Department within St George's Hospitals. [Foreign language] .
[Foreign language] . Elis provides several services to St George's Hospital. That's a fully managed linen and launder service. They're all on linen and laundry. They launder the curtains for us. We have a reusable surgical textile, scrubs distribution, and scrubs provision and launder. [Foreign language] .
[Foreign language] . Whipman In Loss is one of the initiatives that has been put in by Elis to reduce the losses from the emergency department used by London Ambulance. They have put in a separate stocker, but they have linked with our leads in the emergency department, and this is now working well to stock their ambulances. [Foreign language] .
On a 15,000 cast member [Foreign language] . I would say Elis are approachable. I can always go to somebody for advice. They are very good at coming to me and saying, "This problem has occurred. What should we do?
We will work together on a solution. [Foreign language] . The staff have been here for a long time, and I know them all quite well. I'm just going to say they're part of our team. [Foreign language] .
Without Elis, the magic stops. I just love that line because it's not just anecdotal, it's emblematic. Elis is bringing tremendous value to its customers, and every business is an opportunity for Elis.
That's the power of our diversified model. Our offer is diversified with hygiene and facilities, flat linen, workwear, pest control, and clean room. It is diversified by sector because we can support any business from a local entity to a global multinational, and it is diversified by geographies. If we look at the last 10 years, this diversification model has even strengthened over the year after the Berendsen acquisition and our growth strategy. This diversification is at the root of our consistency and our ability to deliver again and again. If we look at the last 25 years, the curves are really impressive. The revenue has grown seven-fold, reaching EUR 4.6 billion in 2024, and EBITDA margin is consistently high, reaching 35.2% in 2022. What is behind this magic recipe? We believe it comes down to five main ingredients.
We often say that commercial performance is about selling the right product to the right person at the right time. What about our product? We offer a wide-ranging product and services offer. Elis operates behind the scene, but its impact is tremendous. Every day, we have 2 million persons sleeping in our sheets in hotels, hospitals, and elderly care homes. Every day, we have 5 million workers dressed in Elis garments. Every day, we have hundreds of millions of steps on our 700 mats. Every day, we have about 3 million pairs of hands dried daily, not counting all the pests also eradicated. This is a wide offer, but it's not just about the product. What is strong about Elis is that it's a rental model offering compelling value. Behind the rental model for a customer, it's price, time, CSR impact, and regulation compliance.
If we take the example of a hospital, for a hospital, every bed requires 2 kg-7 kg of linen. For an average hospital with 400 beds, it is 1.5 tons every day. The cost gains is about 20-25% on the savings. It is also time saving. It represents about 8 FTE gains. It is also compliance to hygiene regulation and CSR impact. This model is compelling for every business and every customer. It is also on our product about the excellent quality of service that we deliver. Frédéric presented the operational excellence behind our quality of service. Here you see that thanks to our network, we have 85% of our customers who are located within 50 km of the center. This proximity enables us to give a strong reactivity to the customer and to personalize to local needs.
This is it for the right product. Now, what about selling it to the right person at the right time? For this, we have a powerful sales machine. I was really impressed discovering the organization and its structure. We have a Hunters team for new businesses structured to address all customer types by size. In mirror of this organization, we have a customer team serving existing business. The key accounts, they are usually located in headquarters. They are sector specialists. There are three sectors: hospitality, healthcare, and industry, trade and services. They are working with group procurement teams, and they build direct contracts or framework agreements. They deal with the price negotiation, and they oversee the contract over its whole life.
What is strong about the frame agreement is that if you are a retailer with 300 sites you want to equip, Elis has the ability to answer very quickly and install it in a few weeks. The key account manager passes it to the regional ones so that they can equip the local sites together with the local sales. The regional sales also target smaller industries, small hospitals locally so that they develop business as well. The local sales, they are field agents with visits, ground visits, a lot of visits for smaller businesses. A particularity in our existing business is a service agent. It's a particular role in Elis' business model because it's not just a driver. He's not just delivering linen. He's a real customer relationship builder. He identifies opportunities he can pass to the sales team, and he can also develop his own business.
Now, if we look at the commercial excellence in time, the sales journey depends on the customer type. The new business sales cycle depends on the size of the customer. For large accounts, the new business can last about 12 months. For regional teams, it's 3-6 months, and for local teams, it can be in the day to 3 months. This is a moment, the preparation of the contract, where there is a strong we culture within Elis. Teams work together to make sure that the right contract and the right proposition will meet the customer needs. There is a transition and a handover to make sure that the customer team will take care of the customer for the existing business and that we will keep developing it and continue signing and renewing contracts over time.
To make our sales team confident and skilled, we support them with tools. One example is the pricing tools for local sales and regional ones. It's designed so that in a few seconds, they can build a quote, send it to a customer, and go to the next one.
The tool is easy to use with fast and intuitive navigation. Products show up in seconds. The price is market-aligned and easy to adjust. Bonuses follow the pricing color: higher price, higher reward. Selling multi-service, the bonus goes up. Quotes are sent by email in just a few clicks, and it all makes onboarding smoother. New sales reps quickly learn our offers and pricing with confidence.
Pricing power is one of the strengths of Elis, and that kind of tool is very powerful because it helps the team to onboard quickly, to be confident with the pricing, to be autonomous. It is also a tool for the manager so that he can keep track of the pricing. It is also about training our teams. There is a very deep and solid Elis Academy. If you want to become a washroom expert, an expert in healthcare garments, if you want to learn how to organize a prospection journey or how to plan your meetings, there is a module for it. It is very much used. There were about 10,000 modules realized during last year. These tools and training help our sales team to be fully confident.
This is it about the five ingredients: the right offer and right positioning with the right team to address the right customers at the right time. I also do believe there is a magic ingredient. I would say it is a bit spice, but it is the culture of engagement. Elis is a yes culture with a motivated person, and I think it makes it the secret ingredients added to the recipe. Now, the good news is that we also have potential lifted by the mega trends. What are there? There are five main trends. The first one is a rising hygiene and protection standards. The second one is demographic shifts. The third one is about tourism. The fourth one is on customer professionalization. And the fifth one, sustainability. Rising hygiene. What we have seen after COVID is that customers who had shifted to outsourcing remain with outsourcing.
They are satisfied with the business. We estimate the global washroom service market at $55 billion, and we estimate the growth to be by 3%-4% every year. The second trend is on demographics. Life expectancy is progressing across all geographies. The need for elderly people is increasing, and this is a potential for Elis, especially when we compare the bed-to-ratio population. We see that there is a strong opportunity of growth in France and Spain, where Elis is particularly strong. The second trend on demographics is urbanization. Urban population is growing by 160 million every year, and urban population will represent 68% of the population by 2030. This urbanization is an opportunity for Elis because in urban areas, there are space constraints. There are higher constraints and higher turnover and resources, and there is a need for efficiency. This is favoring outsourcing.
The third trend is on hospitality business. After COVID, the tourism sector has fully recovered, and we see that Europe remains the first destination with growing tourism, and this is particularly where Elis is strong, especially in France and Spain, which are the two main destinations. In tourism, we also see that there is a premiumization in the hotels and growing every year. This is a source for France. For example, the high-end segment share of the French market rose by 11 percentage points. This premiumization is favorable for Elis, which is strongly positioned for high-end hotels. The fourth trend is on professionalization, with higher pressure on regulatory changes, evolving customer requirements, trustability, opportunities, and a focus on employee well-being. Companies prefer to focus more on their core business and outsource the cleaning and management of their linen.
As employee protection is increasing, there is a growing number of standards across the years. The size of Elis gives us the strength and the power to meet all these requirements, which local laundries may not be able to do. The last trend is about CSR. This is an area where Elis is particularly well positioned, as Claire explained. What we see is that in tenders, there is a growing share of requirements in CSR. We do have the modeling. We do have the model also to be well positioned. When we see this growth and when we see our positioning with a large offer, the ability to target any business, and a large geographic footprint, we see that we are really strong to capture this growth.
When we look at our map and product by countries, we see that we have the widest range in France and that we also have opportunity in continuing to develop services across geographies. The last part is on innovation. I'm really thrilled to have the opportunity to talk about innovation at Elis. Being a former Google employee, I know that innovation comes from obsession, obsession to solve real-world problems at scale. That's exactly what Elis do. We are solving real-world problems at scale. Our operational model is complex. It's logistically intense, and we are covering all types of businesses from healthcare to heavy industry. That's a perfect playground for innovation. To show you what it's like, innovation at Elis, as you can imagine, it's not loud or flashy innovation. It's really grounded innovation.
I suggest we deep dive in a fascinating category, which is workwear, with four main innovations. Workwear, it's not just a uniform. It's protection. It's safety. It's data. It's performance. It's also identity and pride. When I say identity and pride, it sounds like fashion. Indeed, fashion is entering workwear, and workwear is entering fashion. I just learned that the London Fashion Week in June was canceled, so I'm really happy to invite you to the Elis Workwear Show, showcasing our own garments, real garments powered by AI. This is Mover Prime, which is designed for light industry. It's a full stretch with two and knee pockets. It's for men and women, very comfortable and nice-looking fit. This is Pro Reflex . This is a medium range for high visibility. Innovation comes from the signalization, from the lyocell fabric, and from the garments.
KNDS, this is a project for the defense industry across Europe. Prêt-à-porter is a design collection for this brand in catering. To give you an example of the size, the first order was 100,000 pieces to start this project. This is Pro Shine. This is medium range, high visibility for warehouse, for example. This is Best Drive, designed for a segment in automotive with a strong brand identity. This is our Workwear to Workwear jackets. This is Elons, which was designed for elderly care homes so that it looks more approachable. It is not a uniform, but it looks like at home. What was presented here is a mix of collection designed by Elis for our own catalog and designed as well for our customers so that they can integrate their own brand identity. AI is not just for the show.
We use AI in our collection to design it. We have our own modelist to design our collections, to present it to the customer, and to showcase it. It helps us to save time. This is the Mover Prime Jacket, which was in the show. This is brand new. It has a very promising start for the light industry, and it's full stretch, so also innovative on the fabric side. The fabric, as you can imagine, is a key part of innovation in workwear. Workwear is very technical. It's about water repellency, flame resistance, thermal regulation, ability to move, comfort, protection. There is a wide variety in fabrics. There we have a deep expertise, and we continue innovating.
Here, this is the example of the range designed with a Workwear to Workwear, where we are the only one to be able to recycle our own garments to use it in the range. Sorry. Can you stop? The last innovation is about customer needs. In workwear, there are two main needs asking by the customer. It is the right clothes, for sure. It is about design and fabric. Then it is about handling the clothes. There is a challenge, which is how can you deliver it to our employees? Sometimes you can have square space constraints. You can have 100 or more than sometimes 1,000 workers arriving at the same time and needing to collect their garment bags. We have plenty of solutions with connected gates, connected lockers, and distribution systems to answer to their needs.
The second one is being able to track the customer and to track the garments. On this innovation, I suggest that we hear back again the customer with Disney and Saffron to see how they use it.
[Foreign language].
[Foreign language].
If there is one thing I'd like you to remember, it is that Elis succeeds by combining ambition with execution with a strong model that delivers again and again. We innovate with purpose.
We grow with discipline. And above all, we solve real problems for real customers. This is what makes us in our leadership position, which is built to last. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Elise. We hope you have enjoyed this first part of the journey talking about the first two pillars of Elis Strategy, CSR and operational excellence. We're going to open the first Q&A session, and I will ask Xavier, Frédéric and Claire, please to join me on stage. Elise, we're going to go have a seat over there. Thank you very much. Welcome back on stage. It is now time to open a Q&A session. We have micros in the room. Please feel free to sit down. Yeah. Do we have a first question in the room? Yep, over here.
Hi, Edward from [Converse Renewable].
I was wondering, at one point, you mentioned very briefly that you expect the market to grow 4%-5% a year. I was wondering if you could give us a bit more indication on why you expect that level of growth. You went through some of the drivers, but exactly how you get to that number, and yeah, a bit more flavor on that would be helpful. Thank you.
I will take this question. I think that you will have more answers in the afternoon because we will cover region by region what are the key initiatives that we have launched to reach these figures. If I start a small teasing, you will see also that we have analyzed the average organic growth of Elis over the last decades to see what are the steps of improvement of our regular organic growth.
You will see that the new geographical footprint has helped the company to boost a little the profile of growth. More important, you will have a long list of initiatives that we have launched to boost this growth. It's not only following some natural good trend on the market. Is it something that is even more important for me? I think that we have everything in our hand, and you will see that we have a super resilient profile, as you know, and we are able to be super agile during all the crises. Remember the last big economic crisis in Europe in 2008-2009? We have been able to keep the same level of turnover. The profile of Elis is super resilient. We saw it also during the COVID crisis, of course.
You will see that we do not depend on outside to manage our organic growth. For sure, you will have more answers on this topic with some super precise examples of what we are launching, whether in Brazil, in the U.K., even in France. We still have some room to boost the growth, and you will see why we are quite confident to deliver this 5%-6% top line on the midterm with small bolt-ons, so 4% organic growth, and it will be largely covered this afternoon.
Just while we take a second question, yeah, a micro over here. If you are following us remotely, please feel free to put some questions in the chat. We will take some also.
Hi, Ben Wild from Deutsche Bank. A couple of questions linked to the previous one.
Firstly, if you compare a huge amount of detail on the unique qualities, scale, and technical know-how of Elis, but if you compare against many of your main peers in the markets that you operate in, how far behind are they? I suppose back to the market growth question, why historically have you tended to grow broadly in line with the market? Your midterm guidance from today, the 4%, is not hugely ambitious in terms of outgrowing the wider market. Just a comment maybe on driving the benefits of those unique Elis qualities in terms of growth.
If we start with comparison with our peers in terms of efficiency, I think that Frédéric gave some figures that we have with all the acquisitions we made.
We still have a long list of examples, and very often, at least, we are 20% more efficient on all the topics. It's always the same story for productivity, for energy consumption, water consumption, even logistic efficiency. This gap of at least 20% with our main competitor is quite what we see very often. For the growth, I have to answer the same. You will have more examples this afternoon to understand why we guide for 4% that seems, and I agree with you, that seems to be above what we delivered 10 years ago. You will see that the answer is mixed. You have also a part of the answer in the new geographical footprint.
Of course, you will see that when you start a new story in LATAM, where the level of outsourcing is so limited and you can easily post a double-digit organic growth, it has a positive impact at the group level. More important than this new geographical footprint, it is also all the initiatives that we launch because you will see this afternoon that the situation that we have in France where we cover more or less everything. It is a super stable basis with a super nice margin, super level of cash flow, but more limited potential of growth. When you compare this situation in all the other countries that we have in the portfolio, you will see that we do not cover all the opportunities elsewhere. That is why I insist what is super positive for me for the future.
We have everything in our hand. It's just a question of delivery and to launch project by project, country by country, just to replicate the French success. You will see also that if you take the last average organic growth of Elis, of course, excluding the special years, so COVID, COVID recovery, and extra inflation with the energy crisis, in average, we were close to this 4%. That's why for me, it's not at all science fiction to say that we expect 4% in the future.
Just a question on the productivity improvements as well, which are consistent and significant over the long run. The color on the pricing tool that you have was very interesting. I suppose why, or to what extent do you share those productivity improvements, the benefits of those improvements with your customers? The chart on the margin was very indicative.
You have a very stable margin over time in spite of these enormous productivity improvements.
Yes, so we prefer to share this productivity with our shareholders and with our customers. In the past, do not forget also that each time we have opened a new geography, it has always a dilutive impact on the margin. That is why when we have just the global pictures of the evolution of the margin at the group level, you can be also disturbed by this geographical mix. I remember here, I am talking under the control of Louis. Perhaps it was in 2016 or 2017, where in every geography, we increased the margin, but due to the mix of the growth at the group level, it was a decreasing of the margin, even if we have been able to increase the margin everywhere.
That is why the stability of the margin is not as simple as we have given back all the productivity gains to the market. We have seen in the last two years, and specifically in the year 2024, with a strong increase of the margin, more than 100 basis points, that we have not shared all the productivity gains with our customers.
Yeah, over here.
Good morning, Sabrina Blanc Bernstein. I have two questions, if I may. You have shown a lot of examples of your clients who liked Elis. At the opposite, we would like to know why some are leaving. We know that you have already a low level of churn, but for which reason are they leaving?
Regarding the tools that you have highlighted in terms of prices and so on, does that include also the level of your competitors within the market, how it works to have the view of the prices that have been applied by your competitors?
Elise will cover the peer pricing tool and so on, and you will see that integrate the local market situation. For the first question, yes, I would love to not lose any customers, but you know that in average, we have 94% of results, so we lose 6% of our customer basis. It includes also mortality, and it is a part of the level of losses, so we have some bankruptcy.
Of course, as we are able to deliver the service for also super small customers, we know that in this part of the portfolio, the level of churn will be more important because we have more mortality and bankruptcy with super small customers. Nevertheless, at the end, we still have some customers that have the bad idea to quit Elis. Very often, it is for price reasons. We assume to have a premium position on the market, so on average, we are more expensive than the other. Remember the comment made by the head of procurement of Disney, the reliability of Elis is totally key. They cannot afford to have a lack of service. It would immediately stop their activity. That is why normally they prefer to pay a premium, but to have the quality and the reliability of Elis.
In some cases, we know that when price is absolutely key and when they have absolutely no other choice, they have been able to make a more risky choice. We gave an example in 2023, after a year of a strong price increase, we have lost more than usual customers in Germany, for instance, in healthcare. You know that big hospitals in Germany are under pressure for economical reasons. In some cases, in some public tender, they put only price criteria, no criteria regarding quality, reliability, and so on. We assume not to be the less expensive player on the market. That is why we can lose from time to time some customers. Now Elis w ill give you more examples regarding our pricing tool.
Yes, so indeed, the pricing tool is a very powerful one.
The objective is to give autonomy to our sales team, but I would say freedom within boundaries. In fact, this data and this positioning that you can see with the different colors is based on peer pricing so that it can help the salesperson to position and to see how this person is selling. It is also a great tool for managers because then they have a Power BI with all the data, and they can monitor to see how they are pricing. Sometimes in some region, we see that competition can be more or less strong and that there is a need indeed to adjust prices. It is a dynamic tool. This is also a tool really strong so that we can integrate price increase due to inflation.
I think we have another question just here.
Good morning, this is Simona Sarli from Bank of America.
You talked quite a lot about operational and sales excellence. Can you talk a little bit about how you incentivize your people, so the incentive schemes both for the salesforce and equally for engineers to drive productivity? What are the key KPIs as well?
Yes. There is, on the sales team, what we monitor is the number of visits, the number of quotes, and the number of contract signs. Whether you are a key account, a regional sale, or local sales, the objectives are different. For the key accounts, it is more a tender business with a long sales cycle. For the regional one, it is a more intense business. There is a weekly objective of 16 visits, 4 quotes, and 1-2 contract signed. For the local sales, it is much more field intensive.
There is an objective of 70 visits, 10 quotes, and 2-3 contracts signed. The way they are incentivized, that's something I did not explain in the tool, but what's very powerful is that when they price at a certain level, they immediately see their bonus next to it. In fact, it's a variable bonus linked to their ability to price. There is a strong incentive for them so that they can price at the highest price so that they can still make the deal.
Do we have another question in the room? I know we have some questions in the chat.
Sorry, that was on the operational excellence.
Yes, for the operations, of course, it's less variable than for sales business, but within our laundries, our managers are incentivized with up to 10% bonus.
It's partially based on the global results of the laundry so that there's no misbehavior towards the global results. And then there are technical performance on productivity. For the group resource, whenever the KPIs are totally measurable, like for methods or water, energy, and gas, and chemicals, it's up to 5%. For others, like industrial support, it's more diverse mission-like projects, so it's more fixed salaries. Of course, I'm not talking about the upper management where there are incentives on the results.
Do we have another question in the room? Maybe we can send one, yeah, over there, sorry.
Good morning, David Cerdan of Kepler Cheuvreux. I have two questions. The first one is related to the clientele you don't address or is not addressed by you or your clients or your competitors. What is your strategy to address these untapped clients? This is my question.
Sorry, David, I didn't understand. Okay, some clients. Yes, what kind of clients do you mean?
For example, restaurants, hotels, or some other ones.
Of course, we serve restaurants.
No, no, no. My question is for the clients who do not use your services, you or your competitors, for which reason. My question is, how do you address these untapped clients?
I think that we don't have a specific different sales approach regarding prospects with a solution and without a solution. What is interesting is the analysis that we will make every month to see what is the breakdown of our sales with no programmer, as Syntax called. That means that people that will outsource first time with us and what is the gain of market share, so customers that will take from the competition.
Of course, it will depend on end market and countries. If you are in a situation where you push for outsourcing, in LATAM or Eastern Europe in workwear, you have a majority of contracts signed with people that will outsource with us first time. If you operate in super mature markets like France, it is clear that for hotels, for instance, it will be more market share gain. It can be also following opening of new hotels. It is a majority of our contracts signed in mature market. To answer precisely to your question, we do not have a specific sales approach depending on whether they have a solution or not. At the end, you will need to convince regarding the Elis reliability, quality, and so on and so on.
We will, of course, when it is a new customer for the renting model, spend more time to show all the merits of the renting solution. We have now some new tools for the salesforce.
Maybe I can add something. Please. Yes, maybe we are really, I showed you a little flavor of our offer, for example, in workwear, but for each category, we are constantly renewing our range to make sure that we have an entry range, a medium range, and a best range, so that we can find the right way to answer the customer needs. For example, when you said for restaurants, a month ago, we just launched an entry range for napkins. It is EUR 0.25, so a cheap price, so that they can switch from paper napkins to fabric napkins.
For each customer type, we really work on their customer needs. As I said, we have a very dense local sales network, and they bring us feedback so that on the marketing, we can renew our range.
I think there was another question in the room, or am I mistaking? Maybe Xavier, you want to take one of the remote questions?
Yes, for the first question, Elise will answer because we have some tests regarding some partnership with some suppliers.
Yes, we look at what all the competitors are doing, and indeed, Cintas has made quite successful partnerships with brands. We also work with manufacturers. Until now, we have not built a specific collection, which would be Elis by Mascot or Elis by Fresh Tat, for example.
We use their collection in their range, so they are present in our catalog, but it is in our objective to build a common collection.
Second question for Frédéric regarding RFID.
Yes, for RFID chips, for garments, it is 100% of our garments, so very easy. For flat linens, we are talking about 15%-20%, 30 plants, a lot in LATAM because it helps us to have retention on customers and move them to rental business, a little bit less in Europe.
Third question for Claire.
I think we do not really have a formal statistic about the value of tenders won. This being said, it is actually in most of our regions and most of our customers mostly, we have a lot of questions about CSR.
It can be from just a tick-the-box approach, do you have a CSR something strategy in place, to very thorough questions where we have to really deep dive into how we're going to get to our climate strategy, how we can partner with them, how can we develop new solutions that will help reuse their environmental footprint. I think it depends really on where you're standing and with geography. We have examples where the pricing part, 35% of the full price allocation was based on CSR in the Netherlands, for example, but also in France and in many other markets. It depends where you're standing, which type of sector as well. Pharmaceutical is really much involved, and then also the engagement of the customer, of course.
Thank you, Claire. Do we have a last question in the room? Yep.
Thanks. Just a final question.
On the sales organization, I think last year you made a EUR 20 million-EUR 25 million investment in your sales capacity. Is the sales organization that you described today substantially different to the one that existed before that investment, or is it the same approach scaled up bigger?
Yes, it is exactly the same approach, just we need some more sales team to cover the new initiative, and it will be part of what we'll present this afternoon, region by region, country by country. We want to target elderly care market, for instance, in the U.K., a small customer in Brazil. We launched pest control in some countries. When you launch a new service so technical like pest control, you will need to add some salesforce dedicated to this service at the beginning.
That is why we invest in new sales reps on the field, but keeping exactly the same organization, the same strategy, the same sales Elis Academy to sustain the performance of the team.
Are we good with the first round of questions? Okay, thank you so much. Thank you for your attention this morning. Thank you for all of you. You are free for this lunch break, and we will meet with you again here at 1:15 P.M. See you later, and thank you very much.
Coming out of my cage, and I've been doing just fine. God, I gotta be damned because I want it all. It started out with a kiss. How did it end up like this? It was only a kiss. It was only a kiss. Now I'm falling asleep, and she's calling a cab while he's having a smoke, and she's taking a drag.
Now they're going to bed, and my stomach is sick, and it's all in my head, but she's touching his chest. Now he takes off her dress. Now let me go. I just can't look. It's killing me and taking control. Jealousy turning saint into deceit, swimming through sick lullaby, choking on your alibi. It's just the price I pay. Destiny is calling me. Open up my eager eyes because I missed the bright side. I'm coming out of my cage, and I've been doing just fine. God, I gotta be damned because I want it all. It started out with a kiss. How did it end up like this? It was only a kiss. It was only a kiss. Now I'm falling asleep, and she's calling a cab while he's having a smoke, and she's taking a drag.
Now they're going to bed, and my stomach is sick, and it's all in my head, but she's touching his chest. Now he takes off her dress. Now let me go. Because I just can't look. It's killing me and taking control. Jealousy turning saint into deceit, swimming through sick lullaby, choking on your alibi. But it's just the price I pay. Destiny is calling me. Open up my eager eyes because I missed the bright side. I never, I never, I never, I never. You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save you from your old ways. You play forgiveness, watching out. Here he comes. He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman, like you imagine when you were young. Can we climb this mountain? I don't know. Higher now than ever before.
I know we can make it if we take it slow. That's taking easy, easy now. Watch it go. We're burning down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane that started turning when you were young, when you were young. Sometimes you close your eyes and see the place where you used to live when you were young. They say the devil's water, it ain't so sweet. You don't have to drink right now, but you can dip your feet every once in a little while. You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save you from your old ways. You play forgiveness, watching out. Here he comes. He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman, like you imagine when you were young. Talks like a gentleman, like you imagine when you were young.
I said he doesn't look a thing like Jesus. He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but more than you'll ever know. I did my best to notice when the call came down the line. Up to the platform of surrender, I was brought, but I was kind. Sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door. Close your eyes, clear your heart. Cut the cord. Are we human or are we dancer? My sign is vital. My hands are cold, and I'm on my knees looking for the answer. Are we human or are we dancer? Pay my respects to grace and virtue. Send my condolences to good. Give my regards to soul and romance. They always did the best they could. So long to devotion. You taught me everything I know. Wave goodbye. Wish me well. You gotta let me go.
Are we human or are we dancer? My sign is vital. My hands are cold, and I'm on my knees looking for the answer. Are we human or are we dancer? Will your system be alright when you dream of home tonight? There is no message we're receiving. Let me know, is your heart still beating? Are we human or are we dancer? My sign is vital. My hands are cold, and I'm on my knees looking for the answer. You gotta let me know. Are we human or are we dancer? My sign is vital. My hands are cold, and I'm on my knees looking for the answer. Are we human or are we dancer? Are we human or are we dancer? Are we human or are we dancer? Once in a lifetime, and suffering the fools to find our way home, to break in these bones.
Once in a lifetime, once in a lifetime, once in a lifetime. Oh, give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Once in a lifetime, we're breaking all the rules to find that our home has long been outgrown. Throw me a lifeline 'cause, honey, I got nothing to lose. Once in a lifetime, once in a lifetime, once in a lifetime. Oh, give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. I look at my reflection in the mirror underneath the power of the light. Give me a shout in the night. Give me a shout in the night.
Give me a shout in the night. I feel like I'm losing the fight. Give me a shout in the night, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. Oh, give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. Give me a shout in the night. Give me a moment, some kind of mysteria. Give me a shout in the night. Breaking my back just to know your name. Seventeen tracks and I've had it with this game. I'm breaking my back just to know your name. But heaven ain't close in a place like this. Anything goes, but don't think you might miss 'cause heaven ain't close in a place like this.
I said our heaven ain't close in a place like this. Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight. Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight. Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I hadn't fed you area last year. It's not confidential, I've got potential. Ready, let's roll onto something new. Taking its toll, then I'm leaving without you 'cause heaven ain't close in a place like this. I said our heaven ain't close in a place like this. Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight. Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight. Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I hadn't fed you area last year. It's not confidential, I've got potential. Rushing, rushing around. Place yourself for me.
I said maybe, baby, please, but I just don't know now. When all I wanna do is try. Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I hadn't fed you area last year. It's not confidential, I've got potential. Rushing, rushing around. Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I hadn't fed you area last year. It's not confidential, I've got potential. Rushing, rushing around. Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I hadn't fed you area last year. It's not confidential, I've got potential. Rushing, rushing around. I'm on the corner of Main Street, just trying to keep it in line. You say you wanna move on, and you say I'm falling behind. Can you read my mind? Can you read my mind?
I never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town. I got the green light, I got a little fight. I'm gonna turn this thing around. Can you read my mind? Can you read my mind? The good old days, the honest man, the restless heart, the promised land, the subtle kiss that no one sees, a broken wrist and a big trapeze. So what? I don't mind if you don't mind 'cause I don't shine if you don't shine before you. Mind? Can you read my mind? It's funny how you just break down, waiting on some sign. I pull up to the front of your driveway with magic soaking my spine. Can you read my mind? Can you read my mind? A teenage queen, a loaded gun, a drop-dead drink, a chosen one, a southern drawn, a world unseen, a city wall and a trampoline. What?
I don't mind if you don't mind 'cause I don't shine if you don't shine before you. Know? Tell me what you find. Can you read my mind? Slipping in my faith until I fall. He never returned that call. Woman, open the door, don't let it sting. I wanna breathe that fire again. She said, "I don't mind if you don't mind 'cause I don't shine if you don't shine." Put your back on me. Put your back on me. Put your back on me. The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun. Can you read my mind? I know the score at the back of my hand. Them are the boys. I don't give a damn. They kiss on the ring. I carry the crown. Nothing can break, nothing can break me down. Don't you know a vice? I got a plan.
I know the direction, the lay of the land. I know the score like the back of my hand. Them are the boys. I don't give a damn. I'm the man. Come 'round. No, no, nothing can break, nothing can break me down. I'm the man. Come 'round. No, no, nothing can break. You can't break me down. I got gas in the tank. I got money in the bank. I got news for you, baby. You're looking at the man. I got skin in the game. I got a household name. I got news for you, baby. You're looking at the man. When it comes to Friday, I always earn. Don't try to teach me. I got nothing to learn 'cause, baby, I'm gifted. You see what I mean? USDA, certified lean. I'm the man. Come 'round. No, no, nothing can break. You can't break me down.
I got gas in the tank. I got money in the bank. I got news for you, baby. You're looking at the man. I got skin in the game. I don't feel no pain. I got news for you, baby. You're looking at the man. Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? I'm the plan. I'm the man. Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? I'm the plan. I'm the man. I'm the man. Ooh, I'm the man. I got gas in the tank. I got money in the bank. I got news for you, baby. You're looking at the man. I got skin in the game. Head for the heart of fame. I got news for you, baby. You're looking at the man. Right hand of God, first in command.
My testimony, but I take the stand. Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? I'm the plan. I'm the man. Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? Who's the man? I'm the plan. I'm the man. I don't give a damn. I'm the man. It started with a low light. Next thing I knew, they ripped me from my bed, and then they took my blood type. It left a strange impression in my head. You know that I was hoping that I could leave this star-crossed world behind, but when they cut me open, I guess I changed my mind. You know I might have just flown too far from the floor this time because they're calling me by my name, and there's zipping white light beams, the sweet garden balls and satellites.
That was a turning point. That was one lonely night. The storm maker says it ain't so bad. The dream maker's gonna make you mad. The space man says, "Everybody, look now. It's all in your mind." Now I'm back at home. I'm looking forward to this life I live. You know it's gonna haunt me. So hesitation to this life I give. You think you might cross over, you're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. You better look it over before you make that leap. You know I'm fine, but I hear those voices at night sometimes. They justify my claim, and the public don't dwell on my transmission 'cause it wasn't televised. It was a turning point. Oh, what a lonely night. The storm maker says it ain't so bad. The dream maker's gonna make you. I look like Madonna like that.
The space man says, "Everybody, look down. It's all in your mind." The storm maker says it ain't so bad. The dream maker's gonna make you mad. The space man says, "Everybody, look down. It's all in your mind." My global position systems are vocally addressed. They say the Nile used to run from east to west. They say the Nile used to run from east to west. I'm fine, but I hear those voices at night sometimes. The storm maker says it ain't so bad. The dream maker's gonna make you mad. The space man says, "Everybody, look down. It's all in your mind." The storm maker says it ain't so bad. The dream maker's gonna make you mad. The space man says, "Everybody, look down. It's all in your mind." It's all in your mind. It's all in your mind.
When there's nowhere else to run, is there room for one more sun? One more sun. If you can hold on, if you can hold on, hold on. I wanna stand up. I wanna let go. You know, you know, you don't, you don't. I wanna shine on in the hearts of man. I wanna mean it from the back of my broken hand. Another headache, another heartbreak. I'm so much older than I can take. And my affection, well, it comes and goes. I need direction to perfection. No, no, no, no, help me out. Yeah, you know you gotta help me out. Yeah, or don't you put me on the back burner. You know you gotta help me out. Yeah. When there's nowhere else to run, is there room for one more sun? It's changing. Ain't changing me, the cold-hearted boy I used to be.
Yeah, you know you gotta help me out. Yeah, or don't you put me on the back burner. You know you gotta help me out. Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down. Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down. Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I got soul, but I'm not a soldier. I'm coming with a fruit and a hush. Yeah, you know you gotta help me out. Yeah, or don't you put me on the back burner.
You know you gotta help me out. Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down. Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down. Yeah, or don't you put me on the back burner. You're gonna bring yourself down. Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down. Over and undone, last call for a sin. While everyone's lost, the battle is won. With all these things that I've done, all these things that I've done. Crime and hearts. If you can hold on, if you can hold on. Watching in my face, I look a little bit older. I look a little bit colder. One deep breath, one big step. I move a little bit closer. I move a little bit closer. For reasons unknown, I caught my stride. I flew in a flight. I know if destiny's kind, I've got the rest on my mind. But my heart, it don't beat.
It don't beat the way it used to. My eyes, they don't see you no more. My lips, they don't kiss. They don't kiss the way they used to. My eyes don't recognize you no more. For reasons unknown, for reasons unknown, there was an open chair. We sat down in the open chair. I said, "If destiny's kind, I've got the rest on my mind." My heart, it don't beat. It don't beat the way it used to. My eyes, they don't see you no more. My lips, they don't kiss. They don't kiss the way they used to. My eyes don't recognize you at all. For reasons unknown, for reasons unknown, I said, "My heart, it don't beat. It don't beat the way it used to. My eyes don't recognize you no more." My lips, they don't kiss.
They don't kiss the way they used to. My eyes don't recognize you no more. For reasons unknown, for reasons unknown, for reasons unknown, for reasons unknown. Step out into the Indian dust. I can feel the cracks in my spirit. I'm starting to bust. Drive by your house, nobody's home. I'm trying to tell myself that I'm better off alone. All of my friends say I should move on. She's just another girl. Don't let her stick it to your heart so hard. All of my friends say it wasn't meant to be. It's a great big world. She's just another girl, another girl. I went to see a fortune teller that was a trip. Maybe this confusion's got me losing my grip. I can't believe you're out there flying with somebody else on. Now Jason's getting married in the blink of an eye.
I got an invitation, but I didn't reply. Tell your little brother that we put down the gloves and give him all of my love. All of my friends say I should move on. She's just another girl. Don't let her stick it to your heart so hard. All of my friends say it wasn't meant to be. It's a great big world. She's just another girl. I could be reeling her in left and right. Something's got a hold on me tonight. Maybe all of my friends should confront the fact that I don't want another girl. All of my friends say I should move on. All of my friends say, all of my friends say, all of my friends say she's just another girl. Why can't I sleep at night? Why don't the moon cry? The sound's off, the TV's on.
It's a great big world. She's just another girl. Don't let her stick it to your heart, boy. She's just another girl. All of my friends say she's just another girl, another girl. What have you gathered to report to your progenitors? Are your excuses any better than your senators? He held a conference and his wife was standing by his side. It did her dirty, but no one died. I saw Sonny Liston on the street last night, black-fisted and strong, singing redemption songs. He motioned me to the sky. I heard heaven and the thunder cry. Run for cover. While you can, baby, don't look back. You gotta run for cover. Don't be afraid of the fear that's a played-out shot man. You know you're not the only one. Don't look back, just run for cover. What are you waiting for? A kiss or an apology?
You think by now you'd have an A in toxicology. It's hard to pack the car when all you do is shame us. It's even harder when the dirtbag's famous. I saw my mother on the street last night, all pretty and strong, singing, "The road is long." I said, "Mama, I know you tried." She fell on her knees and cried. Run for cover. While you can, baby, don't look back. You gotta run for cover. Don't be afraid of the fear that's a played-out shot man. I know you're not the only one. Don't look back, just run for cover. There was nothing she wouldn't give, just to trust him. With her nightmare, with her dreams, she's running. She's running just to trust him. He got a big smile, it's fake news. Just run for cover, you got nothing left to lose. Run for cover.
While you can, baby, do not look back. You gotta run for cover. Do not be afraid of the fear that is a played-out shot, man. You know you are not the only one. Do not look back, just run for cover. Run for cover. Save some face. You know you have only got one. Change your ways while you are young. Boy, one day you will be a man. Oh, girl, he will help you understand. Smile like you mean it. Smile like you mean it. Looking back at sunsets on the east side, we lost track of the time. Dreams.
Welcome back, everybody. We hope you had a nice lunch, either here in London or remotely, wherever you live. We are opening the third pillar of Elis strategy, which is consolidation of Elis's current positions. Sit comfortably in your chairs because you are about to travel all around the world.
This is a very exciting panel that's coming. Zone by zone, you're going to discover where the countries stand, what are their challenges, and what are the opportunities. I will invite all of the panel to come on stage: Xavier Martiré, Charlotta Ericsson, Matthieu Lec harny, Yann Michel, Alain Bonin, and Andrea Schneider. Please come on stage. Thank you. Xavier, you've come on stage with your Chief Operation Officers. They're going to explain how the markets are wherever they are. Can you give us some general insights on where and how you intend to expand your markets? Thank you, Xavier.
Yes, of course. You see the title, "Organic Growth Driver by Geography." I noticed this morning some expectation regarding this topic. You have the pressure to be convincing.
If we start with the consolidation of our existing position, you know that it's absolutely key for the profitability of the company. We have a direct link between market share and profitability. It's quite obvious to understand, of course, as we have a business also of logistics with a lot of routes, delivery, and so on. More dense is our network and more efficient is it. You save some money when you are super close to your customer in average. Same story for the industrial efficiency. We saw with Frédéric this morning the huge size of our plant and so on. When you are super big on the market, you can afford to have some super big plants with big lots of linen and so on, and you increase your productivity.
Last topic also that explains this link between market share and profitability, it is, of course, pricing power. When you are the leader on the market, you increase your pricing power. We are so proud about this map where you see that in the vast majority of our countries, we are among the leaders, number one or number two or three. In more than half of our position, we are even number one in the market. When we have reached this level of market share and this density, it's time for us to launch a new initiative to push the organic growth in the area. We will share a lot of examples region by region to see what we are able to deliver. The key topic is more or less to replicate the French development over the last century.
We do not want to invent something totally new for us. It is just to replicate the French success. If we analyze the situation of Elis in France, we cover almost every company. Everybody can be a customer of Elis. We cover all the end markets: hospitality, elderly care, big hospitals, all types of industry, trade, and services. We are able to deliver all the sets of services that we have in our portfolio: flat linen, uniform, pest control, water coolers, espresso machine, mats, washroom solution, wipers, mops. We can deliver all the services of Elis. We are able to have a solution and to deliver all the size of customers. We can be profitable with super small customers, less than EUR 100 per month of invoice. We have also some customers.
We saw Disney, for instance, several millions of euro per month with such type of customers. This situation in France is an exception if we analyze what we have in our portfolio in the other countries. We do not have any other country today out of the 31 where we have the same ability to cover all the end markets, all sizes of customers, and to deliver all the portfolio of the services. That is why we consider that we have all the levers of organic growth in our arm because the strategy is just, if I may, to replicate what was a success in France. Let's have a view on the potential. It is a matrix. I will not cover every line and column of the matrix, but you have the list of countries and the list of end markets of products and of sizes of customers.
The color code is quite easy. Green, we are super efficient, we cover everything. Yellow, we are there, but we can improve. Red, we do not cover at all this mix of country/product or services. What is super reassuring for the potential of long-term organic growth of the company is to see that we have much more yellow or red than green. That is why we do not want to reinvent something. It is just to do exactly what we have been able to do in France. All the CEOs on stage will share all the initiatives they have launched and they will launch in the future. They will first cover what is the existing business that we have in our main countries. After that, they will present their initiative of growth. We will start with Alain,
I think. Okay. Thank you, Xavier. Okay.
First, I have nearly 40 years of experience at Elis. I have started with the position of GM in several plants before becoming Regional Director and for the past 15 years now, COO. I am in charge today of part of France operations, but also sales management for hospitality, healthcare, key accounts for ICS. Start with France. France is a benchmark for operation for other countries and also a market where we still have potential to grow. We have an unrivaled network density thanks to our 69 plants and 46 distribution centers, placing us on average 50 km from our 150,000 customers. We are a leader in each segment market we deliver in hospitality, healthcare, industry, trade, and services. We deliver all of Elis's services, 10 services.
As Xavier said, we serve all sizes of customers from the smallest with only EUR 30 per month to EUR 3 million per month as Disneyland in Paris today. During the past 10 years, Elis France has delivered continuous growth in revenue apart from the COVID period and also a continuous improvement in our margin even during the pandemic. That resilience is due to our cost discipline and our partnerships with all of our customers around all sectors. In 2024, we posted a very good result with EUR 1.3 billion revenues, 41.8% margin in EBITDA, and 22.9% margin EBIT. As I told you, in this market, we still have potential to grow. To start in hospitality, we have a huge market share, over 50%. We have potential to grow first with higher volume. We will benefit in the coming years from the reinforcement of France's neutrality during the Olympic Games.
We have also structural trends. Tourism asks for better quality. It drives demand for premium linen, and it allows us to increase our turnover and increase price. Growth of camping asking for linen as in traditional hotel. Finally, thanks to our dense network and our relationships with largest customers, we are able to sign all new sites as we did it in the past with B&B, for example, or OCL, or extending our existing perimeter, as also we did it, for example, last month with barrier perimeter in Deauville for EUR 1.8 million per year in addition of hotels existing at this time. On healthcare, we have also huge potential. You could see that at this time, we are 32% market share. Of course, a very high penetration rate in the private sector. We're delivering the major player in this market as, of course, Korian, Emmaüs, Elsan, or Ramsay.
The public sector in France is still outsourcing only at 21% compared to the rest of Europe where the outsourcing rate is 80%. For sure, it's a long-term opportunity, but in this segment, we sign regularly new contracts. We have also opportunities with nonprofit organizations. The recent consolidation of the market will help us and reinforce our competitiveness. Regarding resident linen, the rate of outsourcing in this segment at this time in France is only 21%. In this segment, we have really huge potential. For the past 10 years, with our subsidiary AD3, we delivered an average 8% growth per year. This year, we will follow the same trend thanks to the renewal of the contract of Clarion with 45 additional seats. We are also only two operators in this market. We will have new sales force in the coming months.
Regarding ICS, we have also a strong position with workwear. First, robust position on resilient markets in agro, food, retails, or pharmaceutical. We are in those segments where growing even during the pandemic period. We are seeing also growth in aerospace, defense, and nuclear segments thanks to the macro context. As an example, four years ago, we signed a contract for EUR 1 million with Safran. You saw Safran this morning on the picture. This year, we will achieve EUR 6 million with this company. We have also additional growth area. First, in public markets last year. In this segment, our revenue increased by +10%. We signed very nice and large contracts. As an example, Lyon Metropolitan Area for more than EUR 1 million per year. Recently, we also signed Bayonne–Basque Metropolitan Area for EUR 400,000 per year.
In this segment, public market, we also have decided to increase our sales force. Do not forget that also we still have on workwear 500,000 wearers without outsourcing solution at this time. In conclusion, for France, you have to remember that we are a model for other countries, but we're still in our market with potential growth thanks to our ability to deliver all sizes of customers in all segments with all Elis services. Now, I will follow the floor to Charlotta. Thank you.
Thank you, Alain. Very nice to meet you all. My name is Charlotta Ericsson, and I'm the CEO for the perimeter of Northern Europe and Asia. I joined the company approximately four years ago. Before that, I have approximately 15 years of experience within the chemical industry and management consulting.
Starting with an overview of the countries that are included in this perimeter, it is in total eight countries encompassing Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, and recently also added Malaysia to this group. Overall, approximately EUR 875 million in turnover, and with quite different market dynamics, as you will very soon see. The three top countries, being Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden, all of quite equal size, EUR 230 million-EUR 240 million of turnover, with traditionally very strong market positions in the areas where we have been present for many years. You have Denmark and Sweden with very similar presence, being the absolute number one in hospitality, number two in healthcare, but very strong in the industry, trade, and service sector. Not only with the workwear offering, but also very big on the mat sector. The flooring industry is very big in the northern countries.
You have the Netherlands, traditionally by far the number one in terms of industrial workwear, which we continue also to develop further, but very exciting to see that we're also a player in the hospitality segment now. We will come back to that, but as you know, we entered the hospitality sector in the Netherlands with an acquisition that we did last year. Today being a number four, but have quite aggressive plans to improve our position there as well. The smaller countries, starting with Norway, being a clear number two in the services, except for more the industrial workwear where we are the market leader. Belgium and Luxembourg being number two in workwear and a strong upcomer in the hospitality segment, having a very nice growth path there. Finland, we are a small but strong number two.
This is the home turf of Lindström, owning the majority of the market, but we're a strong number two there with also good growth potential. Malaysia, we will come back to Malaysia because that's such an exciting chapter in itself, but being number two in the rental solutions in the clean room segment, where we entered through an acquisition of the company called Wonway last year. Focusing on Scandinavia. As you probably know, Scandinavia is really the old classical market for Berendsen, which was acquired in 2017. We typically have very strong, or for a long time, had very strong presence and market dominance, especially in Denmark and Sweden. That's also partly the reason for, okay, as for the French market, we are very big already.
We have high market shares, so it also contributes to the overall more modest market growth of around 3% between 2019 and 2024. We have been very keen to keep the profitable growth. On average, we have an above-group average profitability in these markets. Looking at Denmark and Sweden, as you can see, we have a high density of plants, so we are truly nationwide coverage of our services. In total, approximately EUR 470 million of business in the two countries and with a very nice and stable profitability. Norway, being a much smaller market, EUR 75 million of turnover, and here we have fantastic possibilities to grow because overall the rate of outsourcing is very much lower than in the neighboring countries. Finland, so far only one plant, but with a very nice growth projection in the industrial workwear segment and also in the mats business.
We have fantastic room for further growth there as well. Zooming in on Denmark. Denmark is really the country where we, in the whole group, have the highest density of Elis services if you compare per inhabitants of the country. We have a fantastic platform of existing customers, of operational setup, which is, of course, the platform for further growth. Even though we are and have been very successful for long, we still see that there are some pockets for growth, which we are focusing very much on now. Just to give you some flavor there, Élise talked to you about the successful sales setup where we efficiently target also the very much smallest customers.
That's an area that we need to explore further in Denmark and where we are investing in the sales force to really broaden our customer base to also untap the potential of the very smallest customers. Private healthcare, but also medium-sized facility management companies are other areas where we are focusing more. Within hospitality, we have a very strong position amongst the hotels, but more of an untapped potential we find in the more also more profitable restaurant segment. There we have invested in additional sales force and sales tools to increase our presence there. When speaking about Denmark, as you probably know, I mean, the key vehicle for the whole Danish economy, it's the pharma segment. We are by far the leading provider of clean room services to the pharma segment, and we will continue that.
We are extremely committed to that segment, so we will continue to grow with that market, both with the existing but also new customers. Further, we entered the pest control business a few years ago through acquisition, and here we also have a first platform for further growth. Even though being quite a mature market, we've been there for many, many years, there are still several pockets for growth. Focus on Sweden. Also here, we have enjoyed, or we are enjoying a strong market position, but that does not stop us from developing the market further. In workwear, similar to the case of Denmark, we have not really fully addressed the potential of the smaller customers. Strong market shares typically in the big industrial customer segment, but not amongst the smaller ones. Also there, developing the commercial muscles to approach that part of the market.
With that, of course, also goes the cross-sales opportunities within the workwear portfolio. In the healthcare market, the Swedish healthcare market consists of big regions. You have smaller municipalities, and you have the private sector. We typically have focused on the regions, but we can focus much more on the municipalities and also on the private sector. Lastly, on the washroom, we have put very much more focus on, well, we do not only want to sell consumables, we want to sell full-service solutions. Since we put increased focus on this area, we actually managed to increase that sales by 60%. It is, again, training, dedication, and by that, we do manage to sell not only to the existing portfolio, but also targeting new customers. In Norway, as I said before, Norway being a bit of a smaller market, approximately EUR 75 million of turnover.
Overall, there are plenty of opportunities to grow. One is due to the fact that the overall outsourcing concept is not that widely spread. It is not just a market share game. Here, we can really approach quite a large virgin market. We are increasing our presence in some industries which are big for Norway, like you have the oil industry, but also like the fishing industry. There was a question before, okay, how do you approach, well, customers who do not have the rental solution yet? Taking the fishing industry as one example, having quite specific needs, and we have been able to approach that with our rental solution. Actually super nice. We have also identified some specific geographies where we have, well, we have not had the commercial nor the operational focus to really capture the local businesses.
There we have some really distinct geographical areas of growth. We are making very good progress. Overall, we have a very nice customer satisfaction, and we are increasing the success of our sales force, improving our cross-selling capabilities. We grew by 5% next year, but we have very much higher ambitions for this market. Moving to the Netherlands, I would say the Netherlands is a very nice example of strong and profitable growth. The Netherlands came into the group with the Berendsen acquisition and has traditionally been the market leader in the workwear segment. It is also a country that has really proven how efficient we can be by adding the other services that are part of the whole Elis portfolio. We have added pest control successfully. We have been able to grow the washroom area very successfully.
The latest addition was the hospitality entrance. Last year, we made two acquisitions, which opened up a completely new market for us, where we, of course, can benefit from the fantastic knowledge of the whole group, how to become a market leader also in this segment. Overall, fantastic to see that we've had a CAGR of approximately 15% from 2019 to 2024, and of course, also very happy that we have been able to maintain a very good profitability level. Within the workwear segment of the Netherlands, this is really the home turf of the Dutch team, have been a market leader for long term, but we still continue to show a double-digit growth. We grow with existing customers, but we grow also with new customers.
There is no secret recipe, but it is a very skilled commercial team combined with fantastic operational excellence, which enables us to open up new markets and really offer quite innovative and customer-specific solutions. Overall, we have a very nice growth and also are able to keep the customers. Overall, customer losses are low. We are happy about that, but of course, most importantly, customers are also happy with our services. Overall, customer satisfaction is high. Going into the new segment for the Netherlands, which is the hospitality segment, the Dutch market has, as you can see on the graph, fully recovered after the pandemic. Overall, pricing levels in the market have also shown quite a good rebound after the crisis years. That convinced us that it is a good timing for us to also step into the market.
It's still quite a fragmented market. With our acquisition and yeah, what the future might bring, there's quite a good opportunity to consolidate the market even further. We estimate that the total market for the rental textiles and the hospitality is slightly below EUR 300 million. We expect that the growth of the tourist industry will be in the range of 4%-5%. Our ambition is, of course, to grow at least with that market rate. So far, we have actually seen a very good start of our hospitality business, also enabled by an efficient integration. What you see here on the picture is Moderna. Moderna is the big company that we included last year. It was acquired beginning of 2024. It is a EUR 50 million business, so it is quite sizable, both workwear, but also flat linen, so flat linen for hospitality.
With that, we now have a fully dedicated commercial team approaching this segment and have really shown that, yeah, we can make a difference on the market. It is a very exciting growth journey from here. We are also, of course, leveraging on the existing customer portfolio that we have. We see really nice cross-sales opportunities to target the new customers that came in with the acquisition, but, of course, also the other way around to utilize the Elis customer portfolio to cross-sell with the Moderna offering. I think that was it for Scandinavia, and we will come back to Malaysia a little bit later on.
Yes, hello, good afternoon everybody. My name is Andrea Schneider. I joined Berendsen in 2008 and became the COO of the region in 2018.
Before joining this industry, I have had several positions in logistics and in consultancy, and I'm happy to present the region, Central Europe. First overview, how's the market look like? As you can see, we have also in this region quite strong positions in the subsegments, revenue EUR 845 million in 2024. In Germany, we are a very strong position in hospitality, number three in the market, just behind the number one and the number two. We have achieved quite something in the recent years. We are clearly the leader in the healthcare market in Germany, both in hospitals as well as in care homes. We are the number four in industry, trade, and services, where we are actually very strong in workwear. In Switzerland, we are the number one in hospitality, number two in healthcare, and also number four in industry, trade, and services.
In the Eastern European countries, I'm responsible for Poland and the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which you have summarized here. We are also very strong in Poland, number one, purely organic growth over all of the years, and the number two in the Baltic countries. We will focus on Germany because it's by far the biggest part of the revenue. More than EUR 600 million of the revenue is made in Germany, and we will have a focus on Germany now. Germany, we have over the years improved our footprint after the acquisition or the merger with Elis. We have more than 6,300 employees in Germany, 45 sites. We have a quite good coverage in Germany already today, which enables us to offer a wide range of services right now.
What we can see is actually that we have been able to triple the revenue in Germany from around EUR 200 million to EUR 600 million last year, which of course, to some extent, is driven by the merger with Elis in 2017. Nevertheless, the average growth rate from 2018 to 2024 was 8%, with also quite a steep development in the margin, especially after the COVID period with the recovery. We have increased the margin by 560 basis points within this period. Therefore, a quite dynamic development in Germany over the recent years. If we look at the different markets in Germany, first, Germany, of course, is the biggest economy in Europe.
We have in the industry, trade, and services market, the market is EUR 3.2 billion, so a huge market, of which EUR 2 billion approximately belongs to the outsourced services for workwear and another EUR 1.2 billion for other services around facility, washroom, etc. When we actually have a look at the workwear market, where Elis has only 6% right now, and we are actually number four in this market. The total market we expect is even EUR 5 billion if we consider that there is a lot of direct sales business for especially smaller companies, which is a potential market we, of course, will go in. It's an unlocked potential for us. What it also shows is actually that we are number four in this market with only 6%. It also shows you that it's a highly fragmented market.
is a lot of business with a lot of small competitors besides the direct sales business. In the facility business, our market share is below 1%. We are almost not present today in this market in Germany. What we are doing and what we have done all the recent years is that we actually, with the quality improvements shown across the business lines, harvest from the new collections presented by Elis earlier today so that we actually gain some ground in Germany. We expanded our sales team remarkably over the years. There we are actually able to gain more business. We have significant organic growth, which enables us to take market share year on year. Therefore, there are a lot of opportunities for us.
What is very important is that we make use of all of the tools and all of the knowledge which was developed over decades in France, especially. We are rolling out the approach to sell to small and medium-sized companies in Germany. There, of course, is a huge opportunity in the market for all adjacent services related to mats and washroom, where we, as I have shown, have super small market share so far. Huge potential, and we actually year on year are able to take market share in this segment. We move to the healthcare market in Germany, where we are already the number one in the medical care market, which consists also of all of these medical practices, including dentists. The major part is hospitals and rehabilitation homes, which is more than 3,500 in this area.
We have a market share of 14% here, but we can grow further here with a selective approach. As Xavier mentioned earlier today, the healthcare market in Germany is not always super well oriented, but with a selective approach on smaller hospitals and also some selective approach to large hospitals, we can grow there any further. With regards to the care home or residential and social care market, we are by far the number one in Germany. We have, in the recent years, invested also in our industrial footprint in this area so that we are able to serve big groups in this market nationwide. We are the only one in Germany capable of doing this, and we are growing in this market also continuously.
That is, of course, also the reason why we have spent quite some money to extend our sales force in this area to be capable to cover the business. We move to the hospitality business in Germany. As you can see, in Germany, we have a quite decent market share for hotels as well as for the restaurant and catering business. When we then talk about big business, it is the huge catering companies you are all aware of, Aramark, Sodexo, and so on and so forth. There we have traditionally a very high market share, close to 20%. The huge market potential we have is approaching the small and medium-sized business, which we are doing by extending our sales force also in this area, which gives us also great growth opportunities in this market. Last but not least, a brief view on Poland and the Baltics.
In Poland, as you have seen on one of the first slides, we are only present in the industrial trade and services. We are approaching this market. There are almost no opportunities by acquiring business, so the growth we show is pure organic. We extended our footprint over the years into different areas, and we have an organic growth year on year by approximately 8%, with the opportunity also to move into the market for small and medium-sized entities, where actually Poland was previously focusing on bigger clients, and we are now gaining more and more market share there. In the Baltic States, it is a very good example to extend the footprint. In the Baltics, we have started only with a med business and extended the footprint in the recent years into industrial workwear as well as in washroom.
It gave us a huge increase in our growth, and we will actually proceed with this. We just recently bought a pest control business in Latvia, which further extends our footprint in this region. Thank you very much, and I will hand over to Yann.
Thank you, Andreas. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Yann Michel. I am working for Elis since 20 years now. I started as a production manager in a flat linen plant within the Paris region, so 20 years ago, working with Alain. Then I became general manager, regional director, and I am COO since 2015. I am in charge of part of France that we share with my colleague, the U.K., Ireland, and part of Eastern Europe, so Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Altogether, U.K. and Ireland is a platform of roughly EUR 600 million revenue for Elis.
We serve in those two countries all end markets, as you can see, and we have very strong market positions in both countries, either market leader or number two. In Eastern Europe, we are focusing on the industry, trade, and services end market, and we are number one in Czech Republic with an offering of workwear, clean room garments, mats, and wipers. We are the market leader in this territory. We do not serve yet hospitality and healthcare market in those countries. Let's focus first on U.K. and Ireland. As you may know, those two countries are ex-Berendsen countries for Elis. We have a quite good network in those two countries, as you can see, a bit more than 40 sites in those two countries. We cover all territories, so we have quite a good proximity with customers, as we have seen this morning with Elis.
We have a strong workforce of 6,300 employees. As you may know, this perimeter was not the best in class during Berendsen times. I even heard by Mark that the U.K. was the ugly sister of the Berendsen family at that time. We announced to you during our investor day in 2018 that according to us, there were no specific issues in the U.K. market. The poor historical performance was due to a lack of operational efficiency as well as a poor quality of service that drove some massive customer losses. In the last seven years, not a quiet period of time, as you can imagine, on top of COVID and the energy crisis, we went through Brexit. During the last seven years, as you may know, the national living wage increased by 7% on average every year in this territory.
We are quite proud to share this picture. An annual growth of the revenue of 6% during this period and an improvement of the EBITDA margin of 5.5 percentage points, reaching last year 31.6%. Let's focus now on two key initiatives that we have launched in those two countries to boost our organic growth. The first one is around the small customers that we have seen this morning with Elis. We are targeting SMEs. It is a huge market in both countries. What do we do here? We target with a global product offering, pubs, restaurants, bars, etc., servicing them for their flat linen, for their workwear, for their mats, washroom, etc. It is a very convenient setup for those customers to outsource to one single supplier all those types of products. It is very convenient for them.
It is an alternative to the do-it-yourself and an efficient alternative. It is for us very convenient as well because we use only one single sales rep, one single service agent to do the job, one single van to deliver all the goods. We have started this journey in the U.K. in 2021 by building a first dedicated sales team, a local sales team targeting main cities, of course London, Birmingham. Progressively, we have built up a team, a sales team dedicated to those small customers. We have today seven teams that are all over the country. We will do roughly GBP 10 million revenue this year, which represents almost 10% of the revenue in the industry, trade, and services market. This end market, the small customers, brings the equivalent of 80 basis points of organic growth to the U.K. business.
We are quite happy with this development. We have launched the SEM recently. At the end of 2023, in Ireland, we have recruited and built a sales team for local sales to target the Dublin area. We have EUR 5 million revenue targeted for this year. That was the first key initiative that we have launched for the U.K. and Ireland. The second one is around the healthcare market. As we have seen in both countries, we have very strong market positions. Nevertheless, we still have a lot of opportunities for growth, especially in the care home segment that is naturally growing thanks to the aging of the population, and where the level of outsourcing is very low, very limited. This market, we approach it with three main product offerings. The first one is the flat linen for the homes, for the bedroom.
The second one is the workwear for the staff. The third one is the cleaning and the repairs of the resident clothing. It is working well. As you can see on the right-hand side, you have the development of this business inside the Irish market. We will do this year EUR 6 million revenue. As you can see, every year, it is an additional roughly EUR 1 million more for this country. We are targeting the same development for the U.K. The U.K., that is a big market, GBP 81 million revenue estimated, and still a very low level of outsourcing, below 5% today. We target similar development. We started in 2019 servicing care homes, approaching this market with flat linen. Since last year, we have opened our first dedicated line for resident clothing in the southwest of the country to further develop this business.
That was it for the U.K. and Ireland. A quick word regarding our countries on the eastern part of Europe. Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Here we are growing fast, very fast. It is a combined revenue of EUR 30 million today for Elis, 40% EBITDA. It is double-digit growth in the recent years. We are opening the market every month. 40% of the contract signatures are done with new outsourcing. That was it for my perimeter. I hand over to Matthieu.
Good afternoon, everyone. I am Matthieu Lec harny. I am the last COO, you will have understood. I have been working for Elis for the last 15 years, more or less. I am as well in charge of the group M&A. Let's go through Southern Europe and Latin America, which are the last perimeters to cover, starting from Southern Europe.
As you know, we are a strong position in many countries, and Southern Europe is the same. We are leader in Spain, leader in Portugal. We are only number four in Italy, which, as you can imagine, we do not like very much. We are very strong in hospitality in Spain and Portugal, and we are strong in workwear in all the three countries. What is interesting as well in this chart is that you see quite obviously where are some big opportunities we will want to target in the next years. Healthcare in Spain is something that we can do better. Healthcare in Portugal, I will come back to that. We are almost not there. Hospitality in Italy and workwear everywhere. Today, our position is a strong position in Southern Europe. We have 90 laundries and depots across the three countries. We cover fully Spain and Portugal.
We cover mainly Rome and north of Rome in Italy. The altogether is around 5,000 people working within the three countries. We are very strong in flat linen in Portugal and Spain. We are almost not present in healthcare and hospitality in Italy. We are strong in workwear everywhere. In terms of development of the business, it has been a business who developed well in the last years. We posted an average growth of 7% in the last six years, and the vast majority of that is organic growth. More than 80% of that has been organic growth.
At the same time, we have been able to drive the EBITDA up one point more or less every year across the perimeter, which is just a demonstration of what Xavier was mentioning about the fact that the bigger we are, the stronger we are, and the more profitable we are. If I look at the opportunities in these markets, there are few opportunities. One obvious one, as I was mentioning, is healthcare in Portugal. The healthcare business in Portugal is quite a big market. It is a EUR 400 million market, and we are almost not there. I mean, we invoice less than EUR 3 million. Everything is there for us to build. We started just two years ago, and we expect to invoice a bit more than EUR 4 million at the end of this year. Of course, the trend will be with high growth percentage given the starting point.
The second area where we can grow is the care homes in Spain. Here, I will focus especially on the flat linen part of the care homes, so the beds part, let's say, of the care homes, where it's a significant market, around EUR 200 million. We have only one fourth of the market outsourced today. We just started the journey again, and we see a big potential with an accelerated outsourcing of this market. Moving to the next big opportunity across all geographies in Southern Europe, this is about workwear. I mean, and here workwear, this is in our hands. It's really about outsourcing the market. The market is driven by us in terms of outsourcing, and only 30% of that market is today outsourced.
You have seen in recent years that we have been very successful in driving that with more than double-digit growth, double-digit in traditional garment, and close to 15% in clean room. There is plenty of opportunities to come. When you look at the numbers of new contracts we sign coming from outsourcing, it is more than half of them. 60% of new contracts are outsourcing the market. Basically, it is not a market share gain. It is really about growing the cake. We do not see today any ceiling for that. You have seen that we increased the sales rep in recent years. In these specific geographies, we put more than 25 more sales reps in the last two years. So far, so good. I mean, they keep on signing, and we will put more of them in the coming years. Further opportunities to come.
Big one, completely virgin, it is hospitality in Italy. This is a market where we were absolutely not present. We started looking at it post-COVID. We saw a good change in the profile of the businesses we were looking at. We are now very seriously looking at this. It is the third biggest market in Europe. The market is estimated around EUR 600 million. For us, it's a big new cake that we would be delighted to enter in. Last topic about Southern Europe and opportunities, residents linen. This is the second part of the care homes opportunity. Flat linen one side and residents linen the other side. It's a EUR 250 million business opportunity, especially in Spain. We are focusing on it. We expect to deliver around EUR 10 million by end 2027. It's growing very rapidly. Moving now to Latin America.
As you know, we started the journey in Latin America 10 years ago, buying Atmosfera in Brazil and then developing across four countries. This is an area where we are looking for big organic growth. This is why we are there. This is what really we are pursuing. If you look at today where we stand, I mean, no surprise, the big two countries, Brazil and Mexico, given the size of the countries themselves, they represent around 85% of our revenues today. We invoice a bit less than EUR 500 million today in Latin America. We are a very strong leader there, a very strong leader in Mexico, a very strong leader in Brazil. We are a leader as well in Colombia. We have built this leadership by consolidation of the market and leader in Chile as well.
There are some opportunities, nevertheless, most of the opportunities are linked to the markets themselves that are growing and that can be outsourced a lot more. I will come back to that in a minute. Looking at the split of revenues, no surprise, as I was saying, Brazil and Mexico are the two biggest drivers for growth. We are focusing, and we have been focusing in the last 10 years on two big drivers. The first one is outsourcing the healthcare market. Healthcare market is the most outsourced business in Latin America. It is a profitable business, profitable market, and we have been driving that aggressively. If you look at Brazil and look at the last signature we had in the country, almost half of them still come from new opportunities.
We are, again, increasing the size of the cake instead of having a market share fight with competitors. If you look at Mexico, around 20 hospitals and clinics are outsourced every single year. This has been the same trend for the last 15 years. We have plenty of outsourcing opportunities still to come in healthcare. In healthcare and hospitality, we are targeting as well a rental conversion. This is a market that was historically just washing. The hospitals and the hotels, they were owners of the linen, and they were just giving that to laundries to wash. We are changing that into a rental model, which is the rental model that we're using everywhere else in the world, which is much better in terms of revenue, 30% higher in terms of profitability driven by better flows and better management of the linen.
We are driving that. You see the numbers. We have added 30 percentage points almost in the last decade in LATAM in rental versus washing. What's in front of us in terms of big opportunities? There is a major one, probably the biggest of all opportunities we have in LATAM apart from the outsourcing dynamics in healthcare, which is the uniforms. I mean, this is a market which is a huge business, especially when you think about Brazil and Mexico. More than 50 million workers today wear uniforms. So you do not need to convince them to wear a uniform. You just need to convince the company to move from a buy and wash at home towards a rental model. That's what we are doing. That's what we have been doing in Brazil for the last 10 years successfully.
We have a growth which is close to 15% in Brazil in that. We are now replicating that model in Mexico and in Chile and Colombia. This is a very big opportunity knowing the industrial reality of especially Mexico and Brazil. Second obvious win is hospitality in Mexico. You have seen the numbers before. Hospitality is the sixth-ranked market globally for tourism, for hospitality. It is only less than EUR 15 million revenues for us in Mexico. Big opportunity. We are starting to really look at that super carefully and super precisely through organic growth, but through acquisitions as well. Thank you.
We can applaud our panel. Thank you very much, the five of you. Thank you so much. It was nice to travel all around the world. As you see, Elis has been very efficient in identifying new potential for growth.
As we heard, there's still a lot of unexploited growth to explore. The objective now, as Xavier said earlier, is to replicate the maturity of the model in different geographies. Geography is not the only lever that Elis has. As Élise explained this morning, they have always been on the lookout for innovative and added value services to bring to their clients. More recently, two business lines have stood out because of their fast growth and their high profitability. You are going to discover more about these two business lines. I'm talking about clean room and pest control. Let's start with the first one, clean room. Maybe you're not that familiar with this business line. It's a highly technical and technological business that Elis has invested in.
In the recent years, they have become world leader on the market and are still expanding with a recent acquisition in Asia. I'm glad to welcome on stage Dennis Smeijer, Director of the Clean Room Business Unit for Elis.
Thank you, Héloïse. Good afternoon, people in the room and people remotely. I'm Dennis Smeijer Dutch, as you might hear from the tongue fall, to give a bit of diversity in the room. I'm in Elis. I'm in my 10th year anniversary. Before that, I had over 20 years in business development in the clean room world globally. I almost want to say somebody said here, the ugly sister. I think we are the small brother within the Elis group. But the small brother, which is definitely not ugly, we are polishing up.
My aim is today to make you convinced that this business line is actually really a small and derm, which has become a very nice diamond. Before we talk about that, I think it's maybe essential for some of you to make you aware of what is a clean room. It's maybe something you shout to your kids, clean your room, but that's not the case we are talking about today. We are talking about a high sophisticated international standard. Basically, a clean room is a room, and you can see the definition, is a room in which airborne particles are controlled and classified. You want to make sure that those particles are not being missed and not being given to products. They can have two different elements from a biocontaminated perspective, but there's a particle perspective as well.
There's one element which you might find maybe very attractive. It is an international standard. If we will go in a plane today to go to Japan, U.S., Mexico, Norway, wherever we go, all those industries had to apply to the same regulation. That's interesting, right? Because if we look in other industries, think about healthcare, et cetera, it's country regulated. Our business is not. Not to make it a technical lecture, but I think a picture says more than a thousand words. If you look to the right side, you see actually some cut-throughs of major particles. The one in the middle is maybe the most recognizable, is a human hair. We are measuring 100 times smaller particles than a human hair. You could see in which ISO classifications we operate in. Again, it's an international standard.
It's not going through all the numbers, but it gives you an insight like where are you operating. The obvious question maybe you would raise is, Dennis, why are you not in ISO 3? Actually, you can see the number of particles going to such a low limit that actually human people can almost not operate in that. Why is that? You see it here. The number of particles being shed by the different actions you take in. Doing sports, obviously a no-go. Even if there's no movement, you shed about 100,000 particles. Even people need to move very slowly, and they need to be protected. I will say very funny in front of my team, I'm the worst guy standing in a clean room because I make too many movements when I'm telling. What is the aim?
We need to protect the operator. Basically, the best solution, and if we go back in time, it was in 1960 when NASA started clean rooms. Basically, they started with kind of articles which were not breathing. I always make it simple. If you put the bag around the person, then we would not have any particles in clean room and will protect the product. There will be an issue. People would not survive. Why are we doing that? We are doing that for two obvious reasons. One, to protect the product. It can be a chip. It can be a vaccine, whatever. Secondly, for health and safety of the people who are operating it in. Now, how can we do that? By garments. We are a laundry, and we are a proud laundry.
We are also a contamination control partner for our customers. In the next video, we would like to show you how we are doing that. Look through the eyes, and maybe you can remember during this horrible COVID time that you have seen all those major pharmas and how they are operating. Have that in mind in reflecting how we operate clean room laundry. Did you notice that the people who are working in our clean rooms are actually basically the same way dressed, the same way educated as the operators of the multinational operators working in pharma, med device, and Semicom, and all the others? That is maybe an interesting point, right? We are mirroring what our customers are doing. You might ask yourself, but Dennis, how is this industry? How are they divided? What are the potentials?
First, maybe to make a statement, we estimate the global rental garment market roughly about $1.5 billion. You can see the major geographies where that is operated in are in Europe, North America, and in Asia Pacific. What are the kind of industries? We try to list you a couple of industries. Actually, that's an evolving market, right? Because if you take the bottom line, for example, the EV battery industry would not have been on the slide if I would have presented that eight years ago. It is an industry which is always evolving, which is a great benefit for Elis. What we try to do as well is to mirror and again, look at it from a clean room production manufacturing facility perspective, the size of the business. The bubble is reflecting the size of the business.
If you look to the ashes, it says the customer loyalty versus customer profitability. Now, before we jump into that, I think there's an important statement to make. Our customers have a very famous slogan saying, "If it's not broke, don't fix it." In other words, our customers don't like change. They like to keep to the process. It's all standard operation procedures. We are internationally regulated. They want to keep as is. The more stable from a quality and delivering and service perspective, the more better for them. That has a good impact, and it has maybe a complicated impact. You could say, "Dennis, then it's easier if you do your job. You can keep your customers." That's true, but I will get back to that. Winning customers is not so easy because why would they change?
Our customers are not in to just change for a couple of percentage of savings because the impact to their production processes is massive. Automatically, if you look to the big bubble, the pharma market is a market which is very loyal, which also brings high profitability back to us because we need to make sure that the setup is serving those customer profiles. Another one which I like to highlight to you, which is growing quite fast, is the biotech industry. You might have heard from the regenerative and cell industry, which is a big thing, right? I mean, unfortunately, the two major diseases where people die of today are due to cancer and Alzheimer's. I think we all know that, unfortunately. The cancer industry is actually changing. The biotech market is not manufacturing batches for just an entire batch for people.
It's a dedicated batch for each and every person. We have been developing together with those customers internationally seen processes and solutions in order to serve them. Lastly, as an overall, how is this market developing? The market is growing until 2030, according to all the market intelligence which you can find online as well, between 5%-6%. That is where the market, depending on certain industries, depending on geographies. We estimate that the pharma, the biotech, and the semiconductor market, because I think you have heard also all the news which has been going around after the COVID, they will be above those percentages. Where is Elis standing then? We can definitely say that we are a strong European leader and also in Brazil. As you heard from my manager, Charlotta, that it's also in Asia there.
Now, you might ask yourself, because we put players, there are not all public figures. This is the best estimation from our side. This is a global overview. It includes also the players which you can find on the other side of the ocean. You have an idea where we are. If you then look to our growth path, we have learned this business. It is not just started. It is 55 years of experience within Elis doing this. I told you in the beginning, in the beginning of the 1960s, NASA started. We already had our first clean room laundry in 1968 on the outskirts of Paris and in Sweden. How did that start? Was it because we were thinking to jump in? No, it were customers approaching us. How can you take care of us? That is still year to date.
It is a partnership where we develop. Over the years with the M&A, we have been adding companies to the Elis clean room family. Of course, the biggest impact came in 2017 when Elis acquired Berendsen. I will get back to you later. To give you already a little bit of a teaser, we started at that time with a EUR 129 million business, and we are now, 2025, EUR 255 million. Actually, we almost doubled the business in seven years. Last but not least, we kept the same profitability level. Where are we today? If you look where we are, I think we have talked about the numbers. We have over 33 clean room laundries. That is actually the point which I think is most essential to make. Of course, for you as investors, it is about revenue and profitability.
If you think about attracting and keeping customers, it's also about your footprint. Our customers, it's all about risk and contingency. The strength we have as Elis is we are a global company. The majority, actually 2/3 of our business, is done with key accounts. Out of those key accounts, many of them are international blue-chip companies, which you have known the names yourself as semiconductor, pharmaceutical companies. They want us to take care of you. What is the interesting part of Elis? They all want similar quality, similar service, and stability, and the ability that we can take care of. Guess what? We have that, including the personal touch to be locally present in the same language, taking care of them. That's an asset which not many of our competitors have, which just adds a lot of value to it.
What do we do? What do we supply? I always like to keep things very simple and straightforward. We like to add value to our product. Every product that comes in our facility, either we can wash, dry, or sterilize or repack, that is where we add value to our customers. We started, to give you an idea, we started back in 2017, we started to do those analyses. What are we doing for garments versus other products? Basically, at that time, we were doing roughly, I think it was around 90%, 89 and a bit, only purely garments because that is the core of what we are doing. Year to date, we do 82% of garments. That is an interesting shift, right? Because there are not millions of clean room facilities around.
A key thing what we are doing is how can we expand with new products and services to our customers? To give you an insight, we started with mops. It is over 10% of our business today. We shifted single-use mops at our customers into reusable solutions. We did the same with goggles, which were, again, also not on this map 10 years ago. Due to the regulations and new demands, we have developing solutions to our customers which contribute on lifetime of product and, of course, at the end of the day, also to their CSR contribution. Where are we today? By far the footprint is for us in life science. You could see it on the right-hand side. You see it if you take pharma, you take hospital pharmacies, medical devices. It is clearly where our footprint is.
Does that mean that we don't have knowledge about the other market semiconductor? Actually, it's a very simple explanation. We have a strong footprint in Europe. Twenty-five, thirty years ago, many microchip electronics moved out to Asia, as we all know. That is the reason. We still have a major of those ones. They are coming back. One of the interesting reasons for us also to step into Malaysia in this and acquiring Wonway is that they have a strong footprint in the semiconductor market because that is quite large there. There is an overlap because what we, of course, want to utilize as well is here the cross effect of owning certain customers, having already footprint and say, "Hey, oh, by the way, we can utilize that setup in your country as well." What do we do here?
Again, I don't want to give you a full explanation about how do we serve the customer, etc. Our key message here is we are doing a consultative sale. This is not a commodity. It's not an offshore project. It is really a process where we sit down with the customer, go over their needs, go over their procedures where quality is involved. We have engineers coming in because our customers with the first questions to ask is, "Dennis, Elis, are you able to take care of us? Do you have the capacity?" The interaction with the team of Frédéric, etc., and of course, with the support of our management is super key. Our customers will not change if we are not able to take care of them.
Every day, each and every product, and especially if you see that on the right-hand side, we need to deliver as if the product was brand new every time because we are dealing with customers who are taking care of your life. It's about health. The responsibility we have in that is super high. What is the backbone and essential thing of what we have is quality. Everything we do, the way we educate our operators, our sales, everybody around, it's all backed up by quality. We are monitoring our garments, batches. We are doing bioburden measuring on batch controls. We are doing the surfaces in our clean room, the people we do, and we measure everything. What we also did, which is maybe interesting to share before I forget that, we need to sterilize some of our products.
If you go to pharmaceutical manufacturing, we need to sterilize. Quite common years ago and still today is garment sterilization. We thought that's not great. We need to depend on somebody else. Secondly, that is done with cobalt. Can we do that differently? Year to date, in, I would say, the highest majority of all our clean room facilities, we have autoclaves been installed so that we can take care of the process for our customer, which in the end also extended the lifetime of garments, by the way. Garments done by gamma go up to 50 cycles, just as a fact to know. We have done studies; we can live up to 80. Also feeding into how can we contribute to CSR, but also here a cost control element, as you can imagine. How do we do that?
If you want to do quality, you need to have R&D. You need to have understanding for what you are doing. We have three R&D centers where we have smaller setups with washers, dryers, sterilization, chemical resistance, etc., in order to do tests for products, to do technical reports because we give a lot of feedback back to the organization, but also customers. Last week in Belgium, for example, a large biotech multinational passed by to do tests at our sites. That is what I meant about building that contamination control trusted partner overview to our customers to make sure we know what we do and together we develop and we create solutions. Innovation. Elis talked about it. It is in the heart of what we do. Elis, I think you called it obsession. In clean room, we like to say passion.
We think it's passionate for the drive to make it happen. It's linked maybe to, so the largest, I think you all know the largest European commercial aircraft manufacturer in Europe. He actually asked us, "How can you help us to reduce waste?" It was back to you, Claire. What we did is, and because I think maybe I'm going too fast, I think innovation has different elements. You can have the simple paperclip innovation, as I call it, and you can have a very technical high-end solution. I almost want to say the customer name, which I want to be careful with. That specific aeroplane manufacturer said, "How can we reduce waste?" What we did is we developed a bag in a bag. Basically, we developed a pouch into the garments. Instead of that, we had to do PA packaging around it.
It's all integrated. They rolled it out across the European sites they have. On the other hand, if you look at the top, Elis Air, it is a total different way of working. I talked about that you should totally close the persons. We developed together with a supplier a specific patented exclusive product for Elis to do sterile manufacturing where you have control of your breathing systems. What I'm trying to say is we're really trying to develop innovations which are done with customers from simple pragmatic solutions to sophisticated technical solutions. Many of them are patented by Elis. What can we do? What do we do? We inform the market very much about what we do, that we do in technical lectures.
Many of my team members have seats in worldwide associations for pharmas in order together to jointly develop the marketplace and to secure right solutions for the marketplace. Lastly, but definitely not least, our customers want to get informed. They want to make sure how do we know that this batch, that this product has a certain maximum washing cycles, has a certain maximum sterilization cycles, or that I have the right product in the right place. We have developed Elis Connect. Those customers, you can see it as 120 active customers. That means the users you can multiply by four or five have access to our systems. They have a clear control. If FDA come in, which happens at our customers, they take a certain barcode, they tap the barcode in, and they know exactly where they stand with regards to compliance.
That is how we make the differences. We mentioned it already. This is what we are super proud of as an organization, but because this is done by the entire Elis organization, it is developing the business from 2017 from EUR 129 million to ending up EUR 255 million. If you look then to the question here was earlier about how do you guys do organic growth? I think clean room is a quite nice example. The contribution between 2017 and 2024, in 2024, of acquisition was roughly 4% in the revenue stream. That means that doubling the business was basically done by the organization in organic growth year on year. As a bit of an idea, last year we signed, and we signed minimum contracts for three years. We signed for roughly EUR 24 million of order take of contracts, which has an impact in the next years to come.
Where do we stand for? We mentioned it's actually not rocket science. We mentioned that the market is growing 5.56%. We want to grow minimum 8%, and the track record has been showing that we are able to do so. That is what we will continue to do. We want to maximize cross-selling. How can we bring more products which our customers today maybe have in single-use solutions? We bring it into a solution which we can wash and sterilize, but obviously also working together with pest control or working with our workwear colleagues because our customers are utilizing those products as well. We want to keep the position as an innovative leader. I dare to say, I am there to make that strong statement. If you will talk with peers in industry, they will tell you that Elis is definitely in clean room, an innovative leader.
That all driven by a CSR execution. Of course, last but not least, it's all about profitable growth. Thank you very much.
Clean room and Elis make sense. But pest control? How did a company like Elis end up investing in pest control? What's the story there? You're about to discover how it all started in Italy and how Elis became a major actor of the European market. Please welcome on stage Alexia Dimitri, Director of the Pest Control Business Unit.
You want to sit here.
Yeah.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you, Héloïse. Hi, everyone.
Alexia, pest control, can you explain?
Yes. I understood that as I'm coming from the food industry, food service, I know it's not natural to know exactly what pest control is. Yes, briefly, pest control is about dealing with any kind of pests that can be really bothering for us, of course, and for our clients. It can be really harmful. The market is wide. It's wide because it can be about residential and commercial customers. When we're talking about pests, we're talking about rodents. We're talking about mosquitoes. We're talking about flyings, anything that can affect our businesses. What we see is that slowly, slowly, states and regulations are becoming increasingly strong. Companies have to be really vigilant on their pest management companies as well.
Can you explain to us what's the interest today for one of your clients to have a dedicated and professional pest control management partner?
Yes. When we see the risk they're exposed to, first we talk about hygiene. When you talk about hygiene, you're talking about your reputation. It's talking about, for example, in a restaurant, it can be really harmful. Just take the example of some chains. If you have a damage, then it's really harmful for your reputation. Of course, it can cause damage. Damage, for example, rodents can cause electrical damage. So you waste your production. In terms of image, in terms of legal restriction, then you have to take into account all these norms. When we're talking about norms, usually we don't like it. For us, it's really an opportunity because you have to be more professional on your pest management.
How's the pest control market today? How is it structured? What are the trends?
The trend is very good. That is why Elis has had to look on this opportunity for business. When we look for the market, the market is an average + 6% per year. This is a good trend. You see that every region in the world is concerned. Every business is concerned. It's B2C, it's B2B. Of course, for Elis, the opportunity is on the B2B side, first of all. When you see this trend, it's great to see that we have a great opportunity to explore. This is on a long run because when you see some risks for the planet, like, for example, global warming, for the pests, unfortunately, it's not a risk. It's something that will arise more and more pests. Urbanization, yes, it conveys more food available for the pests. Globalization as well, more move, more travels, it gives more pests.
For us, and for us, not only it's an opportunity, but we see that people are less and less tolerant to pests. They will professionalize more their pest management. Instead of doing it yourself, they will call pest control companies.
It's a growing market. It's continued to grow. I guess you're not the only ones on this market.
No, we're not the only one. When you see the structure of the market, you observe that, yes, there are four big players, but it's very fragmented, very small companies that we observe that are growing. When you see the four players, we see, of course, Rentokil, who's a lead in the market. We have Rollins, who's more present in the Americas, then Ecolab or Anticimex. What we see is that there is space to explore. We have space really to expand. The market is not saturated at all.
It's quite different from your traditional laundry activity. How did Elis end up positioning itself?
Yes, it's completely different. It's not the same market, but the same clients. We have this great opportunity. Of course, we have detected that it's growing. You have these cross-selling opportunities. It's great because you don't need anything to launch a pest control business. You need knowledge, of course, but it's CapEx-free. It is quite profitable. This is why Elis came to that business. What we see is that, yes, it's a very fragmented business. You can differentiate quite easily. All the core synergies that we are doing answer to this need for our customers.
Yeah, that was my next question. What are your customers expecting in terms of service today?
It's quite simple. They want something quick and reliable. If they have a problem with pests, of course, they want it to be solved. If you can, of course, prevent it, even better. They are willing, they're waiting on innovations. How can we prevent the danger before it arrives? As Claire said as well in the first part of the presentation, they are waiting for a minimal use for chemical, for biocides. We know this is somewhere we are waiting for.
What is the beginning of the story? How did this all start?
The story is quite nice. It all began in Italy with an acquisition made in laundry. We discovered that activity of pest control. That was interesting because quite easy activity, profitable, growing. We said, "Okay, we can duplicate this quite easily." I'm sure you understood that duplication is something we like and something we do quite well. We did it in Southern countries like Spain, like Portugal, like France, of course. Slowly, slowly, we did it in all the other geographies. When we opened, for example, BeLux, we opened Switzerland in 2017, and then the Berendsen countries as well. When you see the trend, not only did we expand to other geographies, but as well, we expanded some services because the pest is growing. You need to adapt. In the last five years, the growth rate is really tremendous.
There is no magic for that. No magic because what is the main motor, the main fuel for this growth is really the cross-sell. We have the opportunity to position ourselves with Elis with a multi-service company. That means that one supplier, many services. Quite easy. If you propose pest control, then it will be easier for you to sign with me because you offer the service quite easily. Imagine in terms of cross-sell, all people in Elis that is in contact with a client can propose pest control. We have an opportunity of 400,000 clients. The cake is huge for us.
As of today, where do you stand?
Today, the pest control business amounts to EUR 75 million in Elis. France is about more than half of the cake. Slowly, slowly, like Southern countries, more than 10%, Italy, Spain, then Ireland is growing too. We see that when we enter a country, we do it, of course, at the very beginning, it's modest. Slowly, slowly, we are stepping on the podium. You see here with the medals that, yes, we are already number three in France, in Ireland, in BeLux, and we are stepping in the top five, for example, in Portugal. Slowly, slowly, this is the goal we have.
Impressive. Can you share concrete examples of how you rolled out in the different countries?
Yes. Let's take maybe two countries that are not in the historic perimeter of Elis. Let's say, for example, Netherlands and Ireland. You see that, yes, we began very, very, very small. But slowly, slowly, with sometimes acquisitions and, of course, dedicated sales that will enforce and will nurture the business, you can grow very fast. For example, Ireland is today more than EUR 6 million. Netherlands is more than EUR 3 million. We know they can do even more.
How is the network expanding today?
Of course, we need to expand the network to be able to be in proximity with our clients. This is the network today. We have more than 60 regional technical centers. What we observed as well is that you need to have a real knowledge. You have to have dedicated teams for technicians. It is more than 400 technicians around the world and more than 90 sales reps that are specialized in pest control. You see that the investment was very strong in the last year. That explains, of course, the growth we had.
Yes. So you're growing. It's easy to replicate. What are the revenues today on this market?
It's interesting. With pest control, it's a bit different with what we have in Elis. Of course, what we like is the preventive and the recurring revenue we have. It is based on a regular basis of revenue that's coming. This is the best management in its own. We have also this opportunity to catch a curative revenue. That means that any business that has a problem of infestation can call us. Not only is it a revenue for us, very profitable because it's a crisis when you have rats or something in your business, you have to intervene fast. You are ready to pay. The pricing power is quite high. You can, of course, propose then the recurring and really the preventive service as we know to do in Elis.
If we look into the future, what are your priorities on this market?
Priorities are quite, well, simple because it's about duplication, really, the success we have. The first one is really to have an operational excellence. Like, for example, we have to train our people. Knowledge is the basis of our model. We have to train technicians, the managers, the customer services, everyone to be really solid on the knowledge. Number two is having the right certification. If you have the right certification, then you can open new markets, new markets like the food industry, like the norm industry, like pharmaceutical, pharmacy, and so on. This is where we have already seven certified countries. Progressively, we have everyone certified in the network. Finally, we want also to work on our tools because we were talking about synergies. We did a lot.
Now it's sometime time to work on really pest control tools to really fine-tune and be able to address the pest control business as well.
In a nutshell, what would you leave our audience on?
Before ending, maybe I would add that the second pillar for really developing our business is innovation as well. As we said, they are keen on really having smart systems and an offer in line with what's going on in the market. For example, if mosquitoes is something which is more and more bothering us, we have to work on mosquitoes. Green pest management, yes, they want more alternatives. They want something more natural. They want an alternative approach. This is something we have to work on. This is something we're developing at the moment. Of course, all the smart systems. This is not new, but this is accelerating. This is an acceleration also with artificial intelligence to really work on prevention, to detect before the danger is coming.
Finally, I would say that everything that is worked on here is really about customer satisfaction. We have an obsession to keep our clients. Because in pest control, when you are happy, you do not change your pest control company. You stay. This is what we see because when we have the customer satisfaction measure, more than 90% of them are satisfied. When we see our loss rate, it is decreasing year after year. Another great example of this achievement, of course, is to see the flagship customers that we signed. It is great to see that we signed in Spain, Auchan, in Paris, Roland Garros, in Portugal, Mercadona, Carrefour in France, the hospitality industry. Slowly, slowly, we see good signs of this serious business for us.
To conclude, what would you share, Alexia?
Just to conclude, maybe it's to say there is no magic. First, we will consolidate this. We want to be very consistent to identify where we are. This is about really our operational excellence. Number two is to explore new services for best, but new geographies as well, where we can be profitable, where we can really gain market share and step up in the podium. Last but not least, it's about innovation and how we can transform this business into a very profitable activity and maybe really be in advance for our clients. This all will be supported by our business unit that will really support all countries in this development.
Thank you very much, Alexia, for this presentation.
Thank you.
We have discovered two very innovative business lines for Elis. Elis is mainly known for its spectacular capacity to grow thanks to its bolt-ons. Elis's reputation has made it a privileged partner to acquire and successfully integrate family businesses of all sizes all around the world. I would like to welcome on stage again Matthieu Lecharny .
Thank you, Louis. To close this part on consolidation of our market positions in existing markets, let me go through the bolt-on acquisitions. I will not cover in this part the big acquisitions. The numbers that you will see are not with acquisitions of more than EUR 75 million revenues typically. All the Indusa, Lavebras, Labartex, and Berendsen, of course, will not be part of this. Just coming back to the track record that we had in the last years, last 10 years here in bolt-on acquisitions. We had around EUR 500 million of revenues added through bolt-ons, which is, depending on the years, around 1%-2% add-on growth to our organic development. We have done that, as you can see, across all countries.
This is a clear pillar for us to keep on developing our countries and developing our consolidation in the markets. I will now explain a bit more in detail why we do bolt-on and what are the strategic goals that we keep on following with that. I would say there are mainly four goals and four reasons why we do bolt-ons. The first one is a simple market consolidation. This is the majority of our deals. It's just that we see an interesting target, we buy that, and we consolidate our market share in an existing country. The second reason is when we lack industrial capacity in an area. Here we take the opportunity when we see an asset with good free capacity to enter into the region with additional capacity thanks to this acquisition.
The third reason is when we want to enter into a new service. It can be an existing Elis service in a country which does not have this service, or it can be a completely new service like we did with pest control in the past. The fourth reason we do that is when we see a nice portfolio of customers that we can easily acquire and put into our industrial network. I will go into details into that. That are the four main reasons why we do bolt-ons. Of course, one question about that is basically how we do that, how we deliver that. We have a very systematic and disciplined process that has proven to be successful in the last years. It starts with what we call the scouts, the hunters, basically. I have six guys that are across the world looking for targets.
They are meeting and meeting these mom-and-pop companies looking for opportunities to find a deal with them. They are having these active or just building relationships with these targets for sometimes years and years. When the lead starts to be hot, we have a small team at the headquarters which are managing the data, the figures, the numbers, and preparing presentations to present to the M&A committee. We have a monthly M&A committee chaired by Xavier with Louis, myself, and the four other COOs and the M&A team where we will present all the cases. When we see an interesting case that we agree to move ahead, we then discuss the evaluation. Then we discuss the evaluation, of course, with the target. When this is agreed, it is a very classical process. We do due diligence, financial, legal, social, environmental, compliance, whatever.
Then we move into SPA discussion and closing. Typically, when we have an agreement on a price with a target, it will take four to six months to completion of the deal. One question, of course, is how much do we pay for that? We have, I mean, regularly communicated on that. I will just give you some details on how much we do pay looking at the last 10 years of acquisitions. Typically, in revenues multiple, we will pay one to 1.3 times multiple of revenues for laundry business, slightly more for pest control. We buy around five times EBITDA pre-synergies. Post-synergies will be around 2.5-4 times EBITDA. EBIT, we buy around 10 times EBIT. We will have an EBIT around 5-10 times, a multiple of 5-10 times EBIT post-synergies.
This is the discipline we have and we keep when we buy some bolt-ons. Let me now enter into a bit more details on each of these four cases of strategic acquisitions and explain to you how we do that and why we do that. Starting with the market consolidation part. Basically, buying an existing company in a country where we are just to consolidate our market share. Why do we do that? I mean, it's clearly because in every single geography where we operate, we want to be number one. This is a way to consolidate the market. It's around 50% of the deals that we are making.
As soon as we see in a country where we do operate an opportunity with a good business, good location that ideally can be as well complementary to our existing location, we move ahead and we try to close this deal. This will, of course, densify our network. It will create a better coverage of the country and therefore help us to answer positively to all our customers' needs across the country. We will quite easily apply all the synergies. I mean, we are in existing countries. We have the expertise. This is a laundry business. Usually, we get quite rapidly the synergies that we want. What matters in this context is where is the plant located? Is it adding to the network? What is the quality of the portfolio that we are buying?
What is overall the quality of the business people and results? Once, I mean, this has been bought, I will come back to that. We apply all the synergies. It can be organizational synergies, can be purchasing conditions, and best practice transfer. This is how we drive, let's say, the synergies and how we create value with this kind of bolt-on. If I take an example of that, typically, an example of that was Moderna, a vehicle, sorry, an acquisition that we made, an acquisition that we made in Germany a few years ago, healthcare. It was a very good business in central Germany where we were not super present in healthcare, around EUR 20 million business, good profitability. We bought that and integrated into our network, into our overall practices.
Quite rapidly, we added around 4.5 percentage points of EBIT to the existing business, in less than two years to deliver the synergies. Therefore, having, as you can see, a good EBIT multiple post-synergies, around 8, and delivering a very decent roadshare compared to a more organic roadshare driven. Moving to the second reason why we do acquisition, this is to get additional industrial capacity. This is quite obvious here. In some areas, we may have some growth opportunities. We keep on signing contracts, but we have a limited available industrial capacity. Here we have two solutions. One is to buy an asset or to build the asset. When we find a good asset with free capacity available, a good quality asset, we prefer to go there and take the immediate opportunity.
It allows us as well, of course, to increase our market share and to be immediately efficient in terms of being able to transfer volumes or to sign new customers and put that immediately versus building capacity. Building capacity, as Frédéric explained, is a long process overall. I mean, it takes three to five years. If you want to build a new laundry, it will cost you money, of course, but it costs money to buy laundry as well. It will take time. All this time is a missed opportunity to get immediate growth with existing assets, with potential customers that you can sign immediately. We do that when really we have a good market, growing opportunities, a signature ready to be made, missing capacity, and we use this to build this additional capacity rapidly.
One example of that is one acquisition that we made a few years ago in Belgium, Skeldis. This was an acquisition mainly in garment. And it was a mix of traditional garment and clean room garment. Clean room, as Dennis was presenting, a kind of more technologic and specific garment. And they had a lot of free capacity. And we were missing capacity, especially in clean room in Belgium. We bought Skeldis, and we were able to put twice more business in less than two years in this company. Basically, we bought it around EUR 10 million revenues. Three years after that, we had a EUR 20 million revenues business without investing additional CapEx. Therefore, immediately being able to sign customers and put them in this existing facility. As you can see, an impressive improvement of the EBIT because of critical mass that you reach immediately.
Very good roadshare as well with a size of business doubling very rapidly with no CapEx involved. Moving ahead to the third reason why we do acquisition, it is about entering a new service. I mean, you have two cases typically. One is we want to launch a new service like pest control. We want to therefore deploy this new service across countries. Second possibility is, like in the Netherlands, we are not present in hospitality, and we want to enter into this service. One way to do that is with acquisition because it gives us an immediate platform to do that. You buy a company which hopefully has a good name, good reputation, and solid business in a service that you do not have in the country. Then you have this platform to grow and develop within this country.
It is an efficient way and quick way to develop this expertise in the country. What we do basically, as soon as we see a good name, a good business with solid fundamentals in a specific service, good level of reputation, good level of expertise, this is typically the kind of business that we target. We then quite easily use that as a platform to really develop our know-how on this new service and potentially as well a platform for consolidation. You get known in this new area. People know that you are now interested in hospitality. You get some calls as well from potential targets that would like to maybe be acquired. This is what happened in the Netherlands. We bought Moderna. It was last year. Quite a big company, I mean, EUR 50 million, very nice asset.
We acquired that in a context where we had no hospitality business in the Netherlands. We were very strong in workwear, good in washrooms, no flatlinen expertise. This was an opportunity for us to have a good platform in flatlinen and start the hospitality journey in the Netherlands. This is something that has been then immediately optimized in terms of organization, the typical central cost optimization where you have IT or HR or salespeople or accounting that are redundant with your central organization and all the purchasing conditions. This is the impact in less than one year, a two-point EBIT increase on a business that was already a good business, as you can see, and good roadshare at the end after less than one year and a half. Last example of what we do in acquisition, it is to acquire a portfolio.
This is, let's say, not the majority of our deals, less than 10% probably, because there are less opportunities in terms of price and quality of the portfolio. What we are looking for here is a good portfolio that we can include into our existing facilities. What I mean by good portfolio are quality of the customers, reputation of the customers, and level of pricing. Because, of course, if you buy a customer portfolio which is priced 20% or 25% below your price, we can be very good integrating. It will be hard for us to get the profitability we want. We need to find a good level of pricing, so a solid portfolio.
When we do that, what we usually do is we buy the portfolio and we integrate it immediately into our facility to get the full benefits of the cost per kilo that we have in our factories. You will see that it generates a quite impressive jump of EBIT because we are, of course, a lot more efficient in factory cost, in logistic cost, in purchasing cost. This makes, at the end, a clear difference. There is a hidden cost, which is a CapEx cost, because, of course, we are buying something which is entering into a facility. The overall return on investment is absolutely fantastic when you buy a good portfolio. One example of that is central laundry in the U.K. It was a few years ago, a healthcare business, around EUR 5 million business, and in the region of Birmingham.
We bought that. Day one, we transferred the volumes into our facilities, and we closed the laundry of central laundry. As you can see, I mean, we had an impressive EBIT improvement benefiting just from the transfer of this portfolio with a marginal cost on the organization, which was close to zero. I mean, you do not replace, you do not change the GM, you do not have additional work service agent, or you put that into your roots, into your organization, and then you get all the benefits of that. This is, of course, generating a roadshare, which is super favorable, including some restructuring cost when you close the laundry. These are the four main reasons why we are doing and acquiring companies.
Maybe now a focus on how we make the integration successful, because a good thing is to buy a good target at a good price, but a very important, I think, recipe for success has been that we were able to integrate them properly into the organization. Just focusing on the process, we have a very disciplined process. We have a checklist of 750 things that we check step by step to make sure that the integration will be successful. The first step starts with a kickoff meeting one month before closing, where we put together all the people that will be involved in the integration, including workstreams leaders of this integration. We have the classical workstreams, one by content, customers, IT, finance, and so on and so forth. We do that, deploy that in a very systematic way.
Upon closing, we communicate first day to employees, employees of the target and Elis employees that will be in contact with this new company joining the Elis family. We communicate to the customers, of course, to make sure that there are no surprises, no bad surprises on that. First week is about controlling, getting under control the key elements, especially the cash. The first week, we will put under control the cash, and we will put under control the top customers. We will make sure that we have contacts with the top customers to secure the customers. After two months, we will typically have put in place all the financial reporting. We will have now the control of the financial reporting, and we will start putting in place the industrial reporting.
We will have all the work starting with the organizational synergies, which are the ones that are the quickest ones to put in place. As I was mentioning, if you have a finance service, if you have an IT service, if you have sometimes legal advisors and so on and so forth, of course, all this will be managed by the central services of the country. Typically, 30% of the synergies will be done after less than three months. After that, we will start working on the industrial area, which takes slightly more time. We will have an audit of the target with the industrial team of Frédéric, and we will come back with an industrial roadmap with CapEx and best practice deployments. This will generate another 30% of the synergies typically. When needed, we put in place a compliance program.
After that, six to twelve months, we'll get all the rest of the synergies. They are mainly synergies in logistics and in linen rationalization, which takes slightly more time. You need to compare the articles. You need to talk to the customers. Then you can have all the linen articles kind of put in common with the portfolio of Elis, getting all the benefits of the linen rationalization, plus putting customers in the routes to optimize all the logistics. This is what we do really to get the best of the acquisition in a very systematic way with a strong control on the whole process. This is a story, of course, that will be continued soon. I'm sure you will hear from us in the second semester as well. Thank you for your attention.
We're closing the third pillar of the Elis strategy.
We propose a quick break. Let's meet again here in the plenary in 15 minutes. Thank you very much. Hello, hello. Yeah, thank you. Welcome back from this break. We are opening the fourth pillar of Elis strategy, the network expansion. Once again, sit comfortably in your chairs because we are going to travel for the second time. Because starting with the establishment of the group in Brazil, making them the Pan-American leader, then to the Berendsen acquisition, as now you know, was a turning point in the Elis strategy, and more recently to the expansion in Asia, we will show how geographic diversification has been a strong and strategic part of Elis growth and also how it has proven to be beneficial in terms of crisis. Just before the break, Matthieu shared with us the benefits of small acquisitions.
What are the benefits for clients and partners of larger acquisitions and of solid financial operations? I'm glad to call back on stage. Xavier, thank you.
Let's analyze the geographical diversification of the group over the last decades, at least. It is clear that the profile of Elis is not anymore what it was 10 years or 15 years ago. You have here some on the map; you see the regular expansion of the business of Elis, starting from France and then opening some new countries in Europe and LATAM. Now we cover 31 countries in Europe, in LATAM, and in Asia more recently. It was a key development of the company, part of the strategy, as you have understood. What are the key milestones of this development? The first key event, of course, is the entry in LATAM in 2014.
We decided to invest in Brazil first. Immediately after, we made an acquisition in 2015 in Chile to become the leader of this country. In 2016, we decided to invest in Colombia, and we are now by far the leader of the market in Colombia. 2016, it is also an important year in terms of development of the business outside of France with two major acquisitions, so Indusa in Spain and Lavebras in Brazil. In both cases, we have been able to double the size of our business in those countries and becoming a strong leader. The other key milestone, of course, after that, it is 2017 with the nice acquisition of Berendsen. It was the purpose of the last Investor Day seven years ago. This acquisition of Berendsen brings immediately 14 new countries in our portfolio. After that, we have added three new countries.
In 2022, we entered Mexico with a nice acquisition. Last year, we started a new journey in Asia with Malaysia. Some months ago, we have opened just a commercial office in Singapore. Now, 31 countries covered by the group. The question is, what is the merit of this geographical expansion and the reason why we consider that it is part of our strategy to develop this geographical footprint? We see three major reasons to explain that. The first one, it is risk mitigation. The second one is the potential of additional organic growth and margin improvement. The third one, it is also a way to fulfill again the pipeline of small bolt-on. Let's start with risk mitigation. All the story was more or less to decrease the exposure of the group to the only French market.
I remember when I started as CEO of the company in 2008, long story now, we had 90% of the business only in France. It is nice, of course, easy to operate, but super risky because you have a large exposure to only one country. That is why, thanks to the acquisition and the story in LATAM, we have been able progressively to decrease the share of France in our portfolio, reaching around 60% only. The big acquisition in 2017 with Berendsen allowed us to cover the U.K., Ireland, and to become the leader in Scandinavia. We have been able also to reinforce our position in Central Europe.
After the development of the LATAM platform and the new acquisition in Mexico and Malaysia, we have now reached the level of 30% only for the French exposure with a nice balance of types of countries in our portfolio. On one hand, we have some countries super mature with super strong cash generation like France or Scandinavia, of course, with a more limited potential of organic growth for the future. On the other hand, we have some countries where we have much more potential of organic growth, more risk, and the margins are not yet exactly at the same level as what we can reach in France, of course, but more potential of organic growth. I am talking of Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, or LATAM.
In terms of risk mitigation, I just want to take two super simple examples to explain why it is important to have this good balance of profile of countries. If we come back to the beginning of the year 2020 with the COVID period, let's imagine what would have happened to Elis with the historical footprint. We were super exposed to France and Spain with a lot of hospitality customers in our portfolio. You imagine all the merit to have the exposure of workwear in Scandinavia or workwear in Eastern Europe and also $500,000,000 turnover in LATAM with a majority of the business in healthcare. It is thanks to this well-balanced portfolio that we have been able to resist during this challenging time.
Second example, what we are living today, it's clear that the automotive industry in Central Europe, for instance, is today under pressure. At the same time, we see that hospitality in France and hospitality in Spain is quite booming. We have some super good level of performance in the beginning of the year 2025, and it's more than mitigating this low activity with the automotive industry in some Central Europe. Second merit of this geographical expansion, it is the profile of organic growth of the company. It was part of some questions this morning. How can we be sure that we have now a better profile for the organic growth in the future? Clearly, this new geographical footprint explains a part of this improvement of our organic growth profile. We have highlighted here in this graph three different periods.
First period, the year 2012, 2013, and 2014, where we posted an average of 1.7% of organic growth with our historical footprint. Then second period, it is the period when we enter LATAM with a small exposure at the beginning until 2017 with the Berendsen acquisition. We see that thanks to this new exposure in LATAM, we increase the average organic growth during those three years at 2.7%. Last period, we had the new countries coming from the Berendsen world, and we saw all the potential that we had in Eastern Europe and what we have been able to develop as new services and so on. Of course, also the platform in LATAM that is much bigger now.
We to make the average organic growth, so it's not the 5.4%, of course, because inside you have some year super disturbed with a high COVID recovery or super level of inflation. That is why if we just take the three years with a normative level of activity, we can see here on this graph that we have been able to post 3.7% organic growth in average. That is why to summarize, the new geographical exposure has allowed Elis during this period to increase the average organic growth by almost 200 basis points. That is why this strategic decision to enter into new geographies with more potential of organic growth has explained also the reason why we have a better guidance for the long term in terms of growth. It is a growth story. It is also a margin improvement story.
Here you have the evolution of the margin of Elis during this period. If we neutralize, of course, just technical events with the IFRS 16 that bring more or less two points of margin improvement, excluding these technical points, we see that over the last eight or nine years, we have been able to improve the margin by 220 basis points. Clearly, our ability to develop a nice margin improvement in our new geographies sustains the story of margin improvement. We will have during this last part of the presentation a lot of examples of what we did in the new country, in Brazil, in Mexico, or in the U.K. to explain how we have been able to roll out all the know-how of the company and the reason why we have been able to increase significantly the margin.
Last interest of this geographical expansion, it is Bolton. We saw that with Matthieu that the Bolton policy of the group is super interesting in terms of value creation. It's super attractive to make some small acquisitions, but it is interesting also to have a view on what did we do over the last decade to understand where it's coming from, the Bolton. We can see that over the last 10 years, we have two-thirds in terms of number of deals, 2/3 of the deal came from new geography and not from the classical and historical platform of Elis. In terms of value and revenue, it is even more important because it represents 75% of Bolton and of revenue from Bolton that came whether from former Berendsen countries, whether, and either from LATAM.
To summarize the geographical expansion as three key merits, it is risk mitigation, it is a better growth profile, and also to fulfill the pipe of bolt-on.
Thank you, Xavier. We have a better understanding of the benefits of geographic diversification. We are going to present to you four use cases: Brazil, U.K., Mexico, and Malaysia, in the order in which Elis entered these countries. We're starting in 2014, going to Brazil. Why Brazil? How did it start? What's the story there? Please welcome on stage Otavio Carvalho, the CEO of Elis Brazil.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. I'd like to present myself. I'm Otavio Carvalho. I'm in Elis for 10 years now. I'm CEO of Brazil. Before that, I have close to 15 years of industry and consulting experience in several manufacturing companies. Before that, I'm an aeronautical engineer, and also I did my MBA here in London at the London Business School. It's a pleasure to be here in front of you to present the nice work that Elis did in Brazil during these 10 years. The first question is, why Brazil? Matthieu and Xavier mentioned several times, but Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of geography. It's also the eighth biggest economy in the world, just behind France in seventh and U.K. in sixth. It's a big economy, a big market to be present.
It's an economy with diversified sectors, with energy, with mining, with agriculture, with several sectors that, so it's a big market to be present. It is about 60% of the size of the U.K., about 70% the size of France. It's a good place to be present. Why a good place to Elis? Because into the Elis segments, also Brazil is a relevant player. It has all the industries that we are working with, hospitality, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, several industries. Also has an important healthcare system with a lot of public programs and public hospitals that deploys many public services to the population. It's a big healthcare system, very similar to what we have in the U.K. with the NHS. It's a big base of employers, so we have a good number of workwear users. That's a total market estimating EUR 2.5 billion.
It's a big business for the Elis segment as well. How was the history? Brazil had a lot of companies, some big players that were open to discuss. As Xavier presented, we start with the entry of the acquisition of Atmosfera, which was the market leader at that moment. This page is a summary of what we did during these 10 years in presence in Brazil. We acquired Atmosfera. At that moment, it was a company in local currency lower than BRL 300 million. During these 10 years in the company, Elis in Brazil, they grew by several acquisitions. During all this time, we multiplied by 5.5 times the revenues of the company. It was not, it goes to a CAGR of 18%. This CAGR is basically evenly split between 9% in M&A and about 9% in organic growth.
I think more important than just the [KIGAR] and just the growth is what is beneath these figures because it really is an example of all the cases that have been shown in the previous presentation until now, because it shows all the backbones of Elis in terms of commercial excellence to go into more segments, increasing the sales force, increasing the segmentation, pricing power. All of that to drive the revenue growth also shows the commercial, the operational excellence in terms of looking for synergies because to gain 200 basis points of EBITDA moving from 21 to 33, it requires a lot of operational excellence on top of the commercial excellence. A lot of projects, a lot of continuous improvement. That is the mindset. This is the backbone of Elis to looking for several projects at the same time for this continuous improvement mindset.
Also with a really strong focus on execution. With all of that, we are able to multiply by five times the revenue and also gain 200 basis points during all this time. What are the figures of Brazil today? Today, Brazil is EUR 265 million as a revenue. We are more than 10,000 employees. We have 105 sites. Among these sites, a big number, we have 49 big laundries and we have 56 in-situ laundries. What do these in-situ laundries mean? We are a big country and there are several big customers that are in remote locations. It does not pay out to build a big laundry to serve just one guy. We install these in-situ laundries into some big customers. In some cases, we are talking about customers with facilities of 3,000, 4,000 employees. It can be a meaningful size in these operations.
Instead of opening a big operation, we have these internal facilities. We have a lot of those facilities spread between all the country. We are the market leader in flat linen, and we are the market leader in uniforms as well. The total market size of Brazil is estimated in BRL 25 billion, which is about EUR 4 billion. The picture today shows a little bit the footprint that we have in Brazil. Even though a lot of dots and a good footprint, it has a strong density in some locations and at the same time a weak density in others. We have some big states with just one point. It shows a kind of a potential that still has to grow by opening other laundries in such a big place.
There are some states in this country that are in this page that are bigger than some European countries. We have one or two sites in those places. Even though we have a strong density in some areas of the country, there is still a big room for growth in other parts by opening more plants, either by in-situ or even outside plants. In terms of segments, we see that about two-thirds is dedicated to the healthcare, 63%. Hospitality is the second one. Uniform is the third one. Another potential of growth, it is the trade services, which is for the rest of the company. It is about 20% of the revenue. In Brazil, it is still very small. We just have a small pilot on that. It is still another possibility to grow by extending this avenue to go to the smaller customers.
The base of customers that we have in today, 7,000 customers, is basically big ones. There is still a big opportunity to go by the small segments, the small restaurants, and so forth. We are the market leader by far. We have two relevant players. The second one is an American company. The third one is an Italian company. The fourth one is the biggest national company. We can see the difference between the relevance of the players and the size of the players. We are about five times the second one, about eight times the fourth one, about 40 times the third one. If we add all these guys, we are talking about 40% of the market. There is still a lot of fragmentation that is occupying the open areas of the country that are not present.
There is still a big room to improve by consolidation of the market, by gaining market share, by small acquisition. The avenue for growth is really huge. Those are a list of some big customers that we have in the country. They are spread between segments. We are serving the big national chains of hospitals, either private or public. We are serving the big hotels, the big industries between food segment, chemical segment, metal mechanical, pharmaceuticals. We have agribusiness as well. We have clean room as well. We are a diverse country with several segments that are present and serving the biggest customers in each one. During all these years, Brazil has been consistently delivering a growth that is outperforming the GDP of the country. In the red line is the GDP of the country.
The GDP of Brazil was really comparable to the GDP of Western Europe, as I saw with the first page. We can see that even in the tough moments when the GDP was down, the country was able to deliver growth. Even in the moments when inflation was high, the country was also able to deliver growth. We can grow by ourselves. We do not really depend on the overall situation of the GDP of the country, of the economy, because we are operating in very resilient segments in a consistent way, always looking for outsourcing, always looking to move to the rental business from washing to rental. The growth of the country has been really consistent and relying on our own effort. Growing the market by outsourcing is something that we always did.
In the average of the last 10 years, about 1/3 of the growth for the new wins came from outsourcing. The outsourcing can be by moving customers that still have internal laundries to outsource to our operation. It can be either in-situ operation or operating by external laundry. Most of that is moving customers that have workwear using the garment, but washing at home, starting to have professional washing services or a rental washing service. These are the main drivers of the outsourcing. About one-third of everything that we sell between all the segments is coming by outsourcing, which gives on average between 3%-4% of organic growth only driven by that. Another driver of growth is the industrial segment. In the beginning, we had about 21% of the revenues in the industrial segment.
We have a [KIGAR] in this segment that's above the [KIGAR] of the rest of the company. We grew for 2021 to 2024. We still have plenty of room to grow through outsourcing, through gaining market share, and through convincing workers that wash at home to wash with us. Customer satisfaction is another driver of growth because we improved a lot the quality of the operations, and this led to an improvement in overall customer satisfaction that led to a lower loss of customers. Also, today, the KPIs of satisfaction is one of the key KPIs for all the executives in the company to really reinforce the need to deliver good quality of services, to retain the customers, and to improve the avenues to increase the revenues at the current customers by price, by different products, by incremental services.
Another way that we grew was through the consistent increase in the rental business compared to the washing business. In the beginning, about 60% was rental. Now we are talking about already 88% of rental. I think this can continue improving on the long run. I think it's very doable to have 90%-95% of rental in Brazil. I don't think it would be possible to have 100% because we still have some customers that moving to the wash will be the first step to become rental after. We are still going to have some washing in the long run, but it's a continued improvement. It improves a lot. The quality of the services improves a lot. The revenue increases the stability of the contracts because we have long-term contracts in this business.
Also places some barriers for competitors because the rental investment requires some cash that not all the companies in Brazil can afford. Moving to rental and continuing increasing to rental is key to our strategy to continue growing in Brazil. From the operational point of view, we have been continuing with the mindset of operational improvement and continuous improvement, operational excellence. We are able to deliver a CAGR of 4% productivity improvement by plant optimization, plant flows, plant layouts, some CapEx investments. A lot of work developed in all the countries is helping to deliver on a daily basis, on a yearly basis, this kind of improvement. The goal is straight to EBITDA or to the competitive investment to continue to keep the customers, to retain the contracts. As a result of all of that, the cash improved dramatically.
Before the initial period, the cash in Brazil was negative. We had a lot of support from headquarters. It was negative in BRL 28 million. Now in the second run, we are delivering a positive cash in the range of BRL 275 million. It is an improvement of BRL 200 million. In EUR, it is an improvement close to EUR 30 million per year of cash improvement due to all these improvements in the organization that you mentioned. Revenue improvement, cost improvement, and EBITDA improvement. What's next? I think the future of Brazil will be brilliant. It will be really great because we have a great avenue to continue going. In terms of the revenue, I think we can continue looking for expansion by outsourcing, increasing sales force, going to some geographies that are not present.
Brazil is a big, big country. We have many plants, but there are many open areas that we can continue looking for opportunities, either by opening new sites, opening small in-situ sites, buying some small laundries. By the way, we're going to open a new laundry in the north of the country, a greenfield that will be open now in August. It is another example of opportunities that you can see in many places of the country that are still not present. We continue moving to rental as an ongoing activity. We continue passing the price increases. We have the power to take the inflation, pass it through prices. All the things are great regarding the revenue point. The other part is regarding the cost. On the cost point of view, I think also the perspective is quite good because we are continuing to improve the customer satisfaction.
It gets more reliability, more stability from the operations, better stability in the contract. We have an extremely focus on cost control. It helps to control the EBITDA, the EBIT, and the cash generation. The mindset of operational excellence and execution excellence continues driving productivity improvements throughout all the years by plant optimization, plant operating hours, number of FTEs. All these small details that seem so difficult, but it's really critical for us to continue seeding every single opportunity from the operational point of view. The other point is really to continue investing in the development of the leadership in the company to attract more people, develop more leaders because the company is growing for the number of plants that we have today. It's critical for us to get more people to continue supporting the growth of the company.
But the perspective, I think, is outstanding. Thank you.
Thank you so much. That's quite an exciting first use case. We're moving on to the U.K. 2017, the acquisition of Berendsen, which by now you know how much of a turnpoint it was for Elis growth. Despite a complex operational situation, Elis managed to make it a successful integration. The Elis way, based on trust and autonomy, was born. Please welcome on stage Mark Franklin, CEO for U.K.
Okay, so we're a truly international business. I am going to add diversity again on top of Dennis's. I'm the only British guy here today. So I'm the only one that gets the opportunity to speak in my own language. It's incredible how my team speaks in their second language and delivers such great presentations. We've gone from Brazil, and I'm going to take you somewhere else now, Basingstoke.
Now, I know you're getting a little bit excited by the prospect of coming to Basingstoke, but why is Basingstoke important? It's important for us because it's where we're headquartered, but it's also the place where we were headquartered when we were at Berendsen. I'm here to talk to you about the U.K. turnaround or the story so far. Just to recap on a few things, you may remember that Berendsen turned over about EUR 1.4 billion. You may know that the U.K. was about a third of that. You may also have heard the story, the U.K. was not a great business, not so profitable. Productivity was not good. The service was not necessarily so good. A high churn of customers. It wasn't a great part of the business at all. The core of the value lay in the Scandinavian business with 40-something percent EBITDA.
Very attractive for Elis. When you consider the U.K. element of the deal, it had no value, really, of sorts. We had to do something different. If you remember the overlap, and Xavier's been through it, you've seen the Elis South, Elis North, the former Berendsen, and you see an overlap in the middle in the center. This was a perfect deal to make happen. It was great when the two companies came together. However, straight away after the deal, it was clear there were some things that were not quite right with the Elis U.K. business. There was a lack of investment in the plants, as I said, an investment plan that did not really meet the needs of the customers. There was a lack of technical know-how.
Many of the senior leaders had already left the business some months before in an organization review. There was ineffective logistics. Berendsen had gone to a single service, single site model, and it was ineffective. Vehicles were traveling hundreds of miles to make deliveries. There was an absence of customer focus. When we first visited some plants, we would say to the general manager, "Okay, what's happening with your customers?" They would say, "Don't ask me. It's not my priority. I'm here to deliver the cost deal." No one was driving the customers or supporting the customers in the right way. We had to do something different. What did that look like? Step by step, we rolled out the multi-service approach.
This is converting sites so they deliver more than one service, which does not seem so crazy and actually did not take so much to do, but we are able to do that. We made sure the general managers were driving their customers in the right way, supporting their customers in the right way, making sure service was delivered, having the commercial discussions they needed to. We also looked at the know-how within our wider business. Many of the new GMs coming in were inexperienced, did not understand the business at all. We sent them over to France for six weeks at a time to really understand how a business should operate in this way. We also looked at the investment plan, which was key. It really helps to explain where we got to with this.
We looked at the investments that would yield a return, not just an investment to say we're investing. A number of steps were taken. The organization was siloed. You see here the different services along the top. It's hard to believe that in the office in Basingstoke that I refer to, we didn't have a seat for anybody. It was so full of people. There was a Country Manager, Managing Director for every one of the services, operation leads, finance leads, HR leads, pretty much leads for every single role. It was unwieldy. In fact, the service lines were not talking to one another. We knew we had to change this. This was one of the first things we did.
We split the country up into four, the northern region, central, southeast, and southwest, to create four independent regions, all with various services, all with the vision that we need to work as a single country. We put in place a CFO, a HR Director too, and a Commercial Director specifically for flatlining, taking away this siloed mentality. The one country approach was the way forward. I mentioned to you about logistics. We were basically shipping to the very southwest, to the tip of Cornwall for a customer that we had in healthcare. Yet we had a flatlining site literally just down the road. Made no sense whatsoever. This was happening every day. We were doing that on the Isle of Wight too. We were doing it into Devon. It was crazy what we were doing when you think about it.
Within a short space of time, we were able to put in place multi-service. Things like the mat service that we were delivering from one site in the Midlands, we spread out to all the different sites. We were able to deliver that multi-service approach. As you can see, the purple dots or the dark blue dots signify that. We also built a new plant, and the installation of the equipment was delayed to reconsider how we could optimize that, how we could do hospitality and healthcare in that site from the off. We have been doing it ever since, and it has worked like a dream. We had a problem with productivity. Productivity was in decline. The management experience was lost somewhat, as I mentioned earlier. The aging equipment meant that we probably had the wrong equipment or equipment that was unreliable or poorly maintained.
We had to do something. Clearly, flatlining was a problem for us, hospitality and healthcare. The business lines were machine failure, exasperated issues, and drove up costs to maintain service levels to clients. We were not delivering that service. The equipment was poor. We set about on that turnaround on this subject, a CapEx-focused investment plan driven by a central, experienced, knowledgeable team, experts that knew how to get the best from a production facility. We did not have that before. We had that training program for the managers, for the general managers. I have to say, some years on, we now provide a base for training for new managers coming into other countries. We put in place a team of six people, and Frédéric mentioned it earlier, a methods team focused on equipment, investment, improvement, best practice following the Elis way.
We closed some sites. It made no sense to have six sites when we only needed four. When we built new sites, we did things to improve. What did that do for our productivity? It jumped up in 2019 to 2024. We reduced some of the products within our product range, always consulting with the customer to make sure we got the right product for that customer. We removed plastic packaging. In the U.K., it is hard to believe. In 2022, suppliers are still supplying plastic packaging. In France, we had not been doing it for years. In garment productivity, we also saw a big leap of improvement. We started to use cage liners for food customers, convincing them that that was a better way forward, which they supported. We invested in different ways of working using folding equipment.
Of course, when you improve your productivity, you get a Waco gain, an energy reduction. You see the benefit of that come through from the Berendsen to the Elis days. You see a big drop in gas consumption, a big drop in electricity consumption. This was not just productivity. This was good initiatives, best practice, smart investment of the CapEx that really drove this. Again, going back to the comments from Frédéric earlier. Yann touched upon the sales approach that we took. Pre-Elis, the approach very much was, we do not want small customers. Small customers are difficult to deal with. We are not bothered about the proximity of the customer. We need to put up the price or get them out. It was very clear we were losing lots of small customers.
We never ever knocked on the door of a customer that was small to inquire if they wanted to deal with Elis. In the new world, as Yann explained earlier, we have three teams. We have a local team working with customers with wearers less than 50. In many cases, these are the customers that do not outsource their service, so emerging customers, which is great for us because we do not have the competition there. We are able to knock the door of all of those customers. We also see now that we have 52 heads in the U.K. working with this service. The growth on your right is going up quite dramatically and will continue to do so. We now have seven teams that are all delivering great numbers, much quicker than I honestly thought. I was very pleased to see this trend.
We continue to deal with those big customers and the medium-sized ones. The market is still there for us. In terms of other services that we've really grown in the U.K. and thinking about that organic growth story, surgical solutions is basically a range of products that is used in the theater by surgeons or for operations. It was a business that was in decline leading up to the acquisition, but shortly after started to pick up, the CSR trend was certainly in our favor on this one. Much of the market today is serviced by a single-use product. Today, we've got a fifth of the market. We're confident we can get more. There's a desire from the NHS to work with us more closely than they do today. We've signed GBP 1 million worth of deals already this year, which is great news for us.
They'll take some time to install. You have to convince surgeons that they want to take the product. That takes time, but I'm confident we'll see good growth. 2025, the target is EUR 20 million. Clean room is a business that Dennis did a fantastic job in explaining to you. This is another success story for us in the U.K. Again, a business, if you go back to the pre-acquisition, was heading into decline a bit, certainly not growing. We've seen a real take-up in the U.K. So much so, we built a second plant. We are the only provider in the U.K. with two plants. We've got a contingent solution. Our competitors don't, of which there's only one and a bit, really. We're now doing 20,000 pieces in that clean room. We're up in the northwest where there are many customers that we're in discussions with.
As Dennis mentioned earlier, to convince those customers to change, it may take time, but I'm confident we can do that. What does all that mean? You've seen this chart a number of times today, I think, for different countries. I'm particularly proud of this one. We started back in 2018 with an EBITDA of 25%, and we finished just short of 32% in the U.K. The journey has been a great one, even through the COVID period, which is probably the most pleasing, the most difficult period for businesses to operate. I'm particularly proud of the way the team managed and the way in which, actually, as a group, we're able to communicate effectively and follow a plan collectively. What's that meant, though, really, in terms for cash? At the start of the story, we weren't generating cash.
Since the story began seven and a half years ago, the U.K. has generated GBP 75 million worth of cash. A third of that was in the last year. That journey is not over, I'm sure. I'm sure I'll be challenged to keep pushing that, and I'm keen to do so. We have got a plan to do that. We did all this against a backdrop of really intense energy headwinds, and they were intense. We also, as a country, face national minimum wage on a year-on-year basis. It is unlikely that that is going to change in the short term. We have dealt with that. We have worked with our customers who have recognized our strength of service now and have worked when we have looked at pricing plans with them to get through this, what has been a difficult period, but a pleasing period for the business.
If we look back at 2018, where were we? Where are we now? Organic revenue was down. Now we're on the way up for sure. When we look at our EBITDA, I've mentioned the numbers, but I'll say it again. I'll even call it 7.4 percentage point improvement because I'm delighted by that. Productivity was far below par. Now we're pretty much best in class in some of our sites. Again, there's more to come. We've got to keep pushing on that. Organization was very much centralized. The commercial organization was very detached from the operation. Today, it's very much ingrained. It's largely decentralized. The GM owns revenue now. It's not a commercial team that owns the revenue. People, the big organization capability review decimated the senior team and middle management team.
I'm delighted to say now, if I look around the business, most of the leaders have served five years or more. We've got a stable team, and we're seeing the benefits. In terms of clients, we were losing. Now we're retaining. Our service is certainly helping in flatlining, where it wasn't so strong. We have seen a big about turn there. The client perception is that we are a quality service provider. We may not be the cheapest, it was mentioned earlier, but we'll deliver the service and make sure we do that. We did that through COVID when it was the toughest period. Cash flow, we've talked about it already, or I've talked about it already. Positive news. Thank you.
That was another exciting use case. Fast forward, 2023, third use case with the acquisition of the Mexican market leader.
We are going to take a look into how this unique opportunity offered numerous prospects for growth and reinforced Elis' position as a leader in Latin America. Let's welcome on stage José-Luis Jacques , who comes from Mexico, CEO of Mexico.
Thank you very much. First of all, I'm José-Luis Jacques . I'm CEO of Elis, Mexico. I have been in the company in the Elis period for two and a half years since the acquisition, but in total for 32 years. I have passed through many positions in the company, and I'm a business administrator. I'm very happy to be here with you trying to present an incredible story that we in the team feel that is extraordinary to tell. Thank you very much for the time again. First of all, Mexico is a great country.
Mexico is a healthy and great growth, great with growing economy. It's a very promising market in place with several different opportunities. We typically serve three commercial divisions. One is healthcare, which is our biggest, our largest. Then hospitality and workforce. I will speak about them in a minute. As well, the assets of the company are state-of-the-art plants, very well maintained and managed, of course, always with opportunities, but this helps us to grow with profitability. In Mexico, the history, the company started it back in 1922. We are turning 103 years old this year, and we're very proud of this. We were acquired by Elis in 2022. In the middle of it, the company passed through being a family-owned company to a private-owned institutionalized company. When the acquisition was made, the company was very well organized, and we passed the culture between Elis and Labartex.
That was the name of the company before. It was very similar. The process was fantastic. Today, we are completely integrated. Mexico is a 132 million population. We are a large country, as you know, with 32 states. We cover 30 of them. We are a company with national coverage, the largest player in the market, as it was said before. Our competitors are much, much smaller. The country has had an inflation last year of 4.2%. This year, it will be a little lower. The macros are good.
We're attached to the United States and Canada, and this is great because we have this free trade agreement and with other countries in the world that helps us and that keeps us a dynamic economy and as well the nearshoring opportunity that I'm sure you have heard that brings the opportunity to Mexico to grow and the company to grow. Tourism, as it was said before, Mexico is one of the most visited countries in the world, and it brings opportunities. There is a lot of investments in the business hotels and tourism hotels in the beaches, especially in the Riviera Maya, where Cancun is, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo. It's humongous what we see there and the opportunities. Elis is, as I said, the only multi-asset player, and we have 11 plants with 13 distribution centers and one central textile warehouse where we serve all of our plants.
Mainly, we serve a little more than close to 2,000 customers, and we are close to 3,000 employees in the country. We have a little more than 300 trucks servicing 220 routes per day. We have best-in-class customers. As I said, we are organized in three commercial divisions. The first one is healthcare, which is the most important one. We have private and public customers. The public sector represents 60% of the infrastructure. The private is 40%. We have the best companies. We serve, for example, Grupo Angeles, which is the biggest private hospital chain in Mexico. We serve 33 hospitals in 13 states. We serve public hospitals as well, Pemex, which is a known oil company, Mexican oil company, Servicios Well. In the hospitality, we as well have many groups with national accounts coverage.
In the industry, or where we're new, we have been doing this for a couple of years now, and we plan that there are big opportunities as there are a lot of workers using uniforms, and they have to change. They wash their uniforms at home mainly. We have to work a lot to build this market that is burgeoning. Talking about the opportunities and the size of the markets in Mexico, the addressable market today is EUR 1.5 billion. 64% of it is yet on-premise laundries, so laundries that are in the site of the potential customer. We work a lot to give consultation to these opportunities and try to close the laundries so they enter and we can sign contracts. We have done this many times. We have closed a little more than 200 laundries in the last 10 years doing this.
This is something that is still burgeoning in the market, and we can grow a lot. In-house laundry by workers, workers mainly have their uniform, and they go home and wash it. 8% of share and 16% is what the competitors enjoy to have in the several markets that we have. As I said, 67% of the total addressable market is hospitality, which is very important because of the future of the Mexican tourism that is amazing. In the Mexican hospitality, we have a EUR 1 billion opportunity, Osaris. These are only hotels with four and five stars. We have not measured the three, two, and one-star hotels. 82% of this potential market still have laundries in place. We have to work, as I said, with consulting this, giving consultation, and converting these customers into rental and have them.
The 17% of this market is served by competitors, especially in washing. The renting service is not really being realized, and we only have 1% of the market. As you can see, the big potential is in hospitality. In terms of healthcare, the addressable market is EUR 260 million, and this is the largest commercial division that we have. We have 38% of it, so we are really the largest players. 37% is still served by on-premise laundries that we need to convert again, and 25% by players that are especially doing washing because we do rental. Mainly, 90% of our business is rental. This is a conversion that we have to work on. In the worker side, this is enormous. We're focusing this EUR 230 million opportunity is only in four segments: aerospace, automotive, food, and pharma. Why only these four?
We have focused in the industries that we feel they will pay, and they will value the service that we have. We are focusing in these four industries right now and be very disciplined with our commercial strategies. We are beginning to be successful in converting this into customers. As I said before, 78% of this, the worker takes the uniform to his house and washes there, probably not with the quality and the needs of a multinational company that is certified and needs special washing. There is an opportunity there to convert because Mexico is changing, and we have companies that are really aware of it. 17% of it are laundries that are inside, and 4% is served by competitors that is mainly washing. The rental service does not exist. This is a virgin market, and we are starting to convert. This is an example.
These are not pictures of current plants of Elis, Mexico. Please, this is an example of what we find in the marketplace of on-premise laundries. These are pictures of special public laundries that are really in bad shape. We go there. We convince the public hospital to—so we make the consultation, and when we see this, we give the numbers of, for example, all the maladies that you can get in this kind of process. Imagine if you sleep in a bed that has been washed in this laundry. It is terrible. Big opportunities are there, and in Mexico, we can achieve good growth in the future, converting and converting the market. We have multi-trends support, as I said. Again, Elis will continue to gain market share and professionalizing the services that we give today.
We have changed a lot during the integration period or process from Labartex to Elis. We have gained a lot of experiences. We have, for example, in terms of cost, we have gained a lot of productivity. We have worked with methods and processes in different plants and reduced the water consumption dramatically in the plants. The electricity consumption has dropped down as well, and the gas consumption as well has been dropping. We are doing a rollout of the Elis best-class experiences and way of operating the business, and this has been an incredible journey. In terms of financials, we are very happy. We have grown good, 9% last year. The EBITDA in the three years since the acquisition has grown very good, from 41% to almost 43% EBITDA, and the EBIT has grown as well.
We think that with all these efforts that we have done and, of course, keeping the growth and passing as well the pricing increases to our customers, that the EBITDA will keep on growing little by little and, of course, the revenues. Last, in our short-term objectives, we, of course, want to keep on integrating. This is something we never finish. Of course, there are a lot of things. You saw all the presentations this morning with all the things that we do. In a country with 134 million people, there are many, many opportunities. We are concentrating in cross-selling. There is a lot of opportunity during cross-selling in the company in Mexico. New accounts, of course. New services. We only have three services. For example, we can bring clean room that you saw today.
There are many multinational companies that want this service in the future. Probably this is something that we could do in the future. Of course, making some acquisitions. There are small competitors that are good, and they have good customers that we could acquire. Last, monitor changes in the market trends. The company will continuously adapt and react to have a better operation and better results. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Are you ready for the last use case? We are in 2024, and Elis is expanding in Asia for the first time with a very first acquisition in Malaysia. Could this acquisition, focused on the ultra-clean market with some clients operating in the semiconductor sector, be the new success story like Elis has known in Latin America? Just wait and see. Let's welcome on stage again Charlotta Ericsson .
Thank you.
All right, last but not least. Let's step into the market of Malaysia, and thank you for the introduction. It's not just a big step because we're opening up a new country. Of course, this is a big step because we're also entering a new continent, which, yeah, as everyone knows, is a fast-growing market. Very exciting to see how we can develop our platform there. Just to address the overall question, why starting in Malaysia? As Matthieu explained, Matthieu and his team of scouts are continuously scanning the market for good growth opportunities. Malaysia does, from a macroeconomic perspective, really show that they are a maturing market with a stable and also a growing industrial platform.
Malaysia, with approximately 34 million inhabitants, showing a nice growth and a stable growth of the GDP per capita, actually being above the levels of both Mexico and also Brazil, where we have shown that those are markets that are mature enough to actually encompass the Elis services. Also, when it comes to the industrial platform, Malaysia does have several strong and really interesting and growing industries, being very big in, for example, the oil industry, in natural gas, but also very interesting being one of the world's biggest players in semiconductor and also pharma and biotechnology. Those are the markets that typically ask for our clean room services. As Dennis explained to you, one of the big advantages in those markets is that the standards, the customer needs are global.
Even though, of course, entering a new market and entering a new market in a different part of the world, okay, that brings challenges itself. We are entering a market where we perfectly know what the customer is asking for. We know the regulations. We are seen as the thought leader in that market. For that reason, entering through clean room services was a very conscious and good decision. Focusing specifically on the clean room market, the global clean room supply market is estimated to be approximately EUR 5 billion. Approximately outsourcing rate is 30%. As Dennis mentioned before, with APAC having 24% of the global turnover, we are looking at a rental garment market in the range of EUR 400 million in the region. With the global growth rate of clean room around 6%, APAC is by far the fastest-growing region.
Also in the region itself, it's actually Malaysia and Singapore that are the strongest growth drivers in the semiconductor, but also in the pharma market. The acquisition that we did, we acquired a company called Wonway. We acquired them in July last year. Wonway is a well-known local player in the clean room services market, focusing mainly on semiconductors. The company is family-owned or was family-owned, founded back in 1984 by the Cheung family, and has throughout the years expanded to become a Malaysian nationwide provider of clean room services. First starting in the KL area, then expanding up in the north in Penang, which is really one of the growth centers of the semiconductor industry, and also expanding down to the south of Melaka. Melaka is specifically interesting when thinking about the increased trading with the Singaporean market.
It's a good geographical location there. Wonway has throughout the years invested in various quality certifications. It's very well known as a differentiated and really high-quality service provider in the local market already. That made Wonway a very attractive target for us. Welcome the company in 2024 to the Elis group. We are very excited to see you. I mean, this is the first step, and we already see now that the company is growing. As Xavier also mentioned, we have already expanded with a hub in Singapore. Not only targeting the semiconductor market, but also the pharma market, which in itself, of course, opens up for quite interesting growth opportunities. Again, Wonway, as I said, three locations: north, in the middle, and also in the south of the country. It's a business with approximately 250 employees.
I mean, not too many customers, but really working with the big multinational customers in the semiconductor industry. Often customers that know us, and we know them from other parts of the world as well. EUR 6.5 million turnover. Okay, it's a small first step. Our absolute focus is to make sure to continue to boost with all the knowledge that we have, both in the clean room industry, but also, of course, in the rental services itself, really boost the rental concept. Today, the turnover is still approximately 50/50 between more of trade and manufacturing versus our traditional laundry and rental services. We want to really boost the core of what Elis is doing great, which is the rental concept. I will not take you through all the steps of the integration. Of course, some steps are still ongoing.
Just to refer back to what Matteo explained earlier, of course, there are some steps that were done very, very fast. Wonway is now called Wonway Part of Elis, but will gradually, of course, be all under the brand of Elis. In order to speed up the implementation of financial reporting, but also not the least to make sure that we compliance-wise are making the progress and just risk control that we want to see, we did place a CFO from the French organization, so someone who perfectly knows the Elis ways of working and is facilitating on a daily basis the integration of the teams. Commercially-wise, as I said, full focus on applying the best practices that we know from other regions. How do we promote the rental concept? This is still to a very large extent a wash market.
To really explain and convince customers to go out, well, to do the outsourcing and then also outsource to the rental concept, that is the priority number one. In the meantime, we are also doing everything in terms of operational excellence, implementing the operational tools that Frédéric and his team have in the toolbox to bring up productivity and, of course, also quality assurance. A very interesting step in terms of the industrial roadmap is that we are now upgrading one of the production lines to GMP standards. What that means is that that opens up the market to become a supplier to the pharma industry. That is, of course, interesting both for the Malaysian market, but not the least also for the Singaporean market, which is, yeah, one of the fastest growing in that segment. When talking about Singapore, things proceed quite fast here.
Already after a few months in the Elis group, we said that we should try to target the Singaporean market. We have already signed a couple of customers there, in the semiconductor industry, but they have, I mean, we have been able to show that they can trust us in the services. We do have a logistical hub now in Singapore, which is, of course, the first step for further growth. Not only in the semiconductor market, but as I've said many times now, also in the pharma market. Just to highlight the importance of not only being dependent or reliant on one end market, just to comment on some of the recent developments in the semiconductor market. Our current Malaysian business is to 90% exposed to the semiconductor market.
Malaysia is perfectly suited or has a very positive long-term development in that market as well. There have been some recent, I mean, uncertainties in the global semiconductor market, which we have, of course, also seen in Malaysia. For that reason, balancing semiconductor exposure with pharma is extremely important for our stability. The aspects that have contributed to the uncertainties, well, it is two main ones. One is the AI, so the DeepSeek launch, which puts pressure on the overall cost competitiveness within the whole semiconductor market. The other one is the threats about changed U.S. tariffs. Malaysia contributes to 20% of the U.S. semiconductor trade. U.S. tariffs have a huge impact on that market. So far, there are no changes or there are no new tariffs, but the uncertainty in itself has shaken the market.
We have seen a little bit of a standstill during the first quarter of the year, but we're already now seeing that, okay, customers are coming back, market confidence is increasing. Another aspect that strengthens Malaysia as a good hub for Asian growth is really the China +1 strategy. Big multinational companies dealing a lot with China typically seek one backup country in addition to China. Malaysia is very well placed. I mean, as a part of the overall instabilities of global trade, Malaysia actually has a very good Asian position in the Asian region to balance out the exposure to China. The ambitions short term, of course, we want to continue double-digit growth of the business that we have acquired. That is not enough. We are not there to just stay with EUR 6.5 million.
We will for sure do more. Looking into further acquisitions, not only in clean room, but also in other areas, is of course of high importance. We will replicate to further strengthen the network of both operations and logistical network to really grasp the full opportunities of the Elis model also in this region. Further growth, of course, in the traditional industry segment, so workwear industry, workwear, clean room is one part of that, but there are of course many other potential applications of workwear solutions. There are also some of the other traditional Elis markets where there could be nice opportunities. We have the hospitality sector in Malaysia. Malaysia has approximately 25 million tourists on an annual basis, 5,000 hotels, a very fragmented market, low degree of outsourcing, could be a very nice potential. The other one being healthcare.
Majority of the healthcare market is private segment. With an increased premium segment in the healthcare market, there could also be very attractive growth opportunities there. I think I will conclude in the same way as Matteo said, to be continued, but this was the first step at least on the Asian market.
Thank you very much. We hope you liked your journey for today. As you have seen, a lot of outstanding figures and information, also some challenges, but Elis has managed to tackle them thanks to their renowned expertise, their strong reputation, and their ability to bring trust and vision. We are left with one last question. What's next? Welcome one last time, Xavier, on stage. Thank you very much.
What next now? As you know, we are quite cautious before opening some new geographies.
It's in a wedge when we analyze the past, one new country every one or two years, not more. We are working for the future. Let's analyze our opportunities. We first start with Europe. In Europe, we are super dense, by far market leader covering all the key countries. We still have some small opportunities. We highlight here the option of Croatia, Romania, Greece, or Bulgaria, but it's small opportunities. To be fair with Europe, I think that what could happen is more a bigger deal. You know that we have still a list of five to ten big companies in Europe, above EUR 200 million or EUR 300 million of turnover, always owned by some family. We have for years and years developed some strong and close relationship with this family.
We don't know if and when it could happen, but it's clear that we would be super agile. In case of opportunity, it would create, of course, a lot of synergies and make a lot of sense. I think that in Europe, it is the most probable scenario that could happen more than opening of a new country. Now, South America, I think that we did the job. We are the leader in Brazil, in Chile, Colombia. In Latam, we are also leader in Mexico. We don't have many interesting countries available. Argentina, it's a big country, but of course, due to the risk regarding the economical and geopolitical situation there, we are not super motivated at this stage. We have probably only Peru that could present an opportunity. It's a big country, 40 million inhabitants, but the market study is quite disappointing.
We have not identified some key players, so it would be a long bolt-on story to create a national player. Why not? But at this stage, nothing under the discussion. If we have now a look on the Africa and Middle East, Africa, it's by far too early, no existing outsource market. It's not for the future, for the short term and mid term. Middle East, why not? We have not yet started to work, but we will start to launch some study. We know that we could have some potential in a country like Dubai or Saudi Arabia. We will start to work on such kind of opportunities. Once again, when we just start to work, that means that nothing in the next three years, at least in this part of the world. Asia and Australia.
Asia, we have covered more or less the subject with Charlotta. You have seen that we are quite active. We have now developed the first platform in Malaysia. We opened something in Singapore, and clearly we want to consolidate our position there. We are working on Malaysia to find some other opportunities, but also in Singapore. We have some contacts with some hospitality players in Singapore. It could be quite interesting. After that, we will open also some study around Malaysia. In the past, we did some market study in China and South Korea. The first result in South Korea is not super, super positive, and the market is not so easy to imagine an entry. In China, of course, it presents a lot of sense for the long term, but with also a lot of risk.
That's why we are not totally ready yet to take such kind of opportunity. We will more focus on Malaysia and Singapore for the short term. Australia, I think that the door is closed for Elis because the market is split in two and totally separated if we compare flat linen and uniform. Uniform, you have a strong market leader with Alsco, the American company. That means that the entry with a uniform is quite impossible. Flat linen, the market is not good. You have two main players. They did a kind of price war for years and years and years. We could imagine to merge the two companies and make two big acquisitions. The antitrust authorities in Australia are quite rigid.
For instance, some private equity tried to do this merger in the past, but it has been canceled two times by the antitrust authority. That is why we consider that it is probably not a market for us. Of course, to finish and to conclude, the biggest market of the world, North America. You know that we took some initiative last year to try to enter in North America. We regularly launch some market study. It is the biggest market of the world as a second player of the world in this industry. Of course, it is our job to have some regular study on what happened in North America. The situation is not simple for Elis because you have two different situations in uniform and flat linen, as you know.
If we start with uniform, uniform is today's market that presents a better level of margin, but it is a super consolidated market. If you take the three leaders, Syntax, Vestis, and UniFirst, they have more or less two-thirds of the market. That means that why not considering an entry with a regional player? It could make sense, but it is impossible for us. Let's be clear on that. We will never be the company that is able to offer the best price for a family for a regional player because for a regional player, antitrust would not be an issue for the two or three giants. Of course, when you see the level of synergies that could expect UniFirst or Syntax, of course, they could pay a much higher price than Elis.
That is why I think that we have absolutely no chance to find any kind of opportunity with any regional player because we will always be with competition in price that we cannot sustain. It remains two big options that we studied last year, Vestis and UniFirst. Let's take two minutes to analyze the situation. For UniFirst, I think that it is also impossible now for us because we were more or less believing that Cintas would not take the risk of antitrust to try to make an offer on UniFirst. We have seen last December that they were ready to take the risk of antitrust. You know that Cintas made a kind of hostile approach to try to buy UniFirst. Of course, they have a level of synergy.
That means that a cash offer of Elis has no chance to be successful with UniFirst because, of course, Syntax can pay significantly more than what we can offer. That is why we consider that this deal in full in cash as we were working on is totally dead for us. Vestis, so Vestis, you have followed the story of Vestis. I think that the evolution of the financial performance, but even the operational performance is every day worse and worse and worse. Nobody can predict really where they will be in one quarter or in one semester. It is not at all an option for Elis. Even by the way, because we had some questions regarding the share price evolution of Vestis, is it now more an option for Elis at $6?
Let's be serious, as the evolution of the EBIT has been quite dramatic over the last quarters. That means that for us, even at $6, it is a super expensive deal because when you take just the evolution of the EBIT and what you can expect for the year 2026, for instance, in terms of multiple, even at $6, it is by far too expensive for such an asset with such a level of difficulties. It is not an option for Elis. Flat linen now, why not? We have also some contacts in flat linen for us in hospitality and healthcare. The market is much more fragmented today, but we start to see a kind of consolidation under the pressure of some private equity.
It is something that is a concern for us because private equity, it is our feeling today, are paying too much for such quality of assets. The multiple paid by private equity today in flat linen in the U.S. are too expensive. It is not at all a good moment to imagine an entry point for Elis in flat linen. The quality of the asset and the quality of the performance, the financial performance of companies that we have studied does not justify the multiples that private equity are ready to pay today in the U.S. market for flat linen. To summarize, North America for Elis is not for tomorrow.
Now we have covered what could come next, and it's time to have a more financial view and to see with figures what are the consequences of all the initiatives that we have presented today. I will give the floor to Louis.
Thank you, Xavier. Good afternoon, everybody. Long day, not long now. I will just wrap up basically what we have said today, and I guess that you will recognize most of the figures. First, we like to begin with this chart that we are very proud about, of course. It is 25 years of history of Elis, revenue in bars and EBITDA margin. What you can see is that basically the standalone business is a regular growth, very regular, apart, of course, from COVID years, on which we add from time to time some structural deal like we had in 2014, but also 2016, 2017, more recently 2022.
That is the story of Elis, of a growing company. Much more diversified, as you are aware of, if you look at the year 2021, barely EUR 600 and 90% French on our nearly $5 billion company, 30% French only. The EBITDA margin makes us very proud, of course, also because it is very high level in a narrow range. What you see is that when we are in a standalone story, we improve the margin continuously. We overlined three crises. We could have put more, but there was the internet bubble, there was the pandemic, there was the energy crisis, there was the inflation, there was a lot of bad stories recently and over, of course, the last century. Every time, Elis has demonstrated that the model was super resilient and was able to resist to whatever.
It's even more impressive when you look at cash flow because in the cash flow, you have the CapEx linen and the working capital who comes hand in hand with the revenue. Take year 2020, for example. In year 2020, we have been able to cut the linen CapEx. Working capital has been very good. The free cash flow in the year 2020 was better than in the year 2019. A lot of people have been able to do that. We are super proud, of course, of this achievement. If you look at a shorter period, let's say the last five years, the movement is also super impressive. Let's look at the main KPIs. The revenue, nearly 30% growth over the last five years. The EBITDA margin, 1.6, EBIT margin, 2.1. Now you look at the EPS, + 60% nearly.
The ROTIE, + 5 points, nearly reaching 15%, and the free cash flow doubled. In the same time, we have lowered the leverage from above three times to below two times. You remember it was a kind of concern of the market after 2018 when the interest rate began to rise. We said, okay, let's hear what the market has to say. We probably will be more comfortable below two times and being investment grade. It's done. It has never jeopardized, as you can see, the profitable growth, which is, my guess, the key word when you look at the chart. Profitable growth is what Elis is able to deliver. Two important KPIs we look at are EPS and ROTIE. Why? Because they totally represent the value creation.
EPS is value creation for the shareholders, as you are fully aware, because the EPS kind of stands for the value of the share. The second one is the ROIC because it is the intrinsic value creation of the company, how much value we take out of the capital invested. We compare the year 2024 with the year 2018. Why 2018? Because if you have the story right, it is the first year of stabilization after the big deals in Indusa, Lavebras, Berendsen. That is when I would say the market was looking for us, saying, okay, three major acquisitions in a row, a lot of new countries, double the size, what will they do with the stuff. We have done that, meaning that the EPS has grown by 80%, 80%, so demonstration of our ability to integrate and value and turn around this business. It is no surprise.
You've heard this gentleman, Mark Franklin in the U.K., Otávio Carvalho in Brazil. We could have done the same with Spain. The rotie, of course, was paralleling in the same time from 9% to 14.5%. That is the absolute demonstration of our quality of integration, meaning that the capital invested into this business has delivered accordingly to the expectation. A word perhaps on rotie because we have a lot of questions on that. That is the moment where I will shift and put my casket of content. The way we calculate the rotie is pretty straightforward, basically. We take the EBITDA, which is EUR 733 million last year. Why EBITDA? Because in the A, you've got amortization of intangible, which is totally subjective. When we do an acquisition, we could put all the overvalue into goodwill, never depreciate it, and it will be exactly the same amount.
That's why we take EBITDA, which is a fair point. As for the capital employed, it's also pretty straightforward. It's the capital we have invested into the business and which is supposed to give value. What is the capital invested? It's the net asset minus the non-financial liabilities. When you look at the balance sheet of Elis, there's one technical point, which is that we merged a long time ago with the holding company of the last private equity. We have a kind of artificial goodwill and net asset, by the way, of EUR 1.5 billion linked to this merger. It's money that has never been invested into Elis. It's fair to underline that it shall not be a value. That's basically the way we calculate. We can discuss at length about that, but globally, that's the point.
Now, looking at the valuation, it's fair to say that the markets have not given us full credit of the fantastic journey that we had since IPO. It is a Bloomberg view of the multiple of EBIT that you can see on the screens. We stand at around 11 times. Bloomberg is a bit higher because they take a big, big debt for Elis. I don't know why, but globally, circa 11 times, which you can compare with first, two guys in the range, which are Vestis and Johnson. No offense, but we truly believe that we kind of overperformed these two gentlemen. Four times below UniFirst, which, by the way, is here also a bit unfair.
When you look at the organic growth and the EBIT margins of the companies, of the two companies, even if we have the highest respect, as you know, for UniFirst, fantastic company. I do not even mention Cintas because you begin to wonder whether we are speaking of the same KPI. You can also compare with the historic data of Elis because when you look backward, we are trading four times below the historical multiples, even if you have seen that we have developed very profitably the company and we have a much better profile today. What is done is done. Let's look for the future. The future, what shall we expect now in the coming years? I think that you come out of this day convinced of two things. First, our ability of delivering regular organic growth, and second, our ability of doing bolt-on acquisitions.
That's why we consider that in the future, we shall be able to deliver 5%-6% growth for the standalone business model. Standalone is by definition without major acquisitions like recently Mexico. Before that, Indusa, Lavebras. Regardless, also Forex by definition, we don't know where it goes. And this 5%-6% total growth, 4% organic. I guess that now you get convinced that we have the opportunities, we have the commercial organization, we put the effort in all the geographies, and we have the diversification of the geographies that allows us to deliver this growth, as Xavier has demonstrated in the recent years. I think you give credit to Matthieu to find deals, buy them cheap, and integrate them. That's the second part of the growth, the one to two coming from the bolt-on.
We have a strong pipeline and we like to deliver it. The second KPI to look at, of course, is EBITDA margin. That also, when you hear Frédéric speaking about productivity, but also when you hear Elis speaking about pricing power, when you know that the additional volumes come with splendid accretive EBITDA, and looking at the chart, you, I think, are convinced that a 20 basis points improvement in the coming years in average is absolutely doable. Another way to look at it, by the way, is that we have a lot of countries that are mature enough to deliver 40% circa EBITDA margin. And it's not only France, it's also Netherlands, it's Poland, it's Baltic, Czech, it's Portugal, it's Mexico. So we have a club of the 40%.
All the other countries, and you have seen the energy of the gentlemen and ladies, are, of course, willing to join the club. 20 basis points improvement in average. Of course, all that drops into the free cash flow. In the last four years, we delivered EUR 1.1 billion. When you do the math, as I'm sure you are doing exactly now, I'm looking at Ben, you will find, like me, EUR 1.5 billion in the next four years, which is exactly 35% above what we did in the last four. At the end of the day, to wrap up, 5.5%-6% total growth, of which 4% organic, EBITDA improving by 20 basis points in average, it means that EBITDA, EBIT, EPS shall grow faster than top line. Again, you do the math, it works. Free cash flow, 35% more in the next four years than in the last four years.
With this free cash flow, what will we do? I think we gave the answer already in March. We have this new capital allocation policy. We consider that first, the leverage was at a good level below 2 times. Second, we asked a lot of effort in the past to shareholders to come along the major deals during the COVID. We got the dividend and so on. Now it's time perhaps to a more friendly shareholder policy. Out of the free cash flow, we will still do the bolt-on M&A because we know it creates a lot of value, that EUR 50 million-EUR 150 million enterprise value per year. Let's say EUR 100 million in average. We target a small decline of the leverage. That one is enough, we guess. When you do the math again, stabilization of the debt works due to the EBITDA improvement.
The rest is for the shareholders. Probably we'll stick to the small increase of the regular dividend, EUR 106 million this year, historically increasing by 5% more or less. The rest, every year, we'll decide whether it's share buyback or a special dividend. This year, you have the answer. Due to the level of the stock, we have decided to put everything into share buyback. We are well advanced in the program, but we will decide every year about that. I think it's time for a second session of Q&A. I took your place.
That's fine. You do it very well. Thank you, Louis. Indeed, this was a long day, very interesting, impressive information. Is this one working? Yeah, let's try this. We have a second round of questions.
I know there are a few questions on the chat, and I have a first question right here.
Hi, Ben Wild from Deutsche Bank. One question directly, Louis, on what you've just discussed. The midterm guidance implies about our growth in the high single digits. The FCF guide implies modest FCF growth from this year. Is there any reason why from this year, FCF should grow less quickly than EBITDA? And the EUR 1.5 billion guide, I suppose a question I regularly ask, how much conservatism have you built into that figure?
In between EBITDA and free cash flow, you do not have a lot of lines. We mentioned CapEx, 19%, fair point. The tax rate is pretty regular, except this year where we pay an excess of EUR 7 million, as you know, due to French inventivity. The moving line actually is the intere st cost.
Interest, as you know, we used to pay a very low level of interest. That has increased. Last year, we paid EUR 80 million. This year, we'll pay EUR 90 million. Next year, we'll pay EUR 100 million. We shall be the cap of the cost. That's why it limits the growth, you're right, in between the last four years and the next four years.
A second question on the M&A discussion that we've had consistent.