Our agenda today. I'm going to take you through the highlights for the year. Jackie will present our financial performance. And after that, I will give you a strategic update introducing our new medium-term targets. Then we'll take your questions. So let's start with headlines. We delivered another strong set of financial results despite macroeconomic uncertainty. Revenue grew 9% in constant currency. Adjusted EBIT margin grew 120 basis points to 18%. Earnings per share grew 18% to $0.095. And we generated $153 million of free cash flow. We continue to drive value for shareholders with a proposed final dividend of $0.219, up 10% on 2023. We also continue to outperform our industry by gaining share in both the global apparel and footwear markets. This is in part because of our first-mover advantage and our continued global leadership in recycled products.
These grew 144% to $405 million, a significant milestone. We delivered $67 million of savings from strategic projects on course to reach our target of $75 million by the end of 2025, and we addressed an important driver of underperformance in performance materials with the closure of our Toluca plant in Mexico in December. I am pleased that we have also successfully de-risked our historic U.K. pension liabilities. No further cash contributions are required, so we can now plan to use our significant free cash flow with greater certainty. With that, I will hand over to Jackie to take you through our financial performance. Thank you, Jackie.
Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin by summarizing the key highlights of our financial performance for 2024. We are pleased to deliver another strong financial performance with revenue growth of 9% in constant currency. There was particularly good momentum in apparel and footwear following a return to normalized buying patterns, partly offset by weakness in a number of performance materials and markets. Group revenue growth, together with continued benefits from our strategic projects and acquisition synergies, resulted in an 18% EBIT margin above our 2024 target of 17%. This strong operating performance translated into 18% earnings per share growth. We also continued to deliver excellent cash generation with $153 million of adjusted free cash flows, resulting in leverage of 1.5 times at year-end.
Lastly, on highlights, as announced in September 2024, we fully de-risked the U.K. defined benefit pension scheme, which in turn has significantly de-risked the balance sheet. We will make no more cash contributions to the scheme. Turning now to slide seven, which sets out the financial summary and our key financial metrics, and I will start my comments in constant currency. Overall, group revenues increased 9% with a continued recovery from widespread industry destocking in apparel and footwear, which was reflected in soft prior year comparators. This was partly offset by some ongoing weakness in performance materials. The apparel division grew 13% as it exited the destocking cycle first, and footwear increased 10% as it remains a few months behind apparel in the recovery. In both divisions, it was pleasing to see customer buying patterns returning to more normal levels.
Revenue and performance materials decreased by 1%, driven by softness in some U.S. markets, as well as destocking at some of the U.S. telecommunication customers. Group EBIT was up 18% at $270 million as we benefited from volume recovery in apparel and footwear, as well as further benefits from our strategic projects and acquisition synergies. Overall margins were up 130 basis points to 18%. At a reported level, revenue and EBIT growth was once again primarily impacted by hyperinflation accounting in Turkey, which requires us to translate results back at period end rates. Adjusted EPS of $0.0949 per share was significantly up year on year as the improved operating performance translated to the bottom line through well-controlled interest tax and minority interests. Turning now to EBIT and margin on slide eight.
After the period of prolonged industry destocking during 2022 and 2023, volumes have recovered to more normal levels, and this has resulted in greater efficiency in our plants. We have benefited from an effective pricing strategy alongside the benefits of easing raw material costs seen during prior periods, which have now largely ended. Other cost categories such as freight and energy have returned to an inflationary trend, and labor inflation remains at relatively normal levels. Overall, in line with our track record, we have shown our ability to deliver price gains and generate productivity benefits, which more than offset overall inflationary pressures. We have continued to see benefits from our strategic projects, which are now largely complete, and acquisition synergies have also increased profits. SG&A costs are above last year, in part due to top-line growth, but also targeted reinvestment into the business to support further future growth.
In addition, incentive payments were higher due to the excellent performance during the year. These impacts have led to a very strong EBIT margin of 18%, which is 100 basis points above our original target. Let's now look at the divisional margins. Our apparel division delivered strong margins of 19.6%, up 210 basis points. Removing one-off benefits such as foreign exchange gains on an underlying basis, margins were up about 19%, well in excess of our original 2024 margin target. The division benefited from a return to volume growth, as well as the ongoing benefits from strategic projects and procurement savings. In footwear, margins were at 23.5%, again comfortably outperforming the 2024 guidance of greater than 20%, and this division also benefited from a return to volume growth, albeit at a slightly later than the recovery in apparel.
In addition, it delivered full run rate annualized integration synergies of $22 million, which was double the original target. In performance materials, reported margins in the period were 7.4%, down 120 basis points as a result of weaker-than-anticipated market conditions and operational inefficiencies. Outside of Americas, PM margins remain a healthy double digit, and we expect the closure of the Toluca plant in Mexico last December to benefit margins in 2025. I would note, however, that volume recovery remains an important driver of future margin growth in PM. Turning now to the income statement, and I'd like to cover three areas on the slide.
Firstly, exceptional and acquisition-related items are $70 million, which include $27 million spent in relation to our strategic project initiatives, $25 million of amortization costs, mainly in relation to our acquisition of Texon and Rhenoflex, and $15 million of costs related to closing the Toluca site, of which around $8 million are expected to be cash costs. The vast majority of our strategic project actions are now largely complete, and in footwear, this includes consolidating two sites into one in Europe to drive operational efficiencies, as well as expanding our Indonesian operations, which is a strong growth market for us. Secondly, on the slide, our finance costs were broadly flat year on year. Additional interest related to the GBP 100 million pension buy-in during the second half was offset by well-controlled debt levels and an accounting credit in relation to pensions.
And finally, the third item that I'd like to call out is the underlying effective tax rate of 29%. This is consistent with the rate in 2023 and also our guidance for 2025. Moving to cash flows and leverage, we continue to generate strong free cash flow, delivering $153 million on an adjusted basis compared to $131 million last year. This performance was supported by improving operational results and a return to normalized levels of working capital. Close management of inventory, while supporting growth, has reduced our inventory days by about four. We continue to invest in capital expenditure that adds value, such as expanding our footprint and growth or productivity opportunities. And our guidance on CapEx for 2025 remains at $30-$40 million.
Closing net debt of $440 million, excluding leases, was above the end of 2023 as a result of the residual exceptional cash costs in relation to strategic projects, shareholder dividends, and the GBP 100 million U.K. pension settlement during the second half of last year. This equates to leverage of 1.5 times, comfortably within our target range of one to two, which leaves us in a strong position to pursue strategic opportunities as they arise. We were pleased to announce in September last year that the pension scheme trustees had finalized an agreement for the purchase of an annuity policy for the remaining 80% of the scheme's liabilities. As you know, this builds on a previous buy-in in 2022 covering 20% of the liabilities.
As a result of the buy-in, all the financial and demographic risks relating to the scheme's liabilities are now fully hedged, with the two policies paying the scheme a regular stream of income that matches its pension payments to all members. This buy-in is the final and most significant step in Coats fully ensuring its U.K. pension obligations. The agreement required GBP 100 million of additional funding from the group, and this cash contribution was made in the second half. We now also have the option to remove the scheme fully from the group balance sheet in the coming years, and our efforts are now focused on this process. The annual tailwind to free cash flows for the group as a result of this agreement is around $30 million, and now the U.K. pension obligations have been fully de-risked.
We've taken the opportunity to revisit our capital allocation policy, and David will cover this later. Turning now to our modeling guidance for 2025 on slide 13. I'm not planning to go through this in detail, but I'll be very happy to arrange follow-up calls if you have further questions on this. So, in summary, I'd like to reiterate a return to strong top-line growth in 2024 alongside continued delivery of our strategic projects and synergies, and this has benefited our margins. Our cash generation continues to be excellent, and the U.K. pension scheme is now fully de-risked with no further cash contributions required. On a more personal note, you will know that earlier this year I decided to step down from my role as CFO at the May AGM.
It's been a privilege to be part of the Coats team, and I'm very proud of all that we've collectively achieved. The group enters 2025 with very strong margins and a very robust balance sheet, and it's an exciting time. I wish David and the rest of the team all the best as they write the next chapter for Coats, and on that, I'd like to hand back to David.
Thank you, Jackie. Since I joined Coats last September, I have visited most of our sites and had the chance to get to know the business from the inside. These visits have confirmed for me the strengths of the business and the opportunities that lie ahead. We have an unparalleled customer base, including 800 brands and 25,000 manufacturers across a wide range of sectors. Our high-quality product portfolio and global manufacturing footprint enable us to serve these customers wherever they are and to respond to local market opportunities with speed. From a financial perspective, Coats is in a very healthy position. Cash generation continues to be excellent, and we have a robust balance sheet. So we are well set to deliver strong growth going forward. After meeting many employees around the world, I'm convinced that it's their dedication and our unique culture that make Coats a market leader.
I'm looking forward to working with colleagues to deliver on our significant potential in order to create further value for our stakeholders. Over the last 10 years, the company has been transformed into a stronger and more agile business. The changes have been far-reaching and deep, as we focus the business on the most attractive markets and customers. During this reconfiguration, we grew revenue by 20%, yet profit more than doubled. This is the result of improved operational efficiency and the focus on markets and geographies where we have leading positions with real differentiation. As we divested from some markets and countries, we also reshaped the business through acquisitions. This includes two footwear acquisitions in 2022, which have made us the leading player in footwear structural components.
In addition, Jackie has led the de-risking of our U.K. pension liability, which has further strengthened our financial position and created optionality going forward. Today, we are the global leader across more than 85% of our product portfolio, and we are consistently gaining share through our products and service leadership as the markets continue to grow. So let's turn now to our three divisions. We are the clear global market leader in apparel, substantially larger than our next competitors combined. The industry is increasingly focused on sustainability and supply chain resilience. So our recycled products and global footprint position us perfectly for the opportunities in this $3 billion addressable market, which is growing. In footwear, we are now the market leader within both threads and structural components. The diversity of our portfolio makes us well placed in the athleisure and sports market, which is growing at around 5%.
Our focus on innovation and sustainability puts us at the forefront of this market as customers search for higher performance, greater comfort, and more sustainable products. Performance Materials is our smallest and currently weakest performing division. We're taking action here to ensure it contributes positively to the overall success of the group. The division has an appealing portfolio, with the exception of yarns, serving a variety of end markets. A combination of operational improvements, successful innovation, and attractive organic adjacencies provides a pathway to sustainable, profitable growth for this division. I want to turn now to our growth in market share. Our share gains are underpinned by three megatrends: innovation, sustainability, and digital. We continue to deliver progress on all three. Innovation is a core growth driver, enabling us to meet evolving customer demand.
One example from many is EcoVerde, the first line of 100% recycled premium threads, delivering the same level of performance as the industry's leading non-recycled products. Sustainability is at the very heart of our strategy at Coats, covering both our products and our operations. Between 2022 and 2024, we halved our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Brands increasingly want products with technical excellence and a lower carbon footprint. So our ability to meet this demand is key for future growth and competitiveness. You will find more detail on sustainability in the appendix. Digital transformation is gaining momentum across our industries as our customers strive to cope with faster cycles and the need for higher productivity. Our holistic approach is reflected in our digital platform for Tier 1 customers.
ShopCoats is a one-stop destination, allowing them to request a sample, place a complex bulk order across multiple product lines, or simply seek technical support. Over 80% of our thread orders come from this site because it makes our customers' lives easier and more efficient. So we continue to see this as a growth lever. As we respond to these trends, we help our customers to win, and the more they win, the more we win, establishing Coats as the preferred supplier for the world's best-known brands. We also see attractive organic growth opportunities in adjacent markets, where we currently have a minimal presence of $30 million sales. These include digital products for our apparel customers, a portfolio of composite tapes for energy and personal protection fabrics in performance materials, and new opportunities in footwear, such as structural components for handbags and woven uppers for sports shoes.
Together, these adjacencies represent an incremental addressable market of $1.3 billion, growing at more than 5% a year, faster than our underlying core markets. We expect to accelerate growth in these adjacencies with innovative products and moderate additional investment. Turning now to our medium-term targets. In light of our recent performance and the industry outlook, we have updated our strategy and financial targets. Over the medium term, we expect Coats to grow organic revenue at more than 5% a year, with group EBIT margins of 19%-21%. Breaking this down by division, in apparel, we expect to deliver annual revenue growth of 3%-4% and EBIT margin of 19% or more. In footwear, revenue growth between 7% and 9% and margin between 24% and 26%. And in performance materials, revenue growth between 6% and 8% and margins between 13% and 15%.
Over the next five years, we expect to generate free cash in excess of $750 million after interest and tax, but before dividend distribution. This will support our capital allocation policy, which is focused on accelerating earnings growth. From a 2025 baseline, we expect organic EPS to grow in high single digits compounded, contributing to total growth in EPS of more than 10% a year after any acquisitions or share buybacks. Now I'd like to tell you more about our plans to deliver on these targets in each division. Coats is the global market leader supplying premium sewing thread to the apparel industry. Customer inventory and buying patterns returned to more normal levels last year. This followed an extended period of industry destocking that started in 2022 and continued through most of 2023. So constant currency revenue growth of 13% last year was against a weak comparator.
We estimate we grew share in 2024 by one percentage point to 26%. Adjusted EBIT margin was 210 basis points higher at 19.6%. This was driven by higher volumes, continued savings from our strategic projects and procurement initiatives, and some positive foreign exchange gains. The underlying margin, without the currency gain, was around 19%. Our focus on recycled thread products has yielded exceptional results, with sales of recycled threads up 144% to $405 million. This demonstrates our leadership in sustainable innovation. Over the medium term, we expect apparel to grow at 3%-4% a year, ahead of underlying market growth of 1%-2%, as a result of both gains in share and growth in adjacencies. Continued market share gains will be driven by our deep customer relationships and our position as a leader in sustainability, innovation, and digital.
We see opportunities in China and India, driven by demographics with a rapidly growing middle class, as well as in our fashion technology business, Coats Digital. Moving on to footwear. In 2024, we completed the integration of our acquisitions, Texon and Rhenoflex, and we now operate as a single business. This makes us the global market leader in threads and structural components for footwear, and we are increasingly a super Tier 2 partner. Footwear revenue increased 10% on a constant currency and reported basis. Revenue growth accelerated in the second half, driven by a return to more normal customer buying patterns and inventory levels. Our footwear business is focused on innovation and sustainability. We have a comprehensive portfolio with a strong emphasis on the more attractive, faster-growth sports and athleisure segment.
Our brand-specified positions have considerable longevity, typically lasting over the production life of the end product, and this enables our growth ahead of the market. We estimate we grew share from 27% to 29% in 2024. Part of the strategic rationale for combining Coats footwear business with Texon and Rhenoflex was to enable cross-selling of our broad range of products through a single customer-facing commercial team. In 2024, we succeeded in cross-selling our products to two large, well-known European sports brands, as well as a leading American brand. Adjusted EBIT margin was up 70 basis points at 23.5% in constant currency, significantly above our 20% target. This was driven by a combination of higher volumes, strong commercial delivery, and continued benefits from integration synergies. Over the medium term, we expect footwear to grow at a rate of 7%-9% a year, ahead of mid-single-digit market growth.
As with apparel, share gains and organic expansion into adjacencies will drive the outperformance. Our new plant in Indonesia will accelerate our growth in this market, which is increasingly important for our footwear customers. We also see opportunities to expand our customer base in China and to grow into two adjacencies: lifestyle handbags and engineered footwear uppers. Turning now to performance materials. This division underperformed in 2024, in part due to temporary market weakness in industrials and telecom. The majority of the portfolio is attractive and will perform well when markets recover. However, our North America yarns business faces structural growth and profitability challenges that we are addressing head-on. Performance materials revenue declined 1% in constant currency, with personal protection equipment flat on last year, telecom and energy down 7% against strong comparators, and industrials up 1%.
There was significant softness in our U.S. end markets, as well as strong destocking by U.S. telecom customers. Adjusted EBIT margin was 7.4%, down 120 basis points and well below the 2024 target of 13%-14%. This reflects weakness in our end markets, which we expect to continue in 2025, as well as the underutilization of our footprint in Mexico. After detailed analysis, we closed our plant in Toluca last December to ensure that capacity in American yarns is aligned to demand. This will deliver immediate savings in 2025 and contribute to our medium-term margin targets. We have also appointed a new chief executive in this division, who is already driving additional improvement initiatives. We expect medium-term revenue growth for the division of 6%-8%.
This is the result of high single-digit growth in personal protection equipment, driven by PPE threads and fabrics, growth in line with global GDP for industrials, and double-digit growth in telecom and energy. We also expect profit margins to reach 13%-15% in the medium term through a combination of operational improvements, market recovery in industrials and telecom, and growth initiatives in two accretive adjacencies: composite tapes for energy and PPE fabrics. So, to sum up, at group level, we expect to grow more than 5% a year in the medium term. This will be supported by underlying market growth of 3%, continued share gains through our leading products and services, and growth in organic adjacencies. Our EBIT margin is expected to increase to between 19% and 21%.
This will be achieved through revenue growth in apparel and footwear, and the improvement plan for performance materials partly offset by selective investment. Turning now to acquisitions. These are an important part of our strategy, and we have an active pipeline. Typically, we want to invest in companies that enable further industry consolidation or access to attractive adjacencies. We look for businesses with differentiated positions, cross-selling opportunities, potential for cost synergies, and a focus on sustainability. We highlight some specific areas of interest on this page, and we continue to analyze our markets for further attractive opportunities. Financially, we're interested in companies with revenue of $50 million-$300 million, a margin profile potential in line with our medium-term targets, and an IRR of more than 15%. Our focus is on creating value for shareholders.
We have taken the opportunity to revisit our capital allocation policy now that our U.K. pension obligations have been fully de-risked and our strategic projects are largely complete. Our priorities are reinvesting in organic growth, delivering a progressive dividend, making acquisitions, and if leverage is expected to fall below one times for a sustained period, then we will consider share buybacks. We expect to deliver over $750 million of adjusted free cash flow over the next five years. A large portion will be allocated to acquisitions and/or share buybacks, while maintaining a strong balance sheet with leverage of one to two times. This will result in earnings per share growing at a compounded rate above 10% in the medium term. We're also making some changes to the management team. In January, we welcomed Pasquale Abruzzese as both the new CEO of Performance Materials and Group Chief Operating Officer.
Pasquale has extensive blue-chip experience and a proven track record of growing and improving businesses at scale. I look forward to working with him on improving performance materials, as well as delivering on the opportunities for the wider group. Hannah Nichols has been appointed to succeed Jackie from the end of May. Hannah is currently CFO at Hill & Smith, the FTSE 250 infrastructure equipment group. She has over 20 years' experience in a range of finance roles, with a strong record of facilitating value creation and a lot of experience in acquisitions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jackie on behalf of the company, the board, and myself. Over the last four years, Jackie has had a significant impact on the business, most notably improving the EBIT margin and de-risking the defined benefit U.K. pension scheme. We are now far better positioned.
Jackie, I will be sad to see you leave later this year, but we wish you all the best for the future. So, to conclude, 2024 has been a strong year for the business. We anticipate another year of progress in 2025, in line with market expectations based on current market conditions and normalized customer buying behavior. These guidelines reflect continued organic growth for apparel and footwear, in line with medium-term growth targets for these divisions. Organic growth in performance materials is expected to be modest, with no recovery in Americas yarns business and a gradual recovery in telecoms and energy. Margins in 2025 should benefit from further growth and improvement in performance materials and final benefits from strategic projects, partly offset by targeted reinvestment to drive long-term growth initiatives. Free cash generation is expected to be strong, supporting the group's capital allocation strategy.
Our strong cash generation and de-risking the U.K. pension scheme now allow us to allocate capital with more flexibility and certainty. So, with the major transformation of the business behind us, we're very well placed to deliver future profitable growth and meet our medium-term targets in order to create greater value for our shareholders. Thank you very much. We're happy to take your questions now.
Charles Hall from Peel Hunt. First of all, can I, on behalf of the analysts, also thank Jackie for all your help over the last few years, and particularly congratulations on the performance of the company and a stellar set of results to go out on. So, very well done.
Thank you, Charles.
David, could you just ask on the medium-term targets? First of all, what do you mean by medium-term? And then, how do you see the rate of progression? Is it going to be a steady progression, or are there step changes? And what do you see as the key drivers of the margin performance? Is that a combination of volumes, pricing, costs, or is there anything specific that you pull out?
Yeah. So, the medium-term targets are the targets that we see over the next three to five years, with a steady progression. Let me talk a little bit about how we get there on the EBIT side. Basically, today we're at 18%, and we are guiding 19%-21%. You can see mathematically how the improvement plan to performance materials gets us already into the lower end of that range, and further growth and progression in apparel and footwear would get us to the high end of that range. So, we feel good about that trajectory.
And which aspect do you think will be the key drivers? Is that a volume requirement that you need to get, or are there further costs that you can take out?
Yeah. So, on the performance materials, I think the improvements are mostly operational in terms of the next few years, and that will, again, provide most of the pathway for performance materials. We just need industrial and telecom markets to recover to normal levels. So, that's the underlying market assumption that we're saying of 3% to 4% growth. But with those markets recovering a bit, it's mostly operational. It's mostly operational. On apparel and footwear, it's continued to drive the growth, share gain expansion. We're assuming a little bit of more share gains growth in line with what we have achieved in the past few years consistently, and that will carry us into those numbers.
And that's a question on sustainability and the impressive performance that you got in sustainable threads last year. Was that driven by existing customers or a lot of new customers coming on board? And can you just say where you see the competition on the sustainable side?
Yeah. The growth in recycled threads has been a fantastic story, a phenomenal story for the company, a big driver for market share gains, and it will continue to be a big driver for us. If you look at our numbers, the percentage of, call it, sustainable products that we're selling is still 46% of total, so we have room to continue to expand that. The expansion and the growth last year, 144%, comes from a combination of, as you could imagine, new and existing customers with further deployment, expanding capacity with supply base, yeah, and doing this globally across really all countries.
So, right now, I think you're asking as well about competitive position. We're clearly ahead of the rest of the industry by far. Our major competitors are already starting to offer recycled product, but obviously, here to be successful, you need to have the range. You need to be able to offer all the color range on both recycled and non-recycled material around the world and do it consistently. And making recycled product is slightly more difficult than making non-recycled product. So, we're way ahead in that sense of being able to provide that consistency of product anywhere in any color. And the second important aspect is supply base. We've developed a very, very strong supply base that is an asset right now because we have secured, obviously, the volumes and the capacity to support the growth. So, we see our position very strong and with further runway ahead.
That's great. Thanks.
Thank you. It's Jonathan Mounsey, Exane BNP Paribas. Just really want to delve into capital allocation. So, we start with the targets you've given, the medium-term targets, three to five years. If I take the P&L guidance and the typical cash conversion, 750 seems a little conservative, which this early makes sense, but we're going to generate some cash here. You've talked about M&A, and of course, in the context of the balance sheet solution, you have more flexibility. What areas are you looking potentially to acquire in? And the sort of second question to that would be, if you don't find the assets to acquire, at what point, given the cash trajectory that you've laid out today, would you start to consider announcing buybacks?
Yeah. So, I'll take the first question. So, fundamentally, well, the good news is obviously that we are very cash generative, and after sorting out, obviously, the pension and finishing the strategic projects, all that capital can be deployed to value creation. So, that's the great news here. In terms of M&A, so acquisitions is clearly our priority one. We have an active pipeline. I think we've been open in the past that we're prioritizing footwear, specific parts of footwear where we see engineered positions with good value add and in line with the criteria that I've laid out in the presentation. That would be priority number one. We continue to monitor apparel in terms of opportunities for further consolidation. And I also see, not now, but as we improve performance materials, we see already interesting adjacencies in performance materials that would make sense as well.
But obviously, the priority is on getting performance materials operationally on the right track first and then look at that. So, that would be kind of the sequence, but we have an active pipeline and a good set of potential targets. And you're not too on timing on buybacks. Clearly, the M&A pipeline, we can't control the timing. Quite often, these businesses are owned either by families or private equity. So, we're committed to the M&A pipeline and looking to deliver there. But if we got to the point where we thought we were going to go below one for a period of time, so there wasn't something close on the agenda, then we would consider buybacks. So, if you think we're at 1.5 times at the moment, we're going to deliver quite quickly. That decision point, if there's nothing clear on the agenda, is going to come up later this year and early into 2026.
Maybe one more different topic. Obviously, since the last time you reported numbers, there's been some changes politically in the world. Some talk of tariffs possibly being applied. How do you feel about your footprint and also, I guess, the footprint of your suppliers? Does it create any cost headwind for you on the input or potential issues around tariffs for your products where you're selling into? Is there any change that has to happen, any strategic adjustment related to tariffs?
I will start by saying that our footprint has always been an advantage to us just because we are pretty much everywhere in every country as production shifts from one geography to another. We've always been present in those geographies, destination geographies, and moving in a very agile way to capture the opportunity. So, in general, any, I would say, future implications from tariffs in a way, we're well positioned for those. Now, obviously, in the near term, probably the biggest discussion is around China and Mexico. In these two countries, roughly, most of what we sell, we sell locally, which means that it would not be subject to tariffs. But we've looked at what is exposed in terms of what can end up in the U.S. market from those locations. To give you an idea, in China, it's about $50 million that we produce in China that ends up through our customers in the U.S. And in Mexico, it's about the same amount, $50 million that ends up in the U.S. So, relatively small amounts at a group level.
And like I said before, we are quite not directly exposed because it's mostly through customers, and we are quite agile if that production moves into other countries. So, that should be a positive for us. We continue to watch as well how the whole tariff discussion obviously affects consumer sentiment in the US and globally. So, that's something that we keep watching. But in the past, we've proven to be very agile as well in terms of responding to changes to that landscape. Right.
Thank you.
Good morning. It's Maggie Schooley from Redburn Atlantic. So, the group has been doing very well for many years, but clearly, performance materials is the one area that we're all focused on. And we've heard several times that there were some actions going to be taken to improve the performance, and it has yet to really materially make any improvement. So, clearly, there was undercapacity. What level of capacity would you now be running at if we assume volumes have no increase this year to give us some comfort that we have a stable margin there? And then secondly, on there, telecoms has repeatedly been called out as an issue. Can you give us some understanding if you are losing market share, if the whole market's down, a little bit more color on what's going on there? And then finally, in PM, you talk about moving into PPE fabrics. Can you give us a little understanding as well as what level of investment you would need for that different equipment, different sales? Or is it all within the same realm of what you're already doing?
So, maybe I will start by framing PM a little bit, how I look at it. Obviously, I joined in September. My first priority was to understand PM. So, I spent quite a bit of time quickly traveling to all the PM sites. Between September and December, I did a full review of the portfolio, including external inputs with regards to the markets we serve, the growth trends, the growth opportunities, the right to play. So, a pretty holistic review of PM. And the conclusion is basically that about 80% of the portfolio is attractive. And that includes what we do in industrials and what we do in telecom and energy. And that's. I'll come to the details of that in a second. The piece that we do in yarns, basically, is the piece that is less attractive structurally.
So, at a very high level, the strategy is double down in the areas with high growth opportunity, which is basically telecom and energy, shrink to profit the areas that are structurally more challenged, which is basically yarns, and then continue to progress industrials. Industrials will never grow more than GDP type of rate, but it's a healthy business with margins similar to our apparel business. So, the decision to close Toluca, where we had a lot of overcapacity, is in a way a decision to go not for volume, but for profit in yarns, make it a smaller part of the PM portfolio, drive profitability by focusing on one single site. That today, that site is basically 80% plus capacity utilized for the current yarn volume. So, basically, that's a healthy utilization rate for the current volume without.
And that allows us to basically focus on operational improvement and tactical pricing where possible to improve the profitability of that business. Medium term, we look at the structural potential of that business and how well it fits in our portfolio. But in the near term, the focus is on a well-utilized site, get operational performance and tactical pricing to drive margins as quickly as possible. And keep it small because it's going to be dilutive to the rest of PM. So, that's the first point I'm making. The second point is telecom and energy is the fastest, is the area of PM that will have the highest growth in terms of market rates in the coming years. And this is something that we gain confidence in through a lot of external inputs as well.
There's a lot of fiber optic cable deployment that will happen mostly in the U.S. that has been delayed for the last year or so. And that has driven substantial destocking. So, to your point, we're not losing share. We're basically just suffering from a strong destocking of our U.S. telecom customers. That's affecting everybody in the U.S. But we expect telecoms to recover fairly strongly and energy to grow strongly in the areas that we serve in the coming years. We see that as an area to double down on because it's accretive to our PM profitability and to our PM growth rate. So, you will see us kind of focusing much more on that part of the portfolio. Now, coming to PPE fabrics, the approach to PPE fabrics is one where, again, we've been looking at that market in big detail.
We think there's a big trend in terms of technology shift in that space. PPE fabrics are undergoing, are moving from traditional aramids to blends which are more comfortable and other things. So, that's opening up a lot of room for innovation. It's a growing space. We have the right to play because we have a lot of IP in some of those blends. But our approach is not capital intensive. We're doing it through partners. So, basically, we outsource most of the manufacturing. It's very kind of asset-light in terms of capital and moderate investment that is covered in our outlook. But we see that as an area with substantial growth potential. We have access to the customers because we sell them other products, and we have valuable IP which can drive profitability.
So, we see that as kind of an accelerator, one of these five adjacencies that I mentioned that help accelerate the underlying growth. So, I hope that gives you kind of a little bit of a broader perspective on PM.
Oh, yeah. Thanks. I didn't think I'd raise my question. I've got a couple of questions, David Farrell, from Jefferies. Just on one of those adjacencies, the uppers market. If you go back to the 2022 Capital Markets Day, the size of that was $2 billion opportunity. Today, we're talking about it in the context of a $1.3 billion opportunity across five adjacencies. Can you just maybe kind of work through why that might have shrunk in terms of size?
Yeah. Yeah. So, I think the technology that we have today in uppers is ProWeave. It's a particular technology that doesn't serve the whole $2 billion that you mentioned. We're looking at within the $2 billion. There's a billion that is what we call engineered uppers. And those are the ones that are higher technology. And out of that billion, you basically have most of that is actually knitted uppers. What we provide is what is called woven uppers. It's higher performance and durability, but it only applies to applications that require particular strength and such as football shoes and stuff like that. We're talking about an addressable of about $200 million. It's a smaller addressable. But the reason it makes sense for us is not so much because of that, but because we see uppers as an interesting space to expand into that larger $1 billion, what we call engineered upper space.
So, we see this kind of as an entry point into a broader addressable that today we cannot serve with the current technology. But in the future, we see that as attractive. So, it might be inorganically as well that we consider expansions in that space. And this could be a building block that adds up into that play.
Thanks. And Jackie, it might be a bit unfair for you considering you'll be here for only a few more months. But in terms of cash pooling and tax rate, when you look at kind of the finance group, is there anything that can be done on that over the medium term?
So, I think let me start on the tax rates. The tax rate for some time now has been about 29%. If you actually look at the underlying rates that come through for our entities, it's about 22%. But we have quite a high withholding tax in there. So, 22% plus another 7% withholding tax when we're remitting brings us up to about 29%. So, we do think there's some further opportunities. It's certainly something that we've started focusing on. But this is a three-year journey. And I wouldn't like to give any numbers at this point. I think that's probably for the new team to do that. But it's definitely something we've started focusing on in the last 12 months. I think on cash, we had a fantastic delivery of cash last year, $150 million. But as I pointed out in my presentation, we did have a very good year on working capital. And we managed to reduce inventory days down by four.
Now, in a growing market, you won't see that repeating into 2025. So, I do just caution in 2025. As we start, we'll see the growth again. You'll see a little bit more of working capital going back into the business in 2025. So, cash will come down a little bit this year. It'll be more like an 80% conversion for 2025.
And sorry, David, sorry, switching back to you. Coats Digital came up quite a bit in your presentation. It came up in the release. Can you just kind of expand upon what the opportunities are there? Is it kind of doing more than you're currently doing? And how do you see that evolving?
Coats Digital is a very interesting business. When I joined Coats, I have to say I wasn't clear about how good our position was and the opportunities in front. I've run such businesses in the past. So, I understand such businesses very well. And this is a software as a service business. So, we've spent quite a bit of time looking at this business as well in detail. I mean, as I said, the five adjacencies that I mentioned are the conclusion after looking at everything we're doing across the portfolio. And these are the five that have the most potential. Now, the reason Coats Digital has potential is because we have two industry-leading products, basically, in Coats Digital that basically substantially increase productivity of our customers in the way they run their operations. It's something that you can demonstrate and quantify. So, it's a quantifiable benefit to them, which often is not the case with software solutions. Here, you can prove it. And we have access to the 25,000 customers, but 16,000 of those are in apparel.
Those are the customers that should be buying those kind of tools. And we've been very successful. I think probably we lost a little bit of traction maybe for some time. I think in the last couple of years, we've got kind of that team back up together. And in the past three months, certainly, we've sharpened our strategy very clearly going forward, what we want to do with it. But I think we're sitting on two highly differentiated products that deliver clear value to customers, customers that we know and we have access to. So, I see that as a very exciting business that can grow as a software as a service business in the coming years.
Thanks.
Hi, I'm Mark Fielding from RBC. Actually, really following up on the questions that Maggie asked. I n terms of, obviously, strong conviction around performance materials, but it has been pretty erratic in recent years. I mean, firstly, when we think about that growth target, I mean, part of the problem that performance materials has had is there are quite a few different markets and they move at different times. That growth target still feels a little bit like the scenario where everything's going well together. I mean, how much capacity is there for different cyclicality across those markets? And then tied to that on performance materials as well. On the profitability side, positively surprised to see the margin target slightly expanded upwards to 13%-15%. But at the 15% end, is that really achievable with yarns in the portfolio? I suppose my question is, what's the presumption for yarns profitability ongoing and how big a drag is that?
Yeah. So, I'll start by saying the reason we've kind of upped a little bit the margin range there is just a natural conclusion of what I said before, which is basically we're trying to shrink the least profitable part of the portfolio and expand the most profitable part of the portfolio of performance materials. So, we are playing with doubling down on the more valuable parts of PM. And I think in the last couple of years, we've probably been spending most of our efforts on trying to sort out yarns, which is in any case dilutive to the portfolio. So, we're shifting all the focus and energy into growing the more attractive parts of the portfolio. And we think that will yield a better mix overall. Now, with regards to yarns, yarns has multiple challenges at the demand level.
One of the challenges is obviously that our customers have in-house capacity, so they can always kind of insource. And there's been also a progressive shift of some procurement of fabrics from Asia. So, that is declining the demand in North America. So, we have a demand challenge. That's why we are right-sizing. And at the profit level, we are structurally challenged because our customers with in-house capacity and our suppliers, which are specified, squeeze us in the middle. So, the profit potential of that business, we think if everything goes well, is high single-digit kind of profit potential. And that's what we're driving towards. And that's what we're aspiring to get to as part of getting to the PM 13%-15% mix.
And I suppose to follow up on that, I mean, none of your comments there are, there's obviously potential to improve, but it's not desperately positive. I mean, does yarns need to be in the portfolio in the long term?
So, that's a question that we'll address when time comes. I think right now, the best thing we can do is improve it because with the single footprint, we are with the right level of capacity and we know what we have to do. When we have improved it, and obviously, our goal is to do it as fast as possible, we can have that discussion. And that will be obviously an important consideration. I think what's important to think about is the other part of the portfolio. So, if you look at all the industrial part, that should drive on margins more in the range of what we do in apparel as well. And telecom and energy is going to take a bit of extra investment as we are trying to accelerate our growth there.
But that should convey also highly competitive margins to the targets that I've mentioned.
and actually, I could ask a specific question on the last one. In terms of the margin structure and things, am I right to think that some of that industrial is actually from the same plants as apparel? Is that correct, and then telecoms is distinct and yarns is distinct. I'm just curious on where the other PPE fits in the structure. I'm not quite sure.
Yeah, so threads, the thread sites are shared. In some cases, you have thread sites that are managed within our apparel division. Others are managed by our PM division, but yes, they are coming out of the same sites, and therefore, from a manufacturing process standpoint and everything, it's very synergistic. Yeah, and telecom and energy is coming out of a specific site, mostly in Barcelona. That's where we make composite tapes and telecom cables. We make a little bit in the U.S. as well, but mostly also in Barcelona.
Sorry, just on particularly the other bits of PPE that you've obviously broken out, the PPE threads and things. Is that distinct and stand-alone or?
PPE threads, obviously, we book it under our PPE revenue, but it comes out of the same thread sites. All the thread comes out of the same thread sites. PPE fabrics, as I mentioned, is mostly based on a kind of outsourcing manufacturing partner model. That's less of our own investment.
Thank you.
Morning both. James Bayliss from Berenberg. Two questions, please. On your footwear margin targets, how do we think about the difference in you achieving the top end of that 24%-26% range versus the bottom or the middle? Is the guidance at the moment based fully on organic expectations at this point? Or should we be thinking about some of that additional margin help coming from M&A to open up some of those profit drivers mentioned? And then the second question, just clarifying comments on performance material, M&A, and areas of interest, and your comments around targeting acquisitions in line with the group targets you have on financial criteria. Should we be reading that as potential for performance material acquisitions at that 19%-21% target margin range? Or are we saying that you'd be looking to bring in performance material acquisitions at the 13%-15% PM target range? Thanks.
Okay. So, I'll start with footwear. With regards to the profit range, I mean, I would say the high end of it is driven mostly by additional efficiency and productivity that we're driving. So, that's kind of the bigger item towards the high end. And probably the low end of that range is a little bit of the trade-off between growth and profitability. So, we're getting, obviously, we're driving towards that 7%-9% growth. So, we want to have room to play in terms of our ability to drive that growth, which is highly accretive to the group. So, it would be silly to not do that, right? So, that's kind of what explains the top and the bottom of that range. It's not including M&A. So, that's all organic. Okay. And with regards to PM, we would be looking at acquisitions that have the potential, as I said, to get into the group level profitability, not the PM level profitability.
That's what we would be looking for in the medium term, as we said, as part of our synergies and as part of our investment case.
Yeah. Thank you.
Morning. Joe Spooner from HSBC. Just two questions, if I can, on the footwear side. You held out two opportunities, woven, that you kind of touched on, and also cross-selling in footwear. I guess those opportunities have been around since the outset. So, can you just give us an update of how well progressed they are currently and how much kind of runway ahead there still is for those two areas? Thanks.
Yeah. So, maybe I will start with woven. I mean, I've highlighted a little bit the kind of opportunity. We've had the technology since the acquisition of Texon. We're making progress with customers. Actually, the technology is deployed with Umbro, and there's new customers that are launching in the coming months as well. So, I think we're making good progress there. But like I mentioned there, it's a technology that is relatively niche within uppers and is part of maybe a bigger play in uppers in the future. So, that's the way to think about it. With regards to cross-selling, cross-selling has been a very good story, a very good story for us. It continues to drive a good part of the footwear growth and share gains. Yeah, we've been quite successful, as I mentioned, at cross-selling mostly structural components into two European brands and an American brand. And yeah, that's a big part of our growth.
Yeah. So, of that 200 basis points of market share gains, this year, about half of it is from cross-selling.
It's actually just a really quick specific follow-up, which is, depending on how all the tariff stuff and things emerges, it just feels like the telecom energy business that you flagged, obviously, is a European manufacturer, but your big opportunity is in the U.S. market. Is there any risks we have to think about there?
I mentioned we make telecom, we're actually making it into places. We're making the U.S. and we're making Europe. Part of what we sell in the U.S. comes from Europe. Part of it is made in the U.S. We have a footprint. Today, the mix we have in each country of production is not a problem. But I think, if we may consider kind of putting more production in North America.
Right now, it's based on product type, but we certainly have the footprint and making some telecom products already in the U.S. So, in that sense, I think we're well positioned in terms of footprint. This is in North Carolina.
Yeah. Right. Thank you.
Do we have any comment? Do we have any questions on the webcast? Looks like no questions on the webcast.
Okay. So, well, thank you very much for joining today. And hopefully, the strong delivery last year, the medium-term targets and the progression in 2025 will show a good potential for Coats going forward. Thank you.
Thank you.