Enjoyed last night and are now ready for what we hope will be an interesting and engaging day. We'll first spend the first couple of hours here at the hotel before moving on to the Iberchem site. Before we look at the agenda, though, just a few points about safety. There are no planned fire drills either here at the hotel today or indeed at, later at the site. If the alarm goes off here, please exit through the door behind you and either the door to the right-hand side, or you can go up the stairs and exit there. The safety procedures for the visit to Iberchem, we'll cover later at the end of the presentation this morning, immediately before we head off. I would ask you please listen carefully to these 'cause this is a manufacturing site.
For those of you I haven't met yet, my name is Richard Butler. I'm the SVP of the F&F business within the Croda F&F division, and you may remember that consists of two brands. We have Iberchem, and we have Parfex. I actually have over 30 years' experience in Croda, and it may be hard to believe looking at me, but it's true. And over that time, I've worked in many of Croda's business areas. Immediately prior to this, I spent seven years as the global head of sales for the personal care business and also for their beauty care division as well. It's a good question. What am I doing here in the F&F business today?
Well, actually, I was part of the team who some six years ago when reviewing the Croda personal care strategy, identified fragrances as a gap in the Croda portfolio. I was then part of the team who first engaged with Iberchem back in 2016 and then part of the due diligence team for the eventual acquisition. Over this time, of course, I not only developed a knowledge of the business but also had the opportunity to meet many of the people. As a Croda person in the F&F business, I'm the face of Croda in Iberchem, and I'm the face of Iberchem in Croda.
My focus really is how we generate value and how we achieve the synergies, how we leverage the resources in both companies, and you know, that is actually usually a case of just making sure the right person in Iberchem is talking to the right person in Croda. The purpose of this morning is for this team to explain how we intend to unlock the potential of the Fragrance and Flavors business. I'd just like to introduce the presenters and explain the agenda. First, we have José Balibrea. José's the managing director of Iberchem, and he has spent 17 years as part of the leadership team creating this business. He, along with María Ángeles, the fragrance development manager, will explain in more detail how the Iberchem growth model works.
The sales synergy section will be covered initially by me, and then I'll pass over to Magali Bonnier. Magali is an R&T Director within the personal care business of Croda but focused on formulation science. Magali actually worked in the fragrance industry immediately before joining Croda. In section three, Alexandre Levet, the Sales Director at Parfex, will give you more insight into this brand, along with Guillaume Audy, the Iberchem Sustainability Director, expanding more on how our activities benefit customers, consumers, communities, and also contribute towards Croda Group commitments. Okay, let's get going. In March, you may recall if you joined us that David Shannon gave an update on the consumer care sector strategy.
We looked at each of the SBUs in turn, Beauty Actives, Beauty Care, Home Care, and F&F, to try and give you a little more insight into the specific businesses. Today, though, is all about F&F but with a focus on the Fragrance business. That's not to say that Flavours isn't important to us. It's just that the fragrance business has the most potential to unlock through its links into Croda Consumer Care and also through its access to Croda R&T resources. For those of you at our London event, you will remember that I spoke then about how the competitive environment is changing and how that is benefiting us. Traditionally, companies supplying into the F&F market have been separated into three segments.
We have the Tier 1 companies you'll be familiar with, the big four, IFF, Symrise, Givaudan, Firmenich, collectively having around 75% market share, a global presence and resources, typically turning over more than GBP 1 billion per annum. The focus of these companies is really on their presence in the large global brands, the big brands owned by the global multinational consumer companies, the MNCs, if you like. We have the Tier 2 companies with some examples here on the slide. These are the midsize companies generating sales between GBP 50 million and GBP 500 million per annum, making up perhaps 15% of the market. The upper end of these are multi-regional, exactly like Iberchem. The focus here, though, is different. It's not on the MNCs.
It's on the small, medium-sized local customers, the SME, as we would call it, and the indie customers as well. They offer a balance of service, attentiveness, creativity, but they're still big enough to be secure business partners. It's worth mentioning that we have the same attitude in Croda. The majority of the Consumer Care customer base is in the same customer segment. It's in the SME indie segment of the market. We have the Tier 3 companies, and this is hundreds of smaller companies supplying local or niche markets around the world. This Tier 2 white space is growing, and it's growing because of the ongoing M&A activity of the Tier 1 players.
When Tier 2 companies become acquired, they take on the attitude and the processes of the new owner. Their typical SME customer no longer feels important, no longer has the personalized approach they valued before, and this is the opportunity for us. Our geographic coverage, local teams, focus on responsiveness and creativity makes us a natural destination for these newly dissatisfied customers. We can see the Tier 2 white space is growing, which benefits us. Combining the Iberchem business model, customer intimacy, agility, quality, responsiveness with the resources now accessible through Croda, the value proposition to all types of customers becomes compelling. This is why I personally like to say that we're in effect becoming a Tier 1.5 company. We still have the attitude which values the fast-growing, ambitious SME-type customer, but it's now combined with the scale and access to technology of Croda.
Croda also has existing long-term relationships with the MNCs of course, and the major regional customers, which Iberchem and Parfex can now benefit from. Collectively we can offer global reach, we can offer global scale, we can offer access to new technology and processes, and we also now have the possibility to develop in-house raw materials. With all of this, we have an ongoing constant focus on the small medium-sized local or regional customers and meeting their needs. Historically, a typical Iberchem customer will be a family-owned company supplying into their local market. The example here is a fine fragrance customer in UAE. Plus, we all know their typical Tier 1 customer best described as anything you'd see as you walk through duty-free of an international airport.
As we said before, Croda's Beauty Actives and Beauty Care businesses have a strong existing position in these very brands. Now we have the opportunity to leverage their presence and relationships to build fragrance sales. In the future, we want to be able to say that both actually are typical customers of Croda's F&F businesses. I don't see us competing head-to-head with Tier 1 companies for the core list as its core position, but we are developing significant business at MNCs. Excuse me a second. What exactly is the value that we bring to our customers? Well, the proposition, of course, is different for different customer groups. The key though is that now we are really set up to offer something to everybody.
We are not a Tier 1, and we would not want to be seen to have the attitude of some of the Tier 1 companies. With the access to Croda resources, we now have the power and the strength of a Tier 1. This means that the MNCs, some of the traditional Croda customers and larger regional majors, they regard us differently now, especially because the Croda brand is already very strong in these customers. The fact that we retain the energy, agility, and customer intimacy of a Tier 2 means that we appeal to the SME customer base who want to feel valued, listened to, and important. To these though, through access to Croda ingredients and support, we can offer more value than was possible before. This is an offer which is unmatchable by the other Tier 2 companies.
As well as this though, we also now have the total solution provider capability for those who want it. We can provide the complete fragrance formulation to meet the fragrance trend, the formulation format, whether it's a cream, a bar, a powder, and the formulation claim to skin protection, anti-aging, hair strengthening, for example. As a supplier, we have a compelling value proposition for customers of all types and sizes, and this is unique. One of the reasons for our excitement is that we see great potential for our model and the way the external environment is evolving. The market as a whole is forecasted to deliver 5%-6% CAGR, but as you can see, this differs significantly from region to region. Today, our F&F business has strong presence in the fast-growing markets, as José will explain that just in a few minutes.
In our growth plan though, we have the opportunity to benefit from Croda's strong presence in the slower growing but very large Western European and North American markets. Using Croda leverage to gain share in these markets is a core part of the plan. The trends that we see developing, whether they're macroeconomic, consumer or customer, all suit an agile, responsive, customer intimate business model, which looks to localize production and localize support wherever possible. This is core to Croda and it's core to the Iberchem culture. We feel that the market in general is evolving in our direction. The business plan then is underpinned by three growth drivers, and what we're going to do is expand on all of these over the next series of slides.
First, we have the standalone organic growth of the business, and José will expand on the business model behind this in just a minute. Second, we have the sales synergies. The added value that we get by combining the customer bases and sales networks of the two companies, and I will speak about that a little later on. We have the Parfex growth plan, capitalizing on the power of a French Grasse-based brand, capitalizing on a developing expertise in natural fragrances, something of real value in the premium segments of the North American and Western European markets. This exactly is where Croda's brand presence, of course, is so strong. Finally, of course, we also remain open to targeted acquisitions where they can enhance our business position. Core to our plan is the Iberchem business model and the organic growth this will deliver.
I will now pass on to José, who will give you more insight into how and why this has been so successful.
Thank you, Richard, and good morning to everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is José Balibrea. I'm Iberchem Managing Director, and it's a genuine pleasure for me to have this opportunity today to share with all of you our passion for this great business that I continue to enjoy after more than 17 years. Let's have a look at the Iberchem reference path for a better understanding of the company today. Compared to our peers in the F&F industry, Iberchem is a young but consolidated organization. In the upper side of this slide, we can see one of the most representative cases of a small group of managers who invested in this company alongside with private equities for more than 20 years. Our partnership with private equities provide us an increasing level of professionalization over the years.
From medium-sized financial players in the early years to Eurazeo in 2017, one of the largest private equity in Europe, a public listed company in Paris. Full accountability and ownership of the P&L, same as cost control, remains in our leadership team as a result of our history. Iberchem is a unique company with an outstanding expansion over the last 37 years. In the following slide, I will try to describe you how our impressive growth history basically based on organic growth for both fragrances and flavors. It was supported by a global and accelerated geographic decentralization of R&D and production centers from Spain to most of our key markets, increasing intimacy and increasing the service to our customers. In 2009, we split our business in two divisions, fragrances and flavors.
The smaller business unit, rebranded Scentium in 2012, was part of a specific M&A strategy to have access to new markets and new categories. In 2018 and 2019, we acquired Versachem in South Africa, Flavor Inn Corporation in Malaysia, and Duomei Nanchang in China. Once again, basically, we are experts in organic growth, but in order to balance the flavors strategy, we acquired three companies. For more than seven years, we were having a look at the perfect complement for the Fragrance division in the market through an acquisition in France. It was a very clear focus that we need something special in France to cover part of the portfolio that I will describe later. We had a look at the heart of the fine fragrances industry in the world capital, France, in Grasse.
We achieved this ambition with the acquisition of Parfex last year. Last but not least, in July 2020, the former private equity suggested the disinvestment in Iberchem. At the end of that year, the three largest competitors mentioned by Richard before, acting as serious bidders for the acquisition. We, the management team, supported only one being part of the Croda family. I'm not sure actually if all the acquisitions are welcomed by the acquired party in the M&A field. I can assure you that our transaction was very well received with true enthusiasm by our teams. Yeah, we are a global fragrance-led company with a distinctive positioning in emerging markets. In the following slides, we'll dig deeper into these topics, but it's important for you to understand very few ideas here.
First, 15% CAGR over the last decade. Last year, we report EUR 206 million of revenues, despite the huge impact of COVID-19 in the fine fragrances categories. We generate EUR 43 million EBITDA, representing 21% EBITDA margin over sales aligned with the benchmark of the Tier 1 players in the F&F space. 77% fragrances, while 22% flavors in 2021. A bit lower than 50% of fragrances are in home care, while more than that in personal care and perfumes. On the right-hand side of this slide, we can see the geographical distribution. We can see that Africa and Middle East represent 41% of the revenues, Asia 31%, and LatAm 8%.
In total, emerging markets represent 80% of the geographical footprint, and Europe is only 20%. With a very quick view of the bottom of this slide, I would like to highlight that we attend 120 markets from the headquarters in Spain. Basically, our head office here and manufacturing center is focused on EMEA, Europe, Middle East, Africa. We have 10 creative centers and trend creative and R&D centers, and 15 manufacturing and warehousing capacities all around the world. Our platform today is ready for much more. It. We have 40,000 fragrances references excluding parfums and 19,000 flavours. We will talk about it later. Last but not least, I would like to mention that it's all about people and people making the difference.
We have a fantastic team running this company with great ambition to reach much more in the coming years. Gender equality has been something natural since day one. 47% of our teams are female, 53% male. If we don't consider production sites, the percentage of female is much more, up to 70% of the total population. I'm sure you will understand this much better in the course of the day with the site visit. Average age of the employees is 36 years, and the talent retention is super high, considering so many new people joining on board. Most of the head of department and you will have the opportunity to meet today with more than 50 20% years' experience on board . Let's have a look at the figures. On the left-hand side, we have, sorry.
We will have a look at the three main indicators here, revenues, EBITDA, and cash generation. On the left-hand side, 15% CAGR growth over the last 10 years, despite important headwinds and macroeconomic impacts like the Arab Spring, the oil crisis, and how to forget the huge raw material crisis in 2018, fueled by the citral crisis and extended to the rest of the raw materials. Obviously the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Travel restrictions and social distancing impact fine fragrances categories, but our business model presented a high level of resilience once again. Our growth is basically driven by emerging markets positioning, focus on fragrances for Consumer Care applications, and portfolio breadth and agile business model.
On the right-hand side of this slide, we can see 21% CAGR growth in EBITDA generation, up to EUR 43 million in 2021. I would like to highlight these two last years of pandemic with the super attractive resilience of our company in these two elements. EBITDA cash generation up to 80% in 2021 following the definition of EBITDA minus capitals. We have a plan to double the size of the company in 2025, and this plan is consistent with the historical growth of the company, and it's part of our commitment with the broader Croda family and in particular, our commitment with the exec. Be sure we will deliver. This plan is supported by the key success factor for the business model plus the necessary resources.
It's very interesting to see that we have a five-year CapEx plan with EUR 70 million representing twice the typical CapEx deployment in Iberchem. This form part of the overall Croda CapEx plan of GBP 160 million per year, which partly reflects the redeployment of proceeds from the forthcoming disinvestment. Our 70 million five-year CapEx plan include basically three major projects. The F&F and Beauty Actives new shared facilities in China, we call it Pearl project, with an estimated budget of EUR 20 million only for the Fragrance and Flavour side. A new creation production center in Parfex in Grasse with about EUR 10 million budget, and expansion capabilities in Spain with an addition of EUR 5 million. Okay. Let me go through the basic elements of our success.
We already described what we did over the last few years, key to understanding our growth plan moving forward, but let's talk about the how. Let me introduce with this summary slide the four key fundamental pillars of our model, why we win. We have a wide product portfolio with a collection of 40,000 fragrances references. Let me be precise. These are the homologated fragrances by our customers. We have more than double in terms of activity, in terms of re-registered activity in fragrances. Second, we have a global platform present in 120 countries. One-third of sales in emerging market we mentioned before. While more than 20% in China. Third, fast to customers. We are truly fast in providing fragrances to our customers.
Our organization is designed to be agile as part of the value chain, from the raw material procurement to the fragrance creation, production, and shipping. I hope that you will be able to understand this today in the site visit. The whole company is designed to be very, very agile as a key success factor. Ready for sampling in a few days. Ready to produce with a lead time of five days plus transit time if needed. 4,000 customers today, 1,400 customers over the last five years joining, and our top 10 customers representing only 21% of the sales, which means very low concentration. Last but not least, the fourth pillar that we will describe in more detail, customer-driven R&D company. We are super fast and our R&D is really focused in new developments.
We have 280 new fragrances created per month, and 75 new codes in Flavours per month as well. Let's go to the first pillar. We have a wide product portfolio presenting all categories and segments of the F&F industry. If you allow me to use the provocative terminology of my mentor, the former CEO of their company, we are focused on the diversification. 77% of the sales last year in fragrances, while 23% is in Flavours. In Fragrances, 52% in personal care and perfume, and 48% in functional fragrances. On the left-hand side, we can see some of the descriptions in terms of families. 16% in Beauty Care, Beauty and Personal Care, while 36% in Perfumes.
If we go at the bottom of the slide, we see that in the Flavours family, basically we have three major categories: beverage with a very impressive growth over the last few years in Africa with instant drink and energy drinks, sweet, our great expertise since the very beginning, and savory with great contribution over the last 11 years from our team in Italy with excellent introduction in natural flavors for some of them for the most famous filled pasta producers. Okay, so then we also mentioned we have a global platform. In the first slide, we call your attention to the accelerated global expansion of Iberchem to most of the emerging markets. Since the very beginning, we decide to decentralize our production facilities to increase intimacy and responsiveness to our customers.
In blue color, we can see markets where Iberchem has local facilities, either production or R&D. There are some interesting facts to give you a flavor of this strategy. For example, we were one of the very first European companies of our space with full local production in China, early 2000. Today, from our R&D and production center in Guangzhou, we attend more than 800 local customers with approximately EUR 40 million sales in China. In Southeast Asia, Iberchem was one of the very few F&F players with local production capabilities in Jakarta, in Indonesia. Another example, in Tunisia, since late 1990s we have our production capability as well. We are the only F&F player of our profile with local production capabilities there.
Last but not least, we, for example, in Johannesburg, we have so many good customers bringing attention because we have local production capabilities in Johannesburg. Another key success factor of the traditional resilience in the F&F industry to the centralized facilities. Third, fast to customers. Please allow me to dig deeper in this concept I think is really, really important. On the left-hand side, we have some ideas that I would like to remember. Strong customer intimacy. 11 years average relation with top 50 customers, eight of them with more than 20 years relationship. Let me recall the addition with the number of new customers joining Iberchem, which we will describe in a few minutes. Focus on customer niches, not so well treated actually by the Tier 1 players with huge cost structures and more in favor of larger customers.
We always like to say that we treat our customers always as A customers, no matter the size. This is a key differential factor with our largest competitors. We have a very low concentration. As a matter of fact, 112 customers above half a million EUR sales. Only 34 customers last year above EUR 1 million sales. This fast to customers model well suit with mid-size customers. Of course, in our space, we always talk about tailor-made products, and our growth strategy is basically supported by own brands and larger and regional independent brands. Top 10 customers representing 21% of the sales last year. Almost 4,000 customers in total, and we grab over the last five years 1,400 new customers, excluding Parfex, to have a very proper comparative.
On the right-hand side of this slide, we can see that 9.2% CAGR growth in number of customers. In dark blue, fragrances. In light blue, flavors, excluding Parfex as well. Basically, as a key message, we are growing in number of customer and growing within our existing customers as well. In this final slide, I would like to introduce the fourth pillar of our strategy, customer-driven R&D. Basically, our comprehensive process, including first, identification and data capture from the market. Second, knowledge management with huge experience, and it's important you will see today the School of Perfumery that we have in-house. Third, study trends and taste tests. Fourth, product development.
Now it's time to pass the floor to María Ángeles Lopez, our Fragrance Development Manager, another great example of a new graduate who joined the company 15 years ago with increasing level of responsibility and promising career on board. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, José. It's my pleasure to be here today to explain our vision and perspectives in a thrilling business that combines art and science. My name is María Ángeles Lopez, and I'm global fragrance development manager in Iberchem, a role that can be described as a bridge between technical department and sales department. To explain what makes Iberchem unique and why we are different to Tier 1 and Tier 2 competitors, I would say we have achieved to create our own business model in the fragrance sector. We have a very fast response to market demands, and as a global company, we have an extensive insight on latest market trends worldwide. We translate every day that knowledge into new fragrance compositions, creating more than 50 new references per week to fulfill customer needs.
As a result of this creative force, we currently have in our library more than 40,000 fragrances already validated by our customers and more than double that in our formulation pool. Our dynamic approach to fragrance business permits us to develop a whole project in a very short time. In just 15 days, our customers can have in their hands a tailor-made creation according to their requirements. The reason for that speed is because fragrance business is 100% market trend driven. Our fragrance guidance and support guarantees our customers to be totally updated in their market segment. We can also say we have two different levels of R&D. The big picture R&D is related to our new technologies department.
In there, we are continuously developing new ways of supplying out-of-the-box fragrance services to improve customers products like malodor neutralization or fragrance microencapsulation. Another R&D area is about perfumers and their daily creations and market analysis to have an updated and dynamic fragrance collection in order to provide our customers with the latest trends. The reason why we have developed such a special character in fragrance business is related to our historical evolution. Our growth has come from emerging markets like Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, China or Indonesia. These countries had an interest in industrial sector, but they also had a severe lack of technical knowledge, and not many suppliers were willing to visit these kind of countries. We found an important business gap in there.
Working with these countries naturally led us to specialize in providing a 360-degree service to our customers, including local and specialized sales support, marketing support with trends identification, market positioning for the brand and packaging design for the products. Fragrance creation together with application and technical advice like product formulation chassis, a service that has been reinforced since we are part of Croda Group, and Magali will explain a little more later, and operation support and stock availability through our 15 production sites. This means that the same fragrance can be produced in any of our different centers and managed through our SAP system. We work side by side with our customers, and we are proudly part of their growth, growing with them and growing within them by increasing the number of sold references.
As our customers trusted us to expand their businesses, our natural motion has always led us to be on the avant-garde of trends and technologies to better serve them. For that reason, we are always immersed in a continuous market trend research where we analyze global and local markets as well as new olfactive molecules, and we transform that knowledge into freshly developed fragrances for specific customer needs. We can say that around 60% of our workload is related to proactive market research like trade fairs, conferences, everyday contact from local subsidiaries, suppliers, new launches and close market monitoring. The remaining 40% for workload is related to working direct requests from our customers. Our R&D comprises molecules analysis, raw materials database update, product development, and study of olfactory trends and tastes from a sensorial and a chemical point of view.
We offer versatility by creating and adapting fragrances for any possible application. As a result of all this, every month, as José said previously, we develop 280 new fragrances and 75 new flavours. In this next slide, I would like to comment some figures that give support to our customer-centric strategy. We have 10 R&D centers and 280 technicians. In 2019, we invested in our new R&D building in our headquarters here in Murcia, from where we coordinate all the subsidiaries and from where we manage the most important projects. In this building, we have six differentiated areas, and the sum of all of them leads us to the module Creativity through Science. In a while, you will have a chance of having the site visit and seeing all of these in person.
Firstly, we have the new development laboratory, where the new fragrances are mixed and blended. We also have the instrumental analysis area to be fully updated on the new molecules and olfactive trends in the market, and to keep a strict control of our production. We also have the fragrance application laboratory, where the fragrance meets the final product to guarantee stability and performance. This is the most Croda-related area, as together we can provide chassis formulations to our customers. We have the perfumer's room, where all our creative people have common areas to share their expertise and new developments. We currently have 22 perfumers globally and 9 flavorists. Our unique internal training method, José commented before, continuously instructs new trainees every year, leading us to the new generation of perfumers.
We also have testing cabins, which is a very important part for evaluation department, because fragrance evaluators check performance and profiles of the new developments and coordinate with perfumers to improve our formulations. The new technologies department, which is a dedicated area for creation and delivery of fragrance and flavor solutions like microencapsulated fragrances and malodor control technology. As an example of this, we have just finished our VernovaCaps, the first patent from Iberchem and the second one in the market related to formaldehyde-free and biodegradable microcapsules for fabric softeners. All this structure allows a rapid commercialization of value for money fragrances and flavors, and supports also customer intimacy. As key takeaways of this first part of the meeting today, I'd like to highlight the following points. We have a wide and continuously expanding product portfolio.
We operate in a global platform. We are fast, really fast to customers, and that is one of our main signatures. We have 100% customer-driven R&D with unparalleled commercial support to regional customers. We capture the most recent trends in the market, and we have a formulation-driven approach. Now I'll hand over Richard Butler to speak about the synergies between Croda and Iberchem. Thank you so much for your attention.
Well, thank you, María Ángeles Lopez. I hope now you all have a much better understanding of the Iberchem business model and why we are so confident of continued delivery of double-digit organic growth. I, along with, Magali Bonnier, now going to try and give you some more insight into the sales synergies, and what we're going to realize by looking at, in turn at each of the three sources, okay? We expect to realize EUR 48 million of growth synergies by 2025. We've broken these down into three categories. We have number one, we have geographic expansion. The Croda Consumer Care business, as you can see from the slide, is split 75/25 between the markets of Europe and the Americas versus Asia, Middle East and Africa. You can see that for Iberchem, the reverse is true.
What we're doing is we're leveraging the Iberchem presence in these emerging and fast-growing markets to increase the Croda ingredient presence. We're leveraging the Croda presence in the large mature markets of Western Europe and North America, Korea, Japan as well, to accelerate Iberchem sales. Number two, customer cross-selling. From the pie chart, you can see actually that we only have 400 common customers between Iberchem and Croda. We're now using the customer relationships of Iberchem to sell Croda ingredients, and we're using the customer relationships of Croda to sell fragrance. All of these 6,000 customers, consumer care customers, buy fragrance. Number three, we're creating opportunities through the full formulation offer at all customers in all regions. Offering customers support on the product claim, the sensory effect, and the fragrance.
Magali will talk more about this in just a couple of minutes. All of this, of course, underpinned by targeted investment to enable the growth, whether in CapEx, to establish local production or laboratories, or indeed in people. That's the talent which ultimately is what makes a business work. Over the next few slides, I'll try to bring all of these to life just a little bit for you. What I'm sharing with you here are fairly standard activity metrics that we use within Croda. These we know from experience are lead indicators for future business delivery. It's fairly simple. Sales calls lead to new business, lead to samples. Samples lead to projects.
Projects lead to new customers or new business existing customers. In 2021, which is of course still a year heavily affected by COVID travel restrictions, you can see the progress made. 700 sales calls, 1,300 samples, 240 projects created, and 50 new customers. What is also important though, in the context of cross-selling, is the complementary levels of activity in both the Croda and the Iberchem sales teams. From a regional perspective, the good news is that this activity was well spread across Asia, Latin America, and Western Europe. If you look at geographic expansion, as we said, one of the attractive features of the Iberchem business was the opportunity for geographic expansion for both Croda ingredients and Iberchem fragrances. Brazil and China were immediately identified as priority markets.
Brazil is the second-largest fragrance market globally, yet Iberchem have to date had no presence there. Croda, on the other hand, has a well-established business supplying to personal care and home care customers, including the MNCs, major regional brands, and the local indies. The Brazilian market though, is ideally suited to the Iberchem model. Prestige brands of course exist, and they're successful, but the market is really dominated by mass and prestige segments in hair care, body wash, and home care. Here, we've already recruited an experienced business team, and they're currently developing business today which is being supplied from here in Spain. We will, however, establish local production in Brazil by the end of this year. China, you may recall from March actually, is core to the Croda Consumer Care sector strategy, making in China for sale in China. It's also core to the F&F growth plan.
Here though, as José said earlier, Iberchem have a well-established business and a growing customer base, but demand is soon to exceed current facilities capacity. We therefore took the decision to invest in expanded production facilities at a new location in Guangzhou, and at the same time, established local production of botanical extracts for our Beauty Actives business. We talked a little bit earlier about how we track activity and how it is distributed around teams and around the regions. Here we have actually just a few examples of customer cross-selling successes. I'm not gonna go into details of each customer. This is just to illustrate this model is working everywhere. As I said, Magali will explain more about the value to customers of having a full formulation expertise in their supplier. By way of illustration, though, this was a real case scenario.
It was a meeting that was initiated between an Iberchem salesperson and a large customer in Turkey, consumer goods manufacturer. The boxes at the top attempt to explain the typical process with the customer. In box one, we uncover what the problem is, what is their challenge, what they're trying to do. In this case, the customer team had been asked to develop a new skincare range. We then took that internally. We researched the key market trends relevant to the target market and those consumers, and in this case, identified wellness, hygiene, nature, sustainability. Our formulation teams then select the formulation from the formulation bank, or they create a new formulation concept in line with these trends. These are then fragranced with selections aligned with those market trends, and the full formulation samples sent to the customer for review.
The customer has the benefit of shortcutting that in-house development process. We have the benefit of entering into their brand discussions and developing sales across the whole ingredient portfolio. The slide images at the bottom there are simply from the presentation to the customer team and accompanied full formulation samples with details of what they are and why we selected them. Continuing on the theme of value to customers of offering the full formulation, I want to hand over to Magali to explain it to you in more depth exactly what we mean by that.
Thanks, Richard. Since we are talking about formulation, let me explain briefly where the magic start. Depending if a customer request is for a leave-on product or rinse off, formulators will be selecting a surfactant, emulsifier or detergent, then adding on emollient and water, of course, plus a thickener to adjust the viscosity of the formula. The first category of ingredient is known as the functional ingredient and constitute the main part in terms of percentage weight. Active ingredient are the most valuable one as they allow formulator to fulfill claim effect, such as SPF for a sun care product or active for an anti-aging claim or hair scalp treatment. Last but not least, we have fragrance and aesthetic ingredient. Those ingredient have the capability to elevate your formulation to the next dimension of sensory that will delight consumer.
On the right corner, I wanted to show a recent advertisement made by a premium brand that highlighted the art and science needed to make a good formulation. The ad is referring to les orfèvres de la formule. That means goldsmith of the formulation, which highlights unique importance of the formulation in a product. It was also the first time I started to see some marketing focus on formulation capability as a point of differentiation. Anyone can now easily understand the complexity of selecting the correct ingredient to achieve a brief. Croda having a large ingredient portfolio in each category, it is sometimes tricky to know where to start. Of course, we are regularly sharing this knowledge with our customers by organizing formulation academy, which support our positioning on technical excellence and premium specialty ingredient manufacturer.
Selecting the right ingredient and mixing all them together is only one side of the picture for a formulator. There are four follow-up key stage. Stage one, we need to check if the blend is robust enough and giving a correct colloidal structure as it relates to texture, feel, and ease of getting product outside packaging. This formulation technology is mainly driven by functional ingredient, as I mentioned previously. Stage two, we need to prove that active ingredients are performing according to the claim they promise to deliver. For example, we generate advanced in combing data for conditioning effect or a full in vivo technical dossier if it's an anti-aging active from Sederma. Now comes the part that is more relating to consumer experience in stage three. We have to make sure that the formulation can live up to the consumer expectation.
Via sensory data or hair salon consumer testing, we evaluate that the final texture fit the brief. Last, but not least, it is to make sure that the addition of fragrance will not destabilize the first part of the formulation technology. Perfumers are highly trained to create lovely scent, but also to design fragrance that have a minimum impact on the formulation while delivering the fragrance performance for each stage of the product use. This full process is allowing us to offer the full benefit of the formulation to our customers because we understand the synergy of each ingredient fragrance on the consumer experience. We carry this expertise via a global network of innovation centers capable of developing prototype for each regional customers, and we monitor the trends to suggest best combination of ingredient to achieve the best formulation within local regulation constraints or sustainability credential.
Simply said, I remind new chemists joining the technical team that our role is to make sure that we are selling the dream while optimizing the ingredient complexity to avoid any nightmare. I wanted here to share with you an example on how we synergize the formulation and fragrance. We choose an example of recent customer work that Richard mentioned previously. The inspiration of the formulation is from Korean trend, where you applied a nice cream overnight to remove fatigue sign and refresh your face ready for the day ahead. As the customers is located in Turkey, we first had to modify the ingredient selection to comply with the local regulation and texture preference.
Following previous process, we have highlighted in purple the functional ingredient that form the central part of the formulation, then add on the actives part that are supporting and delivering the claim of anti-fatigue with Sederma and Crodarom ingredients highlighted in green here. Finally, comes the fragrance to olfactively reinforce consumer experience and support the claim. Iberchem and Maria and this team have selected three types of fragrance with different compositions. The two fragrances on the side, the Night Therapy and the Night Repair, are designed for oily or dry skin, so that a smell that conveys efficiency will enhance the consumer journey. Otherwise, with normal skin, we expect just a reinforcement of the main purpose for buying this product, such as comfort.
By combining the talent of our formulators and perfumers, we bring the best out of each player and reinforce the sensory journey that we are proposing to the consumer. By the way, those three products that are composed of the same formulation with different fragrance will be displayed during Iberchem tour, so you will all be able to test it, smell it, and I value your feedback. Finally, I could not finish that formulation description without giving you a little sneak peek of what could be the innovation in the field of sensory and consumer. Thanks to recent neuroscience progress, we are capable now of measuring the impact of various texture applied on skin at the emotional level. When this is associated with the emotion that perfume brings to cosmetic, it will unlock innovation around emotional cosmetic and well-being claims.
Neuroscience applied to cosmetology will allow new type of claim for different texture and fragrance, and that will open exciting opportunity for Croda in future. We have explained how we are leveraging our functional and active ingredient with fragrance. Now we will explain how the creation of the formulation academy and our formulation capability will support the growth of ingredient across the personal care portfolio that, as we mentioned, represent today around 70% of the business in value. Croda has accumulated a depth of formulation expertise across all application. In the past, we focus on creating stable formulation that supported primary claim, such as skin moisturization or hair conditioning. Lately, we have worked hard to understand the sensory aspect of cosmetic and formulation and how that affects the consumer journey. With this knowledge, we supported customers to solve formulation challenge.
We use formulation data to work on claim substantiation and to start conversation with our customers about ingredients. What has changed after the acquisition of the F&F business is that we have a complete formulation capability and have a unique positioning by being able to provide a range of about plus 1,500 market-ready formulation across skin, solar, and hair application area. This full-service model is very interesting to small indie brands, but also to more consolidated medium-sized brands, but for different reason. The indie example from the left are some small and very agile company, marketing and value-driven, often with limited formulation capabilities. Croda can help them proposing ready fragrance formulation with the right sensory effect that reflect the company values with appropriate claims and regulatory guidance. We will not sell the ready-made formulation but can provide advice on contract manufacturers.
Croda will sell the ingredient to this company, in fact. For better established brands, example on the right, we can support them in a different way to diversify the brand offering by expanding their product range and adding new claim for existing ingredient. This brand just started making face masks with strong marketing story. Now they are moving into skincare with formulation full of Croda actives that we will sell directly to them. Two different type of customers that we will serve in a different way, but both will be taking advantage of our formulation capability. To conclude Richard and my section about sales synergy and formulation capability, we continue to see exciting opportunity for continued geographic expansion, taking fragrances into new market and Croda into emerging markets. These are exciting cross-selling opportunities between Croda and Iberchem, leveraging the different customer base.
Finally, our full formulation capability is a strong differentiator for Croda to deliver performance, capture the power of sensory and emotion to add value to customers. I will hand over the floor to Alexandre to talk about Parfex.
Good morning, everyone. Introducing myself, Alexandre Levet, Sales Director at Parfex, for the last 10 years, 20 years into the industry and now one year in the Croda Group. As a small introduction to Parfex and to who we are, we are showing you a small video.
Grasse, berceau de la parfumerie. Depuis la fin du dix-huitième siècle, Grasse est au cœur de l'industrie française du parfum. On y retrouve les principales maisons de composition moderne ainsi que de nombreuses institutions emblématiques telles que Galimard, Molinard et Fragonard. À l'échelle nationale, plus des deux tiers des matières premières naturelles y sont produites chaque année. L'industrie des fragrances rapporte plus de EUR 600 million par an à la région. À Grasse, on retrouve ce savoir-faire, cette passion qui se transmet de génération en génération. De la culture des matières premières à la composition, une partie importante de l'économie de la région tourne autour de l'industrie du parfum. Il y a 35 ans, Parfex y a établi son siège social. À ce jour, Grasse est une adresse incontournable pour les maisons de création de parfum.
Que ce soit en Europe ou en Amérique du Nord, on note depuis quelques années un engouement pour les fragrances naturelles et durables. Ce boom que nous avons observé dans l'industrie alimentaire semble s'être déplacé dans l'industrie de la beauté. En réponse à cette demande, Parfex a lancé une toute nouvelle collection de parfums renouvelables que nous avons appelée nat2nat. Cette solution peut être comparée à l'hybride dans l'industrie automobile, qui apporte une réponse entre le thermique et l'électrique.
La formulation naturelle et la formulation conventionnelle sont différentes parce qu'en naturel, on utilise des matières premières qui sont déjà des mélanges complexes. Leur association, sans l'intervention du synthétique, est à redéfinir. Il faut faire du beau avec une palette réduite, voire absente, comme les fleuris transparents, les muscs ou certaines notes fruitées. La formulation naturelle, c'est un défi, mais c'est aussi une grande liberté créative.
C'est pourquoi la vision d'Iberchem d'avoir une équipe de parfumeurs spécialisés dans la formulation de fragrances naturelles est très juste. Cela permet de répondre rapidement au client et puis d'enrichir la créativité.
Exactement.
Compte tenu de sa taille et de l'agilité de ses opérations, nous prévoyons chez Parfex un plan de développement durable solide à court et moyen terme. Jusqu'à présent, notre équipe a axé ses efforts sur son offre de produits compte tenu de la demande croissante des clients. Aujourd'hui, nous comptons faire du centre de production une référence dans la région, surtout à travers de ces nouvelles infrastructures. Avec les connaissances d'Iberchem et de Croda, Parfex a toutes les clés pour devenir Climate, Land and People Positive.
L'un des plus grands enjeux quant au développement durable lorsqu'on crée un parfum est sans aucun doute l'approvisionnement en matières premières.
L'empreinte carbone reliée à l'importation de ces matières est considérable. À Grasse, nous avons la chance d'avoir accès à de nombreuses matières premières naturelles comme le jasmin, la lavande.
La rose.
La rose pour créer nos parfums.
Personnellement, je pense qu'il faut être cohérent lorsqu'on développe un parfum durable. C'est bien d'utiliser des matières premières organiques ou issues de biotechnologie, mais si 80% des ingrédients qui composent la formule proviennent de l'autre côté de la planète, finalement, ça n'a plus trop de sens.
Pour Parfex, faire partie du groupe Iberchem et Croda nous permet d'avoir une offre plus compétitive et de nous adapter plus rapidement aux demandes de nos clients. Dans notre nouveau plan CapEx, nous avons prévu sur une période de trois ans l'agrandissement de notre centre de création et de notre usine de fabrication. Grâce à cette acquisition, l'avenir de Parfex est plus compétitif que jamais.
To go a bit deeper into the explanation. As shown in the video, the company has been created in 1985, so exactly like Iberchem, but with a different goal, more focused on premium skincare and fine fragrance. Operating with a similar share between Europe and Middle East and smaller operation in Asia, as you can see on the graph. We are using the great platform of growth to formulate and promote natural and sustainable formulations to our customer across the world, especially into premium skincare, working for famous houses, where we are having a strong and dynamic growth those years. Operating nowadays into 50 countries, providing tailor-made solutions for our customer into the fine fragrance industry, which is representing half of our portfolio, creating fragrances adapted to the region and culture where we operate.
The company is now counting 100 employees and looking forward to increase its resources in Grasse, the cradle of perfumery. Thanks to the new ownership, Parfex is combining French Grasse-made traditional values with a modern approach. We were one of the first company to implement robotization into our production and as well, one of the first to reach 90% of automatization. Great step forward for the flexibility and speed to market, as we are able to produce in five working days, exactly like Iberchem, and capable of delivering, for example, Asian customers faster than some local facilities. Here is focus on Parfex growth plan, how to deliver. As you can see on the graph, the former management of Parfex was having a conservative approach. We have achieved an average of 6% growth between 2015 and 2021.
Now, being part of Iberchem, we will be able to apply the ambitious way of developing the business, the structure which already started some months ago. We can already feel the difference having strong Q1 2022 compared to previous years. This is just the beginning. Our ambitious plan is to deliver GBP 40 million turnover in 2025 with a stronger activity in natural formulation and keep increasing our presence into the fine fragrance market, which will help us to increase our EBITDA margin. To support this ambitious growth plan, we are tripling the size of our facilities in Grasse to be able to deliver more made in France fragrances to our partners worldwide. This next slide will talk more in detail about how we will accelerate our growth rates. Now how to deliver the plan. As explained, we will use the Iberchem methodology.
We have already increased our resources with some small CapEx to expand our capacity, as well as increase our team by 15% in Q1 2022. These first steps help us to be on plan for 2022 so far. Now, to reach EUR 40 million to deliver the growth, we will proceed with five steps. Number one, we are starting to capitalize on combined selling network to drive growth in new geographies from 50 countries where we are today to 100 countries where Iberchem is. Number two, utilize Iberchem manufacturing network as well to produce Parfex fragrances across the world, which was a major issue for us in the past to stay in the core list of our premium customers. This is another limit that has been unlocked thanks to this acquisition.
At the same time, we have an ambitious CapEx plan for our Grasse structure, which will multiply by 3 the capacity of our robot installation while increasing our robotization rate to keep our speed to market and the high-level service to our existing and future customers. Number 3, we will leveraging Croda reputation and relationship to access more premium end customers to increase fine fragrance and premium skincare offering through creative co-development into Europe and North America.
Number four, we will push our development into natural certified formulations as well as biodegradable and 100% sustainable formulation called Parfex nat2nat, which is a great alternative for our customers who are looking for sustainable solutions for their product and showing their concern for the young generation. Number five, we will facilitate the R&D harmonization of the raw material across the operation, as explained by Magali, and we'll leverage the raw material purchasing between the production sites. In addition to that, we are implementing common sub-system, which is a super structuring tool for Parfex, and it will facilitate the synergies within the F&F division. I will now hand over to Guillaume, and he will explain how our natural origin formulation fits into the broader sustainability strategy for flavors and fragrances.
Well, good morning, everyone. I am pleased to say that Iberchem has made significant progress in sustainability since we officially launched our program two years ago. Given the nature of its products and its presence in emerging markets, the fragrance division has great potential to contribute to Croda's climate, land, and people positive strategy. Let's start by exploring how fragrances can advance Croda's ambition to become climate positive. First on the list are Parfex bespoke nat2nat renewable fragrances, which perfectly complement and enhance Iberchem's Green Future portfolio of sustainable products. Very quickly, we have created the Green Future portfolio to help our customers choose which sustainable fragrance suits best their needs. We have, for instance, vegan and biodegradable fragrances and fragrances made with upcycled ingredients.
We also have COSMOS Ecocert fragrances, which are, in a nutshell, certified natural organic fragrances. Finally, we have our high-intensity fragrances, which are based on principle of fragrance compaction. As they are more concentrated, they use less energy, during production and reduce packaging and even carbon emission, during transportation. Those are perfect alternative, for companies looking to address their Scope 3 emissions. We're also about to start working, with Deloitte, to quantify the benefits of these fragrances. At the beginning of the month, Iberchem launched, VernovaCaps, its own biodegradable fragrance encapsulation technology. Iberchem is only the second company in the industry to offer such capsules. Our fragrance technology director, Michael White, and his team are also about to launch VernovaPure, a biodegradable version of our malodor-neutralizing technology.
In terms of operations, Iberchem recently achieved for the second year in a row the zero waste certification at its head office. We're also on our way to renewing our EcoVadis certification. Finally, we're currently working on a coding system on our ACP platform to offer our perfumers some guidance at the time of formulating a fragrance. I won't lie to you, it's a laborious work as our perfumers work with over 3,000 ingredients. Still, for them to know with a simple click if an ingredient is, for instance, renewable or biodegradable, will be extremely helpful to be more agile at when creating a sustainable scent. Let's move on to the second part, how Iberchem has the intention of becoming the most sustainable fragrance company in emerging countries and contributing to Croda's ambition to become people positive.
One of the most important things that I recall from my studies at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership is that when it comes to sustainability-related issues, yes, we're all in the same storm, but no, we're not all in the same boat. I think it perfectly illustrates why we believe education is crucial for Iberchem, given its presence on emerging markets, and why I can expect a faster response from the segments addressed by Parfex, and finally, why Parfex plays an important role in accelerating our progress in sustainability. Before selling tons and tons of biodegradable fragrances, Iberchem first needs to go on an education journey with many of its customers. As you can imagine, biodegradable fragrances are not a top priority in countries such as Nigeria or Ethiopia.
Therefore, we are currently working on an internal education program to make sure that all our employees, and especially our sales team, become sustainability ambassadors. For them, just like I'm doing today, to transmit why we must switch to sustainable fragrance alternatives. As you can see on screen, what's left for us to do is define commercial opportunities, create tailor-made solutions, and also define some KPIs to measure our success. Obviously, a company cannot aspire to become a sustainability leader only by selling sustainable products. We also need to be involved in the communities where we operate. Thanks to Croda, we have definitely accelerated this part of our program by integrating, for example, Iberchem into Croda's STEM educational activities.
Thanks to a grant from the Croda Foundation, we're now working on a project in South Africa that aims to benefit unemployed blind and partially sighted people. This beautiful project will skill young blind people. Training will be provided for about 40 individuals to set up and incubate at least 10 micro entrepreneurs, and also we'll place at least 20 participants in development programs. In parallel, Iberchem continues its collaboration with the NGO SOS Children's Villages. For instance, in 2019 we provided drinking water to Kelafo in Ethiopia after the village was flooded. More recently, we also helped reduce the digital gap in education during the pandemic, also with SOS Children's Villages.
Those are just some examples of the many initiatives we currently have, and our intention is to increase such actions in the near future so that we can become the most sustainable fragrance company in emerging markets and become people positive. Back to you, Richard.
Okay. Guillaume , Alexandre, thanks very much for giving us a deeper introduction to Parfex, first of all, and also, of course, the evolving importance of sustainability to customers and climate and communities. All projects very in line with Croda's own climate and people positive commitments. Now it just leaves me to summarize just a few key messages. Just to return to the business plan. We have the ambition to grow to EUR 400 million worth of revenue by 2025. We are on track to achieve this. José and María Ángeles have given you insight into the standalone Iberchem business model and why it has been so successful. This is the foundation of the plan. Magali and I, we spoke about the synergies that we're seeing from cross-selling, geographical expansion, and our unique ability to work with customers on every part of the formulation.
Alex and Guillaume have explained why the acquisition of Parfex is an invaluable addition to the Iberchem brand and how it will help us to further our sustainability positioning. Finally, just some key takeaways from this morning's presentation. We have a very strong market differentiation. We are unique in what we can offer. We have an agile business model with an extensive portfolio of fragrances and ingredients. We have a global R&D capability driving innovation in both ingredients and fragrances. Our customer proximity underpins our speed to market. We have a robust business plan that's based on exciting organic growth trajectory, further upsizing sales synergies, and leveraging Croda's full formulation capability. We're now very happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you for your attention. Yeah. Is it working?
I think it's working.
Perfect.
Charlie Webb here from Morgan Stanley. Just a couple from me to start then. First, just on pricing. A lot of discussion within the F&F space around pricing in the current environment. Just interested to hear what you're seeing there, what you're doing to tackle some of that inflation and how we should think about that when we think about the margins looking forward and your ambitions there.
I'll just make a quick comment and I'll hand over to José perhaps to go into a bit more detail. Yes, you're absolutely right. I mean, the F&F industry, along with pretty much every industry at the moment, is being impacted by raw material inflation, energy, freight and everything else, so we're not immune from that. We have gone to the market with price increases in quarter one, and we're achieving traction with those as well. José, I don't know if you'd like to comment a little bit further.
Thank you, Richard. That's a very good question actually. We are not far from the level of inflation that we are suffering in some of the industries are suffering. Last year, 18% increase in cost in general in raw materials. Typically our strategy in Iberchem has been slightly different because we are not that much focused on recovering gross margin so quickly. Our capability to move costs through selling prices is more in grabbing new customers actually, because typically we have been a challenger. This provide us an opportunity to penetrate and to have more customers. Those who are more resistant and being focused in the Tier 1 players now, they want to open the door to Iberchem too, because we remove complexity and we provide more competitive solutions, if you allow me to say.
Actually this is a very important point. The other point is that we mentioned before in the slide that we have a very fast and agile R&D process. We launch basically 280 new codes per month. We are not used to increased sale prices on a quarterly basis as the rest of the Croda family does. We did it early this year. Every month we have a natural hedge, because every new products, the cost price is already updated and the markup as well. I would say that there is a very important portion of our products that have a natural hedging in terms of cost and margins.
No, that's really interesting. Thank you. Maybe just one for the Iberchem team. You know, how has things changed since Croda's come in? You know, what are some of the tangible things you've seen from that kind of change in ownership? Yeah, any kind of when we talk about those sales synergies, can you give any kind of examples of where that is opening doors or where you are seeing that customer cross-selling?
Obviously the ownership has changed a lot. I mean, it's not the same to be in hands of private equities. That was amazing. Was a very successful story we mentioned before. For the managers, for the ones that have part of the equity and things like that's great. Sometimes when you every five or six years you go for this investment process, there's an increasing level of sensibility across the company, you know, because you are going to be part of another private equity, another owner. Now that we are, I mean, after reaching some kind of maturity, we are part of a much larger platform and for indefinite period of time. I think people is really happy.
Actually, we mentioned that in this investment process, we, the managers, were the one supporting to be part of Croda. The second part of your question is yes, of course, there are some differences between Croda and Iberchem, but at the end of the day, the attitude to customers and the customer-driven orientation of Croda is very similar to Iberchem. I would say that the most part of the differences are in the geographic exposure or geographic opportunities, because we are 80% in emerging markets, and it's completely different to be working in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, than being working in France and Germany, obviously. This is the level of flexibility that we are getting.
You know to be true, the honeymoon is over, and we are super happy to be a part of Croda because it's a very light touch integration. This is very smart move. It's not an integration, it's a coordination, it's a cooperation to get the best of the two worlds. You also mentioned an opportunity to, I mean, an example of synergies. Yeah, for example, we have a nice customer in Jordan who is doing kind of home care products, for example, and in an exhibition in Dubai, Richard and myself, we were there and we introduced this customer, and now this customer is buying from Croda. This is one of the blocks that Richard mentioned before. That is those markets where Iberchem's presence is stronger than Croda. It's very important actually, and this is a very good example. Thank you.
Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Hi, I'm Bash Chaudhry from Citi. Just a couple of questions, please. The first one, a bit focused on numbers. You talked about the GBP 400 million of ambition by 2025. If I back out the GBP 40 million from Parfex and GBP 48 million of synergies, kinda get left with a low- double-digit growth rate on organic side of things to get to the GBP 400 million. Anything that's making you a bit more cautious versus the long run track record of 15% CAGR? I think that was on one of the slides that you put. Just some comments around that. Was that just conservatism and trying to see where market heads? That's the first question. I'll come back to the second.
If I understand properly, you said that how comfortable we are with these expectations, right?
The conservatism around going from mid-teens growth rate for the last, I think, decade to forecasting a 10%-11% growth going forward. Kind of the drop in the growth.
I mean, if you look at the slide, the average CAGR growth of Iberchem has been around 15%. Basically in this business plan that we have to reach more than GBP 400 million in 2025 is very consistent. The organic growth is very consistent with the historical track record. It's slightly different in Parfex, it's true. Slightly different because the attitude, the level of investment was completely different. I mean, the previous owner was very conservative in terms of CapEx and new recruitments. I don't see any change in Iberchem. I see, yes, from single digit to double digit growth in Parfex, but we did it in Iberchem. The great of Iberchem is, you know, when I joined, Iberchem was exactly the same size than Parfex.
We did it because we increased the level of investment in CapEx and in resources. The third piece of this business plan, of course, is synergies. Cross synergies with opportunities, geographic synergies in both senses. I mean, selling Iberchem products through Croda network or vice versa, selling Croda products through Iberchem. I think it's very consistent to be. Today, after the report in the first quarter, we are very confident and we are on track despite the macroeconomic conditions. We are on track with budget.
[audio distortion]
Just to understand a little bit about the. You said 200-300 is the organic part and I think that's consistent. Within that 15% we've typically seen, you know, something around 10% growth organically per year. And then you've got the acquisition and the synergies on top. I think overall, yeah, we see it as consistent with the historic growth.
Then the second question around, I think it was slide 30, you talked about the 6,000 customers which are available for the cross-sell. Is it fair to assume that all 6,000 are available to be kind of penetrated through for the cross-selling? Or is there. I'm assuming there's a. I guess I'm trying to get a segmentation between what are the easy wins and how many of those customers are naturally never gonna be penetrated, and just getting a truer market opportunity for the 6,000 customers.
That's correct. When we were looking at the model, we put together the growth model and the synergy assumptions, actually during the acquisition process. We took those 6,000 customers, and we assumed a certain rate of penetration over the time period. Do we expect to gain 100% of those 6,000 customers? No, of course we don't. There's some that are more available than others. I think what encourages most though is, as I said before in some of the slides, if you look at the markets we're really trying to accelerate in, like Western Europe, North America, in the future, we have a very strong brand presence there already. We have great contacts in those customers.
Our ability to just pull fragrance into the discussion that we're already having with customers is very strong. You know, as José said a minute ago, we're already seeing great examples of that happening, where doors are being opened, we're being involved in the full formulation discussion now. Not just the ingredients, the Beauty Actives or the Beauty Care products, but also the fragrances as well in that discussion. The work is handled in different parts of the company, and the work is handled in Iberchem or Parfex, or it may be in one of the development labs in Croda. The synergy model that we assumed would be delivering is playing out as we thought.
Sorry if I just squeeze one last one. I think you mentioned that Iberchem's not been in Brazil, and you're expanding into that market, and you talked about how attractive that market was. Any particular reason why historically you've not gone into Brazil?
You said why we are not present in those markets?
Historically, yeah.
Yeah.
What it is—
When you have limited resources, you need to have some priorities where you are locating resources. At the very early years, we found that going to those markets in Africa and Middle East was more successful than the fighting in Spain or France against some big multinationals. Historically, we saw that the level of penetration in those markets was easier or more effective, I would say. That was the historical reason, actually.
Thank you.
Just two questions from me. Firstly, on the sales breakdown of the double- digit growth you expect across Flavours, across Home Care Fragrance, across Personal Care Fragrance. Is there a big difference in the growth you expect across the three subsections of the business? My second question is, in terms of employee retention, obviously, your management team very clear successfully. Is that true all the way through the business? Sort of, I think about your lab technicians, your perfumers. Is that the same, or is there a risk you lose to the Tier 1? Can you compete on salaries, et cetera, et cetera? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. The first question is very interesting. I mean, I think that 2020 and 2021 is the perfect example of how the company has such a level of resilience. Because to be honest, I never saw such a negative environment against fine fragrances category. One of the slides we mentioned this morning, we described that we have a wide product portfolio in the company. For example, in this particular period of time, flavors grew more than fragrances in general for obvious reasons. Fine fragrances were and perfumes were affected because social distancing and traveling restrictions is obviously against that. Functional fragrances and hygiene products booming, you know. I think that, I mean, we have a very clear view that we can grow across categories, all of them.
Historically it has been like that. Of course, in terms of R&D, it's important to mention, and you will see today in the site visit, that we invest, in terms of percentage, we invest more resources in fine fragrances than in the rest of the categories because there is a trickle-down effect from these new launches to the rest of the products. For example, nuances that we are capturing in fine fragrances are coming down to some other categories of Home Care and hygiene products, you know? The second question, also very interesting. After 20 years, every five, six years going through these investment processes, it was great for the management team.
If you become part of any of the four Tier 1 players that Richard mentioned at the very beginning of the presentation, you lose your identity. You are no longer with the same level of accountability and the same level of freedom in terms of creation, in terms of if we talk about perfumers or flavorists, you are no longer the same. For example, in our case, we could have been devoted to Africa or Europe or only Spain, for example, if we are part of this kind of platform. The smart move of Croda with Iberchem has been a very light touch integration with only integrating the basic parts of the organization, but freedom to run the business in terms of commercial and creation.
That's why you will talk to our perfumers today and you will see that they are really happy. After 18 months, we didn't lose any single person in the company. Actually, it's exactly the opposite. There is an attraction effect because we are now part of Croda. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Matthew from Bank of America. I have a question around the combination of the two companies and in particular, how you are allocating extra capital to the business. I guess, José, from your perspective, it's hard to view a business that's grown so successfully as being underinvested per se, but still, if you had access to more capital, was there a pipeline of projects you would like to have done which you're now being allowed to do within the Croda organization?
Richard, technically, when you think about the synergies, the sales synergies and how you create value for people, customer cross-selling is obviously one, but actually putting the balance sheet to work and deploying this capital to open new sites, hire more people, do we capture that just within the organic growth, this double-digit organic growth, or how do we distinguish between what's organic and what's a sales synergy when you're investing in a business?
If I could answer the last question, just answer it correctly. In the organic growth model that we've got, that is based on what pretty much on the resources that we had at the time of the acquisition and projecting those forwards. Yes, there will be more capital employed for geographic expansion. Brazil, China were the examples that we've given as priorities. Will there be others in the future? Yes. To accelerate that organic growth, absolutely right. José, I don't know if you want to comment on the—
When you are growing in an average of 15% every year, part of your expenses and your HR, I would say HR expenses and even CapEx is moving forward five years ahead. At the time of being acquired by Croda, we designed the organic growth with existing resources. I would say 20% of them not yet generating value because going forward to the future. Our average CapEx investment was basically 2.5% sales. It was very successful, but obviously, there was a conscious of, how to say, immediate results. Now that we are part of Croda, we double the level of capital deployed around 5% because we want to accelerate some of the key areas. We mentioned three basic projects.
Fast growth China, because we want to double the size in China. We have significant revenues in China right now. We mentioned 20% of the revenues in Iberchem are coming from China. We want to grow much more than that. We have a beautiful project jointly with Beauty Actives in Guangzhou, very near the factory that we have today. Second project is in Parfex, accelerating the R&D and then the creation of sustainable products. The third one is expanding capabilities here. All in all, it's double the typical capital deployment in Iberchem. We are sure that with this, we will be very consistent with the growth. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning. Sebastian Bray of Berenberg Bank. I'd have two questions, please. The first is on the similarities or differences between the Croda and Iberchem business models. Does Croda spend a similar or does Iberchem, I should say, spend a similar percentage of sales on R&D? Is new and protected products a relevant metric for Iberchem, given that the average product lifetime seems to be quite low, and it's not clear to me how some of the IP protection works. My second question is on China, building on Matt's earlier comments. How has performance been year to date in that geography? Thank you.
If I just answer the first question, if I understood it correctly. Has Croda historically used NPP as a measure as an innovation metric, basically, and a sign of differentiation in the marketplace? Is that relevant for Iberchem? Yes, we believe it is. For two reasons, actually. This constant feed of new creations into the market. We've talked about the importance of identifying trends and offering customers both formulations and fragrances that align with those emerging consumer trends. That is innovation. It might be a different type of innovation to Croda, where often we talk about new molecules. This is taking existing materials and presenting them in a different way to meet a new trend.
The innovation is slightly different. But if that innovation is not there, the business model falls apart. It's key. Yes, we believe it is. If we have that metric in place, it continues to drive the focus on that innovation. Does that answer your question?
Yes, it does. I was wondering, is it really a protected product, though, or is it just one which comes along quite quickly and is then replaced because the innovation is in place? How would you define protected in the case of Iberchem?
I think I'll pass it to perhaps María Ángeles might be a better person to answer. No, I was gonna say that the protection is also in the context of the application. I think you have to look at if you have a fragrance going into a skincare formulation, as Magali explained a few minutes ago, changing the fragrance in that formulation is not a simple thing to do. Because when you change that, you run the risk actually of upsetting and destabilizing the whole formulation. Is that protected? Actually, yes, it is. Especially if we have the relationship with the customer to understand why they would look to change. It's different in different parts of the market. We still believe it's a very relevant metric to focus on.
Yeah, I fully agree with Richard. The level of protection is slightly different in Croda and Iberchem, but it goes in the same direction. Yeah, some of the players can do the same fragrances that we do, but the level of service and the intimacy with the customer is giving the reaction. Our customers need a very fast reaction, particularly in those emerging markets we mentioned before. Every week, every month, they came here to say. You will see today that our production centers are real customer experience centers. They came to our centers and said, "Look, I want this twist. I want this smelling profile. I want something different." Our reaction is the base of this protection, which is completely different from the multinationals. Maybe María also want to add something.
I will add something. Consider, as I said before, that our market is marketing trends driven. In the past, maybe you found your perfume, and you could keep it for 20 years. Right now, everyone is buying five perfumes per year and changing it very fast. Now the importance is not in the level of protection. It's more important how fast you are in giving the service to the customer and to giving new trends and new fragrances more than protecting something you have. Because in the end, the customer, what they really want is to be on the trend and to have a good service and a good fragrance according to the market, according to the fashion. This is a chemical sector, but also a fashion sector. Fashion is so fast nowadays that it's more about being fast than about being protected. That's it.
If I can add to your question about ingredient, because we are at the end, an ingredient business. We, the NPP from Croda of new molecule also cross in Iberchem. When you come up with a new capsule like María have, that is patented in the same way and that is counted. And similarly, you have heard me saying about emotional claim. Now it's another game. It's when you have a combination of ingredient that deliver a claim and an effect, that is patentable. Slightly different, but it is patentable and that can be counted. That would be the KPI.
Before moving to the second question that you mentioned. An additional note, you know, most of the Tier 1 players, they work with captive ingredients. So now that we are part of Croda, we are working in some bio-based captive ingredients that will be a unique opportunity for a player like Iberchem to have to increase the level of protection of our fragrances. Then if there's any other comment. I mean, your second question is about China. I mean, we need to be very clear. China has never been easy, you know? We have a very successful business, but since the very beginning, we are fighting against all the macro aspect and internal aspect of China. We were very small. We were fighting with all the players over there.
There was compliance complexity 25 years ago, and we're fighting against all of this. Everything, I mean, has been professionalized over the last 20 years. The microeconomic conditions now in China are very challenging. That's absolutely true. The Zero- COVID policy is very challenging as well. We are super happy because we have bigger volume, lower margin, but it's getting very successful. In terms of restrictions and lockdowns, that is a typical question right now. We are not in Shanghai. We are in Guangzhou, so we have been fully operative, not any single day of disruption over the last two years in Guangzhou, which is really good. The other site that we have in China is in Nanchang. In Nanchang, we are working, I mean, perfectly. It's all good.
Thank you.
Hi, it's Marcus on from RBC again. Could you just elaborate on some of those nearer term and longer term end market demand trends in fragrances? You know, what happens when there's a consumer squeeze due to higher inflation? Is there a trading down effect? How's your portfolio positioned to deal with that? With those end market changes? What are your customers saying to you at this juncture?
Typically, our reaction has been always being very conscious about the customer needs and not to increase so much selling cost through selling prices. We have been always very rational on that. Typically, our customers, what they see from Tier 1 companies is the typical reaction, sending letters across the board saying, "Look, we are increasing prices 10% tomorrow," you know? Then what they feel with us is that we are much more closer to them and rational to them. Yes, some of them, they come to us and they, "You know, we need some kind of reformulation. We need to fine-tune some of the formulas to be more competitive, to be more rational with the context of the business today. This is something we do on a weekly, daily basis, I would say.
Hi, it's Charlie Bentley from Jefferies. Just had two questions. Again, when you're talking around sales synergies and the split between kinda Croda into Iberchem and Iberchem into Croda, how do you think that kind of shakes out? If I think about specifically, I think the clear area of opportunity there is Iberchem has a customer selling fragrances, and that's 1% of the product. Croda might be able to supply another 15% of the product across actives and formulations. Is that basically where you're focusing on? On the Home Care side, it's much less of a priority? How do you think about that?
No, no, it'd be incorrect to say that home care is less a priority. There's applications in both areas, but they're different. In terms of how the synergies shake out, the majority of the cross-selling synergies we assume to be fragrances into Croda customers. There are opportunities to sell ingredients back into the Iberchem customers, and José mentioned one earlier. It was just a meeting with a customer in Jordan. We expanded the meeting about what they were trying to achieve. They were looking to mimic some MNC brands. When they understood that we actually supply some of those MNCs with the key ingredients, that opened up a conversation with that customer which was very fruitful actually. There are opportunities. In the model we put together, the assumption was that there's much.
It's much easier for us to introduce Fragrances into the existing customer base. It'd be wrong to say there's a prioritization of Personal Care over Home Care. Both sectors are being focused on actually by different people and different teams, and it's a different type of selling model, but it's very attractive opportunities in both sectors actually. It's a different business. Does that answer your question?
Yeah. Yeah, it does. Just another one going on to Marcus' question just on cost of living increasing, inflation, so on and so forth. I mean, if I think about Iberchem's customer set and particularly EM focus, I mean, we see what was quite a challenging time. Can you just talk around kinda how the business navigated that and how you think kind of that will impact the business today? Thanks.
Last year the average cost of raw materials in our Fragrance division increased by 18%, and in the first quarter of 2022, an additional 10% increase. If you look at the reported figures of Iberchem in 2021, basically there was an erosion of gross margin less than one basis point, you know. That give you the sense that the cost pass-through selling prices is effective in the dynamics that we mentioned before of 280 new products per month. It works because last year we didn't increase prices, I would say officially, but this dynamic, yes. This first quarter we increased prices, but in addition we have this cost, these new products per month, and actually we are not seeing any erosion of margin.
I would say that we will be able to navigate very well this year. I remember that 2018 was really very tough for us because it was the same situation we have today across the industries. We suffer in the fragrance industry, and it was basically the same. Typically the reaction from our customers or those prospective customers that were resisting not to open the door to Iberchem. They are more inclined to talk about new launches with Iberchem than before because of sensitivity to cost. You know? I don't know if I answer your question.
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was kind of also just thinking around volumes. If I think about, are there any concerns on a volume basis rather than on a pricing basis, if that makes sense?
When we talk about volume and price, there's always a combination of product mix, and it's very different when we talk about functional fragrances and fine fragrances of course on personal care. You know, in 2021 when we were impacted in fine fragrances, we grew more in volume obviously because of Home Care products than fine fragrances, you know.
Yeah, for sure. Thanks.
This is the situation today as well.
Hello, it's Nicola Tang from BNP Paribas Exane. I wanted to first ask a little bit about, you talked about how one of your differentiating factors was the agility and the speed to market and sort of the 15-day potentially for the tailor-made approach. Could you talk a little bit about how that compares to some of your peers in the Tier 2 side, but also in the Tier 1 side? I guess linked to that, one of the beauties or challenges of having a local and regional customer base is the product churn, and I guess the risk of disruption from some of these new players. Could you talk a little bit about the churn in your own portfolio, and I guess the average lifetime of a product?
When we talk about speed, it's a question of policy. It's internal policy. It doesn't mean that for example, Tier 1, they can't work that way. Of course they can, but sometimes they don't want to because they are more focused in some kind of companies and sometimes they are not so focused in other companies that for us they are huge, but maybe for them because of their size, they are not so huge. That style we've acquired has led us to big successes because we've understood that the way of differentiating our company was through this short time to create and to deliver fragrances.
About Tier 2, considering the size of Iberchem, there's something Richard normally says, we are Tier 1.5, and it's quite real because we are really big compared to the current Tier 2 competitors, but we are not as big as Tier 1. So about resources, we have much more resources than Tier 2 competitors. We can deliver this kind of fragrances and make those creations because just because we have more tools to make it. So that's the way we differentiate from Tier 1 and from Tier 2. About your second question about how long does the fragrances alive, we have 40,000 references, all of them are alive. Also because we work, as I said before, we work in a fashion world.
Fashions come and go, and when you have something, for example, Chanel No. 5, well, it's still alive. Other fragrances, maybe right now they are not alive, but in five years they will come back again. You must think about our collection like a library. It's great to have all the possible books you can, and then you will pick them according to the situation. Also they are an inspiration to create new fragrances and also for the trickle-down and the cross-category strategy. You can use some fragrance, for example, which was created 10 years ago for Thailand. Modify this and make a wonderful fragrance. This fragrance was for fabric softener, for example, and you can create a wonderful candle today for the U.K., getting the inspiration from that old fragrance. It's something alive. It's something we're using every day.
Evaluators, we know all of the references. We are like librarians. It's something really useful to play with all the global markets we have. Because every market has a different rhythm, so it's great to be able to work that way.
If I could ask a second one. You've talked clearly about not wanting to become a Tier 1, but you know, you referenced there being a Tier 1.5 . In you know, part of your growth strategy, you also talked about acquisitions. I wonder whether you could talk about what are your priority areas there? Is it more about targets on geography? Is it more about specific ingredients or the sustainability sort of angle, as with Parfex?
I can comment on that, and, it's. Yeah, you're right, it's all of the above, really. In the acquisition strategy, we're open to both. We have clear geographies which may have become clear to you during the presentation today, where if there's an opportunity that comes up, we would welcome that opportunity and look very carefully at it. If the opportunity doesn't come up, we like to spend some CapEx to invest in localized production there. The other thing that we shouldn't lose focus on, though, is the technology. Fragrance delivery technologies, encapsulation, that type of thing, equally applicable in other parts of Croda's personal care business, like the actives business as well. There's other M&A stuff. It's not just around geographic presence, it's also about technology, new technologies, new processes, fermentation, biotech, that type of thing as well. José, I don't know if you want to comment any further.
I think you explained it perfectly. I mean, it's not only geographic opportunities, but categories and technologies. For example, what we did in Brazil is I think a great example. The running of that going through an acquisition that we were looking before being part of Croda. We start a very interesting project in Croda Campinas in Brazil with a collaboration. But in some of the markets is we really want to penetrate and we don't want to wait that long. Probably we'll look for some opportunities. I think you explained it perfectly. Thank you.
One more question.
Hi. Thank you for the presentation. First of all, I just have three quick questions. Could you please explain a little bit the briefing process? Does it differ materially from Tier 1? You are very exposed to emerging markets, so is it fair to assume that pricing is the main factor when they make the decision or is it different than how I understand it? Second one would be that in recent years, Tier 1 players have always talked about local and regional players, and they have made quite a headway there. Now they talk more and more on indie customers and that they want to compete in this. Do you see increased competition there? How do you expect the market to develop?
The last one is maybe a little bit more on Parfex. What is a realistic expectation when I think about fragrances? How much would always be synthetic and how much can actually be raw, like naturally based raw materials or the technology where you do something which is exactly. So how much can actually be raw material based because not natural based because it is just so much more difficult with all the crop fields that are required. Thank you.
The first question I will answer. About brief. Briefs are very similar for every comp, for all the companies. It's more about what kind of brief you receive and how you focus that. Right now we are competing in several briefs against Tier 1 when we talk about multinational companies. The way we work is quite similar with our tools. It's something we have the regulatory, we have perfumers, we have evaluators, same tools. It's a question of the approach. Maybe you can be more or less competitive in price in some situations. In other situations, even if the company is a multinational, maybe some of the briefs are for emerging markets where we are stronger because of our knowledge.
In those situations, we play with our competitive side of knowing better that kind of market. About finding the big ones in our traditional markets is totally true. Sometimes we think we've inspired them as well as they inspire us, and we really think it's like that. I think every competition is good to learn. It makes you better. It makes you improve. In the end, I really think there's market for all of us. Also some of them or almost all of them are from the Tier 1, they are also suppliers. We've got a good relationship with them. They also sell raw materials for us, and it's not. Yes, there's competition, but it's a healthy competition that helps us improve, and there's enough gap for all of us. We still can grow and they can still keep on growing and keep our personality without a problem. For sure.
Answering your second question, of course, I mean, we cannot say that Tier 1 players are not coming to our field. Of course, they do. They're coming to our field. If we look ten years back and we see why some of them, some of the Tier 1 players have been so active acquiring Tier 2 companies, it's obvious. I mean, their structure, the service is not appropriate to the level of response that our customers are typically looking for. That's why we have so many examples of companies acquiring different industries and different companies than Tier 2.
The problem of this consolidation process for them is that at the end of the day, when one of these Tier 1 companies acquire a smaller one and say to the same customers, "Look, today you will be attended by our division or the other," sometimes the customer said, "No. You know what? You are now part of the same company. I don't want to be attended by you know? You are not the one deciding if I will go with Givaudan or I will go to Drom. No, you are not the one. I want to make my own choice," you know? In some of these cases, the last that I mentioned, this strategy of acquiring smaller companies of a Tier 2 was a complete disaster from the branding positioning, as you know.
In terms of financials, it's great, but in terms of retention of people and retention of talent, was a complete disaster. In all these aspects, the consolidation process of the Tier 2 has been really, really good for us because creating wide spaces for us, you know? You also mentioned indies. Indies, if I'm not wrong, you mentioned indies, right? Indies is the typical customer that fits very well with our strategy because as different from the global accounts and the big firms. You will see today in the site visit that we want to help our customers showing the trends in finished products as well. You will see an area that María Ángeles will explain called Supermarket. In this Supermarket, you will see in different categories, finished products from our competitors and from us.
This is helping the indies for their launches as well. I think I will pass the floor to—
If I can just make one follow-up comment to what José said as well. It's really very easy to say we're focusing on indies, but it's a very complex task to do that. In Croda, we've been focusing on indies for some time actually, as you'll be aware from previous presentations at the consumer care business. We know very well the workload that needs to go into developing indie relationships and satisfying their needs. It's very easy for big Tier 1 to say we're focusing on indies. It's hard to do it actually. The other great benefit, we keep coming back to the full formulation offer. We've got a complete package to offer the indies, and we've got projects and people to do that. It's quite different. Just to the final part, I'm gonna hand over to Alex, but I think there's a Parfex question about naturals, wasn't it?
Well, first of all, you have to understand that if tomorrow we start doing all fragrances we have in natural base, that would be a natural catastrophe. Second of all, you have to understand that this is why also we work with the Ecocert certification, so we make sure the natural we use are certified organic. Second of all, synthetic is not always bad as many people think. First of all, you have natural synthetic. That many synthetic materials actually. For example, before musk used to come from animal, and people used to kill this animal to get the molecules. Nowadays we use synthesis to have these molecules. We are protecting the fauna, for example.
Just to complete, for Parfex today, the natural ingredients, it's about 40% of our portfolio. But as Guillaume explained, obviously this is not the sole solutions for the future. That is why we are working as well on sustainable fragrances from natural origin, but we are capable of controlling it.
I think that was the last question. First of all, from all of us, thank you very much for your attention this morning. I know it was an early start, and I hope you found it useful engaging. The best part of the day is actually yet to come, okay?