Welcome to our Financial Year 2024 Results Presentation. We're delighted to welcome you here again to Butchers' Hall, alongside myself, Mark, and Jim presenting. We're joined by our chairman, Tim Smith. We're joined by Chris Aldersley, our Chief Operating Officer, and a host of our senior leadership team. Catherine, Mark, and Matt Cunningham will happily answer any of the questions you may have following the Q&A session at the end. Turning briefly to the agenda on page one, if I may. I'll briefly comment on the progress we've made during the year. Mark will then run through the numbers, and Jim will update on the commercial progress before handing back to me for a few words on the strategy and operational performance, and we'll then open up to Q&A.
Before we start turning the pages on the slide deck, I want to recap on what has been an extremely strong year for the business. We've delivered strong financial performance and made further progress in delivering our strategy. Our business would not be where it is today if it's not for the people in that business. So before we go any further, I just want to thank all my colleagues for the brilliant team efforts that they've made, for their passion, their commitment, and professionalism and support over the last twelve months, which genuinely sets us apart. Access to labor remains one of our biggest challenges, and the recent increase in the salary threshold for those arriving in the U.K. on Skilled Worker visas to GBP 38,700 is not helping matters.
We've now recruited more than 650 colleagues from the Philippines, who now form a key part of our workforce. We need common sense to prevail here, so that the U.K. food industry generally has access to a sustainable labor pool with the right skill sets at a reasonable cost. Planning is another significant challenge for us. We've been very open about our ambition to expand our fresh poultry business in East Anglia, but we face obstacles arising from the bureaucratic and overly complex planning application process. We need the process to be simplified and streamlined, and we continue to press government for a more simple process. Finally, before we start turning the pages on the presentation, I want to briefly discuss our farming business. We've been fully vertically integrated in poultry for some time, but over recent years, we've significantly expanded our pig farming business.
10 years ago, we farmed no pigs at all, and today we're the largest producer in the U.K., finishing over 30,000 pigs per week. This makes us more than 50% self-sufficient. We've increased the size of our herd at a time when the overall U.K. herd has contracted by circa 15%. And looking ahead, I expect to see further sector consolidation. We're committed to expanding our farming capability to ensure continuity of supply, sustainability, leadership, and the highest animal welfare standards. Just direct you briefly on to page three. We've delivered another step change in our performance this year, where our track record of unbroken dividend growth now extends to 34 years. And on to the commercial and strategic highlights on the following page. I want to briefly reflect on some of these highlights that we've made.
Revenue increased by almost 12%, underpinned by positive volume growth across all four food categories. Adjusted Operating Profit was up by 26.3%, reflecting the strong returns we are now generating from our expanded farming and milling operations, tight cost control, and effective deployment of capital. We are increasing our total full-year dividend by 13.4% to 90 pence per share, which means, as I mentioned a moment ago, that we will have delivered 34 years of consecutive dividend growth. We spent another GBP 91.4 million across our estate, with well over GBP 600 million now invested over the last eight years. We also spent GBP 46 million on two earnings-enhancing strategic bolt-on acquisitions.
The Elsham Linc farming business, which includes both pigs as well as a milling business, and Froch Foods, which adds additional capacity and capability to our bacon curing and cooked meats business. Despite this level of investment, because of our incredibly strong cash generation, we have actually reduced our bank debt to almost zero, and we've improved our return on capital employed by almost 2.7% - 18.5%, well ahead of our mid-teens target. Finally, before I hand over to Mark and then Jim, I want also to call our commitment for delivering to customers. We deliver excellent service levels throughout the course of the year, and this was very much signaled by a Christmas trading period with a 98% fulfillment. As I mentioned a moment ago, it is our teams across the business that make this happen.
I'll now pass on to Mark, who will run through our financial performance.
Morning, everyone, and thank you, Adam. I'll spend the next few minutes just running through the FY 2024 highlights. As I'm sure you know, and if you don't, FY 2024 was a 53-week year, so I'll be talking about 53-week performance, although I will comment on how we've performed on a 52 versus 52-week basis as I run through the presentation. As Adam mentioned, and just looking at those financial highlights before we dig a little bit deeper into the numbers, we've made incredibly strong progress over the last year. Revenue was up 11.9%. Adjusted PBT was 26.1% higher, and EPS and DPS were 15.6% and 13.4% ahead, respectively. Our cash conversion has been excellent, with our free cash flow increasing by 49.7%.
Our total net debt, which is almost exclusively IFRS 16 related, dropped below GBP 100 million. As Adam mentioned, our bank debt is virtually zero. If I'm turning the slides as well as talking, so if I get a bit sort of out of sync, just give me a shout. Looking at page seven and our, and the financial performance, our P&L in a little bit more detail. Here you can see both on a 53-week and a 52-week pro forma basis. Reported revenue was up 11.9%, as I mentioned, at just under GBP 2.6 billion, with like-for-like revenue growing by 11.6%. If we're looking at a 52-week adjusted basis, revenue was up 9.8%, with like-for-likes up 9.4%.
And I'll come on to revenue and look, and dig more deeply into that in a moment or a moment or two. But that revenue growth is really driven by our core U.K. food business, which performed exceptionally strongly. Adjusted operating profit was up by 26.3% to GBP 185.1 million. And operating margin at 7.1% was 81 basis points higher. Adjusted profit before tax, at GBP 176.6 million, was 26.1% ahead, as I mentioned. And although not on the slide, just to call it out, our interest cost was higher at GBP 8.9 million, compared to GBP 6.4 million last year, slightly lower than I guided to previously.
The higher interest cost was entirely due to a higher cost of borrowing, with base rates increasing, as you know, as the year progressed, and all our interest is on floating rates. But with bank debt lower, that offset some of that increase in the base rates and kept that interest cost pretty low. Our effective tax rate on adjusted profit before tax was 26.1%. That compared to 19.8% last year, with the increase in our rate solely attributable to the 6% increase in the headline rate of corporation tax, effective from the start of FY 2024. And with the impact of that tax rate taken into account, adjusted EPS increased, still increased by 15.6% to 242.8 pence per share.
And that reflected clearly that very strong performance in our, in our PBT. As Adam mentioned, we, we are increasing the dividend again. We're proposing to increase our final dividend by GBP 0.085 per share, or 14.5% to GBP 0.673 per share from GBP 0.588 last time. And this, combined with the interim dividend of GBP 0.227 per share, gives a total dividend of GBP 0.90 per share, compared to GBP 0.794 last time. As I mentioned, an increase of 13.4%.
I think the last but not least, on that side, you can see how strong our ROCE was this year, 264 basis points higher than last year, and our strong ROCE highlights our ability to deploy capital at pace and drive strong returns. Now, as I mentioned, I'm just going to look at, if I can get the slides to flip over, revenue in a little bit more detail. As I mentioned, reported revenue 11.9% higher, reflecting effective inflation recovery, certainly through the first half of the year. Like-for-like revenue increasing by 11.6%, with the 53rd week contributing just shy of GBP 50 million. Growth reflected strong volumes in U.K. food, effective recovery of widespread inflation, and record Christmas trading, with new business wins as well.
On a comparable 52-week basis, revenue was up 9.8%. This was underpinned by core U.K. food volume growth of 4.5%, with all four categories delivering positive volume momentum. And in fact, volume growth accelerated sharply in the second half of the year, from 2.6% in H1 to a very strong 6.6% in H2. Our Q4 exit rate was strong, and we've maintained this momentum in the first few weeks of FY 2025. Total export sales decreased year-on-year, as both pricing and demand from our key Chinese market remained subdued. Pet revenue declined modestly as expected, reflecting the transition from its legacy customer base and the timing of onboarding the new Pets at Home contract.
This really was a tale of two halves, though, with revenue substantially lower in H1 as we built stock for the Pets at Home contract, and then strong H2 year-on-year growth of over 20% as we started shipment to Pets at Home. We expect strong acceleration of that growth through H1 in FY 2025 as well, as we continue to expand and onboard more of that Pets at Home business. Turning to page nine of the slide deck and looking at margins. Group operating margin at 7.1% was 81 basis points higher than last year. This improvement reflects a strong contribution from our expanded pig farming operations and that robust return from effective deployment of capital and last but not least, tight cost control.
With the vast majority of our retail business now in a cost of production or market price links model, our margins are now more resilient than they've ever been. Just bridging EPS here on page 10. Adjusted EPS increased by GBP 0.328- GBP 2.428 per share, with the strong operating profit, partly offset by the impact of the 6% increase in the headline rate of corporation tax, which came into effect at the start of the year. And you can see the impact of that GBP 0.341 tax split into two parts. So the majority, GBP 0.197, relates to the 6% increase in the headline rate of tax, and GBP 0.144 reflects the year-on-year profit growth at that previous year's tax rate.
What I want to really call out as well is our cash performance and cash generation. So here on slide 11, you can see our cash and Net Debt in more detail. Net Debt fell by GBP 2 million - GBP 99.4 million, from GBP 101.4 million at last year-end. The year-end position now includes GBP 99.3 million of lease liabilities, and our bank debt was under 100K at year-end. Our free cash conversion was excellent, at 142.3%, driving a very strong free cash flow of GBP 223.4 million. That was, by some way, a record for the business.
I think importantly, you'll, you see that notwithstanding that nearly 12% growth in top line revenue, our working capital, including biological assets, increased by only GBP 1.4 million. We kept inventory flat and continued to be very disciplined and focused on managing working capital as we look to grow our business. Tax paid in the period of GBP 41.4 million was GBP 21 million higher than last year, and that reflects the impact of the higher tax rate in FY 2024, and the benefit of the super deduction that we, that we experienced and took advantage of in FY 2023. So back to a more, you know, a more normalized level of, of, of cash tax as we look ahead.
Capital expenditure, net of disposal proceeds, was GBP 90.6 million, and I'll come onto that in a bit more detail shortly. Dividends paid in the year total GBP 43.9 million, GBP 7.6 million up on last year, reflecting the increase in the FY 2023 final dividend and the removal of the scrip dividend option this year. We also spent GBP 47.1 million on acquisitions, the majority of that relating to the Elsham Linc, Froch Foods businesses, but there are also GBP 1 million of deferred consideration in that total as well. This isn't, this cash performance isn't a one-off. If you look at, if you look over the last eight years, our cash generation has been consistently strong, and you can go back a lot further than that. This is a hallmark of the Cranswick business.
We've generated over GBP 1 billion of free cash flow over the last eight years. We've spent over GBP 600 million on CapEx, over GBP 200 million on M&A, and returned well over GBP 200 million to shareholders by way of our cash dividend over that time, and yet we've actually reduced bank debt. So it just shows the cash-generative nature of the business and how we convert that profit into cash. In terms of our bank debt facility, we've got a lot of firepower. We've got a GBP 250 million sustainability-linked facility, which extends through to November 2026, and we've got the option, should we need it, of a further GBP 50 million on the same terms. So that facility really does provide us with generous headroom to continue our growth strategy.
At year-end, our leverage was just 0.4 x, and as I mentioned, excluding IFRS 16, we were virtually debt-free. Looking at our CapEx and our strategic investment in more detail, we've invested a further GBP 91.4 million across our asset base to support further growth and drive further operating efficiencies. Some of the key ongoing projects are covered on this slide. We invested GBP 31 million across the three primary processing facilities and our farming infrastructure during the year, GBP 7.6 million of which related to the GBP 62 million ongoing multiphased redevelopment of our whole primary processing site, which will add substantial capacity, drive further efficiency improvements, along with the added benefit of on-site cold storage capability.
There are also ongoing projects to expanding growth markets, which include a GBP 23 million redevelopment of our Worsley site near Manchester, to significantly expand hummus production capacity using new and innovative production processes. That should be completed early in the second half. We're investing GBP 27 million to support the category growth pipeline across the added value poultry sites, that's our two sites in Hull, by increasing cooking and cooling capacity. We recently completed a GBP 9 million investment project at our Hull cooked meat site, and that has enabled us to successfully launch more of our slow-cooked range with two major retail customers. We continue to diversify our operations with the GBP 10 million investment program at the pet products manufacturing facility, which will double dry kibble capacity there, nearing completion, as I mentioned, with Pets at Home as the anchor customer.
Actually, it doesn't want to turn over, but, there we go. Very briefly here, and I've shown we've, we've shown this slide before, and this is how we drive value, how we sort of articulate how we drive value creation. And as you can see, down in the bottom right-hand corner of the slide, we've clearly delivered against all of our medium-term targets in both FY 2023 and FY 2024, albeit with a step change in performance over the last 12 months. And we've introduced that, free cash conversion target of 90% on that slide this year, and you can see that we will substantially are well ahead of that, for the year just ended. Can you do that for me, Jim? There we go.
Looking at our capital allocation framework, we've a well-established capital allocation framework now. We'll continue to invest in the business to support our growth strategy with CapEx guidance, again, for FY 2025, of GBP 100 million, to add further capacity, capability, and automation. We delivered GBP 91.4 million this year with a strong forward pipeline. We will maintain our investment-grade balance sheet with a target leverage of less than 2x net debt to EBITDA. We'll maintain a progressive dividend policy with cover of at least 2.5x EPS to DPS. Our cover this year was 2.7x, with that 13.4% growth in dividend per share. We'll continue to explore complementary targeted bolt-on M&A with returns ahead of our group WACC.
And as we've already talked about, we successfully delivered two of those projects this year, and we'll look for more as we go forward. Moving on to the next slide, before I hand over to Jim, just wanted to touch briefly on guidance for FY 2025, because there are a lot of moving parts in FY 2024. So you can see down in the bottom right-hand corner, that gets us to the baseline for FY 2024, after adjusting for the 53rd week, and the one-off reinsurance receipts we received this year. Looking into FY 2025, off that baseline, I expect revenue growth of circa 5%, and a targeted adjusted operating margin of circa 7%.
Finance costs should be slightly lower, at circa GBP 8 million, and the effective tax rate on adjusted profit should be in line at around 26%. And again, as we said, reiterating our CapEx guidance of GBP 100 million. And on that note, I'll pass on to Jim for an update on our commercial performance.
Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to give a brief rundown of the broader market for fresh and chilled and of our performance in the last financial year before spending a bit of time on our commercial strategy and where some of the future growth opportunities can come from. If I can move you over to page 18, and as you can see here, fresh and chilled retail sales remained positive over the last year, with all retailers growing value and many retailers actually also in positive volume territory as well. We've seen a marked improvement in the performance of the full range retailers, as well as they face up to the ongoing share threat from the discounters.
Sainsbury's and Tesco's here being the standout performers, and they've worked really hard on convincing shoppers of their value proposition through their Aldi Price Match, mechanisms, competitive core pricing, as well as a strong promotional offer through there as well. And I think we've got a view that this is likely to continue, as I think particularly both of those retailers have a really clear strategy, a renewed focus on food, and, you know, particularly calling out Sainsbury's with their Next Level food strategy. Simple as it is, it really increases the focus on the space they have dedicated to fresh foods and, you know, doing that at the expense of clothing and their non-food offer. In a similar vein, M&S are doing incredibly well, by delivering a superb retail experience and that real focus on quality and innovation that they're famous for.
But at the same time, actually, they've worked on price as well, particularly on convincing shoppers to widen their product basket on some more core items. So moving on to the next chart, and as we move into next year, what we're seeing is a market improvement in consumer confidence. You know, potentially a view of better things ahead. Obviously, the Living Wage news, you know, will positively affect a huge number of shoppers there, and we think this will, you know, give a real boost in spending patterns, particularly in food, you know, where premiumization and that affordable treat we often talk about should come back into focus and shoppers, you know, really seek to trade up once again.
We also see this as, you know, helpful in the food service sector, you know, particularly the more casual and QSR sectors, and we're seeing, you know, some evidence of this coming through already as well. You know, food prices are stabilizing, and whilst we're not particularly expecting these prices to deflate, we're certainly seeing a moderation of those inflationary pressures, which will certainly, and very importantly, give less uncertainty to the shoppers. So, moving over the page onto page 19, and, you know, very much of you, we've got resilient demand as we move into the new financial year. You know, we often talk about this, but pork and poultry remain very affordable proteins, and all our categories held up very well last year in terms of volume, despite that inflationary headwind, particularly at the beginning part of the year.
Overall, pig meat volumes are holding up well and particularly our premium and convenient categories are doing particularly well. Moving on to fresh chicken, you know, the market volume grew by about 4% year-on-year. Put that in a bit of perspective, that's equivalent to two-thirds of the outputs of our Eye facility. So at the rate of, you know, this kind of rate, the industry would need to build a facility similar to Eye every 18 months or so. Moving on to Continental, and again, these markets are all in continuing to grow, and very much a trend there where shoppers are becoming more familiar with these products and adopting these products as part of the weekly staples.
In a household penetration, for example, on charcuterie is now over 65%, and that's grown significantly over the last five years. In a similar vein, the fresh olive market grew by over 30% in the last five years, and again, mainly due to that increase in household penetration. Food service market, you know, as I touched on a second ago, still very much in recovery, and the more affordable end of the market is doing well. You know, this is a market that has been disproportionately challenged with the cost of labor, utilities, and not to mention those headwinds from the key menu ingredients as well. So moving over to our commercial performance in the year, and, you know, as I touched on. Sorry, Mark, that one still in the middle bit of that one.
Inflation was certainly well navigated over this challenging period, with much of it managed through the open book strategic arrangements with our bigger customers. In addition, a key feature of the year, you know, following the shortfall and the challenges we're seeing on the pig sector, we've really been looking to structurally alter how we deal with our third-party farmers and, you know, moving that to more recognizing the cost of production in the pricing mechanisms we have with retailers, not just back to factory, but also back to farm. Through the expansion also of our vertical integration, we're looking at more strategic agricultural alignments with the retailers, which obviously will seek to underpin our business for the long run.
And, you know, again, over this period, unparalleled service levels, you know, throughout a very challenging, supply chain situation. So I think it's real credit to the wider teams within the, within the various subsidiaries of the group. And finally, the other, the other big feature of the year is obviously ongoing market share gains. We've continued to make progress in every single part of the business, you know, particularly in pig meat, where, you know, I talked about that reduction in the U.K. pig herd. One of our key competitors, Pilgrim's, actually closed an abattoir plant to Ashton, and Morrisons, with their vertical integration, have actually significantly reduced their kill. The overall U.K. kill was down by about 9% on the year, but our volumes have remained consistent throughout.
That agricultural investment that, you know, we'll be talking about a lot today has really allowed us to maintain our numbers now through throughputs in the key plants. Again, we're gaining share in fresh poultry. We've expanded the numbers of birds processed, and, you know, we're looking at touching 1.5 million birds a week, which is utterly phenomenal for a plant that was originally designed for about 1.1 million birds a week. So we're really sweating that asset there. You know, we've brought on new customers, and we've also actually seen our anchor customer significantly improving their performance with their new trade plan. We've had business wins in value-added poultry, bringing in new volume with one of the U.K.'s leading retailers.
We've expanded our share of the cooked, ready-to-eat poultry business there, and we've also taken a significant volume of premium whole muscle breaded poultry, almost doubling the throughput through that new site there. So some really significant changes in business there. We continue to expand our Mediterranean food business. We've grown share again here, and we would now be the largest supplier in the U.K. for charcuterie. We've seen a significant inflation again in olives, obviously due to harvest and some of the weather patterns, at the source for those. But again, this has been certainly dealt with, and customers are really getting used to now the new price positioning. Again, we're now enjoying a market-leading position in the supply of fresh olives and antipasti as well.
Ramona's hummus is now the number one hummus brand, not just by value, but also by volume. And you may have seen that's been supported by TV sponsorship of James Martin's ITV Saturday Morning. And, you know, that site will now be at capacity until we can bring on the new facility in the late summer into the autumn. And finally, on pet, we onboarded the new business with the U.K.'s leading pet care retailer. That was delivered in the period between September and December, and that process was delivered absolutely seamlessly from the outset with great quality and impeccable service. I mean, literally since launch, we have not short delivered a single bag of kibble for Pets at Home. So this has obviously been incredibly well received by the customer, and I'll come onto that a little later.
So now if we move over onto page 20, and really what you can see here is that we've delivered volume growth in all categories during an inflationary market. And certainly, you know, the early parts of the year when we're dealing with the inflation, you do see the retailers take their foot off the gas with the trade plan and the promotions as well, and, you know, hence, Mark talking towards an acceleration of volume growth in the latter part of the year. For light volumes on an adjusted 52-week basis, they're being up by 4.5%. So again, some, some really good momentum on, on volume there.
And that growth has been delivered in all channels other than export, where the China market obviously is a real drag on the numbers with the mismatch of their high domestic supply and poorer demand. And obviously, our export ban remains in place at Watton as well. So moving over onto page 21, and this is really the commercial growth agenda. So we're certainly, you know, looking at increasing the importance of our supply chain integration and having a greater involvement in that value chain end-to-end. And this will be a key unlocker for both supporting the volumes through the facilities, but also delivering that longevity and competitive advantage with our key customers.
You know, one example of this is where we are working on a project with a key customer to deliver, to deliver market-leading eating quality through improved genetics and optimum processing to deliver on taste and tenderness every time. And that will be a, you know, long-term strategic project with a very key customer. And also, of course, again, we're continuing to invest in the assets to free up more capacity, and most notably, the planned investment we have at our flagship pork site at Preston in Hull, and that will allow us to further drive our market share, underpinned by that all-important agricultural supply chain. In addition to the new business we've onboarded during the very end of the last financial year, we actually have new business in the pipeline as well in our value-added poultry business.
And that we've had confirmation of more cooked, ready-to-eat poultry for a premium retailer, and that will come on stream at the beginning of the next financial year, so to the end of this process. We have actually onboarded some of that business early, but the balance of that business will come in from February and March next year. The new hummus and dips facility, that will come on stream at the end of the summer, and that will really support our Ramona's brand growth, but also having the ability to serve own label customers. And the facility there will give us significant competitive advantage through investment in state-of-the-art equipment, the very best kit you can buy for making hummus, which would actually be a unique proposition here in the U.K., and nobody currently has the best kit for making hummus.
That also gives us automation and a lot of competitive advantage in terms of it being able to do toppings and other things to really add value and premiumize that market as well. Finally, we've invested GBP 10 million in the pet facility, which leaves us really fit for future growth there. That doubles our capacity. Following that successful launch of the Wainwright's core business and the step-up to Naturals ranges, we've actually now been awarded further business from Pets at Home through both range extensions in pork and chicken varieties, which were absent from their ranges, and there are some examples of that on the table. They launched in the spring of this year.
And then finally, we've been awarded significant additional volume on the Wainwright's grain-free range, which will move from another supplier between August and December, in the second half of this financial year. In addition to this, as if that's not enough, we've also working on a new innovative, new range proposition for them, and that will also launch later in the year. So feeling like we're getting some real momentum with that, that customer there. So a lot of, you know, a lot of new volume will come on board during the course of this year. So moving on to page 22, and really, what we're gonna focus on a little bit is some of the strategic enablers, in terms of how this all comes together with our strategy and really leading to that, differentiated business model I talk about.
So, you know, that further integration is more and more becoming a key part of our strategy and deepening our value chain involvement, securing and aligning our end-to-end supply chain with key retailers and facilitating expansion against that backdrop of a declining third-party pig farmer supply chain. Obviously, that control of the supply chain also helps enormously towards the path to our net zero targets as well. We've also leveraged our integrated supply chain in chicken to deliver a reduced stocking density solution for our key retail partners, and that gives us early mover advantage on this, where the rest of the industry will be scrambling for agricultural space as other retailers will follow suit and look to reduce the stocking density and improve animal welfare credentials.
Moving on to lean processing, that focus on capacity, capability, and efficiency, you know, that planned investment at Preston is a real example of this, of how we, you know, we invest heavily in market-leading assets to enable our market share gains across not only the business on the fresh pork from that site, obviously, that's also a key enabler in the value-added businesses in the wider, in the wider group, and then indeed, moving into new areas such as that hummus and dips facility I mentioned earlier. Iconic and relevant products. You know, this is really where we focus on premium and again, add value to the business that way, and add value to the carcass, but also innovating in products to suit ever-changing customer needs, particularly around that health, convenience, and versatility that we talk about.
And finally, really close and long-term strategic customer relationships, you know, focusing on really being close to and enabling their strategic goals as well. That was underlined by the recent Advantage Survey, which is a survey that is done across all the retailers, and we actually came top from a range of fresh suppliers, not just in the meat, fish, and poultry universe, but also in a wider fresh and chilled cohort of suppliers. So that was very pleasing and a real recognition of what we're doing for our customers there. So moving on to page 23, and this is a slide, actually, I often use when introducing the group to a wide variety of new people we come to. And really, what this is now is just to demonstrate the variety of categories within which we are now active in.
Rather than being sort of pigeonholed, as we often are, as the pig specialist or even the posh sausage makers, we are, we're now a real varied, value-added businesses. To put this in a bit of context, combine these categories would equate to around GBP 12 billion worth of retail sales value alone, not to mention the opportunity in business to business and the out of home market as well. You know, we can broadly view these in three buckets, you know, adding value to the pig meat that we're obviously most known for, across, you know, across everything from fresh pork to gourmet sausages, gourmet bacon, slow-cooked sous vide products, and of course, cooked meats, which is a, a huge category for us.
Obviously, also premium pastry that broadly sits in there, you know, particularly sausage rolls, but also premium pies and an increasing range of meal solutions actually coming from that business as well. You know, chicken and poultry, you know, very much have gone along the fresh sides, but also ready-to-eat, cooked and ready-to-eat chicken, which was in the first category that we entered into in the poultry market, and also a big opportunity to grow in our coated and breaded options there as well. And really, Mediterranean foods, again, you know, we probably think that very much of olives and antipasti, but we're also doing a wide range of ambient foods there, you know, importing olive oil and, you know, pulses and seeds with the catering service business under the Cypressa brand.
Obviously, newly added hummus and dips, and we're also the single biggest importer of halloumi to the U.K. market as well, and have recently underpinned the contract for the McDonald's Halloumi Fries as well, which is starting to roll in the business throughout this year. And obviously, finally, on the pet foods and you know, very much in the dry dog food market, but we're actually also adding some dry cat products for Pets at Home later in the year. And that's not to mention being the U.K.'s largest supplier of hedgehog food. So, moving on to the next page, and on this chart, really, I'm looking to highlight the level of white space that genuinely still exists for us to continue to grow the business over the coming years.
What, hopefully, this highlights, obviously, the darker shade there being the Cranswick share of the various categories and the other being the wider market opportunities. You know, really, I think what I want to highlight here is there is still ample market share to go far in the core pig meat categories, and we've by no means reached any level of saturation in this market. Our chicken market share sits around 7%, and bringing on new facilities also will be the key to developing this share over time. And in continental, while we are the largest supplier in some categories, there's still ample opportunity to grow share, but also develop new market concepts here, as well as the team there are doing extremely well. So there remains the opportunity for us to grow our business.
Really, I think of this in three buckets, you know, obviously taking market share from our competitors and winning new business throughout expanding the category itself through our close retail partnerships, and also through, you know, through active promotion and NPD. And finally, of course, that drive of premium and really making premium a larger part of given categories, particularly in, like, the sausage and bacon areas, where we tend to focus on the premium end of the market and similarly, pastry, actually. So hopefully, you know, that gives you a good flavor of where the opportunity lies. So on that note, I'm gonna hand back to Adam, who will talk through our strategic opportunities going forward. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Jim, and I'll, I'll quickly wrap up before moving to Q & A's. But as you've heard throughout the presentation, we've made further progress in strengthening our three strategic pillars of consolidation, expansion, and diversification, and by doing so, delivering on our long-term sustainable growth strategy. We continue to deliver further consolidation as we gain market share in our core primary pork and value-added convenience categories. An ongoing capital investment and expansion of our pig herd underpin very much this momentum. We're investing heavily in the whole primary processing facility to enable us to process more pigs to service our growing value-added pork business, and this will culminate in GBP 100 million expenditure over the last five years alone. And Jim has shown that there is a huge amount of white space for us still to fill.
We have a strong pipeline from secure business wins in value-added poultry to the new hummus facility in Worsley, and this will provide much needed extra capacity when it comes on stream later in the year. This is because the Ramona's hummus brand is, is growing at a significant rate. We continue to make good progress in the pet food sector. So far, it's all been about the investment in that Lincoln site, with a GBP 10 million CapEx program, which will double that dry kibble capacity, and that's nearing completion now. The investment in the refreshed Vitalin and Alpha range and the investment in the Pets at Home relationship will come to the fore in the latter part, certainly, of this year.
Although it's been a tough year in that business itself, there are many parallels between that and our Crown business, where we commenced back in 2016, in that chicken business, where it took us a good number of years to establish there once we'd right-sized it. We put a huge amount of effort and cost in getting that to the right shape at the same time. Over the last 12 months, we've delivered strong revenue growth across the piece, and I want to spend a bit of time talking about that rapidly expanding farming business. As I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, it was only 10 years ago that we weren't farming pigs at all, and we only moved into the poultry farming when we acquired that Crown Poultry facility.
Today, we have over 10 million birds on the ground at any one time, and 800,000 pigs at the same time. Our increasing self-sufficiency helps reduce market volatility and is enabling us to raise welfare and sustainability standards. The ongoing investment we are making, both organically and through acquisition, is increasing our self-sufficiency and drives operating efficiencies, improvements with the associated returns. Access to higher welfare pigs underpins this strategic customer relationship and allows us to drive premium tier growth. In fact, this ongoing investment in farming and agriculture is core now to our profitable growth and drives this competitive advantage. And finally, on page 28, over the last 12 months, we've delivered strong revenue growth, strengthened our operating margins, and completed two return-enhancing acquisitions.
We have a substantial capital investment pipeline with three major growth projects currently underway, and we will continue to deploy capital at pace across the business with the associated returns. We've made a positive start to the new financial year, and trading in the first six weeks has been good, with the volume momentum we saw through the final quarter of FY 2024 maintained. On that ending, I'll hand it over to Q&As from the floor before then returning to any online questions that we may have. Ashton?
Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, Adam, could you expand on, I suppose, the planning restrictions that you're facing at the moment, to the level that you know you can, and whether at the moment this is prohibitive or if it's just gonna cause delays to your plans?
More the latter. It's more delays than it is anything else. Hugely frustrating because we are trying to build a very, not just a sustainable business, but improve on what is already there. And it's somewhat frustrating. We've been two years in a planning process just for a poultry site, for instance. That's just for livestock, not for the actual plant itself. We'll get there. We're absolutely will get there. It is a timing issue more than anything else, but it's somewhat frustrating when you're trying to create not just a sustainable business, but one that is a force of real good as well.
Okay, thank you. And then, Jim, maybe one for you. Just on, in terms of the branded business, appreciate you're building a new site in hummus, Cypressa's doing well, and then I saw that you've done your first advertisement in pet food. I guess, you know, are there any ambitions to increase, you know, branded exposure within the portfolio?
I think certainly within the portfolio, yes, and that's kind of what you're seeing. I think we have to be quite mindful and targeted of which categories amply lend themselves to branding, and, you know, that's where the hummus really came to mind. And if you shop that fixture, it's a very bland, beige looking, everything looks the same, and Ramona's just goes, "Bam, look at this," you know, huge burst of color and all the rest of it. And, you know, that coupled with a really good product and some marketing behind it has really kind of, you know, ignited the customer.
In a similar vein, you know, the pet market is very brand oriented, so it's absolutely key there that we have a good presence at a couple of market positionings between Alpha and the Vitalin brands there as well. So we are very much in keeping with the group, we see ourselves in that affordable premium space there.
Sure. And then last one for Mark. I just want to know sort of, you know, what the base case is on that 5% revenue growth that you're guiding to. Appreciate, you know, you've had a very good year, and the base is high, but equally, you know, you've got some new business wins, consumer confidence is decent, you've got volume momentum, GBP 20 million probably coming from the acquisitions, if you annualize it. I just, yeah, just get a sense of what I'm missing.
Yeah. Well, I think, I'll pick that one up, Ashton. I think on the acquisitions, you know, Elsham is internal. It's part of our vertical integration, so you don't see any external growth in revenue from that. Some of the big projects we've got ongoing will be for, really for FY 2026, the other value poultry that Jim referred to. Look, we can't assume that we're gonna see inflation driving top line as it has done over the last two years as well. We've got strong volume momentum as we enter FY 2025, but the comps, you know, we've got, you know, that volume accelerated through the second half of FY 2024, so we will be working hard to make sure that we keep delivering on that.
So I think, look, as always, I think we, you know, we like to underpromise and overdeliver, but we'll very much be focused on, you know, driving and delivering the best top-line performance that we can, but in, in a disciplined way. Damian?
Hi, thanks. Damian from Deutsche Bank. I think the first question, I think for you, Mark, on the returns profile, very good performance this year, underpinned by an improvement in the farming business, and I think, Mark, you, Adam, you've talked about the sort of how important that is going forward. Do we need to think about a change in the medium-term expectations for the returns profile of this business?
I think we set, when we set 15%, and I think if you look at the targets that we set, 15% on ROCE, 6% on our operating margin, I, I'd be disappointed if we were falling, if we fell below those. They are what I would really see as baseline targets. Historically, we've delivered stronger returns, but we've had a very heavy investment program over the last three or four years, and that is set to continue. So there is still immature CapEx in the pipeline. So I think as CapEx matures, there's more immature CapEx replacing that. I'd like to see, whether you reset the target is a moot point, but I think we clearly want to continue to deliver strong returns for the business.
Thank you, Mark. Jim, I think last time we were here, you talked about wanting to improve the capacity utilization in added poultry, and I think you've announced some new business wins today. How far are you sort of on that journey? Are those businesses now full, or is there still some more work to do?
Well, if we look at the ready-to-eat category, we're actually in an investment program now that will release more capacity, that will support that new business that I mentioned, that comes on in March next year, and that's the constraining factor on that moving over any sooner. And then breaded, you know, we've just taken on a big contract there, which kind of brings us up to short-term-ish capacity. But I think as that business matures within there, I think we'll become more efficient, and that'll release a little bit of capacity there.
Sorry, there's GBP 7 million going into that breaded site as well, as part of that GBP 27 million in program as well. So, you know, to support that growth.
Yeah, so that will, you know, give us a little bit more headroom there. But, you know, yeah, but they're certainly getting into a certain place where they'd be efficiently run, put it that way.
Yeah. Okay, thank you. Maybe just one last one for Adam. There's a likelihood we're going to have a change of government at some point in the next 12 months. Is that going to change some of the things that you sort of flagged at the start, sort of labor, planning? Is it your hope?
I live in hope.
Yeah.
I live in hope. I worry that some of the Civil Service isn't yet quite on the same page as whatever a new government may necessarily come up with. I mean, there are elements of the system broken. It's not just ourselves. You would hear it from any house builder that you would speak to, for instance, on planning, in particular, and just lack of a general support and understanding. I would be hopeful of it. We continue to lobby, we continue to press, but it is hugely, hugely frustrating when you're trying to add value to an economy and build something really meaningful as well. I mean, don't forget, we're spending money down in our Norfolk region.
It will be the best part of GBP 250 million across the infrastructure, creating 2,000-2,500 jobs. So it's of significant importance to the region.
Okay, let's hope so.
Thank you. It's Andrew from Peel Hunt. Well done on a good set of numbers. I'm probably going to follow on a little bit from Damian's question on the labor issue. I could sense a hint of vitriol in your comments earlier. How much of an issue is that labor issue becoming for you? You know, is it just margin being left on the table, or is it becoming sort of an operational kind of issue? Obviously, you're a good employer in the industry, quite far through on things like automation. So could argue sometime, you're a bit of a net beneficiary. I'm just trying to think about how much of an issue that is becoming for you.
Yeah, if you go back, I don't know, two, 2.5 years ago, Andrew, it was a huge issue to us. The industry overall, not just the pig meat sector, but it happened in beef, lamb, and the wider horticultural piece, really suffered from a lack of talent within the U.K. of bringing in, and the government had curbed many of our routes to the market. We've only ever asked two things of government. One is access to labor and access to markets. We're not a subsidized sector in any shape or form, and we're a very progressive business. We like going after business. We're very knowledgeable about our place. Our teams are literally second to none.
When it was originally released that we could bring in overseas workers, our teams were phenomenal at it, hence us having now 650 Filipino butchers in. You know, we really went at it, and these are phenomenal workforce, absolutely phenomenal. To then suddenly see the migrant visa lift to 38,700, we're covered for the time being, but it seems nonsensical as well, and the effects are going to be felt in far wider than just ourselves. You're seeing it in the university space. You're seeing it across all of farming and agriculture. So it does need a more balanced and somewhat nuanced approach to it. This you know, this rhetoric does seem... It doesn't make sense. It absolutely does not make sense.
So I suspect in time there will be some unwinding of that, but it will take some time and maybe a change of government and what, you know, maybe some time even for that new government to understand what effect it is. As it stands today, we're comfortable because we've made such good inroads on it, but it is a concern going forward, yeah.
I think it's fair to say, Andrew, as you alluded to, it swings a balance in favor of investing in automation, and we've done a lot of that. You know, those of you who've been around our Preston facility and Hull will see, you know, we're first to market, not just in the U.K., but globally, in some of the technology. Our Eye facility is best-in-class, again, not just in the U.K., but across the world. So, as we continue to invest at pace, we can continue to widen that gap between ourselves and our competitor set, who perhaps don't have that, the resources to invest at the rate we can.
Great, thank you. And one for Jim, I think sort of there was a slide on 24 with your market share. How much -- it was really helpful to see, but so how much of maybe to focus on just the sort of the bigger markets of poultry, do you think you can actually-- would you like to go after maybe in a three-year view and then, you know, in a longer term view, sort of what's the realistic. Is it, is it to the levels that you're seeing in fresh pork or?
Yeah, I think that would be our long-term view. I don't think that would be delivered in three years either. I think, you know, I mean, you know, our pork journey's taken us, you know, 50 years to get here, hasn't it? So I think we've got to understand the timeline on that, but that's certainly the scale of our ambition, and absolutely there. And then our share will be probably actually slightly ahead of even fresh, you know, fresh pork on Kantar anyway. So that's generally about moving sideways into some of these adjacent categories on the Mediterranean foods side of the business.
Sure. Well, there would be a 50-year journey. I assume it would be a 50-year journey into-
It might not take that long.
-take that long. So would be, is it a ten-year, ten-year view, or-
Poultry is pushing 20% of group revenue already, so that-
Yeah
S o that, you know, the rate of growth of poultry is, you know, you know, has been very strong. But as Jim said, there's a lot to go after.
Great. Thank you.
Morning, all. Gary Martin here from Davy. Just a couple quick questions from me. I guess just starting off with pet food. I mean, Jim, I know that you outlined the number of just new business wins and new expansions with Pets at Home, into FY 2025. If you could just give us a bit more color on that, and just like, I guess, how much, how incrementally expect it to be into FY 2025, just even with regards to a magnitude of overall revenue, that would just be really helpful to start.
Yeah, we were not going to go into the numbers specifically too much on any division. But if you think, put it in perspective, we onboarded the first tranche of the Pets at Home business in this financial year, between September and December, so we weren't even at full bore with phase one until about December. So, you know, Q4, really, of the financial year we're reporting on today. So then you've got full year effects of that, plus then we launched all the NPD ranges in spring of this year, and then we've got a significant increase coming in the H2 of this year as well. So there's some momentum there. So you haven't even seen the full year effect of phase one, you know, by some margin at the minute, hence the numbers.
You know, we had to, we had to kind of clear the decks to really bring Pets at Home on board. And it's probably worthy of note that some of our best businesses around the group are the ones where we focus on a market-leading retail. You know, I don't know if you've been to our Milton Keynes facility, but it's a cooked meat facility and one of the biggest categories. It's dedicated to Tesco, and it works extremely well. You get the efficiency. You haven't got loads of, you know, different ranges, different retailers to support and, you know, you can get the real efficiency and that strategic alignment I mentioned to the customer there as well. So it's a model that we really like actually.
It's really helpful. And then just maybe just another one. Adam, I know in your prepared remarks, you'd mentioned that the national kill rate on pork, it was back year and year, and it was a 15% under supply. So it still sounds like the kind of the pig farmer is still ailing in some regard. I guess, are you still on the lookout for maybe opportunistic further accrual of vertical integration, just regards to-
Yeah, we've been inquisitive, as you know, on this, but we've also self-helped with some organic growth, some internal growth as well. I think it's just the aging demographics as well. The farmers at the moment, it's profitable. Pigs have been profitable. They came off the back of two horrendous years, which has put an awful lot of farmers off and new farmers coming into the sector. The average age of farmers are well into their late fifties now, so it's kind of a natural progression. We expect more of more integration to come in the fullness of time. There's also some real benefit is, if you look at the Elsham business that we acquired back in August of last year, it came with a feed mill.
It was the feed mill that we wanted, first and foremost, if, if truth be known. But what we were able to do with that business, almost immediately, we changed diets. We formulated diets with the knowledge that we've got around the rest of the business. We rationalized a number of diets. That mill was producing 24 diets at the time. It's now producing 12. We reduced the soya inclusion in the diet and took the pig weights higher within the business. The change is almost transformation. It's one of the quickest businesses I know, where we've turned the dial so much quicker than we would have done in any other format. So we can see some real change when we get involved in these businesses.
So yeah, I think it's fair to say we would, we would still look to continue to grow our farming base. But don't forget that 50% self-sufficiency, we say, we're also looking to increase our pig throughput as well. So that 50% may not increase, but the numbers of overall pigs would do.
Makes sense. Awesome.
Emma at the back.
Thank you for the presentation. It's Emma Letheren from RBC. I just had a few questions. So other companies in the U.K. food industry, they flagged like price rollbacks and increase in promotional intensity. So I'd love to understand what you're seeing there. And I think in your press release, you did mention some very successful promotions and, and so whether for fiscal year 2025, you'll expect that the volume uplift from any promotions will offset any negative impact from the slowdown in pricing. And then secondly, there was some news that Mexico has basically opened up some additional pork in the U.K. What is this an opportunity for you, and, and can that provide some offset to the ongoing weakness in your Chinese exports? Thank you.
Jim, do you want to pick up the first?
Yeah, so I take the first one on promos. I mean, yeah, I mean, it, it's definitely the case that the, you know, particularly those large box retailers, your Sainsbury's and your Tesco's, you know, really pushing out on three fronts. There's the Aldi match, Aldi price match, or sometimes Aldi and Lidl price match that Asda are now doing, which is a, generally a select basket of SKUs that they will directly match, kind of pack, weight, price to the discounters. There's generally an overlay of everyday low prices, where ranges won't be directly matched to discounters, but will still be, you know, very good entry price points, you know, particularly for that more value-conscious shopper. And then promotion, which is often where we actually encourage the trade up to get people to trade up through the tier, so make it less difficult to move up.
So I think, I think when you take that, which I definitely see that set to continue, because that's how the, you know, the, the full range retailers have faced up to the discounters and started literally switching from the discounters, is now going to certainly Sainsbury's and Tesco's. But the true, the true friend here I would say, is volume anyway. Yeah, that's our real measure that, you know, I would be looking at. So as long as we're driving underlying volume, the price inflation, deflation mix will kind of sort itself out over time. And, and I don't particularly see it deflationary. I just don't think you'll have the kind of top-line tailwind of, of the kind of inflation that we've seen over the last couple of years. But, but who knows? You wouldn't have predicted what we've seen two years ago either.
So, you know, there's plenty of potential out there on a geopolitical basis for shocks to the supply chain system, hence the need for us to, you know, underpin and do all the things to take more of that in our control anyway.
Yeah, and coming on to the export, and it's still a hugely significant part of our business. Might only be 4% of revenue, but it's a good 4%, if that makes sense. If you imagine, throughout the first quarter of this calendar year, we'll have exported about 240 containers a month. That equates to about 1 in 4 weeks, so of a sheer volume. But of course, it's products that we wouldn't necessarily consume in the West, but it's hugely important. We've opened up Mexico. That's mainly for offal, offal-based products, hugely important, stomachs in particular. Which I don't necessarily wanted to get into the vernacular of what we, what we sell out there, but it is hugely important there.
We've recently received export approval for Vietnam, so we're very prolific when it comes to the exporting regions, notwithstanding various issues that we may have in China. At one of our sites, it is still a very key focal point for us.
Thank you very much.
Clive?
Yeah, thank you. Morning. Two for me. First, I mean, do you think the British Civil Service is anti-British meat, and despite having the highest animal welfare standards in the world, seriously, would rather that product comes in from inferior welfare countries, to supply British consumers? It's a serious question, and then, 'cause it appears that way. And secondly, in terms of the farming side, you've had a big pivot. You touched on some of the benefits that your economic model has brought to pig farming, but I just wonder more broadly, in relation to Second Nature, what is, the potential of your pig farming to, tap into a really structural change in regenerative farming, in the U.K. pig industry?
And then how that feeds into, for example, the arable sector in the areas that you work, because you're obviously drawing in a lot of grain, not just from your own farms. Thank you.
Yeah, I'll cover some of those. Jim might want to jump in on the Second Nature piece. I think in all the times I've been sat here, Clive, over the many years, you've rarely seen me get so politically agitated, if you like, and I'm not overly politicized on this type of front, but I find it hugely, hugely frustrating when you have almost a malaise at the governmental level, local as well as national, over a lack of desire, almost really, I'd put it, lack of interest. I think that is probably a key point, and I've got increasingly vocal on it to as many people as I would speak about, so it doesn't come as a surprise to anybody.
But, yeah, hugely frustrating, especially when you look at the investment that we put in, the people that we've got. I mean, we've got the best people in the industry, in, in our sector. We, you know, we're, we're really passionate about it. You only have to come around our facilities, and that, that exudes passion. At any one of our 23 sites, you will see it, and any one of our 300 farming operations as well. The, the passion, knowledge, and experience is great. It's just not matched at a governmental level, and that is really, really frustrating. We keep forging ahead on it, but it feels as though you're fighting with one arm behind your back, from that point of view.
And feeding on to that, on the farming side, you know, our farming business didn't exist 10 years ago, and look at it now. I mean, it's a phenomenal business run by, you know, phenomenal operators, both at the poultry side as well as at the piggery side. Piggery didn't exist at all. It's a GBP 300 million revenue business in its own right now. And it's a force of real good as well. It's very extensive in its nature. It's predominantly outdoor in pork, that is there, and pigs on the ground. Phenomenally important from a soil erosion point of view, from what we put back into the farm, soil-based, sorry, straw-based pigs. Extremely important, as is poultry litter as well, of course, extremely important.
I don't know whether you want to add anything to that-
Yeah.
Second Nature, Jim?
Well, I think, yeah, there's a couple of bits there, Clive, and I think it's a very good question, because once these pig farms are under our control, we can directly influence. You know, Adam mentioned reducing the soya in the diets at Elsham, but we've done that across the piece. We're probably running between 7%-9% now across the group. We've reduced our carbon footprint in our pig operation by about 30% since our baseline in 2018, and we've got line of sight with some of our premium pigs to get that to sub 50%. You know, we've done trials there, and it works. It's generally about reducing the soya in there, and obviously, the deforestation charge that comes with that.
In addition to that, the next biggest part of your footprint obviously is the wheat, because the fertilizer that's put on the wheat, so that's the next biggest contributor to your footprint. And the solution to that, as Adam mentioned, is the manure going back on the land in lieu of the, you know, the chemical fertilizers there.
S o, We can see how to do this, and, you know, that's why back to sort of the governmental thing, it's frustrating that you can't get the planning permission to put these progressive operations down and no, you know, nobody wants the pig farms in their backyard. Same with the chicken. Everybody wants to reduce the stocking density by 30%, but you can't get the planning permission for the shed to put the 20% more space down that you actually need to achieve that goal. So it's just completely misjointed. But certainly, from an integration point of view, absolutely, it really puts that in under our control, and we can then understand how we do it and deliver it.
Matthew?
Thank you. Morning, Matthew Webb from Investec. Two questions, please. Just firstly, on your CapEx plans. Obviously, you're spending a lot of money, GBP 100 million guidance for this year, and you've got many projects running. But given the opportunities you've set out today, the fact that whenever you create new capacity, you've managed to fill it, given the returns that you get, given the, you know, imperative for automation, I just wonder whether there's a case of stepping that up yet further, and if so, what, you know, what the constraints are. Is it management bandwidth? Is it financial? Is it, you know, is it planning? Is it risk management? That's the first question. And then just the second one, coming back, sorry, coming back to planning again.
Are the constraints that you're facing inherent in the process nationally, or are there also specific issues in East Anglia that could perhaps be avoided by going elsewhere?
Shall I cover the first bit?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think in terms of our ability to deploy capital, I mean, you know, saying GBP 100 million a year is not enough, it feels a little bit, you know, unfair. And I think the answer is, we'd like to spend more if we could, but we have to be realistic. I think we're running at... You know, Chris will, Chris, you know, Chris is managing these big projects, and it is a big job. I think there's a bit of bandwidth. Yeah, we've got, you know, we run tight management teams across the business, and they've got a day job as well. But when you look at the number of projects we've got ongoing, we're doing an incredible job at delivering that.
It's certainly not financial constraints, as you know, from our balance sheet capability. We've come off two or three years where supply chain where lead times on equipment have been extended, and there is still some of that about. You know, where we used to place orders, and we get the delivery of kit in 3 months, it can be six months or even longer now. And some of the orders we're placing now, Chris, will be out sort of nine, 12 months ahead. So there's an element of that as well. But no, I think we have to be realistic, and when we say GBP 100 million a year, or if there's a bit more, a bit less, it's a lot.
And coming on to your point about geography, yeah, perhaps we should look elsewhere. It won't mean that we won't continue to remain in East Anglia. We've got our skill set down there, a huge amount of skill set in that poultry sector, but it doesn't preclude us from looking further north as well, or west, or east. Yeah, we would continue to look at all avenues, but we won't stop pressing ahead in the Suffolk region either.
Thank you.
Yeah, Matt.
Morning, all. Thank you. So first question is just on margins. I appreciate the seasonality profile is conventionally for a slightly higher second half margin, but, but in FY 2024's case, how much of the improvement in the second half margin was because of the part -year effect from some of those efficiency measures that you called out in the RNS this morning? And, and if that is a contributor to the improvement in the margin across FY 2024, why would that not translate to an improvement in margin in FY 2025, given guidance appears to be for what looks like flat margins? Also appreciate that you're now well north of your medium-term operating margin. So yeah, that's the first question.
Yeah, look, I think the margin improvement through this year and again through the second half of last year, don't forget as well, because it was... We saw a shift up in H2 last year. We spent two years chasing inflation, and through the second half of the year, that certainly the pig price peaked and then eased back a little bit. And as you know, we generally take three months for it to work through the models and wider inflation as well, that Jim's teams have done a phenomenal job of chasing and recovering that inflation. Yes, automation plays its part as well, and the move into more value-added products as we continue to drive the business to do as well.
So it's a combination of factors, but I think also we need to be, we do need to have a degree of realism in our margin aspirations as well. It's a partnership with our customers, and we need to make sure that it's not margin at the expense of volume, which, you know, we don't want to price ourselves out of the market, so we've got to be sensible there as well. And I think the number of business opportunities that Jim just mentioned this morning just highlights that if we can grow our top line volume-wise, then that will flow through to margins and through to a, you know, flow through ultimately to an expanded bottom line regardless.
Okay, that's helpful. Thanks, Mark. The other question is on pet food. It sounds as though that business is on a really strong trajectory, and you've set the business up well for success in the future. Can you just reconcile and provide a bit of color with against the impairment charge that's gone against that business relative to, you know, the growth trajectory that it appears to be on?
The impairment charge is a mechanical accounting one, and it looks at the business today without any of... and future cash flows, without any of the longer-term future opportunities. And by that, I'm talking about wet pet food, treats, et cetera, that we would certainly have in our medium to long-term aspirations. We don't have that capability today, so we can't factor it into those long-term growth rates. So it's as simple as that, really, Matt. You know, if we look at the medium and long-term opportunity in pet, it's still very much as we saw it 12, 18 months or so ago.
It's just gonna take time to deliver, and as we've called out this morning, we've spent a lot of time over the last 12, 18 months rationalizing and right-sizing that business, whether it's the management team, the customer base, the asset base. And we're now in a position with all the opportunities that Jim has called out this morning to move that business forward at pace. So I think, as I say, it's about making the business fit for the future. We've done that this year, and we can move on.
Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you.
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