Let's rock and roll. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the half year results for Essentra plc. I'm joined by Jack Clarke, our new CFO. He's making his debut. Quite a set of results to start with Jack. And then Scott Fawcett. Scott is the MD of our components division and will answer questions on the detail of components. I was just mentioning to Charles Hall that sobering realization, this is my fortieth set of plc results, which is very, very depressing. There we go. I'm gonna give you some highlights and talk about the strategic review. Jack will take you through financials. Scott and I will do divisional update, and then I'll round up with ESG and outlook. Overall, a very positive six months, I think. Two key highlights.
The first is progress made on the strategic review, and I'll give you some detail there. Secondly, very strong growth underlying in the continuing businesses. 14% revenue growth, 44% sales margin increase. We are entering H2 with a 22% growth in the order book. Both our ESG and our commercial progress is continuing, and we will be looking to return a portion of the proceeds to shareholders after we have done both strategic reviews. Dividend goes up 15%. The sale happened in June. We expect after clearance that it will complete in October. After that, we will have a small net cash balance, so that gives us optionality.
I mentioned before, the intention of the board, once we know what happens to Filters, is to return a portion of the packaging proceeds to shareholders. For the half year results, packaging has been counted as a discontinued operation, so we apologize for the complexity of the results. As I say, a hell of a start for Jack and well done to him and the team. Underlying, if you look at the continued business, very, very strong and encouraging progress. Filters, we continue to twin track, looking at both potential financial partners and a demerger option, and we should know that by the end of Q3. That's a brief introduction. I'll now allow Jack to tell us about the numbers.
Yes. Morning, everybody, and thank you, Paul. As Paul said, this is a complex set of accounts. However, the ongoing business is performing extremely well. You can see that straight away in that revenue, as Paul said, is 14% up. Profit is 43%. Earnings up. Our debt has increased, and I'll explain the reasons for that. The cash conversion is quite low, but again, I will explain the reasons for that. A strong set of operational results and a ROIC of 16.4%. As I say, the revenue's up significantly. It's driven by both volume and by pricing 6% and 8%, respectively. On components, you can see that we're up 14% on a like-for-like basis, and that's driven 10% by volume and 3% by price.
Filters is up 15%. The majority of that is driven by volume, some 13% and 2% by price. The order books, Paul has said, is up significantly. Most notably, Filters is up 45% period on period H1 versus H1 last year. A terrific result there, and that's driven largely by the outsourcing work, but also by the development of some new products. The Filters division is in great shape. Europe has seen a particularly strong performance in for components, and we see good prospects going forward for the rest of the year. If I turn now to the adjusted operating profits, you can see both divisions, both ongoing divisions, had very strong performances in the period. Components was driven by a better product and customer mix by the strong performance in Europe, as I mentioned.
Filters had a significant improvement in its gearing, its operational gearing. As the revenues rose, obviously the incremental profits increased. Both divisions were able to pass through pricing increases to more than offset the cost increases experienced. A significant point about Filters, the China joint venture turned profitable in H1, which is great and ahead of where we thought it would be. You'll note at the bottom that Packaging had a relatively sort of very average performance in H1, and that was driven by we did not get the pricing through as quickly as we had hoped for. That is now through, and that division is back at the planned levels that we anticipated. You'll notice in the results there are a significant amount of adjusting items.
Just to take you through those, GBP 12 million relate to the discontinued sale of the Packaging division, that's consulting costs and other transaction fees. 18.1 relates to the difference in the goodwill carrying value of the business as usual and the actual sales proceeds. It was a very competitive process. We believe we got a very good price, but there's a book loss as a result. Just a book loss. SaaS, that is the ongoing. That used to be capitalized under the accounting rules, now it's expensed. When we started the project, it was capitalized, so we continued to show it as an adjusting item. The 13.1 is other costs related to the components business, or other costs of the strategic review related to the components business and to the filters business. So that's the adjusting items. Turning then to the income statement.
You can see that there's a big increase in the finance charge this year from GBP 6 million last year to just under GBP 12 million this year. That's driven by two factors. Interest rates have obviously gone up, so the RCF interest has increased. Also because we've now concluded on the packaging sale, the facilities fees that would normally get amortized over the life of the facility, they've been accelerated, and we've had to incur about GBP 3 million of those in this period. That's a one-off type effect on the financing. On the tax rate, again, 6.2, we've got an effective tax rate of 26%, which is a jump from the 21% we would normally see. The underlying rate actually is 21%.
It's affected by, again, by the packaging deconsolidation that moves the effective tax rates, because there's some very low tax jurisdictions within packaging. There's also some adjusting items in there, and there's some costs that were incurred last year, deferred tax charges that we don't have this year. The underlying rate is 21%. In terms of the cash flow, on working capital, we've been building the business back up post-COVID, so inventories have increased both in components and in filters. We've obviously got revenue increases, so there's a tail there where you build up your receivables as your revenue grows. Much of that will reverse in H2. So that's really the biggest difference there, and we expect a big improvement. Also, this is the continuing business.
Packaging used to have a much proportionate lower net working capital than the other two, so it looks slightly higher. In terms of debtor days and inventory days, all of those metrics are pretty good, and that will reverse in H2. On the debt's increased, but there are a couple of big significant reasons to explain it and to take some comfort. There's a movement in forex. As you know, sterling to the dollar has depreciated over the last six months. It's gone from 1.35 to 1.21. That has about a $27 million effect on our USPP debt that we carry. It's again a book movement, but it does affect the debt.
We do offset that with a derivative that we took out for just that purpose of about GBP 11 million, but not in total. Of course, we have the outflow of the adjusting items being the transaction costs of some GBP 30 million. Those, of course, will reverse when we get the proceeds in H2. What you're seeing now is the low point. As the proceeds come in for the two divisions in H2, hopefully, then you will see we will move to a net debt position, probably cash positive. The dividend, as Paul mentioned, it's gone up 15%. The board believes in a progressive dividend and return to the shareholders. We are confident in our liquidity to be able to do that. It's a very pleasant increase and something that we're very encouraged by.
The ROIC for the underlying business has moved up to 16.4%. Again, we're seeing that continuing trend upwards and in the margins, very much in line with the plan that we have for the ongoing businesses. In summary, it's a very strong set of results for H1, with some strange moving parts that will largely flow back in H2. The health of the business, it's in very robust shape. With that, I shall hand over to Scott. Oh, sorry. Back to Paul. Sorry.
Why don't you sit?
There you go. Thanks, Paul.
Thank you. Just worth pointing out that ROIC has gone up materially in two years, and it's about double our WACC, depending on. That's quite a healthy position. We'll now talk a bit about the two divisions. I'll hand over to Scott to give the detail. Components, as Jack's already mentioned, has had, again, against pretty tough comps, a very strong first half. Well done, Scott and the team, with good margin expansion, 200 basis points, and strong revenue growth. You can dimensionalize your success of the last six months, Scotty.
Thank you.
Okay, morning all. Thank you, Paul. As Paul said, we had a very strong first half, so over 18% total growth, 43% like-for-like growth and some good margin expansion. That margin really driven by the pricing activities that we've undertaken over the last 12 months. We're probably a little bit late last year with pricing, and we're a little bit behind the curve this time last year, but we caught up by the end of the year and have had a very positive first half from a price management and offsetting those input costs that we're seeing at this point of high inflation. We are continuing to invest in our service, so we pride ourselves in being a hassle-free supplier of products, service is very important to us.
We have put some inventory into the stock model this year, as Jack referred to earlier. We are seeing improvement in both the OTIF on-time delivery metrics and also the Net Promoter Score. We have our big Net Promoter Score coming up in November when we do the annual survey, but we do poll customers every month and that trend has been positive through this year versus last year. Encouraging to see our service coming back to a more normal level. We're continuing to invest in the digitalization of the business, so continuing to invest in the web front end.
We're pretty much rolled out globally now, but we do have this monthly agile release process where we're continuing to make improvements to the website, both the product data and the functionality of the website, so that's working very well. We're investing continually in the BPR program. This is the replatforming, the new ERP for the division. Jack referred to it as the SaaS accounting change that we've had there. The investments continued through the first half. If you remember this time last year, we went live in Spain. We have had some challenges in Spain, but we spent the time stabilizing the Spanish performance, understanding the system and rebuilding some of that ready for the second half.
We're expecting to continue rollout as we go through the rest of the year, and we have kicked off the program in the Americas as well in recent months. Good progress on our sustainability goals. Working alongside the rest of the group on waste, zero waste landfill and energy all making progress. Where we're focusing in particular is this use of recycled content. We've committed to achieve a 20% use of recycled content by 2025, and we continue to make progress towards that, with Kidlington probably being our showcase site. Then finally, M&A continues to be an important part of our strategy going forward. We have an active and a strong pipeline with a number of ongoing conversations.
Again, that will hopefully bode well for future periods, and we can give more updates in the next six to 12 months. That's it from me. Thank you. I will hand you over to Paul, who will give us an update from Filters.
Thank you. Filters, in short, a really strong first half and extremely well set 15% growth. Those of you who remember back, and Charles, you will too, the strategy presentation we did in middle of 2017 it was, and we talked about the game changers, I think, to achieve 15% growth and 45% growth in order book speaks to the validity of the description game changers, 'cause I think for a tobacco stock, to get levels of growth like that really is a game changer. In those days, we highlighted three levers, one of which is outsourcing. We are now very much well-entrenched in growing that. China, the JV, as Jack's already mentioned, is now in the black and is performing very strongly.
Third, product innovation, particularly the next generation products are now biodegradable or ECO filters. All three game changers are changing the game. Clearly when you get that level of operational gearing, it helps margin. We've seen that, and it's noteworthy that of the 15%, as Jack mentioned, the vast majority is actually volume growth, but where we've had to increase price to mitigate cost, we have done so. The operations are truly world-class. We measure our faults in parts per billion, and I think, and the CFO of the division is here, I think it's either two or three, Amir, isn't it? Something like that. OTIF languishes at 99.6%, sometimes 100% in a month, which is quite remarkable. The tapes business has now reached its own landmark.
It's always been quite related and dependent on the tobacco industry. As of now, it is now more than 50% non-tobacco, mostly through growth in things like Rippatape for Amazon. ESG permeates everything we do. It's in our DNA. We've heard some of the achievements from the environmental side, particularly the bottom two there with the products from Kidlington being 50% recycled and the ECO filters where we now have four live customers and 340 live discussions. So quite a few there. If you look at the process, we had a target of 25% GHG versus 2019 by 2025. You can see we're already 21%, so we will comfortably beat that.
Major increase in renewable energy, good progress with recycled content, as Scott's mentioned, and half our manufacturing sites are now zero waste to landfill. Really encouraging progress there. People have always been at the heart of not just what we say, but what we do. I hope my colleagues in the room agree with that. We are making very good progress. We're proud of how we, I think, treated and looked after our people during the pandemic. Clearly, there's a lot of change going on at the moment, so we're trying to offer as much support as possible there. That's also, I think, reflected in our board. If you see at the bottom there, we have this voice of the employee sessions where the NEDs go and visit, and we have not got one, not two, but three NEDs actively involved.
You can see how important it is to them as well. In terms of governance, obviously we've got Jack on board now, who will bring his Liverpudlian rigor to everything. Also the GRC, the Group Risk Committee, which I chair, continues to monitor risk, and there are a few around at the moment. Finally, summary and outlook. Very good margin expansion, very good like-for-like revenue growth, packaging on track, filters in line with where we expected it to be, and we will communicate before the end of September. We have both coped with the physical availability, but the cost of supply chain challenges well, and clearly it would be naive of us not to expect, particularly for components, some greater headwinds in the underlying industrial production arena.
We continue to monitor those, and we have mitigation plans in our back pockets. In terms of looking ahead, I've already mentioned that the order book's 22% up as of the end of June. Overall, very good. We will have a ungeared or marginally cash positive balance sheet. For components, the journey is about continuing to cross-sell. Filters, it's about driving the JV, the ECO filters and outsourcing contracts. Versus our internal expectations as a board, and as you can imagine, as we shed businesses here or there, it's a bit of a moving feast, but as you can hopefully tell by what we're saying, and if you like, what Scott has also said, we're confident that OP will be in line with where we expect to be at year end. That is it.
I believe it's time for questions. I think for those of you in the cyberspace, if we can handle the questions inside, and then, Owen, I believe you're going to then feed them in from outside, yeah?
Andy.
Good morning, team. Three questions, it's technically three and a half, but three questions. Can you give us the impact of the China slowdown or lockdowns in the first half on components? 'Cause clearly you just had a really good performance, but, you know, had China been, quote-unquote, normal, it could have been even better. You've talked about the eco pipeline, you've talked about three major customers. Can you just give us a feel. Sorry, four. Can you give us a feel for kind of what's in the pipeline and kind of how that might progress over the next six to 12 months? Then on price, are you still playing a little bit of catch up in terms of the annualized benefit? Or have you got more to come in the second half?
Yes.
Yes.
We have some back.
Yeah. I guess one of the questions that we're asking all our companies at the moment is, how sticky do you think these price rises are if we were to see raw material inflation unwind, as and when that might be? I don't know. You know, do you expect these prices to kind of stay where they are and, you know, the cost structure to go back to normal?
Okay.
Three questions.
I'll start then on the components. You improve and expand, maybe if you'd be so kind, Scott. This has been a business because we are low on the bill of materials, because service is more important than price, et cetera. In a very frank, blunt way, we have always put pricing through. You remember our IP +4 is IP +2-3, and one to two in market share gains. Yes. Now, clearly, we can't just keep putting things up indefinitely, but a bigger driver of our satisfaction and our pulse surveys each month continue to show an upward trend, Andy, and that's more closely linked to availability than it is to price. Availability's got better. Engagement or NPS scores have got better.
It's a pulse, so it's not as holistic, but price has also gone up. There is a lag on price, so it's annualized now and who knows what's gonna happen to cost. Overall, I think we'd be confident that it would be pretty sticky.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we are seeing some normalization in raw materials, but raw materials are only part of obviously our cost base. The labor costs are unlikely to fall. Freight costs are flattening but not decreasing. Energy costs are only gonna go one way. Overall, we've got a good argument with customers that pricing isn't going to reduce, although the rate of expansion of pricing will clearly not be the same as it has been in the last 12 months. We are looking to make more pricing actions in the second half, but lots of the big pricing moves we did around this time last year are now annualized effectively.
Yeah. With that growth, Andy, if we had been really alienating our customers, we wouldn't have seen that level of growth. What's your question on filters? Sorry.
Uh.
Oh, the ECO.
I sort of threw you for, you know, I think where we are kind of.
Yeah. We have live, if you like, experimental projects going, and I think there's 345 ongoing at the moment. It's something like this, between 340 and 350, isn't it, Claire? We are operating both in the combustible space, Andy, but also in China and the Heat Not Burn space. It makes sense if you think Heat Not Burn is a bigger residue. To make that biodegradable is actually more leveraged. We have actually had sales, marginal sales with two Chinese customers in that space as well. We have had two MNCs, two independents and two Chinese customers. Another MNC is looking encouraging. I think we've pretty much hit where we expected to in terms of coverage. We are in our second wave of product development.
There will be a third coming up as well. Our strategy is not to try and just protect through IP, but constantly, now that we have clear leadership, in this, to work on just constantly innovating. What was the other question?
China impact on components
China's around 10% of the divisional revenues. We've had an impact of a few million GBP that we think have probably delayed or lost sales in the first half, mostly due to customers being shut down more than the actual direct impact on the site itself. We had one of our sites closed for eight days, but actually it's the customers that have been unable to receive goods that have been the biggest challenge for us. We are seeing some signs of encouragement in recent weeks. The last 3 or 4 weeks have started to pick up again, so we're hopeful that by the time we get to October, November, it's back to a more normal pattern. It really depends on the Chinese government policy around COVID management.
We'd have been into the twenties otherwise. About 3 or 4% growth impact. Filters also has had some impact, so it would have been even better than it was now in China. James Hyde.
Morning. A couple of questions, please. Firstly, on working capital, just wondering if you can talk to some of the dynamics in terms of receivable days, inventory days, particularly on the component side of the business. 'Cause obviously you've seen a fairly sort of sizable inventory and receivables build there, so just wanna get some feel for the trends. Secondly, on components again, as we sort of progress through H1, I think we saw, you know, pricing remained very strong through that period. Volumes did slow in the second quarter. Just wondering how that dynamic is playing out across Q3 so far.
You provide the detail, but essentially, James, particularly since continuing operations are growing 15%, you're gonna expect a quantum growth in the absolute amount of working capital. Net working capital as a percent of sales was a smidgen below 15% this time last year, and is a smidgen above, but broadly NWC as a percent of sales has shifted fifty basis points. There's quite a few movements there, so maybe disaggregate it.
Yes. Receivables this year and last year are in the mid-60s, so 64, 65 days. They just tracked in line with the volumes. Obviously, they're higher because we had higher sales, but they're in line. Inventories have increased in components year-on-year. However, if you go back to pre-COVID, they're very much in line with both inventory days and inventory turns are in line with pre-COVID levels, and we need that to satisfy our customers. They're at where we would like them to be. However, in H2, we will see that cycle. We'll see that receivables kind of fall off a bit and we recover the cash, and so the net working capital will improve. Like for like, debtor days, inventory days, inventory turns, and indeed payable days are broadly in line with where they've been previously.
Thank you, Jack Clark. Scott, do you want to take this?
As you say, volume growth is lower in Q2 than in Q1. Pricing broadly similar. We'd expect as we go forward, the volume growth to continue probably in line with Q2, pricing slightly lower than Q2 as we've annualized, as we talked about. And so far in Q3, that's the type of pattern we're seeing. Everybody sat very nervously waiting for the great recession and declines. It's not happening yet. We're watching and keeping an eye on daily sales and forecasts obviously in August. It's always difficult to read. At this point in time, July was a solid start to Q3 for us.
Yeah. September's gonna be critical.
September is the key, yeah.
We expect industry to come back in September after August, he says incisively. As it regularly does. I think if anything, and I don't wanna try and overanalyze it, but those customers perhaps more on the consumer product basis showing a bit more softness than the intermediate capital goods and things like that.
Yeah, automotive continues to be hampered. Whether that's actually demand or just supply chain challenges in automotive, it's still a difficult market. When you say white goods are starting to slow versus that very high peak we saw during COVID when everybody was doing home repairs and home spending. Intermediate goods are probably better. Some sectors, you know, HVAC, renewable energy, some sectors are very buoyant still and will remain so given the trends associated with them. A mixed picture, but no signs of panicking at this point in time. Let's watch out for September, as Paul said, it will be a really important month for us.
To anticipate a follow-up question, when geographically, other than what we said about China, we're not seeing any huge differences in trends generally. They're moving in lockstep geographically. Charles, you always get the gold medal. You only got the bronze today.
Slow off the mark. Back of the queue. So, on the filter side, really impressive order book increase. Is that sort of a culmination of months, years of work starting to come through now and the outsourcing contracts in particular? It sounds, though, that those must be really driving through. How much is it product development and catch up post-COVID? Or is it that you've sort of got a new paradigm, and the halo effect coming through from all the work on eco?
I think that it is the result of a clear strategy that's been followed and getting the basics right, like world-class operations, getting our innovation right. We didn't really see a marked decline in filters, if you recall, during COVID, Charles, so it's, it isn't a kind of soft comp issue. It's genuine. I think one of the biggest levers has been the outsourcing, where we're probably getting, I would say about GBP 50 million more sales through outsourcing than we were, say, in 2019 as a baseline. That order of magnitude, I think, Claire, that'd be ballpark, wouldn't it? The ECO is not yet delivering, you know, big sums, Charles, but as a game changer with a capital G and a capital C, it could be phenomenal.
We also have seen what we call business continuity planning support. With, you know, all of the nasty tragic events going on east of here, quite often customers have had to reconfigure their supply chains. That's quite good margin business, and because of the trust we've built up by helping them out in COVID when sometimes they had supply chains that are exposed and we helped them out. Plus, as I say, the best probably quality product and service in the industry, bar none, including their internal supply chains and the innovation. I think we've definitely transitioned from being a supplier to a partner in their eyes.
Should we think about some of that outsourced business as temporary while they reorganize their supply chains? Or is this a long-term contract and they're having to fundamentally shift supply chains?
Well, I think they've had two stark warnings in the last two and a half years about the risk of single point of failure for supply. You know, obviously, we had the pandemic, then we had events in Ukraine. If they don't kind of get the point and the value of putting 10, 15% of their volumes to us or somebody else, but there's nobody really else, then I don't know what would make them. I do think that it's embedded. Well, I mean, I talked about our risk registers. They'll be doing exactly the same thing, and I'd be foolhardy for them not to contemplate second supply. I think it is a paradigm shift, yes.
What's the scale of the order book, and how quickly does that translate into additional sales?
The order book is over two months worth of sales now. A lot of it isn't necessarily two-phased, so it basically underpins Q3 and the start of Q4. You'll remember that H2 is historically stronger for filters than H1, which is the reverse for components.
Just thinking of the components order book, obviously, still comfortably ahead of last year, but last year you had a backlog of business, so the order book was effectively enhanced because you couldn't deliver.
Yep.
should we think about it as a sort of more normal order book now?
Yes.
I guess the pricing is helping.
Yes. At our low point, our backlog, Charles, was GBP 12 million. It's about GBP 3 million now.
Right. A question for Jack. Jack, now you've got your feet under the table, have you sort of had a chance to go through what the central costs will look like post all the strategic reviews?
Yes. In gross terms, our costs today are roughly GBP 42 million. That's the gross cost. Some of that's allocated out to the divisions, and the number that sits at, as the bottom line for central costs is 26. That number, on a standalone basis for components going forward, will be 13 in the future. That's what we've calculated so far. There will be a big reduction in central costs.
How quickly would you see it getting to that GBP 13 million? Presumably, it'll take time to deliver.
Yes. There'll be some transition agreements, next year and obviously some separation programs. The intention is for next year to have a separate cost department to manage those kind of transition type costs and measure the component standalone group on its true going forward cost.
One last question. The packaging side had quite a significant cash outflow in H1. It sounds as though, with profits improving and working capital, moderating, you're gonna have much better cash performance prior to that finally going. Is that correct? Are you able to quantify it?
Yeah. I think particularly in the P6 and again in P7, so June and July, packaging really did catch up with its pricing and its revenues have increased significantly, and there is an outflow of cash during that period as we built up the materials. Much of that will reverse in H2, but there is a genuine growth happening in packaging at this time.
Great. Thanks.
Adrian.
Morning. For those that don't know me, Adrian from Panmure Gordon. One question sort of on CapEx, if I may, or multi-part question on CapEx. It was GBP 12.9 million net in the first half. When you're thinking about the components business in terms of what the requirements are for the organic growth, what sort of CapEx number should we be thinking of, and what kind of assets will you be investing in?
If you could-
There's a standalone.
If you could split it into BPR and other
Yeah.
That would be helpful.
The standalone business as a division as we are today, our CapEx is somewhere between GBP 10 million and GBP 12 million annually. The two big areas of spend in that number are the sort of investment in digital, which continues year in, year out to improve our digital customer experience. Machinery for replacement program is the other big area. We have a cycle of machinery replacement over the next 10 years. It's been going on for three or four years now. We spend a few million GBP a year on upgrading the machinery, which gives us productivity gains, it gives energy reduction, gives us quality upside as well. They're the two big aspects of that beyond the sort of the more mundane operational activities.
As Paul says, on top of the CapEx, we do have this adjusting cash item from the SaaS accounting, where we're going to be spending around GBP 12 million this year on the new BPR program. That's probably around two years from now before that program is complete. As I say, we'll be moving into a more aggressive rollout process from this point onwards. Again, to remind ourselves, that BPR program is there to again improve the customer experience. It'll give us much better ability to deliver good information to customers about their transactions with us, better integration into the website, better ability to manage pricing. It will undoubtedly pay for itself over time, but we do need to go through that program over the next two years as well.
It will enable components to drive down net working capital as a percentage of sales over time as well.
Yeah. We'll have global stock availability for the first time by having one system everywhere, which will be a great benefit to us.
Andy.
You talked on the presentation that you talked about the M&A pipeline. Can you give us a feel, I guess two questions there. Can you give us a feel for what that pipeline looks like, size, region, and whether the pricing is appropriate for maybe a potentially difficult 2023? And if you think, you know, medium to long term, in terms of Essentra and its M&A strategy, I'm working on the assumption that it's kind of a couple of bolt-on acquisitions per annum, a bit of a rollout story, and if the right large acquisition comes, then let's fill our boots. Is that still right?
Yes. Let's start with the last question, but yes, that's right. We're focusing on bolt-on opportunities. That will be our approach to look at a couple a year. If anything comes up in the midterm, we'll address that. That's how the pipeline looks. In the long list, there's well over 200 names on the pipeline. We probably have a shorter list of 40 or so where we have some form of relationship and active conversation, and then a very short list of 4 currently where we're having some sort of confidential discussion with a potential acquisition. That's the normal shape of the pipeline.
It continues, so we've put a lot of effort into it, but we are in that bolt-on type category for sure.
To your question about price expectations, they notoriously lag, Andy. Perhaps a little bit of pain seeping into the system would not be unhelpful. In terms of big ones, we wouldn't get huge kudos for betting the ranch and then see the underlying market implode and that wouldn't be clever.
On those actual ones, it's usually 50/50 between those that are in bilateral conversations and those that are going through a process. There's a better ability to manage expectations on those bilateral discussions.
Okay. Thank you.
You've obviously got enough labor in place to be able to deliver the backlog that you've had last year. Can you just comment about labor availability, as still a number of companies are having profit warnings on the back of not actually being able to deliver their order book, and also what you're seeing in terms of wage inflation?
Filters and components have roughly the right amount of people, and for fairly obvious reasons, we're not going to kind of go into hyperdrive with employing new people at the moment. The one geography and area which we do still find some difficulties is packaging in North America, Charles, and that's very much specific. Indianapolis is the lowest unemployment rate of any metro in the USA. North Carolina is the state that has that same accolade, basically. We can't move our factories, and there is only a finite amount we're prepared to bid ourselves up. That would be the one challenge we have. The rest is fine, but having said that, actually we're clustered into the Americas, U.K. and Ireland, and continental Europe.
Currently, the Americas are our strongest performing part of the world, so it's not materially impeding.
The rate for labor inflation?
I think we're on about four or five.
Yeah.
Hello. Andrés Castaño-Coba from Berenberg. One question for Jack about the tax implications of the loss in the sale of packaging. Does this create a tax asset that can be used to diminish the tax burden going forward?
It's a capital gain. Sorry, it's a capital loss. Unless we have another offsetting capital gain in the period, then no.
No cost effect?
No.
Okay. Thank you.
No.
I don't know. I'm just looking around if there's anybody that we want to.
Yeah. Thank you, Paul. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question please use the question function at the bottom of the screen and type it in. Thank you. Our first question is from Alan Clifford from Davy. Alan asks, "Simply, simplistically, it looks like central cost in H1 is approximately 30% of ongoing divisional EBIT. Can this be reduced, and how is it apportioned between the ongoing divisions? Thanks.
Within the gross costs of GBP 42 million today, 16 of that is currently allocated out to the divisions. The intention is, as I mentioned, that central costs will decrease to GBP 13 million as opposed to GBP 26 million today. There will be a significant reduction in central costs going forward.
Okay. There's been no further questions, so I'll pass back to Paul for any closing remarks.
Okay. Well, thank you all for joining us. Thank you my colleagues for bailing me out with the difficult ones. As I say, I think it's been a very productive six months. Very satisfactory progress on our journey to become a pure play components, while also creating three strong global leaderships. Revenue in the high teens, mid-high teens and profit over 40%, I think is a testament to the number of Essentra people in this room today, all of whom have contributed. Thank you for what you've done to achieve that. With that, I will bid you all a very good day.