Good morning, everyone. A warm welcome to the McBride 2024 Capital Markets Day. My thanks to you all for allocating time in your busy diaries to come and hear about the group's progress and the exciting prospects we have in front of us as we outline how we will win in a growing market. Our agenda today will start with an overview of McBride and our marketplace. We will sequence through reviews of divisional strategy progress, then highlight the ambitious transformation and excellence programs, and finish off with our key financial targets. You will have an opportunity to interact directly with my senior leadership team, both from the presentations but also in the Q&A sessions surrounded by our mock supermarket. I expect the event will last around two hours.
It's my pleasure to be able to introduce you to the wider leadership of the group: our three managing directors, Peter, Marielle, and Lennard, Chris Ward leading our transformation teams, and, of course, you know, Mark and myself. Our Chief HR Officer, Jane Cronin, is also present today, and while not presenting, she will be around for Q&A. Our presentation today has a range of ambitions. We will refresh and position today's McBride, the industry leader in household private label. We will reflect on the challenges of the superinflation seen in the past two years and how we are building on our strong supply reliability and our valued customer partnerships to make the business more resilient for the future. I will update you on the markets we serve and where and how McBride has been gaining share in this growing market.
You will hear updates from the divisions on how they have progressed their strategies from 2021 and now the evolution of their strategies going forward, and how their winning formula will set them apart from the competition to deliver further growth. It is three years since we launched Compass, and I will update you on our progress and how the direction and structure of the group is still totally relevant today. The focus, accountability, specialism, and expertise our teams now display is the crucial element behind our growing success, supporting our customers and their consumers, and the strengthened business that we have become.
We will, of course, update you on the current financials, our financial ambitions over the next three to five years, including capital allocation and debt targets. Delivery of this core plan is aligned and ahead of our original Compass ambition and provides an exciting and value-creating outcome. I will also highlight ideas and options for value creation for shareholders beyond the core plan, demonstrating potential for longer-term value opportunity. Before we start the main presentations, I'd like to share a short introductory video all about McBride.
McBride is the leading European manufacturer and supplier of private label and contract-manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning and hygiene markets, delivering against a simple purpose: to provide everyday value cleaning products so every home can be clean and hygienic. Established in 1927, we leverage our long heritage and deep expertise to offer end-to-end product development and manufacturing capabilities, supplying products to many of the leading retailers and brands in markets in which we operate.
Selling 1 billion products a year, we have significant scale across our core markets in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. We work closely with our customers to create innovative new products with a relentless focus on improving sustainability through a reduction in the use of plastics, responsible sourcing, and product compaction. Operating across five specialist divisions, our business is aligned to the evolving needs of the markets and customers we serve, supplying everyday cleaning products that are expertly made.
To complement what you've just seen on that video, a bit more background. The group has been the largest end-to-end player across European private label household for many years and is the only genuine pan-European scale supplier in the industry. While we are a U.K. PLC, we are not only a U.K. business. We are, in fact, only 20% a U.K. business, with strong supply and selling operations across all major European markets. One in five of all products for household cleaning, branded or private label, that sits under the sinks of consumers in the U.K., France, and Germany is made by McBride, since we supply virtually all of Europe's leading retailers. We also operate as a contract supplier for many of the branded companies, further extending the reach of products made by McBride across European households.
McBride is a genuine one-stop shop, supplying all the ranges and formats of household cleaning products that we're all so familiar with. We pride ourselves on leading on sustainability, with McBride the only major player signed up to the Science Based Targets Initiative. In recent times, we've been the first to market with new sustainable options, providing end-to-end innovation and sourcing for our customers. Our passionate, committed, and hardworking teams are delivering the expertise and specialisms that the partnerships with our customers require. With revenues approaching GBP 1 billion, 13 factories, and 3,500 colleagues, we really are the genuine leader with scale capability and a determination to continue to be the preferred supplier for our customers.
By way of a reminder and also an update on our progress, I'll now move on to talk about the reset of our strategy and operating model under Compass three years ago when I took over as CEO. This new direction was driven by the need to ensure we had tailored strategies and separate, more accountable management teams for different parts of the business. Three years ago, this business had become too cumbersome and generalist, especially in the technical and commercial functions, and a key outcome from Compass was to improve the expert and specialist insight that we can offer our customers. As you'll see shortly, the strategies we set out for each of the divisions are broadly unchanged on the ones we presented three years ago.
We've completed our revised operating model, as shown on the chart here, with P&L owning divisions established, clear delineation of functions driving business performance and accountability. These divisions are supported by a platform of scale shared services such as purchasing and logistics. The setup of this organization was such that a high proportion of operating costs are directly managed by the divisions and therefore can be adapted quickly with alignment to the divisional needs and performance. This focus and accountability, combined with the improved expertise and directly controlled resources, has seen our business responsiveness and agility significantly step up, a crucial factor for a business which bespoke products for multiple customers. I firmly believe that this new organization design has fostered a more engaging and rewarding job experience for our colleagues.
This empowerment and delegation into smaller businesses creates a real sense of belonging and where impact of action is more visible. This committed group of colleagues working in this new environment have made the difference and have ensured that we are on track to deliver our strategies. Finally, just to mention the way we interface with our customers, given that commercial responsibility sits within the divisions, we have worked hard and will continue to further develop the One McBride principle for our customer interface. Our teams have adapted well to this new setup, and as you will see, we've expanded our share beyond the market average in the meantime. Ultimately, the Compass design remains as valid today as when we introduced it three years ago, providing the best of both worlds: proximity and intimacy to our markets while leveraging our scale in the most effective manner.
When we communicated Compass to investors three years ago, we had no foresight of what was about to happen in the industry, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the troublesome period experienced by McBride and others over the past two years, and most importantly, what we are now doing differently to reduce the risk of this happening again. We've covered over many investor results presentations what was going on with our input costs. It was an extraordinary time. Over the past 15 years or so, the industry has seen a relatively benign cost environment. Mid-2021, supply shortages emerged and sparked a sudden explosion in costs. You can see the size and speed of the increase in such a short period on that 15-year graph there on the top right of the page.
And for context, the cost rises in the end, annualized, at over GBP 250 million for a business that was, on average, generating GBP 25 million-GBP 30 million of profit. At the time, it was clear we were the earliest of all our competition to talk to customers about input cost recovery, and hence we saw exceptionally strong pushback initially. With costs changing daily or weekly and with little forward visibility, no sooner had we explained the next cost rise to customers than it was already out of date. Consequently, we ended up with significant time lags between cost hikes and when the revised pricing landed in our books. So we rapidly moved into a loss-making situation until about January 2023, when we started to see the catch-up of pricing and the stabilization of material costs.
Like all businesses, we then saw follow-on inflation in labor, energy, transport, etc., including interest rates, of course, prompting the need for even further price rises at the back end of the chemical and packaging rises. For all suppliers in this sector, it has been a challenging experience, with many businesses like us moving into losses and requiring support from our banks and funding partners, for which we are very grateful. They do say you should never waste a good crisis, and we have learned and changed plenty in the meantime as part of our response to ensuring better earnings resilience going forward.
We have improved a number of our internal processes, particularly rapid forward input cost scenarios, to ensure we better understand the direction of travel for product cost, allowing us to better inform customers and our business, of course, of the likely pressures or relief that we're expecting in the future, and another demonstration of the sophistication and capability of the organization that we can lead with our partnership customers. During this period, it did allow us to get a lot closer to our customers, and eventually we saw availability proved as important as price, and we were able to lead in supporting customers as a result of our resilient supply chain.
Going forward, we have worked with our customers now to drive an open dialogue and an agreement that prices should move up and down as part of any supply agreement, giving both sides the option to change through a contract period as opposed to annual or longer fixed-price arrangements of the past. In addition, we have continued to seek options to minimize input cost variability through combinations of financial hedges and supplier price layering. So how does McBride place in the competitor landscape? As you can see on the chart, if we look only at household revenues of the competition, McBride still ranks number one, and the gap to the rest has actually grown further in recent years. The skew to the large players is perhaps not so unusual, but it is worth noting that the top three cover half and the top six two-thirds.
The long tail that you see on the chart is mostly local, national liquid suppliers, with a fair proportion in Southern Europe. Over recent history, the presence of domestic supply for the German market has reduced heavily, with local suppliers, who are often sole supply into aggressive retailers, failing under the relentless pressure to lower prices in probably the most competitive retail market in Europe. Today, a high percentage of supply in Germany is imported, and McBride is the leading supplier to that market without a manufacturing base there. Spain has the highest number of producers in the top ten, a feature of the unique situation generated by the largest retailer in Spain, Mercadona. The preferred supplier model for this retailer, which on its own accounts for nearly half the total market, is fed by two to three mid-sized, high-quality suppliers, albeit with a highly concentrated customer dependency.
Across the whole industry, the predominant ownership structure is that of a family, often second generation, and many have highly concentrated customer bases. These features may, in time, provide opportunity for industry consolidation as families look to de-risk their models and monetize their investments as second and third generations become more remote from the obvious heritage tying. As McBride's financial recovery gathers pace, we will remain alert to potential opportunities to strengthen our number one position. I'm now going to move on and, over the next couple of slides, provide you with more information about the markets where we operate. This slide is about the total market overall, its size, and where private label sits relative to the branded offer in our space. The left-hand chart covers the top five economies in Europe.
We estimate that in total these are approximately 70% of the overall market across Europe. Therefore, that puts the market in Europe worth an estimated EUR 20 billion. Private label share, in value terms, ranges from 15% to 35% in these top five economies. The clear message here is that, on its own, the private label element is substantial, and right now it is growing across all these countries. If you look at the market by product category, you can see, in value terms, the market is dominated by laundry. It is worth pointing out that, in volume terms, the penetration of private label in these categories varies, with a significant under-indexing in laundry compared to the market average. The overall private label share in household is significantly lower than many other grocery categories, where private label has been widely accepted and consumers are loyal to their store brands.
In this current cost of living crisis, the need for private label and its high-quality, exceptional value proposition is more needed than ever. A recent AlixPartners report supported this, with the top reason used by consumers to help reduce their grocery spend was to switch to a cheaper alternative. On this next slide, I will show you that this is happening. Recent years have seen some dramatic changes for private label. The graph on the right-hand side here shows total volumes, with a bar split between brand and private label, and the line is the private label share percentage. The key message is here: total volumes, actually, since pre-COVID are pretty flat. There was a rise through COVID as we stocked up and cleaned more, with brands doing well based on higher trust levels.
Post-COVID and the start of the cost of living crisis have seen private label grow as consumers seek value. The rise of private label of 5% since June 2022 has been rapid. It's the equivalent for private label producers of a 15% increase in volumes. And over the longer period since 2019, we see the volume switch from brand to private label at around 8%. This switching by consumers is a result of and can sustain going forward from a number of key factors. We see retailers increasingly look to offer value to consumers by extending the range options, including private label, all for footfall. The quality of private label products is high. There are fewer and fewer buy-one, get-one-free type deals around as concern grows about waste.
The price gap between a brand and a private label equivalent is continuing to rise, and trust in big brands is reducing, with quality and efficacy falling and shrinkflation being exposed. There is clearly more opportunity for private label to expand in this overall market, especially certain geographies and certain categories. In this growing market, I'm delighted to be able to demonstrate that McBride is growing even faster, and we are taking share. On the left-hand chart, you can see that, in category terms, we have grown between 50% more and 100% more than the market as a whole in the last calendar year. On the other chart, geographically, we have matched or outgrown the markets in all the top countries except one.
Our core focus areas of Germany and laundry have delivered exceptional growth, and it is pleasing that we estimate we will shortly move to number one status in Germany, adding to our number one status in the U.K., France, and Italy. How have we achieved this? Our Compass strategy has delivered specialism and expertise in our products, focus and accountability to improve service and supply reliability, keen and competitive pricing offering value to both the retailer and McBride, and leading on innovation offering solutions to retailers faster and with more agility. We've developed our customer partnerships, driving category value across the retail space, and strong results in consumer tests for private label generally, but specifically for McBride products. A key aspect of our Compass strategy is to ensure that we make decisions and took actions based on fact and not assertion.
All the data that we've shown you in these past slides are a result of the significant datasets we've developed since 2019. As a result, our divisions know where opportunity lies and where McBride should focus to continue to grow further. The laundry segment remains a substantial opportunity for McBride. The market penetration of private label in this high-priced category is lower than other categories, especially in unit dosing. Historically, as a business, we have under-indexed, and while recent performance has seen this improve, there is still much more to go for. Being the biggest supplier in the largest markets is an important element in our drive to lead with insight and expertise for all our customers. We are progressing to be number one in four of the top five markets. As the industry leader, our growth ambitions are more than just about market share.
By leading with the largest retailers, including a stronger presence with the discounters, we can help our customers and their consumers create even more value by helping support private label penetration in the overall market. Our forward growth targets also include a shift in the size of revenues that we wish to make from contract manufacturing, moving from the current approximately 10% towards 25%. This segment will focus much more in the future on long-term structural opportunities to co-invest and co-create with branders to satisfy their needs while providing a foundation to our overall activities with margin and volume security. The presentations you're hearing today are in support of our core plan and to provide confidence on a high-performing and a more resilient business.
As we emerge from the super-tough inflationary period of the last 18 months and we recover our financial strength, we have also started to map future value opportunities beyond this core plan. With additional resources and capital, we have a range of options and ideas that could accelerate and extend our performance. The first group, which we refer to as Core Plan Plus, relates to how we can step-change our current platforms, supporting more market growth, improved cost efficiencies with projects such as further automation, higher speed lines, agile and flexible production lines, and distributed manufacturing footprint. The second group, which we refer to as Buy and Build, is about how McBride, at the right time, can lead in the consolidation of the supply base for cost and revenue synergies to provide even more compelling pan-European supply offer for our customers.
At this stage, however, we remain focused on delivering the Core Plan and moving towards this extra value creation in time when investment capability presents itself. So before you hear more from the wider team on our Core Plan, I would like to summarize how we will consolidate and expand our market-leading position going forward. You will hear shortly how our teams are leading the way in virtually all segments and how they will continue to grow in the rising tide of the consumer shift to private label. We will continue to develop and improve to ensure we are the preferred supply partner for our key customers, leading with insight and value ideas underpinned by best-in-class service and quality. Our commitment to carbon reduction is aligned with the industry more widely, and our innovation leadership and focus in private label is and will grow as a competitive advantage going forward.
You will hear how each division and our transformation program has zeroed in on cost and efficiency to continue to ensure we offer the best value and the most competitive product ranges in the sector. Finally, to be able to deliver the ambitious targets shown here, the crucial feature of the McBride proposition is the team of passionate and committed colleagues that we have. Our desire for excellence and our revitalized focus and expertise makes us stand out in this space and supports the easy-to-do business with aspect of being the preferred supplier. We're now going to move on to the divisional updates. Each divisional update will be preceded by a small video introducing the division, and first I'd invite Peter up to talk of liquids.
Thank you, Chris. Good morning. My name is Peter Ingelse. I'm the Managing Director of the Liquids Division. I started this position beginning of 2021, soon after the launch of the Compass strategy. The core strategy for liquids is cost leadership. It was and is this strategy. It didn't change, which, in combination with the development of strong customer partnerships, leads to growth. Before starting my presentation, I will show you a short video about the liquids business.
McBride's Liquids Division produces an extensive range of household cleaning products sold in a bottle, pouch, or carton, including laundry detergent, dishwashing liquids, and surface cleaners. With 7 well-invested plants in strategic locations across Europe, Liquids is McBride's largest division, supporting over 150 customers across the continent, across the full end-to-end supply chain, including sourcing, formulating, mixing, billing, and packing, driving continuous innovations in product and packaging. The European liquids market is worth an estimated GBP 12 billion, and McBride is a market leader with sales concentrated in the largest economies. Our team has unrivaled experience and expertise, and our relentless focus on customer service is driving further growth.
The liquids market is the biggest market of the household market. Besides me on the shelves, you see examples of our, what I would say, beautiful liquid products. The liquids business is also a regional business with regional competition. In this segment, transfer costs are important to realize cost competitiveness, so we better produce close to destination markets. When we developed our Compass strategy, it was expected that the liquids business was a commoditized business. That view changed strongly in the last three years. Driven by the sustainability developments, there is a strong and fast-growing need for innovative, sustainable products. Over a five-year period, the European market shows a flat volume development. However, starting early 2023, we did see a remarkable big growth in private label, with 8% in a short period of time, all due to the high inflation and the related cost of living crisis.
This led to a growth of the private label market share from 31%-35% in a very short period of time. In liquids, we are the private label market leader in Europe in all product categories, whereby especially our market share in the cleaning and dishwashing sector is strong. When looking to geographies, we can state that we have a very strong position in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux, so nearly all geographical areas where we operate. There are reasons why we have such a strong position. One is that we have a good manufacturing footprint with 7 factories located in 6 different countries. That enables us to produce close to the destination markets, which I mentioned is important for competitiveness. We have a broad range of products, which enables us to cross-sell.
After three years of hard work to get the basics right, we are on track to meet or exceed our Compass targets. The evidence is in our half-year one results, which show accelerated growth and a return on sales of 8.5%. In the first years after the Compass strategy, we built a strong professional team, which is able to drive the business forward. This was the foundation for our last year's success and will be the foundation for our future success. During the Compass strategy, we did define four different priorities for the Liquids Division. The first priority was the simplification of our product portfolio, and in last years, we realized a 30% reduction of the number of formulations and the number of packaging types versus previous periods, which helped us to get to competitiveness.
But to become cost leader, we had to do more, and we started a Lean Manufacturing program with the aim to delete waste, like we call it, and improve production output. In the first year after implementation, we realized an output increase of 5%, which means we used the same assets in a better way. Separate from these cost-focused priorities, we had to enhance our customer proposition. Before Compass, we were too much internally focused. We were too much thinking inside out. We radically changed the mindset and moved to a market and customer-centric approach. We implemented a regional business team structure, and we have now five regional teams that drive the business forward in different regions. Our regional teams are close to the market and are able to react fast on changing market and customer needs. Another priority was to renew growth.
We refocused our sales teams on selling better margin products than before to define strategic customers. New financial regional insights supported to target the right business. With that approach, we realized important growth in the laundry category, realized growth in Germany and Iberia, but also in markets where we already have a very good market share like in the U.K. and France. This resulted in a 5% volume growth in the last year. But this growth result is the sum of two different businesses, being the private label business and the contract manufacturing business. In private label, we did grow much faster. We did grow with 12%, far above the average private label market growth of the 8%. This means we outperformed the market, and I'm proud to say that we outperformed in all product categories.
As we stated in our half-year one results, the branded products are not doing well, which had a supporting effect on our growth rate. It mitigated our growth rate a bit. We will drive sustainability-led innovation, and I can tell you we have a strong innovation pipeline. We will reduce the plastics in our products, we'll use less water through the development of more concentrated products, we'll change chemical ingredients for plant-based ingredients, et cetera, et cetera. Beside me here on the shelf, you see an example of one of our innovations, a laundry product in a carton, which we developed for one of the leading retailers in the UK. This innovation, with this innovation, we were first to market. We were even faster than the brand owners, and this innovation saves 80% of plastics. We expect to realize more of these types of innovations in the coming years.
Our customers are demanding, and we have to deliver more and more service, more and more value for a similar price. So we have to be competitive to be able to do that. For that reason, we will accelerate our lean manufacturing program, improving productivity and reducing cost year on year. Again, also this year, we expect to improve our output again with 5%, again using the same assets, getting more value out of these assets. We continue to build stronger customer relationships with retailers and brand owners. Our regional business teams have a crucial role in strengthening these relationships and developing solutions for new customer needs. We see plenty of opportunities to grow. We target to grow in areas or segments where we have a relatively low market share, whether it's in the laundry category, the discounter segment, or in the contract manufacturing part.
We aim to grow our contract manufacturing business to 10% of our sales. To support the growth initiative, we are doing selective CapEx investments. Our investing in our sales and marketing capability and our improving our commercial processes. Just one example, our go-to-market process, we have redesigned that process to a lean process, reducing the time to market with 30%, which is very important when you innovate. Summarizing, how do we win? How do we differentiate from the competition to realize success? We do this through a combination of four different key elements, being building superior local market expertise translated into superb advice to our customers, delivering innovative and sustainable products, and being reliable and trustworthy in delivery performance, in our quality, in our communication, in all what we do, and of course, being competitive in price.
By continuing to strengthen the above four differentiators, we expect to realize in the coming four years an average growth of 4%, far above the market, which is expected to be flat, and a return on sales of 7%-10% in 2027, far above the pre-Compass results, which were 3% in 2021. Thanks for your attention, and I would now like to introduce Lennard Markestein .
Good morning. My name is Lennard Markestein . I'm Managing Director for the Unit Dosing Division since January 2020. The strategic team for our division is growth through product leadership. I'm glad to inform you today about our accomplishments in the last few years and what's next as we drive sustainable growth with our customers. Let's start with a short video.
McBride's Unit Dosing Division produces cleaning products in individually packaged single-dose measures, including dishwasher tablets and laundry capsules. With three European factories, McBride has established a market-leading position through well-invested facilities and unrivaled technical skill, utilizing highly automated, specialist assets to manufacture capsules and tablets to exacting specifications. The European unit dosing market is worth an estimated GBP 3 billion a year, and McBride leads the sector in many of its key markets. The sector is growing faster than any other formats across both laundry capsules and dishwasher tablets and is characterised by rapid innovation and a drive to sustainability. McBride has established an unrivaled platform from which to extend our market-leading position through accelerated product leadership underpinned by a competitive cost base.
We are dedicated to the market for single-dosing products. You see them displayed over there on the shelves: dishwasher tablets, laundry capsules, descaler and cleaner tabs, and more. These products are convenient to use and are by itself a sustainable format as dosing size is tailored exactly to the need. Our market behaves as a pan-European market as these compact products ship economically. In the past 4 years, the market volume, brands and private label combined, has been flat, which is slower than was originally foreseen in Compass. Positively, private label has increased by over 2 points in the last 18 months, now at nearly 30% of market volume, demonstrating the quality and the value of these products. On top of this, we see the number of doses per consumer unit increase in a number of our product formats. The major innovations in our space are driven by the branders.
Private label producers follow closely and anticipate at a rapid pace. This creates a very competitive environment requiring the producers being able to anticipate and to adapt. We serve our market with three well-invested sites that have complementary capabilities. In private label, we have a number one position in dishwasher tabs as well as in descaler tabs. We are number two in laundry capsules. Our strongest positions are in Germany, France, and the U.K., with clear opportunity to improve in Italy and Spain. Though affected by the cost of living crisis, contract manufacturing remains important in our business, representing about 15% of our sales. An enthusiastic expert team runs our business. In the first three years, we've really understood how our business ticks, how we add value, and how we can grow with our customers. Our share increased in 2023 in three of the five largest economies in Europe.
Our business is in solid shape with first half revenues of GBP 170 million and return on sales close to 7%. In Compass, we outlined five strategic priorities for our business. First, being a specialist supplier with industry knowledge, able to anticipate. That's truly embedded in the industry, close to customers, close to suppliers, which is an efficient innovator, also under changing market conditions, and has the right factory capabilities, and lastly, is able to run those efficiently. We believe we've lived up to that promise. In the last three years, our doses sold into the private label customers have increased with nearly 17%, outpacing market growth, which has helped to volume leverage our factories. Last year, we supplied over 500 unique articles to our customers. We've received confidence from contract manufacturing customers to develop innovative new projects in cases complemented by substantial investments.
These projects make our division stronger, and we increasingly contribute to our future growth. We've launched new offerings such as our carton box for capsules, new capsule shapes, low-weight dishwasher tablets. Our team reformulated many product ranges to help offset inflationary pressures in the last year while maintaining product performance. The overall pace of product renewal in our sector is relentless. As an indication, in the first half of this fiscal year, over 30% of the items we sold were less than one year old. Our pace in developing these new offerings has tested our production teams to integrate these in our operations. At times, we have clearly favored speed to market while compromising on cost to produce.
To address this, we have initiated significant changes to our operations. These are currently being implemented and will create a more flexible and cost-effective operation model going forward. We will continue to build our business around the strategy pillar set in Compass. By being a specialist supplier, we know how to add value to our customers, with the top 20 representing over 80% of our sales. We are better in anticipating and influencing their needs. We want to be recognized for being a provider of the complete and differentiating range of products.
As such, full participation in the fast-growing soft dishwasher pods market is a key element in assuring this. Our innovation pipeline is rich. We continue to launch new products, compact, cost-efficient, using as much as possible sustainable ingredients as well as packaging, with an appealing design. As example, today, over 70% of our consumer units are packaged in carton. Though format aesthetics are important, we will not be carried away here. We will provide the right balance between design, functionality, and performance, and cost to produce.
Improving business results have allowed us to increase investments in new capacity for both laundry and dishwasher tabs to sustain our growth trajectory going forward and to make our service more robust. Lastly, our competitiveness is about combining flexibility and operational excellence. Let's call it flexilence. We are investing in our operations and improving our business processes to realize this agility and cost efficiency. In doing this, our skilled team is the most important factor in achieving this. We look ahead with optimism and also some sound self-reflection. Europe will continue to be the core of our business. With our colleagues from our Asia business, we can accelerate growth of unit Dosing products over there. By being embedded in the industry, we can provide more value to our customers that we partner with.
Our way of working compresses the value chain, bringing all actors together, from suppliers to customers to the end user of the product, allowing us to be faster to market. Innovation is the cornerstone of our product leadership strategy. We aspire to lead sustainable product offerings across the industry, and in doing so, we gladly leverage the overall depth of the McBride Group. As we further strengthen our customer relationships, our capacity and capability investments should increasingly be made directly for the customers that we partner with.
Flexilence is not limited to what we're able to do in our manufacturing operations. It represents the way we work together in our division, and it allows us to fastly introduce new portfolio updates. In the year ahead, we aim to grow our doses at an annual growth rate of about 3%-4%, and we aim towards a return on sales of 8%-11%. Our team is ready for this challenge. I want to thank you for the opportunity to present to you today. I would like to introduce Marielle Claudon.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Marielle Claudon. I'm the Managing Director overseeing Powders, Asia Pacific, and Aerosols business. I joined McBride 2 years and a half ago. For the next 10 minutes, I will be introducing you, and I will change slides. I will be introducing you to the powder business, and afterwards, you will be watching a video from Mark and Dee, who respectively manage those businesses.
McBride's Powders Division produces powder cleaning products for laundry, dishwashers, and water softeners. From 2 European factories, we supply the majority of Europe's largest players across both private label and contract manufacturing and in both consumer and industrial channels. The European domestic powders market is worth GBP 2 billion, and McBride is a leading player in Northern and Central Europe. While it's a mature market, the fundamentals remain strong.
It is an efficient and effective cleaning format, satisfying the needs of a core body of consumers and commercial customers seeking high efficacy of performance. Our continuing product and packaging innovations are helping to secure new clients and extend our reach into new markets as we increase capacity to satisfy demand. McBride's new powders team has successfully reestablished our leading technical position, supporting its low-cost strategy and driving growth in a steady volume market, returning the business to profit and positioning the division for further growth.
So, at first glance, the powder business could appear as the least attractive business within the household category. The powder market is weighing 10% of the total category, and this is also the weight of the division within the McBride business. For years, the market has been witnessing a general downturn in volumes, with consumers switching to more convenient products such as liquids and unit dosing. Looking at data and comparing December 2023 to December 2022, we can notice a 2.7% decrease in volume. It's worth noting that the market hasn't deteriorated further since. Indeed, within an inflationary environment, powders still really represent an attractive proposition to the consumers due to their high efficacy and low-cost position. Consumers are usually looking at the price per wash, and powders are very well positioned.
They usually rank before any other forms of detergents in most consumer tests and are an ideal choice for cleaning. As in the other divisions, we benefit from consumers turning more and more to private labels. It's even stronger in our business, where branders are not investing in the category anymore. Year-to-date data, up to December 23, shows a 2.2% increase in private label market share, reaching the level of 39%. Laundry powder is strategically our main priority, having 72% of volume share and 89% of value share of the market, but we also consider and sell dishwasher powders, anti-calc powders, and oxy powders. In terms of geographies, Germany and the U.K. remain significant markets for powder products, with a penetration rate of 60% and 48%, respectively. France has a lower penetration rate, 18%, but it's still a big market for us.
There is still some competition in the market with a lot of available capacity. Most competitors do not focus on the category, and they're usually offering very low prices to fill their sites or as a complementary offer to their main laundry ranges, which really puts pressure on our own profitability and the need to be cost-effective. With regard to our portfolio distribution, currently, 65% of our business is dedicated to private label products, while the remaining 35% caters to contract manufacturing agreements. For the latter, we've developed very recently a specific expertise on professional products that we call INI2 that allows us to onboard new contracts and differentiate from competition. Our manufacturing operations, as you could see in the video, span across two sites, each equipped with unique capabilities of two distinct technologies, so very complementary.
They account for 120,000 tons capacity to deliver a diverse range of powders, densities, and qualities. Sorry. This approach allows us to serve a wide range of customers while also mitigating risks associated with significant fluctuations in raw materials or supply chain disruptions, like we experienced in the recent years. The implementation of the Compass strategy has really significantly benefited the powder division by bringing back focus and expertise to the business. Consequently, our achievements have been outstanding. We achieved a 13% CAGR growth in top line, outperformed the market in volume, and most notably, transitioned from negative profit to a positive return on sales.
In 2021, we had outlined four strategic priorities: keep a low-cost base to become competitive, as this is clearly the first expectation from consumers, but as well a need to resist competition. Sweat the asset to the maximum. Reinforce our R&D capabilities that were forgotten in the former years. And be sharp and smart in targeting new customers. Operationally, our commitment to excellence has been evident. We have improved our customer service level by 11% compared to 2021, integrated robotic lines for site automation, and optimized asset utilization, resulting in a significant 13% efficiency improvement. Our R&D efforts have been focused on innovation, value creation, and sustainability. We have managed to introduce 11 award-winning products across all key markets, underscoring our dedication to excellence. As a result of these efforts, we also secured significant customer wins.
We acquired new contract customers and expanded our presence into new geographies within the private label business, winning over key historical local competitors. So, what's coming next? Having achieved this divisional turnaround really strengthened our ambition for more. Our initial Compass strategy has positively evolved to a more proactive go-to powder specialist strategy. A declining market is not a fatality and can still represent growth opportunities for those who have the ambition to size them. We, of course, still aim as a priority to maintain our cost leadership, further work on the strategic initiatives we have identified.
We will further implement strategies to improve our asset utilization and generate significant cost savings, as well as increase our capacity utilization. We will streamline our processes, ensuring minimal wastage and optimal resource allocation. Through meticulous work, we will rationalize by 25% our formulation portfolio while maintaining quality standards. Our sustainability agenda will remain a top priority as we continue our journey towards further reducing the carbon footprint of our products throughout the entire life cycle, from production to usage. We will transition further from plastic to eco-friendly alternatives like cardboard and paper bags, aligning with consumer preferences.
We're proud to have already achieved 22% cardboard reduction through the compaction of our powders and skillets, and we will do more in moving the dishwasher powder market from bottles to skillets, resulting in 46 tons plastic saved. Last, we will be selective when onboarding new businesses to avoid changeovers, complexity, and dilutive ranges, while focusing on our core three markets, being France, Germany, and the UK. As a summary and as a conclusion, our powder division has successfully regained its momentum, signaling a return to growth and, more importantly, to profit.
In an inflationary environment, powder products maintain their relevance and resonate strongly with millions of consumers. For which reason, we believe that being an efficient go-to powder specialist is the right positioning for our division. Thanks to our two complementary manufacturing platforms, our enhanced expertise in the category, and our reinforced R&D capabilities, we're now in a position to offer a broad range of products, from cheap on display to award-winning products, as well as strong insights into contract manufacturing and private label needs, putting us back in the position of being a core part of McBride Laundry range. We're confident we can keep our volumes flat despite underlying trends and reach a return of sales in the range of 4%-7%. Thank you for your attention. We will move now to the Aerosols and Asia Pacific business that will be videoed, and you will see the videos in a row.
McBride's Aerosols division produces a range of innovative household personal care and professional cleaning products discharged from a pressurized can. From a single center of excellence, we support our clients across the entire supply chain, from sourcing and formulating to production and packaging and distribution, developing new products in innovative, sustainable packaging. Aerosol manufacture is undertaken within strict Seveso safety standards around explosion risk prevention, and as well as being ECOCERT accredited, we now offer a growing range of propellant options as part of our customer offer. This is a growing market, and McBride is cementing its place as a category leader, capitalizing on its specialist insights and reliable, agile manufacturing capabilities to extend relationships with customers and develop new products targeted at new markets, categories, and channels.
My name is Marc Marot, and I am the Managing Director of McBride Aerosols division based here in Rosporden, Brittany. I have been in this role for almost six years, and for the past three years, I have been leading the changes in how our division operates, specifically focusing on executing the aerosol strategy outlined in the Compass program. We have worked hard to create a platform that is fast, agile, and reliable, which has helped drive innovative growth. We operate in a market experiencing growth. There are strong manufacturers in key markets such as France, the UK, and Germany, which collectively account for 60% of European market production. Aerosols offer high performance and convenience, but sustainability is a top priority. Our vision for product leadership is to capitalize on our recent achievements and foster a culture of innovation.
We aim to increase our revenues by targeting niched markets and shifting our portfolio towards higher margin opportunities. Turning to the Compass program, we have made excellent progress in delivering our objectives. As part of our strategic plan, we expanded our horizon beyond our core market of France, extending our offerings into selected regions across Europe. Through partnership with private label and branded partners, we have experienced accelerated growth in Germany and Iberia, securing several tender wins along the way. We have also built on our operational excellence foundations and established innovation credentials together, with achieving a customer service level above 98.5%. As a result, our aerosol revenue grew by 27% year-on-year since 2021, and our volumes by 12%. More notably, we have operated a real profit turnaround. Lastly, we have rolled out multiple innovations.
Thanks to strong co-creation, we have developed this ecological and marketing revolution in the aerosol sector with this new cardboard cap, which is entirely recyclable, saving 15 tons of plastic per year. This innovation has been quickly adopted by our customers. So, what's next? We have set an ambitious target to reach 100 million cans over the next 2 years. Breakthrough innovation remains key to our success through McBride leading the way, but also partnering closely with our suppliers to explore opportunities for new product categories. Collaborating with our contract manufacturing customers, we grow our market reach, and together, we will explore new uses for our products. Expanding into new territories is a key part of our growth strategy. Our priority is to establish leading positions in Germany and France while reassessing our approach in the UK market and further growing in Iberia.
To support these growth ambitions, we are investing in additional capacity and capabilities to ensure we can meet increasing demand and continue delivering exceptional products and services to our customers. We have a proven track record of consistently meeting and exceeding our targets. The market dynamics are overwhelmingly positive, with a high level of interest and demand from customers. We are extremely well positioned as strategic partners, providing expertise and insight to retailers and vendors alike. Our leading innovation has progressed us from being fast followers to market leaders, and through our entrepreneurial mindset and embedded fire spirit, we will strengthen this position and drive further growth.
McBride's Asia Pacific division produces a range of cleaning products in personal care and household segments. With two factories in Malaysia and Vietnam and a sales office in Australia, McBride serves selected high-growth markets in the Asia Pacific region, applying our expertise across the whole supply chain, from sourcing to formulating and production to packaging before delivering to the customer. The market in this region is growing rapidly, supporting the growth of both the private label and branded product sectors. McBride is capitalizing on this opportunity while leveraging expertise in innovation and sustainability from across the group as we increase our own capabilities and capacity, steadily increasing our presence in this exciting region.
Hello. My name is Teong Dee Ong , and I have the privilege of leading McBride's Asia Pacific division. I joined McBride nearly 2 years ago, bringing with me more than 20 years' experience in the FMCG industry across Asia. A Malaysian by nationality, I am based here at our Malaysia facility. Asia Pacific is a hugely exciting and attractive region, having the fastest-growing economy across the world, projected to be 4.6% in 2023, especially in emerging and developing Asia. This is driven by the large diverse population and growing middle class, resulting in increased consumer spending. Consumers are quickly evolving in terms of sophistication and are prioritizing convenience, health and wellness, as well as growing awareness of environmental issues.
Market research indicates that personal care and household markets in Asia Pacific are still growing at a rate of more than 4% per annum, despite the recent global economic headwinds. As a result of this growth, we see increasing opportunities for private labels and contract manufacturing in these categories, as both retailers and vendors develop more innovative solutions to meet this evolving consumer trend. McBride's Asia Pacific division is well positioned to capitalize on this region's growth potential. Having entered the market more than 15 years ago, we have a strong focus on ASEAN and Australia-New Zealand markets and a track record of business growth. Our Asia Pacific presence consists of 2 manufacturing platforms strategically located in Malaysia and Vietnam, which supports our sales offices in Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, and Melbourne.
In both personal care and household categories, we have grown to become a leading player in private label development, a position we were able to achieve by leveraging the group's strong blue chip credentials and expertise in product innovation and sustainable offerings. Since 2021, we have made significant progress, having strengthened our platform for growth when we moved our Malaysia manufacturing facilities to a larger new-built location. The business has invested in faster and more efficient equipment, providing 150% more volume capability compared with the previous site, and able to increase further by a factor of 3 with additional equipment investment.
This new Malaysia facility has also enabled us to accelerate the development of our household manufacturing platform. Together with our Malaysia expansion, we have invested in upgrading our Vietnam infrastructure and expanded into sachet filling capabilities, a packing format popular in emerging Southeast Asia markets. In addition, we have continued to invest in our product development capabilities based on latest consumer trends, which focus on the utilization of more natural upcycling materials and sustainable packaging solutions. I am pleased that our capability and volume upgrades, together with strong innovation capabilities, have successfully led to new business wins in both private label and contract manufacturing.
The increased business size, coupled with our laser-sharp focus on cost management, has enabled us to continue our track record of profitability despite the investments made. Moving forward, our clear ambition is to accelerate our growth. With our agility to expand volume capacity in our Malaysia site and utilizing our cost-efficient skill, we are targeting to secure significant MNC contract manufacturing revenues in both personal care and household. At the same time, Asia Pacific's private label market continues to grow and mature.
It is interesting to note that private label in Asia Pacific accounts for only approximately 6% of total FMCG sales, in comparison to over 30% in West Europe, and our internal data has shown private label growing at a strong double digit in this region. With this massive opportunity, our ambition is to further strengthen our position as the leading partner of choice in private label development by creating value for our customers through breakthrough innovations and sustainable concepts, while offering competitive cost structures driven by our ability to increase efficiencies. We further see opportunities to further grow and expand our sales reach into up-and-coming Southeast Asia countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines, with a combined population of more than 460 million by leveraging the close proximity of our manufacturing footprint in both Malaysia and Vietnam.
In a summary, McBride Asia Pacific currently has a great platform in the fastest-growing region in the world, with fast evolving consumer trends resulting in high growth opportunities for both retailers and vendors alike. We have a compelling value proposition supported by the group's blue chip integrity and skill, and by our strong local knowledge of the distinct growing markets within Asia Pacific. Our facility upgrades in Malaysia and Vietnam have given us the agility and ability to meet and satisfy customers' requirements and volume demands, putting us in a strong position to be their regional supply partner.
We offer our European MNC partners a reliable supply base in Asia Pacific with the same level of quality and standards expected of McBride. Our strong innovation capabilities, supported by group expertise and cost-competitive platform, will enable us to support our customers develop their value proposition for the ultimate consumer. As such, McBride Asia Pacific is in a strong position to continue with its aggressive growth agenda. Thank you.
Thanks to all the presenters for those divisional updates. Time to stretch your legs. Take a bathroom break, refresh your coffee cups, and then I'd like you to all assemble, please, in one of three locations. There's two here and one just straight outside the door, where you have the opportunity to interact and get close and personal with Peter, Marielle, and Lennard, and some of our wonderful products. Thank you for listening so far, and see you back here at 12:45 P.M.
Well, welcome back for part two. Believe it or not, that's me. That's when I was young and full of dreams, how life has changed. So my name is Chris Ward, and I'm McBride's Chief Transformation Officer. I've worked in consumer since 1994, and for the last 20 years, I've been leading transformations in retail, e-commerce, and distribution. For the next 10 minutes, I'm going to focus on three elements for you. The first one is the design principles that are underpinning our transformation journey. I'm going to introduce you to the three gold and three silver programs in our plan, and I'm going to share with you an example of a gold program and walk you through, in simple terms, how it will create value to McBride.
So our transformation journey commenced in September 2022, when we shared with you our ambition to generate GBP 50 million net of EBITDA through the design, build, and execution of a series of programs, all aimed at establishing centers of excellence within McBride. In my experience, when one starts a transformation, it's imperative to lay out and align to the design principles which will underpin the journey, and I thought, while there's a few there, I'll just focus on one. The one is do it properly. Many organizations try to do transformation on the cheap, meaning they stretch their existing teams to deliver change on top of a busy day job. They try to undertake major projects without leveraging expertise outside of the business, or they want all the benefits that come with transformation without investing sufficiently.
Now, the executive team here at McBride, supported by the board, have agreed not to be short-sighted in this journey. With an investment envelope of GBP 13 million of OpEx and GBP 15 million of CapEx, we are able to partner with globally recognised external experts in their field. We can deploy world-class technologies and train our team to industry-leading standards across all functions and all disciplines. Let me introduce you to our transformation plan. There are six programs within the overall plan. Three are gold, and three are silver, and we've differentiated them based on their business impact, complexity to deliver, and contribution. All six are led by experienced program managers, sponsored by members of the executive team, and follow the same industry-leading change management methodology.
The three gold programs are focused on installing centers of excellence with the sole aim of improving the experience for our much-valued customers, and I'll give you a brief overview on each. So, spring 2025, we'll see the first implementation of our new enterprise resource planning platform. You might have heard that called an ERP. That's what it is. Starting in the UK and then moving to our sites and offices across Europe, this SAP Power technology will see us transition to a standardized, world-class operating model. This is a generational program for us at McBride, and as such, we are focusing on delivering a quality product which will step change the way we work with our customers and with ourselves.
The rollout is planned for completion in the autumn of 2027. Notice how I don't give you a specific month. I will bring this to life for you a little more shortly. The second program will build a center of excellence for all of our sales and marketing teams across Europe. Now, they play an intrinsic part in McBride, and for many of our customers, they are the main point of contact and ambassadors of our brand. It's essential, if we want to compete and solidify our number one position in Europe, that our team at the front end of the business have the right tools, processes, and training so that they can really be the best versions of themselves and great ambassadors.
In fact, actually, these teams are already benefiting from state-of-the-art pricing and margin intelligence, external coaching expertise around account planning, and improved customer segmentation tools. We have big plans in this space, and longer-term investments could include AI-driven customer relationship management technology. Now, the final gold program here will see us undertake a step change in the service we deliver to our customers in a very real and tangible way.
Our customers need our product on time and in full, and sometimes we can be inconsistent in our delivery of this due to challenges in either our inventory management disciplines or the locations of our European distribution centers. This strategic program is working at pace to introduce new disciplines in supply chain planning, and after some successful testing in Belgium, spring will see us roll out these across Europe, and likewise, spring will also see us finalize our European physical logistics network blueprint, and we will start the journey of moving to this from the summer. Now, let's have a look at our three silver programs. So our three silver programs are also very important to us as they create genuine points of differentiation across a diverse set of capabilities.
Firstly, we are in year 3 of a 5-year program to modernize our HR processes across the UK and Europe, and we've been busy introducing new capabilities like online training, employee surveys, while moving time and attendance and payroll operations onto digital platforms. We still have much to do to complete the program. We're about halfway through, and we need to implement digital payroll now across all of our sites as well as time and attendance. 2024 will see the culmination of two strategic projects which are focused on partnering with global brands to support them in bringing innovative, great value products to international markets. By leveraging our almost 100-year expertise and heritage, we are able to partner well with well-known FMCG brands, and as Lennard has highlighted, this facilitates potential moves into new markets and new geographies.
This is an exciting area of development for McBride as it requires a level of innovation and new thinking, particularly in the arenas of product and packaging innovation. The final silver program sees us focus on unblocking the root causes of operational inefficiency, so for example, the variation in manufacturing line performance. By partnering with recognized international experts and understanding the root causes of these variations, we are able to build practical long-term solutions that can work across all categories and all factories. In parallel, we recognize to succeed in a high-volume, low-margin model, we need to stay competitive in all elements of our cost base, and this program will ensure that costs remain in line with volume growth so that as we experience improved levels of drop-through from the projected volume gains that the MDs have shared with you.
So let's give you one example of a gold programme in just a little bit more detail. Now, I recognize that in your packs, hopefully it's more helpful to you to follow that than what you can see on the screen here. Well, let's start with an enterprise resource platform. What is it? Well, effectively, it's a proxy operating model. Or in other words, it's a better way of doing the basics across the business. From purchasing to payment, sourcing of new materials, the algorithms that drive our inventory forecasts, and the way we provide insights to our users across Europe. Boiling it down even further, the business will benefit from SAP S/4HANA in three ways. It will speed up our processes.
It will reduce the degree of manual intervention when doing the basics, and it will improve the quality of insights and data that is served up, which in turn improves our operational decision-making. While the practical benefits are clear, we are very conscious of the challenges in transitioning from two 25-year-old SAP systems across the UK and Europe to one platform. As you would expect, we've taken a number of steps to minimize the risk while maximizing the potential of the new world. We've drafted in a team of genuine S/4 experts, and that programme team has over 30 implementations under their belt. We've blended these guys with our own McBride business process owners, people who really know the nuts and bolts of our organization.
But we've also built a full change management organization as well to really drive things like solution adoption across all of our 3,500 users. We will additionally get assurance from an external partner as well, and that ensures that what we build is fit for purpose and we stay within, bless you, we stay within the agreed boundaries all along our journey. So that concludes the transformation update, and I'd now like to introduce you up on stage our CFO, Mark Strickland.
Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. We now come to the section that I know you've all been waiting for. What does it mean financially? So following on from the strong momentum in the second half of financial year 2023, which essentially was our turnaround year, it was pleasing to report a strong set of half-year results two weeks ago on the 27th of February. This result was firmly built upon the strong Compass foundations, which ensured that each division had a strategy in place that was laser-focused upon what its particular market and/or business segment needed to do in order to optimize performance. It is clear from the different returns on sales and returns on capital employed that one size simply does not fit all. Therefore, the divisional structure and individually tailored strategies will continue to be the bedrock of McBride over the coming months and years.
Under the transformation program, we have committed to a net benefit of GBP 50 million. In other words, after the costs of achieving those benefits. Over the 5-year period, first of July 2023 to 30th of June 2028, this benefit annualizes out at around GBP 17 million per annum or EUR 20 million per annum. In his section, Chris Ward took us through this in detail, so the only thing that I must add is that the program is well-resourced and has a clear line of sight on its deliverables. As you can see from this chart, the business has historically been remarkably stable in terms of adjusted operating profit. The business has always ridden the input cost cycles and recovered. This is also true of the exceptional input cost cycle that started circa June 2021 and lasted around 18 months.
As Chris said earlier in his presentation, during that time, McBride suffered around GBP 250 million worth of inflation. While it has taken us 18 months to recover, the business has indeed recovered, as evidenced in our recent half-year results. Ultimately, the team's aim is now to both rebase the business at a higher underlying level of profitability than was historically delivered and smooth the cycles, making performance more predictable. That said, it should be noted that our performance will never be completely linear. As an illustration of what I mean by rebasing, we need McBride regularly delivering an EBITDA of GBP 55 million-GBP 65 million a year versus the historic GBP 25 million-GBP 35 million. So getting into a bit of detail, in terms of exceptionals, there are no costs currently envisaged. Those that might occur would be associated with a normal refinancing and/or transformation activities.
In terms of pensions, we've recently moved to En plan, which ensures a professional, continuous, and independent governance. For McBride, this is both time and cost-efficient. The next triennial valuation is due as at the 30th of March 2024, and we are targeting to have it agreed and completed by March 2025. Until then, the pension deficit reduction payments or contributions will continue as agreed with the trustees and as disclosed in the company's annual report and accounts. In the recent results presentation, I flagged up that we had got smarter with our capital expenditure, essentially delivering more for less. This philosophy is now embedded within the fabric of McBride. Whilst we are flagging underlying capital expenditure of circa GBP 25 million per annum, it should be noted that we will not hesitate to spend more should we have projects that are obviously incrementally earnings accretive.
Key strategic projects currently in our plans are SAP S/4HANA, which is a key strand of the transformation, liquids expansion, and continuing to invest behind our unit dosing innovation program. We will also not be afraid of implementing selective refresh programs should our continuing growth dictate such. At the current levels of profitability, the business is hugely cash-generative. Debt is reducing and liquidity is increasing. Our working capital is under control and is expected to remain at around 10% of sales. Our main cash outflows are stable and predictable. Our ability to generate cash alone should make our business attractive to investors. We're saying that the team and I passionately, believe passionately in our business and its opportunity to continue to grow and ultimately be the natural go-to partner in the household private label arena.
As such, our priority is to have a well-invested business that drives consistent and predictable profit and cash. That said, debt reduction remains a core objective. We are targeting a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.5 times or less. We also believe that there are opportunities, selective opportunities, which could supercharge our performance. And as I said earlier, we will not hesitate to invest behind these if after critical evaluation we 100% believe that they will add to our shareholder value. Under the current financing agreements, we are restricted from paying dividends. However, we fully expect to have refinanced the business by November 2024. At that point, we also fully expect to have a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of below 2 times.
The combination of those two factors opens the door to potentially restart paying dividends at the end of the 2025 financial year. There are then progressive options as leverage decreases. Dividends are at the board's discretion and will be declared and paid annually. In the medium term, we would like to move towards the base dividend being as indicated in our February 2021 Capital Markets Day. However, in the shorter term, there are a number of moving parts which prevent us from being more definitive at this point in time. So this slide summarises how we as a team will measure our progress over the next five years. Our aim collectively is to deliver a business to be proud of for all our stakeholders.
We believe that success is a McBride plc whereby we are delivering 10% EBITDA or more per annum, combined with a return on capital of over 25% and a net debt of 1.5 times EBITDA or less. We believe that is truly a business to be proud of. Chris touched on this earlier, but finally, it would be a miss of me not to point out that we believe that there are opportunities to outperform the shareholder value delivered by the core plan. Firstly, there are options to potentially turbocharge the core plan through additional investment, be that capacity, footprint, or the like. Secondly, again, as touched on by Chris, we operate in an industry that we believe is ripe for consolidation.
Thirdly, and moving to the right-hand chart, at 4.3x, our current multiple would appear to be very low, both compared to our own five-year average of 5.6x, and especially when compared to some comparable companies such as Bakkavor and Greencore, who are both at 5.5x, Ontex, who are at 6.3x, and Accrol, who are at 8.3x. We believe that delivery of our plans could lead to a re-rating, which would instantly deliver shareholder value. A re-rating would also have the further advantage of giving a greater flexibility to deliver some of the things that the left-hand chart implies. Thank you, and I'll now pass back to Chris.
Chris, Mark, thank you very much for those presentations. I'll now draw the event to a close with a series of key messages from the presentations that you've heard today. Through those divisional presentations, you'll have heard each division has delivered well against its strategy that was set out in 2021, and these strategies are, in fact, still relevant and present in the next phase of our strategy delivery. Each division has a clear north star guiding its direction, either on product or cost leadership. Unlike three years ago, all our divisions are profitable, contributing to the total group performance and are well on their way to their medium-term targets. Additionally, you'll have heard a series of common and consistent themes across all those divisional strategy presentations, giving the group a clear set of aligned strategic priorities that are listed here on this page.
The bedrock and fundament to our total step change in performance is the way our divisional focus leads the way with the varying levels of emphasis to these common themes and objectives as we drive the business forward. The momentum in the business is strong. You have seen the energy and the passion of the leadership team and our determination to continue to lead and win. From hygiene factors such as service and quality to the excellence program investing behind the front end of our business, our customer and consumer focus sets us apart. Our product and category specialism gleaned from our wide European business, coupled with our clear advantages from economies of scale, permit McBride to deliver a superior proposition for our partner customers.
We have stepped up our environmental proposition with our recent commitment to the Science Based Targets Initiative, which, together with our existing blue-chip credentials, will ensure we are the standout private label supplier for sustainability. You have heard about our excellence program, which is all about transforming and modernizing many of our business activities, driving financial benefits as well as providing a more responsive and proactive business platform for all our stakeholders. Finally, and crucially, the wider McBride team are a clear differentiator. Highly experienced and engaged colleagues across all our activities and all our locations join forces with passion and commitment to lead the activities, making McBride the supplier of choice for our valued customers.
So our strategy and targets are clear. As you leave us today, I would just like to emphasize the key takeaways from this Capital Markets Day. You have heard how the consumer shift to private label has gathered pace and how and why McBride has been growing in this growing market. Our operating model continues to deliver the expertise, specialism, and focus to ensure we win and grow our leadership position. After the challenges of the inflationary period, you have heard how we've now a more earnings-resilient business.
The core plan that we've outlined today, with the financial targets shown in this page, presents attractive financial returns and is delivered from two key focus areas: targeted growth with clear category and geography focus, and an ambitious transformation program delivering excellence and improved cost and margin ratios. And finally, we've shared that we have a range of value creation ideas and options beyond the core plan when additional investment opportunity arises.
Thanks to you for joining today and engaging so eagerly as we articulated our story and our exciting prospects. Before you leave, you are invited to a supermarket with a difference. One with no checkout. Please help yourself to any of the products that you see on any of these shelves. You have a tote bag to carry it away in. There may even be spare tote bags for those that are particularly greedy. In case and on a serious matter, if you're in case you're not a private label buyer, use this moment to experience for yourself the quality of these compelling value products. They're half the price for brands that you're probably buying today. Thank you.