Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I am pleased to present Tate & Lyle's results for the six months to the 30th of September 2023. The agenda for today's presentation is on the screen. I will begin with an overview of the first half. Dawn will run through the financial results, and then I will talk about our strategic progress and the outlook. Finally, Dawn and I will be happy to take your questions. Starting then with the key headlines. We delivered another robust performance in the first half, with good revenue and profit growth and strong cash generation.
The strategic repositioning of Tate & Lyle as a growth-focused specialty food and beverage Solutions business continues to progress well. We are seeing positive progress from our focus on providing Solutions to customers, and we continue to invest in the business to drive long-term growth. We remain focused on managing challenging short-term market dynamics and investing in the business to build strong foundations for the future. In the short term, we are operating in a volatile cost environment, with inflation and the cost of living crisis driving softer consumer demand and customer destocking.
It is a sign of the quality and resilience of the business and a great credit to my management team that despite these challenging market dynamics, we still met our key financial measures in the first half. At the same time, we continue to invest in the business to ensure we are well positioned to capture future growth opportunities. We are expanding our portfolio, increasing our investment in innovation and solution selling, investing in growth capacity, and significantly advancing our sustainability program.
These investments support our position at the center of the future of food, helping our customers create healthier, tastier, and more convenient food and drink that is both more sustainable and affordable. Turning to the financial highlights, group revenue was up 4%, and EBITDA was up 7%. Cash management was strong, with free cash flow GBP 15 million higher, and we delivered $17 million of productivity savings.
We also made good progress delivering on our commitment to Science, Solutions, and Society. Science and Solutions selling are at the heart of how we deliver our strategy. Our customers increasingly rely on our innovation expertise to solve the challenges of food reformulation and to deliver nutritional improvement and taste. That is why building stronger Solutions-based partnerships with customers is critical.
In the first half, we increased investment in Innovation and Solutions selling by 11%, and the mix of new business wins coming from Solutions increased by four percentage points to 22%. For Society, we continue to make good progress against our purpose targets, including our sustainability agenda, which I will talk more about later, and on our ambition to improve the diets of people across the world.
For example, in the last 3.5 years, our no and low-calorie sweeteners and fibers have helped to remove 7 million tons of sugar from the world's diets. That's 28 trillion calories. As we build the new Tate & Lyle, it's also key that we really understand what our customers think of us, where we are seen as strong, and where we can continue to improve.
This year, we undertook our second annual brand equity survey, in which around 500 customers and prospective customers are asked what they think about Tate & Lyle. The results are very encouraging. 81% saw us as a leader in ingredient innovation, with 80% also seeing us as a leader in sustainability. These scores were up by seven and 10 percentage points, respectively, from the survey in 2022. Importantly, our Net Promoter Score, which is a measure used to gauge customers' loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm about Tate & Lyle, is also high at a very positive score of 61, an increase of nine points.
These results give me great confidence that the new Tate & Lyle is increasingly being seen as a valued innovation and growth partner for our customers, as well as an attractive partner for prospective customers, and the way we have reshaped and focused the business is resonating strongly. I will come back to talk about our strategic progress and the outlook later, but for now, I will hand over to Dawn to talk through the financial results. Dawn, over to you.
Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. In line with previous presentations, I will focus on adjusted measures. Items with percentage growth are in constant currency, unless I indicate otherwise. As Nick said, the group performed well in the first half, delivering against our key financial measures. Revenue and profit growth was robust, navigating a tough external environment. We continue to invest for the long term across all three pillars of Science, Solutions, and Society.
Cash performance was strong by significantly improved cash conversion. All of this resulted in a strong balance sheet, providing the flexibility for further investment. In terms of financial highlights, group revenue was 4% higher. We delivered EBITDA growth of 7%, with EBITDA margin 70 basis points higher at 20.8%. Profit before tax was 16% higher, reflecting strong performance from Tate & Lyle, and improved performance in our minority holding in Primient, and lower finance charges in the half.
Earnings per share were 19% higher, and free cash flow was GBP 15 million higher at GBP 77 million. So overall, a pleasing set of results. Moving on to the performance of our three operating segments. Starting with Food and Beverage Solutions, this business is our growth engine and represents more than 80% of our revenue. Its role is to drive margin-accretive growth. Revenue in the half was 5% higher, with two percentage points decrease from volume and price mix, which was more than offset by seven percentage points increase from the recovery of inflation. The volume and price mix decrease of two percentage points is driven by two factors.
Firstly, a six percentage points benefit from our focus on strategic mix management and solution selling. And secondly, eight percentage points volume reduction from the impact of consumer demand softness and customer destocking. Looking at the performance of our three regions, in North America, revenue grew 2% despite some soft demand. We saw good gains in the beverage, confectionery, and bakery categories, particularly with our largest customers. In Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, revenue was up 1%, reflecting a mixed picture with pockets of growth and some regional challenges. In Asia, revenue was broadly in line with the comparative period, with robust growth in China, supported by the acquisition of Quantum. In Latin America, revenue declined driven by lower priced imports from outside the region, especially in Mexico. In the Middle East and Africa, we saw good demand.
In Europe, revenue growth at 19% was strong, reflecting the pricing through of significant input cost inflation. We also continued to exit some low-margin business. EBITDA grew ahead of revenue at 10%, benefiting from increased solution selling, customer and product mix, as well as from contributions from productivity savings. As a result, the business delivered 90 basis points of EBITDA margin expansion. As I said at our capital markets event earlier this year, our five-year revenue growth ambition is on an underlying basis, excluding the impact of abnormal inflation and deflation.
Consecutive periods of high input cost inflation have significantly accelerated revenue growth, with food and beverage Solutions revenue 19% higher in each of the last two years, well ahead of our five-year overall ambition of 4%-6% growth each year. Following this period of rapid inflation, we are now seeing cost deflation across a range of inputs. While the renewal of customer contracts for the 2024 calendar year is still in its early stages, revenue in the second half is expected to reflect the pass-through of these lower costs. Let's move to sucralose. This is a strongly cash-generative business, and its role is to provide attractive returns. The underlying performance of this business was steady after taking into account the phasing of customer orders into the first half of last year.
Revenue was down 5%, reflecting the more normal phasing of orders and inflation recovery. EBITDA, at GBP 28 million, was 14% lower as multi-year contracts limited our near-term recovery of inflation. Stepping back, industry demand for sucralose remains robust, driven by growing consumer demand for both reduced sugar and calorie, food and drink.
In addition, we continue to see good demand from our larger customers. Primary Products Europe is the smallest segment, comprising 7% of our revenue. We continue to optimize the financial performance of this segment as we transition capacity to higher margin Food and Beverage Solutions ingredients. Revenue declined by 2%, with lower volume partially mitigated by improved pricing from more favorable market conditions and the recovery of input cost inflation.
EBITDA losses improved significantly to GBP 3 million. So pulling this all together, food and beverage Solutions increased EBITDA by 10% or GBP 40 million. Sucralose saw a decline in EBITDA of GBP 5 million, and in Primary Products Europe, EBITDA losses were GBP 3 million lower. Overall, this led to an increase in absolute EBITDA in constant currency of GBP 12 million or 7%.
The impact of foreign exchange was to decrease EBITDA by GBP 6 million to GBP 178 million. Turning now to productivity. We delivered $17 million of productivity savings in the half, demonstrating the strong productivity culture across the business. Savings came from a number of areas, including capital investments to increase efficiency and reduce energy costs, more efficiencies in our supply chain, and cost savings in SG&A.
We expect to deliver productivity savings in the 2024 financial year of more than $25 million, and we are on track to deliver our target of $100 million productivity savings in the five years ending the 31st of March 2028. Let's move on to talk through tax and exceptional items. The adjusted effective tax rate for the year was 21.9%, in line with the comparative period.
We anticipate the adjusted effective tax rate for the 2024 financial year will be one to two percentage points higher than last year's full year rate, which was 19.9%. The key drivers of this are the increase in the headline U.K. corporation tax rate from 19% to 25%, and more profit being taxed in higher rate jurisdictions. In terms of exceptional items, net pre-tax exceptional charges were GBP 8 million, most of which related to restructuring costs to drive organizational improvements and productivity benefits. From a cash flow perspective, this translated into a total exceptional cash outflow of GBP 11 million.
Primient's performance improved in the first half. Our share of profit was 32% higher at GBP 70 million, as Primient benefited from strong commercial performance and sweetener demand, alongside an improving operational performance. This more than offset higher interest charges and a reduction in the share of profits from Primient-owned joint ventures. We received $70 million in cash dividends from Primient in the half, with a further dividend of $37 million received in early November, bringing the total year-to-date dividend to $54 million.
Moving now to free cash flow. Adjusted free cash flow was GBP 15 million higher at GBP 77 million. A strong focus on cash generation delivered a GBP 47 million improvement in net working capital compared to the comparative period. We continue to invest in long-term growth, with capital expenditure GBP 20 million higher at GBP 46 million. For the 2024 financial year, we continue to expect capital expenditure to be in the GBP 90 million-GBP 100 million range.
Cash conversion was strong at 69%, a 14 percentage points increase from the comparative period, and we are well on track to deliver our ambition to increase cash conversion to 75% over the next five years. Moving on to net debt and dividends. Net debt was GBP 11 million higher at GBP 249 million. This was driven by two main factors. Firstly, strong cash generation, and secondly, the payment of the final dividend to shareholders of GBP 52 million. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio is 0.8 x. We continue to have strong liquidity headroom to invest for growth, with access to more than GBP 1 billion through cash on- hand and our undrawn revolving credit facility.
We have repaid $120 million of debt since the 31st of March 2023, from cash, of which $95 million was floating rate debt. The board has declared an interim dividend of GBP 0.062 per share, an increase of GBP 0.008 per share. As previously stated, this reflects the adoption of our approach to pay interim dividends equal to 1/3 of the prior year's full year dividend. The board continues to operate a progressive dividend policy. I want to leave you with three key messages. The first is that we are delivering on our growth strategy and successfully navigating a challenging external environment to deliver robust financial performance. Secondly, we continue to generate strong cash flow and maintain a culture of productivity and cost discipline.
Thirdly, we are investing for the future across our pillars of Science, Solutions, and Society, more of which Nick will talk about shortly. These results are a sign of the strength and resilience of the business and the financial discipline we have instilled. This gives us flexibility to continue to invest for long-term growth, both organically and through M&A. With that, let me hand you back to Nick.
Thank you, Dawn. I'm now going to give you a brief update on our strategic progress and talk to the outlook. Over the last two years, we have repositioned Tate & Lyle to be right at the center of the future of food, focused on creating solutions that meet growing consumer demand for healthier, tastier, and more sustainable food and drink. This is starting to show real benefits. Solutions revenue from new business wins is increasing, and we are building progressively deeper solutions-based partnerships with customers.
To further strengthen these partnerships and our customer offering, we are increasing investment in R&D, innovation, and sustainability, and also adding growth capacity. As we detailed in our capital markets event earlier this year, we have repositioned Tate & Lyle to benefit from a number of structural mega trends, which are driving consumer purchasing and consumption patterns. The global population is growing rapidly.
People are living longer, and they are all much more knowledgeable about climate change and their impact on the planet. The rise of diseases like obesity and diabetes, and concerns about digestive health and immunity, are also causing people to increase focus on their health and well-being. All these factors are leading consumers to demand food and drink, which is healthier, tastier, more convenient, sustainable, and affordable, and that plays right into Tate & Lyle's areas of expertise.
Through our capabilities in sweetening, mouthfeel, and fortification, we are experts in taking sugar and calories out of food, enhancing the texture and mouthfeel experience, as well as improving the nutritional profile by adding fiber and protein. These capabilities mean we are well-placed to benefit from long-term trends towards healthier diets and lifestyles.
We believe that people who want to live healthier lives, whether by taking more exercise, adopting a more nutritious diet, or even through some form of medication like weight loss drugs, or indeed, a combination of all three, will look to consume healthier food and drink, particularly products that are lower in sugar and calories and with added fiber. That is exactly what Tate & Lyle does and why we are excited about the growth opportunities ahead.
To ensure we are in a position to capture those growth opportunities, we are investing in the business in a number of key areas. The first is innovation. New product revenue grew by 18% in the half on a like for like basis, with particularly good growth in the mouthfeel platform. Our innovation pipeline remains strong, and we continue to launch exciting new products into the market.
For example, in July, we expanded our natural sweetener portfolio by launching a new stevia sweetener called TASTEVA SOL. This new product represents a patent-protected breakthrough in stevia technology. It is a premium tasting and clean label stevia that has over 200 x the solubility of existing Reb M and Reb D products on the market. This means TASTEVA SOL has the ability to solve customer solubility challenges that are often found in applications such as beverage concentrates and dairy at high levels of sugar replacements.
A key part of our innovation approach is investing in new technology to improve our product offering and increase our speed to market. Let me give you three examples of how we are using technology to support our customers. At our R&D hub in Chicago, our scientists are using AI to undertake predictive modeling of sensory and other data to develop targeted recipes for customers and accelerate the adoption solutions. In Singapore, we have installed a new robotic system with the ability to run characterization tests at around 10 x the current rate and with enhanced predictive modeling capabilities.
This system enables our scientists to assess the chemistry, performance, and customer benefits of a new mouthfeel solution with much greater efficiency and increased speed to market. And finally, we are enhancing our technical knowledge management systems to increase knowledge sharing and the pace of innovation across our regions. Turning next to solutions. We continue to make good progress building stronger solutions-based partnerships with our customers, and we increased our investment in innovation and solution selling by 11% in the first half.
Areas of particular focus were infrastructure and capabilities. In June, we opened a new customer innovation and collaboration center in Jakarta, Indonesia, bringing the total number of our centers globally to 17. These centers ensure our solutions can be applied to our customers' products in their local markets. The center in Jakarta is already having a positive impact on customer relationships and generating new projects.
On capabilities, we continue to strengthen our expertise in the key area of sensory and to increase our focus on open innovation as we look to work with partners to develop new technologies and ingredients. We are also adding growth capacity. We continue to see strong customer demand for both fiber fortification and sugar reduction. As a result, we are investing EUR 25 million to add new capacity for non-GMO PROMITOR soluble fibers at our facility in Slovakia.
This new capacity will come online in the middle of 2024 and represents the first part of a program to add fiber capacity at this site over time. Dietary fiber is an exciting growth opportunity as people become increasingly aware of the importance of getting more fiber in their diets. The World Health Organization recommends that adults eat at least 25 grams of fiber every day, but most people are not getting enough fiber, and in many cases, nowhere near enough.
This is important, as low fiber intake is associated with higher levels of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and studies show that fiber can support gut health and promote calcium absorption. As shown in the customer survey I talked about earlier, we are increasingly being seen as a partner for our customers for sustainability, and this is now an important part of our customer offering.
In August, our production facility in Brazil became our first site to be powered entirely by renewable energy, including using locally sourced biomass. In addition, at our production sites across the U.K., Netherlands, and Italy, we are now purchasing 100% of our electricity from renewable sources. 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, which is why our sustainable agriculture programs are so important, both to us and our customers.
In China, our program for sustainable stevia farming is delivering double-digit reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In the U.S., our sustainable corn program is progressing well, and we continue to invest in intervention programs to support local farmers. This includes helping to manage nitrogen levels in the soil to increase crop yields, improve soil health, and minimize the impact on local watersheds.
Today, sustainability is at the front and center of our business, and I look forward to talking more about our progress in this area in the future. Turning then to the outlook for the full year. We expect to deliver progress in line with our five-year ambition to the 31st of March, 2028, with revenue reflecting both strategic momentum and the impact of the expected pass-through of input cost deflation in the second half. Therefore, for the year ending the 31st of March, 2024, in constant currency, we expect to deliver revenue slightly ahead of the prior year and EBITDA growth of 7%-9%.
We also continue to expect stronger profits from our minority holding in Primient. In summary then, we delivered a robust financial performance in the first half, successfully navigating a tough external environment. We continue to deliver on our growth-focused strategy, increasing our solution-based business with our customers and investing for long-term growth across R&D, innovation, growth capacity, and sustainability.
Looking ahead, over the next 20 years, the world is facing a major challenge: How do we feed a rapidly growing population with healthier, affordable, and more nutritious food in a way that doesn't harm the planet and also suits modern lifestyles? Tate & Lyle has been repositioned at the center of the future of food, with a clear strategy focused on meeting that challenge. Our extensive portfolio and technical expertise in sweetening, mouthfeel, and fortification enables us to create solutions which provide healthier, tastier, more convenient, and sustainable food and drink. That is what consumers want, and that is what Tate & Lyle is focused on delivering.
As always, I would like to finish by thanking everyone at Tate & Lyle for their hard work in delivering these results and for living our purpose with great passion and belief. For all their support, I am truly grateful. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's half year results presentation. We are now into the live Q&A. As I said in the pre-recording, we delivered a robust performance in the first half, with good revenue, profit, and cash delivery, successfully navigating a to ugh external environment. The repositioning of Tate & Lyle as a business focused on creating solutions that meet growing consumer demand for healthier, tastier, and more sustainable food and drink, is progressing well. Turning now to your questions, and the first question comes from Patrick Higgins at Goodbody. Morning, Patrick.
Morning. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe if I could just kind of focus in on the volume piece within Food and Beverage Solutions. Could you maybe just give us an idea of how volumes were across regions in terms of destocking versus consumer softness? And then specifically on the consumer softness piece, maybe you could kind of go through end-use markets and where there's particularly pockets of softness. I f you could, I guess this is maybe a bit challenging, but if you strip out the destocking piece, how are you performing relative to that customer base or I guess, relative to competitors?
Sure. There's a lot in that, Patrick, so let me try and unpick it quite simply. You know, as we tried to do in the statement, we laid out very clearly what we thought the drivers of revenue in the first half were. And of course, you know, important to say that revenue growth was very robust, given the softness of the market environment. If I look at it at a high level, you know, the 8% of volume that we saw from consumer impact and destocking was roughly half and half. And what that would say to us is that at a consumer level, we were performing pretty consistently with the consumer market environment. Destocking, slightly different across regions, although, to be honest, quite difficult to read.
You know, probably a little bit more of a factor in North America than elsewhere, but not significantly different, actually, when we look at it a nd as we looked at consumer behavior, the drivers of it was pretty consistent across the various markets. So, consumers, more cash-strapped because of inflation, you know, being more modest about purchases, probably more focused on value than normal and that played out actually on most categories, and there can be some categories are more robust than others as consumers focused on essentials rather than discretionary purchases b ut actually, most categories saw similar types of behavior, and you almost have to dig in at a subcategory level to really understand any trends. But so, what we were seeing is actually quite consistent across the world.
And the only thing I'd add to that is, that behavior has been quite consistent across the first half as well. We've seen quite a consistent trend. There's no significant sign of consumer improvement, but it looks more steady to us, I guess, would be the way of summarizing it. Hopefully, that gives you a little bit more color.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Karel Zoete at Kepler Cheuvreux. Karel, good morning.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I've one on capital allocation, and then the other one on EBITDA growth in H2. Regarding capital allocation, you announced the buyback of expensive debt instruments. The dividend is up nicely. The question from my side, why not consider a buyback, given the balance sheet you have, but also the valuation of the stock? Is that based on M&A that's potentially in the pipeline? Or, yeah, what would be considerations not to do a buyback?
Okay, so-
And the question- shall I start now? Sorry.
No, go on. Keep going.
Yeah, because the second question is the drivers for EBITDA growth in the second half of the year. You basically say it's going to be at least 7% year-on-year EBITDA growth on a difficult base. H2 last year was strong. What will be the drivers there? Because volumes will be a bit softer. Is that really margin expansion and efficiency? Yes, more insights on that, please.
So let me take the capital allocation question, and then maybe Dawn, you'll talk about the EBITDA in the second half. So, you're right. You know, we took some actions in the first half of the year to further optimize the balance sheet and funding, which is good. And having the flexibility to do that, because of the strength of the balance sheet, is clearly important in today's higher inflationary environment. I mean, our capital allocation priorities are very, very simple, and they're consistent with what we said at the Capital Markets Day last year. Firstly, to invest in organic growth. And, you know, we're seeing that flow through in the revenue and the EBITDA performance and return on capital.
Secondly, to fund M&A, and thirdly, to maintain our progressive dividend policy. And those are absolutely the near-term priorities for us. We've already demonstrated the willingness to give cash back to shareholders, as we did when we completed the transaction to separate the two businesses. But absolutely, today our focus is on organic growth and M&A a nd the M&A pipeline looks promising, and that's where we're going to focus for now. The question on share buybacks, we'll come back to at another time, I guess. Dawn, do you want to talk about EBITDA in the second half?
Yeah, sure. So thanks, thanks, Karel. I mean, we're really pleased with our EBITDA performance in the first half. So 7% up year-on-year, 10% up in terms of FBS performance. And if I just drill down into the drivers of the FBS performance, that improved 90 basis points in the half. The biggest driver was coming from mix management, which more than offset the headwinds in terms of volume and inflation, and then actually a very strong performance on productivity, so $70 million delivered in the half. And that enabled us, that, you know, strong productivity performance enabled us to continue to invest in Science Solutions and Society, a nd you've seen that our investment in solution selling is up 11%, you know, in the half.
As we look to the second half of the year, I'd expect those drivers to continue, so I'd expect continued strength in terms of price mix. We've taken up our productivity target for the full year, you know, up to $25 million. And I think on volume and inflation, you know, as we move through the year, we, you know, we'd expect to see destocking in terms of slowing down. So we would expect the volume drag to be less because of that. But also, as we talked about in our outlook statement, you know, we expect inflation to move from an inflationary environment to a deflation environment. But I do expect, you know, we've reiterated it in our guidance, in terms of full year EBITDA growth between 7%-9%.
So Karel, I'd add only one point to that, just a point of emphasis, really, which is the guidance on revenue in the second half is not really a reflection of a concern about further volume challenge. It's more a reflection of the impact of deflation in the fourth quarter. And in fact, as we go into the fourth quarter, we start to lap the destocking impact that we saw in the fourth quarter of last year, so we should see some sequential improvements in volume as well. So let's move on to the next question, which comes from Lauren Molyneux at Citi . Lauren, good morning.
Morning. Hi, Nick and Dawn. Thanks for taking my questions. Just to- I just wanted to follow up, kind of where that last question finished off, just on the kind of revenue outlook for the next year. So Nick, you talked about the pricing impact being what's really kind of dragging down maybe the outlook on the revenue side of things. So I guess, what level of pricing are you expecting to need to, in order to pass through the input cost? And do you have visibility on your cost inputs into the second half? And then, my second question would be, also on the top line, but around the solutions. So obviously, quite a strong improvement in solutions of new business wins.
I was wondering if you could add more color on what's driving this here, in terms of platforms or categories, where you're seeing strength or s olutions resonating with customers? And also, types of solutions potentially would be quite interesting around cost reformulation versus, you know, kind of demand for healthy alternatives, et cetera. and h ow does this pipeline look into the second half, and how confident are you on that? Thank you.
So, good questions, both of them. Let me start on the solution selling side, actually, and talk a little bit about the pipeline, because that gives us huge confidence in the future of the business. So Solutions as a portion of the pipeline, up to 22%, above 20% for the first time, as we look forward. Importantly, part of that as well, our future pipeline, is 38% new products. T hat's important as we think about managing mix. In terms of the nature of those Solutions, it's really a window on what we're seeing both in the market today and into the future. So, it's a good balance between customers focused on cost reduction and on providing healthy alternatives for consumers a nd those are the things we're very much focused on.
When I was in China three or four weeks ago, I did a top to top with one of our major global customers, and they talked about the need for five things. They talked about nutrition, precisely where our portfolio is focused. They talked about the need for cost because of inflation in the current environment. They talked about sustainability and wanting to do business with suppliers who really had sustainability credentials a nd those three things are really all three things that we're focusing on and the kind of things we're seeing in our pipeline. T hat goes across mouthfeel, it goes across sweetening solutions, and it goes across added fortification with things like fiber, hence the acquisition in China being so important.
So that's a sort of a rough summary on the nature of the future pipeline. When I look at the revenue outlook for the second half, very clear visibility on cost because of the forward cover we've taken, and very clear understanding that we're seeing some deflation as we go into the fourth quarter. As we went through the inflationary environments of pricing inflation through, we will clearly give customers the benefit of deflation while trying to manage unit margins as pricing comes down. And that's really the balance in our forecast for the second half. As we think about the next calendar year, we'll give much more clarity on that when we've been through the pricing round, which is currently very, very early stages. Wanna add anything about this, Lauren?
No, I think, I think you've covered it.
So hopefully, Lauren, that gives you a good sense. So if we move on then to our next question, which comes from Joan Lim, from BNP Paribas. Morning, Joan.
Morning, thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions. So, the first one was, you adjusted FBS volumes and price mix by five percentage points, to exclude the impact from mix management and margin expansion. I guess this is from the margin resets you took in Q4. So, I wondered, how have you estimated the impact of this on volume and price mix, the split of those two? And is the 6% of your strategic mix on top of this margin resets? That's my first question.
So, Joan, do you want to take that one?
Yeah. So, I think, I think what we've tried to do, you know, in terms of the FBS revenue performance in the half, so 5% growth, we've tried to clearly lay out the critical drivers for that growth, the revenue drivers, of which there are three. The first one is, you know, inflation. So, the negative impact into- sorry, in terms of volume. First one is the negative impact to volume in terms of consumer softness and customer destocking at eight points. The second point, as you point out, is strategic mix management at positive six points, and then we've got inflation pass-through at seven points a nd we really clearly see those as the critical drivers. What we've also done, as you've said, we've also made really clear choices on exiting low-margin business. You know, and we called out particular pockets of that business that we've exited.
What you see is the impact of that is to reduce volume, but also, you know, it has an equal and opposite impact on price mix, and both of those are five points. So we've been really clear in terms of how much that impact is, and we believe it gives a better representation of the three revenue drivers that I've described, which is why we've pulled the five points out. Because essentially, it's just an offset for the two numbers.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. And then, I guess this leads to my second question, which is your top-line guidance. So you expect revenue to be a, slightly ahead of the prior year. Are you expecting this to be entirely driven by price mix? And does this guidance also exclude the impact from, this margin resets? Is it going to be also roughly about five points equal for volume and price mix for the full year?
So let me take that one very simply. So the guidance we've given for the full year is netting out all of the impacts of volume, price mix, inflation and deflation. And the difference in the second half versus the first half really is the impact of deflation on revenue. The other factors we're expecting to see continue in a sort of similar fashion into the second half, with sequential improvement in volume as we hit the fourth quarter and start to lap the destocking last year. So that's effectively the summary of how we've put the guidance together.
Okay. So, but you're still expecting volumes to improve, as destocking improves through the year?
So we're expecting to see some improvement as we go into the fourth quarter, yes.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.
So with that, our next question comes from Damian McNeela at Numis. Damian, good morning.
Hi, morning, everybody. One for me. Just following on from that around sort of second half pricing or price mix expectations. First half, you delivered six percentage points of growth from strategic mix management. Is that the sort of number that we should expect to see in the second half going forward? And then perhaps one for you, Nick, just sort of on the customer survey, the improved Net Promoter Score. I mean, are you able to sort of quantify how your new business pipeline looks compared to where you were last year? Is there anything you can sort of give us on that?
I guess one sort of final one maybe for Dawn, just looking at net interest costs, is there any reason why we shouldn't expect the GBP 4 million in the first half to be the same in the second half, given that sort of cash balances, unless we do M&A, be the same and you've paid down some of the USPP debt?
So three questions. Let me take the first two, and then Dawn can follow up on net interest and maybe add some color on the price mix. I mean, in broad terms, we're expecting the price mix effect in the second half to be similar. And, you know, longer term, the balance between volume and price mix will clearly shift over time, but no significant change in the second half, I would say. But to your question on the Net Promoter Score, I mean, let's start with very encouraging, because it tells us that our customers believe we're doing the right things for them a nd the shift in the score, so, you know, up close to 10 points, is quite significant, actually, a nd we are seeing that in the quality of the pipeline.
If you think about the numbers I just shared with you, you know, the proportion of solutions selling up to 22%, above 20 for the first time, the proportion of the future pipeline being MPD, you know, close to 40% is really, really encouraging. And overall, the pipeline is growing rather than declining. So all of those things demonstrate, you know, positive view of the future of the business. As always, the question is how fast the pipeline translates into business, but that's normal. So that's all very encouraging in the round, in what has been quite a tough market environment in the last 6-12 months. Net interest?
Yeah. So, in terms of net interest, I'd say, you know, we're in a really strong position, because when you look at our debt, you know, more than 90% of that debt is on a fixed rate, which obviously, you know, will continue. And the second part of that is clearly the cash balance that we have. Now, assuming that interest rates remain at the level that they are, then I would expect, you know, you've got the fixed interest costs from the debt, and then you've got the positive impact in terms of the cash balances. So I think you're right, Damian. I would expect a similar run rate second half to first half.
Okay, thank you. Very clear, both.
Thank you, Damian. So our next question comes from Alicia Forry at Investec. Alicia, good morning.
Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. My first one is on the consumer softness. I'm just wondering if I could press you a bit on, kind of what gives you the confidence that you can continue delivering, you know, the better mix of your products and the better integrated Solutions selling, that I know is your priority. Because your products do, of course, take out, you know, some unhealthy things and can be cost effective. You know, in some cases, you are trying to trade the customer up to a more sophisticated and premium solution. So yeah, just a bit of color on, how you're thinking about that.
I don't think you mentioned it, but could you confirm whether or not some of this consumer softness that you're experiencing may be, in your view, related to the weight loss drugs, or whether it's purely economic related softness? And then, sorry, just a final quick one on the working capital inflow. Was that all efficiency driven, or were you already starting to see some cost deflation in the period? Thank you.
Let me give you a high level on your first two questions. I think they are interrelated. You know, everything we see tells us that the consumer softness we've seen in the first half and more recently is all driven by consumer concern about cost of living and i t's all about making tough decisions about disposable income. I f anything, that is a trend that is probably going to continue for a little bit, but will, of course, change over time. The confidence in the future of our ability to continue to grow our business beyond short-term economic challenges into the medium term is actually reinforced by things like GLP-1. It's another example of the growing need to deal with the global challenge that's growing about obesity and diabetes.
It's another sign of consumers being concerned about healthier living, and of course, a healthier diet being connected to a healthier lifestyle as well, and that's where we've positioned the company. So, our ability to take sugar out, take fat out, but still create tasty, healthier alternatives that are affordable and are sustainable, is key to the future of Tate & Lyle.
And that's what gives us confidence that the consumer trends that we're seeing will play out in a growing business model for us, as things normalize from an inflationary perspective. So, the two are the two are sort of connected. And in terms of the confidence in the nearer term, it's in the strength of the pipeline that I just described. We continue to see a strengthening pipeline with customers on doing those things, and as the economy starts to recover, there's no doubt that the trend towards healthier living, healthier eating will continue, and therefore, what we do will become more relevant in the world going forward. So working capital?
Yeah. So thanks, Alicia. I'd say we're really pleased with our cash performance this year. We're up in the half GBP 50 million, and our cash conversion has increased 14 points to 69%. As you point out, a key driver of that is the working capital improvement, and it is driven by a combination of efficiency and inflation, a lot more weighted to efficiency, which is good to see. I think as we move through, we'll expect to see a continued focus on cash and continual optimization of working capital as we move towards our long-term target of 75% cash conversion.
Great. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Chris Pitcher at Redburn. Chris, over to you.
Hello, thank you. A couple from me. On Primient modeling, apologies for going back there again. But could you just confirm how much of their debt is now fixed? And could you give a bit more detail, I can't believe we're digging into this, but on their joint ventures from past, Almex was the largest of the two, and therefore, is it just a currency issue, and have they not been able to take price to offset currency? And could you give us an update on what's going on with Covation PDO? Apologies if I missed that. But then secondly, if you could just give us a quick minute on your new chair, David Hearn. With his PE background, could we infer that maybe the pace of M&A is going to pick up?
I know there's limited that you can say there. Lastly, sorry, you said you met with a customer, and they said there were five things that they were interested in. I only wrote down three. I don't know if anyone else missed the other two, but you said nutrition costs and sustainability. I'm intrigued as what the other two were.
Okay. Let me cover that off. The other two were pace and local. Pace was, we need you to help us quickly to help us reformulate quickly, and the local is, do it in our local markets, which sort of links to the point about our local presence and the increasing breadth of our customer innovation centers across the world. We opened another one in Jakarta, Indonesia, in the first half. So it was just a reinforcement for me of the direction we're taking the company in is absolutely the direction our customers need. If I come back to Primient, I mean, firstly, very, very encouraged by the performance of Primient in the first half.
You know, despite all of the challenging market environments, they delivered good performance, you know, improved operating performance, and obviously, that led to a stronger set of results that we're expecting to see continue into the second half. In terms of the JVs, you know, the marketplace was tougher in Mexico. Almex is still the biggest JV, and I think the same for Covation.
Some of the sectors they sell into had a tougher first half than the prior year, driven by the consumer challenges that we're seeing in food and beverage as well. But overall, very happy with the progress on Primient. And of course, in the first half, we received $54 million of dividends. Sorry, we've received $54 million dividend this year. The second tranche came just after the close of the first half book. So that's all very encouraging, and the relationship is strong. In terms of the debt position, I'll probably defer to Dawn's better understanding of that.
Yeah. So thanks, Chris. So I mean, similar to us, Primient actually have strong cash delivery in the half. In terms of the debt, please remember, they've got, you know, around a $1 billion term loan, half of which is fixed, half of which is floating, which I think is, you know, a good position to be in. And they also have access to more liquidity, should they need it. But as I said, their cash flow, you know, in the half, is also very strong. So I think they're well-placed, actually, in terms of financing.
So then, coming back to your last question about David. Firstly, Dawn and I, and the board are delighted that David's joining us as the chair. He brings a wealth of experience from the food and beverage industry that can only be hugely helpful for us as we continue to focus on growing the company. His balance between public company, PE International, was all a factor in our excitement about bringing him on board, and he, I'm sure he'll play a key role in helping us navigate through both organic and inorganic growth and M&A. It's not a signal, it's just that he's got a perfect background to come and be a very, very strong chair of the Tate & Lyle of the future.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
Our last question comes from Alex Sloane at Barclays. Alex, good morning.
Morning, Nick. Morning, Dawn. Thanks for squeezing me in. I've got two questions, if that's okay? The first one, just on some of the comments in the presentation. I mean, you flagged, I think, previously, lower cost Chinese imports into Europe as a competitive challenge. I think if I heard you right, you were talking about some challenge on that front in LatAm, especially Mexico. So, you know, I mean, is this a concern that we should be thinking about into the pricing round? And maybe could you frame the scale of it? I mean, what percentage of the market is being served by those imports currently versus a historical reference, maybe?
And then just the second one, I mean, obviously, we're sort of six months or so on from that WHO guideline on non-sugar sweeteners, which was obviously, you know, somewhat controversial. But has that had any impact on, you know, customer demands from your perspective? I mean, I noted some customers like Nestlé have talked about enzyme solutions that unlock sweetness in, you know, in dairy naturally, without using sweeteners. I mean, how are you thinking about that? Could that be an opportunity to get more involved in, you know, enzyme solutions? Thanks.
So let me take your second question first, and then maybe, Dawn, you can take the question on Chinese imports. So, I mean, as you rightly say, it's the, we've moved on from the WHO announcement a few months ago. And, look, frankly, we're seeing no change in demand for our sweetening solutions, whether they be, well, non-nutritive, artificial or natural. There's a huge, strong demand for what we do. Because fundamentally, all of the research out there tells us and tells consumers that sugar reduction and lower sugar products are a critically important part of, alongside a healthy lifestyle, managing weight. You know, it's not a silver bullet, but it's part of a solution a nd that's not going to change going forward.
These products have been tested and are safe and are accredited by the world's most eminent safety bodies, EFSA and the FDA. That's reflected in still robust demand. In terms of your point about enzymes, you know, using enzyme technology to create novel solutions to the healthier diets people need, is something we're already doing and, you know, something that is part of our current arsenal and will continue to be part of our solution set going forward. So now this probably gives you a sense of where we are on that debate. Dawn, I don't know whether you want to cover off the pricing round then?
Yeah. Sure. You're right, we have seen some imports coming across from China. Our view on that would be if you remember, China was in lockdown for a longer period, and therefore there's a kind of almost a buildup of inventory that's clearly, you know, needs to be sold through. So we would see this as, you know, a short-term impact. We're only seeing it in pockets that we've talked about in the statement. And I think clearly what we're focused on is driving solution selling and partnering with our customers. And, you know, and the Net Promoter Score and the brand survey results that we highlighted in the presentation is a really good indication of the strength of relationships that we've got with our customer base.
Thank you.
So Alex, hopefully that covers your two questions. I think we've got one more from Joan Lim at BNP Paribas. So Joan, back to you.
Sorry, just, one last question, and thank you for squeezing this in. On sucralose, you know, you had an 8% volume decline due to order phasing. What are you seeing in terms of, the impact from China reopening, and do you expect volumes to recover in H2? Thank you.
I mean, I think as we said in the presentation and the statement, the volume decline in the first half was more driven by the phasing of orders into the first half of last year. So we're not seeing a fundamental change in demand. It's more just a half one, half two order phasing, and we're expecting to see that reflected in the second half of this year. So nothing significantly different on sucralose, to be honest.
Okay, but technically, that'll be easier comp because the order phasing last year was-
That's correct.
Kind of the eighth one. Yeah. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.
Great. Well, thank you all for your questions and for watching the presentation today. So in summary, we delivered a robust performance in the first half, with good revenue, profit, and cash delivery, and we continue to progress our growth focus strategy. We remain well-positioned to benefit from long-term trends towards healthier, tastier, and more sustainable food and drink. So thank you for your time, and I wish you all a very good day.