Good afternoon. I'm Jasmine Whitbread. I'm the chair of Travis Perkins, and I'm absolutely delighted to welcome you all to today's update. Nick and the team have got some great content to share with you, and I'll be handing over in just a minute. First, because I'm relatively fresh to the business, having taken over as chair of the board six months ago, I thought I'd just share very briefly some initial impressions. I've really enjoyed getting out and about and visiting the different branches and getting to know the different businesses, Travis Perkins and Toolstation of course, but also CCF, BSS, and Keyline. I've really been struck by the fact that there's a really strong people orientation to the business. For all our products, it's essentially a people business with a strong culture, healthy culture, and strong sense of community.
That's true at the top of the organization. Today you'll meet some of Nick's top team and hopefully get a sense of how well they play together, but right the way through the organization everywhere I've gone as well. The diversity and inclusion agenda is starting to bear fruit, as you can see here, visiting the CCF Borehamwood branch recently, run by Jenny, who's here together with her regional manager, Carly, and their MD, Catherine, who's also here today. So, yeah, as you can see, we were having a nice visit.
I've been really struck by, and it's been interesting to see how resilient the business has been, not obviously through COVID, but also handling the material shortages that we're seeing now and other challenges, and I really believe, having talked to colleagues, that this is very much about the local and long-term relationships that we have with customers and suppliers, and a really deep understanding of the trade. I'm also impressed by how much has been achieved in just the space of a few months, so clearly executing on the portfolio simplification strategy at the same time as growing momentum in the core business. It really does feel like we're ready to launch the next chapter. When I think about the next chapter, I guess there's three things I think about.
First of all is the long-term growth in the industries that we serve. Secondly is our own growth plans, and third is the change in the sector and being well-positioned to lead on that change. You'll hear about all those three points later this afternoon. Finally, I'd like to share that I'm really pleased that Nick and the team, as well as having what I hope you'll agree is a good story to tell, are utterly focused on execution, which, as we all know, is what counts in the end. With that, over to you, Nick.
Thank you, Jasmine, a really warm welcome to all of you in the room today and on the webcast. Thank you for taking the time to join us for what is a really important session and something we've actually looked forward to for a very, very long time. From my perspective, believe me, after over two years in the business, I'm really excited and pleased to be able to unpack our plans for the future with you today. Plans which we believe will place us absolutely at the forefront of the construction industry as it evolves, and enabling us to grow and deliver value for shareholders, for customers, and for the communities we serve. To continue to be a place where the very best people in the industry grow their careers, and you're gonna meet some of them today.
To continue to be a deeply relevant and respected company long into the future. A quick orientation to our agenda today on the slide. I will set the scene with an overview of the ambition we have for the group and how we're thinking about the markets which we operate in and how they're changing. Then we'll discuss how we're leading the evolution of the merchant proposition, and Angela Rushforth and Kieran Griffin and Frank Elkins will talk you through that. James Mackenzie and Alan Williams will discuss how we're maximizing the potential for Toolstation here in the U.K. and in Europe before we have a short break. The first half is all about our brilliant businesses.
Second half, we'll come back after the break and discuss how, together as a group, we believe we can add more value to customers and our industry, and ensure the long-term sustainable success of the business for our shareholders, for our customers, and the communities we serve. All the while being true and clear in the new sense of purpose we have as a company, and delivering the financial outcomes that are compelling, we believe, for our investors. I make no apology for showcasing two specific things today. Firstly, you will hear from most members of my group leadership team or the GLT. All of the GLT are in the room today to answer questions and to meet you afterwards. You will hear from most of them, and I believe them to be the very best in the industry.
Secondly, we are going to unapologetically showcase some of those less often discussed parts of our business. Our agenda over the last two years has been crowded out by, as Jasmine Whitbread mentioned, our portfolio optimization. Therefore, we're going to unpack other parts of our business, particularly our specialist merchants, but other parts of our General Merchant too, because we believe that they are deeply relevant to the issues that we face as an industry in the future. They form a significant part of our revenue base, and there's great potential to grow. I'm really proud of both of those things, and I'm hugely proud to represent the company today that I'm incredibly fortunate to be part of. Let's get started.
Let's start on slide five by reminding ourselves of what we've done since the Capital Markets Day way back in December 2018. Doesn't the world feel like a different place now? Simply put, we have done what we said we would do. We've simplified the group. Portfolio actions are well reported, but they've resulted in an increased focus on our advantaged trade businesses. We focused on the trade. We strengthened the core of the business. We've invested in our propositions, both in our branch and digital propositions, as you'll hear, and we've simplified our ways of working. We're easier to do business with, we're more relevant to our customers, and we're more competitive as a result.
As you'll hear, there has been a huge amount of work here over the last couple of years, and despite the distraction of the pandemic, we have established a very firm platform upon which this business can continue to win. We've got a very focused leadership team. We've got a focused capital allocation plan. We are moving at pace and executing change. None of what you're going to hear about today is not in progress. Everything that we're going to be talking about is in flight. We're getting on, and we're making it happen. As a result, we're winning, both here in the U.K. and in Europe, and we're creating new opportunities for growth. We're not standing still. That actually is just first base. Our markets are changing fast.
The construction process, top left of this slide, is changing, driven by multiple factors, regulation, carbon, skills or lack of them, demand, efficiency. We're ideally placed to create value and advantage from these series of change. As you'll see, we are evolving from a traditional way of working where our role is enshrined in a traditional value chain and well understood within our business model, to increasingly modern methods of doing business and working within re-engineered value chains that require a much more agile and ambitious mindset and different ways of working. We're committed to continuing to change the way we work and do more for our customers. Introducing new services alongside our deep product expertise. As we say, opening up new channels where our customers and suppliers can work with us more easily. Adding new value over our knowledge of materials in areas such as design.
Leveraging the strength of our portfolio of assets to create more value. We've reset our sights and framed our ambition as continuing to evolve from being the leading supplier of building materials to the trade, to be the leading partner to the construction industry. We're really excited about this. That's what we're going to unpack for you today, you can understand what that means for the industry and what that means for the group. If we think about the addition of modern ways of working and what that means by just expanding on the right-hand side of the previous slide, it's about adding more value from the core of what we do really well today. Opening up new avenues for growth, driving value for customers and for shareholders.
Better for customers, deepening the relationship we have with them, providing simpler and more convenient ways to do business with them, and being much more attractive and relevant to new customers. Elevating our relationships in a way that we can help them navigate a changing construction process where carbon reduction is an imperative. Better for shareholders. We're creating a focused, margin-accretive, services-oriented proposition, and a sustainable and differentiated business model with clear capital allocation policy and greater predictability. I'd add here that these are characteristics common with the very best-in-class worldwide distributors that we respect. We're doing this by adopting pilot-based test-and-learn philosophies, where we're rapidly able to measure and scale and change. This is muscle that we developed through the pandemic, and it's proving extremely beneficial as we move forward.
In doing so, in articulating this ambition very clearly, our role and responsibility to the wider industry and to the communities we serve is just really, really clear. Let's spend a minute talking about our markets, what's changing, and why we think we are uniquely positioned to do well. Now, most of you will be familiar with some of the details on this slide, so I'll make a few comments. We operate in robust markets with strong long-term fundamentals, and we have businesses that occupy number one or two positions in their respective markets, and we enjoy strong market share in what is a highly fragmented market. As you will all be aware, there has been significant M&A activity and capital inflow into this segment of the market, which has led to increased consolidation.
We expect this to continue as a result of the strong long-term attractiveness of the market. We think it's a positive for the industry, actually. We think this will lead to professionalization of the industry and require participants to invest in order that they've got the capability to face the challenges we have as an industry. As these things evolve, we're already well-placed to benefit from them. As the Group's reshaped, our end markets exposure has reshaped as well, and that's captured on this slide. We remain majority RMI exposed, but we're really excited by the potential to access new markets such as infrastructure. We see our exposure to RMI, particularly domestic RMI, as a real strength in the long term, given the requirement for ongoing investment in the U.K.'s aged legacy building stock.
It's underpinned by dependable housing investment, consumer confidence, and enhanced by our continued focus on our trade customers. We also believe that our broad customer base and segmental spread is also a strength. Our scale and capability allows us to pre-qualify for work with the public sector and government, working on social and economic infrastructure. This sets a really high bar for our competitors due to the challenging requirements of those customers. We operate in strong, resilient markets over the long term, which, as these graphs demonstrate, are settling into a positive post-COVID trajectory. These markets are supported by RMI and domestic new build trends. As we'll hear, the need to reduce carbon in our building stock will only amplify this. Okay.
Perhaps it's the most obvious statement of the day, but the world is changing at pace, and construction has generally lagged in terms of innovation and productivity. It is being impacted by some macro trends, which are changing the way we work. At a macro level, the fusion of technology with your business and customer proposition is just ubiquitous and table stakes in today's world. Customers expect to be able to connect, to get help and advice, to organize fulfillment any time of the day or night, and they expect to be able to be kept abreast of the process all the way.
The purpose of our business and the congruence of our culture with our business model and our operating model with our sustainable business framework is not only important to us, but it's important to our customers, large and small, and increasingly, to our suppliers and our colleagues, both now and in the future. Our sector is often cited as being one of the slowest to change, exhibiting poor productivity. Considerations of quality, efficiency, ESG, I've mentioned carbon, is driving new ways of working, really as a means to address this productivity. We think we're not only positioned well now to rapidly adapt to these changes, but actually to seek advantage in them. We're already doing so, as you will see from many of the examples today. As we think about the future, we have this very simple model to help us.
We've got the right mix of market-leading businesses, simplified, focused, clear on who their customers are. We've got a really strong core addressed during the pandemic. We operate within robust growth markets, and we see the opportunity to capitalize on many of the changes in flight. We've got options as to where we play and how we play, and we've made some clear choices as to where we focus, with our customers always at the heart of the plan. As I discussed earlier, in support of our ambition to be the leading partners of the construction industry, we're kind of focused on two axes, north to south.
Deepening our relationship with our existing customers to increase our share of their spend and making sure that we're relevant and attractive to new customers. Elevating our relationship by addressing areas of pain and complexity for our customers, providing services and new value propositions as they navigate a changing industry, which are margin accretive for us. We do this for two very important customer cohorts, left and right, whose characteristics and needs really act as guides to the capability we need to develop to be successful in the future. Our professional trade and general builder customer, and our larger developer and contractor customers, both private and public sector, where our scale, capability, and our credibility is a real advantage.
The factors on the left-hand side are driving change for these two customer groups, and they typify the merging of the more modern and traditional ways of working, digital fulfillment solutions, funding models, provision of services. Against this framework, we are really clear about what we need to do to gain advantage and differentiate ourselves, and we give them some examples in those two columns, much of which you'll hear about today. Focused on share of wallet growth, new revenue growth, reducing the risk of disintermediation, being really relevant to current and future customer needs. We'll bring many of these to life for you today. More than that, as a group, we believe that we're uniquely positioned to respond and lead changes in our space.
Our businesses, from which you'll hear now, are positioned to address these issues for customers, and that overlay demonstrates how well they are matched against our customer sets. As we've rationalized the portfolio, I've organized the business and the leadership team to do more together by collaborating, by sharing data, by sharing capability, by building new propositions for the long-term positive change within our business and the industry, and by using the collective assets of the group to do so. Alongside this, we've structured our incentives to reflect our ambition to be the leading partner to the construction industry, and to leverage the power of the group together.
To bring this alive for you, we will now hear from the MD of Travis Perkins, Kieran Griffin, the MD of Toolstation, James Mackenzie, the MD of BSS, Angela Rushforth, our Group COO, Frank Elkins, and our Group CFO, Alan Williams. Their respective biographies are in the pack, and sparing their blushes, I truly believe them to be the best team in the industry. They've got broad and deep capability from many years in the industry. So first, to talk you through how the general merchant is positioned to outperform the market, I'll leave you in the capable, if slightly shovel-like hands, of Kieran Griffin.
Thanks, Nick. Thanks for that compliment. Good afternoon, everybody. I am delighted to be here talking to you today about the Travis Perkins General Merchanting business. I've been in the group for 27 years, starting as a trainee and working up to commercial director in TP. Prior to rejoining General Merchanting in 2019, I'd previously been managing director of CCF, then Keyline, and then BSS. Coming back to TP as managing director was a real privilege for me personally, as it's a business that's really close to my heart, having spent the majority of my career working within it. Unfortunately, I came back to a business in 2019 that had lost its mojo and didn't believe that it could win. We had become over-centralized, too retail-like, with the subsequent loss of empowerment for branch managers, resulting in many of them leaving.
We have done a lot of heavy lifting to address this, and I can confidently say this is now a really exciting time for our business. We are well positioned to leverage the benefits of the work that we have done over the last couple of years and have really ambitious plans for the future. Much so, that we now have a lot of people knocking on our door looking to come back rather than looking to leave. Over the next few minutes, I'll be talking about these plans and sharing my vision and passion for what lies ahead. But first, let me unpack the business for you. Our ambition at Travis Perkins is to be the destination for timber and heavy building materials, supporting the best builders and professional tradespeople throughout the U.K.
We operate across a broad range of customer groups, from small jobbing builders up to large national contractors and developers. This includes a number of tailored propositions to suit the needs of customers such as local authorities and housing associations, as well as regional house builders and FM contractors. We provide a range of building materials, hire equipment, and other support products and services. Whilst we specialize in timber and heavy side, we also carry a strong range of light side products for the convenience of our customers. The integration of the Benchmarx business during 2020 sees a much greater alignment of our kitchen proposition to existing Travis Perkins customers, as well as providing improved access to the broader Travis Perkins product range for the Benchmarx customer base.
Overall, this provides an attractive and differentiated proposition, combining the range of products and services all in one place for the convenience of our broad customer base. This is something that none of our competitors offer. It also means that we're really well-positioned to deliver further value-added solutions to these customers in the way they procure and access the products and services that they need. Now, as I said earlier, we believe the business is in great shape to win share and move forward. Significant improvements have been made both in terms of competitiveness and capability to increase our relevance to our core customer groups.
During 2020, the business underwent a thorough pricing realignment of our trade and visible prices, and simplified the tools in place for our branch teams to manage our customers' pricing. We shifted the business towards greater local branch empowerment, recognizing that there are many variances in local markets, such as competitors, regional product preferences, and different customer types. This means that elements of our proposition are best determined locally to support the needs of customers. We have worked with our suppliers to simplify our commercial deals, to support our local and central teams with much clearer management information, speeding up and improving decision-making. In 2020, we took the really tough decision to close a number of our smaller branches because they could never be destinations for timber and heavy side.
Since these closures, we have already opened nine larger, more capable branches, which have been really well-received by our customers, with more to follow, as I will explain later. I'm also delighted with the progress that we've made in digital. We have introduced a mobile app for customers running off our legacy systems, as well as a delivery management platform which allows us to update customers on the status of their delivery. Hence, we now have multiple channels through which customers can do business with us in a way that is convenient to them. I believe that we're in a great position to move forward and build on all the hard work that we have done.
I've laid out some of these opportunities here, split, as Nick outlined, between our smaller and larger customers and between opportunities to grow share of wallet and offer value-added service lines. Some of these are new, and some build on work that is already well underway. Let me pick out a few for you. Firstly, of particular benefit to our professional trades and general builders, we're going to continue to build out our network of larger, more capable branches with a real emphasis on delivery, and more to follow on that in a moment. We will also expand our value-add services, such as our kitchen design and supply service through Benchmarx and our established tool hire business to provide additional benefits to support these customers.
To gain more share of wallet with these customers, we will push hard into digital, and again, more to follow on that in a moment, and build on the hard work that we have done in our commercial teams to keep delivering competitive prices and to ensure that our ranges are right. For our larger customers, we're focusing hard on how we bring to life our value-add services around our offering, helping to address some of the problems that these customers face. This includes our market-leading managed service offering, which, as I will explain, provides a fantastic tailored solution for customers and developing services around our hire and kitchen businesses, which again, I will go into more detail on shortly.
In order to ensure that we capture a greater share of spending, we are developing some system integration capabilities to allow our customers to train seamlessly with us and make their back-office functions more efficient. You will hear more from Phil about that later. We've also developed a tailored project funding solution to support regional house builders, where a lack of credit availability can impact the speed of project delivery. We continue to develop new ways of supplying materials which best suits the needs of these customers. For example, we have just launched a dedicated supply facility for a modular contractor. It's important that we understand our customers and deliver a proposition which suits their individual needs. This supports us as we look to retain, grow, and attract them to our branches.
As the quality of our data has improved, we have completed customer segmentation work which provides greater insight and opportunities for us to better target our proposition to the most appropriate customers. The insight we now have includes, and isn't limited to, purchasing behaviors by customer, products or categories they are not buying from us, and opportunities to better leverage the benefits from other parts of the group. You'll hear from Nick later about how we're collaborating with James and his Toolstation business to enhance our proposition to trade customers. We know from our customers that about 40% of their spend is with TP, and about the same again with other merchants.
We believe that there's a great opportunity for us to use our data intelligently to help us grow spend with these customers and deepen our relationships with them. I now want to talk about the digital work that we've been doing. The new TP Customer App was launched in quarter one of this year. We've already seen more than 100,000 customers download the app and start working with TP on the go. The early results have been really, really positive with great feedback from our customers. We've seen significant increases in both average order values being up 25% and a doubling of conversion rates when compared to our website. We were pretty pleased with the website.
With the launch of the app, we have taken a big step forward in providing customers a platform to trade with us at a time and place that is convenient for them. They can check local stock availability, they can arrange orders for day of choice delivery, order goods for a 1-hour click and collect, as well as manage their accounts on the go with access to their invoices, requesting for more credit, as well as paying their TP account. The development of our digital capabilities also includes a colleague app, supporting the way our teams work and providing a better experience for customers when they interact with our branches.
It already does real-time booking in of goods delivered from suppliers, live stock checking to enhance stock accuracy, as well as better management of prearranged customer collections, all with the intention of removing complexity and inconsistency in our branch service and creating a better timber and heavyside experience. There's loads more to come, such as being able to open a credit account in 5 minutes, multiple user logins and ordering for one account, which is really important for our larger customers, as well as being able to manage open orders and quotes. We're really excited about these plans, and we'll be working closely with Phil's technology team so that we can further support customers, making Travis Perkins an indispensable part of how they run their business.
The establishment of a strong network of large, capable branches remains a key part of how we will continue to lead in our markets. These will improve the consistency of customer experience throughout the estate, provide better delivered sales predictability through wider fleet capacity and greater stock depth, and make it easier for customers to navigate and access the products that they need, as well as adopt energy-saving solutions in the construction and operation of these sites, such as LED lighting, solar panels, and electric vehicle charging points. Sustainability remains an important commitment for both us and our customers. The network plan focuses on locations where we currently under index, with particular focus on the U.K.'s largest towns and cities, as well as defending those areas where we have a strong market position but operate from constrained or compromised sites.
We will be well placed to provide a great proposition and experience for customers engaging across both traditional and digital channels. We have a strong pipeline of property developments, such as our newly relocated branch at Minworth in Sutton Coldfield, which is pictured here, which opened in August of this year. Our customers are loving these new sites, and it was great to see that Minworth has already doubled its sales run rate after only a few weeks of trading. As mentioned, we are actively focused on gaining share in some of the U.K.'s largest towns and cities where we under index. Incremental profits for new branches are in excess of 10% with an established fit out and fleet model, the expected return on capital deployed is in excess of 30%.
The network development plan sees us adding around 50 of these new sites to the existing network over the course of the next 5 years. We have a number of branches that, with a more capable facility, we would be well positioned to better support customers and gain market share. We are also conscious that as our competitors seek to grow their estate, we need to ensure that in areas of high market share, we have capable and effective branches. These new sites benefit from a strong net return of in excess of 10% and a return on capital employed in excess of 30%. The network development plan sees us relocating up to 50 of our existing sites to larger, more capable locations over the course of the next five years. Providing value-add services to our customers is not new to us, currently contributing 25% of overall revenue.
Our managed service business is well established, serving contractors involved in the repair and maintenance of local authority and housing association domestic properties. Sales for these customers are around GBP 200 million per year. I'm going to talk through that business model in a moment. Our kitchen and joinery proposition delivered through the Benchmarx business has a network of 150 standalone branches and showroom implants across the U.K. with an intention to develop this further. Pleasingly, we have already seen an increase in the penetration of Travis Perkins customers using Benchmarx from 2% to 4% since the integration of the two businesses at the end of last year.
A really encouraging start, there remains significant opportunity going forward across our customer cohorts. We continue to look to improve the proposition, including trialing a supply-and-fit kitchen model for regional house builders, as well as developing a preformed kitchen solution to support the modular construction market. Our hire proposition provides a one-stop solution for customers across both their material and equipment requirements. Whilst we have a well-established hire business, there is still significant untapped potential. Through working more collaboratively, we have successfully managed to grow to 12% penetration, with more to go. Across our network, 250 branches have dedicated hire teams, we will increase this number to further support customers with a broad range of tools and equipment. For our larger customers, we will support their projects through tailored solutions, such as fleet repair and maintenance arrangements, as well as waste management solutions.
These areas provide value to our customers as part of a joined-up proposition rather than customers needing to engage and work with multiple suppliers on their projects. As I mentioned, we have a tailored proposition supporting public sector contractors. These customers have longer contractual terms, and we support them with dedicated account management and operational teams to deliver the most effective fulfillment solution and identify opportunities to add value, such as how we support their sustainability ambitions across their housing stocks. We work with them through dedicated managed stores, but also utilize our assets across the wider branch network, often with tailored project ranges based on their planned repair activity.
We continue to explore new ways of providing an effortless supply chain solution for these customers that reduce the need for their contractors to make unnecessary visits to our branches and be more efficient on site, including using tools such as van stock management solutions and unmanned lockboxes on sites. We also work with these customers to implement back office solutions to reduce their administration burden. Our tailored approach to managed services makes it really difficult for our competitors to replicate and provide the value-add solutions that these customers require. There remain opportunities for us to further develop this proposition to support the changing way that these customers are having to work. We are not short of opportunities to drive additional value across our customer segments.
We believe that we can continue to grow share by further enhancing our customers' journeys and service through our digital channels, through the development of our branch network to support our heavyside and timber proposition and service capabilities, and by leveraging the value-add propositions in managed services, Benchmarx, and Toolstation. We believe the business is in great shape following the changes that we have implemented over the past couple of years, and this is highlighted by the fact that we're performing well and taking share across both new and existing customers.
Feedback from customers, suppliers, and colleagues is really encouraging. I am excited about the role of our business going forward because we are well set up to adapt and continue to win in tomorrow's market. We have a lot of opportunity already within our gift and much more to come through collaboration with the rest of the group, as Nick will explain. We are leading the way in the evolution of the general merchanting model. I'm now going to hand over to Frank to talk about how the specialist businesses are leading in their markets. Thank you for listening.
Thank you, Kieran. Good afternoon, everybody. I now want to talk about the specialist businesses who are either leaders in their respective markets or number two by volume, but all have market-leading returns. I briefly want to give you an overview of the markets they operate in and the foundations of their success to date. I then want to cover a number of areas that exist that will deliver both growth and develop our leading proposition. Firstly, let's take a look at where these businesses are currently positioned. The specialist businesses are made up of three separate business units. I'll touch on all three, plus TF Solutions that sits as an adjacency in BSS. We call these businesses specialist due to the nature of the markets and the customers they serve.
These business units serve particular market segments highlighted in the slides, with much more in-depth knowledge of both the customers and the technical expertise in products and solutions that these customers require. These business units have consistently shown good growth over the past few years and have taken market share. This performance has been delivered through a deep understanding of customers, having technical expertise, and providing bespoke solutions through an empowered workforce, all delivered through a national network suited to an 85% delivered business mix. There is greater opportunity to grow and develop these businesses, which is what I want to talk about over the next few slides. All three business units have significant opportunities for growth, driven by, as Nick has already highlighted, partly the core fundamentals of the markets they serve, secondly, the need to decarbonize the built environment, potential adjacencies, and value-added service propositions that we're introducing.
I'll touch on TF Solutions separately in a moment. BSS, who operate in both the commercial and high-rise residential market, continues to see strong growth potential with the investment, particularly in schools, prisons, and hospitals, and also in an exciting new value-added service called Design to Use, which Angela will talk about shortly. CCF is well-positioned in the domestic residential market, which is forecasted for strong growth. In addition, they have the opportunity to grow their market position in technical insulation and the overall insulation market. Keyline, which also benefits from strong outlook in the domestic house building sector, but they are also extremely well-placed to take advantage of the potential GBP 650 billion investment in the next 10 years announced in the infrastructure sector. Why do we think that? Well, for example, we've already been successful in securing preferred supplier status with all four JVs on the HS2 program.
As I said, on top of the growth with core markets, we see decarbonization as a major area of opportunity. The need to reduce the carbon output and the total sustainability agenda will drive significant benefit for all the specialist businesses. The built environment in the U.K. construction accounts for 45% of carbon emissions. We see this as an opportunity for all the specialist businesses to provide an energy-efficient solution, as many buildings will not meet requirements that are currently being proposed. Our specialist businesses, as well as TP and Toolstation, are well positioned to service these marketplaces, both with the fabric of building, such as installation of insulation, I know that's a bit of a tongue twister, but also for systems and solutions such as ventilation of air, ventilation air quality, and other draft-proof categories.
We also see huge growth in the air source heat pump market, which is predicted to grow from what is currently 3,000 installs per annum to over 600,000 installs by 2028, and which TF Solutions is really well positioned to capitalize on. The next part of our growth equation is adjacencies. We acquired TF Solutions in 2017 to access the air conditioning market adjacent to the core BSS market. TF Solutions is an air conditioning distributor, which when acquired, had three branch network. However, we have identified significant opportunity to grow this business through three key levers. Firstly, to provide a national coverage in existing AC market, it needs to expand its network to approximately 30 branches using a mix of implants existing in BSS and new branches to complement the recently expanded 11 branch estate.
Customer changes in demand means that digital proposition, both through a trading website and mobile app, which will allow customers to be able to research and design small AC systems, see product availability at branch, and order the goods that they require. Finally, category extension into the refrigeration market, which provides chilling for cold food storage in a market adjacent to the AC market, not yet serviced by TF Solutions. This also provides an excellent opportunity for growth. As I've already discussed and highlighted, the decarbonization agenda drives opportunities for alternative energy sources in the commercial heating market. TF Solutions is well-placed to take advantage of this market for three reasons. It has long-established relationships with suppliers in the AC market, who also are key players in the air source market.
They already have and provide training and accreditation for AC installers, which can be utilized and developed for the air source installer market. TF Solutions operates in the SME and small installer market, which is identified for key growth for air source. Additionally to this, TF Solutions also has the opportunity of leveraging the BSS customer base and actually, the wider group customer base, whereby AC products particularly can be sold through a number of different customer bases and channels within the group. The last element of growth for the specialist businesses is value-added services to help our customers. As can be seen on the slide, we have identified a number of areas we can add significant value to our customers.
For instance, we're going to focus on gaining early project engagement, which will benefit for our customers as we help in the design phase. As Angela's going to bring to life, we'll also help provide better and more integrated solutions to our customers. As we progress our internal ESG agenda, we will be able to support customers and suppliers as we take a collaborative approach in carbon reduction, skill shortages, supporting local communities, and diversity in the construction industry. In the first steps to decarbonize our HGV fleet and support customers reducing the embedded carbon footprint, we're leading here as early this year, CCF launched the U.K.'s first 27-ton curtain-sided battery-operated vehicle, and we are trialing alternative fuel sources for our HGVs.
Nick also spoke about deepening our proposition. We're working hard to deliver a best-in-class, efficient, digitally enabled supply chain solution for customers, so they know what products we are delivering and when they will be delivered. We'll be focusing on how we can integrate digitally better with our customers, integrating our systems and theirs to allow quicker and more efficient service. I'm now going to hand over to Angela, who's going to talk about one of the value-added services we're developing for our customers. Angela.
Thanks, Frank Elkins. You've heard from Kieran and Frank how we're deepening and elevating our relationships. Using this case study, I'll demonstrate how we're bringing to life those value-added principles in BSS and how we're elevating our position within the construction value chain. BSS is the market-leading distributor of pipes, valves, and fittings to both the building services sector and industrial sector. Today, our position in the value chain means that much of the work to define and specify a project has been complete before engagement with BSS. Although we support our customers with technical and product specification, much of it means that many of our interactions are transactional. Throughout the value chain, our customers and our contractors have some significant challenges, including how to contract with multiple parties from installers, designers, suppliers, and distributors.
They also have a lack of designs and paperwork for existing systems, meaning that they often have to start designing a system from scratch at significant cost. There is lack of accessible and up-to-date data, which means a lack of visibility for maintenance schedules and an inability to budget effectively. These customer pain points lie outside our usual material supply. We believe we have significant opportunity to solve the problems at either end of the value chain by engaging customers and contractors on system design and the opportunity to use data effectively to provide ongoing maintenance services. Our Design to Use proposition brings together multiple technologies enhanced by our existing technical capabilities, it allows us to digitally scan a customer's premises, identify and tag products, create digital system designs and maintenance schedules, prepare and share an asset management platform accessible to BSS and our customers.
We're bringing this proposition to life with a number of customers right now. You see here a school that we've already engaged with, and we're currently working with a large university, bringing it to life and on a much larger footprint. This proof of concept is helping us determine the size of the opportunity to refine the technology and the delivery model and to clarify the revenue potential. The revenue streams will come from front-end system design and an ongoing managed services offer, as well as gaining greater share of our material supply.
Initial discussions with customers give us great confidence that this is a much-needed solution addressing our customers' challenges. Our customers are excited by this integrated solution and how it simplifies their processes and adds significant value, and I'm really excited at the potential for this industry-changing service model. Design to Use moves BSS from being a technical distributor to a proactive technical solution partner. This case study is a concrete example of how at Travis Perkins Group, we're bringing these added value solutions to life and elevating and deepening our relationships. I'll now hand back to Frank to wrap up the specialist section.
Thank you, Angela. The specialist businesses have delivered fantastic growth for the Group over the past few years, and I am hugely proud of what we have achieved, and it's great to have the time today to talk about that. Equally, though, I'm really excited by what the future holds. The areas of potential growth are clear to us, and as Angela has just demonstrated, our customers are looking for a more complete set of services as the industry changes, and we are really well positioned and ready to respond. I'm now going to hand over to James, who's going to talk about the exciting story of growth in Toolstation and how we're going to maximize its potential for the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Frank, and good afternoon, everyone. My name is James Mackenzie. I'm the Managing Director of Toolstation, and I've had the privilege of running this business for the past four and a half years. Toolstation is one of Europe's fastest growing disruptors in the supply of tools and materials to the professional trades and general builders. Toolstation is a brilliant digitally led business offering customers simple, convenient and multi-channel access to products through a low-cost operating model. In the U.K., it's well set to growth of GBP 1 billion of revenue by 2024, and we also have clear line of sight to a high single-digit operating margin at maturity. The model is portable, and you'll hear from Alan later about the European businesses which are poised to follow a similar route. You heard from Nick earlier about the changing market and evolving customer needs.
Toolstation has been at the forefront of leading the changing market dynamic on what we call the lightside segment, which are predominantly made up of tools, consumables, decorating and Plumbing and Heating. We've laid out on the slide here some of their key customer needs. They require high availability and visibility digitally. They've got it in stock. It's about certainty and reliability and being able to be in and out in a couple of minutes. Speed of service is critical. Convenience is also key. Only about a third of lightside trade spend is planned. Having a local branch with proximity of stock close to the customer is increasingly important. In urban locations, you need to be within a 10 minute drive time. This is all underpinned by a requirement for consistent value and fixed low prices.
The Toolstation operating model is engineered to deliver these customer needs consistently. The offer is the same in every branch. The model is powered by being digitally led with a truly multi-channel offering. Customers can have what they want when they want it. Toolstation offers five minute click and collect from our rapidly expanding branch network of 500 branches. We have a growing range of 25,000 products available for next day delivery, seven days a week. We're also trialing same day delivery in less than two hours in London. You can also still order on the phone from our dedicated U.K. contact center. This is all underpinned by great service from our 5,000 engaged colleagues. Toolstation has over 6 million satisfied customers, and this is backed up by a Net Promoter Score which is over 75, which is world class. Our customers love what we do.
As you can see from the slide, Toolstation has delivered outstanding performance with an accelerated CAGR of 26% and four consecutive years of double-digit like-for-like sales. This market-beating performance has been driven by three proven levers of growth. The number one lever has been our network expansion to drive even greater convenience and brand awareness for our customers. In 2017, the format had been largely unchanged since the inception of the business in 2003. Our average branch footprint was 5,500 square feet and predominantly located on industrial parks. We started to test fitting the same offer into smaller units down to 2,500 square feet. This proved extremely successful, allowing us to enter smaller catchments both in urban infill and also into small country towns.
It also allowed us to put branches into higher footfall and more prominent locations. At the same time, we started to use this format strategy to go into A1 retail units along with high street locations, and it's now business as usual to open branches in ex cafes, restaurants and car showrooms. These are just examples of how we're getting the proposition even closer to the customer. We also started to drive what we call the network effect, in that each additional branch in a defined catchment allowed the Toolstation business to extract additional growth and share from the market beyond the standard one branch model. A great example of that is Bristol, where we've got seven branches and we've grown the business by over 40% in the past two years. Our highest value customers shop in multiple locations as the work dictates.
The performance of these branches allowed us to accelerate our branch openings by over 50% per annum, and we've been at a run rate of 60 a year since 2018. It also allowed us to raise our ambition to 650 branches in the U.K. by the end of 2024. The second lever of growth has been driving sales densities and driving new customer acquisition through propositional development. Click and collect within 5 minutes has been the biggest play as it blends the convenience and choice of shopping digitally with the speed, certainty, and reliability of collecting from our network of 500 branches. It's grown from being 5% of our business to well over 35%, and it actually peaked at over 90% of our business when we operated dark branches in COVID.
We've also further built our digital capability with a mobile-first approach, improving our speed and search along with big steps forward in our content and ease of use, and particularly in areas like checkout, where we've introduced Google and Apple Pay. We launched seven-day delivery and a market leading 9:00 P.M. cutoff for next-day delivery to drive even greater convenience for our customers. Much of the work in developing the offer has been focused on the trade customer base where we see the greatest opportunity. One of the key levers has been the introduction of trade credit, which has gone really well so far. We've seen the average order value of credit sales being more than 50% higher than cash sales. The final lever is range extension.
We've increased the range by over 10,000 trade targeted products, including specialist trade brands and added new routes to market, such as drop ship to increase choice and convenience for our customers. We've also developed a stable of six own exclusive brands which complement our core trade brands and drive value and differentiation on key categories. Over the last four years, the business has focused on strengthening the foundations for growth which has positioned the business well for the future. We continue to see strength in the growth of the Toolstation business. As I said before, it's on track to reach GBP 1 billion of sales by the end of 2024 and 10% market share.
Looking to the future, the next stage of our journey will be underpinned by strong branch maturity fundamentals coupled with the impact of increased brand awareness. We see the outlook post 2024 to release the 10% revenue CAGR. This growth is going to come from four key areas. Our network growth will continue at 60 a year to at least 650 branches in the short term with potential beyond this as we drive sales densities and smaller formats. We've trialed six micro format branches of 1,500 sq ft which have got 70% of the full offer. This has been really a strong performance from those branches for us. We will continue to develop this coupled with our next day and same-day delivery capability and deploy it where the economics and property availability dictate.
We are really well positioned as customers shop across multiple channels with enhanced delivery capacity coming on stream in 2022 and learnings from our same-day delivery trial in London well underway. Our focus on the professional trades and general builders will continue as we leverage our digital trade credit proposition and further incentivize customer loyalty. We've already identified further opportunities to extend our trade brands and ranges and to really focus on capturing more share of their wallet. Moving on to propositional development, we will develop the total offer to 50,000 products across core lightside categories, going both deeper and more credible on existing categories but also adding new categories which are additive to the Toolstation proposition. A great example of this recently has been the launch of Smart Home.
We'll continue to develop our delivery proposition with enhanced tracking throughout the customer journey, the development of our same-day proposition and rollout across the U.K. New value-added services will be launched powered by the app to help our customers run their business. All this growth is underpinned by an unrelenting focus on the fourth area which is accelerating our digital capability. Digital participation now represents 70% of the total business and this has been stable at this level as we've come out of peak COVID restrictions. This is made up of click and collect, delivered volumes and ROPO which is research online, purchase offline in a branch. Over the past 18 months, we've made significant investment in our digital proposition as well as creating dedicated click and collect lanes in our branches. The recently launched mobile app has been really well received by our customer base with positive reviews.
We're at 4.8 out of five on both the Google and Apple stores and we've had over 130,000 downloads in the past eight weeks. The app offers an enhanced user experience, enable better product shopping, account management and faster checkout. We have diversified our customer acquisition by investing in leveraging in emerging marketing channels such as social media and affiliate marketing. We've significantly increased our organic search presence enabling us to reduce reliance on paid search. We've invested in a new search engine which utilizes AI and machine learning to provide a better shopping experience for our customers. Increased user testing has enabled us to introduce new features faster and to become more data-driven. We've invested heavily in customer research to help develop a new loyalty program. This is being piloted and tested and will be launched fully at the end of the year.
Through better use of customer data, we're now able to personalize the user experience through the website and the app. I'm also delighted that we have a brand-new half-a-million sq ft facility coming on stream in Q4 2022 to further support the growth of the digital business. This facility will also support Kieran and the Travis Perkins team with their lightside fulfillment. The Toolstation business has demonstrated operational strength and flexibility over its history, and this trend is set to continue in the future. Firstly, the branch network plays a critical role in our proposition, driving growth both from a revenue and returns perspective, with 55% of the estate still maturing. We are confident that the returns of this cohort will double over the next five years to a branch contribution of well over 20%, and average sales per branch will evolve to be greater than GBP 1.5 million.
Over the last four years, we've significantly increased our branch openings to drive convenience and brand awareness. By investing in smaller units with better visibility, and by providing dedicated branch opening team resources, we've seen sales in the first 12 months of trading increase by 58%. This demonstrates the maturity of the model and the importance of having a physical estate at the heart of its leading digital offering. Well-invested infrastructure will be required to support current and future growth. We approach this by ensuring an effective, efficient, and a sustainable model, which maintains Toolstation's operational agility. These costs will be stepped in nature, like the new DC facility I mentioned some moments ago, and investment in support center resources will follow a similar profile.
I'm really excited about the size of the prize ahead of us and the opportunity of delivering on our ambition of exceeding GBP 1 billion of sales in the U.K. You'll hear from Nick later on how we will leverage the scale and expertise of the Group to further accelerate our trade-focused development. As you would expect, we're applying the learnings from our success in the U.K. to speed up the development of the European business and enhancing the future portability of the model to different markets. We'll now play a short video showcasing the European business before I hand over to Alan to talk about our expansion plans there.
As you heard from James, Toolstation U.K. offers huge potential in terms of future revenue and profit growth. While still in its early stages of development, Toolstation Europe is showing all the signs that it can follow the same path as the U.K. I hope that short video gave you a feel for the business we're building in Europe and its similarities with the U.K. operations. What I've set out for you here is the addressable market by country, current and potential network size, an indication of current maturity, and how we see the long-term potential relative to the U.K. Let's take each market in turn. Firstly, the Netherlands. This was the original entry into Europe for the business, and is the most mature of the three markets, at this stage with 66 branches.
This network is backed up by an extensive digital presence in a relatively sophisticated e-commerce market. We see scope for 150+ branches in time and expect to start generating profits within 24 months. Belgium started as an online-only platform run from the Netherlands, where we have a common back office and warehousing operation. This helps us spread the fixed cost base. We began opening branches around two years ago and have been very encouraged by what we have seen. There's less digital penetration in the Belgium market, but the market overall is also less competitive. We plan to accelerate the branch rollout in the next few years. France is the big opportunity, with an addressable market at least the size of the U.K., but at this stage it is also our least mature European business.
Early stages since the initial implantation in the Lyon area have been encouraging, and we are building out the presence in the southeast first. We're taking our time to work out which locations work best and what the right marketing mix is to drive the business. We will continue to test and refine and are building the infrastructure to enable us to move at real pace once we have fine-tuned the model. We expect to invest EUR 35 million-EUR 40 million in start-up costs over the next 24 months in France, and this may increase once we have honed the model. Now, before we take a short break, let me just summarize what you've heard on Toolstation. The U.K. is a very compelling business. The building blocks of revenue are clear and will help us deliver GBP 1 billion+ of revenue by 2025, with operating margins expanding as the network matures.
We're confident in our ability to achieve a high single-digit operating margin. I'm particularly keen that we capture and exploit the learnings from the more mature business in the U.K. into our European markets. These are both commercial benefits and also collaboration and transfer of digital and technology innovation. We get together regularly as a team to ensure the best practices are served. As I've said, this ensures that our businesses in Europe develop well and follow a similar path to the U.K. in their early years. We are confident that we have a unique proposition in each market, first-mover advantage, and a clear runway to growth. Our profit trajectory will change over the medium term as the Dutch business is close to breaking even, and Belgium will quickly follow as we're able to share back office and warehousing costs. France is a significant opportunity, potentially bigger than the U.K.
We need to continue to test and learn and refine the model. Once we've found the winning formula, we will go hard on the rollout. That may increase the losses in the short term but grow the longer term value of the business. We need to see progress in our core markets first and prove we can make money outside the U.K. Our ambition does not stop at three markets in Europe. We believe the model would be well suited to other markets in Europe and beyond. Whether on our own or with a partner, we have a real appetite to explore these opportunities when the time is right. Super. I'm going to take that as the door shut and nobody else is coming in. Thank you for rejoining us for the second half.
A number of you have commented it's kind of chilled in here, which is probably an advantage at this time of day, kind of keeps us all sharp and awake. Let me start the second half of our show. Thanks to all my colleagues for their first half presentations. I hope you agree that as that demonstrated, we have brilliant market leading businesses. You've heard from the team, and I think hopefully you feel that it really demonstrates the quality of the business and how aligned and relevant to our customers and our customer needs that they are. I'm really excited about the potential for these businesses. I'm really excited as they continue to outperform their markets but actually evolve and grow. As I hope you've seen, they are in the hands of accomplished leaders backed by first class teams.
I would add that Catherine Gibson, who runs CCF, and Dean Pinner, who runs Keyline, are also with us and will be happy to talk afterwards and take your questions in addition to everybody else you've heard from. As you've heard, we intend to go further and realize our ambition to be the leading partner to the construction industry, and that's what this section is all about, and I'm going to build on that theme as we go through. We're absolutely focused and committed for doing more for our customers and leading the industry as it changes. In the addition to the enormous potential within our businesses, the strength of the combination of assets and capabilities that we have as a group puts us in an enviable position to do more to enhance the proposition for customers and help them navigate a changing industry.
Too often, our business is seen as a set of components. We firmly believe there is more value in our business as a group than it would be as a set of individual businesses. I'm going to bring this to life for you this afternoon by talking through a couple of examples from many I could choose. I would invite and encourage you all to look beyond the sum of the parts and see how we are uniquely placed to do more. I will hand over to our group CITO, Phil Tenney, who will help us understand how we're thinking about aligning our technology with the development of our business propositions. Emma Rose, our group CHRO, will help us understand how we frame our purpose as an organization and think about our long-term future.
Emma will hand over to Alan, who will help us to bring all this together and really think about how this all underpins an attractive investment thesis for our shareholders. Then I will try and wrap it all up. As I outlined earlier, this framework, within which we think about our strategy, is very simple, but it's important. You've heard from the businesses about how they're using this framework to think about deepening and elevating relationships with customers, and it's really enabling focus on value-added activities. It also helps us think about how we create more value from the combination of assets and capabilities within our strong portfolio of businesses.
We think about deepening our relationships with our core professional and general builder trade customers through closer collaboration between Toolstation and the General Merchant. Both Kieran and James referred to that, and I'll unpack it a little bit more. I'll come back to the right-hand side, and I'll talk about how we're thinking about elevating our relationship with our larger constructor and developer customers and helping them navigate the changes that we see within the industry. Let's first talk about our Toolstation and General Merchant customers to build on the narrative from Kieran and James. We know our trade customers use both the General Merchant and Toolstation.
Actually, only 30% of our General Merchant customers regularly use Toolstation. Unbelievably, they use other lightside providers, too. Actually, they use them about twice as much. About 4% of their share of wallet is spent with Toolstation, 8% of their share of wallet is spent with other providers. To the bottom half of the slide, trade customers who shop with Toolstation spend about 9% of their share of wallet with the General Merchant, compared to 14%, which is being spent with other General Merchants. There is untapped potential to increase the share of wallet from these core trade customers, making it easier and more convenient for them to get what they want when they need it.
We know from customers who shop across both brands that they exhibit greater average order values and purchase frequency. Again, to James' and Kieran's points, as we call out the middle of slide 51 here, we are in the process of working with customer data, coupled with specific areas of collaboration between these businesses to deepen and enhance and elevate our proposition for trade customers. Let me build on this. This simple framework on slide 52 helps us think about maximizing the potential of this shared customer base. It also helps us to think about how we enhance the delivered and the collect proposition for lightside and heavyside categories. I'm going to bring this to life for both lightside and heavyside.
I appreciate this is an oversimplification, but it helps to lay out how we see the opportunity for collaboration to really enhance the customer experience for our core trade customers. This in itself is a step forward. Until now, Toolstation and the general merchant have worked in splendid isolation from each other. In doing so, we've missed the opportunity to really improve the trade customer experience with us. Our teams, James' and Kieran's, are working closely together on key initiatives as we open up opportunities for new growth. Let's start with lightside. Our customers tell us that we can improve our general merchant lightside proposition, and we've got the ideal means to do so. It's called Toolstation. We're trialing the fulfillment of selected ranges and SKUs through the TPGM web and online platforms supplied by and fulfilled by Toolstation.
It's been really successful so far, and this is moving through the pilot and is growing all the time, and it's got huge potential. To support this growth, as you heard from James, we are in the process of building a 500,000 sq ft new lightside facility, which will allow us to provide direct to customer for both businesses. We continue to trial and optimize the lightside collect channel to enhance the general merchant experience using expertise from both businesses. With benefits of extended range, convenience of shared customer accounts that Kieran mentioned, loyalty programs, and importance of the choice of fulfillment options, this is a really exciting first step, and it's in flight now, and we are finding new areas of growth and building real value for our customers with the businesses in collaboration.
Let's just take this a step further, and let's use this slide on 54 to discuss heavyside. This is currently all sold by TP General Merchant, but with most, but by no means all, being delivered. As you heard from Kieran, we are enhancing and developing the fulfillment of heavyside using technology, the customer app, coupled with our ability to notify customers of delivery and keep them informed through our delivery management system. How do we see this developing in the future? It's really simple. We want to give our customers the sort of service proposition that we expect every day in our day-to-day lives. Clear availability and pricing information, simple and consistent ordering process, a clear delivery and promise, and a great delivery experience. Why not? That is all stuff that we expect, and that's precisely what we are doing.
We are trialing and have been trialing the specific branches to act as fulfillment hubs for delivered heavyside, enhanced by the digital channel, which gives our customers certainty and choice over delivery slots. That is a small thing, but makes a massive difference to them, and they have told us it does. That is further enhanced by the delivery management system which keeps them, via text, notified at every step of the way. If you are a trade customer on site with multiple loads coming in, that is a really important service proposition. Our pilots are giving us great confidence that this will work really, really well, and we see the future as we extend this trial as a network across the country of delivery-centric branches offering exceptional customer service for heavyside. What about the collect business? That sits alongside it.
We are optimizing the mobile app to enhance the collect experience, timed click and collect through our branches to enable our customers to have a much more efficient in-branch experience. This is something they told us was a fantastic service development during the pandemic, actually we're extending that. We know this works well for Toolstation for lightside, the possibilities for a better heavyside experience are really, really clear. Therefore, we're taking complexity and inconsistency out of our branch experience. Kieran spoke to it on the right-hand side of his slide where he had the colleague app. All of that is about taking complexity and inconsistency out for our colleagues and therefore for our customers. How are we also then thinking about this collaboration between Toolstation and our general merchant for heavyside?
We're looking at, to the gray arrow, how we utilize our 500+ branch network for Toolstation and the digital channels that James has talked about to provide additional convenience for our trade customers to place heavyside orders through Toolstation for fulfillment, that's my tongue twister, Frank, for fulfillment, either delivered or collect through the general merchant. Simple, convenient, consistent, leveraging the depth of our customer base, putting our portfolio of assets and capabilities to work, maximizing our share of wallet. Who else can match a physical network of over 1,000 branches backed up by rapidly developing digital channels? We believe our branch network will be really important for some time to come. The last mile logistics of heavyside fulfillment requires capable facilities proximate to our customers. Kieran ably demonstrated that. We remain committed to this aspect of our capital allocation plan, as Alan will outline earlier.
Quite simply, we consider it as no regrets capital. It gives us resilience and flexibility into the future and our ability to test and learn, use insights from data and from customers and scale fast gives us a real competitive edge. This stuff is in flight now. Let's pivot to the right-hand side of my little simple model from earlier and think about how we're helping customers, typically our larger customers, navigate changes within the industry. While the pace of change is kind of hard to predict with any certainty, our customers are really clear about what they need. They need efficiency, quality, sustainability, and an innovative partner to help them face into the challenge of working with more modern techniques alongside traditional techniques in construction projects.
One area that is scaling and attracting attention, I'm sure you all would have seen it, is investment around how we apply offsite and factory-based manufacturing methods and the benefits to more traditional construction projects. We're doing several things in this space helping our customers. Firstly, to the right-hand side, we are working with developers to apply our capability in supply chain logistics, just-in-time logistics, our supplier relationships, the breadth and depth of our supplier relationships to optimize their factory production operations. It's not a core skill of theirs, so we're leveraging our skill. Secondly, we're working with a cohort of regional and bespoke house builders. That cohort of customers is very, very significant in U.K. house building. This is a big group of customers.
We're providing capability and services that they don't have or they find really difficult to access in areas like digital design, thus enhancing their materials optimization, their supply chains, making their projects more efficient and cost-effective, more sustainable, higher quality, all the while protecting with them their point of difference in the market. We're in pilot projects with three developers and they're going extremely well. We're really excited about the potential of this for our business and for their businesses. Thirdly, we are directly enhancing our in-house capability with Staircraft, which puts us absolutely at the leading edge of value-added component design, timber engineering and production. Let me talk a bit about that. We're really excited about it and it speaks directly to elevating our relationship with customers. Our relationship with Staircraft is not new.
We've held a minority share since 2015 and we've worked closely as one team ever since then and now it's going to be moving entirely under our control. Let me be clear. This is not a retail business. This is a trade-focused market leader in timber engineering for complex systems, stairs, floors and the like. It's known throughout the industry for its innovation and quality, whether it's applying artificial intelligence to floor design to minimize waste or creating new factory-based painting techniques for components to maximize quality and minimize install time on site, saving time, money and improving quality. Staircraft supplies the U.K.'s 10 largest house builders. It's actively involved with us right now with our regional bespoke house builders rethinking design and deployment of materials that I mentioned earlier on.
Being technology led, it dovetails completely with our growing digital design capability that Angela ably outlined in Design to Use, so that it adds significant depth and capability to our proposition. As I said, during Q4 of this year, it will come under our full control. We're really excited about the addition of Staircraft to our business. Before I move on to discuss slide 57, let me be clear about one thing. This is not about merging our businesses. This is not about centralizing control or centralizing decision making, pouring concrete over our group. This is about letting our businesses lead in the markets that they already lead and driving more value from the opportunities presented to us by being a group and leveraging the assets and capability of our group.
We strongly believe, the left-hand side of this slide, in the kind of tailored propositions delivered by our leading businesses. That's what they do best, whether it's organization of sales force, investment in bespoke digital propositions and fulfillment. We believe in some key areas, we can thoughtfully leverage our scale to further advantage. We've talked about enhancing our customer propositions. I've used those two examples for those two key customer cohorts to bring some of that to life. By flexibly using our assets in combination, we can do more than these businesses could do individually, and really setting up a position where it's really difficult for our competitors to replicate.
Being aligned closely with our suppliers, not just to get leading prices, but actually more importantly for innovation, for routes to market, reducing carbon, and helping us lead this agenda for change within the industry and developing, as we've discussed, differentiated areas where we can play a leading role. The addition of Staircraft to our stable of businesses absolutely does that. All the while, underpinned by closely aligned technology capability. To bring this to life, I want to introduce Phil Tenney. Phil is our Group CITO. Phil joined us in January of this year, and has already made a massive impact on the group. With absolutely no body part references this time, so I don't get ticked off, Phil, over to you.
Thank you, Nick, and good afternoon, everyone. I really welcome this opportunity to talk to you all about technology and our approach because to be honest, us techies don't get out in public very often. I do promise there's not going to be a lot of technical jargon in what I talk about here. As you have heard through this presentation so far, there is so much we can do for our customers. What's hugely exciting for me is that technology underpins so much of this. In fact, being part of the journey was one of the compelling reasons as to why I joined the business at the start of the year. I think there are two key points I want to make up front.
First one is I'd emphasize that I'm confident that we can deliver our growth plans with the technology approach I'm outlining today. Our approach is based on deploying new technologies that allow us to accelerate our digital ambitions, but without necessarily having to replace all of our core underlying systems. It's an approach already proven in other sectors, and it's one that we've proven ourselves over the past couple of years. The examples Kieran's given earlier, they were all based on our existing underlying technology solutions. I also think it's important for me to recognize that technology has been a source of pain for investors in recent years. What I'm going to share with you today is what we're doing, most importantly, how we're doing it differently, and how we're already able to demonstrate the benefits of this approach.
As Nick set out, we're looking to both elevate and deepen relationships with our key customers. As I've said, technology's key to enabling this. From my point of view, as a digital business, it always starts with the customer. Our technology framework that you can see on this slide is defined by the needs of our two key macro customer segments you've already heard about. These two different segments of customers have potentially quite different sets of requirements for how they want to engage with us. We need to provide differentiated technology solutions that enables them to have seamless customer experiences that build lasting relationships with our business.
Equally, behind the scenes, we need to make sure we're enabling our business to be lean and efficient in the way it operates so we can benefit from economies of scale, process standardization, and automation where appropriate. Technology's rarely a case of one size fits all. The approach we're taking across this stack is different, with an emphasis on unlocking different benefits at different layers. There is one common theme that runs through it all, and that's our emphasis on integration. The ability to integrate between a wide range of systems, both in-house and increasingly third party, and being able to integrate them at pace. It's also about deploying new technology where needed, but equally about leveraging existing technologies where appropriate.
Some of the examples I'll highlight are proof that we can get the best of both, heritage and new technologies to deliver great outcomes for our business. When we look at this, where we're really close to the customer, as in at the top, at the customer proposition layer, we're using a product management approach to enable a combined business and technology teams to work as one, to move at pace, to deliver compelling experiences for our customers. As examples of this, you've heard Kieran talk about our website, the customer and colleague apps from Travis Perkins, where we've delivered a market leading digital capability on top of existing systems. You've heard from James the focus Toolstation has on digital experience, what's already been delivered, and the exciting roadmap ahead. What I would say is all of these have been done using a product centric approach.
Furthermore, Kieran's also talked about the managed services business model, which is a great example where we're using the same underlying technology capabilities, but this time to create a bespoke proposition for a subset of our larger customers, enabling them to seamlessly integrate their systems and ours. One added benefit of these examples is the way that we're developing them, because that means whilst the initial focus is on the Travis Perkins business, we can quickly unlock similar capabilities for our other specialist businesses. When we think about the next layers, specifically the customer promise and fulfillment and the merchant operations layers, here we're using different technology solutions where we need to, but equally recognizing there may well be opportunities to share common solutions where there are similarities in the customer requirements across customer segments. That enables us to drive economies of scale in delivery.
The work Nick's described on lightside and heavyside fulfillment are great examples of where we're doing this, and also how we're using a test and learn approach to new technology capabilities. What I mean by that is we're starting small to test, learn, and develop the right capabilities before then scaling fast when we've got a proven solution that delivers value to our business. Share a couple of examples of this. Firstly, we're starting out small in the use of a new order management solution for a subset of the Toolstation products that are available on our Travis Perkins website. Secondly, we're in the process of scaling fast in our rollout of a new delivery management solution, which is live across CCF and Keyline and almost completely rolled out across the Travis Perkins business.
Now, most of what I've talked about so far is how we're using technology to deepen relationships with our customers. I'd also like to highlight the case study Angela shared on Design to Use, because this is one where we're integrating a number of new predominantly third party products to create a new end to end proposition that's enabling us to elevate our relationship with another subset of our larger customers. In the back office, we've recently launched the finance transformation program, where we're deploying an industry standard third party solution, working with a proven implementation partner that will enable us to standardize and optimize many of our finance processes to drive operational efficiencies across our business. Now moving to the foundation of the stack. We recognize the huge opportunity we have with our data, and so we're transforming our data, people, process and technology.
We're refreshing our data infrastructure to ensure we have a robust single version of the truth, and the tools that enable our business to unlock insight and value from it. As Kieran described earlier, and as Nick has just explained in the customer overlap and the opportunities we have, these are examples of this new data capability in action. What does this mean for our delivery approach? As you can see from this slide, looking ahead, we're moving to a product management approach where it makes sense, with an emphasis on testing and learning before scaling quickly. This changes the risk profile of technology investments and enables us to be agile in refocusing our efforts if or when customer behaviors demand it. It will change the way we work at many levels, and I don't have time to go into the detail of it all.
Suffice to say that it is very different, and we're embracing the changes to support lower-risk deployments where possible. Finally, we recognize technology is a core enabler for our business that merits a long-term, sustainable level of investment. This is predominantly in the OpEx line and will be in the region of GBP 35 million to GBP 40 million per annum. The vast majority of this is already in the base run rate and is, in my experience, appropriate for an organization of our scale and ambition. That's the summary of our approach to technology. I did say there'd be no techie detail in it. Thanks for listening to me. Now I'm going to hand over to Emma to talk about how we'll frame our long-term future. Emma.
Thanks, Phil. Good afternoon to you all. I'm delighted to share with you today the work we have done on our purpose and how we're going to bring it to life through our long term impact goals and also our ESG agenda. We sit at the heart of a network of stakeholders in our industry. Our ambition to be the leading partner to the construction industry means we must build on our rich history and play a significant role in helping the industry to reshape for a new era in construction. As a group of market leading businesses, we have a unique perspective in the sector, a perspective that enables us to drive progress by connecting our networks and bringing thought leadership on the big issues which we are all trying to solve. With this in mind, we have defined our purpose.
We're here to help build better communities and enrich lives. A bold statement of intent. Through our purpose, we want to rise to the opportunity to positively impact the way people live, work, learn, and play long into the future. Our purpose will drive us to think about the long-term impact and sustainability of everything we do. It's through thinking sustainably that we have set ourselves some ambitious goals which we believe speak to who we are, how we can have an impact, and the ambition of this team to make a difference beyond the business through the work that we do. The first goal, helping to change construction. As you've heard today, we'll take the lead in acting as a partner to our suppliers and customers. We'll enable the industry to build better, and we'll deliver projects which are more comfortable, more efficient, safer, and more sustainable.
You've heard from Nick about the work we're doing with regional house builders, where we're bringing together our network to drive more efficient and sustainable design. Another example is the work that we're doing through Kieran's managed services business in Wales, where through our strong ESG credentials, we're able to support them to deliver on their goals to provide modern and sustainable social housing to Welsh communities, enriching the lives of those who need it most. Our second goal is to support the decarbonization of the industry. As you've heard from Frank today, we want to support our customers and suppliers to make long-term changes to the way we all live through the use of more sustainable energy sources, products, and services throughout the industry.
Angela spoke earlier about how we're working with our suppliers to support the sustainability and efficiency of heating and ventilation systems, and to innovate through technology and data to support efficient design, maintenance, and repairs. For our third and final goal, we'll support the skills development and employment opportunities for a generation of young people. As you know, our branches and stores are at the heart of cities and towns across the nation, and we feel deeply connected to playing our part in building thriving communities and enriching people's lives by supporting them to find meaningful employment. Supporting the next generation of colleagues to develop their careers with us is something that has always been close to our hearts. In the last five years, we've accelerated the impact we can have here through our industry leading apprenticeship and early careers opportunities.
We want to ensure that a rich and diverse range of talent is equipped with the skills and experience to drive the future success and sustainability of Travis Perkins, and also contribute to developing talent for the broader construction sector. Thinking sustainably is in everything we do. Through our work in delivering our purpose and driving to deliver against these three goals, we also believe we'll achieve better performance and deliver strong total shareholder returns. In thinking about making these goals a reality, I'd like to talk for a few minutes about the progress we're making on our ESG agenda. I'm sure you've all seen our ESG framework, which supports the delivery of our long-term goals into a working agenda. Nick and Alan have talked about it a lot before, and the detail is in our annual report.
It's the framework which brings together our ESG priorities within the business, and we have six core areas of focus. The first three you can see here. Our focus in reaching our net zero carbon target is on decarbonizing our fleet of over 4,000 vehicles, and also our estate of 1,300 buildings. Our drivers are excited that we're already trialing more environmentally friendly fuels and vehicles across our businesses, and we're planning our roadmap for change across our fleet. We've included some significant environmental improvements in our recent refurbishment of the head office, which has been a real source of pride for our colleagues as we return to the office after the pandemic.
We're making progress in upskilling our colleagues to be able to advise our customers to make different product choices, so that we can drive the use of more sustainable products and services, as well as establishing minimum standards with our suppliers for responsible sourcing. In fact, these are some of the main themes for the conference we're holding with around 500 of our suppliers next month. I'd like to spend my final couple of minutes talking about our people and our culture, our other three priority areas on our ESG agenda. When I joined the business 16 months ago, I quickly discovered a place where colleagues and community are at the heart of our success. It's special. Our colleagues care. They care about the success of our business as if it's their own. They care about each other, our customers, and their communities.
Nowhere is this care more tangible than in our commitment to send everybody home safe and well every single day. A commitment that is a top priority for all of our colleagues. In the last 18 months, we've shifted the balance to include support for our colleagues' health as well as safety, with support for physical, mental, and financial wellbeing, so we can support our colleagues when they need it most. It's clear to us that the development of our people will be fundamental to the delivery of our strategy. We're committed to providing industry leading career and development opportunities for all of our colleagues. We are by far the largest apprenticeships and early careers provider in our sector. We've almost doubled the number of colleagues on apprenticeships in the last 18 months to around 1,000.
We're also one of the biggest partners to the government on the recent Kickstart Scheme, with around 500 16 to 24-year-olds joining us for six months' work experience to help them find their feet during and after the pandemic. It's not just about apprenticeships and early careers. We're proud of our track record in developing and retaining some of the best leaders in our industry, many of whom have developed their careers working across the businesses in the group. From a leadership team point of view, you'll be able to see this in the biographies in your packs. You'll also see that we've brought in a number of new leaders into the leadership team and also deeper into the group from different sectors and backgrounds over the last 18 months.
This blend of experience will ensure that we can work together to bring diverse thinking and leading edge solutions to our customers. Speaking of diverse thinking, our ambition to build a thriving culture means we're very clear that we have work to do in driving diversity, equality, and inclusion within our business, and also in the wider sector. In the last 12 months, we've shifted our family leave policies to an industry leading position. We've moved all of our merchant business colleagues onto at least the real living wage, and we've introduced a diversity and inclusion board to the group led by colleagues from across the business. We've also halved our gender pay gap, and we've improved the diversity of our board, our group leadership team, and our top 200 leaders.
The answer lies in driving a change in attitudes across the sector. We're working closely with some of our peers, customers, and suppliers to try to solve some of these issues together to ensure that the sector is seen as a welcoming, diverse, inclusive destination for talent. As I said earlier, we have a unique perspective at the heart of the construction sector. Our breadth of expertise and our ambition to make a positive difference to the future of the construction industry is captured in our purpose and impact goals, as well as our strategy and ambition.
By thinking sustainably, we believe that we can play an important role in working with our partners across the sector to bring thought leadership to some of the biggest issues of our time, and in doing so, positively impact a range of stakeholders and our environment, as well as ensuring a sustainable business model for Travis Perkins Group long into the future. I'd now like to hand over to Alan, who's going to take us through our investment thesis.
Thanks, Emma. I hope that as a team today, we've conveyed our confidence in the group's prospects. We laid out a strategy in December 2018 to focus on our advantage trade businesses and to simplify the group. While in doing so, we've reduced the size of the group, it is now, in my opinion, one of higher quality and greater predictability with the more volatile movements from Wickes and the Plumbing & Heating division now removed. Our portfolio work also removes the need to allocate significant capital and management attention to these businesses. This is a significant gain as they prove to be a source of distraction during a period when I believe we should have been focused on the modernization of the General Merchant and on the expansion of Toolstation.
Despite the pandemic, we've also significantly improved the business, developing a robust platform from which to benefit from market changes and continue to gain share in the years to come. We've also significantly strengthened the balance sheet and increased cash generation. Our future strategy is self-financing from the cash we generate, and thereby it creates the scope for enhanced shareholder returns. If we now turn to the future financial prospects of the group, let me take you through first how I would expect revenue and earnings to evolve. From a revenue perspective, as we've outlined today, the group is well positioned to outperform in its end markets through the continued rollout of Toolstation, through share gain with existing and new customers as we deepen relationships, and through opportunities we've illustrated for you in added value services. I would expect to see modest accretion in gross margin.
While I expect gross margins to remain relatively stable in merchanting, the Toolstation business is higher margin and also a faster growing component. Cost to serve will remain broadly unchanged at a group level. While Toolstation has a higher cost to serve ratio, I do expect to see some leverage of the fixed cost base in merchanting over time, given our focus on gross profit flow through and the more flexible cost base following the major restructuring which we undertook in June 2020. We will also be addressing our centrally managed fixed cost base as we work through the transitional service arrangements with Plumbing and Heating and Wickes. Putting all of these elements together, I would expect to see us deliver some modest operating margin accretion over time as the Toolstation business matures and as we develop our presence in service-led offerings in the merchanting businesses.
The group has also recently improved its underlying cash generation performance. It's true that conversion of profit to cash has been held back in recent years by a significant level of restructuring. This phase is now thankfully behind us. Our merchanting business' working capital performance has improved recently, particularly in terms of trade receivables management. The profile has now normalized in 2021 following COVID disruption. I would expect the merchanting segment to have a fairly constant working capital to sales ratio going forwards, and that with a cash conversion ratio of over 80%. As you would expect, cash conversion in Toolstation will be somewhat lower in the medium term given the investment in network and growth. Underlying cash conversion overall is really strong, underpinned by the vast majority of sales being cash. Following the portfolio changes, our capital allocation strategy is very clear.
We intend to focus our capital investment behind the expansion of Toolstation and the modernization of the general merchant. Remember, the attractive returns Kieran laid out for you earlier from both new and redeveloped TP General Merchant branches, and also the rapid cash payback on new Toolstation branches. As a distributor, we operate a significant fleet of HGVs, which together with branch maintenance account for a significant proportion of the maintenance CapEx. Finally, we will allocate some capital to other investment opportunities, such as the expansion of TF Solutions, which Frank described earlier. M&A is unlikely to be a significant component of the group strategy going forward. Simply, we have a leading portfolio of businesses and significant growth opportunities from investing organically in these businesses.
That said, there is scope for value-adding acquisitions in adjacent market opportunities, particularly to our specialist businesses, which could enable us to elevate or deepen customer relationships. Frank described a perfect example for you earlier in TF Solutions, and Nick took you through the latest example with our intention to exercise our option to take full control of Staircraft. Before moving to the balance sheet, let me remind you about the central role that property plays in our strategy overall in supporting the businesses. We are not a property company, but we operate a significant portfolio of sites where great locations and long-term security of tenure are critical. It is for this reason that we own the freehold of around half our property portfolio by value in the merchanting segment.
We are highly adept at spotting opportunities to develop industrial land and add value to the business, as demonstrated by the significant latent value in the property portfolio that you can see on the left-hand side of this chart. The cash inflows from property disposals over the last 10 years have fully funded additions to the portfolio while also generating a predictable profit stream. This will continue. I wanted to bring this to life a little for you with an example of the merchanting market in Cambridge. Historically, we've operated from a large site in the city center, which has proven to be more difficult to operate in recent years. We therefore developed a new site to the north of the city and acquired a large site to the southeast. From these two new sites, we would expect to significantly grow our market share in the Cambridge market.
The proceeds from the disposal of the city center location will have fully funded the development and acquisition of the two new sites and generate a significant property profit. The timing of acquisitions and disposals of freeholds is always difficult to predict, but I would expect us to have significant net cash inflows during both 2022 and 2023. Where are we now in terms of the balance sheet? Since 2012, we've been chipping away at the lease adjusted leverage in the group. 2021 represents a step change with the completion of our portfolio rationalization. Our financial policy is prudent, and we aim to maintain a level of lease adjusted leverage consistent with investment-grade debt metrics. As you can see from the chart, we're targeting a range of 1.5 to 2x lease adjusted debt to EBITDA in the medium term.
Adjusting for the planned full return of disposal proceeds on Plumbing & Heating division, I would expect us to be at the lower end of this range as at December 2021 and to remain there. In summary, I believe we have taken the business forward significantly in the last couple of years and developed a much more robust model focused on delivering sustainable TSR. Going forwards, we anticipate driving above-market growth by both deepening and elevating our customer relationships in merchanting and exploiting the Toolstation growth opportunity.
We remain focused on converting this profit stream into cash, and the cash generation is further underpinned by freehold property activity. Our allocation of capital is clear and focused, and we will maintain a strong balance sheet. Given the cash generative nature of the business, the clear self-funded capital allocation strategy, and the strong balance sheet, we see ample scope for the additional return of surplus capital to shareholders over and above a growing ordinary dividend. With that, I'm now going to hand over to Nick for concluding remarks before we move to Q&A.
Fabulous. Thanks, Alan, and also thanks to Emma and to Phil for their presentations. Look, I know it's been a long session, and I really appreciate your attention here in the room and on the web. Before Alan and I open it up to questions, let me finish with a bit of a wrap-up and a few concluding thoughts. To this slide, look, we've talked about how our sector is changing. The trends of the world around us are just inescapable, even if timescales are difficult to predict for our industry. As a result of the Herculean efforts of this team over the last couple of years, we're in a great position to adapt quickly as the landscape changes. We framed our strategy simply as around deepening and elevating our relationship with customers and what we do for them.
We've also heard from Kieran, from James, from Angela Rushforth, from Frank, from Alan about how our businesses have got clear and focused plans to win in their space, and I hope you enjoyed those, also, together, leveraging the power of being one company, how from Emma, we take our role in the industry very, very seriously as the market leader, and as Alan has laid out, how, in the shape we're now in, we can really fund the development of our business and enhance and grow our return to shareholders. Look, what you've seen before you is a deeply committed team determined to continue to win in an industry and a market where we can affect change for the benefit of our customers and for the benefit of our shareholders and the communities in which we operate, we live, and we serve.
We've got a really clear purpose honed from the cultural DNA of our company and one that really deeply resonates with our colleagues across the group. We've got a really clear ambition to be the leading partner to the construction industry, and my team represents the quality of colleagues across this business who I believe are uniquely placed to deliver it. We respect, as I said earlier, the best-in-class distribution companies around the world. They are growth orientated with both an organic and inorganic growth plan. So do we. Their growth is based not just on products, but on services and adding value through those services. So is ours. They're predictable. They're focused on driving change, but also on adding value to customers for their benefit.
They're focused on actively creating differentiation and moving at pace, and that's exactly what we're doing. I joined this business two years ago because I saw the latent potential within it. I saw the latent potential of this business to drive change in an industry that needs it, and that change arguably has only been accelerated by the pandemic. We are the market leader, and we got market leading businesses and the very best people in this industry. We're in the right shape with the right depth and flexibility of assets and capability to adapt as this landscape changes. Our focus on our customers is absolutely baked into our culture.
As you've seen from the businesses, they're actively deepening their relationship with customers, providing simpler, more consistent, and more helpful ways to do business with us, embracing new channels, embracing new ways of working, using data, testing and learning, moving at pace, elevating our relationships as an opportunity to do more, and as Angela said, really adding more value and extending our breadth across the value chain. More than that, we've got the capability, the professionalism, the tenacity, and the courage to further deepen and elevate our relationship with our customers by using our assets and our capabilities in combination to bring ever more value to them. This is not a follower strategy. We are not throwing down space and going back to normal. We are absolutely not a business that's run out of road. This is about leadership, and this is about the future.
Being the leading partner to the construction industry underpinned by a sustainable business model, our ethos, our people, our financial algorithm. It all adds up to why we will ensure that we remain the leading business in this market for a long time to come. That's why I joined this business. That's why we've led this industry through the biggest market disruption in living memory, and we're emerging stronger. We're here to help build better communities and enrich lives, and we're going to do that by being the leading partner to the construction industry. With that, we are very happy to take your questions, and thank you for your time and attention. Before I open the floor to questions, I have some terms and conditions.
Can I just remind the audience that this morning the group issued a statement that performance is consistent with guidance provided at the half-year results in August, and that no new disclosures today will be made regarding current trading or short-term influences on the market. I'll be therefore grateful if we could hold those questions on those topics until the trading update on the 28th of October. That is investor relation team code for his mother tried to make him polite and diplomatic, but he's not very good at it, so don't ask him those questions. If you could, as you ask the questions, please state your name and your company, and with that, very open to the floor. John.
Yeah, thanks, Nick. John Bell from Deutsche Bank. Could you talk more broadly about the supply chain, some of the challenges that you've been facing, what you've been doing to tackle them, and perhaps an indication of how long you might expect it to take to settle down. Thank you.
John, I think you've just slightly broken Nick's rules. I'm sorry.
More broad I did say more broadly.
Yeah.
I'll deploy the diplomatic one.
Shall I do a quick bit, then can we please move on to talking about the long-term strategy of the group and questions on that? We've seen on price rises, I think we're still seeing price rises come through, but they're not coming through as quickly as they are. There are signs to me that that's reaching a peak. From a modeling perspective, you're going to have an increased component of price within the revenue mix for a time as that cycles through. From a supply chain in terms of moving goods, availability has improved slightly. I think we'll see that continuance to improve. I don't think we'll be through it, John, to make it a bit more long-term, I don't think we'll be through it till we get into Easter, say, next year or maybe a little beyond to really see that settling.
In certain product categories, it's already a lot better, but there will be some products with a longer lead time that take a longer while. We're not seeing a huge impact from petrol forecourts at the moment to our business. Don't worry about that. Famous last words, but let's go with it for now. Driver availability, listen, we're always recruiting drivers. As you've heard today, we operate an extensive fleet. On 2,000 drivers, I'd say we've probably got less than a 5% vacancy rate at this stage. We are always doing what we can to recruit more drivers because it's the lifeblood of the business.
Thank you.
I would only add to that, John, as we said, our deep and long relationships with suppliers puts us in a really good position to navigate the choppy waters that we've had by dint of the hard work of the team and our colleagues within the business and what lies ahead.
Hi, thank you. Yves from Exane BNP Paribas.
Yves, Sorry, can you wait for the mic?
Oh, sorry. Hi, good afternoon. Yves from Exane BNP Paribas. Are we allowed more than one question, though? Is it just one question only?
Yves, you always ask more than one question.
Okay, cool.
We're expecting.
I didn't know, I was asking. I guess my first question is on infrastructure. You said that you would have some sort of a strategy here to grow in this end market. I was curious what this was because it may not have come through in your presentation, or I missed it. On TF Solutions, it's clearly showing quite a significant growth potential here. I was wondering whether you can keep the 8% margin that you've presented there or if you need extra OpEx. Last but not least, on the financial targets, I'm just wondering, what is the timeframe here when you say medium term?
Sorry.
On the financial targets that you have. When you mention medium term, what exactly do you mean? By modest margin accretion, what base should we have in mind? Are we looking at the base being 2021? Is it 2019? What do you mean by modest accretion medium term as well would be appreciated. Thank you very much.
Good. Thank you, Yves. Shall I start, Alan, and then pick up the final one?
Yeah.
I'll start with infrastructure. Yeah, we're really excited at this. Perhaps it's an obvious statement, but sadly, we would have kept you for 5 hours if we wanted to talk about all the stuff that we've got going on right now. We just referred to infrastructure, but do pick up with Dean right here afterwards who will be willing to talk about that more. Clearly, we all know that there's significant government support and ongoing investment in infrastructure around the country. With our customer relationships and supplier relationships, we are progressively working at an earlier stage of the project cycle and able to get involved in a different value-adding capability at an earlier stage of the project cycle. We're really focused on the roads program.
That's where we have long heritage, very successful heritage with both designers and tier one contractors. As Frank said, we are now working with the four lead JVs on High Speed 2 for the provision of support to infrastructure projects. This is a very exciting space for us. We're focused on the roads program and would be very happy to unpack that some more with Dean afterward, Yves. Alan, do you want to pick up TF?
On TF Solutions, Yves, I think the business is well capable of making an 8% operating margin sustainably. Given the rate at which we're opening new branches, before we build the revenue up to a maturity level, you will see a bit of a dip because of the drag from the operating cost, I don't think it's going to be significant overall. We've got a number of branches that we've opened going from 3 to 11, we've already absorbed some of that within the numbers that you see. In terms of the financial targets, what do we mean by medium term? For me, medium term's a three to five-year outlook. I'm not saying it's a start point going to an end point.
I think in terms of the merchanting business. It's around 8% operating margin, and I'm saying that's maintainable, and I think there is scope for some accretion from that. By modest, I mean, don't expect that it's going to go to 10 or 12% or anything like that. It's more incremental year by year. It will depend on, as some of the team have described, James described as well in relation to Toolstation in particular, when you're laying down new supply chain assets or you have a significant burst in terms of new distribution capability in terms of branches, it will take you a little while to absorb some of that cost. Overall, I think with Toolstation getting to the high single-digit area in the U.K. as the business matures, that will provide some momentum to the overall group operating margin as well.
Yves, I think I did you short, actually, on my answer around infrastructure. I should just build on that for everybody's benefit. My apology. Not only are we engaging earlier in the project cycle, what we're doing is different. Dean and the team are working with suppliers and with customers to really think about supply chain optimization, materials optimization, earlier stage understanding of the project cycle, minimizing waste, time, waste of money, integration of components and sets of products at the point of deployment to the project.
Really using our understanding of civil engineering in this case and the project cycle to really benefit customers with an integration solution that takes time, money, waste out of the deployment of that project. It's a really exciting place for us to be. By dint of our scale and our capability, of our people, our focus on health, safety, wellbeing, vehicle standards, we're able to access those projects with those customers in a way that our competitors are less able to do so. It's a really exciting space for us to be. I hope that is a more fuller answer, Yves, to your question. Charlie, should we just go? Sorry, then we'll work the microphone back up.
Yes. Charlie Campbell at Liberum. I have got three, but they are all on general merchanting, hopefully quite short. I just wondered, as you start to think about changing the portfolio from smaller to larger branches, what percentage of the estate is the right size and the right place? Just to give us an idea of the magnitude of the task. Second question on general merchanting. Is there still a tail? Is it still possible that you might repeat that exercise at some point in the future, or has that been done once and for all?
The third question, just thinking about the customer mix, which you very kindly showed on slide 18. I just wondered if you expect that to change over time as these initiatives bear fruit. I'm thinking that maybe you end up have a bigger share of revenues from larger customers and maybe a smaller share from smaller customers, for example. I'm just wondering if that is part of the plan.
Excellent, Charlie. Thank you. Shall I start? I'm going to start from the bottom up, actually. I think what Kieran really articulated clearly is that actually over the last few years, I think we've lost some of our focus on the cohort of smaller professional trades and local general builders, and actually to the delight of some of our competitors. What we've seen is that actually as the team under Kieran's leadership has really refocused there and really thought about how we deploy our physical assets, our in-branch experience, as well as Kieran outlined, the digital assets and capabilities. We've really started to restore the relationships and the trust and the business from that cohort. Actually, I would expect to see that grow over time, Charlie, as opposed to shrink.
In a sense, I think the history over recent years is we possibly concentrated too much on some of the larger customers, even though those customers are extremely valuable to us. The point about the tail repeating or the exercise repeating itself, I think you're talking about what Kieran talked about in terms of our branch closure program from last summer. I think we are constantly looking to optimize our branch estate to ensure that we optimize the branch experience for our customers. What we discussed there was the pivot towards to give the heavyside timber and heavy building materials destination experience we want for our customers, there will be a constant pivot towards larger, more capable branches located, as we said, primarily focused on winning share in those top 50 conurbations where we currently under index.
That will be a general transition over time, which means that we will review the shape and the size of remaining branches within the network. It might be that we repurpose some of those branches to a different use. Actually, we've done that in the past. We've thought about repurposing to a managed service branch to serve customers in a different way. Actually, the MD of Managed Services, Stuart, is in the room today. We've done that very successfully. We might pivot to another role that serves a particular.
We might actually choose to close that branch and recycle capital into continuing to open larger, more capable branches. It's all about giving that destination experience to our customers and where we can start the depth and the breadth of range that we need. Actually, we can think about this marriage of the digital as well as the physical channel fulfillment model. It will be an ongoing transition as we really renew the estate and think about the experience we want to give to our customers. Hopefully, that sort of answers the first question. Does it? Yeah. Okay.
Charlie
Sorry, go on.
Charlie, Nick, can I just add that on one of Kieran's charts, he referred to 50 refurbishments, resiting expansions in the next five years. It gives you a bit of an order of magnitude of the pace at which we need to do that. I also think with a network of 550 branches it is a bit of a painting the Forth Bridge. You're always going to have some change and churn in that network. Half by value leased, so there'll be lease expiries within that where we may choose to move on as well. That sort of activity will be ongoing, but I don't see the need for any large-scale closure programs.
Within some of the larger urban projects that we've got in mind on new branches, that may enable us to fold in, say we open a large three acre site, it may enable us to fold in in time, one or two smaller proximate sites. Particularly if the concept of the regional branches, the area branches works for us where we're doing heavyside from one location.
Brilliant. Thanks, Charlie. Ami?
Ami Galla from Citi. Just a few questions from me. First one, TF Solutions as you look to expand that business, in terms of the product range that the business has today, is it on par with the competition or do you think you need to expand that further going forward? The second one, just a couple of clarifications on numbers. On the slide which outlined the IT investments, there was mention that there would be an element of expensing through the P&L. Can you give us some color in terms of how much goes through the CapEx and how much is expensed? My next question was on the CapEx guidance that you've given.
Assuming that the investment plan that you're talking about goes further beyond 2022, is the CapEx level that you've outlined something that we need to think about in the business for the next three years or five years? Some timeline there would be helpful. The last one is just on incentives. Are there any changes to the incentives down to the branch level on the back of the new investment plan that you're talking about?
Fabulous. Let me start on the product range, Alan. Actually, I think the product range will change over time. What we see and we're actively engaged in ongoing conversations with customers and suppliers, is how we think about the sustainability of products going forward. How we really face into the carbon reduction imperative for our industry. As a number of colleagues outlined. I think that's where we'll see product ranges change, but increasingly really coming to the way in which construction processes will happen in the future. We'll see more and more componentization of product into kits, components that then will be assembled in a different way.
We're going to see a change in the way this industry organizes itself and the changes in the way what we stock and how we stock it, and actually how we put it together for customers. I think we'll see quite a bit of change over time, but I think what will drive it is quality, efficiency, utility, carbon and the availability of skills to put this stuff together. Right? We've got, as Emma outlined, we're doing a huge amount to enhance skills, but it's well known that the industry has a skills challenge. I think all of those affect product range. I'll come back to incentives. Do you want to cover the middle two, Alan?
Yeah. Ami, I think you were driving as well at TF Solutions product range in particular within your question on whether we needed to expand the range or whether we're on a par. The HVAC markets often work with specific manufacturers who you work with as distributors and we're very well-placed in terms of the distribution we do there. New products that we will do more of is more on the air source heat pump side. As Frank was describing on refrigeration for things like food industry requirements. That end of the commercial market we will need to do some development of the product range. On IT investments, the vast majority there nowadays is OpEx rather than CapEx. What we're saying is a lot of that's already in the base.
We're not saying that you need to put in a significant new number for modeling or anything like that, it's already there. I would say, I'm going to look at some of my finance colleagues, probably over 80% nowadays of IT spend on projects is sort of OpEx rather than CapEx. Yeah, I'm getting the nod so I'm on safe ground. CapEx going forwards and the guidance, I put that GBP 125 million in 2022 on the chart.
I think the best way to think about it given there'll be a bit of inflation in materials and also as you move to more of a sustainable fleet that's more expensive. If you're thinking about modeling purposes, I'd work out what's your 2022 revenue and then say if I take the GBP 125 divided by the revenue, I get to a CapEx to sales and then I would use that constant CapEx to sales ratio for a model at this stage. Nick, on incentives.
On incentives I'll say two things. At a kind of macro level our approach and our revised approach to incentives has been well documented in our annual report through the REM policy change that we undertook this year. You are specifically at a branch level and we carefully across our businesses restructured our branch and above branch incentive schemes to ensure that we got greater collaboration within and across our businesses to really ensure that, again, the theme of putting our assets and capabilities within different areas to good use for customers are really seen and felt by our branch and above branch teams. That's where we're carefully adjusting our incentives, which has been really well-received by colleagues. Thanks, Ami. Yes, please. We're filtering the mic backwards.
Hi, good afternoon. It's Annalise Mullin from Morgan Stanley. Three questions as well, please. firstly, Nick, you talked earlier in the presentation about all these initiatives, part of which is becoming more attractive and relevant to new customers as well. I was just wondering if you could elaborate on that. Is that trying to increase your share of the distribution market or customers who are previously going to suppliers using you instead, or is it taking share from your competitors, or just what you're targeting in that sense? secondly, just thinking about the app and your digital investments. I'm guessing there's some part of your customer base in probably the specialty and larger customers for which the app is perhaps not as relevant.
If you're a house builder, for example, you're probably not ordering through the app. Is there a max digital penetration that you think about within the business in terms of where that could go to and, for which customers is this really the main focus? Lastly, on your mix, which you've given today on RMI and new construction and so on. Even in the past, you've talked a lot about how your RMI exposure is a big benefit and the relative resilience of that. Given the initiatives that you've put in place and the areas of growth that you're targeting, do you expect that mix to change over time? Or are you relatively happy with where it is today?
Fantastic. Great. Some great questions there, actually, on customers. Yeah. I think the first two questions, in a sense, dovetail together quite nicely and pick up what Kieran and Phil spoke about. Attractiveness and relevance to some new customers. Without doubt, our fairly analog approach, if I can put it like that, to fundamentally a branch-based experience for our customers over many, many years is well tried and tested, is the traditional way within this segment of the industry. Actually, for many much more digitally literate, typically younger, professional trades and builders who are well-used to living off their mobile phone and see that as a way of accessing everything in their lives, that very analog, what has been largely paper-based experience in a branch, is kind of an anathema.
Actually, for so many of that really important smaller professional trade customers, our old way of working kind of turn them off. Having an app that allows them to manage their account, see stock availability, see stock levels, place orders, organize fulfillment on their mobile device ensures that we're really relevant and attractive to the way they want to work. For many of them, actually, it goes beyond actually accessing their account online during the evening. They don't want to do that. Just on their phone. Really, the way in which the team have tested, learned, adjusted, tested with customers, the development of that app really plays into being very attractive to our existing customers, and Kieran mentioned that, especially the development of the multiple logons.
For small general builders, where they got multiple teams actually able to access one account through multiple devices, for example, that's a real advantage for them. It really plays to being very attractive for cohorts of customers we possibly disenfranchised through our operating model in the past. Really good question around app and larger customers. You're absolutely right. There's no one size fits all here. Actually, the app and the mobile platform is very much focused at those smaller professional trades and general builders, and that's just not sole traders. They could be multiple teams in a 10s of person local contractor. Actually, for larger customers, as Phil Tenney outlined and Kieran Griffin did, it's much more about integrating and sharing data, which is a different solution. That's not necessarily a mobile platform.
That's data share and integration so that they can place orders bespoke to them through a bespoke website. I mean, it's not new. That's what we are putting in place. Phil's chart about the two customer cohorts and the product sets at the top driving different responses through our technology stack to give different propositions to our customers, that's absolutely in line with what we're doing. I hope that answers that part of the question. Actually, we see the mix of RMI in our business as a real strength in the long term, as I outlined. You don't have to walk around this city for very long to recognize we have an aged legacy building stock that needs constant upgrade, constant work. We knew that before the pandemic, right?
I think what the pandemic has just kind of lifted the lid on the fact that this needs constant investment, constant work, and actually, if we're spending, as it seems to be, on an ongoing basis, more time at home, then actually all those little things that might have irritated us before actually become a big issue, right? It isn't just about a new garden office or whatever it might be. Actually, it's an awful lot of smaller jobs as well as the larger jobs.
We see the way in which we are aligned and tuned into various aspects of the domestic RMI market. There's obviously the commercial RMI market as well, and the public sector RMI market, all to be beneficial in the long term. Superimpose the kind of carbon reduction imperative on top of that, which is a multi-year challenge for us all, and I think you've got a pretty compelling, robust long-term market segment to go at.
Very clear. Thank you.
Will.
Thanks. Will Jones from Redburn. Three, if I could please. The first is back on merchanting. I think one of the early slides you showed your positions in each product category. I think the one where you're most underweight is electrical, by the looks of it. Is that something you'd consider over the medium term potentially expanding in, or is it a different game, in terms of, I guess, market dynamics? The second one was just around Toolstation France. It felt a slightly like mixed message insofar as you've got lots of enthusiasm about where it could go longer term, but there's still a sense maybe of hesitancy in the very near term about pressing the button.
I just wondered what you're waiting to see or what you need to see to really go for it there. Could that in turn mean that if you, again, do press the button, as it were, that the losses across Toolstation Europe maybe go beyond GBP 20 million before they start to improve again? Maybe just wrapping around that, please, just the latest in terms of the competitive response you've seen in France to your, I guess, actions to date. The last one was just around the net debt EBITDA target range of, I think, 1.5-2, but more like 1.5 in the near term. I think historically, you had numbers closer to 2-2.5 that you had in mind. I guess why the change of heart on that number, if that's the case? Thanks.
Alan, do you want to speak to France
Yeah
Net debt, and then we'll come back to the electrical one.
Yeah. On Toolstation France, Will, we've opened almost 40 branches at this stage. They range from very urban areas and some areas that you'd say look like a very trade-dominated area. We've got other branches in urban areas which are next to a boulangerie or a drive-through McDonald's. We've got some branches which are in 25,000, 30,000 inhabitant towns with a 20-minute drive time around, you've got 100,000 inhabitants. We are trying different marketing techniques to reach the customers. What we're trying to say is we're still in the early formative stages of working out what really works well for that market. When we've cracked the code on that, we will then go really quickly.
In terms of the losses going up, I think the GBP 20 million number at this stage is still a good number because what you'll see is, as I try to illustrate, first of all, the Dutch market, then the Belgian market moving into profit, the Netherlands within the next 24 months. That will give us some space if we need to increase the figure in France. If we want to go more quickly than that and it's going to increase the level of loss, we would come back and discuss that very clearly beforehand. In terms of competitive response, listen, we have had all of the players in the French market come into our branches as mystery shoppers, in inverted commas, having a look at what we are doing.
Before we even put physical estate down in France, we saw Saint-Gobain have a trial with a similar me-too sort of model in the Île-de-France market, which they closed down. We've noted other competitors saying they're going to have a go. I think the important thing to remember about France is it's a huge market, and will be bigger than the U.K. In terms of the leverage range, we had targeted 2.5x on a lease-adjusted leverage basis previously. We've brought that down to a range of 1.5-2x . Some of the thinking on that is making sure that we maintain the right mix overall with cost of funds for the business.
At that sort of 1.5x-2x level, I'm very confident that even with the smaller scale, we're investment grade in terms of debt metrics, and that optimizes the cost of funds for the group to set that sort of range. I hope you noted that while I haven't said, "Here's a new share buyback program," or, "Here's a special dividend," or anything like that promising in the future, we're very clear that we're not wanting to operate sustainably below that 1.5x level. With the cash generative nature of the business, it really opens up the scope for additional returns to shareholders. Let's return the P&H proceeds first, and then we'll talk about what next.
Super. Will, I'll just answer the first part. You can be sure that Kieran and team look very carefully at selective range expansion, and obviously electrical being part. Let's not forget where we got real depth and quality in our range for electrical is through Toolstation. Again, thinking really across our business about how we leverage the power of our businesses and their capability and the interplay between Toolstation and the general merchant to support electricians, and those who need electrical products is really, really strong. It really is thinking about actually look at the power of what we've got together. Toolstation business, really deep. Kieran and the team often looking at how we can, depending on demand by customers in different areas, really maximize the range they're able to access. The collaboration that I talked about opens that up in very new and exciting ways. Good.
Thank you. Rajesh Patki from JP Morgan. I've got two, please. First one is on the ambition or potential that you talked about on value-added services on slide 25. If you could talk about the scale of opportunity in the adjacent markets, can you build on the managed services? How much can you grow the penetration rates by on Benchmarx and hire? Basically just thinking there about do you have any specific targets in mind for the value-added services? Secondly, on Toolstation, you talked about the competitive landscape in France. Do you see any incremental threats emerging in the U.K. market? Thank you.
Sorry, just didn't catch that last, the second part of the last question. France?
Incremental threats for Toolstation in the U.K.
Nick, shall I start with that bit on the U.K.? I think overall the U.K. remains an extremely competitive market. Toolstation is really well-placed. There are, as we know, various online platforms that are popping up. I think they're relatively modest in scale, and they tend to be more brass plating in terms of the way that they operate and use other parties to do the distribution for them and also hold the stock sometimes. I don't think they have the same scale and reach.
What works brilliantly in the Toolstation model, or its nearest competitor for that matter, is the fact that it's a true omni-channel experience. For the trade, in particular, they need that proximate branch. They are not going to go more than 10 or 15 minutes when they need a consumable to get it. They can't wait for something to be delivered online. I think the model has real strength, and that's a real competitive advantage.
Good. I'm just going to play in Kieran to comment in a minute on managed services. I'll talk about hire and Benchmarx. The first thing I'll say is, as Kieran outlined, actually both are established existing businesses. As we have brought, particularly Benchmarx, much, much closer and more integrated with the Travis Perkins General Merchant, it gives us ways in which we can really start to crank up the penetration of our customer base with a Benchmarx proposition.
The same for tool hire. We're not satisfied at the 12% that Kieran showed on that slide, far from it. We are working extremely hard in a number of ways, penetration of customer base, utilization of our assets, all sorts of ways the team are working extremely hard to change that penetration dramatically. Obviously, we will look forward to updating you in due course on how we're getting on. Kieran, do you want to just talk about managed services? We're very much the market leader in that space.
No, definitely. Before I do, Nick, it's also worth just pointing out, we believe we've got 180,000 customers within the TP customer base that currently buy kitchens. So there's a huge opportunity on the Benchmarx piece for us in terms of the customer cohorts that we have within the business. From a managed services perspective, we think there is a significant opportunity for us to grow in that space, there's sort of four key drivers for that. The first one I would call out is the housing associations and local authorities are under real pressure, decarbonization of their housing stocks. We're having conversations with them at the moment in terms of how can we support them in that space.
You are talking from the government reports that are coming out that this is in the GBP billions in terms of the size of that investment that's going to be required. For those of you who watch ITV News, you will have also seen, probably over recent weeks, pieces around the state of some of the housing stocks and the requirement for repair and maintenance work that got postponed during COVID. Again, there is significant investment required going forward in the repair and maintenance of local authority and housing association housing stocks. The third element for us, and this is a real opportunity for us to lever our relationships, is all of them have got big new build agendas in terms of building new social housing.
That's an area that we're looking to use the relationships that we have with them in that space already in terms of the repair and maintenance market to grow in that space as well. The final opportunity for us is the consolidation of some of the work that we don't currently get into TP, and that's very much about linking them into our kitchen business and our hire businesses where significant opportunities for us again. Across four areas, real big opportunity for us to continue to grow in this space.
Thank you.
Hi. Graeme Kyle, Shore Capital. Just three questions. Two on Toolstation, one on Merchting. First one on Toolstation. Quite surprised about the trade focus. Hasn't much of the revenue growth been driven by taking share from the DIY retailers to date? Secondly, on Toolstation, can you just give us some details, what supports the high single-digit operating margin at maturity? Third question on Merchting. The online-only merchants, so I'm thinking of cmostores.com, for instance. What's the long-term threat to market share and the pricing of [inaudible] ? Could this eventually compromise your forecast margin improvements?
Do you want to start?
Start with Toolstation, and then I'll pick it up.
Yeah. Graeme, on the. On the trade focus point and your question about have we been taking share from DIY retailers, the great thing about the Toolstation model is the wide opening hours, so that we build around the trade, but we encourage DIY customers as well. I think where we do take a lot of share from DIY is where the trade have historically gone to DIY. I think that piece in the largest player in the U.K. has lost share in recent years, and you don't hear about the trade going into Homebase either. On the high single-digit and what gives us confidence, I think James did explain that on the chart. We talked about the supply chain and support costs being around 12%. There are occasional steps up in that, but you would look to leverage that over time.
As you grow the range of products on the gross margin side, and as we do more with the trade, you actually see an improving gross margin as well. DIY customers look at the promotions that are ongoing. The more you do with the trade, actually, the more beneficial it is to the margin. Then as you get to slow that rate of opening, think of the amount of immature space that we've got from opening 180 branches in three years, as a percentage of the base that it was before that. When it was 300 branches, 180 over 300.
Think about that when you're opening at 30 or 40 on a base of 600, you've got a maturity factor. We're actually very confident on that, and I think you can look at Toolstation's closest competitors' statutory accounts to see exactly the model that the business should be following in time. On the online only, I think they do find it very difficult to match the pricing because they don't have the scale. It's something that we watch, but I don't think that plays heavily for the trade customer at this stage.
Yeah. Just to add to that, Graeme, not only that, when you speak to our trade customers, they want to understand the products that they need and what they're going to get from the branch. They want to understand and work with our branch teams to make sure that they source the right products. That local knowledge, the product knowledge, the understanding of availability, and the certainty around delivery from a team that they know is really, really important to them.
That branch channel, it's seductive to think that actually, the online pure play can disintermediate that branch general merchant, but actually the branch channel is hugely important to them, augmented by a really leading digital channel so that they can see, as we've said, on their mobile platform, stock availability, certainty of delivery slot, and have that delivery experience. That's what they really need. Whilst we watch the online only very, very closely, ironically, they rely on us to provide their supply chain to many of their customers. Actually, it's a space where we feel we simply outplay them.
All the changes that we've talked about today have been absolutely critical in making sure that we stay on the front foot.
Hi, I'm Mamta Valecha from Quilter Cheviot. Just one question from me on ESG. We all know ESG makes an appearance in every corporate presentation these days. What I'm trying to understand as a company, are there actual internal targets and metrics set to measure performance and progress in this area? How incorporated are these metrics on a day-to-day basis from branch level to board levels to ensure interests are aligned and we are seeing real progress in this area?
Sorry, I missed the front of the first part of your question. Is this on
ESG
ESG. Okay, tremendous. Thank you. Yes is the short answer. When we think about Scope 1 and 2 carbon, we are implementing specific targets right from branch level through our businesses to all aspects of our operation. Okay. As Emma talked about for our fleet as well as our buildings and building stock. Very clear on what we need to do there. Scope 3 carbon clearly is a systemic industry-wide issue. What Emma put up there with us being really at the center of an ecosystem with suppliers and customers and government, really places us in a very strong position to convene how the industry will face into the reduction and removal of carbon for all aspects of what we do, from the creation of the materials through the supply chain to the deployment in buildings.
That's a difficult nut to crack as is Scope 3 for any industry. We're working really, really hard. We're very, very early in the journey, but we're working really hard with our customers and suppliers to start to think about how we do that. Scope 1 and 2 very much more in our gift, specific targets, and obviously we will chart our progress through the normal mechanism of the annual report. Scope 3 obviously harder and longer and we need to bring the industry with us on that. Anything, Alan, to add?
Yeah. Beyond carbon, I think Emma illustrated some of the targets that we had around apprenticeships as well. This is not just about when we're talking ESG in our case, not just targets about decarbonization that you'll see. There is a specific section in the annual report with detail and we've added further targets in other areas, and there is a significant component of short-term annual incentive for the management team that's linked to some of the ESG measures that we have.
Good afternoon, everyone. Robert Eason from Goodbody. A few questions. You talk about getting deeper into the project cycle with your bigger customers and providing solutions. How should we think about how the pricing model might evolve as you get deeper into those relationships and you're going beyond just selling the product? In relation to that, what risks are you prepared to take on in that project cycle that you mightn't have taken on before, and how do you think about that? In a similar area, how are you joining up the Keyline, the CCF, the BSS, and indeed the managed services in terms of bringing all those products together and share of wallet without it becoming a complex journey for your ultimate customer? There's a few questions in all of that.
Just following on the previous question, especially on Scope 3, where the industry's only starting off really on that, how prepared would you be to get involved in a JV with someone on the material side and almost go exclusive and get a step ahead of anyone, given that we're only at the start of this journey and it's going to take a long time, this journey as well? Maybe just talk about your idea about that.
Fantastic. Thanks, Robert. Some great questions. You're absolutely right. I think really what Angela Rushforth talked about started to bring your first question to life. How you start to think about the pricing and commercial model for progressively value-adding services is very different to product distribution. We are actively, as you would expect, through our test and learns with customers, we're actually actively developing the commercial model that will sit alongside and around this, so that the expertise and the capability that it's brought to bear is recognized and valued by the customer.
That sits alongside, obviously very close to my heart, given my previous world, the kind of risks, whether they be design, advice, value engineering, whatever it might be, or really as we start to work more broadly along the value chain, we are very focused on working really hard to be really clear about the risks that we take on and what we're prepared to take on. This is about working in collaboration with not just our customers, but suppliers, to be really clear about where we add value, how we charge for that, and how we manage the risk together. So far, we're getting some really good responses from customers working through those issues really, really well, and we're really excited about it. Your point about joining up.
Well, as I said, I've organized the leadership team and the businesses to work much more together, collaborating together, sharing data, sharing capability. As we think about where the customer lies within our businesses, actually how we start to integrate the capability and integrate the flow of product, wherever it might be behind them, is actively something we're working on now. Obviously, the managed services part of our business is more than just a part of the business within Kieran's General Merchant. It's actually kind of state of mind. It's an approach.
How do we think about managing a customer in such a way that we're able to bring the full service to them in a very bespoke way that suits them best, whether that's the deployment of our physical assets. We've talked about the role of our branches, whether how the flow of materials from wherever within our group is required to come forward to serve their needs. Our managed services mindset, as opposed to just the business, really plays strongly as customers' demands get ever more complex and broad ranged. Scope 3, I didn't know the question, actually. Alan, did you?
Whether we're prepared to go into a JV with someone, I think at this stage, Robert, it's early days. We're working with anyone and everyone who wants to listen on that rather than looking at specific opportunities. If something were to arise, we'd of course look at it. I think you had a question on risk related to getting deeper into the project cycle as well. We have looked at that.
I'm not going to go into specific examples for commercial confidentiality reasons, but some of the projects that we're working on trialing at the moment, we've been looking at the balance of risks within those, taken appropriate legal advice so that we can think through that. We're very alive to the risk on that. Overall, we're more open in terms of risk appetite on furthering our strategy, as you might imagine, than we might be on something like cyber risk. We'll be open to assessing that, but taking appropriate advice.
Thank you. Christen Hjorth from Numis. Two for me on Toolstation. The first on the U.K. As Toolstation and Screwfix, I know there's sort of differences, but also similarities. They sort of move towards maturity in terms of number of branches. Is there a risk that we could see increased price competition, or is the market just big enough for both of them to be winners? The second, just on Toolstation France. Over the medium term, three to five y ears, under every scenario, should we assume that that remains loss-making, or could it become break even over that period? Thank you.
I'll start on France, and then I'll move on to the question on the U.K. I think given the scale of France and the ambition we've got, it's more likely to have losses on a three-year basis than be break even. As I said to an earlier question, as we look at the way that the Benelux business is developing, it's following exactly the same pattern as the U.K., so I know that will be in profitability, the Netherlands in a couple of years and Belgium shortly thereafter. That will enable us to have the space within the envelope, if you like, to manage those losses. When James talked about Toolstation and indeed Nick earlier, we talked about a share that was in a low single digit of an addressable market. We don't focus on the price competition with the nearest competitor.
We think about that in a broader sense within the market. We know we are more price competitive despite what others will say. We look at thousands of comparable SKUs every week on the websites and do the price comparison. We know we have a lower cost, simpler business model, and we know that enables us to keep our price advantage value in the market. I'd be more worried if I were a big box operator about the price competition than a price competition between Toolstation and its nearest competitor.
Super. Thank you. I think we have time for one more.
Thanks, guys. It's Ami Galla from Credit Suisse. I've got three questions, please. The first one, I think you said at the start, in general merchanting, you captured something like 40% of customer wallet. Of that remaining 60%, do you have much of a sense of what's genuinely accessible to you or what I suppose some customers want to have more than one trade account to maximize on credit, et cetera, or buy stuff from Toolstation and the like. Do you have as much of a sense of what's genuinely accessible?
On general merchanting, this sort of shift to larger branches over the long term, are you comfortable that that sort of means that you're further away from customers and therefore, do people travel to these destination branches, or is there risk here of actually just being further away from the customer base? Secondly, on the sort of same topic, does it fundamentally change the cost structure of a general merchanting branch? If you're bigger branches, do you have more fixed cost at a local level and therefore are you more cyclical through the cycle from a margin perspective? Thirdly, sorry. On Toolstation, you obviously talked about this sort of medium term potential to take heavyside orders.
Do you have sufficient capacity here in general merchanting to make this a very meaningful number? Is there risk that you cannibalize sales that would have gone through general merchanting via this channel? I suppose, are you comfortable that you can maintain these really high service levels that Toolstation is known for through heavyside as well, or is there risk that you dilute the model and dilute that customer service proposition? Thanks very much.
Super. Thank you. I'll start. What do our customers tell us? Our customers tell us that they want destination, really capable destinations for heavyside and timber. That what they really appreciate is depth of range, accessibility, the ability of our branches to really service their needs whenever they need it. Actually, our larger, more capable branches, bear in mind that we've got a pretty big network, so they're never that far from our customers, are really appreciated over and above what on the face of it might seem a really convenient local branch, but we don't have the depth of stock. It's not as easy to access. It's not as easy to operate for our customers. Therefore, the pivot to larger, more capable branches, I think is really appreciated by them. Actually, we can be much more efficient with them.
As we've said, actually, how we think about optimizing the shape and the role of our network in any given geography will be a mix of some of those larger, more capable ones and maybe still a mix of some of those smaller, more proximate branches. What thinking about in the medium term unlocking with the Toolstation collaboration is just the ability for our customers to access even more conveniently. James talked about branches that aren't further than 10 minutes drive time away from our customers. It gives a really convenient channel for heavyside as well as the lightside delivery and collect. Actually, in building the larger, more capable branches, we give ourselves the capacity to be able to deal with that.
Clearly what we've laid out today is the early work that we've been doing in piloting the lightside collaboration between Toolstation and General Merchant, and it's proved really successful. Now as we optimize the heavyside collect and delivered proposition for our customers within the General Merchant, make sure we have the right estate, make sure we have the right digital channels, we really understand what works well for our customers. It gives us a fantastic opportunity to unlock that in due course. We're really excited about it.
Alan, do you want to comment on the
Yeah, just on that point, Ami Galla, remember as well that for heavyside, we deliver more than half of the product to the end customer as well. They're not necessarily coming into the branch to take product away. I think the interesting thing about heavyside is it will remain a business where there's a high proportion that has to be delivered to site in the medium to long term. I think Glynis Johnson had a question as well, Nick.
Glynis Johnson, Jefferies. I'll be very quick. One question. Toolstation, given it's reaching maturity in the U.K., given your margin guidance, what is the return on capital employed it's making and what can we expect it to make?
You should ask Chad for the answer to that question next to you because we've been discussing it. In my view, Toolstation can make a mid-20s plus return on capital employed. I think it's a difficult one to measure at the moment because there's so much immature space within the network. If we think about the economics of laying down a branch, net investment, CapEx, GBP 130,000-GBP 150,000 to fit it out. We can do that in 10 days from getting the keys, so we get them up and running pretty quickly.
You put in an equivalent amount of stock, part of which is funded by the creditors, and then you need the distribution assets, so in particular the large distribution centers to run your fulfillment for the branches and then also direct business as well. You can see the numbers. I'd expect that business to be making, as it starts to mature, GBP 2 million per branch of revenue. We ran through the economics of the return on sales for the branches.
Thank you.
Good. Thank you so much for being with us and for your tremendous questions and for your attention over several hours. It's now 5:00 P.M. I know many of you will want to dash away on some empty train or half empty train out of London. I hope that many of you can stay, even if for a short while, to have a drink with us. All the team are here, so it's a great opportunity to ask us some questions, meet the team, and really understand our business a little bit more. We hope that you can hang around for a little or a long while. Thank you for being with us today. Really appreciate seeing you. It's been tremendously exciting for us to unpack and talk about our plans, and we hope to see you soon, and talk about them some more. Thank you very much.