I would now like to hand the conference over to Hannah Lynch, Head of Corporate Affairs and Brand. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Synlait's full year results conference call. Our CEO, Grant Watson, and our CFO, Rob Stowell, will shortly take you through the presentation, which includes a summary on our financial performance and refreshed strategy. We'll then open for Q&A at the end of the presentation and ask if you could please limit your questions to two per person. The presentation will take around 40 minutes. If you have any additional follow-ups not answered on the call today, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Otherwise, we look forward to connecting with many of you over the coming weeks in person. Over to you, Grant.
Kia ora koutou. It is my pleasure to take you through our FY 2022 results. We've certainly made significant progress in the last 12 months, acknowledging that we are one year into a two-year recovery program. The key takeaways from today are. Our return to robust profitability is on track. EBITDA is up NZD 91.8 million to NZD 129.1 million. Our balance sheet returns to normal metrics. Net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.6, enabled by strong operating cash flows and inventory reduction. We re-reviewed our Synlait strategy and executive leadership team structure. On the first of August, we successfully implemented SAP. Commercial production is on track to start in early 2023 for our Synlait Pōkeno multinational customer.
Last week, we launched our food service cream up into China under the JOYHANA brand in partnership with the Savencia Group. All of this and more was delivered while navigating Omicron. Our team's commitment to keeping our people safe, keeping their families safe, and keeping our facilities running was nothing less than inspiring. Our response resulted in no more than 5.8% of our team being out of action with COVID at any one time. I'd like to take this opportunity to pay thanks to our staff throughout New Zealand and up in China for their significant contribution in very challenging times. I'd also like to thank the commitment and loyalty of our farmers and the support and understanding of our customers again, during this very challenging period. I'd now like to hand over to our CFO, Rob Stowell, to take you through our financial performance.
Thank you, Grant. Good morning to all those online. It's fantastic to see our FY 2022 results showing a strong bounce back. Last year when we set the turnaround plan up, it included several key actions to ensure we would return to robust profitability as follows, tighter management of our ingredients business, improved infant base powder volumes, growing contribution from our beverages and cream, Dairyworks, and lactoferrin businesses. Targeted cost savings from throughout the group, reductions in inventory, capital expenditure, and the sale and leaseback of our Auckland premises, which would drive debt down to more comfortable levels. As we move through the next few slides, you'll be able to see we have delivered on all of these actions. Just turning to slide four, key financial metrics. Revenue was up 21% to NZD 1.66 billion. That's a new record for us at Synlait.
EBITDA was up NZD 91.8 million to NZD 129.1 million. Not a record, but fantastic progress on where we were last year. NPAT is up NZD 67 million to NZD 38.5 million, so a very solid bounce back from the group. Note the adjusted NPAT was NZD 34 million. This was due to two significant one-off offsetting impacts. The first was the sale and leaseback of our Auckland premises, for which contributed a positive NZD 13.4 million NPAT. The second is the offsetting impairment of the group's Temuka cheese plant for NZD 8.8 million NPAT. I'll expand on this in the coming slides. Total average milk price settled at NZD 9.59 a kg of milk solids. This is a record for Synlait and one that we hope makes our milk suppliers very happy.
Note, this includes a base milk price of NZD 9.30, plus premiums of NZD 0.29. Operating cash was up from only NZD 18.4 million last year to NZD 232.9 million. Again, another record and a real highlight to the results. CapEx tracked down 33% to NZD 96.3 million. Pleasing to see this further step down as we had planned. Net debt is down 29% to NZD 341.9 million. Again, great inroads into our debt and probably for me, the highlight of the results, seeing this come down so much in only 12 months. It places our debt ratios into a much more comfortable range, and you can see they're listed on the slide. We move to the next slide 5. The improved FY 2022 financial performance.
This one really demonstrates both the size of the turnaround and where it came from. If you cast your eyes to the right of the slide, you can see the increase in EBITDA. Below that is an NPAT bridge, showing that, how we got from our loss of NZD 28.5 million last year to a profit of NZD 38.5 million this year. I'll quickly summarize the key factors. Firstly, Ingredients delivered a NZD 43 million margin growth due to better premium payment, sales phasing, and a product mix weighted towards skim milk powder versus whole milk powder. Higher sales volumes from our FY 2021 inventory sell down, lower cost structures, strong FX management. The next bar is Nutritionals, and that delivered a NZD 27.2 million margin growth due to higher production of base powders.
We also had positive impacts from similar factors as the Ingredients business unit with cost reductions and strong FX performance. Our lactoferrin business continued to perform with a record sales of 37 metric tons, up 4 tons from last year. This included very firm pricing as we see continued strong demand from international infant formula brand owners. Next bar is Beverages and Cream, which delivered NZD 3.4 million margin growth. While we had some delay in our UHT cream business launch, which only just launched this month, we had some positive impacts due to the cost reductions and pricing model changes within our key liquid milk contracts.
Consumer Foods, otherwise known as Dairyworks, delivered NZD 7.4 million margin growth due to very good cheese procurement practices, slightly higher sales volumes and again, improved cost structures, including the idling of the Temuka cheese plant. The next bar there offsets. We had some other income and costs which came through. They offset to about NZD 100,000. The key point here is those costs and income were mainly one-off items unique to FY 2022. It included such things as some reversals of inventory positioning and write backs, legal claims, SAP costs that could not be capitalized and higher freight costs. I'll expand on those later. The two large bars at the right of the graph. Firstly, the sale and leaseback of the Auckland premises, as mentioned. This contributed NZD 11.9 million gain.
It was canvassed at our half year results, and the sale was completed to take advantage of the hot Auckland property market while maintaining operations and releasing capital for debt repayment. The second is the impairment of the group's Temuka cheese plant of NZD 12.2 million to reflect the decision taken by management and the board to idle the plant for another 12 months. Management's going to continue to evaluate when the plant should resume operations. It was planned to continue in FY 2023, but it was delayed due to other strategic priorities. Now, while this impairment is disappointing, there's a non-cash technical accounting treatment under IAS 36, where impairment needs to be taken when plans for resuming operations are considered uncertain. It does not take away from Synlait continuing to find a solution over the next 12 months. Going to slide 6. Revenues and sales volumes.
Overall reported revenue was up 21% to NZD 293 million, which is a great result. This slide gives visibility by business units. The increase was mainly driven by Ingredients. The business being up 30% with higher dairy commodity prices being the main driver and also 5% higher sales volumes. It was a record volume for us to shift in a challenging supply chain environment. Nutritionals business up just 2% and this was due mainly to higher input prices. Milk, raw materials offset by 850 metric tons lower volume. Lactoferrin volumes were up 4 metric tons. While not material on a revenue basis, it was material on a margin basis. I should note here that the second half volumes for Nutritionals were building nicely compared to our first half.
Beverages and Creams was up 22% due to a relatively small volume increase, but a lot higher dairy commodity prices. Revenue would have been higher had we have launched our new UHT product earlier in the year, but this was delayed to the start of FY 2023. Consumer Foods or Dairyworks was up 15% due to higher commodity prices and 3% increase in volume. As the growth focus starts to shift to new products in other geographies such as Australia and Southeast Asia. Moving to production and inventory volumes. Overall production reduced 4% or 8,800 metric tons. This is mainly seen in ingredients, but mainly driven by higher production of infant based powder displacing ingredients products. Our milk supply was also adversely impacted by weather, some 4% lower milk volumes.
We also sold significant cream volumes for good returns as we maximize the skim milk powder mix due to price differentials between whole milk powder and skim AMF. The AMF plant was fully utilized for part of the year. In Nutritionals, there was a healthy increase of 48% in volumes for both consumer packaged and infant based powder production as we build for an increased demand in second half of FY 2022 and early FY 2023. In beverages and cream, we saw stable volumes of production as the UHT cream product launch was delayed until early FY 2023. The decrease in production and consumer foods is due primarily to the temporary idling of the Temuka cheese plant. Now, closing finished goods inventory saw a massive reduction of 40%.
This was down to the sell down of the ingredients products compared to the high level we had at the start of the financial year. Good reductions in our infant based powder holdings where it made sense compared to the FY 2021 financial year. Reduction of cheese inventories, mainly due to the idling of Temuka cheese plant. Let's just move to page 8 to our gross margin performance. Look, this slide unpacks the business by business unit where gross margin was made. In total, our gross margin was up roughly NZD 80 million on last year, now sitting at NZD 146.8 million.
This slide really repeats a lot of the summary information that is on pages 5 to 7, however, it gives some more detail and shows the progress we have made in each business unit, both in dollar terms and on a per metric ton basis. I won't go through the detail of this slide on this call, but the information is there. Moving forward to slide 9, operating cost performance. As mentioned earlier, we've made good progress on cost reductions across the group despite the challenging trading environment. Firstly, our organizational reset that we conducted in November last year made savings that were anticipated of roughly NZD 7 million.
We've also partially offset by roughly NZD 3 million as we brought on two extra cleaning and canning shifts earlier than anticipated if demand rose, and we also provided an out of cycle wage increase to staff in May this year. Now, most of these savings sit above the gross margin line, so not seen in the SG&A bridge offset, but improved our gross margin performance. We did see NZD 3.5 million of net cost increase in SG&A overall, despite NZD 3.7 million of savings made. I won't go into the detail of these, but they are outlined on the slide and relate to areas such as the Talbot Forest cheese brand relaunch, COVID-19 costs to protect our sites, SAP costs which are non-capitalizable, temporary employee costs and higher distribution costs.
Costs will continue to be a focus in FY 2023 as the company implements SAP and manages inflation pressure, and the trading environment continues to be challenging. We just move to slide 10. Cash flow and net debt. Well, we made fantastic progress in this space. This has meant we continue to stay well within our extended banking arrangement set up last July. Key points on this slide. Operating cash flows were up to NZD 333 million, up NZD 215 compared to last year. This was due to much better profitability performance, as noted on previous slides, and careful management of our working capital. We continue to reduce capital expenditure. Currently, we only have two major projects in flight. That's our SAP project, which is winding down at the moment, and our Synlait Pōkeno project, which winds down December.
We've had a reduction of NZD 47 million on last year's spend, and we see our capital expenditure tracking down to around NZD 70 million for next year. We believe our operational kind of CapEx envelope is around NZD 20 million-NZD 25 million per year. We continue to track that down. We executed the sale and leaseback of our Auckland land and buildings in October, which gave us a gain of NZD 17.1 million and brought debt down by NZD 30.1 million. Net debt is down a massive number of NZD 137.5 million since last July. This exceeded our expectations as we made faster progress on improving working capital and had less headwinds than we expected from supply chain disruptions towards the end of the second half.
You'll also see our guidance note that we are now targeting a lower debt ratio of between 2x and 2.5x for FY 2023. We move to our last slide. I just want to make a couple of points on our debt facilities and banking governance. Our banking syndicate, which is made up of the ANZ and BNZ, have been hugely supportive and obviously pleased with the progress that we've made this year and the headroom that's been created within our banking ratios. I'd like to thank the banks for their ongoing support. With the progress in our debt reduction and our bank debt up for renewal next year and our retail bonds the year after, we'll be reviewing our capital structure requirements over the next 12 months in detail. Finally, I'd like to thank our longstanding shareholders who have also been very supportive and patient over the last 12 months. That's a wrap on the financials. Beth over to you Grant to take us through business performance and strategy.
Thank you for that, Rob. Now what I'd like to do is give you a high-level overview of our business performance, our refreshed strategy, and give you an update on our outlook. In terms of our business review across the last 12 months, based on business segments and critical projects, using the traffic light system we used at mid-year. Firstly, cost structure review. That has been completed, taking some significant cost out of the business, and reviewing the organizational structure. Working capital, debt and treasury management, green also. Cash flow initiatives completed, as explained by Rob. Improved sales phasing and inventory reductions. Again, the sale and leaseback of the Richard Pearse Drive property in Auckland. The ingredients business had a strong financial result.
We appointed a new executive into that business and again looked at the structure of that business unit. In the Nutritionals business, recovery of the infant formula business. The lactoferrin business remains strong, and all key growth projects are tracking on plan. Dairyworks delivered a very strong financial result and did a great job of improving their working capital position. Some very, very good progress across each of those five areas. Where we have ambers, there's two key areas, beverages and cream. We did launch that food service product up in China last week. However, the delivery of that project was delayed. We've made significant progress in the last 12 months, developing a pipeline of globally recognized customers against UHT consumer product. Capital projects management. CapEx was down in FY 2020
Against FY 2021, I should say, as explained by Rob. We implemented SAP, albeit delayed in timing, and an increase in CapEx off the back of that. Scale of Pōkeno's new customer is on track. In terms of red traffic lights. Operations performance, a very challenging year. We're in the process of rebuilding operational capability, both manufacturing, and dealing with a very challenging supply chain environment. We are working with the integrated work system continuous improvement methodologies to strengthen our position operationally. We are adapting to post-pandemic ways of working, ranging from making sense of labor shortages, and high inflation, geopolitical dynamics, and other challenges that I've mentioned. Talbot cheese plant, we've also classified as red.
As mentioned by Rob, we've made an intentional decision to continue to idle that plant, and as a result, we've made that impairment. A brief overview of the business units. The Ingredients business has made a very, very strong recovery, delivering record revenues and record margin. A real focus there on disciplines as they relate to premiums, the phasing of our sales, optimizing product mix, and chasing the lead bucket, which has been in favor of skim and Edam. Delighted to appoint Adam Maxwell into the role of Director of Ingredients, and you'll continue to see a similar level of focus across the business for the year ahead. In terms of our Nutritionals business, we were very pleased to get the SAMR registration for the old GB standard, which takes us through until the twenty-first of February in 2023.
We're working hard with the The a2 Milk Company, with SAMR and NPI, to ensure that we get registration for the new GB standard, which we expect to get at some point next year. Also working very, very closely with the The a2 Milk Company around inventory cover as we look to phase out of one product and phase into the new product. It goes without saying that the SAMR registration process is a very, very top priority across the business. In terms of nutritional base powders, we've built up a very good pipeline of potential future demand, acknowledging that there has been a slowdown in this space off the back of birth rates slowing down, particularly up in China.
Lactoferrin, as already mentioned, demand is strong and prices are firm. In terms of our multinational customer up at Pōkeno, product trials are progressing. We're in the final stages of commissioning. CapEx spend and volume expectations remain on track relative to the contract and the tenure of that contract. Commercial production is planned to start in early 2023. In addition, we are working through trials later this year for new product opportunities that relate to the clinical nutrition category. Also worth noting that we're planning to have an investor day up in Pōkeno in May 2023. In terms of the beverages and cream business unit, clearly the launch of our food service cream just last week.
We're also in the process of commercializing a UHT coffee beverage for an existing multinational customer. As mentioned, we've developed a very, very strong pipeline for consumer products through the UHT line. In terms of Swap-a-Bottle, we're working through the business case at the moment to understand whether we should scale up that opportunity or not. Does it make really strong financial sense? We certainly have seen positive consumer feedback off the back of that great piece of innovation. In terms of our consumer business, so we're talking about Dairyworks there. A really, really strong year for Dairyworks. Record profit result, NZD 18 million of EBITDA. That number is exactly on track with the forecast that we used when the business was purchased some two years ago.
That result was driven by strong procurement disciplines and improvement in their cost structure and increased volumes throughout the business. The business also consolidated their supply chain and went into one distribution center capturing bulk product and finished goods. During the year, there was a refresh of the Talbot Forest cheese brand. In fact, this month we're now exporting that product over to Australia and have an exclusive arrangement in place with Woolworths in Australia. We launched table butter in June and the Dairyworks branded milk and cream range was launched late last year, and that's focused primarily on the food service channel. As it relates to sustainability in terms of our off-farm decarbonization roadmap, phase one is now completed with two significant investments there.
One relating to an upgrade of a boiler to biomass, and the other one was upgrading our Evimax electric boiler. The benefit of that this year is reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 38,000 tons. Once these two assets are at peak, we expect to reduce 58,000 tons of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, and that's expected in FY 2026. In terms of on-farm, we've worked closely with our farmers and have incentivized them to reduce greenhouse gases on-farm and provided a tool to help enable that. In 2023, we go through a recertification of B Corp, and for the first time, that will include Dairyworks.
Made with Better Milk, as a brand that really does capture our sustainability positions right through our value chain, was recently launched as well, and certainly very, very strong interest off the back of that with a number of customers. If we switch gears now, I'd like to take the opportunity to give you a very, very high-level overview of our refreshed strategy, and we will spend quality time with you at the AGM, taking you through more of the detail. Back in March, we kicked off the process of reviewing our strategies by the four business units. This was then signed off by the board in June. Between March and June, there was an iterative process with business units and the board.
In July, we focused on the executional enablers that would drive that strategy. That work has now been completed. Our next strat refresh will take place between May and July next year. In really simple terms, our purpose remains the same, doing milk differently for a healthier world. Our ambitions have changed, and I'll take you through those. The core pillars of the strategy have also changed. You'll see as I take you through those that there is more focus attached to our four business unit strategies. Getting into that process, some really simple underlying assumptions. We know that innovation, disruption, and sustainability is absolutely at the heart of Synlait.
However, we acknowledge the need to be more focused to improve execution and improve accountability. We also appreciate we've been operating in an unprecedented crisis environment. Our competitors are improving their performance. We acknowledge the need to deliver diversified growth across channels, customers, categories and geographies. It's important we do that where we have a clear right to win or a clear competitive advantage. We recognize that sustainability propositions are no longer a nice to have. In terms of the time horizons that we're working to, as I mentioned, we're one year into a two-year recovery program. This next 12 months is very much around stabilizing our business. Horizon one being year one, horizon two being year two, we then look to accelerate the business.
Horizon three being years three to five is then looking at opportunities where we might extend into new territories. Very briefly taking you through the strategy on the page. It's important to note that this is a consolidation of four business unit strategies on a page. The best way to think about this format is in box number one, we have our ambitions. In box number two, it's been really clear on the strong foundations that we have and need to continue to invest behind. Boxes three, four, and five, being channels, categories and geographies, really are the core pillars that relate to strategy.
Box six being right to win speaks to the competitive advantage model that we've developed and will continue to develop to ensure with our farmer suppliers we are their best choice as a processor. Exactly the same thinking applies with the customer competitive advantage in terms of being their preferred supply partner. Box number seven arguably the most important box on the page deals with the areas that will drive the greatest level of execution across our strategy in order for us to deliver against our ambition. Let me just touch on a few areas. From an ambition perspective, it's about taking the already high standards that we deliver against under the B Corp framework and lifting those up even higher.
It's ensuring that we have high staff engagement, that from a farmer perspective and from a customer perspective, that we have very high levels of satisfaction. That from a return on capital perspective, we deliver a minimum of 15%. In terms of channels, broadly speaking, operating across consumer food service and manufacturing, and again, the detail of channels sits within the individual business unit strategies. From a category perspective, base milk powder, beverages and cream, AMF and butter, cheese, infant and adult nutrition, and of course lactoferrin. Geographical areas of focus for us are very much China, selectively Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Just to be clear, it doesn't mean to say that we won't technically trade in other markets, but in terms of where we put our resource, those are the key markets that we are focused on. We'll spend more time together at the AGM going through those competitive advantage models for our farmer suppliers and customers. When it comes to delivering fantastic execution, on-farm excellence is critical. Clearly customer engagement and staff engagement are both critical. Systems, tools and processes speak to the need for us as we introduce SAP, really strengthen our foundations as an organization. That our R&D and NTD, which is new technology developments, are completed in a very, very disciplined fashion. That we continue our journey of improving manufacturing and supply chain performance.
As communicated back in July, we've adjusted our organizational structure to meet the refreshed strategy. You'll see that we have several vacant roles. We're currently working our way through the recruitment for those vacant roles and we will have a fully staffed team in place for the first quarter of 2023. Looking forward, our priorities as a business, no surprise, embedding our new executive leadership team, ensuring that we enable the growth agenda of the The a2 Milk Company, that we commercialize our multinational customer at Pōkeno. The SAMR license, as mentioned, is a critical and top priority across the business. But we continue to grow our food service, cream, and consumer beverages business, that we stabilize SAP, and that we continue to adapt to the post-pandemic world that we now live in. I'd now like to hand back to Rob Stowell to briefly take you through our guidance statements.
Thank you, Grant. Look, we've chosen this year to not disclose EBITDA impact guidance at this stage, and that's just due to the level of market volatility and the risks that we see across the next financial year. It's fully our intention to get back to doing that as soon as possible. To summarize, what we see during next year, tighter management of our ingredients business will continue. We probably won't have the one-off foreign exchange gain that we experienced this year within that business unit, and we'll continue to divert milk to higher margin products in the advanced nutritional business unit and food service business unit, as we see that coming through during the year.
We expect the performance of our advanced nutritional business to continue to build nicely throughout FY 2023. Our new multinational customers will start to lift margins and improve asset utilization, both at Pōkeno but also our Dunsandel liquids facility. We're seeing some good pipeline opportunities evolve on that plant, which is encouraging. The consumer food business will deliver steady contributions as it maintains growth, but also mitigates the high cheese commodity prices that are prevalent at the moment. It will continue to expand overseas, as mentioned throughout our path into markets like Australia and Southeast Asia.
Just digging into P&L factors, costs will increase modestly, we expect that, and that's due to our increasing volumes, but also the fact that we need to stabilize our SAP system over the next few months. There's still high inflation, there's still supply chain pressures, and that's on both sides. That's on the input side, raw materials, and also export. As Grant mentioned, within our strategy, we will be investing in certain areas of business development and also enabler activities within our operations and systems space. Operating cash flows, they'll continue to be robust, we'll continue to work hard on them. They won't be at FY 2022 levels. They were helped by tailwinds of our high inventory in FY 2021.
However, I expect them to still be pretty robust in FY 2023. Our debt-to-EBITDA ratio, we've placed that guidance between 2x and 2.5x that we're targeting. Still relatively conservative, but we think it's the right range to guide on considering on a normalized basis our ratio is at 2.9x at the end of FY 2022. In FY 2023, you know, that'll be the end of our two-year recovery. As previously indicated, we intend on exiting FY 2023 to enter FY 2024 at similar levels of profitability experienced before FY 2021. You know, in layman's terms, we expect to be at similar levels of profitability that we were prior to the downgrade in FY 2021. We're managing several risks that include the SAMR re-registration timeline and the stock build that we need to do there. Tight labor market, inflation, supply chain pressures, they're all still very much there and could impact our results in FY 2023. I will leave it there and hand back over to Grant.
Thank you, Rob. In terms of next steps before we go to Q&A, our annual meeting will be held on the second of December at 1:00 P.M. You can either attend in person or online. We'll certainly through the presentations make sure that you're fully up to speed with the strategies and give you a sense for some of the executional elements that we're working on as it relates to advanced nutrition, ingredients, consumer, and food service. As mentioned, we will have an investor day up at Pōkeno on the eighth of May, including a site tour. Again, you can expect a presence there from a number of our executive leadership team giving presentations and of course plenty of time for Q&A. On that note, we'll now open the call up to questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Matt Montgomery with Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Hi, Grant and Rob. Just checking you can hear me okay.
We can, Matt.
Yep.
Perfect. Thank you. Maybe firstly if I start on debt. Well done on another good half of debt reduction. I guess looking forward, just interested in comments you can make around debt movements for 2023 in light of your guidance for the ratio. I appreciate you don't really want to provide a number, but I guess it'd be helpful if you could provide some more color around that and potentially comment on, you know, the working capital balance today, if you see that as a reasonable level going forward, particularly on the inventory front. Secondly, somewhat related is, I guess the extent of the operating cash flow decline that you're referencing in FY 2023.
Sure thing, Matt. Look, yeah, it's tricky. We were a wee bit conservative in FY 2022. I think, moving forward into FY 2023, there's still uncertainty there, but what I would say is, if you back calculate the stock that we had on hand on FY 2021, that'll take a bit of the. Probably push us right down, probably be above NZD 150 million operating cash flows, but it'll be below NZD 200 million. We are expecting to, as mentioned, target around NZD 70 million of capital expenditures. That will continue to track down as well. Look, we do expect to. We have a large chunk payback of debt at the end of FY 2023, which will be good.
I'd like to see us targeting the bottom end of that range. From an inventory point of view, how sustainable is it? Yeah, there's still work to do there, to be honest. We have increased our stocks of raw materials because just a bit of insulation around our supply chain pressures. I'd like to see us moderate that back over the course of the year if we can, and continue to work on even reducing some of our ingredients inventory. So there's plenty of opportunity there as well. So I definitely think it's sustainable. Does that answer the question?
Yeah. No, that's useful color. Thank you. Then maybe if we stick on your guidance commentary. It's slightly changed wording from previously for 2023. You know, what does that actually mean in essence, in terms of the exit run rate? Are you essentially stating that, you know, you might start FY 2023 at a similar run rate to the second half in terms of profitability? And then come, say, the last quarter, you might run it, you know, NZD 6 million a month in EBITDA similar like you did in FY 2020? Like, as we're starting at this base today and then ramping through the year rather than saying, you know, 2023 as a whole will be in line with that pre-COVID or FY 2020 level. It's just rather opaque, I guess.
Yeah. Look, the major driver of our profitability is our Nutritionals business. Sorry, we just have some technical issues here. The major driver is our Nutritionals business. What I will say is we expect in the second half of FY 2023 that our nutritional volumes start to ramp up to a higher level than what they were in the first half of 2023. We expect that to continue through into FY 2024. That's really what's driving the profitability there, Matt.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nick Mar with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Just a couple. The FX benefits, can you quantify roughly how much that was on a full year basis for Ingredients?
You'll see in our accounts, Nick, in the balance of the accounts, that our foreign exchange rate was very good compared to the industry. The EBITDA amount within Ingredients probably sits in the range of around NZD 12 million-NZD 15 million. Reasonably significant in FY 2022. What I will say, and I'll just add to that, we actually feel there's a lot of opportunity within the Ingredients space to continue to offset that because while we did pretty well with our phasing and also our product mix differentials, we could have done a lot better. We, you know, they came through in the second half, so that kind of will offset some of that one-off FX position.
Okay, great. On the new, your UHT cream product, can you just talk through which part, you know, of the sort of supply chain and sales you are participating in? Is it purely sort of contract manufacturing for the other party, or are you participating further than that?
Thanks, Nick. We're effectively manufacturing the product. We jointly own the brand, and Savencia basically have the front end in terms of sales and distribution.
Okay, great. Can you provide any color around sort of targets you're looking for for this brand and, you know, how big it could grow? It's obviously quite a competitive space. We actually agree.
Yeah. Look, we're really cautious at this stage. I mean, it's a massive market, right? There are some very strong players in the market. We just launched the product. We think that from, you know, taste, texture, functionality, we're really well positioned to gain some good market share. Until we get the product into kitchens, working with chefs, and we see repeat orders come through, we'll be just very cautious to assume what that growth could look like. We believe we have a very competitive product.
Great. Lastly, just on the ROIC target, can you just talk through the sort of 15% number versus sort of north of 20%, which the previous management were targeting? You know, is it to get there by 2027, or could you do that sooner? What's the sort of trajectory of that?
Yeah. Thanks, Nick. It's really to get there by FY 2027. I think there's a possibility we could get there sooner, definitely. I just think we need to be conservative on that front. It just depends on how volumes ramp up over time.
Sorry, just the first part of the question, how it compares to the north of 20% the previous management were, you know, targeting.
Yeah. Look, we have pulled that level down, Nick. We're just looking at our ten-year plans, and we have reduced that outlook.
Yeah. What are the sort of drivers behind that? Is it that the margins are unrealistic? The cost to run the plants? Is there any specific factors?
I think, the key factor is we're still targeting the same, the same strategy, the same sort of business. We just don't expect it to ramp up quite as quickly as we did previously.
Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Stephen Ridgewell with Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, guys, and well done on the improved result and particularly the improved cash flows. Just wanted to talk about your or ask a couple of questions on a2 and the backup options for the company. I mean, you would've seen the result from a2 last month where it's reminded the market that it's planning to insource manufacturing margins at Mataura Valley over the medium term. Can you perhaps just talk a little bit to the degree to which that's already happened? What are your assumptions or the degree to which that happens in FY 2023 and perhaps over the next few years and the guidance you've provided for that, for EBITDA run rate, exit run rate?
Look, clearly I won't get into too much detail around the commercial arrangements we have with the The a2 Milk Company. We've got a very, very good relationship. Our contract that we have in place certainly allows for a2 to produce their own stage four ANZ. You know, The The a2 Milk Company's got a very strong plan in place to grow their business, and we're lined up right behind them to enable that growth.
I guess so if you sort of think medium term, you know, if a2 does continue to insource to the extent they seem to be telling their investors they will, you know, is that exit EBITDA run rate guidance that you've got to this year sustainable? Is that kind of the key question?
Yeah. Look, the guidance that was very sustainable. We've got very, very clear demand signals from the The a2 Milk Company for the year ahead. We stand behind our expectations.
Okay. Just maybe second question. You've talked about strong progress, you know, trying to sign up new base powder customers, including China, but no kind of new contracts as of now at this point. Yeah. When would you be hopeful that you might be able to come to the market and perhaps, you know, with some new customer wins?
Yeah. Look, we've got a really healthy pipeline. Certainly when we have material information to update the market on, we will. The key driver there, Stephen, is a slowdown in birth rates off the back of COVID. It literally, for us, just means a slowdown around that expectation that we had, say, a year ago.
Okay, thanks. Can I just take it one more, just around the capital structure review. When you sort of allude to that, is that going to include, you know, consideration of the equity side, you know, potentially a dividend policy? Or is that review, you know, more focused on kind of debt structure?
Hi. Hi, Stephen. It's Rob Stowell here. Look, it is going to include equity or dividend policy. Both debt and dividends, we'll include that within that review. It's quite a detailed review. I think it's just time- Time to do it as we see our debt coming down quite quickly and we look at what we need over the next three or four years.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Barwick with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hi, Grant. Hi, Rob. Can I just understand or just talk a little bit more about this timing for the new GB recipe approval and what it means for the risks around inventory for Synlait, and how that sort of balance of risk sits with Synlait versus a2. Obviously the later the approval coming through, the greater the difficulty in transitioning from the old recipe inventory to the new recipe inventory. I'd just be curious to understand or to hear your explanation as to at what, you know, when you're transitioning, and you're making the product, at what point is a2 on the hook for that inventory versus Synlait? Because you can, you know, you could easily get a situation if this approval comes through very late to that February date, and you've got a lot of inventory under the old registration and not much of the new and you'll have a customer set who will be much more interested in buying the new recipe.
Yeah. Thank you, Richard. Maybe if I just talk through firstly at a very high level what the timeframes are that we're working to. We're currently working our way through the technical review process with SAMR. We've put forward a dossier. They request feedback, we work through that together. That will take place between, or is taking place and we'll expect that to conclude between now and the end of the year. Next year we would expect to be audited by SAMR, which would be effectively carried out by CNCA. At some stage next year, we would expect, all things going well, to get our registration for the new GB standard.
What we've done with a2 is we've worked up a whole range of scenarios as to how those timings could move around. Off the back of that, what does a phase out a ramp up look like? Obviously that speaks to the need to build up inventory before the twenty-first of February. Once we get registration, on the basis we get registration, which we're expecting to, we would then be ready with all of the right materials and base powders to then go into production against that new GB standard product. Look, there's no point in getting into any detail. We've got one core assumption that we're operating to, a number of different iterations around that. We're confident that between a2 and ourselves we'll ensure the market has product on shelves. Look, you know, we will manage the risks around transition together in the true spirit of a partnership.
Do you feel that? I mean, if you look back in relatively recent history, it felt like Synlait got, you know, the raw end of the deal on some of those inventory situations with a2 when they pulled back their sales targets, I guess, and that left you guys in a very, very difficult position. I guess the risks are you could end up in another difficult situation. Does the relationship take that into account, the previous scenario where it felt like Synlait did carry more of the burden than a2?
Yeah. It's fair to say that the learnings have been banked on both sides, you know, from the challenges of FY 2021. This is such a critically important piece of work for both organizations. We are joined at the hip on all fronts as to how we navigate our way through this to ensure that we keep product on shelf up in China through a period of transition.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's helpful.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Marcus Curley with UBS. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Could we just start with you know, your outlook for the adult nutritional business? Can you in previous you know, results, you know, you're giving some loose guidance in terms of volume expectations. Can you talk about you know, what would be an appropriate range for this year?
Hi, Marcus, it's Rob here. You mean nutritional powders, adult nutrition, is that what you're talking about?
Yeah, adult nutrition at Pōkeno.
Look, that plan is in place to have that commissioned in December, January. We'll start making product on the line. We'll be exporting product at the end of Q3 of this financial year. The volumes are Materially the same as what we anticipated, previously. You know, we're working so very hard towards that.
Okay. The same question on the liquid cream into China. You know, can you give us any color on, you know, your volume expectations for this year?
We're fairly cautious at this stage, Marcus, again. It's really important we understand how the product responds in market and get a sense as to what demand could look like. We're being cautious, but we expect certainly heading into FY 2024 that we'll have a business that's growing and will set us up nicely for the future.
On lactoferrin, could you talk, you know, to the contribution at the gross profit level or at the very least a directional color on gross profit contribution from lactoferrin in FY 2022?
Yeah, look, lactoferrin continues to be a really strong co-contributor, Marcus. I probably don't wanna disclose that at the moment. If you look at market prices for lactoferrin and look at our volume, it'd be quite easy to work it out.
Well, to be fair, there isn't a market benchmark for pricing, unless I'm wrong. An indication that we've had is lactoferrin prices are significantly down over the course of the last 18 months.
We're seeing really strong evidence of robust pricing. The reason we're seeing that is because a lot of the major infant formula manufacturers that are putting product into China are putting that into their products. From our perspective, we're seeing very strong signals from a number of international players. I probably don't wanna say anything more than that, Marcus, at this stage.
How about on bulk infant formula? Could you give us any color on, you know, the volumes achieved on that part of the business this year?
Those volumes are very, very small, Marcus, of our whole result. Very, very small. Immaterial.
Okay. Finally, you mentioned, I think, 70-odd million dollars worth of CapEx this year. Could you give us a breakdown of what sits in that?
Look, it's mainly just the tail end of our ERP project, the Pōkeno project and a couple of smaller sustainability projects and an RO project. We've put in reverse osmosis into the dryers. That's going to allow us to process more milk in the future. We signaled that previously. That's basically it. The rest is operational CapEx and a cheese line at Dairyworks.
Thank you. A reminder to only submit your questions to two per person. Your next question comes from Adrian Allbon with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, team. Just first question, I guess following on a little bit from what Marcus was asking about Nutritionals gross margin per ton. Like, if you do take out some of an estimate for sort of lactoferrin, like, it looks like your GM per metric ton for, if you like, the infant formula stuff to a2, like, feels like it's sort of either sort of around NZD 1,300 per metric ton to about NZD 1,500 in the second half. Like, it's still sort of 45%-50% down on what you would've been achieving in FY 2020. Can you sort of provide like a bit of a bridge on that delta?
Look, it's hard to apply the exact details, Adrian. Basically the key reasons the margin's lower is our base powder manufacturing engine still having caught up with the consumer packaging. In FY 2022, our consumer packaging production was kind of in line with demand, but our infant base powder engine, while better than the previous year, was nowhere near what it was back in FY 2020 when we're building base powders for increased volume for the following year, the following years when demand was going up. That's kinda how it works.
Given that some of your previous comments, you're sort of saying the volumes have sort of been building nicely through the second half and you're expecting further into 2023, like, we should assume some leverage back in that, in the 2023 guidance?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Yeah. That's correct.
In terms of, like, sorry, this is all within the same question. Like, is in the 2,700, that was sort of like the FY 2020 sort of level. Like what sort of level. Like is there any sort of reason why it couldn't get back to that?
No. I don't think there is actually. I think, providing we can continue to become more efficient as a producer. We've got the Pōkeno site now, so we need to make sure we're continuing to look at filling that site up and running our plants more efficiently down in Dunsandel as well. It probably just depends on the timing of the inflationary pressures and how that affects, you know, wage rates and all that sort of stuff within our cost base as well.
Okay. Maybe like second question, probably more for Grant. Like, just in terms of some of that strategy refresh stuff on the slides, like you mentioned, sort of developing a ten-year asset footprint in 2023 and implementing a horizon two. Can you give us a sense of like on that 2027 ambition of a sort of return on invested capital or capital employed around the 15% mark, are you thinking about like a sort of stable capital employed number from the sort of NZD 1.1 billion now? Or are you thinking growing that? Are you thinking kind of reducing that with, you know, potential of dividends and stuff like that? Like, can you just give us a sense of what you're thinking there and what that asset program would be?
Yeah, sure. The really important point there is that, off the back of the refresh strategy, we need to give thought to what categories and assets we will invest in. We'll work our way through that process in the next 12 months. Certainly, when it comes to the return on capital number that we've stated in the strategy, that comes off a bottom up build. We've factored in into the equation clearly a revenue series, product mix, and we've made some initial assumptions around capital investment, you know, whether it be health and safety, food safety, basic business continuance, all the way through to our type opportunities. It's still high level at this stage, but it is bottom up and we'll be in a position to firm up our thinking in the next 12 months once we have completed that 10-year asset footprint.
I guess at this stage, should we be like, you're not, we're not talking about new plants, right? We're talking about optimizing existing stainless steel footprint on this horizon, presumably, like given what you've just narrated back in terms of health and safety and stuff like that.
Look, our key focus right now is to utilize the existing capacity we've got. Clearly Pōkeno is a great example. The liquids plant in Dunsandel is a great example. But certainly if there's compelling opportunities to invest behind more lactoferrin capacity, then we'd look to do that. We'll work out, as Rob said, our way through a process in the next 12 months around cheese at Temuka. Again, let us complete the plan and then we can give you more flavor to that this time 12 months.
Okay. Just maybe, sorry, just related probably to the 27 timing, like presumably that would be if there was a significant loss in the a2 English label volumes, that would be sort of happening around that time as well. Like what are you sort of thinking in terms of that target and potentially the risk around that event?
Well, look, we've got plans in place to grow the business, to reduce concentration risk and that relates to customers, categories, and geographies. As much as that might be one scenario and could have a negative impact on us, there are many other scenarios that could have a positive impact on us.
Okay. Are those the ones that through the presentation you're sort of alluding to, like the beverages customer, multinational execution, and also that which is the one in beverages and cream I presume is the other one?
I mean, look, there's a whole range of obvious opportunities for us, again, filling up the Pōkeno asset, the beverages plant, the West Coast opportunities throughout Southeast Asia and up into China. You know, there's a whole range of opportunities for us. And you'll get more of a flavor when we take you through the strategy work in early December.
Okay.
No.
Sorry, just.
Yep. Go for it, Adrian.
Oh, just sorry. That's just to kinda. Maybe if I clarify it this way. Like should we, over the next couple of years, should we be expecting quite a strong free cash flow yield off Synlait as it sort of, as you fill up the plant, the CapEx come down? Or should we temper that by quite a lot of reinvestment in terms of achieving some of these customer outcomes that you've sort of talked about? Just trying to understand the mix of thinking around that. I know it'll ultimately turn up in the dividend policy when you come forward with that, but just give us a start on that.
Yeah. Look, Rob, Adrian, it's Rob here. I think as Grant said, you know, there is plenty of opportunities, but we do have, Reasonable amount of excess capacity in our assets that we've got. We'll work hard to fill that. Free cash flows, you're right. They're going to be coming through. We'll balance that. If we've got really high value ideas to invest in, we'll do that. Otherwise, we'll pay out dividends is probably where we will get to.
Okay, no problem.
Tim, we have got time for one more question.
Thank you. Your final question comes from Tim Hunter with NBR. Please go ahead.
Well, good morning. Thanks for the presentation. I just wondered if you could just clarify the situation around the new certification from SAMR. You mentioned that you're expecting to get that approval sometime next year. I just wondered if you could. I know you've answered one question on this already, but I just wondered if you could say a bit more about what happens if that decision happens much later in the year than February, how that transition goes over from making the original recipe to making the new recipe, you know, how that will work.
Yeah. Good question, Tim. Look, there's two factors for us to consider. One is the ability to build inventory and make sure that we've got enough cover on that transition period, and we're really well positioned in that regard. The second clearly is consumers' expectations around freshness of product in the market. We're very aware of that dynamic as well. There are other ways of accessing the China market, so an obvious would be through an online CBEC type channel, which would allow us continued access into the market but through a different channel. We've looked through a number of those scenarios and we believe between the two organizations, we've got a plan in place that will address that type of outcome.
Cool. Thank you.
Thank you. That's all the time we have for our question and answer session. I'll now hand back to Mr. Watson for closing remarks.
Thanks, everyone, for your time today. We look forward to engaging with a number of you one-on-one during the coming weeks. Would certainly appreciate the opportunity to provide more flavor around our strategy refresh at the AGM in early December. Thank you again for your time.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.