I would like to wish you a warm welcome to our annual results conference, 2023. I'm here together with Walter Scherz, our CFO, and as well, Guido Unternährer, he is Head of Investor Relations. I think both of them, you know very well. Yeah, first of all, thank you very much for your interest in Dätwyler, that you are addressing by attending today. The agenda has the usual format. Walter Scherz and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have after our presentation. Let me start with the slide number three here. That is the Dätwyler full year overview 2023, and here I'm summarizing the key financial figures for our company as a whole.
We succeeded in maintaining our sales level despite an almost complete COVID business discontinuation, customer inventory reductions, and a clearly negative currency effects. We consolidated QSR, that means, Connectors, business unit Connectors for 12 months for the first time, the reporting year in 2023. Organic sales overall remained stable, even when adjusted for the acquisition and currency effects. The lack of sales growth led to underutilization of our recently expanded production capacity, particularly in the healthcare sector. We should also add one-off costs for restructuring measures and higher energy costs. All in all, these effects led to a temporary profitability decline. The EBIT reached CHF 120.4 million. This corresponds to an unsatisfactory 10.5% EBIT margin. The margin recovery in the second half of the year was not as strong as we had hoped.
However, the higher EBIT margin in the second half of the year shows that our optimization measures are taking effects and that we are bottomed out in the first half year of 2023. The net result fell to CHF 63.8 million due to the lower EBIT and significantly higher financial expenses. I would like to emphasize that Dätwyler is not a restructuring case. The measures implemented are aimed at optimizing our cost structures in the long term. At the same time, we are always ensuring that we maintain our capacity and expertise to handle the many new customer projects and do not jeopardize our medium-term growth potential. Into slide four. This slide shows our organizational structure, consisting of two business areas, Healthcare Solutions and Industrial Solutions, and the three group functions. The group functions drive our recognized core competencies and enable high synergies across all business units.
Please remember that our business units are the structure and the companies, that they are addressing the market, and our internal functions are generating most of the synergy effects between them. The combination of our core competencies with regard to solution design, material expertise, and operational excellence makes us a value development partner for our customers. I will come back to that. This is reflected in the large number of new projects with existing and new customers that we acquired in the reporting year. Now we're moving to slide number five. Let's discuss the business performance of the business area, Healthcare Solutions now. Healthcare Solutions offer high-quality, system-critical elastomer components for containers, syringes, and delivery systems for injectable drugs. Our customers are the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and injection device manufacturers. Please, to the next slide.
In terms of sales turnover, the almost complete discontinuation of the COVID business and the reduction in customer inventories led to a decline to CHF 469 million. This clearly negative currency effects aggravated the reported sales decline. In organic terms, the decline amounted to 5.2%. Our CFO, Walter, will provide you with additional details regarding the sales development compared to the previous year later. The EBIT margin fell to 15.9% due to the underutilization at our recently expanded plants. The bar chart at the bottom left depicts the sales trend since 2016, including the inventory build-up at our customers in 2022. To assess the healthcare business development over several years, we compare the reporting year, 2023, with the last pandemic year, pre-pandemic year, 2019.
To do this, we adjusted for exchange rates, the Xinhui acquisition, and the low COVID sales in 2023. This apples-to-apples comparison results in a 37.6% organic sales growth. This corresponds to a strong average annual growth in regular business of 8.3%. We have therefore achieved our target range and exceeded the market growth over the years. Please move to slide number seven. Thank you. Now, we are still with the healthcare business here, and Dätwyler has been pursuing a growth strategy for several years, with the aim of increasing the revenue share generated by high quality and high-margin products.
To this end, we have systematically invested in expanding our global production presence, broadening our product portfolio, and strengthening our market development, and technical and scientific customer support, which is very important to keep this level, because we would like to play a much more dominant role in the future, and that is what you have to pay as in for the entrance in such markets. The Indian plant will become the largest healthcare site in the medium term, as we double the production area and the FirstLine upgrade in the recent years. We already employ over 600 people there. We are strengthening our competitiveness by transferring product lines from the European plants to the Indian plant. In the reporting year, we launched UltraShield, a new film coating for healthcare components.
This makes us the first and only supplier to offer customers a choice between spray and film coating, depending on their requirements. We have significantly expanded our market presence in China by integrating Xinhui. The strengthening of digital marketing and technical and scientific customer support are also highly valued by existing and new customers. The large number of new projects shows that we are on the right track. Slide number eight, please. We are now moving to the industrial solution business area. Here, we offer as well system-critical elastomer components, but in this case, for demanding applications in the markets of Mobility, Connectors, General Industry, and Food and Beverage. Here, our customers are global innovation leaders and as well, market leaders. Slide number nine, please. In the 2023 reporting year, we consolidated QSR for 12 months for the first time.
This led to 8.2% sales growth. That means CHF 688 million, despite the fact that we have significantly negative currency effects. However, even adjusted for the acquisition and currency effects, the organic growth amounted to 3.6%. Sales growth was driven by the two business units, Mobility and Food and Beverage. Despite a restrained economic development in China, Mobility was able to grow in line with the market average. Food and Beverage significantly outperformed the market growth, thanks to the close cooperation with successful innovation leaders. However, the Connectors and General Industry business units were affected by customers reducing their inventory, which is mainly focused on this mentioned business unit. The EBIT margin for the year as a whole was stable at 6.7%.
The operational improvements and the positive effects of the restructuring measures implemented were more than offset by the one-off increase in energy costs in particular. However, the 7.5% EBIT margin in the second half of the year shows that the measures are taking effect and will further increase. 2023 was marked by the integration of QSR, which Dätwyler acquired in May 2022 and has since managed as an independent Connectors business unit. The integration and the cross-optimizations are on the right track. As a result, the EBIT margin has increased continuously and sustainably to 10%, around 10% for 2023 as a whole. Further optimizations and improvements will follow. Our target with these business units will remain. The mega trends for electrical connectors and the associated sealing components remain attractive.
In the business unit Mobility, here, we are working successfully on the transformation to e-mobility. In the reporting year, we acquired leading electric vehicle and battery manufacturer serves as the biggest Chinese company in this field as a new customer. The project pipeline is developing well, and the proportion of projects for the electrification of vehicles was well over a third of all customer projects acquired for the first time in the reporting year, while at the same time, we achieved a double-digit EBIT margin. We were signed one of the largest single orders with a leading supplier of air suspension systems for electric vehicles in the next few weeks in China, and we are also close to concluding additional orders with the innovation leader for electric brakes. The Food and Beverage business unit will now have clarity on the new EU regulation on packaging and packaging waste.
Packaging materials must be recyclable in the future. Coffee capsules made out of aluminum meets this requirement. A shift from plastic to aluminum is expected, since the infrastructure and processes already exist for recycling aluminum capsules. This would unlock additional growth potential for us via our customer, Capsul'in. Yeah, with that, I would like to hand over to Walter. Walter, it's your page, please.
Thank you much, Dirk. Welcome, also from my side to the audience. Thank you for your interest in that. It's great that you are here, and I'm looking forward to present the 2023 annual financial statement. Let me start with the revenue bridge for the year under review. In organic terms, adjusted for acquisition-related and currency effects, Dätwyler was able to almost maintain revenue in the year under review. However, the slight decline of 0.3% is made up of organic growth of 3.6% in the Industrial Solutions business area, and unfortunately, an organic decline of 5.2% in the Healthcare Solutions business area. Dirk has already explained the reasons for this, contrasting sales trends in the two business areas.
The two companies acquired last year, which are QSR and Xinhui, contributed a further CHF 55 million or 4.8% as an acquisition effect. QSR and Xinhui have already been included for eight and 10 months in 2022, and right now they are included for the whole year. The strengthening of the Swiss franc against almost all currencies reduced sales in 2023 by CHF 50.4 million or 4.4%. But right now, where does the decline in Healthcare Solutions come from? And here I go over to the next slide. Here you can see the corresponding sales bridge for Healthcare Solutions with the various influencing factors. The decline in COVID sales of CHF 52.7 million has shaped the sales trend in 2023.
Over the course of this year, we also saw the destocking effects by customers. As a result, we were only just able to maintain the volume of regular business with a decline of CHF 400,000. This lack of growth led to underutilization of our recently expanded production capacities. The positive effect of the price increases in the regular business of CHF 26.3 million was almost eliminated by the negative impact of the strong Swiss franc of CHF 25.8 million. Overall, reported sales in the Healthcare Solutions business area fell by CHF 51.3 million to a level, as you can see here on the, on the right side, to a level of CHF 469 million. The COVID effect naturally hurts, and you see that also in our results.
However, despite customers reducing their stocks, we have managed to maintain volumes in our regular business and implement significant price increases. This brings us to the EBIT bridge with absolute values that you see here on the screen. Healthcare EBIT fell by CHF 28.1 million due to the aforementioned underutilization and the unfavorable change in the product. Industrial Solutions business area was only able to increase organic EBIT slightly by CHF 1.6 million due to the temporarily high energy costs. The positive acquisition effect from QSR and Xinhui on EBIT level amounted to CHF 4.3 million. The strong Swiss franc reduced EBIT by an additional CHF 6.6 million or 4.4%. Overall, EBIT in 2023 was CHF 28.8 million lower than in the previous year, as you can see in that overview.
We will see what this development in absolute terms actually means for the EBIT margin on the next slide. This chart shows the development of the margin of the Dätwyler Group and the two business areas for 2023 and the last three years. Developments at the company as a whole and in the healthcare business area show how the unfavorable change in the product mix and underutilization of our capacity led to a decline in margins. The Industrial Solutions business area was able to maintain its margin, thanks to the positive performance of the BU's Connectors and Mobility. The significantly higher electricity cost at the Swiss plant, and the Swiss plant primarily produces for the Food and Beverage business unit, prevented a slower recovery in the EBIT margin in 2023.
But this obviously will normalize in 2024, and we see already that in our current figures. The lower margin in the 2023 reporting year is the accumulation of several temporary effects. We therefore remain convinced that the margin will recover significantly as soon as our customers have finished reducing their inventories and the environment normalizes. The improved margins in the second half of 2023, which we experienced, show that the measures implemented, the cost reduction measures, the optimization measures, are taking effect and that the optimized cost structure is having a positive impact. And that margin of 10.9% is also the starting base for the year to come. This brings us to the overall picture of the income statement.
As always, I present you the income statement as a functional income statement, as we have that in the financial statements. All these functions include personnel costs, OpEx, depreciation and amortization, et cetera. So we show functions with all the relevant items. The decline in profit figures reflects the underutilization of our recently expanded production capacities, which is reflected in the manufacturing costs of the products sold. This is compounded by the unfavorable development of the product mix and the higher electricity costs in 2024. The higher costs for research and development are part of the strategy to strengthen our core competencies. These investments are paying off through a large number of new projects with new and existing customers, and it all helps us in future. There are various reasons for the increase in administration, general and administration expenses.
These include acquisition effects, QSR, Yantai, and also internal shifts from, marketing and selling. Stricter regulatory framework conditions also lead to additional costs. One example of this is our sustainability activities, or our sustainability activities. However, they already represent a competitive advantage in the market. I will explain the financial result and the tax rate on the next slide, but, as a concluding remark, I would like to mention the result, of the developments above, and therefore the impact on the net result. That fell to CHF 66.8 million. This corresponds to CHF 3.93 per bearer share. On this slide, you can see the development of total net interest and financial expenses, and the weighted average tax rate compared to the two previous years.
In addition to the higher interest costs of CHF 14.6 million from acquisition financing, QSR acquisition, the financial result always includes unrealized losses or gains on foreign currency hedges. In 2023, they had a strong negative impact on the financial results due to the strength of the Swiss franc. The group's weighted average income tax rate increased slightly from 22.1% to 22.5%. This is attributable to a higher average result in high tax countries. This brings me to the balance sheet. On the balance sheet, or you see basically two changes, which affected the balance sheet structure. On one side, the asset side, we have succeeded in reducing trade receivables, accounts receivables, and also inventories have decreased significantly due to the reduction in our safety stock.
This actually enabled Dätwyler to free up liquidity, and I'll talk about the free cash flow in a, in a second. On the other side, the liability side, CHF 150 million bonds repayable in May 2024 was reclassified as a current liability. This has led to a corresponding reduction in non-current liabilities. The equity ratio at the end of the year was 32.2%. This is actually an improvement compared to last year, but you also have to realize or note that the cumulative translation adjustments have been quite high and therefore affecting the equity negatively. Strengthening the balance sheet remains a very high priority for Dätwyler. When reducing debt, we are focusing on transfers with high interest costs. Here we have the statements about free cash flow.
We already saw that the half year that our cash flow statement has returned to normal compared to previous year, which was actually influenced by the acquisitions. The prior period, as I said, was characterized by these two acquisitions and the resulting increase in debt. Cash flow from operating activities improved significantly to around CHF 195 million in 2023. As Dätwyler has made upfront investments in the past years and can now significantly reduce the investments, and we saw that already, free cash flow reached a level of CHF 136.7 million, one of the best figures in Dätwyler's history. The reduction in net working capital contributed significantly to this. The chart on the right side of that slide shows the development of free cash flow over the last five years.
When comparing with 2021, it should be noted that the divestment of Reichelt at that time had a positive impact of around CHF 40 million on free cash flow as a non-operating effect. So if you're only looking at operating effects, we are really in a very good shape. This development has made it possible to accelerate debt reduction, as I am pleased to show on the next slide. This shows the development of net debt on the left side and the structure of the external debt on the right side. Thanks to the strong free cash flow, Dätwyler was able to repay external bank debt of CHF 94 million, even in a challenging environment, while keeping the dividend stable. We plan to maintain this rate of repayment 2024.
Due to the temporary weakness in margins, the net leverage remained at 2.6 at the end of 2023. Dätwyler is very confident that we will be able to continue to make substantial debt repayments in 2024. The basis for these repayments is consistent management of the free cash flow and an improvement in the operating results. This is linked to an improvement in the net leverage ratio. On the right side of the slide, you can see the effective or the final bank debt now only amounts to $52 million. And keep in mind, we started that amount with $175 million U.S. dollars, so it reduced quite significantly since the acquisition.
On the other hand, the loan from our majority shareholder, Pema Holding, has increased to CHF 198 million. As the sole purpose of Pema Holding is to provide economic support to the Dätwyler Group, this loan offers a great deal of flexibility and is de facto, so not the euro, but de facto subordinated. With regard to the CHF 150 million bonds maturing in May 2024, we will inform you in due course about how we will structure the repayments and the refinancing. It will be kind of, kind of split between repayment and refinancing, and refinancing, and preparations are already underway. With that, I hand over-- I go over to the return on capital employed or the ROCE. The decline is the result of a double effect.
On one hand, the average capital employed increased to around CHF 897 million as a result of past investments. However, this figure represents a peak, as a reduction will now occur as a result of the development outlined above and in the previous pre-investments. On the other hand, EBIT decreased, as already mentioned. As a result, the return on average capital employed fell to 13.4%. Looking into the future, the investments brought forward will become a double lever. Lower investments in the future will reduce the average capital employed and increase EBIT through, you know, economies of scale. We are therefore confident that the ROCE will also improve again to well over 20%. Here, the old, or the well-known slide, about the development of our investments over the last six years. The investments brought forward will accelerate our medium-term growth.
In the reporting year, we invested a total of CHF 53 million. This is almost 50% less than in the same period of the previous year and around a third less than depreciation in the same period, as you can see in the three columns on the far right. At 4.6%, the ratio of investments to revenue is significantly lower than in previous years, because Dätwyler is coming out of a multi-year investment cycle, and that will also continue in the next couple of years. We expect kind of the investment level to be at the level of around 5% in the years to come. The bar chart shows how we have invested in the expansion of our production capacities in recent years.
However, it is not only our infrastructure that is fit for the future, but also our employees, systems, and processes are fit for the future. The investments done in the past, particularly in the healthcare sector, will ensure significant economies of scale as soon as customer restocking is complete and demand recovers. As you have seen, the board of directors is proposing a cash dividend of CHF 3.20 per bearer share, and CHF 0.64 per registered share to the annual general meeting. As already explained, the strong free cash flow allows us to strengthen the balance sheet while keeping the proposed dividend stable. By maintaining the dividend despite the temporary decline in profits, we are demonstrating that we are a reliable dividend payer and that the board of directors is convinced of Dätwyler's medium-term growth potential.
As you can see on the slide, the dividend can be paid entirely from net profit, and that means from funds which are generated by our own operations. It's also focus for the next years. Our free cash flow allows for dividend payments, but also very important debt repayments. With that, I thank you very much for your attention. It was a pleasure, and with that, I will now hand over to Dirk for the outlook, please.
Yeah, Walter, well done. Thank you very much for the informative comments, and now I would like to proceed with the outlook for the year 2024. May I ask you to move to the next slide? Thank you very much, Guido. As you already have, as you already heard several times today, Dätwyler is in a strong strategic position, and we are coming out of an investment cycle that will allow us to keep the investments low in the coming years. At the same time, we have integrated two acquisitions, QSR and Xinhui, which are both active and promising growth markets. Thanks to our recognized core competencies, we are winning many new orders with existing and new customers, and especially the number of new customers this year is going to a record level.
So focus for the future is, therefore, clearly on promoting profitable organic growth by scaling the business model and production capacity. At the risk side, we will have the means to strengthen the balance sheet. We want to increase our penetration of markets and get closer to existing customers. We will benefit from economies of scale thanks to our early investments, as soon as the destocking process comes to an end. We want to expand our addressable markets with our high-quality products. When looking at the healthcare and connector business units, here we want to expand into new regions in a targeted manner. The new Yantai Xinhui platform is the basis for our healthcare, while Dätwyler's European presence is the springboard for Connectors. I'm also convinced, thanks to our strong innovation pipeline, we will be able to increase the sales proportion accounted for by new products in the future.
One concrete example is here, the electroactive polymers and stacked construction. Move to the next slide, please. Thank you, Guido. Our strong strategic position is complemented by the promising mega trends in the market segments in which we operate. Here you can see the long-term growth drivers from which we are benefiting with our business areas. In the healthcare sector, it's a combination of social, medical, and regulatory trends, such as the aging of society, the increase in chronic diseases or injections as a preferred form of administration. In the industrial market, it's more a technological progress that is unlocking new application, thus growth potential. This includes electrification, connectivity, and automation, but sustainability is also gaining in importance and leading to new needs in the future. The lower part of the slide shows independent market forecasts for the selected product and market segments.
In addition to above-average growth potential, our market segments are characterized by high barriers to entry. Worth mentioning are, for example, the long learning curve and experience, high investments and regulations. So I can say that even in the last years, we have not seen any significant new market entrants in our markets from our competitors. The next slide, please. We are looking to the future with confidence based on our strong strategic position, the long-term growth drivers, and the large number of promising new projects with existing and new customers. I'm convinced that our medium-term targets are achievable. In terms of sales, we are aiming for a 6%-10% growth per year. Due to the restrained, subdued economic environment, the lower end of the target corridor is more likely to be achievable in the near future.
We are aiming for an EBIT margin of between 18% and 21% in the future. The lower threshold should be reached for the first time towards the last quarter of 2026 financial year. The aforementioned economies of scale and the elimination of the recent negative special effects will make this possible. When we look back at the last 12 years, then you will see that we have achieved continuous profitable growth, even under difficult circumstances. Next slide, please. Thanks, Guido. In the short term, there are margin drivers. However, there's also a number of short-term risks that call for caution. The margin drivers includes, in the short term, the lower energy cost, sustainably optimized cost structures, the ongoing recovery of the business unit Connectors, and economies of scale through better capacity utilization across the organization.
Short-term risks include geopolitical uncertainties, a continued strong or even stronger Swiss franc, continuous destocking by customers in the second half of the year, and recessionary trends. However, taking the opportunities and risk into account, we are cautiously optimistic for 2024 as a whole. In terms of sales, we expect an organic growth in the low single-digit percentage range, and we are aiming for an improved operational EBIT margin, as Walter said, starting from the EBIT margin of the second half of last year of around 10.9%. Yeah, the first half of 2024 is likely to be weaker and the second half stronger, in contrast to our normal seasonal performance, and that has to do with the destocking effects, which we are currently seeing. That is what we see today. Yeah, please, to the next slide.
Besides everything we do and strive for at Dätwyler, our impact on the environment and society is important to us as well. On the other hand, we are also affected by environmental, social, and governance developments as a company. At the heart of our sustainability strategy, we have 12 focus topics. These are structured according to the globally established ESG concept: environmental, social, and governance. Each topic bundles activities and projects and includes clear responsibilities with measurable targets for effective management. We have continued to drive forward our sustainability activities, even in a difficult environment, for the benefit of our stakeholders. This is reflected, among other things, in the EcoVadis gold standard. EcoVadis places us in the top 5% of more than 100,000 companies they analyze.
Dätwyler joined the UN Global Compact back in 2009, and has since published a sustainability report every year. In accordance with the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative, GRI. The next one. Here are a few current sustainability highlights. We have succeeded in reducing our CO2 emissions per sales unit for the sixth time in a row. We were able to reduce relative CO2 emissions by 4.8%, taking currency-adjusted sales into account. This is a result of the measures we implemented to improve energy efficiency and the switch to electricity coming from renewable sources. 38.3% of our electricity is already CO2 neutral. For selected products and customers, we offer an analysis of the CO2 footprint of products. The health and safety of our employees is also important to us.
Our global working conditions initiatives and systems for health and safety in the workplace. For example, we have succeeded in reducing the number of days lost per employee due to work-related accidents and illnesses. By means of a new human rights guideline, we are raising awareness of human rights in key processes. Employee engagement was also above the industry standard in the latest employee survey, and we are quite proud that we achieved in Switzerland the rank number three in the global employer report. For the first time this year, selected sustainability information was subjected to a limited review by the auditors. Yeah, this brings us already to the last slide.
Now, after 18 years on the Dätwyler management board, of which seven years as a CEO, I'm convinced more than ever that of the five elements and of our value proposition, which you can see here. We still focus on our system, critical, critical elastomer components without any compromises for time now. We offer superior customer value based on our recognized core competencies. We have leading positions in markets driven by mega trends, and we are committed to talent development and sustainable growth. Even that will become more and more important, especially in Europe, when we are thinking about that the baby boomer generation will now, over the next years, moving out. We have a strong performance and financial stability as a track record over the years. Yeah, with that, I would like to announce as well, the new colleagues here.
I think you have already heard about that Volker Cwielong will join as a new CEO by the first of April 2024. We already have here started the onboarding process so that, Volker Cwielong will have the chance in the next couple of, in the month of March, a deep insight of our organization so that he has a chance of a very good start, in April 2024. And then, you already have heard about that as well, that our CFO has decided to go, and we have one Judith van Walsum. She is currently CFO at Roche Diabetes Care. She was, in the last two years, a member of our board, and so she will bring some further competencies into our management board with the direction of healthcare, pharmaceutical business.
I'm absolutely convinced that Volker Cwielong is a competent successor, and you will see that in the next and coming months when you have a chance to talk to him. I would like here to use as well the opportunity to thank Walter for his great contribution to the Dätwyler Group. He has shaped, especially when it comes to financial and FSS, as we call it, service center in the last year, which he has built up, and he was always a competent and very generous person, which always helped our people and internally to be able to achieve our targets as best as possible under the circumstances. Walter, thank you very much. Yeah, with that, I would like to thank you for your attention, and Walter and I am now looking forward to answering your questions, if there are any.
Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you've entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to use only answers and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast. Webcast users may submit their questions or comments in writing via the relative field. Anyone with a question may press star and one at this time. The first question from the webcast is from Selina Hug. "Hello, what is your plan regarding the maturing bond in May 2024? Will you refinance it with a new bond issuance, or what is your objective? Thank you.
I will take that over. Thank you very much for that question. Yes, we are, or the board of directors, we are in close contact. Obviously, the bond issue is one of the options. And the idea currently is that we would, if we go that path, we would repay a fraction of that bond and refinance the remaining fraction. So we are already starting to look into options. We do not want to kind of have a solution only May. We assume that we'll have a solution in the coming weeks.
There is also another one, if I may. Yeah, right. I will take that over, Walter.
Is there an intention to take acquisition opportunities in the future?
Yeah. Thank you very much, Walter. No, I think that is a clear answer. In the near future, that is, not foreseen. I think we have now already mentioned at the beginning of the pre-presentation that now, we will focus on the free cash flow, and as well via low investments. That's the best way to optimize the scale, economy of scales with our installed production capacities. I think that is a strong focus. When we have a look to our portfolio of production and in the business unit, I think we are well positioned. So from that perspective, there is not a need to accelerate for the existing business unit. That means the strength was for the acquisition. So from that perspective, I don't see a need for the coming, for the coming years.
The next question is from the phone from Thielmann Benjamin with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hey, everyone. I have a couple of questions. Maybe I can ask three and then go back into the line. First question would be regarding growth in North and South America. For, if I look at the numbers, growth here has been declining fully, about roughly 5%, but if I adjust it by QSR, your organic growth was probably minus double digit. Maybe you can give a little bit of color, what happened here. Second question would be regarding growth in General Industry and Connectors. Not on a full year basis, but in H2, both business areas have been a little bit under pressure. Maybe you can describe a little bit what has happened here. And then maybe the third question in terms of margins.
You have quite an ambitious, ambitious midterm guidance in terms of EBIT margin. What improvement in the margin can we expect in 2024?
Yeah, Benjamin, thank you very much for your questions. Let me start with the first one, and maybe, Walter, you will take over some information to the third questions. Okay? So yeah, when we are looking to the growth in North America, and especially as you mentioned, as well, China, I think in North America, we have, on one hand, the situation that, especially with our GNI business, we have seen a decline in the especially in the second half of the year. However, we can see now that will be a slightly recovery, let me say, from the second quarter of this year. In China, we will see as well effects which is linked to the Mobility market.
However, I believe there will be as well a stronger recovery. As I mentioned before, we have one really great projects for the future, which will come in partly in 2024, and then a significant step in 2025 and 2026. Of course, in North America, what you have to to consider as well is the situation that we have a huge loss of COVID business in North America, and that is for sure as well a big portion of that is a similar what we have in Europe. Yeah, I think that is as well already said, the growth in GI and Connectors already said about GI.
So that means, we are facing, due to the fact that we are, supplier for the industrial sector, a couple of our customers having as well, or they are recognizing the destocking effects at the market, and so therefore their decline, or the decline with them is, currently visible. However, I would like to express here, we are not losing any market share that is in line with the, effects which are temporary from the market. The business unit connector has let me say had a good start in the year, and then later on in the second half of the year, some of our customers have seen a stronger decline, but mainly as well, we expect to them, destocking effects. So it's difficult to say when that will be over.
So from that perspective, what you can see is as well aligned with our forecast. There are so many uncertainties currently, so it's quite difficult to predict, and especially this effect of the destocking will be over. On the other hand, we have as well a couple of influences from the currencies, and all different currencies are now. It's quite difficult to expect what will coming out. Maybe Walter, something to the margin.
Yeah. Thanks a lot, Benjamin. When we talk about the margin, right, we had kind of the lowest point at half year with 10% of EBIT margin. In the second half, as you have seen, we have reached 10.9%, and this is a starting base also for the guidance for 2024. So that will be an enhancement in 2024. Dirk gave you before kind of, you know, what are the levers with the electricity cost, with you know, operational performance, operational measurements we have on Connectors and Mobility and other business units. And the midterm guidance as such remain valid.
We believe that will be reached by end of, or at least the lower end of that guidance will be reached by the end of 2026. But of course, I'm with you, you know, that also depends on normalizations. Dirk gave you kind of an insight where we believe that maybe quarter two, maybe second half, we'll see kind of the final say or the ending of the destocking effect, and we'll actually see a normal development, normal growth with large scaling effects from the second half onwards. I hope that answers your question, Benjamin.
Yes.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
But there's an additional question in from the live chat also on the medium-term targets. The questioner is saying that we have not changed the medium-term targets. They look increasingly difficult to reach, especially the margin target, and he's asking if we have not thought about postponing or reducing those targets. It would certainly help the incoming management to fulfill their targets. What-
Yeah. No, thank you, thank you much for this question, and of course, we have discussed several times internally whether we should postponing that. What we thought about is that, we said we would like to wait a year of 2024. If then by end of 2024, let me say the recovery of the market will not be becoming more visible, and we have not more clarity about the new ramp-up of the several product lines which are coming into our portfolio, then, of course, we have to think about, change the outlook for the future. But I think that is also fair, for Volker Cwielong here to have a look to that during the course of the year, and he will come out by end of the year with his assessment, how he sees the future.
That is what I as well talk with him because we already had a lot of talks in the last, weeks, you can imagine. So, but he knows not our company so far, so I think we should give him the time, to understand the company, and then he will come back with his assessment for the future. So far, if we see, let me say, the recovery becoming better visible and coming in in 2025 latest, then still we believe the margin will be achievable.
Yep. There's another question: Could you give us an indication of how much COVID sales did you have in the last year? And I think I can answer that. That was a little bit more than CHF 55 million in total.
Last year was CHF 7 million.
Oh, oh, sorry, sorry.
Sorry. I was-
Yeah, sorry about that. CHF 7 million, it used to be. Sorry, I was thinking about where are we coming from. We still have a small portion of CHF 7 million. We were coming from a little bit more than CHF 55 million, as you can calculate.
From the year before. Yeah. Thank you very much, Walter. And then, of course, having said that, the CHF 7 million was more or less all in the first half year. So that means and the second half year, even if you compare then our risk side without totally, without COVID, it's giving us well, a better view to what we can achieve here. There's a further increase in the future.
Yes. Yep, that will.
Moderator?
There is another question, I believe.
Yes, there is a question, also from Miro Zuzak. You want me to read it?
We have covered. Oh, okay. Sorry.
Sorry.
The question is, QSR was not a bit profitable at the time of the Capital Markets Day. Is it profitable now?
Yeah, this statement is not, is not correct. QSR was, as I said, as well in the last year, profitable in the double-digit range. So from that perspective, we are striving forward for further increase in 2024, and the target we already have announced before, so that we would see further steps forward, during the course of 2024. That is, let me say, so far, we are more or less in line with our improvement plan.
We have a follow-up question from the phone by Thielmann Benjamin with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hey, yeah, maybe one more question from my side. Could you give us an indication at what level are utilization rates right now in your Healthcare Solutions business area?
I will not give you any detailed figures about that. What I can tell you that according to our expectation, there is no significant investments needed for the next three to four years. So that means that is, what we believe currently, what we, with a normal market range, and you can calculate them back when we are achieving the 8%, that should be at minimum three to four years.
Okay. Thank you.
You're welcome.
T here's another question in the live chat. Do you have an industrial comment on Novo's acquisition of Catalent? I know Catalent is not a direct competitor, but is this an opportunity or a threat for your business?
I think, overall, Catalent, let me say, we of course, we are in discussion with all the customers. I can't give you any details here. Catalent is not a direct competitor, as you say. So from that perspective, that is opportunities for us for the future.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, you can press star and one on your telephone.
Good. We do have another question in the chat, and, and this would be like: Can we take the stable dividend as a positive sign from the board for the future?
Yes, absolutely correct. And as Walter said at this presentation, I think, we are convinced that we can keep that for the future. And of course, it's always our plan that we are constantly will increase the dividend payout in absolute, not percentage-wise. That is not that we will have always in the future, will pay out 80%. No, but it, of course, it's our clear goal to keep a dividend stable or with a slightly increase. Having said that, of course, we would like to focus as well on the cash flow, that we are able to reduce our debts for the next coming years. That is a clear target.
Okay. One more question is about the restructuring costs. In which dimension were they in 2023?
Walter, would you like to take over?
Yeah, there was the amount of single to mid-million Swiss franc amount. And it's if that's not the question, but also was it for, for which business units is, is more or less, both with kind of a, kind of a certain, certain elements strength in, in Industrial Solutions. And when we talk about where is it, second half or first half, the majority actually occurred in the second half.
Okay, we have more questions in the live chat. What is your expectation on the pricing in 2024? I understand on customer side, can the pricing compensate higher salary costs?
From that perspective, we already have started with a price increase by the end of the last year, so that we will see as well the effects of these price increases in 2024. And of course, we have a regular process that we are moving in this way forward, that we are constantly optimizing our pricing to the market. And of course, that depends as well about the quantities, what we will face in the future. There is a...
There is another question. Why is Mr. Scherz leaving the company? So-
Thanks a lot for that question. I actually heard that question today quite a few times. You know, in my kind of professional life, I'm 64 years right now and 12 years with Dätwyler. Forty-six, sorry, 46 years and 12 years with Dätwyler. And for me, it is really the kind of, yeah, well, the decision whether to continue for another few years or whether to, you know, start something very fresh with a lot of enthusiasm, and I decided for the second one. But I also have to say, Dätwyler is a great company, and I wish all the relevant people a lot of success, and I'm very much convinced about the success that Dätwyler will have.
Yep. Thank you very much. Okay. It seems that we have no further questions, then I would like to thank you very much for your interest, and, I'm looking forward that Volker, in the future, will take over the course. So from that perspective, thank you very much for your interest. I'm looking forward for your interest as well in the next years to Dätwyler. Have a good day. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thanks a lot for your interest. Bye.