Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our analyst conference, also via webcast. Together with Tobias Knechtle, I'm pleased to present to you our full year 2021 results. Our presentation is structured as follows. First, I will give you an overview of 2021 and comment on the sales development. Tobias Knechtle will then present the financial results. Thereafter, I will talk about our new CO2 strategy, followed by an outlook for this year, including a status update on the current situation of our business in Ukraine and Russia. At the end of the presentation, as usual, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Let me start with our key figures. 2021 was an excellent year for Geberit, where we achieved record results on all levels. Net sales grew in local currencies by 14.7%.
This is the strongest growth rate, at least since the IPO in 1999. EBITDA exceeded for the first time CHF 1 billion and reached CHF 1,069 million. The EBITDA margin reached with 30.9% almost previous year's level. The EBIT margin increased by 30 basis points to 26.1%. EPS increased by 18.9% and reached 21.34 CHF. Free cash flow increased by 12.8% and reached a new record level of CHF 809 million or 23.4% of net sales. This is the fourth consecutive year with a double-digit free cash flow growth. We also achieved a significant reduction in relative CO2 emissions by 8.4%.
The board of directors proposes a dividend of CHF 12.50 per share, reflecting a payout ratio in the middle of our payout range of 50%-70%. The results in 2021 were positively affected by COVID-19 base effects. Therefore, let me briefly compare our results last year with the pre-crisis year, 2019. Over the past two years, net sales in local currencies grew by 16%, currency adjusted EBITDA by 24%, currency adjusted EPS by 25%, and free cash flow in Swiss francs by 26%. These excellent results confirm that we have been able to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis and to gain further market share gains over the last two years. Two main reasons for this development were our focused strategy, avoiding distractions, and a successful crisis management, avoiding overreactions.
Right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to focus on our customer relations, product availability, and organizational flexibility. These decisions contributed to a strong operational performance. For example, we increased the plant productivity despite considerable supply chain challenges by 10% over the last two years. The number of customer contacts which increased by 14% despite the COVID-19-induced restrictions and without expanding our sales organization. Let me go a bit into more detail about the customer activities and the relations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to our digitalization strategy and significant investment into digital marketing activities already before COVID-19, we were able to switch many customer interactions to digital formats and to increase the number of interactions in all dimensions over the past two years. Individual customer contacts increased to 494,000 individual contacts, of which one-third were conducted virtually.
Customer trainings increased by 76% versus 2019 and reached 65,000 trainings last year. The number of participants at customer events increased by 68% and reached 53,000, and the newly developed digital showroom format was visited by 24,000 visitors last year. Examples of digital customer events last year. Because of the cancellation of different fairs in spring 2021, we decided to develop our own digital fair format, the so-called Geberit Innovation Days. We streamed this live event over three days from our site in Pfullendorf to over 40 markets in 26 languages and reached over 10,000 registered professional customers and 50,000 of the media libraries after the event. Another example is the virtual Geberit showroom. In several markets, virtual showrooms for end consumers have been launched in 2020, and we kept them open also in 2021.
We presented in the virtual showrooms our products with a focus on bathroom systems, especially on Geberit AquaClean, also to leverage the COVID-19 induced home improvement trend. Let me give you some further examples of digital tools for end consumers which we newly or further developed last year. We further developed our digital showroom for actuator plates to support end consumers in a simple and intuitive way in their product selection. The tool was rolled out in 28 markets last year.
Another digital tool for end consumers is our new wash place configurator. The tool offers support for the configuration of the Geberit ONE wash place with around 2,000 different wash place combinations. The tool is designed in an intuitive way, including a real-time 3D-rendering visualization, and has been rolled out in 2 pilot markets last year. We also widened our digital offerings for professionals last year.
We developed a new digital planning tool for installation systems, addressing mainly smaller installers. This mobile application enables the planning and installation of systems in a bathroom on site within just a few minutes. An important focus in 2021, we updated our plug-in for Autodesk Revit software by integrating our full product catalog, roof drainage calculations, and installation system planning in one application for planners and architects. By the end of 2021, we had over 6,500 active users conducting over 200,000 sessions in 2021. In total, we spent last year CHF 110 million for marketing activities, which corresponds to 3.2% of net sales. This is substantially more than in 2020, where physical activities were heavily restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The spend for digital activities further increased to 30% of total marketing expenses last year. However, we have not yet reached pre-crisis marketing spend level since we were still not able to carry out all physical marketing activities as planned last year. 2021 was also a very important year for new product introductions. Let me give you a few examples. In Piping Systems, we introduced our new supply piping system called FlowFit with a newly developed pressing technology. I will come back to that later. In Installation and Flushing Systems, we introduced the new concealed system Alpha 12 cm for our international markets outside Europe. In Bathroom Systems, we extended our Geberit ONE assortment, allowing for more than 2,000 wash place combinations, including an intuitive lighting concept.
In the area of digital products, we introduced a new concealed cistern with an integrated Hygiene Flush, allowing highest hygiene standards in water piping systems of buildings. Beside new product introductions, we continued to invest into our innovation pipeline last year. In total, we spent CHF 78 million for R&D, corresponding to 2.3% of net sales. We registered again a high number of 41 new patents last year, largely driven by combined innovations behind and in front of the wall. The continuous high number of new patents confirms our ongoing potential and synergies from the ceramics acquisition in 2015 between installation know-how and ceramic capabilities. Let me now comment on our investments in CapEx in 2021. CapEx reached CHF 169 million, plus 13% compared to previous year. The increase is mainly driven by a base effect.
Several investment projects in the previous year were somewhat delayed due to COVID-19. Investments in new products corresponded to 7% of CapEx last year. 48% were dedicated to modernization and de-regionalization, and 45% to capacity investments. Let me briefly highlight some of our key investment projects last year. Driven by the strong volume growth over the last two years, we increased our capacity for concealed system production in our plant in Pfullendorf, Germany. The investment into the new assembly line amounted to EUR 3.1 million with a payback of less than one year. In Villadose, in Italy, we have added an additional extrusion line for our drainage piping system, Silent-PP, introduced in 2016. We spent in total EUR 4 million with a payback of slightly less than three years.
In Ekenäs, our ceramics plant in Finland, we invested into a new fully automated high-pressure casting production cell for rim-free wall-hung toilets. This investment, for a capacity of 60,000 additional toilets, amounted to CHF 4 million. Besides these large investment projects, many mid-sized and smaller improvement projects focusing on automation and process improvements were implemented in our plants as part of our continuous improvement strategy. These efforts led to a productivity improvement of 5.9% last year, which is a very remarkable result considering the challenges from the strong volume growth and supply chain disruptions last year. Another contribution to productivity improvement last year was the closure of three smaller manufacturing plants, one in China, one in the U.S., and one in Ukraine. The volumes of these three smaller sites were consolidated in other Geberit plants.
Thanks to the strong productivity improvement last year, we managed to increase the plant productivity overall by 30% since 2014, the year before the acquisition of the ceramics business. Let me now comment on the development of our number of employees. The number of employees increased by 240 FTEs, mainly driven by temps in manufacturing due to the strong volume growth. We over proportionally increased the number of apprentices by 15 to a total of 280 apprentices due to our commitment to the dual education systems in the German-speaking countries, but also to address the increasing challenges to find qualified employees. Let me now comment on the sustainability efforts and achievements last year. We measure our total environmental impact by so-called impact points according to the Swiss impact assessment method.
This method takes into account all relevant environmental dimensions, for example, energy consumption, water consumption, or waste. We decreased our environmental impact in relation to net sales by almost 10% last year. Compared to 2015, we managed to reduce our relative environmental footprint by 41%. The main drivers for the significant contribution to the environment were energy consumption, which we reduced by 38% in relation to net sales, and water consumption, which we reduced by 42% since 2015. Another important contribution to our environmental footprint is obviously CO2 emissions. Last year, we once again reduced our Scope 1 and 2 CO2 intensity, meaning CO2 emissions relative to net sales, by -8.4%.
Compared to 2015, when the acquisition of the ceramics business increased our CO2 footprint by a factor of five, we have been able to reduce the relative CO2 emissions by 38%. We will come back to that later when we talk about our new CO2 strategies. Besides CO2 reductions within our value chain, we also contributed to Scope 3 CO2 reductions with several of our product innovations last year. Let me give you three examples. Our newly introduced iCon WC with our optimized Rimfree technology reduces the water consumption by up to 33% per toilet flush without compromising the flushing performance of the toilet. This contributes obviously also to CO2 reduction. Our new drainage piping fittings, SuperTube and Sovent, not only save space and assembly time, but also material. Less material means less CO2 emissions.
The reduced material by using SuperTube and Sovent leads to a reduction of CO2 emissions by 40%. This leads to a reduction of almost 2,000 tons of CO2 last year. A third example for Scope 3 CO2 reductions is packaging. We reduced the packaging volume for our Hygiene Flush product by 35% and replaced it by 100% recyclable cardboard material. This reduces CO2 emissions per unit by 85%. In the context of our long-standing corporate social responsibility activities, we again funded and carried out several social projects in 2021. We again consciously sourced products and services from workshops which employ disabled or disadvantaged people, like long-term unemployed. Over the last years, we constantly increased our sourcing from these workshops from CHF 7 million in 2017 to CHF 10 million last year.
With this conscious sourcing, we support around 550 disabled or socially disadvantaged people. Finally, let me give you two examples of social projects which we conducted in 2021. We supported the construction and installation of sanitary equipment in a vocational school in Ukraine, and we donated four truckloads of sanitary articles for children's homes in Moldova. After this overview, let me now comment on our sales development 2021 in more detail. Net sales in CHF achieved CHF 3.46 billion, which is 15.9% above previous year's level. Thereof, CHF 35 million or 1.2% were driven by the favorable currency development. Local currencies, net sales, as mentioned, grew by 14.7%. 2.2% of this growth was driven by price increases and 12.5% by volume growth.
A volume growth of 12.5% means that we grew last year roughly three times faster than usual. This is a great achievement of our operations organization and shows the agility and flexibility of our 26 manufacturing plants at our logistics centers. Especially since we were able to turn this extraordinary volume growth also into an improvement of the margin, as Tobias will show later in his discussion of the financial results. The quarterly growth rates last year were still impacted by COVID-19 effects. We started with a strong growth of 13% in Q1, thanks to a strong home improvement trend and catch-up activities from 2020. Growth in Q2, with a plus of 34%, was inflated by COVID-19 base effects since our business was also hit hard during the first lockdown wave in 2020.
The growth in the second half of 2021 was marked by an ongoing home improvement trend, the buildup of inventories at wholesalers, and extraordinary sales price increases, which we implemented due to the significant raw material price inflation. Let me now comment on the development in the different countries and regions. We recorded strong growth rates in all of our mature markets. Strongest growth was recorded in Italy with +25%, positively affected by the base effect from the lockdown in the previous year. In Austria, we grew by 20% after an already strong previous year. In Benelux, net sales were up by 14%, in Germany by 12%, and in Switzerland by 8%. Overall, we grew in these countries by 14%, confirming our ability to gain market share despite our already high market shares and strong positions in these core countries.
Main drivers for our market share gains were our undiminished and increasing customer presence over the past two years, as shown before, our upselling strategy, and our capability to implement price increases. Let me now comment on the development of the remaining European countries. The strongest growth rate was recorded in Eastern Europe with +25% due to several forex-induced price increases in several Eastern European countries. Net sales in Nordics were up by 8%, supported by a double-digit growth of behind the wall flushing systems. The growth rate in France with +15%, in the U.K. with +13%, and in Spain with +25% were positively affected by base effects from the building construction lockdowns in the previous year.
Net sales in Far East Pacific were up by 29% in 2021, substantially driven by the positive base effect from the heavy lockdowns in India in the previous year and a strong performance in China. In Americas, net sales were up by +5%, negatively affected by component and labor shortages in the second half of the year. Net sales in the Middle East and Africa region were up by 26% with a strong growth in North Africa and a double-digit growth in South Africa despite a difficult market environment. Let me now comment on the sales development per product area, again, in local currencies.
All three product areas delivered strong growth rates in 2021. Installation and Flushing Systems net sales grew by 18%, Piping Systems by 15%, and Bathroom Systems by 10%. The different development of bathroom systems versus the other two product areas was driven by the second half of the year with stronger inventory effects in installation, flushing, and piping systems and signs of a weakening home improvement trend. Tobias will now lead you through the financial results.
Thank you, Christian. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the financial result presentation. I'll start with the result presentation with an overview of the key figures. In 2021, the Geberit Group achieved excellent results on all dimensions. As already mentioned by Christian, net sales increased in local currencies by 14.7% and in Swiss francs by 15.9%. EBITDA grew by 15.6% in Swiss francs and reached CHF 1,069 million. A strong operating leverage and a cost base still reduced by COVID-19 led to an EBITDA margin of 30.9%, therewith staying at a very high level despite strong headwinds from raw material, logistics, and energy price increases. EBIT grew by 16.9% and reached CHF 902 million, resulting in an EBIT margin of 26.1%.
This corresponds to an increase of 30 basis points. Net income rose disproportionally by 17.7% to CHF 756 million, thanks to lower financial expenses. EPS increased even by 18.9%, further driven by the share buyback program from 2020 to 2022. Free cash flow increased by 12.8% and reached a record CHF 809 million. It grew slightly lower due to the higher income taxes paid and higher investment. ROIC, return on invested capital, increased significantly to 27.1%, driven by operating result improvement and only a minor increase on invested capital. Coming to the individual positions of the P&L. Cost of material increased over proportionally by 26.4%, driven mostly by higher material purchasing prices and the higher sales volume.
The other cost element grew mostly underproportionally by a lower percentage than net sales, demonstrating our operational leverage. Personnel expenses increased by 8.2%, driven by the mentioned additional capacity, temporary workforces required to support the strong growth, wage inflation, and the higher bonuses. Depreciation increased by 5.8% marginally beyond previous year due to higher investments. Amortization increased by 24.3%. The increase results from an impairment charge related to two ceramic brands caused mainly by the continued brand harmonization strategy. Other operating expenses increased by 11.6%. Main drivers were obviously the higher energy cost and logistic prices, as well as a further normalizing marketing costs. Let me now show you the EBITDA margin bridge comparing the EBITDA margin of 2020 with the achieved EBITDA margin of last year.
Figures roughly similar from 31% to 30.9%, but big swings obviously in between. The volume and product mix effect led to a margin expansion of 310 basis points, largely driven by our strong operating leverage. The net price effects were negative by 140 basis points as the unprecedented raw material purchase price increases were higher than the net sales price development. The said increase in energy, logistics, and normalizing marketing costs resulted in a negative effect on the EBITDA margin of 180 basis points coming from other costs. Due to our significant natural currency hedge, there was no FX effect on the EBITDA margin. With 30.9%, the EBITDA margin exceeded our target corridor of 28%-30%. The special circumstances of the year 2021 made this possible.
A strong volume effect, a delayed P&L impact from raw material price increases, and some still depressed cost position due to COVID-19. In other words, we do not expect that the achieved margin level is sustainable in a normal environment. On the next slide, I want to show you exactly the same bridge, but this time only for Q4, comparing Q4 2021 to Q4 2020. While the full year EBITDA margin remains on a high level, the Q4 margin is almost 5 percentage points below the corresponding quarter of 2020 and stands at 22.7%. Please keep in mind, though, that the EBITDA margin of Q4 2020 was at an extraordinarily high margin level. In 2021, the volume and product mix effect still contributed positively by 120 basis points in Q4.
The net price effects, however, negatively affected the margin by 260 basis points as the raw material purchase price increases continued to increase above the selling price increases made. Hence, our selling prices will further increase or have further increased as of January 2022. The other cost increased strongly towards year-end, mainly due to rapidly increasing energy cost. As well, logistic costs remain at a very high level, and the cost base continued to normalize, especially in marketing, but as well, for example, positions like travel expenses. The corresponding negative effect amounts to 320 basis points. The margin headwind will persist in 2022 due to the base effect from increased raw material prices last year on one side, and on the other side as well, a further inflationary raw material price environment in Q1 2022.
Coming to the position below the operating profit. The financial result improved due to lower interest expenses with 14.9%, 10% higher than the previous year. The tax rate was almost stable. As a consequence of the above, net income increased by 17.7%, disproportionately to the EBIT growth. Finally, EPS increased even higher by 18.9%, supported by the ongoing share buyback program. Free cash flow increased by 13% to a record CHF 809 million. Let's decompose it into its components. The net cash flow from operating activities increased by 11%. The change of net working capital overall was stable versus previous year. The core net working capital improved slightly as the desired inventory rise was overcompensated by a reduction in accounts receivable and an increase in accounts payable.
Income taxes paid increased by CHF 40 million, driven by better operating result and some one-off effects. The strong development of net cash from operating activities was partially offset by higher purchasing of property, plant, and equipment, and intangible assets. The CHF 809 million free cash flow achieved last year corresponds to a margin of 23.4% and an EBITDA conversion ratio of 75.6%. From the record CHF 809 million free cash flow of last year, CHF 762 million were paid out. CHF 405 million were distributed as dividend. CHF 164 million were used to buy back shares under the second line program, and CHF 193 million were spent to buy treasury shares.
The cash balance, as a consequence, increased by CHF 42 million. On the balance sheet side, there were only a few larger changes. The cash position increased due to the strong free cash flow, as just mentioned before. The lower net working capital is a result of the lower accounts receivable and the higher accounts payable and inventories. The increase in PP&E is predominantly the result of realized capacity and efficiency investment projects. Total debt remained almost stable at CHF 784 million. The increased cash balance and the fairly stable debt position resulted as a consequence in a decrease of the net debt position by almost 40% to CHF 273 million. The balance sheet remains very solid. The equity ratio slightly increased to 52.7%, and net debt to EBITDA stayed roughly stable at 0.3 times.
Based on the good result and considering the very stable financial situation, the board of directors proposes to the annual general meeting a dividend of CHF 12.5 per share. This corresponds to an increase of 10% versus prior year. On that basis, CHF 464 million will be distributed corresponding to a payout ratio of about 59%, which is quite exactly in the middle of our payout policy. The annual general meeting will be held on April 13, 2022. Subject to the approval by the general meeting, the dividend will be paid out a couple of days later on April 21. The share buyback program running from 2020 to 2022 with up to a maximum of CHF 500 million is still ongoing.
In 2021, we have bought back 250,000 shares for a total of CHF 166 million. By the end of 2021, under this program, we have bought back 344,000 shares for a total of CHF 270 million. With the dividend proposal and the ongoing share buyback program, Geberit continues its stable and attractive distribution policy, which has been applied for many years. Now I would like to finish my presentation with a brief look at the results of our shareholder-friendly policy delivered over the last five years. Since 2017, Geberit has generated about CHF 3.2 billion free cash flow. This represents an average free cash flow margin of 21%.
Notably, we managed to increase free cash flow for the 4th year in a row by a double-digit percentage, as already mentioned initially by Christian. Specifically, free cash flow has therefore increased by 70% since 2017. From this accumulated free cash flow, the amount of CHF 2.6 billion or 81% have been distributed back to the shareholders via an attractive mix of dividend payments and share buybacks. These numbers confirm the ability of the Geberit Group to generate stable cash flows over a long period of time and on a high level, also in times of crisis, and reflect our shareholder-friendly distribution policy. With this, I hand back to Christian.
Thank you, Tobias. Before I talk about the new CO2 strategy, let me start with a couple of preliminary remarks. Sustainability has a very long tradition at Geberit. The first sustainability strategy was already defined more than 30 years ago in 1990. This included already in 1990 the build-up of a dedicated sustainability department to continuously improve our environmental footprint. Over the years, Geberit steadily increased these environmental activities. An important milestone was already 2004 when Geberit started to publish a comprehensive sustainability report since many years now according to the comprehensive GRI standard. We also this year published a comprehensive sustainability report more than 50 pages. Since 2007, we have systematically integrated sustainability efforts in our product development with the so-called eco-design approach, where environmental aspects are included along the product development process.
A key principle of eco-design is that every product needs to be more sustainable than the previous product. Since 2007, 170 new products were developed along these eco-design principles. Let me now come to the topic of CO2. Last year, as already shown, we emitted 217,000 tons of CO2 under Scope 1 and 2. Around two-thirds of these emissions come from our ceramics production plants, driven mainly by the energy-intensive firing process. Since the acquisition of the ceramics business in 2015, we already substantially reduced our CO2 footprint, as shown before, by 38% in relation to net sales and by 16% in absolute terms. The main drivers were the implementation of energy saving technology for the ceramics firing process, sourcing of renewable energies, and upselling of our ceramics portfolio.
The existing strategy expired last year. Hence, we defined our new CO2 strategy last year for the next coming years. Let me start with a couple of principles which we defined as a basis for our new CO2 strategy. Firstly, a successful CO2 strategy needs to be credible. It is not about greenwashing. Secondly, we want to achieve a measurable impact. It's not about marketing and reputation only. This leads to the third and key principle, accountability.
Accountability means that the current management and the current employees need to be responsible for their actions and not the future generation. This has direct implications on target settings. Announcing long-term promises and targets over decades is in direct contradiction to accountability. The fourth principle is realism. Again, for example, when it comes to targets. With realism, we also want to avoid wishful, ideological, or dogmatic thinking.
The last principle is efficiency, meaning that we aim for a maximal sustainability impact given a specific financial investment. We believe efficiency is achieved best if we build our CO2 strategy on market-oriented principles and not central planning approaches. These principles lead us to three conclusions. First, our CO2 strategy needs to be fully embedded in our overall business strategy. Second, the topic of CO2 needs to be integrated in all relevant business processes.
Thirdly, to do so, we need to treat CO2 emissions as external costs via a CO2 price. With an internal CO2 pricing approach, we also prepare for a scenario where external CO2 markets might further develop in the future. Based on these principles, we have defined six measures. Firstly, improved transparency. We already implemented last year a monthly CO2 reporting in line with our regular business reporting.
This means that, for example, every ceramics plant reports now on a monthly basis on their CO2 footprint, and therefore, on progress made with regards to CO2 reduction. In line with our important accountability principle, we decided to focus on short and midterm targets and not on long-term targets. Furthermore, the targets need to be linked to incentive systems and as broadly as possible anchored within the organization. I will talk about that on my next slide. Thirdly, we will implement, as mentioned, a systematic internal CO2 pricing approach. This means that we incorporate CO2 emissions into the profitability calculations of all projects which explicitly or implicitly affect CO2 emissions. Combined with a yearly defined reference price, we ensure the implementation of the most efficient CO2 reduction projects in terms of ecological impact versus economical cost.
For this year, for example, we defined a reference price of EUR 60 per ton of CO2 reduction. Main contributor to CO2 reduction are obviously energy measures. Therefore, we will implement a rolling master plan for energy and CO2 forecasting for all large plants, combined with a plan to continuously increase sourcing of alternative energies. Fifthly, we launched several projects to structurally reduce CO2 emissions of ceramics manufacturing processes. For example, the evaluation of using hydrogen as energy source for the firing process.
Lastly, we would also consider high-quality external CO2 offsetting or removal projects if internal projects would not be efficient enough. The basis for this decision is, again, our internal CO2 pricing combined with external costs for CO2 reduction. Let me now go into more detail about our target setting. As mentioned, our focus lies on short and midterm targets to ensure maximal accountability.
As of this year, we will define a yearly CO2 reduction target as part of the yearly budget process. Furthermore, we will include this target into the group-wide bonus system with a weight of 20%. As of this year, this means that all 220 group managers and an additional 1,500 employees will be linked to this CO2 target. Midterm, our target is to reduce CO2 intensity by 4% per year. This target, combined with our internal CO2 pricing approach, will be consistent with our three financial midterm targets for sales, EBITDA, and ROIC. To increase the focus on measures and impact, we introduced also a couple of function-specific KPIs, which are tracked monthly and which are part of individual annual targets.
For example, energy efficiency measured in kilowatt hours per piece equivalent or CO2 efficiency of ceramics measured in CO2 emissions per kilogram of manufactured ceramics. Under these assumptions that we deliver on these midterm targets, we will achieve a long-term impact of -70% CO2 intensity by 2030 and -80% by 2035 compared to our footprint in 2015. This reduction path is in accordance with the SBTi target to limit global warming at maximum 2 degrees. We are convinced that we will achieve these challenging targets based on our new CO2 strategy, which is based on realism, impact, and most importantly, on accountability of the management and employees who are in charge today and not tomorrow. Let me now come to the outlook for the building industry this year.
I start with the war in Ukraine and the current situation of Geberit in Ukraine and Russia. First, I would like to state that Geberit is shocked and deeply concerned about the current development in Eastern Europe. We vigorously condemn the war in Ukraine. Our first, and by far most important priority, is the safety of our employees and their families. Let me give you a brief overview about our activities in the region. Our sales exposure in Ukraine and Russia is limited, with around 2% of group sales. In Ukraine, we employ around 590 people. There are 550 in our ceramics plant in Slavuta, located around 300 kilometer west of Kiev, producing mostly for the local market. 40 people are employed in our sales organization in Kiev.
All activities in Ukraine are stopped since the invasion two weeks ago. We are in close contact with our local leadership teams. Most employees are at home or in the western regions of the country, obviously under frightening conditions. Only a few employees have fled abroad so far. Several employees are drafted to the army or are voluntarily supporting the local civil resistance. We have taken several measures to help our employees in Ukraine. For example, the immediate prepayment of all salaries for March, and we will do the same for April, a reception center for Geberit refugees and their families in our Polish organization, and also a group-wide donation campaign launched already one week ago. In Russia, we employ in our sales organization 70 people, most of them located in Moscow.
Our products are not on the sanction list since sanitary products like toilets, flushing systems or water pipes are not dual-use products and address a basic human need for water and sanitation. For the moment, we have decided to continue our business in Russia, mainly to provide security for our 70 Russian employees, but also since our products address a basic need for people. Financial transactions are currently also still possible. However, we have put in place additional measures and controls to ensure that our products are not delivered to customers on the sanction list, especially governmental organizations. We will obviously closely follow the further development and also continuously review our decision, what do we do with our business in Russia? Obviously, the geopolitical tensions and risks have massively changed and worsened over the last two weeks.
However, we believe it's too early to assess what the impact will be on policy-making and the economies in the Western world, especially in Europe. Therefore, an outlook for the building construction industry, especially in Europe, is extremely difficult. We see basically four key questions, however, for the building construction industry, some of them depending on the recent geopolitical development and other less dependent. First question, will the COVID-19-induced home improvement trend continue, or will we see a slowdown after the release of the COVID-19 measures? Second, do we see a recovery of the new build segment after a subdued development during the COVID-19 pandemic? Third, will the significant price inflation and the changing interest rate environment impact demand for building construction?
Fourthly, could selective component shortages and the fragile supply chains lead to delays on construction sites, also considering increased supply chain risks in the light of the war in Ukraine? As said, answers to these questions are highly uncertain and speculative at this moment in time. Therefore, we want to refrain from a more detailed market outlook. Now, I would like to give you an outlook for Geberit about our activities and our priorities this year. Let me start with a selection of important new product introductions.
We will further roll out our new supply piping system, FlowFit, introduced last year in the German-speaking countries and the Netherlands. FlowFit is based on a completely new pressing technology, allowing for faster, safer, and easier installation. For example, only two tools are required for the installation of all eight pipe dimensions in a building instead of one tool for every dimension.
FlowFit is also optimized against pressure loss, allowing for smaller diameters, improving the hygiene in drinking water systems. In 2022, we will further roll out the system to Italy, Belgium, Nordics, Hungary, and Slovenia. For our drainage piping portfolio, Silent-db20, we will introduce a so-called offset fitting. The offset fitting solves a problem that often occurs on a construction site, which is a horizontal offset of vertical drainage pipes between two floors. This new ball joint fitting overcomes this problem and allows for a faster and easier installation. The offset fitting is a good example how we can further improve the competitiveness of a piping system, although the system is introduced already for many years in the market.
In the area of installation and flushing systems, we will introduce our new flush valve Type 212 for concealed systems. A flush valve is virtually the heart of any toilet flushing system. The new valve allows for more flexibility in terms of flush volume adjustment and has a smaller diameter, making it easier to install. The new flush valve is backwards compatible until 2001, which means that it fits to all cisterns installed over the last 20 years. This is a good example how our before-mentioned eco-design approach in product development leads to more sustainable product solutions by extending, for example, the lifetime of already installed Geberit products. Another important introduction this year is the new Alpha 8 cm concealed cistern for the Indian market.
This slim cistern is specifically developed and adapted to the local market needs and installation habits, and addresses also the local price levels without compromising on Geberit quality standards. Let me continue with two innovation examples for bathroom systems this year. We will further expand our easy-to-install Geberit ONE washbasin and furniture assortment. This assortment introduction will come along with an extension of our washbasin configurator, supporting retailers and end consumers in their product selection.
The second innovation example is the AquaClean Cama. The Kama is the first self-installable shower toilet. It allows an end consumer to add a shower toilet functionality to an existing toilet. A professional installer or electrician is not needed anymore. With this, we pursue two goals. First, as a test device for end consumers to experience the shower toilet functionality at home and to motivate them to buy a full shower toilet.
Second, as a sales product to target the tenant markets where the installation of a full shower toilet is often prevented by the real estate owner. In the area of digital products, we will introduce two innovations this year. First, we will offer a simplified connectivity via standard mobile devices for our public bathroom assortment, which includes urinals, electronic faucets, and electronic toilet flushing systems. Besides easier handling, the connectivity also allows for systematic data gathering and analytics, for example, to optimize water consumption or cleaning services in public bathrooms, for example, at an airport. Secondly, we will integrate a standardized power and communication plug for toilets in our toilet installation frames behind the wall.
The new power supply and communication separates and clarifies the responsibilities between the plumber and the electrician on a construction site, and enables an easy plug-and-play upgrade of toilets, for example, for shower toilets, odor extraction or electronic WC controls. Let me continue the Geberit outlook with some of our key investment projects this year. Driven by the strong growth of behind the wall flushing systems in recent years, we will expand our plant for installation frames and prefabricated installation systems in Lichtenstein in Germany. The expansion started last year and will be completed by 2024. Total CapEx for the additional buildings and the new fully automated production line amounts to EUR 56 million, with a payback of 3.3 years.
Another important investment will be a new assembly line for the new flush valve presented before, with an even higher degree of automation compared to the existing assembly lines. The line will be built in Pfullendorf in Germany with CapEx of EUR 1.8 million and an excellent payback of less than one year. In our plant in Jona, Switzerland, we will add further capacities for our new FlowFit piping system due to the strong growth after the successful introduction last year. Total investments amount to EUR 7 million spread over 2022 and 2023, with a payback of four years. Furthermore, we will further modernize our stainless steel fitting production in Langenfeld in Germany. The new machinery and equipment will not only improve efficiency, flexibility, and lead times, but also the quality of our products due to an improved welding process.
The investment amounts to EUR 6 million with a payback of 5.8 years. Let me finish our investment outlook with two examples from our ceramic plants. We will further optimize the glazing process in our ceramics plant in Portugal. The new glazing robots will lead to better process control, resulting in an improved yield, better quality, and a positive environmental impact due to less glaze consumption. The investment amounts to CHF 4.5 million with a payback of 3.4 years. Due to the strong growth of our wall-hung toilet assortment, we will further build up additional production capacities in our ceramics plant in Finland and also in Haldensleben in Germany. We will invest into state-of-the-art high pressure casting cells and benches, which also improves efficiency and product quality. Total investment over the next three years will be EUR 19 million.
Two further priorities in 2022 will be digitalization and marketing. We will further expand our digitalization efforts this year, mainly by adding additional capacities for digital product data and also general IT capacity for digital marketing tools and IT security. In total, we will spend another CHF 15 million per year for digitization, mainly for personnel and operating expenses. In marketing, we are planning for a further normalization of our activities after the COVID-19-induced restrictions in the last two years. We budgeted for a normal pre-crisis marketing budget this year, which means an increase of around CHF 10 million versus last year. Let me finish our outlook with a few words on the raw material prices. Raw material prices increased significantly in 2021, as shown with our raw material purchasing price index on this chart.
The average purchasing price of our raw material basket in January 2022 was 25% above the level of January 2021. Furthermore, energy prices, which are not part of this raw material basket, almost exploded since Q3 last year. To cope with this unprecedented input cost inflation, we already implemented several price increases in the course of last year. Our regular price increase in April and extraordinary price increases as of July last year and also as of January this year. Currently, we expect a further sequential raw material price increase of around 5%-6% in Q1 compared to Q4 last year. Please keep in mind that this forecast is highly uncertain in the current situation and environment with the Russian and Ukrainian conflict.
Nevertheless, to cope with the ongoing increase of raw material and energy prices, we decided to implement a higher price increase this year than usual of around 2.5% as of April this year. Let me close our presentation with a short summary. 2021 was an excellent and record year for Geberit. We achieved a record growth rate and record results on all levels. These results are a testament of the resilience of our focus strategy and the prudent COVID-19 crisis management over the past two years. We managed to keep the margins on industry-leading level despite significant raw material price inflation, thanks to a successful supply chain management and our pricing power. We achieved a double-digit growth of free cash flow for the fourth consecutive year, 70% above 2017.
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, we managed to successfully introduce many new products last year and to further expand, strengthen, and digitize our customer relations. The plants managed to further improve productivity despite significant challenges from the unprecedented volume growth and supply chain disruptions. Finally, we also managed to significantly reduce our CO2 intensity last year, combined with the development of a new CO2 strategy with two core pillars, accountability and CO2 pricing. Let me summarize our outlook for this year. The war in Ukraine has confronted us with new geopolitical realities, tensions, and increased risks. The direct business exposure of Geberit in Ukraine and Russia is limited with around 2% of group sales. However, it's too early to assess what the impact on the global and European economy will be.
It is foreseeable, however, that the year will be marked by significant headwinds from increased raw material and energy prices, substantial wage inflation, and further increased supply chain risks. Despite this environment, we are positive for Geberit, and we will focus on the following Geberit priorities in 2022. Gaining further market shares, as in previous years, for example, with our newly introduced products in recent years. Secondly, leveraging our pricing power to mitigate the significant cost inflation. Thirdly, further leveraging our unique position behind and in front of the wall in sales, marketing, but also in product development. We want to execute on various important capacity and improvement projects, for example, in the area of digitalization. Finally, we want to significantly reduce our CO2 footprint also in 2022.
With this, we are confident to achieve also in 2022 a strong performance, also based on our strong fundamentals, which we have proven over the past years. The fundamentals of Geberit are a focused strategy, avoiding distractions, especially in times of crisis, a decision-maker-oriented business model, a strong focus on commitment to innovation and sustainability, efficiency focus with continuous investments, a functional and lean organization, and finally, a strong down-to-earth company culture. Based on these fundamentals, we have delivered industry-leading results since the acquisition of the ceramics business in 2015.
Over the last seven years, we achieved an annual currency-adjusted net sales and EBITDA growth of 9%, an annual currency-adjusted EPS growth of 11%, an annual free cash flow growth in CHF of 8%, an annual productivity increase of our plants of +4%, and finally, also an annual reduction of relative CO2 emissions of -8%. With this I was too late with one slide. With this, we are at the end of our presentation. On this slide, you see the financial calendar and the most important dates for this year. We are happy and prepared to take your questions. Maybe I leave that one here because Mr. Rosenau, please.
Hello. Okay. Thank you. Remo Rosenau, Helvetische Bank. You mentioned the extraordinary price increase in January. Could you tell us what, you know, the magnitude of this price increase in average overall? Adjacent to that, in the January conference call, you said that Q4 probably saw a pre-buying effect due to these price increases. Has that been confirmed in the first two months when you look at the volumes? Or a bit more specifically, how have the volumes developed in the first two months?
First part of the answer, the extraordinary price increase as of January across all countries, product groups is around 1.5%, which we have implemented. Second part of the question, we had a good start into the year, so we started good in January and February and had a good volume in January and February.
Far, you could not really observe a big kind of pre-buying effect having an impact in the first two months.
I would mention a different observation. What we have not seen so far is destocking of wholesalers. That was one of the potential scenarios because of pre-buying. What we have not seen is that we don't know it exactly, as you know, but we didn't hear, feel, and also if you look into our volumes, a destocking effect in January or February at wholesalers.
Okay, thank you. My last question, if I may, totally different. The share buyback program, you executed CHF 217 million so far by the end of December. CHF 283 million are still there from the CHF 500 million. Share price has come down. Have you intensified it or you're thinking about intensifying it now?
Yes. It's, as you know, it's not directly managed by us. It's an algorithm, and it's done by a third party. But the assumption is correct that there's a higher share buy being bought back at lower prices, yes.
Okay. Thank you.
Bad midvane. Sorry, Stefanie.
Stefanie Scholtysik, Mirabaud.
Hi.
Thanks for taking my question. I have a question in terms of volume mix effect in the Q4 . You're stating it had a positive volume effect, and I assume or conclude that the mix effect would then have been negative. Can you maybe share with us what kind of mix effect impacted you? The second question would be on new products and Geberit ONE. How much of your growth in 2021 was coming from these new products?
I will take number two, and Tobias starts with number one.
On the product and mix effect, I emphasized the volume effect, but there's as well still an ongoing mix effect. By far, especially last year, larger was the volume effect.
Positive.
Positive, yes.
Coming to Geberit ONE, in terms of share of sales versus group sales, it's still relatively small, but it's nicely growing, especially parts of this assortment, which is around toilets, is developing very nicely, but it's still not material on a group level. If there are any questions from the webcast, they could be asked through Roman Sidler. By the way, Roman Sidler is still working for Geberit, but he has corona and he's at home. Now here he is. He will take all the questions from the webcast. Sorry, Roman. All right. Maybe another one before we start. Mr. Hüsler.
Thank you. Martin Hüsler, Zürcher Kantonalbank. My question is about Ukraine, the plant that you have there. How much of ceramic capacity is this within the whole group, and where does the plant export its products?
In terms of volume, it's relatively high, but we are producing the eco segment there. Therefore, in terms of sales, it's relatively limited. The majority of the volume manufactured out of this plant is going to the local market in in Ukraine, and the minority is going to countries in Eastern Europe.
Okay, thank you. Also from this perspective, it's not more than this 1% or 2% of sales.
The entire even if you include this export part, it's not material, the entire direct exposure to Ukraine and Russia. Maybe now, Roman, do you have a question from the webcast, if you hear me?
Yes, I have some here. First of all, some from Daniela Costa, Goldman Sachs. We are likely to face more meaningful raw materials and energy increases than when you last commented in January. What would prevent you from doing a large, extraordinary price increase again to compensate for that?
At the moment, we are obviously reviewing the daily changing situation with regards to raw material prices, also energy prices. You have all read the news this week that we are currently analyzing how we will react on that, and I will not exclude that we will also introduce or implement another extraordinary price increase, but we are still analyzing the situation and have not yet taken a decision.
Okay. Also related to that, next question from her. How do you see wage inflation going forward versus recent years?
We expect a higher wage inflation this year of around 2.5% for Geberit now, which is more than in recent years. Maybe that is even a bit conservative assumption, having in mind what happened over the last couple of weeks.
The next question from her, are there any raw materials which are specifically dependent on supply from Ukraine and Russia?
Obviously for the plant in Ukraine, we have some local suppliers, but anything is anyway closed in Ukraine at the moment. For the group, we don't have a material exposure to direct suppliers in Ukraine and Russia. However, that's what I said in my introduction. The risks, obviously, for all supply chain has increased. And keep in mind, for example, we have our second, third largest organization in Poland, where we have also a lot of local suppliers, of course. The risks have increased, but at the moment, we don't face any direct shortages from this Ukraine and Russian conflict.
Okay. The next question from her, how shall we read your comment on 2020 continued high margins versus your long-term target at 28%-30%? Does continued mean stable with 2021 or just inside the range given the headwinds?
I can't remember a statement which I made about continued high margins in 2022. Sorry, I'm not sure what you are referring to.
Okay. Last question from her. Can you clarify what is the full carryover of all price increases so far for 2022, including the 2.5% in April?
Yes. Let's start with April last year, regular price increase of around 1.5%. Extraordinary as of July was 3%, but only on two product areas, installation and flushing systems and piping systems. On group level, around 2%. The next step was January this year, as I mentioned before, around 1.5%. Now as of April, we will implement a bit stronger than usual a price increase of 2.5%.
Okay. A question from Cedar Ekblom from Morgan Stanley. You delivered a negative price contribution to the margin in 2021, with the trend deteriorating in Q4. Why are you not being more proactive in product price increases?
First of all, pricing is not exact science and mathematics. Product pricing depends on three elements. Obviously, raw material prices. Secondly, maybe not to forget customer relations. Number three, competitive landscape. I think if you follow Geberit for the last couple of years, without being arrogant, I think we are capable to manage prices, and therefore we have our reasons and good decisions why we have taken these price increases, which I just laid out before. We believe that is the best price increases what we could do to create value mid-term, short-term, and also long-term.
Okay. The next question from Yves Rombaut from BNP Paribas. Are you seeing any first impact of price elasticity on demand?
A difficult question because, as you know, we don't have direct sales relationships to our main decision makers, plumbers, and not at all to end consumers. I would say the answer is rather not so far that we have not yet seen significant impact of inflation also for construction activities on demand. It's more a feeling. I don't have a precise answer to that because as I said, we don't have exposure to direct customers making decisions about our products.
The next question from him, how much of your revenues would you describe as more exposed to consumer or business discretionary spending versus being a necessary substitution or repair?
Can you try it again? Sorry, I didn't understand.
Yeah. Honestly, I also do not exactly understand what he wants to ask. Maybe-
Maybe you could rephrase the question and then we take one of the audience here. I'm sure there are more questions.
Maybe I hand over now back to you so that you can ask.
Yes. Arnold has a question in the room, and then.
Yeah.
We have to push the button.
Christian Arnold, Stifel. Actually, a couple of questions. First, on energy, you mentioned that energy costs increased significantly in Q4. Can you remind us what your energy basket looks like, and how do you fix these prices, hedge these prices?
We have total energy costs last year were around CHF 55 million. Half of that is driven by gas and the other half by electricity. We have around 20% of our energy contracts hedged this year due to the time horizon of contracts, and 80% are more or less exposed to spot prices.
Okay. Second question would be on your return on invested capital. You used to have, Target of 25%. You are now at 27%. I don't think you aim 25%, so what's your view on this target?
Our goal is to yearly improve the return on invested capital. At the time, the fixed target has been set to prove that we managed to achieve again good values after the Sanitec acquisition, and now we want to increase it year on year.
You mentioned before you closed three plants, one of them in the Ukraine. Was that before this-
Yeah
Event happened?
That happened already last year. Nothing to do with the war. It was a small plant which we consolidated the activities in a plant in Poland.
Okay. Were there any depreciations?
From that, no.
From the three plants overall.
No. Nothing material.
Okay. Last question on the AquaClean Cama, do you roll this new product out through Europe or to different markets?
Thank you for the question 'cause I forgot to say that we start this year with Switzerland only, and we will further roll it out in the next years then in other countries. We start with Switzerland.
Thank you.
Mr. Rafaisz.
Yeah. Thank you. Patrick Rafaisz, UBS. Two questions please. The first one is on the productivity gains you showed with a nice acceleration now in 2020, 2021. What should we expect here? Can you keep up that historically high pace, or will that normalize?
We have on average around 3.5% productivity improvement over the last five years, and I think there's no reason why we should not expect that continues also in the future. Maybe not as a peak number like last year, but at a normalized level, I would expect that we have enough potential.
Okay. Great. The second question is on the free cash flow outlook and especially working capital. Geberit is one of the few companies that managed to keep working capital in check last year. Were there any timing issues maybe at the balance sheet cutoff date helping the working capital, especially now also with the supply chain challenges you mentioned? How should we think about working capital in 2022?
Well, there were no special effects that were really year-end related. You've got the usual effect, like, in inventory being normally a bit lower. Then you also have a bit higher accounts payable because of the bonuses which are paid in January, but these are all like in any other year. Last year, specifically, we built up actively more inventory, so depending on how this year develops, and surely over time, not sure about 2022, we could see a reduction in inventory. Accounts receivable are likely over time to increase again.
They have been low and we guess especially because of the negative interest, so people have been paying rather quicker. Accounts payable should reduce rather fast because we've seen a relatively high year-end level. Overall, I would say, you know, we don't expect a huge further support from net working capital, but as well, definitely as well not a trend back. Question behind, mister.
Thank you. Rico Friedrich, 2X Ideas. One question, two parts. Can you maybe share with us any feedback that you've had from showrooms that you typically engage with on the home improvement trend and perhaps what they're seeing there? Second part of the question, just regarding the commercial side of your business, if you can perhaps share any trends or improvements you see on that side. Thanks.
Nothing specific to mention on the first part, so nothing special in terms of increased showroom presence or something which went down. I would say nothing new. On the commercial part, I would rephrase the question a bit. That's one of the elements which we have presented at the end. Throughout the last two years, renovation was very strong, obviously. New build was relatively subdued, also if you look into building permits. This could be one element which would be positive this year, especially if you look also into the last two quarters of our business where piping went relatively well, which is a signal for new build. This could be a more positive trend this year. Showroom, I would say, is stable. Maybe Roman in between, maybe the question has been rephrased so we can-
Yeah.
understand it.
Yeah. It was rephrased. The question was on the renovation exposure of Geberit. How much of that exposure would you say is exposed to consumer having to replace their system because of a leak or broken systems versus consumers or businesses wanting to redecorate their houses or offices?
Now I understand, and the answer is easy. It's relatively a low part is due to damaged products. That has a lot to do with the quality of our products, obviously. The majority of renovation is really refurbishment of a bathroom or of an entire building. The spare part is very small.
Okay. Some questions from Manish Beria from Société Générale. You have reduced your payout ratio. Is there something that you anticipate with that in earnings degrowth in full year 2022, and the reduction in payout is done to smoothen it?
The answer is no. We've increased the payout, or we've increased the dividend in order to stay in the middle of the payout corridor. The other point obviously is that we have the share buyback program so that the payback to the shareholders stays and will stay as well on the very high level. No anticipation, no hidden messages.
The next one from him. We have already guided or you have already guided for CHF 30 million increase in marketing and digital cost for 2022. Can you please confirm that it is still the case and some of the cost increase has not already been incurred in Q4 2021?
No, I can't confirm because the number is now CHF 25 million. We still 50 million additional for digitalization, but for marketing it's only CHF 10 million. That's in contradiction to January. The reason is we had a bit higher marketing spend at the end of the year than what we expected at the beginning of the year. Therefore, it's CHF 10 million additional marketing, not 15, as communicated in January, plus 15 for digital, makes 25 steps up.
The last question from him, maybe partly already answered. The raw materials have witnessed renewed inflation, so should we expect more price hikes?
Sorry, can you? I did acoustically not hear it.
I think we've answered that just before.
I just wanted to confirm for him. The raw materials have witnessed renewed inflation, so should we expect more price hikes? He's relating to the continued price increases on the raw material market.
That's what I said. We are currently analyzing the situation, and I would not exclude that we do other extraordinary price increases throughout the year.
Okay. One question from Hitoshi Miyajima from Norinchukin Value Investments. Please let us know if there are any developments on your efforts for popularizing the use of concealed systems in the Nordic countries.
Oh, there are many efforts. I could talk about half an hour about that. Obviously, on all levels we are working on this penetration of concealed system, which is still very low in the Nordic region. There are many marketing activities, sales activities, obviously, which are going exactly into this direction. Just to give you maybe one example, we are also running end consumer campaigns, just marketing campaigns in these markets to convince the Nordic population that a concealed system is also a safe solution, for example, and you don't have to be afraid to put water behind the wall, which is a standard, obviously, in Switzerland, Germany for already 30, 40 years. There are many, many examples.
Okay. The next question from Arnaud Lehmann from Bank of America. What are the potential positive impacts, mix effects on the group margin from the innovative products and the higher penetration of shower toilets in 2022 or in the medium term? Could that partly offset cost inflation this year?
No. The reason is simply because the new product contribution of products introduced this year is still marginal in our business. Therefore, even whatever the margin is of new products, it doesn't have a material impact in the year of introduction. To shower toilet, obviously, the question is a bit more longer for a longer time horizon. Shower toilet has an attractive gross margin and is not diluting the business if it's growing faster than the rest.
Okay. The second question from him, Arnaud Lehmann. What are the risks to Geberit demand outlook from rising costs of living in Europe?
I'm not sure if that's only a risk, because if you spend more for living, you spend more for a toilet, it's also an opportunity. I wouldn't say that's only a risk. Higher real estate prices are not that bad for us. We have also an opportunity there.
I would say hand back to you because I have some other questions, but maybe some more questions from the room.
Sorry, Mr. Hüsler. Sorry. Martin Flückiger .
Yeah, thanks.
Very similar.
Martin Flückiger from Kepler Cheuvreux. Just coming back to that question, earlier question on the home improvement trend. If I understood your answer correctly, you were referring to no new changes. Does that mean no new changes with regards to a waning trend that you've seen? You know, I'm basically interested in the delta Q1, first two months of Q1 versus Q4. You know, whether we're still seeing a flattening out of demand based on that home improvement trend. That would be my first question. The second question, I guess, is for the CFO.
I realize you're targeting the 2.5% ordinary selling price increase as of April and possibly further extraordinary increases, but I was just wondering what kind of target do you have in terms of net price effect in 2022? I guess you're managing the price cost spread there quite actively. Then my final question is on other operating expenses and non-cash charges. A bit of volatility across the quarters in 2021. I was wondering whether you could give us some financial guidance on net operating expenses and particularly depreciation charges in 2022. Thanks.
I start with number one, and two and three will be answered by Tobias. I didn't say that the home improvement trend was unchanged. The question was, do we have information about showroom frequency? There, nothing changed. We haven't any signals from showroom frequency and consumers going into showrooms of our customers. That didn't change. I didn't make a statement about the home improvement trend.
Could you please?
No, I can't. That's the reason why I didn't, because it's quite hard. You know, it's hard. Coming back, maybe it's a good opportunity to re-emphasize one of our important elements of our business. We have a low visibility. We only see two weeks. We have all these inventory effects of wholesalers. So of course, what we take as signals, for example, feedback from customers, going into showrooms, that's helpful, but we don't have a clear sharp measure. Therefore, I even can't, and especially not over a couple of weeks, give you an indication what happened to the home improvement trend.
Concerning the net price effect, over the long term, we're definitely aiming, and we have the pricing power to compensate that, including as well energy prices. Whether that is sufficient on a specific year, on a specific quarter, remains to be seen. We're trying to anticipate, but you never really know what it is. Long term, we have the pricing power and will compensate any price increases.
Okay, do you think it's realistic or plausible to achieve a positive net price effect or even flat price effect this year, or is it most likely gonna be significantly negative again?
With the volatility we're seeing on the raw material price increases, I would definitely refrain from making any forecasts at that stage. On your third question, the net operating expenses, especially D&A. Overall, we see continuous normalization of the costs. We had the CHF 25 million in marketing and IT, as explained by Christian. Probably there will be some other normalizing costs, like, for example, travel, et cetera. Still with a very tight cost control and continuing to support our operating leverage. On the D&A specifically, that should be slightly rising as we continue to invest, as we've shown as well. However, you should see a counter fact on amortization, where we had that one-off amortization effect last year. Overall, that should be rather positive than negative.
Okay. Slightly rising in underlying terms, excluding the one-off from amortization.
Excluding the one-off. Exactly, yeah.
Yeah.
Stefanie Scholtysik. I have a question on the installers in Germany. I mean, in the past, lack of installers was something that had a negative effect on your growth. How is the situation showing currently?
Stable. Meaning, there is still a lack of professional plumbers in Germany. The order book levels are still on record high levels. The latest number we have is an order book level of 13.7 weeks, which is a record number over the last 10-15 years. It's still tight to find an installer in Germany. Also, that's maybe an indication, coming back to the question before, that the market at the moment in Germany is doing well. Roman, I look to you. Is there any other question from the webcon? Yeah.
Yeah. There are some. The next question from Yassine Touahri from On Field Investment Research. I understand Ukraine exports some materials, such as kaolin, that can be used in your production process. How much of your supply chain could be impacted by the war?
That's what I said before. We don't have a lot of direct relations, supply relationships to the Ukraine. Directly we are not facing any issues at the moment, but indirectly, the risks have increased that the supply chains might be disrupted or at risk in the course of the next weeks. At the moment, we get the raw materials which we need.
The question to raw materials. Raw material costs are increasing by 5%-6% sequentially Q1 2022, and you only increased prices by 1.5% in January. In this context, could Q1 2022 EBITDA margins be lower than the margin of 23% that you published in Q4 2021?
That's a thinking mistake. Obviously, it's not only the 1.5% increase in January which has an impact on sales prices. You have to add up all the price increases, which we did since April last year. If you add that up, it looks better.
Okay. I have a couple of questions from Andre Kukhnin. Let me go through. Maybe some are already answered, but I honestly do not have the overview completely. I start with the first question, profitability level for 2022. Your message on 2022 and 20 level not seen as sustainable is very clear. However, similar to 2021, you are responding to incremental inflation with higher price increases, and hence a substantial margin correction does not appear likely in 2022. Would you agree?
I come back to the number I mentioned just before. The CHF 25 million additional spending this year, one part of that is driven by the still subdued marketing expenses last year, CHF 10 million, and an additional investment of CHF 15 million for digitalization. If you take the CHF 25 million, you are already below 30%, obviously. This is the reason why the 30.9% last year is not a sustainable margin in normal times.
Okay. Back to raw materials. Raw material impact for 2022. Assuming current spot prices, how much of an increase to materials costs do you calculate for 2022 overall?
I will refer to my, I think, fourth last chart, where you see the raw material price index, what we are paying. If you draw a straight line, horizontal line, assuming that the raw material prices stay where they were in January, you can make the math, and then you can calculate what is the raw material price increase for Geberit this year. It depends, obviously, on your personal view, how the line develops this year.
Okay.
I don't know how the line develops, to be honest.
A question on free cash flow. Free cash flow in Q4 was down 25% year-on-year in the quarter. Can you please walk us through the specific drivers?
Well, the first one, obviously, and by far, the largest one was the operating results, as we've seen. On the other one we had, I would need to go through, but there were no specific events, specifically on Q4.
Next question from Andre Kukhnin. Among the new products launches you presented, which one or two would you highlight as revolutionary?
I think FlowFit I would really call revolutionary because it is by far the largest R&D project which we have done in the history of Geberit in terms of money spent, people involved, activities in the market. That is revolutionary because just of size. You know, a new piping system is not introduced every year. That's a huge effort. I would highlight that one. The second one which I would highlight, not in terms of sales, is Karma, the shower toilet which I presented before. Because this is the first time, as I said in my introduction, that you have now the possibility to install a shower toilet functionality without professional support. Just to repeat that, the purpose is not to build the market with this Karma. I call it a bit the coffee machine.
The idea is to convince people to get the experience of shower toilets and then to buy a regular shower toilet, obviously. It's in the end, a marketing tool. Secondly, we are targeting the tenant markets, basically in Switzerland, Germany, where we have a high share of tenants, for those who want to have a shower toilet but are not allowed or it's difficult to build one in a rented apartment. I would call the Alba also kind of revolutionary because it's the first time that Geberit, in 150 years, you could say, brings a product on the market which is not requiring a plumber, but it is a marketing tool to support the classical business.
The last question from Andre. One more to the wholesaler stocking up. Our channel checks suggest a build-up of inventory to a tune of around one extra week. How does this compare to your estimates?
I don't know because I don't have one.
I have more questions, but maybe some from the room. Should I continue?
Yeah, there's one. Now it's really Mr. Hüsler.
Thank you. The strong Swiss franc, when would you consider adaptations on your Swiss franc price list in Switzerland? The second question, turning to China, how do you see the residential crisis in China? Did this have an impact at all? Do you see in 2022 already some improvements there?
To the first question, we don't have a sharp number where we would take any actions with our pricing in Switzerland, but obviously that's part also of our review process at the moment, what that would mean for the prices in Switzerland. No decision taken so far, no clear metrics when we would do something. In China, first of all, a preliminary remark. We don't have any exposure to Evergrande. No one is talking about that anymore, but we don't have any exposure to that.
Obviously, we think that the risks for the construction market in China has increased due to Evergrande. If I look into the numbers of the beginning of the year, so far, we have not seen a significant impact. At the moment, it seems that it works well, but I would say the risks for the construction market, building construction markets in China have increased for 2022.
Thank you. Is your footprint in China similar to Europe? It's basically residential, or are you more geared towards, I don't know, commercial hotels and such?
No, it's more disproportionately to non-residential because that is the typical entry door to those markets. More and more residential is growing, obviously, the premium segment. I would say still we are maybe slightly disproportionately exposed to non-residential compared to the rest of the group, but shrinking.
Yeah. I have two more.
Roman? Yeah.
Two more. One question from Russell Hartley from Schonfeld. Beyond price rises, are there any other extraordinary efficiency measures being considered for 2022 to help manage overall costs?
There are many, many projects, but I wouldn't call them extraordinary. There are many projects bottom-up driven, part of our continuous improvement strategy, which will contribute to productivity improvement, efficiency improvement in the plants, but also in other areas of the organization. I'm confident that we will improve productivity efficiency this year, but there's nothing specific which I would highlight as a key contributor. It's more a summary collection of many smaller mid-sized projects. I gave you a couple of examples before.
Okay. Two questions from Alessandro Foletti from Octavian. First, on the share buyback, can you please repeat how much you spend on the second line and how much in treasury, and what is the destination of treasury shares?
Treasury shares are purely for our options program. There's no other again hidden messages or other uses that are targeted with that. As for the split, we've bought back 344 shares under the share buyback program in total, and last year it was CHF 166 million. Now you got me. I think roughly CHF 160 million for the treasury shares. But I'll. If you give me one minute, I'll come back to that one.
Yeah, there's only one question here left from, again, from Alessandro Foletti. Indications on CapEx for 2022 and 2023.
We expect midterm CapEx of around 6% of our net sales. This is a good assumption also for this year.
2023?
Again, midterm includes also 2023.
Okay. I just got a new question from Matthias Völcker from Deutsche Bank. When will Karmato come to your biggest market in Germany?
As I said before, this year it's only Switzerland this year. It's not yet finally decided how we roll it out to other countries. We also wanna learn a bit this year in Switzerland, therefore, I can't give you an answer yet. We don't know yet.
No further question here.
I look into the room. Doesn't seem to be anyone. Thank you very much for the webcast participants. For the people in the room, we have a little goodie today, hopefully. We have built up two little fairs here in the back of the room to give you a touch and feel of our products, much more interesting sometimes than numbers. We will present to you the FlowFit system and also the Caroma we just talked about. I would suggest that you divide yourself into two groups, and then we make 5-minute, 10-minute presentation, and then we switch groups, and thereafter you're also invited for a little apéro. Thank you again for your participation. Good day for all of you. Thank you.