Okay, everyone in the room seems ready. Are we ready to go? Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the New York Stock Exchange, and welcome to Belden's 2022 Investor Day. My name is Kevin Maczka. I'm Belden's Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. I wanna thank everyone for joining us here today, both live here in person in the room. So many familiar faces. It's great to see everyone again. Of course, I'd like to thank those of you that are joining on the webcast as well. We know that we have an audience that's joining us virtually today. We're thrilled to be here again at the NYSE in person. It's been far too long. We're thrilled to have the opportunity today to share our story.
Belden's story is significantly improved in many important ways, and you're gonna hear that today loud and clear. It's an exciting time for Belden, and we do hope that you leave here today sharing our view that this is a very compelling investment opportunity. Before we get into the agenda, let me just take a moment and call everyone's attention to our forward-looking statement disclosures. I would encourage everyone to review these statements and our other important disclosures on our website and in our materials in more detail. I would also note that, of course, we're gonna be referencing adjusted or non-GAAP financial information today, so everyone be aware of that. Okay, let's get started with the agenda. We've allocated 2 hours today for prepared remarks and Q&A. You're going to hear from our president and CEO, Roel Vestjens, and our CFO, Jeremy Parks.
After the prepared remarks by Roel and Jeremy, we're gonna have our entire senior leadership team join us here on stage, and we'd be glad to take as many questions as possible at that time. We'll have the whole team. We do ask that you hold your questions until that time, and again, there should be plenty of time to take everyone's questions. After the Q&A session, for those of you joining us here today in person, we're gonna have the opportunity to review some demonstrations of Belden's products and solutions in the adjacent room. You saw some displays set up there, and after the prepared remarks and Q&A, we'll have plenty of time to take everyone through a mini tour of that as well. Should be very interesting. Okay, just a few more housekeeping items before we begin.
This presentation is now available on our website, investor.belden.com. That's for those of you in the room. You'll connect and access the slides there. Of course, those of you virtually on the webcast, you're probably already there, but that's where the slides are as well. For the Q&A, again, of course, we'll take your questions here in the room, and we're going to take questions from webcast participants. Don't be shy. Submit questions on our website. It should be visible there of how to submit questions, and we'll be glad to answer as many of those questions from our webcast participants as well.
Then finally, after we're all done, we're gonna provide lunch here today, and we'd encourage you all to stick around, get a chance to meet our senior leadership team, interact, and it should be a good time to do that as well. Again, very full day, very informative. We think it'll be very interesting and exciting. Let's get started. With that, I'd like to introduce our president and CEO, Roel Vestjens. Before Roel takes the stage, let's start us off with a brief video here that we hope you enjoy.
Every innovation has its infrastructure. Every breakthrough, a backbone. Every radical technology runs on a reliable foundation. For more than a century, that foundation has been Belden. We've wired society's brightest ideas and boldest ambitions. We've enabled industries to operate bigger and faster and smarter. We've connected people around the world and beyond it. Now, we're stepping into a new era, driven by data and intelligence, ready for a new way to grow. We're building the foundation for a digital world, a foundation made of proven solutions, resilient technology, and forward-looking expertise. We're redefining what infrastructure means and what our customers can do with it. Infrastructure that's not just connected, but empowered. Not just agile, enduring. Not just artificially intelligent, physically intelligent. It's time for a unified infrastructure, one that's orchestrated, one that works.
It's time to turn on a world of possibilities for our customers so nothing holds them back. It's time to build the future. Belden. Let's build the future.
Okay. Also on my behalf, a very warm welcome. I really appreciate you all taking the time to participate in our first Investor Day that's been live in person for years. I think we have a great story to tell. As you can see, we're very excited about the future. We're gonna talk about soccer or football. We're gonna talk about rock and roll. We're gonna talk about a few amazing things. We're very excited. Before we talk about the future, I wanna take you back.
I wanna take you back to December of 2019. If you had a crystal ball, then what would you see? You would see a pandemic that affected virtually every country on earth. You'd see a subsequent short but deep recession, and you'd see supply chain disruptions that still haunt us today. Dark clouds. If we now fast-forward over the last 3 years from 2019 to 2022, you'd see global GDP sub 2% per year. You'd see the industrial production index of sub 2% per year. You'd see non-residential spend declining almost 8% every year. You'd see tremendous inflationary pressure of 21% this year compared to 2019. Knowing that Belden came off of a period of virtually none or very small organic growth, how would you expect the Belden ship to do?
Please don't answer that question 'cause that might be a little bit embarrassing. Let me tell you how we did do. Posted organic growth of 5% every year. How did we achieve those results? Well, there's three reasons. The first one is that our secular trends provided the wind in our sails. Labor shortages and subsequent labor inflation rates are here to stay and are driving the need for additional manufacturing, additional automation. The supply chain bottlenecks that a lot of us face will cause companies to reshore activities back in the Western world, and then they have a need for automation and capacity expansion. Remote work, remote learning is driving additional broadband and greater availability of high-speed internet into rural areas. Even the way that we go to work has changed. Our expectation of the office is not the same pre, post-pandemic.
If your employer offers the same type of environment that you get when you're at home, you're not incentivized to go to work, so buildings will become smarter. The sustainability trend is obviously here to stay. Two, we transformed our own business. We fundamentally changed the way we approach and interact with our customers. We focus on customer business outcomes, and I will explain later on in the presentation what that exactly means and how we are realizing that today. We dramatically revitalized our product portfolio. We significantly stepped up our R&D investments. We continue to augment our R&D efforts with targeted bolt-on M&A in order to complement the offerings, the solution that we're able to offer to our customers.
Finally, we upgraded talent, including a complete brand-new leadership team that I will introduce later on in the presentation, and as Jeremy alluded to, will be up here later on today that you can ask questions to. We upgraded our sales talent, and we've hired more than 100 solutions consultants. Why have we done all of this? We even redefined the purpose of the company. Our purpose at Belden is much broader today than it was in the past. We believe that our purpose is to build the foundation for a digital world. What does that mean? What does a digital world look like? Well, Belden serves three different industries, industrial automation, smart buildings, and broadband and 5G segments. Industrial customers are gathering machine data real-time, transforming it into usable insights, transmitting it to the edge and ultimately the cloud.
Office buildings, hospitals, and stadiums are becoming smarter and more automated. Broadband networks are becoming increasingly taxed with ever-increasing demand for data. The bottom line is that the markets that we serve, and dare I say the world we live in, is becoming increasingly digital, and Belden is here to provide the foundational infrastructure for this digital world. Well, that calls for a much bigger idea of Belden. We've moved from a focus on what we make to a focus on what we make possible. Selling product features to simple commodity products, to customers that come for solutions. We are able to do that today for the first time in the history of the company. We're able to provide complete solutions to solve the most challenging problems for our customers. Don't just take my word for it.
This is just a couple quotes from IDC, a leading global market intelligence firm, about the importance of technology partners providing complete connectivity solutions. Customers don't want to source each piece of the network and assemble them themselves. Our customers don't wanna shop at IKEA. That's where Belden is uniquely different. We can consult with our customers, design complete hardware and software solutions, and then provide everything they need in a turnkey fashion. We've never been able to do that before. Again, we built the networks that support our customers' digital journey, helping them solve their complex issues, reduce risk so they can innovate. We're like, we're very excited to share today what that looks like. Let's build the future. Secondly, talked about the markets, talked about the repositioned company, and thirdly, the team. This is the team. This is the crew.
The crew has a new captain and an entirely new crew. We've assembled the best people we can find. A healthy mix from people within the organization that know the company, and a fresh pair of eyes, fresh brains, fresh ideas from the outside. Like I said, later on today, you'll have an opportunity to ask questions and engage with them. Let me provide a quick overview, some housekeeping of Belden in general. We're a leader in network infrastructure, industrial automation, smart buildings, broadband, and 5G. We're a truly global company with regional manufacturing footprint all over the world. That's one of the reasons why we've struggled significantly less versus our competitors dealing with these supply chain problems. In terms of financial strength, we have very attractive margins with significant margin expansion opportunity. We have a strong balance sheet and strong free cash flow generation.
Level set everybody on our business. More than 50% of the revenue is in the industrial automation space. The other half of the company is roughly split equally between smart buildings and broadband and 5G. Approximately two-thirds of our business is from the Americas. Obviously, significant presence here in the United States, but also in Canada and Mexico. EMEA and APAC, EMEA being Europe, Middle East, and Africa, represent about 20%, and Asia Pacific region, about 15% of our revenue. Our revenue base is about $2.5 billion, as I indicated. How are we growing it? Well, first, let's start with those four well-known mega trends that are impacting our business. We're gonna talk about digitization. I talked about automation.
The Industrial Internet of Things and providing connectivity solutions and sustainability are tailwinds or the winds in our sails for years to come. Next, we're executing on a few very specific initiatives to ensure that we benefit as a company from these mega trends. We have transformed our commercial process and are providing complete end-to-end solutions rather than individual products. We call it enhanced solution delivery, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a few slides. We revitalized our product portfolio to include leading technologies and solutions, and we continue to pursue strategic acquisitions that bring innovative new capabilities and further augment our product roadmap. As a result, you've heard Jeremy and me talk about this in our past earnings calls, a relentless focus on organic growth. As a result of the organic growth, solid EPS growth, and free cash flow generation.
As we execute on these growth plans, we would expect to translate this into very compelling returns for our shareholders. Let's go a little bit deeper and look at the key growth drivers in each of our markets. In industrial automation space, I talked about the high cost of labor, talked about the skills gaps, and about the repositioning, reshoring of manufacturing footprint. I'm sure most of you have heard about Industry 4.0 or the industrial Internet of Things. That provides great opportunity for our customers, and we are here to help them succeed. Smart buildings will benefit from technology upgrades, such as in-building wireless and continued spending in data centers. Broadband and 5G will benefit from upgrades to existing broadband networks and the continued build-out of 5G infrastructure. Talked about this twice. What is enhanced solutions delivery?
We've completely reengineered our sales focus over the last 2 years. As a starting point of our commercial process is a focus on our customers' KPIs and framing a business case about how we can address their challenges. I'll give you some specific examples. We're able to engage with our customers upfront much earlier in the sales cycle than we have been in the past through our Customer Innovation Centers, or CICs, as we call them, solution consultants and sales engineers. To help them identify their needs, design proper solutions, and then implement optimal hardware and software solutions that drive their business results. What does all of this lead to? This leads to our value creation framework. The focus here is on driving $8 of EPS or more by 2025.
We realize that's an ambitious goal, but it's one that we committed to, one that we hold ourselves accountable to, one that we as a management team are incentivized through our long-term incentive plans, and we think investors should hold us to that as well. How do we get there? Well, it starts with our relentless focus on organic growth. We believe that our current portfolio should deliver at least GDP plus organic growth over the cycle. Growth without margins, however, is what we call at Belden empty calories. We should expect incremental EBITDA margins of approximately 30%.
As a result, over the cycle, we'll generate about $1 billion of free cash flow, which we can deploy through our disciplined capital allocation framework while still remaining a net leverage of approximately 1.5 times. If anything you take away from today, it's that Belden is a transformed growth company. We're not the company we were decades ago. As a matter of fact, we were not the company that we were three years ago. We are a company that is aligned with attractive secular growth markets. We're positioned to provide comprehensive solutions that drive customer outcomes. We focused on new product innovation, significantly stepped up our R&D investment and technology leadership, and we are committed to doing so with a strict adherence to our ESG practices.
I've assembled the best team that I could find in the industry, and this team will execute a strategy that will drive EPS of $8 by 2025. Let's transition into a discussion of our key strategic markets, and let's start with industrial automation, which represents a little bit over half of the company's revenue. We're extremely bullish on the industrial automation market. We see robust growth opportunities that are favorable for solution providers like Belden. First, the investment in automation and digital transformation are increasing substantially, and that is expected to continue. Second, I talked about the reshoring. 80% of North American companies are planning to reshore at least some portion of the operations. This was only 54% two years ago, March of 2020.
Third, the shortage of skilled labor in most countries, including in the United States, is not scheduled to disappear. What do we offer in these markets? Well, we provide a comprehensive portfolio of network infrastructure products that form complete digitization solution for our customers. It starts with the data acquisition and transmission products that capture the data straight off the sensor, the actuator, or any field device into the network. We have data orchestration products that make the data available across the network. For the first time in our company's history, data management and security software products. A key element that has established Belden as a leader in industrial markets has been our commitment to bringing new technology to our markets. Our market-leading innovations are developed in our global R&D centers and supported by world-class testing and validation labs.
The industrial automation solutions focuses on four different market verticals. First, discrete manufacturing. Think about consumer packaged goods, robotics, machine building. Second, process automation. Think about chemicals, water, wastewater facilities. Thirdly, energy. Think about the generation and distribution of electricity, including obviously renewables such as solar and wind energy. Fourthly, mass transit. Think about intelligent traffic systems, railways, and airports. Industrial automation solutions is uniquely positioned in the market to address the convergence of IT and OT worlds. Our leading brands combine to address all levels of the automation pyramid. We've never been able to do that before. From the field level, the application level, all the way to the management level. This has enabled Belden to be the partner of choice for digitization solutions.
Given our networking expertise reflected in our large installed base, we have a unique opportunity to solve our customers' messy data integration challenges. To do this, we are transitioning from a best-in-class product supplier to a value-added solution provider by using deep industry expertise to collaborate with customers on their specific use cases, and I'll give a few specific examples, and designing solutions to solve their complex networking challenges. Belden brings next-generation technologies, often including edge and cloud solutions that support data ingestion, storage, visualization, and analytics applications. Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things are bringing exciting possibilities to our customers in every aspect of their operations.
To make these possibilities a reality, our customers need a complex set of capabilities that include secure and robust network infrastructure to guarantee availability and security of the operations, data visualization to provide insight into operational performance, just to name a few. Accordingly, we continue to add and expand technologies to our already extensive portfolio, and some of the highlights include edge-to-cloud connectivity, integrated security, and hybrid wired and wireless networks that work seamlessly across the plant floor. Belden has always been strong in our network, working with our distribution partners and with the contract community. Over the last years, the last 2-3 years, we have established a broad ecosystem of leading IT partners. This enables us our go-to-market with robust solutions and integrate complementary third-party offerings.
To date, we've partnered with leading IT players such as TCS, Ignition, and even AWS to provide cloud computing, analytics, and data visualization. Another key component of our solutions approach is our exclusive customer innovation center or CICs as we call them. They're solution hubs providing infrastructure for customers to collaborate with Belden solution consultants and engineers across the world. As Kevin said, after this presentation, you'll get a quick teaser outside. CICs will aim to deliver solutions that deliver double-digit improvement in operational efficiency for our customers. That is huge. Reduce the burden on customers by managing the implementation, maintenance, and risk associated with complex industrial Internet of Things, IIoT or Industry 4.0 solutions, and be the knowledge center for our customers offering certification program and technical services. What is our opportunity? Four key growth areas for our industrial automation solutions.
First, provide a robust network infrastructure as you're used to from Belden. Second, including secure remote access. That is the foundation of an agile, data-driven operations. Next, the acceleration of IT to OT convergence. So as the lines get blurred between information technology and operations technology, a solution provider that has deep understanding of the entire stack from the sensor to the cloud is needed, and that's Belden. Finally, digitization is creating an abundance of new operational data that can be incredibly valuable. Customers must build capabilities in their data analytics to improve the speed and accuracy of the decision-making. Belden makes that possible. Let me give you a few examples. Imagine you are the largest manufacturer of residential HVAC systems in the world. You have more demand than your factory can handle.
You have more orders that you cannot turn into revenue, and your bottleneck is machine capacity. Who do you go to? You go to Belden. This is a specific example for Daikin factory in Texas. We helped them dramatically improve the operational efficiency of their machinery, of their factory, designing a preventative and predictive maintenance solution. Let me give you another example. In material handling, imagine if you're a company like Exotec and you supply AGVs to Amazon and the warehouses of this world. Who do you go to to ensure that your equipment runs seamlessly throughout the warehouse? You go to Belden. We've delivered wireless access points, network switches, and management systems enabling real-time wireless communications with AGVs and with robots. A third example, imagine if you're the largest investor-owned energy company in the United States.
You're dealing with increased complexity of renewable sources of energy and renewable and distribution, distributing that electricity outside to the various areas. Who do you go to managing this complexity? You go to Belden. Belden designed mission-critical solution, including backbone switches and management software. Thanks to our consulting services, Belden is providing a reliable and scalable communication system for National Grid that stretches from the command room to deep in the field. I talked about product innovation, so let me just give you two examples. If you're designing a factory floor and you're using obviously the Ethernet protocol, then the choice that you have to make when it comes to the cabling is do I want distance or do I care about the width of the cable, space? Well, with Belden, you don't need to make that choice.
We've launched a Single-Pair Ethernet cable that has 20 times the distance over traditional Ethernet cable and up to 70% in space savings from a space perspective. Machine builders and operators are confronted with increasing challenges. I talked about capturing the data and presenting it to the edge or to the cloud. This is the device that does it. This is our flagship product, the LioN-X, that is used to capture the data straight off the sensor, straight off the actuator, presenting it in an appropriate format for analytics and sending it to the edge and ultimately to the cloud. Today, we're announcing a brand-new management software. You remember the pyramid that I showed all the way up to the enterprise for the first time in Belden's history called Belden Horizon.
These products combined with the edge device is a cloud-based platform that enables remote secure access, data monitoring, and edge orchestration capabilities. It offers security and visibility demanded by IT along with machine and process uptime demanded by our OT side of our clients. When combined with our new Hirschmann edge computing device, this is an extremely powerful solution. To summarize, we're extremely bullish on industrial automation space. Numerous tailwinds, winds in our sails, including labor availability and inflation. I talked about the reshoring and digitization. They are expected to continue investment in the industrial automation space for our customers. Only Belden is uniquely positioned in this market given our large installed base. Our ability to provide digitization solutions customized by vertical and use cases, and industry-leading knowledge, technologies, and customer. Belden is the cornerstone supplier as users in industry and infrastructure adopt digital transformation.
Turning to smart buildings. Smart buildings market provide numerous opportunities for Belden to grow. Increasing bandwidth and continued digitization within our markets will lead to a strong investment in small and medium data centers, such as edge and co-location. Further, as 5G use cases and technology become more prevalent, we believe there will be a significant investment for private wireless networks within buildings that will lead to new opportunities for our solutions. Lastly, we are focused on several other high-growth verticals, such as healthcare facilities, e-commerce warehouse, and government buildings. As technology evolves, our smart buildings offering has continued to evolve as well.
Comprehensive portfolio to be both wired and wireless applications, and we will continue to invest in our fiber development capabilities built off of more than 50 years of fiber innovation by opening a new facility in Kochi, India, later today or later this week, and a brand-new fiber technology center right here in the United States in 2023. In addition to industry-leading products, Belden sets itself apart by offering unmatched design collaboration and customer solutions for our customers. People ask me sometimes, "Where do I find these products? Where do I find these Belden products?" Well, I'm not exaggerating when I say almost everywhere. Whether it's an e-commerce warehouse, a sports stadium, a hospital, financial institution, or data centers, Belden is quite literally behind the scenes, bringing technology to life. Let me give a few examples.
Who do you turn to when you have $1.9 billion to invest and you're building the most incredible entertainment center on Earth, that has the highest resolution screen in the world? The Las Vegas Sphere. You go to Belden, and that's exactly what happened. This project is a great example of our deep customer relationship and brand specification, which paved the way for success. When was the last time you were blown away by a soccer match? Oh, sorry, I forgot we're in the United States. Most of you would know probably that by the end of this year, in November and December, the World Cup football will be held in Qatar. Qatar built eight brand-new stadiums with state-of-the-art audiovisual entertainment, air conditioning in every seat.
Who do they go to for all the infrastructure? Belden delivered intelligent fiber and copper systems, racks and enclosures, intelligent power distribution units for data center and the office applications in the stadiums. All 8 stadiums. The last example, who do you go to when you are the largest data center provider in Canada? Who do you trust to deploy the data centers in a rapid manner? You go to Belden, and that's what eStruxture did. 2 quick product examples. Our DCX optical distribution frame that we're very proud of is displayed right here in the building, so if you have any specific questions, our team is glad to help. I wanna quickly highlight our fiber transition molding technology, which is unique in the marketplace, which helps us design customized solutions in a very rapid manner.
In summary, over the last two years, our smart buildings business has done a great job in positioning Belden for success in higher growth verticals like data centers and in-building wireless. In data centers, Belden's opportunity will be to take advantage of growing segments such as edge and colocation providers, and we have demonstrated our ability to collaborate early in the design phase, which sets us apart from competitors. We expect the deployment of private wireless networks in buildings and venues will only accelerate with increased adoption of 5G. As building technologies evolve, our customers will need a trusted partner who understands the complexities of digitization and how to achieve their desired outcomes. Belden's new Mobile Collaboration Center, MCC, as we call it, is just one example of how we invest in deepening our customer relationships.
The MCC allows our experts, and there's 2 here with us today, to bring solutions directly to customers and work together to develop the optimal design for their mission-critical facilities, such as their data centers. To conclude, within smart buildings, there are favorable growth dynamics within the market. It's a hospital, but it's a stadium, people and businesses are using more data and requiring more connectivity, transforming interactions into digital experiences. Belden is well-positioned in the marketplace with strong customer relationship, a comprehensive offering, and, if I may, continued supply chain excellence. Turning to our last segment, broadband and 5G. We see a multiyear investment cycle in broadband and wireless infrastructure. Governments are making broadband access a priority.
Here in the United States alone, programs such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or RDOF, and the infrastructure bill will provide $85 billion in funding for broadband investment. Other countries around the world are also pursuing investments as the need for bandwidth and connectivity continues to grow. By 2025, more than half of the homes in the United States will have access to fiber. That's compared to only 31% today. I haven't even talked about 5G. The 5G upgrade cycle will deliver the use of optical fiber systems for years to come, and we are extremely well-positioned to support all broadband and wireless providers globally, regardless of their technology, wired or wireless. Over the years, Belden has invested in new product development and inorganic growth to build a comprehensive solution for our customers.
We have a strong culture of innovation and a market leader with patented, protected technologies. We offer world-class technical support to our customers around the world through our regional customer service centers. Today, Belden offers a broad range of solutions that allow us to meet the core demands of our MSO and telco customers along all parts of the network, while also supporting them in their design and implementation of network builds and upgrades. Belden's comprehensive portfolio allows us to support any method of broadband delivery across the entirety of the operator's network. This includes both wireline and wireless broadband, and in all types of geographies, such as urban, suburban, but also rural communities. With our end-to-end solutions, we can be more than just to provide our products. We are solving our customers' problems today, no matter what network architecture they choose.
Because our solution is technology-agnostic, we benefit from all market growth in broadband and 5G, no matter what customer or distribution method, wireless, copper, or fiber. A key to Belden's ability to support broadband growth is an emphasis on fiber optic technology and solution building. Fiber-based technologies for broadband and 5G focus on fiber to the premise, known as FTTP, and fiber to the antenna, known as FTTA. Belden's FTTP products provide high-speed internet access to subscribers' homes, and our FTTA solutions deliver both fiber and power to macro towers and small cells. These solutions focus on reducing our customers' operating expenditure and deployment time. There are three key growth drivers for our service providers within our broadband and 5G business. Rural broadband has become a major political focus.
In addition, our largest customers or the MSOs will look to upgrade their existing networks to support additional bandwidth demands. Lastly, the 5G upgrade cycle will drive spending on cell towers as well as small cell deployment over the next 5-10 years. Let me briefly touch on these. I've discussed the rural broadband, $85 billion, and these funds are likely to be used in a combination of RF networks, fiber networks, and wireless infrastructure. Belden is positioned to support all of these network builds, which will represent an additional growth opportunity for our broadband and 5G segment. Two, in order to meet the increasing bandwidth demand, MSOs are reinvesting in the networks in an effort to preserve the current customer base among increased competition.
The MSOs have a significant footprint in the United States and remain well-positioned to continue to serve their customers through upgrades. Our broadband and 5G business has strategic partnerships with the largest MSOs, positioning Belden to support these major multi-year upgrade cycles. Thirdly, major 5G rollouts will dominate wireless carrier spend over the next five years. This will include macro cell upgrades or cell towers, but also new small cell construction. Because the majority of all 5G cell sites will need fiber as well as power, this will require significant spend on fiber and power connectivity. Real quick, just two examples. We're very proud of the solution set that we developed for our multi-dwelling unit and our integrated offerings, our integrated broadband and 5G cabinet solutions, which are extremely flexible and they simplify the implementation.
Our customers too face shortages of skilled labor, so we make it easy for them. We design the cabinets, we design the solutions that makes them easy to install in the field. I only wanna highlight one product. Don't let the simplicity of this product, of this picture fool you. This is revolutionary. It's Belden's Ethernet Bridge, and it's a great example of how we leverage our customer relationships and intimacy to solve big problems. The Ethernet Bridge enables fiber to the home speeds in buildings using preexisting installed cable. By using the same cable already deployed in a building, network operators can avoid cost and time associated with ripping and replacing the preexisting networks. To summarize, Belden will benefit from favorable market dynamics, including federal funding, existing network upgrades, and new 5G network builds.
We are highly differentiated in the market, and as a result, we expect continued mid-single digit growth in this market. Before I hand it over to Jeremy Parks, our CFO, I wanna just talk a little bit, just a few slides about ESG, because this is something that we take very seriously at Belden. We are committed to ESG from the board of directors to our management team deep within the organization, not because it's the right thing to do, but also we believe that it will drive business results. We've set goals based on a framework here, which was informed by our first materiality assessment, and these are some key areas that we're focused on and developing in true Belden fashion, KPIs and action plans around.
We've built a strong foundation, and we're very proud of our progress to date, including the establishment of this ESG framework, a refreshed ESG website, which shows our commitment to transparency, which launched yesterday, and our 2022 ESG tear sheet, which we published earlier this week as well. We look forward to sharing more as we continue on our ESG journey. Please allow me to share with you a few highlights. On the environmental side, we saw a nearly 10% reduction in our scope one and two emissions compared to 2019. We diverted over 80% of waste by weight from landfills, and we implemented ISO 14001 at various locations. On the social side, we continue to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion with oversight from our own director of inclusive culture. We demonstrated strong employee engagement of 89% in our most recent employee survey.
This is world-class, according to the agency. We've already been recognized at six locations around the world for a great place to work. Finally, on governance, I would note that we continue to advance diversity on a board, our board of directors, with 4 out of 9 of our board members identifying as gender or ethnically diverse. Before I definitely hand it off to Jeremy, we are not the same company that we were 10, 15 years ago. We are not the same company that we were 3 years ago. We are a transformed growth company that is aligned with attractive secular growth markets. I hope I demonstrated we're positioned to provide comprehensive solutions that drive customer outcomes. We're focused on new product innovation and technology leadership, and we will only do so by remaining committed to our ESG practices.
The assembled team is incentivized and incredibly excited to execute on our strategy to deliver $8 of EPS by 2025. You'll see me after Jeremy just for some closing remarks, but I appreciate the attention.
Okay, good morning. Again, my name is Jeremy Parks. I've been the company's CFO since early 2021. During my first year on the job, one of my key objectives was to understand the company better from the investor perspective. I think we did a good job not only understanding some of your concerns, but addressing some of those concerns over the past year. This would be things like the complexity of the business, the consistency of our performance, the company's overall risk profile and leverage. Those are some themes you'll hear as we go throughout the presentation. Looking forward now, we believe that it's the right time for us to reset our long-term objectives, set new financial targets. Roel touched on them, I'll go through them in more detail.
With targets that are, on the one hand, I think appropriately aggressive, but also are backed up by a credible plan and by reasonable assumptions. We'll go through that in detail. Before I get into those details, though, I would just like to confirm the guidance that we gave back in May of this year for both Q2 and the full year. As a reminder, this guidance implied organic revenue growth between 7% and 9% for the full year, and EPS growth between 17% and 23% for the year. I have a couple key messages as well. They overlap somewhat what Roel has said, but from my perspective, a few themes that you'll hear throughout my section are, number one, that the company has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. We've simplified the business.
We have exited underperforming businesses that were tying up a lot of capital and generating very low returns. What remains today is a portfolio of high-quality businesses. Another point is that we are building a nice track record of performance. We're really proud of the team's execution over the past three years. The resiliency of this business in difficult times has given us confidence as we look towards the next three years. As Roel has mentioned, and as we've talked about on numerous earnings calls. Organic growth, revenue growth is our top priority, and we think we are well-positioned for success here. Long-term trends in our end markets are favorable, and we have a lot of conviction behind our solution strategy. Next, we're gonna be disciplined in terms of managing our balance sheet.
Our leverage at this point is much lower than it's been in many years, and we would expect it to stay where it is. At the same time, we'll generate a lot of cash. I think that gives us nice optionality to deploy that capital over the next few years. Lastly, we are committed to getting EPS to $8 by 2025. Let's talk about that track record of performance. Just one note, most of the numbers that you'll see in this presentation exclude both of our divested businesses, that's Grass Valley and Tripwire, so this reflects the go forward business, as it stands today.
In terms of performance, we delivered mid-single digit growth, mid-single digit CAGR organically over the past three years, more than 2x global GDP, roughly 3x US GDP over that same time period. At the same time, we delivered strong incrementals on that growth, which I think demonstrates that, number one, we have a high value set of products and solutions. We're not selling commodities. At the same time, we've been able to manage external headwinds, I think, quite well, whether it's supply chain or inflation pressures. I think that's been very encouraging. ROIC for this portfolio, the go forward portfolio, is pretty good. A little bit higher than 16% as of the Q1 of this year.
These businesses generate returns that exceed our cost of capital, and I think are worthy of further investment, and that's why we continue to invest in them. Then lastly, as I've said, we have de-risked the business. Leverage right now, ending Q1, net leverage was 1.6 times, which is pretty close to our long-term target of 1.5. As you would imagine, there's a similar story on EPS. Since 2019, Roel mentioned this earlier, but we've grown EPS by about 12% per year over the past 3 years. That has not been a linear path, obviously, because we faced the short but pretty severe recession in 2020. Consistent with prior recessions, the business bounced back fairly quickly in 2021 and 2022.
The new EPS target going forward is gonna be $8 in 2025, and as you can see, that also equates to about 12% growth per year over the next 3 years. We're not counting on acceleration in earnings growth at this point, we're counting on a continuation of our current path. I'll talk more about that. How do we get there? This is the framework that you've already seen, but there are 4 pillars, right? Organic growth is the number one priority, and our goal is to grow faster than GDP. On the next slide, you'll see we view that as roughly mid-single digits right now. Again, deliver solid incremental margins on that growth, no empty calories, but incrementals consistent with the prior 3 years. We are looking to generate outstanding free cash flow over the next 4 years.
Keep in mind, this is a 4-year target, so it's inclusive of 2022. We're targeting about $1 billion in free cash flow. Lastly, we are committed to this net leverage target of 1.5 times. Again, that'll give us lots of optionality with respect to capital deployment because of our significant cash flow generation. It's important to understand that capital deployment or any significant capital deployment is not really part of the base plan. It's a nice optionality and a nice lever for us going forward. Let's go through each of the pillars individually, starting with organic revenue growth higher than GDP. Again, we achieved mid-single-digit growth over the prior three years. The goal, GDP-plus, would be mid-single digits over the next three years.
If you look at this individually by business, both broadband and 5G and industrial automation, I think, are driven by very powerful secular trends, feel very positive about the markets that we're in and see no reason why these won't continue to grow in the mid-single digits. Really consistent with the prior three years. Smart buildings actually grew low single digits over the last few years. I wonder if this is surprising to some people, because at times we've been a little bit negative about this business. Keep in mind, Roel mentioned at the beginning of the presentation that non-residential construction is actually lower in 2022 than it was in 2019. Non-residential construction has come down, but the smart buildings business has grown over that time period. That's shown great resiliency. How did we do that?
We refocused the business into key verticals like e-commerce and hospitals and healthcare, data centers. We're also benefiting from tailwinds in terms of building technology, as those applications and different types of buildings become smarter. We expect smart buildings could accelerate a little bit. We've got them targeted at low to mid-single digit growth over the next three years. I think the last point I want to make on this slide is if I'm you, I might be thinking, "So what happens if we have a recession?" There's some negative sentiment right now in the market. I'll tell you, we've talked a lot about this. We're not naive to the fact that waters could get a little choppy here again at some point. We're not seeing that in our business right now, but it could happen.
What I will tell you is that the growth may not be linear if we run into that type of a situation, just like it wasn't over the past three years, but we're confident in the 2025 targets, and we're confident in the three-year growth estimates, regardless of temporary noise. The secular trends in our businesses are real and long-lasting, and like I said before, we have a lot of conviction behind this strategy. The second driver here is to drive healthy margins on our growth. I think our performance over the past three years has given us confidence that this 30% incremental is a good target for us. In terms of a framework for your models, assume variable gross margins for us are pretty high in the 40%-42% range.
R&D will continue to spend at a constant rate of revenue, roughly 4%. We should get some leverage on SG&A going forward. This would equate to about 60 basis points of margin expansion per year. The next pillar is to generate $1 billion in free cash flow, again, over 4 years. I know this sounds like a big number. If we generate the EBITDA, if we grow revenue at mid-single digits, and if we deliver 30% incremental margins or when we do, we will generate significant free cash flow. The biggest driver here is gonna be the EBITDA growth. Keep in mind, we don't have significant working capital requirements in this business, and actually if you look at our working capital turns, they're among the best in class.
Our working capital is roughly 8% of revenue. We've got low requirements in terms of interest expense and pretty good cash tax rate. The driver here is gonna be the EBITDA growth. When we generate this cash, how would we go about deploying it? Well, as usual, we will take a balanced approach. On this chart, these are in priority order from left to right. Number one is gonna be organic growth. R&D projects, capital projects that help facilitate that mid-single digit organic growth, will be top priority. Number two would be bolt-on M&A, and we're gonna continue with our current strategy, which has been successful over the past couple of years. I'll talk about that in more detail in a few minutes.
We will look to return capital to shareholders where it makes sense through repurchases. We'll be opportunistic about that. Lastly, we will evaluate additional debt reduction, although, again, it's not a high priority for us right now because I think the balance sheet is in great shape. The first component of organic investments would be R&D. As Roel mentioned, technology leadership is essential to our strategy. We will keep funding R&D projects that improve our competitive position and that generate good returns. Priorities in industrial automation would be next generation hardware and various software products. Within smart buildings and broadband and 5G, the focus will be on fiber and fiber connectivity products, and then wireless applications.
For broadband and 5G, it'll be more network, and within smart buildings, it'll be applications and building. I'll just make the point again, expect that R&D investments will grow roughly in line with sales growth going forward. Second component on the organic side are capital expenditures. We will spend roughly $100 million this year on CapEx. 70% of that will be on growth projects. That's a significant ramp-up from where we were just a couple of years ago. We typically earn very good returns on these types of projects. In our experience, earning a return 20%+, that's not unusual for a capital project, an organic project. Our priorities this year and over the next couple of years are gonna be, number one, capacity expansion, particularly in industrial automation and broadband and 5G.
We do have money allocated to support new product introductions. Then lastly, we are investing in productivity initiatives internally. In this case, we are eating our own cooking, so to speak, because we are investing in automation in some of our connector plants, and we are taking steps to digitize our own factories, which is an effort that's supported by the CICs. That's a pretty exciting initiative for us. As I mentioned, ROIC improved dramatically after we divested some of the underperforming businesses. The business as it stands today generates nice returns that, again, greatly exceed the cost of capital. Key drivers would be good profitability, low working capital requirements, high return on organic investments like capital projects, and double-digit returns on our M&A. Let's talk about M&A. M&A is a complement to the organic growth strategy.
I feel like our success over the past couple of years has maybe flown under the radar somewhat, but we've been very successful. I'll talk you through the details on the next slide. In general, what we're doing is we're looking for growing companies that have technologies that we can fit into our solutions or expand our current solutions, and of course, investments that generate good returns. Here are the 10 companies that we bought over the past 6 years. We deployed a little over $400 million to buy these 10 companies, so we spent roughly $40 million per deal on average. A lot of variation, but roughly $40 million. They're small companies, but they're generating really good returns.
We are generating on average post synergy EBITDA multiples of about 6 on these acquisitions that would translate to an ROIC of roughly 13%. Maybe even more importantly, these are highly strategic. For instance, we did not have a broadband fiber business five or six years ago. Today, that business, which has been built mostly through acquisitions, will generate more than $150 million in revenue, and it's a business that has been growing organically by double digits for several years. Here's our debt profile. We've got a great balance sheet at the moment. Our debt is very, very manageable. It's 100% fixed rate debt, which is, I think, good to have in this environment, with an average interest rate of 3.5%. Our next maturity does not come until 2027.
Again, we have lots of flexibility. Just quickly on net leverage, I mentioned that we exited Q1 at a level we hadn't seen in many years. I think that's a good level for us for the long term, we've set the target roughly 1.5 times. I would be remiss if I didn't at least touch on the valuation gap, because I just think it's an opportunity point for investors. From our perspective, the financial profile and the performance of this business, of the company, compares pretty favorably versus the wider peer group. In this case, I'm using the S&P 400 industrials. They're midcap companies. You can see on most operating metrics or all the ones I've listed here, which I think are most of the important ones, we are above the median.
Several were in the upper quartile. Our performance is good. It's very good relative to the peer group. We're still trading at a bit of a discount. I think as you look at the company, keep in mind that not only do we believe that we'll drive growth in EBITDA and earnings over the next few years, but I think there's an opportunity here, if we can get that valuation gap or that multiple gap closed. In conclusion, why invest in Belden? Well, number one, we have a clear, incredible path to grow EPS to $8 by 2025. That path builds on our performance over the previous three-year cycle. We're in the right markets. We have the right strategy to continue growing the business and to improve profitability.
We've got a great balance sheet, with strong cash flow generation that should give us significant optionality going forward. With that, I will hand the presentation back to Roel for some closing remarks.
I'll keep it real short. As I said, I really appreciate the interest in the company. Thank you so much for attending today. I'll keep it real short. I started with a sailing analogy, and I'll end with a soccer analogy. I was attracted by the potential of this company 16 years ago when I joined. I've had the opportunity to grow, to learn every aspect of the company, to learn every business, to learn from the mistakes that the company's made in the past, and to identify the growth opportunities. I think what makes us different, and hopefully we've been able to highlight, that we have dramatically improved the growth profile of the company. We have a different game plan.
We play offense as opposed to defense, and we have a brand-new team on the field, a team that is highly energized, that is best-in-class. I'm equally as excited as I was when I joined, but I'm so convinced of the tremendous opportunities of this company. We're only getting started. Our game plan, playing offense, will only work because we play to win. Now I'm gonna invite everybody of my team to come be here on stage, and they will answer any questions that you might have. Oh, man, this is a logistics exercise. Should you be in the middle?
No, it's okay. Ready?
Do some introductions.
Roel, ready?
Yep.
Yeah. Let's maybe start with some introductions of our team and then, Will, you're first up. We'll start with Brian Anderson. Introduce yourself real quick.
My name's Brian Anderson. I'm the company's General Counsel. I've been with Belden since 2008 and have been in my current position since 2015, which, as you saw on the slide, makes me an old-timer for this team.
Hiran Bhadra. I'm the Senior Vice President responsible for strategy. I'm probably the newest joining the team, about three months back. Looking forward to talking to you.
Morning, everyone. My name's Olivier Bojarski, and I'm the President of the Broadband and 5G business.
Yeah. Good morning. Julie Furber. I'm the Executive Vice President of the Smart Buildings business, and I am celebrating two years today with Belden.
Congrats.
Mm-hmm.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Leah Tate. I'm the Senior Vice President of Human Resources. I've been with Belden for about 10 years and in this role since March of this year.
Good morning, everyone. Anshuman Mehrotra. I'm the Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Belden. I've been here since January of last year. Very excited to have a chance to share our transformation journey with you.
Yeah. Good morning. My name is Ashish Chand. I've been at Belden for 20 years, and I'm now responsible for the Industrial Automation Solutions business.
Now, you've seen Jeremy.
Yeah.
Okay. Will has the first one.
Great. Thanks for taking my question. It's William Stein from Truist Securities. Thanks for hosting such a concise and informative analyst day today. Good messages. I'd like to ask a little bit about the capital allocation plan relative to the $8 target. In particular, you've in the past talked about potentially divesting some copper wire business. I wonder if that's still on the table and whether that's contemplated in the $8 and also to what degree additional M&A or buybacks are contemplated in that $8 number. Thanks.
Yeah. With respect to the copper cable businesses, we've not assumed any divestiture of those businesses. I think that's something we've tabled for the time being, and we'll reevaluate maybe in a year or two. With respect to the $8 target, I think if you do the math, you take mid-single-digit organic growth, and you apply 30% incremental margins, you'll get to about $8 by 2025 without any capital deployment. This is a plan, excuse me, that's not really contingent on capital deployment in order to get there. I think that's a nice lever, provides lots of optionality for us over the next couple of years, but it's not the core of the plan.
If I could just follow up on the same topic. In the past, M&A has both brought you some very good results in certain cases and in other cases, you know, this was an area that tripped the company up in the past, especially with bigger ones.
Mm-hmm.
I'm wondering if you can.
Sort of dimensionalize or characterize the potential acquisitions that you might look at, either from a size perspective, valuation, growth, technology, what you would consider and what you, maybe even more importantly, what you'd steer clear from? Thank you.
Well, I think the slide that Jeremy showed of our last about 10 acquisitions that are highly accretive, those are the type of acquisitions that we like. We feel specifically now that we've moved into this solutions approach, that there are still a ton of opportunity out there, but they all augment our solutions. We don't have a specific size. We don't say it needs to be less than $100 million. Those type of companies that we've bought over the last 10 years, the bolt-ons, the tuck-ins that are highly strategic, provide us with technology capabilities that would take us longer if we weren't acquired, but if we were to build them ourselves, that's the type of companies that we've been proven to be good at.
There's no need for us to expand in terms of size or in terms of adjacent markets. Thank you.
Thanks. Hi, Noelle Dilts with Stifel. Roel, a lot of discussion today about system sales. Any way you could put some numbers behind that? Where are you today in terms of system sales? How has that progressed over the past few years? Where do you see that going?
Yeah. Our solution sales are approximately 6% of revenue today. They were near zero three years ago. We don't have a specific target, so we don't have 20%. We want 20% by 2025. We don't have that. They're pretty sizable today already and rapidly growing, as you would imagine.
Okay, great. I guess another portfolio question around fiber. You mentioned opening up a, I think, a fiber innovation center. Is that right?
[inaudible]
In 2023.
[inaudible]
Could you speak to sort of how you're thinking about fiber penetration across the various divisions? Obviously, a bigger part of broadband and 5G. How are you thinking about fiber penetration in industrial? Could you just talk about sort of how you're developing the portfolio in that way?
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate the question, Noelle. Well, first of all, let me start. Currently, we do about $200 million already in fiber and fiber-related products. You're absolutely right that within the broadband and 5G business, it is mostly penetrated, and that's where we see most growth moving forward. I think I highlighted also in the smart building segment, it'll become more prevalent. On the industrial side, the applications mainly include track communication, signal transmission and following the tracks of the high-speed trains. It's not yet as penetrated there. We don't see those trends disappear. We see fast growth adoption in broadband and 5G and still relatively low adoption in the industrial floor. Yeah.
Hi, good morning. Steven Fox with Fox Advisors. Two questions. First of all, on the 30% incremental margins, I assume there's differences in there, but some are lower, some are higher. Can you talk about the differences by the two business segments and then within the segments where maybe if certain areas grow faster, you get a little bit more leverage, et cetera?
Yeah. The incrementals are higher in industrial automation, lower in enterprise solutions. Industrial automation, probably 35%. Enterprise, and this would be true kind of broadly across both broadband and 5G and smart buildings, 25%, roughly speaking.
Within the segment, should we think about certain product sets?
Well, within industrial, for instance, they're selling a solution, and so I wouldn't want to start breaking it out. Certainly, things like switches have extremely high variable margins. Some active electronics, software has high variable margin. Those types of things would be higher than the fleet average.
Okay, that's helpful.
Yep.
In terms of the broadband spending outlook, obviously that $85 billion is a huge number. If subscriber growth slows across either Verizon's or MSOs or even rural broadband, how much support does that provide? Do you see outgrowth still or, you know, how would you describe that backdrop?
Let me tee it off and then I'll have Olivier as the expert answer in more detail.
Okay.
We've not seen it slow down at all. Even if the number of subscribers, which is a big driver, right, to churn, as you know, continued expansion because we as consumers consume more data is expected to continue. Maybe, Olivier, you can shed a little bit more color.
No, I think you covered it well, Roel. It's all about the need for bandwidth. That's really the primary driver in our business, and we don't see that stopping anytime soon. That's true of the MSO customers, the telco customers, and of course, wireless as well.
You envision the $85 billion, so like just being deployed over the next three years, I would imagine, though?
For sure.
A lot.
Yeah. Well, we're not gonna get it all.
Right.
Yeah.
It's pretty healthy spending environment.
I think so too.
Mark Delaney from Goldman Sachs. Thank you all for the presentation. Roel, one of the things you focused on and that comes through from all the introductions, a number of new people as part of the leadership team, and you attributed some of the financial results to the new people. Maybe you could elaborate a little bit more, what's the new team doing in terms of background, industry relationships, how you all work together? Just love to better understand how you think the people are driving the improved results.
Yeah, appreciate the question. I'll answer it on two different levels. First of all, as I've mentioned, I think it's a very healthy mix between people from the outside and people that have grown within the company. By the way, we think that's true, a healthy mix, within the entire organization. One of our KPIs is an internal fill rate of 75%. Three out of four jobs you wanna fill internally, one from the outside. I think it's a healthy mix of people that are pretty tenured. Ashish has been with us for 20 years, even longer than I have, and somebody that joined us 3 months ago. We feel good about the background that they have and the capabilities that they have. Otherwise we wouldn't have assembled a team this way.
Secondly, more importantly, we've spent quite a lot of time with one of the better people in the industry to become more of a team. We have team-building sessions. We finished three already that would take multiple days, where we get our issues out on the table, and we grow as a team to make sure that we don't work in silos, to make sure that businesses cooperate. Because I didn't touch on it that much today, but even one can think of providing solutions that go across businesses. If you build an airport, for example, there are some of the smart buildings products that go in there is broadband products that go in there, and there's industrial products that go in there. That is to come. That's the next step in the journey.
For now, I think it's very important that we become a close team, and I think we've made significant progress, so.
That's great. One other one from me, if I could please. Market share gains seem to have been a contributor to the financial success when we look at some of the end market growth relative to what Belden's delivered over the last three years. You know, your competitors are gonna wanna perhaps grow just as fast or maybe faster than the market as well. Maybe you can talk about the competitive dynamics in terms of the financial plan you presented through 2025. Do you think you can hold on to the market share that you've picked up in some of the segments? Thank you.
Appreciate the question, Mark. I think it all comes down to the very new approach that we've highlighted today. Delivering these solutions, I think that's the key. We do it in all three areas of the business. Our industrial solutions business is ahead in that journey. That's a whole different way of selling. When you go to a machine builder, and you say, "We can improve the effectiveness of your machine. Show me what it is today, and we'll help you improve the effectiveness," that is so powerful. We've never done that before. To our knowledge, none of our competitors are able to sell that way.
We're able to do that because now we have such a broad product portfolio, and we have the expertise. That gives me great confidence. In addition to that, for example, in our broadband and 5G business, how many patents do we have, Olivier, in broadband and 5G?
More than 1,000.
More than 1,000 patents. The connector that's in your home has eight patents on it, so for Belden. There's various levels that we play, that we ensure that we keep the market share that we got and play offense. Yeah, I'm very confident. I'm very confident.
We have a couple of interesting questions coming in from the webcast as well. If maybe I can ask one of those, and then we'll come back to you. The first that I think is interesting to touch on again is the Customer Innovation Centers, the CICs. What specifically is different about that approach than what we've done in the past? And is that something that competitors don't have?
No, this is. First of all, I'm always very excited to talk about the CICs, right? You'll have to stop me at some point. The way we think about it is that CICs are essentially factories making solutions. Previously, that burden to create a solution out of all our products, which are very interesting good products, was on the customer. It was not easy for them to say, "Okay, here's your data acquisition and transmission product, and here's your orchestration and management product. How do we put this all together?
Where's the software that glues it together?" What the CICs do is they actually start with a customer at the point where they ask, rather than saying, you know, how will you transmit data from point A to point B, they ask, "What will you do with the data once it's transmitted?" Then they design a workflow for that company or that function in that company. Once they've designed the workflow, they design the data flow, and then they design the solution. This is not something that any other, you know, competitor that I know of is doing.
The reason it's called the Customer Innovation Center is that as we work with the customer and design that workflow and data flow, we may also change our software for that particular customer, and they can co-innovate with us right at that point, right? This is highly differentiated. We have a number of customers that have already used our CICs, for example, the one in Stuttgart. You saw the example of Exotec here, which is mainly a European company. They have told us that it's literally impossible for them to get that expertise in one place anywhere else. That's very, very unique. Thanks for the question.
Please.
Thank you for the great presentation. Roel Vestjens, you talked about, and you mentioned, Sameer Puri from Giant Leap Capital.
Mm-hmm.
You talked about, you used the word installed base a few times. Can you elaborate on how the solutions business is changing the-
The type of revenues that are coming in, are they longer duration? Are they more recurring revenues? Or are they still kind of episodic, customer-driven, but, you know, product-driven revenues? Number one. Then number two, the alignment to, and the movement towards more solutions probably changes the dynamics of your sales force and the go-to-market strategy. So, if someone could comment on how the sales force hiring and training and go-to-market changes because of the changing of the revenues, that'd be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah, for sure. I'll answer the first part of the question, then I'll ask Anshu to comment on the second part of the question. There's no doubt that our install base is a significant weapon. It allows a point of entry, it allows the conversation to continue, and we have a good track record, so our products are very, very high quality. The conversations change. Let me give you another example. Let's say, think of an automotive manufacturer in the United States, for example, the largest, for example. And we have a factory floor where we previously installed our Hirschmann-grade industrial switches.
As opposed to when the factory is expanding or where there's more machines and more devices that need to connect to the network, the previous conversation was, "Do you need more switches?" Now, we invite that automotive manufacturer into our CIC, and we have a conversation, "What are the requirements of your network? And we will design it for you. What is the mean time between failure? What is the number of access points that you require? What are your requirements?" And based on that, we design the network. This is a real-life example where that customer actually pays us for the service. So that's a very different mindset and a very different business model that we haven't had before. The reason why we're so bullish, and the reason why we're highlighting these examples are coming out today, is because we've proven that they work.
We've never been paid in the past for network services because we didn't provide them. That's a very different way of selling and a very different way of approaching the conversation. If we'd hadn't had that installed base, it would make us far less credible. Anshu, maybe you can comment a little bit on our commercial hiring.
Thanks, Roel. Thank you for the question. Yeah, absolutely. In any part of transformation, the commercial transformation is an equally important part of actually driving that and sustaining it within the culture of the organization. You said two things. You talked about the nature and the complexity or the view of the sales force, and you talked about the go-to-market. I'm gonna answer those two separately. Absolutely, we've adjusted our sales force quite substantially because we've invested very heavily in bringing in solution-oriented end customer folks salespeople. In prior to three years before this, we were very heavily focused, almost 80%-90% of our energy was focused on our channel partners. Our channel partners are still our go-to-market. Our channel partners are very significantly important to us.
However, we have shifted, we have pivoted over to an end user or end customer orientation. As Roel provided in that example, working intimately with the end customer to understand their business challenges, to understand their operational issues, gives us those insights that we bring to our channel partners, we bring to our own customer innovation centers to develop solutions. These elevate the conversations with these end customers from just a transaction of selling a widget to much more intimate trusted advisor status over a period of time. That coaching, that change in culture, that education, that bringing in the capability from the outside is the transformation that we've been doing from a solutions orientation standpoint for our commercial team. Our go-to-market strategy remains the same. We are a channel-oriented go-to-market organization.
However, with a number of these network assessments, a number of these value-added activities, which are very specific in the qualification and the discovery phases, if you will, assessing if that's the right solution for the partner, we would deliver it ourselves because we have the capability. We have 85-100 of these solution consultants that can actually go do this.
Just to follow up on that. Specifically, how much of your revenues currently are coming directly through the customer versus channel partners like Anixter, which is part of Wesco right now?
Of course. About half.
Mm-hmm.
Half of our revenue is through our channel partners.
Mm-hmm.
Hi again. I was hoping you could expand a little bit on the data analytics that you're developing and also the SaaS offering. Could you talk about the teams you've developed internally to sort of build out those programs and how you're thinking about organic growth versus inorganic growth as you build out those services?
Sure. Let me tee it off, and then I'll ask Ashish to comment a little more. Hopefully, you remember that period. It's super exciting. We've never been able to achieve the top of the period. To see these software platforms is extremely powerful. For us to deliver a software platform that analyzes the data that we capture, right, through our hardware devices and through the edge, and make it available to the cloud for analytics is very, very, very powerful. We're only getting started. This is our first launch, right? Our first product. I don't think we would exclude acquisitions or investment in that space at all. It's early, right? We've just launched our first version.
Yeah. You know, I want to talk about data as a service, DaaS, and network as a service, NaaS. And just briefly. These are two different things, we're exploring both of them. What Belden Horizon does is the start of DaaS. Essentially, we can take data from the network or from the operations. It could be network data or operations data. We can normalize it. For example, if there's a temperature sensor that reads in degrees Fahrenheit and another one that does degrees Celsius, we can normalize it, put it in the same place. We can look for anomalies. We can say, "Hey, for some reason, there is a red spot here." Right?
Depending on the use case, so think of leak detection as a use case, or think of emission monitoring as a use case, or energy management as a use case. Depending on the use case, we can package that data. This is short interval data. This is not data that's gone to the cloud and has been averaged and has lost value, right? This is short interval data at the edge that we can package back to the user, and it kind of answers the question around we may start getting. We haven't got there yet.
We may start getting recurring revenue streams out of that, because I can say, "Hey, for $10 a month per machine, I will give you this data as a service." Now, we could also, using Horizon, because it also has data about the quality of service in the network, we could say, "Hey, if you want us to deploy and manage a network for you where you don't actually own anything, and we give you a certain flexibility, uptime, latency, and security deliverable, as part of NaaS, we can then do that too.
Mm-hmm.
I think, so, you know, part of your question as well was, like, how are we building this capability? Right now, we've built Horizon in-house. However, we've taken some really best-in-class companies outside to advise us on building those widgets, right? Also, you will see, if you remember the Horizon image, we have an ecosystem partnership where a lot of other apps can run on the Horizon app store. You know, they can be imported in, then they can run on that. As we develop this further, as we really go to DaaS and NaaS revenue streams, as Roel said, we will have to consider some inorganic growth. A lot of our engineering is right now being done in Santa Clara in California and in Neckarsulm again in Germany.
That's how we've done it at this point.
Again, coming in from the webcast from a couple of different buy-side investors, I've got a couple of questions that pertain to wireless. One specifically asking for a comment from Ashish and one about broadband. In general, on broadband, what are we doing? Can we elaborate on what we're doing on the wireless side? Let's start with that, and then I'll come back and ask the Ashish question.
Sure. Thank you for the question. When it comes to wireless, and Roel touched on it already, but wireless is really about fiber, in fact. Every cell, whether it's a macro cell or a small cell, is going to need to be connected to the network via fiber. That's really where we're focused in terms of our solutions approach with end-to-end networking through fiber, and that's part of the reason we've seen significant growth with our fiber portfolio.
Specifically for Ashish, so are short-haul wireless data transmission protocols a threat to our business?
Oh, dear.
Yeah.
Pretty specific question.
Yeah.
Specifically asked for Ashish.
I think it depends a little bit on the use case, Bart. From our perspective, we think of converged automation networks as hybrids of wired and wireless, and which is why we bought NetModule, which is a Swiss company, really focused on mass transit at this point, but we'll take that out. I think in discrete automation, yes, it is a potential threat if we don't move quickly and build that technology, and we have plans to do that, you know, and you'll hear from us shortly on those technology releases.
Sounds good. Thank you.
I think Mark had another question.
That must have been from an engineer.
Well...
Thank you very much for taking the follow-up questions. Jeremy, one for you. Very much appreciate Belden has a strong backlog. You mentioned you haven't seen any signs of a recession in the business, but investors are trying to think through some of these scenarios if it does occur. Could you remind us, within your cost structure, how much is fixed versus variable? And, you know, any discretionary spend that you could size as a percentage of maybe your SG&A that if there is a slowdown, would be easier to pull back on?
Yes. Yeah. That's a great question. I think the best rule of thumb would be that if revenue goes up, we would deliver 30% incremental margins. If revenue goes down, we would deliver probably 30% incremental margins, probably on the way up and the way down. Obviously, we'll do everything we can to minimize the impact on the downside. When you look at our cost structure, there is quite a bit of variable cost that we would try to manage. Best rule of thumb is 30% on the way up, 30% on the way down.
That's helpful. Then on a different topic with the fiber facility expansions, I don't know if there's any more granularity the company can provide in terms of sizing, in terms of how much incremental revenue that could potentially support. I think you said you're about $200 million now, so, you know, does this double your capacity, you know, 20% more? Just any sizing, please. Thanks.
You want to answer, Julie?
Certainly. In the smart buildings business, we're investing both in production capacity, but also engineering capabilities. Our intention is to more than triple our fiber revenue over the next few years.
Yeah. From a broadband and 5G perspective, so we commented on mid-single-digit growth for the business over the next few years. We think fiber will be as part of the mix, will grow a little bit faster than that.
Okay.
Okay. Maybe one more from the webcast. I don't think this one's from an engineer, but I don't know. It pertains to M&A, and I think we have a good story around this that we can elaborate on. Trying to understand how much of your M&A funnel is driven by customer push versus your own judgment on what customers might desire. Trying to understand how collaborative you are with customers as you're thinking about your organic growth strategies.
Let me kick it off, and then I'll ask Hiran to briefly comment. I think firstly, it's very important to know that all of the acquisitions that we make are a consequence of our strategic plan. We don't take calls. We're not opportunistic when it comes to acquisitions. We go through a pretty rigorous, and obviously, the last years, we've refined that process, strategic planning cycle, and actually, it's the season right now where we're going through it for a refresh and present to our board of directors in August. Any acquisition, it comes from the strategic plan. Obviously, the input from our customers is extremely important when we write those strategic plans. Hiran, you wanna shed a little bit more light?
Thanks, Roel. If you really think of the transformation at the highest level, we are going products out to the customers from customer problems into the company saying, "How do we solve for them?" Whether in Julie's business in smart building or broadband or Ashish's in industrial automation, we are essentially starting from the applications and use cases that will make our customers more effective, and then taking a step back saying, "Okay, what capabilities do we need to add onto ours?" Which then becomes the foundation for M&A. The process strategically is very simple for us. We start with the customer, prioritize the problems that we want to solve for, look internally and saying, what capabilities do we want to add to us, plus ecosystem, which essentially forms the whole story.
Okay.
Last call. Any other questions in the room? Oh, here we go. I knew that would get you, Steve.
Just to follow up on that response. There was a slide that showed your internal R&D priorities.
Mm-hmm.
Are those being prioritized specifically internally? Like, they're, you wouldn't use those as sort of a shopping list to go external? How do we think about that list? Is that well underway, those products will come from Belden no matter what?
Yeah, if I understand your question correctly, then obviously we make or buy decisions.
Yeah.
It's highly preferred that we do it on our own, except there's a technology where it simply would take too long or would be too risky.
Mm-hmm.
to develop on our own.
That was the slide.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay.
No other.
Oh.
Sorry, one more question.
We have time for one more.
Just going back to, you know, the multi-year guidance and looking at the mid-single-digit growth, Jeremy, I think you said if you look at kind of a 30% incremental margin, you get to your $8 target.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, historically, you've also had sort of lean and productivity, you know, maybe even some pricing. How do we just view that as like upside or, you know, potentially offsetting some of the headwinds? How should we think about that?
Yeah, you could think about it as a lever. You can think about it as upside. You could think about it as funding investment if we needed incremental investment. We are pursuing all of those things. We'll continue to drive pricing 'cause we've been so successful over the past three years. We'll continue that. Lean is extremely important. We have a number of productivity initiatives that I talk about, right, in my capital investment. We'll do all those. The returns that we get from that will either contribute to the variable margin of 40%-42%, or if they're higher, I think that there's a lot of different ways that we can have that manifest in the P&L. Yeah.
Okay. I think at this point, we'll stop the Q&A session.
For those of you here in the room, again, a reminder, we're gonna have a couple of our experts stationed out front here. You see the displays. They'll be glad to walk you through what we have on display there, answer any questions. Of course, stick around, have lunch, introduce yourselves to our team, engage, interact, and that'll conclude our formal presentation here today. Thanks, everyone, again for your interest.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.