Okay, why don't we get started? Good afternoon or good morning, rather, and welcome to the Hayward presentation. My name is Ryan Merkel. I cover the robotics with William Blair. Before we begin, I need to remind you that there's a list of disclosures and conflicts of interest available on our website. With us today is Kevin Holleran, President and CEO, Stuart Baker, Vice President of Business Development, and Kevin Maczka, Vice President of Investor Relations. Hayward is a leading pool equipment OEM serving North America and Europe. The pool market is attractive. There's about 30 million pools globally that all require aftermarket service, and 2023 is going to be a bit of a reset, but long term, we remain confident in the pool fundamentals. With that, let me turn it over to Kevin.
Cool. Well, thanks, Ryan. It's great to have this opportunity to present. Can everyone hear me okay? To present Hayward to you today. You know, as Ryan just said, pleased to be joined by two of my colleagues here, Stuart and Kevin. I will not go through our disclaimer, but just know that I will be or maybe make some forward-looking statements and discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. I know that we could be new to some in the audience, so let me just take a moment and describe who Hayward is. We have two segments, North America and Europe, rest of world. You can see the weighting North America predominant segment.
We view that as a good thing, given the superior pricing and margin profile that the North American market has vis-a-vis Europe and rest of world. We are a pure play with 97% of our revenue derived from pools, vast majority of that attached to the residential backyard. Thirdly, we are a one-stop shop. We are a full line manufacturer, everything from pumps to automation, sanitization. You can move clockwise around the clock there. We are approximately 80% derived from aftermarket. New construction gets a lot of attention. It's still important at 20%, vast majority of our revenue is tied to the aftermarket. Things after the pool is built, whether that's break, fix, full-scale remodel, or equipment upgrades.
Finally, we generate about $1.1 billion on an LTM basis. Very strong profitability with EBITDA margins at approximately 26%. We believe the desire for healthy outdoor living is a sustainable secular trend. The pool is often the center of that outdoor investment. Things like the kitchen, the landscaping, the decking, landscape lighting, et cetera, often are built around the anchor of the backyard being the pool. Secondly, homeowners are increasingly demanding smart, connected products. We'll spend quite a bit of time talking about our offering on the connected IoT side.
you know, from a long-term standpoint, I think that in addition to the two secular trends I just mentioned, desire for outdoor living as well as smart connected devices, I think there's others that are benefiting us and our industry, namely, Sun Belt migration, where you can enjoy outdoor living, a greater percentage of the year. De-urbanization out into the suburbs, where you have a backyard that you can perhaps spill out into. Work from home or some kind of hybrid work schedule, and then increased demand for environmentally sustainable products. More specific to the pool industry, you know, there's about 6 million in-ground pools in North America, somewhere between 25 and 30 million pools, globally, and that's increasing every year as there are more pools being built than decommissioned on an annual basis.
I have a chart in a moment that'll show that. That's true dating back all the way to 1970. You know, I think Hayward specifically, there are some deep-rooted competitive advantages, which I'll touch on on the next slide, that I think are very durable and defendable to our position. From a competitive moat standpoint, you know, as I said, I think these can be leveraged, and they are sustainable. Starting in the 1:00 position, you know, we have an incredibly strong and trusted brand, nearly a century in the making. Haven't always been a pure play around pool, Hayward was first founded in 1925.
We have a incredibly large installed base that comes from that legacy, as well as being the one-stop shop that we are. It really gives us ample opportunity to introduce technology into the aftermarket. Again, that being 80% of our revenue. You know, next, moving clockwise, you know, we sell across multiple channels into the marketplace. We've really expanded that go-to-market strategy over the last four or five years by adding some dedicated business development teams that are focused solely on new customer acquisition. The result has been increased dealers. Dealer to us is a builder, a remodeler, a servicer who have joined the Hayward family and advocate for us on a daily basis in the backyard. We're also committed to operational excellence.
I think that was on display during COVID, as we were able to ramp really faster than many of our competitors. We do manufacture largely domestically. About 85% of our total manufacturing comes out of three US facilities. We're more vertically integrated, thus shortening our supply chains. Again, we were able to ramp up and more recently ramp down pretty rapidly to better match market demand. Finally, you know, in the top top left corner, you know, one of our biggest differentiators really is product and technology leadership, which I'll touch on in just a moment. Why invest in Hayward? You know, I think this is a great slide overview of, you know, who we are and what's compelling.
You know, we are a pure-play leader in this attractive pool industry. It's a great industry, known for a recurring aftermarket model. As I just mentioned, the durable and defendable competitive advantage is really centered around innovation, operational excellence, and go-to-market. Strong financial profile, which I'll touch on later, and growth outlook, as well as a commitment, strong commitment to ESG. From a pool standpoint, you know, here are some of the attractive characteristics that we speak about specific to the pool industry. We refer to them as large, growing, and predictable, three pretty good attributes. From a size standpoint, again, nearly 6 million pools in North America, north of 25 million globally, and representing an addressable market north of $6 billion.
Growing, both in terms of pool count, as again, there are more pools constructed every year than decommissioned, as well as average spend per PAD. You know, since over the last 10 years, content has actually increased about 2 1/2 times what a pool owner was installing just 10 years ago. Finally, from a predictability standpoint, you know, the decision to build a pool or buy a home that has a pool is a decision. Once that decision's made, once that choice is made, we have a lifetime relationship with that homeowner. As equipment starts to need replacement in the 7-15-year timeframe, remodeling occurs in the 15-20-year timeframe. Again, 2/3 of all pools out there were constructed before the turn of the century, you know, giving us this opportunity for upgrades.
The last point I'll make is the expectation around annual price increases. There's been much more price put in the market over the last, call it, 2.5 years or so. This is an industry that expects a 2%-3% price increase that gets passed through the value chain each year. From a resiliency standpoint, I referred to this slide just a moment ago. The aftermarket is our core business. It represents 80% of our net sales. It's always increasing, as you can see, dating back to 1970. Even through some of the highlighted in orange down cycles, we continued to add to the aftermarket. You know, with that increased aftermarket, there's that lifetime need for servicing, upgrading, and remodeling.
Interesting fact is that over this time period, the pools per capita has actually increased nearly three times since 1970. Back in 1970, there was about 1 pool for every 200 people in the U.S. Today, it's 1 pool for about every 65 or so. Obviously, the enjoyment of pool ownership has continued to grow over this, call it, 50-year period or so. From a aftermarket standpoint here, I just wanna touch on kind of the sources of our revenue. The dark blue, those three wedges, all add to the 80% that I've mentioned a few times. You know, 50% of it, we believe is truly non-discretionary, as this is repair, replace, kinda end of life, break, fix.
You know, when something goes, if you're not filtering, circulating, treating water, you know, you have a swamp on your hands. You know, once something goes, there isn't this much of a decision, Do I replace it or do I not? You're sort of on the clock to get it replaced at that point. These two other 15% wedges, we really view as semi-discretionary around remodeling and equipment upgrading, and then new construction is the lighter blue, again, 20%. It's an important source of revenue for it, but if you really were to balance the amount of airtime that new construction gets versus what it represents to the overall revenue stream, it's a bit disproportionate with the amount of attention that new construction gets.
You know, here on the left-hand side, you see two really different ends of the spectrum from a pool feature standpoint. Today, the majority of newly constructed pools or fully remodeled pools have IoT-enabled automation systems, controlling the equipment in some way, shape, or form. That control can range maybe on the low end, from simple automated water chemistry, you know, all the way up to marrying LED lighting with water features and kinda creating that backyard Bellagio, as we, as we say. The pool on the top left there, you know, is not a smart pool. It's not interconnected. You know, that represents, we'll call it $3,000 at OEM costing to us, versus something more like $15,000.
You play this out from the initial install, you know, that $12,000 delta, with an expected replacement cycle, you know, every 10 years, call the pool having a 30-year expected life. There's obviously quite a bit of revenue, not to mention increased margin opportunity that goes with the product that's outfitted on that SmartPad on the bottom. You know, we're gonna continue to drive innovation technology solutions towards SmartPad, and in so doing, we believe that there's great long runway for both revenue and structural margin expansion with this conversion that's occurring. Just a little bit further, around three different specific conversion opportunities in terms of dollars that they mean to our industry. There really is substantial opportunity around digital, commercial, and energy conversions.
Currently, about 2/3 of new pools that are built are being equipped with higher technology products like IoT controls, variable speed pumps, or salt chlorine generation, or some form of alternate sanitization, non-chemical-based sanitization. We would expect that, call it 2/3, to continue to increase as it has over the last. Why that's not 90% or 100%, I think, is a good question that, you know, it's really on us as an industry to continue educating the homeowner and the installers on the advantages that go along with that. You know, more in our wheelhouse is the fact that the aftermarket penetration, if you look down, you know, this category here, call that one in three in the installed base, have any of these higher functioning, energy-efficient products out there.
Again, our sales teams, you know, working very closely with our trade professionals to promote these exciting new technologies as aftermarket upgrades. From a product standpoint, you know, we really are a clear leader around new product innovation. We're proud of this legacy, and we reinforce it every year with a new batch of product introductions into the marketplace. Starting on the left-hand side, our variable speed pump and XE pump, all DOE compliant to some new legislation that rolled through in 2021. You know, this superior energy efficiency is really what's led to annual recognition from ENERGY STAR. I'll touch on Omni, or I'll skip over Omni, as I'm gonna touch on that on the next slide.
This HydraPure, this three-in-one kinda water treatment technology that combines UV, ozone, and AOP to provide safest, cleanest, purest water, has been a great addition to the lineup. Our S3, this product here is a salt chlorine a generator. Market leadership there. What's really great about this in innovations, you can now operate your pool at 1/3 the salt concentration of legacy salt systems. LED lighting, you know, more and more emphasis being placed on kind of the ambiance. I mentioned the Backyard Bellagio earlier.
You know, I'd say as much, pools are constructed as much for the entertainment value as they are the health and wellness. We've really made LED lighting around the pool, the spa, the water features, and now landscaping much easier from an installation and operation standpoint with the introduction of the SmartPower product. Finally, the universal heater here. Dual- fuel capacity, so the channel only has to inventory one SKU, a smallest footprint, so it fits neatly onto some of the zero lot line homes out west and down south, and incredibly easy to install for our professional trades folks out there.
Here, you know, I'll highlight just the SmartPad conversion, you know, led by Hayward's proprietary OmniLogic automation system, and our highest-rated app, both according to the App Store and Google Play. You know, this is really the heart, hence the reason it's in the center, of the slide there. It really is the heart of the SmartPad, pulling IoT-enabled products to be paired with it, whether that's LED lighting, variable speed pumps, water, heat, water temperatures, et cetera. From a distribution standpoint, I really think that this is an area of key differentiation between ourselves and our and our competitors. You know, we've long embraced lean methodologies in our in our manufacturing and distribution operations.
We're very agile, as evidenced by the rapid ramp up during COVID. Vertically integrated, more so than some of our competitors. Again, the fact that we're manufacturing 85% in-market is very different than the profile you would see with some of our competitors out there. You know, we nearly doubled in manufacturing during the pandemic, and with very limited incremental capital demand to do that. More recently, we've been resetting manufacturing production levels, with strong gross margin contributions, this most recent quarter.
You know, I would say in general, you know, what I think allows us to respond most timely is the fact that we're really not outsourcing as much of our sub componentry as some of our competitors do, and we're not as reliant on a longer supply chain back to back to Asia for some of our complete products or some of the components that go into our products. From a distribution standpoint, we really do deploy a push-pull go-to-market. You know, like everyone in our industry, we rely heavily on two-step distribution. Think of PoolCorp, think of Heritage, more of a regional player in the Northeast who's critically important to us, Baystate. You know, about 75% or so of our revenue goes through two-step distribution.
You know, secondly, kind of high teens% of our revenue goes, is sold directly to retail. Think Leslie's or Pinch A Penny, there, or e-commerce providers. You know, e-commerce, frankly, was a bit of the Wild West, up until Hayward took a more leadership role in trying to define what the internet was gonna represent for us. We whittled down the basket of SKUs that were allowed to be sold, and really what that, what that cutoff point for us is if a homeowner with reasonable mechanical skills can install it themselves, we'll sell it on the internet. You know, things are professional. You know, we're really looking to protect and continue to endorse the professional trade. Something that needs professional installation, we will not sell across the internet.
Of course, we've been tested on this. Some people have fed some professional line or not honored MAP pricing, and we've actually shut down e-commerce. We put the APB out to our distribution channel that XYZ is not in compliance, is not to be replenished, as they're out of compliance with our e-commerce. But I digress. And then thirdly, kind of a high single-digit percentage, we'll sell on a direct basis. So someone like a Blue Haven, who's the largest builder in the U.S., they have franchises coast to coast. We'll sell them on a direct basis. Again, if they have the ability to manage their inventory flow and house it, inventory, we will, we will sell them on a direct basis. Another..
You know, think of the buying groups. There's a couple out there here in the States, whether that's Carecraft or UAG. These would be service providers or builders who belong to this co-op or buying group. Again, that gives them the opportunity to buy direct from Hayward if they are so inclined. Again, we employ both a push into the channel and work closely with our professional trade, our dealers and servicers on the pull through the channel into the end marketplace. From a financial standpoint, you know, we do have a strong historical track record around financial performance.
Our historical growth algorithm is really predicated on a high single-digit CAGR, which would be primarily volume growth, supplemented, call it 2%-3% annual expected price increases that normally go into effect with the cut over to the seasonal year. Our seasonal year really starts October 1st. That's when we would publish our winter stocking programs. Early buy is what the industry calls it. That's when new pricing takes effect, and we collect orders for some of the winter stocking to have product on the shelf for when the season breaks in the spring. From a profitability standpoint, you know, we really target gross margins in the high 40% and convert that from an adjusted EBITDA standpoint to high 20s.
These margins, frankly, are having been in a few different industrial businesses over my career, they're superior to any manufacturing business I've been a part of and simply not found in many industrial verticals. From a CapEx standpoint, we're very light, very modest, from a, you know, $25 million-$35 million annually. From a CapEx standpoint, somewhere at or less than 3% of sales. From a free cash flow standpoint, we're typically converting greater than 100% of our net income into free cash flow, good generator of cash. Finally, we strive to maintain a disciplined capital structure, targeting net leverage range of 2-3 times.
From an ESG standpoint, we're early in our journey, but we continue to make progress that I'm really, really proud of. From a recent accomplishment standpoint, we established this reporting framework earlier last year, focused around these four core pillars of product, planet, people, and principles. Last year, we completed our first scope 1 and scope 2 emissions inventories, having partnered with a third-party expert to help us with that. We published our first standalone disclosure, the Hayward ESG data sheet last year. I mentioned earlier, great recognition really on an annual basis from ENERGY STAR around partnerships with them, primarily driven by energy efficiency of our variable speed pumps.
And, you know, as we look at our product line, we would say greater than 90% of our products are impacted by key ESG themes specific to water conservation, chemical, harsh chemical reduction, and energy savings. More recently, earlier this year, we received an award for ESG performance from Morningstar Sustainalytics, one of the leading research and rating firms. Very proud to be recognized with that so early in our public life, as one of the best ESG ratings for all companies in the U.S. and Canada. I will close with a slide that you've already seen, but I think it's a good place to recap and finish our discussion on why to invest in Hayward.
Great industry, recurring aftermarket model. Durable, competitive advantages focused around one-stop shop, trusted, well-known brand in the marketplace. A history or a legacy of product innovation. selling product into the market through all key channels, whether that's distribution, direct, e-commerce, large retail, and then great financial profile, and growth outlook. 2023, as Ryan said, is a little bit of a pause or a recess as we work off some inventory in the channel, and there's some market demand softness from the macro environment. Finally, a commitment to ESG.
This really existed, this emphasis existed prior to being a public company, but we've just put a finer point on some of these ESG thematics since we've come public a little more than 2 years ago. With that, I think we have time for a couple questions. If I may pull my colleagues in to... If you stump me, but that's why they're here, I guess. Any questions from the group? Sure.
In Europe, there are several countries that are imposing, water restrictions on, like, refilling pools...
Mm.
because of the drought. How is this, kind of, threatening, longer term, like the demand for pools?
Yeah. Yeah, we're keeping close tabs on it. I know, you know, more specific to Germany with some of the energy concerns, I know that they weren't able to heat their pools, you know, throughout the winter months. You know, I think in general, truthfully, that there's a need for our industry to find its voice, to be able to talk about, you know. If you just wanna look at it as a hole in the ground that's holding water, you know, there's a lot of, whether it's psychological or health and wellness, I think that there are broader themes that I think can help offset some of the water consumption concerns that exist out there.
You know, as OEMs, we're starting to talk a little bit more through some of our, some of our lobby groups, to do a better job of giving kind of an offset to a, you know, this is, this is a hole in the ground that evaporates water. We need to do a better job of that. Do you have anything to add?
No, I think it's the point on electrical heating is the bigger issue, certainly in Germany.
Yeah.
That's what we're seeing more of, which is impacting heater sales.
Mm
in Europe.
There's another question right behind you.
Why the increase in leverage in the business, given the steady decline in the capital?
Yeah. You wanna take it, Jim?
Yeah. Again.
This isn't working, but, yeah.
You can talk louder.
Yeah. We typically, as Kevin mentioned, target 2-3x net leverage. We are a seasonal business in terms of sales. We're also very seasonal in terms of how we collect cash flow. Q1 is typically very low. We use cash in the first quarter, typically. We collect cash for the remainder of the year. Coming out of Q1, you saw our net leverage tick up to about 4x because of that seasonal dynamic, and what we've said is we have a plan by the end of the year to get back close to 3x, so similar to the, the leverage level we ended the prior year. That, that's the plan going forward.
Anything else?
Kevin, maybe just in the last minute, just comment on the health of the consumer and maybe just comment on the recent weather front.
Yeah. You know, weather got. I mean, the weather was not good in the west to start the year. That's a year-round market. Both from a temperature as well as rainfall, it was a bit historic in how poor it was out there. That started to normalize a little bit as we've gotten into the season. We kind of view that as, you know, maybe a couple points of impact in first quarter. You know, those days aren't necessarily all lost. Some of that can be made up. You know, the offset to that is weather was very good in parts of the Southeast and Florida in the first quarter.
You know, the consumer, you know, I would say what we're seeing is some of the discretionary aspects of our industry is starting to, you know, is feeling the impact of, you know, the macroeconomic, whether it's the interest rate or job security. You know, but again, what this industry is known for is even in the great financial crisis, where new construction fell off 60%, we were still building pools in a, maybe the worst residential environment that our country's ever seen. We still built 55,000 pools or so in that time period. Again, with the non-discretionary aspect of so much of the aftermarket, you know, that's something that's gonna stay very durable and very resilient through even this economic, you know, environment that we're in right now.
Thank you.