Good morning. Thanks for joining us for the Wolfe Industrial Conference. We're continuing the industrial track here with Hayward Holdings. We've got the whole team here. We've got Kevin Holleran, President and CEO, Eifion Jones, CFO, and Stuart Baker, who's the strategy guru. I think is probably the best term for Stuart. Kevin, I know you've got some slides, so please, over to you. Thank you.
Great. I just want to remind everyone to please read the cautionary statement on the page. This presentation will be posted up to the investor relations section of our website. Let's jump in on slide four. We're gonna highlight a few things about the Hayward story and investment thesis. You know, first, we're a pool pure-play focused primarily on North America residential. Secondly, we have a well-defined competitive moat that allows us to grow and protect our market position and share gains. Thirdly, Hayward has a very strong financial profile from top- line growth to gross profit, EBITDA and free cash flow.
On the next slide, from a technology and innovation standpoint, we're leading the way converting legacy low- tech tools to IoT-enabled smart devices that give the pool owner control of their backyard oasis from the palm of their hand. Finally, we're extremely proud of the sustainability advances designed into our products from energy efficient, variable speed pumps, LED lights and gas heaters, to water- conserving cartridge filters, to reducing reliance on harsh chemicals to properly treat pool water. Here we illustrate who we are. We have two segments, North America and Europe, Rest of World. North America represents over 80% of our revenue, which is advantageous given this region has the best pricing and margin profile in the industry. As I said earlier, we are a pool pure-play with 95% of our revenue tied to the residential backyard.
Finally, we have a complete line of innovative, environmentally sustainable products, everything you need to safely operate any type of pool, whether that's an in-ground commercial or above- ground pool. Here, I'll highlight the SmartPad conversion taking place in our industry, really being led by our Omni automation system. Omni is at the heart of the SmartPad, creating this pull for IoT-enabled devices. The power and simplicity of use has driven connectivity of a broad array of technologies with the top five growth categories in the industry last year being LED color lights, automation and controls, variable speed pumps, heaters, and water sanitization, all growing well over 40% last year.
Importantly, Hayward's growth in these categories continues to outperform the industry, supported by some great recent new product launches, including our ColorLogic LED lights, OmniPL Logic Controls, XE variable- speed pumps, small- footprint universal gas heater, and AquaRite S3 salt chlorine generator. All of these combined have helped increase our new product vitality index by 37% year-over-year. At Hayward, environmental, social and governance or ESG, has always been important to us, and we know it's important to our shareholders as well. We've continued to focus on the energy consumption throughout our operation, as well as making sustainable products a very key focus of our new product development roadmap. We strive to promote a diverse, safe, and inclusive workforce, and we pride ourselves on our strong company culture.
As a recent public company, we've partnered with a third-party expert to conduct a materiality assessment and identify where we have the most impact across key ESG themes. The result of this materiality assessment has shaped the framework to guide our strategy focused on 4 key pillars, those being products, planet, people, and principles. Finally, we've improved the diversity independence of our board with three new members since IPO. This brings our independent director count to six. Here, I'll start with the takeaway box: 42% revenue growth the last 12 months. This performance is driven by our ability to execute on the core drivers of growth, that being digital leadership, dealer conversions, new products, operational excellence, broad channel access, and environmental sustainability. Let me touch on a few.
In 2021, we saw our proprietary Omni control app drive accelerated demand for higher value IoT products, especially in the aftermarket upgrade and replacement market, which represents roughly 80% of our total sales. We focused our commercial teams on channel development and new customer acquisition. This resulted in our Totally Hayward loyalty partner programme growing by more than 20% last year. The growth comes as we established field-based business development roles focused on increasing our dealer base and market adoption of Hayward products. Hayward's innovation and technology played a major role in the recent growth. As a market leader, our engineered products achieved significant growth in the key segments of control sanitization, as well as energy- efficient pumps and LED lights, delivering simple to use, environmentally sustainable solutions.
The box on the lower right illustrates some real savings derived over the last three years from some of these new products in terms of kilowatt- hours saved, chlorine chemical usage, and treated water put down the drain during regular cleaning cycles. Finally, our vertically integrated operations and procurement expertise have provided greater supply chain flexibility, giving us the ability to increase output while maintaining the recent improvements to our structural margin profile. Our focus on operational excellence allows us to ensure availability and product quality despite the well-known material, labor, and logistics challenges most companies are experiencing. Next slide. As you've heard, a key driver in our industry is the technology upgrade conversion occurring in the aftermarket with opportunities for digital, chemical, and energy. For these three categories, IoT-enabled control, salt chlorination, variable speed pumps.
We compare the take rate at time of new pool construction to current level of aftermarket penetration. We believe in the simple premise that existing pool owners, if educated as to the merits of these compelling technologies as consumers building new pools are, they would desire the same benefits. First, from a digital conversion standpoint, with controls and automation replacing manual time clocks, adding this IoT-enabled control delivers what we call the SmartPad , which is individual equipment components being able to be dynamically controlled to make the pool easier to use and more enjoyable while lowering that cost of ownership. Second is this conversion to natural forms of water sanitization as chemical chlorine is replaced with salt chlorine generators and UV ozone products.
Finally, a conversion to more energy- efficient products, notably variable speed pumps replacing single- speed pumps and color LED lights replacing white incandescent lights. Our sales teams are hard at work, working with our trade professional partners to promote these exciting new technologies as aftermarket upgrades. Moving the aftermarket to new- construction penetration levels in just these three categories alone affords a market opportunity of nearly $6 billion. With that, I'll turn it over to Eifion Jones to walk through the last few slides. Thanks.
Great. Thanks, Kevin. Turning to the next slide. When we think about sustainability, we're often asked, you know, "Can you grow from here?" We believe growth is possible from here, based upon the secular trends that we see, both the urbanization and migration, as well as the trend now to work from home, which we do not believe will end with the pandemic. Additionally, we see continued favorable economic data that supports housing, home equity, and remodeling intent. You know, we fully recognize there's an underservicing of new homes in the U.S. market. Additionally, the aging pool stock supports future aftermarket growth, which made up approximately 80% of our sales in 2021 as repair, replace and upgrades in particular make up about 65% of our total sales mix.
According to PK Data, consumers are opting for a greater connected, higher- priced equipment experience as they remodel and upgrade their pools. Our sales data supports this assertion. You can see in the lower left-hand section of this particular slide, our core product sales have grown approximately 48% in 2021, whereas what we call our lifestyle products, they grew approximately 84%, which includes products like salt generators, UV ozone products. This speaks to the interest that folks have in the connected, richer featured pool experience, you know, making their backyard an entertainment space, an extension of their home living environment. As for new construction, in 2021, it was another strong year with total pool count growth up to 117,000 pools.
It's representing about 20% growth year-over-year, still well below the historical median. We absolutely believe the industry now is beginning to grow from a period of compression over the last 10 years. It's beginning to attract labor back into the industry, and dealers remain bullish about the foreseeable future when it comes to new construction. In terms of the aftermarket, we have represented here on this slide, it's about 65% of the aftermarket is associated with repair, replace, and upgrades. 50 points is repair and replace, which is that non-discretionary aspect, and 15 points is attached to the upgrade, defined as never had that product on that particular pad before. Let's switch over to the next slide. This is a resilient aftermarket. The aftermarket is our core business.
It represents approximately, again, 80% of our total net sales. As you can see on this particular slide, the aftermarket, the installed base of pools, is always increasing as new pools are added to that particular installed base every single year. It's tremendously resilient. We talk a lot about the new pool counts, particularly about growth year-over-year. What's really important to understand, new pools are added to the installed base every single year. This addition creates that lifetime value for Hayward as these pools need continuous service, remodeling, and upgrading. As you can see from this particular graphic, through all of the economic cycles, which are shaded here in orange, the installed base has continued to grow, reflecting what I think is a very unique resilient aspect of this particular industry.
According to P.K. Data, the pool remodel market is now approximately 20% higher than the new construction market in total spend. What does that mean for Hayward? About 13% of our overall sales is attached to the remodel market, and it continues to grow. Consumers, as I just mentioned on the previous slide, are typically seeking out richer equipment for more qualitative experience. Remodels occur every 9–12 years, and we believe there is significant pent-up demand in the remodel market, as consumers have most likely elected not to take their pools out of service over the last 3 years. This provides an opportunity for growth over the foreseeable future. Upgrade capacity is another unique feature about this industry compared to other branded residential industrial equipment.
We as Hayward are constantly innovating, constantly bringing new solutions to the consumer over the lifetime of their ownership. Finally, as I just mentioned, about 50 points of our overall sales is directed towards the repair and replace elements of this industry, which is that non-discretionary based business that creates like an annuity for Hayward over the lifetime of the pool ownership. You know, a pool owner has to replace a pump, filter, et cetera, otherwise they will lose the quality of their pool very quickly. In summary, you know, the aftermarket, again, is the engine of our business. It continues to grow. New pools are added to this base every year, and it provides Hayward this tremendous non-discretionary underlying support to our business.
In terms of the next slide, I'll just finish up with a quick look at some financials. You know, Hayward has had a long track record of commercial and operational execution, resulting, as I just mentioned, contributing to this large installed base. We believe we have the largest installed base of equipment in the North American market. The financial performance of the organization over the last three years has been impressive, with sales now approximately $1.5 billion through the Q1 2022 LTM period. That's now double where we were in 2019.
Our adjusted EBITDA has grown 2.6x to $441 through that same LTM period, and it's yielded an adjusted EBITDA margin of just under 30% or 29.8%, which is an improvement of 600 basis points over the full year 2019. You know, a lot of this success has been achieved through the introduction of leading technologies and energy- efficient products, a refocusing of our commercial teams to have a greater focus on builder and servicer conversion to the Hayward brand, supported by our Totally Hayward partner programme, and then finally, continued operational execution across our manufacturing platforms, harnessing you know, just decades of quality lean manufacturing experience.
Then finally, you know, judicious use of our cash and management of our operating expenses, creating leverage throughout the income statement to yield these type of high- quality margins. With that, I'll turn it back to yourself, Nigel.
Great. Thanks, Eifion. Thanks, Kevin. Some great slides there. Touched on a lot of the points I wanted to address. You mentioned very clearly in the slides that, you know, you felt that there was a lot of pent-up demand for upgrades and remodeling of pools. The perception in the market, or maybe some of the concerns in the market is that a lot of that happened during COVID, and that could therefore create an air pocket. Maybe just kinda talk about what gives you confidence that there is that pent-up demand. Maybe it's in backlog, maybe it's in dealers, but maybe talk about that.
Yeah. I mean, I think what gives us confidence, you know, beyond new construction, frankly, you know, Nigel, you and I have talked about this. New construction, frankly, gets too much attention. You know, again, 80% is all of our revenue, and most of the industry for that matter, is really generated off this resilient aftermarket. A couple things are revolving around that aftermarket is what gives us confidence. I even just touched on the point that we know that remodels have been pushed out. We know that homeowners did not want to lose access to their pool over the last couple years, where maybe they would have if not in a COVID environment. We also know that the contractors, same folks oftentimes do remodels as new construction, and there was a heavy, much more heavy focus, on new construction.
We believe that there is some pent-up demand for more full-scale remodels in the years ahead. I think more than that though, I would really focus on this upgrade opportunity. Those slides that we showed on the conversion rate, those aren't the only three categories. They may be just the three larger opportunities around this delta between what people opt for when they build new today versus what's installed in that large five-plus million pool population out there.
Some of it, frankly, is on us as the manufacturer partnering with our Hayward, Totally Hayward dealers, bringing these advantages and these benefits, you know, and educating the consumer, giving them reason to upgrade and turning that backyard not only more functional, but, you know, a greater source of entertainment in that home life. We're gonna continue innovating. We're gonna continue marketing and educating to the broader population about what the pool could be as a result of some of these IoT upgrades that exist out there. The penetration rate is still extremely low, and we think that there are fields to harvest going forward in this large aftermarket, Nigel.
Thanks, Kevin. That's great. Thinking about obviously. You know, everyone loves their pools, but everyone hates the cost to heat them and to maintain them. Maybe just talk about, you know, what is the penetration of, you know, kind of the best in class, most efficient, energy products, energy-saving products. You know, obviously with the spike in, you know, in energy prices that we've seen across the globe, Europe especially, but certainly here as well. Have you seen a pickup in maybe the selling proposition of some of these higher value products?
Yeah, Nigel, we have. We've seen people from a sort of environmentally conscious decisions to make some of those changes, elect to make those changes. Others have been driven by legislation. You know, some of the people on the phone may or may not be aware there was a Department of Energy mandate for variable speed pumps. I'll just give you a quick statistic on that. The mandate came into effect in July last year, in 2021. It took obviously some time to flush through into the market. The legislation was that manufacturers couldn't manufacture non-compliant single- speed pumps after July, but they could still be sold. There was a bit of a lag as products worked their way out of the channel, out of our inventory and out of the channel inventory.
Just to give you a statistic, in 2021, 55% of our pump sales were single speed, 45% were variable- speed. In the first quarter of this year, 18% of our pumps were single speed, 82% were variable- speed. You're now seeing that very hard cut- over. As you know, variable speed pumps are anywhere between 1.5x–2.5x the price of a single- speed pump. It's still good for the homeowner. It's a good value proposition because they, the pumps do save a lot of energy, and they will pay for themselves in one to two years. It's still a good value proposition for the homeowner as well as the OEM selling the products.
Yep. I think, Kevin, you mentioned, or maybe it's Eifion, that growth is still possible even when you comp in the comp, you know, the over 100% increase in revenue since 2019, but you still think growth is possible because of these different factors. Maybe just talk about, you know, how—I mean, your customer, I'm talking here about the end customer, is certainly a wealthier demographic, maybe a bit more insulated from some of the pressures we're seeing, but certainly not immune. How does the typical pool consumer react to rising interest rates, lower discretionary spending because of inflation? What happens to pool spending in that environment?
I think it's a great question, and we're asked it a lot, Nigel. I would say, look, interest rates are generally not correlated to new pool construction for remodels or upgrades. Most new pools are not financed. In fact, it's only about 40% of new pool construction actually has an element of financing. As I showed in my previous or in the prepared slide remarks, every economic cycle that our industry has gone through, new pools have been added to the installed base. New pool construction is only around 20% of our sales.
If you go back to what is often regarded as one of the deepest recessions the U.S. has faced, the great financial crisis, where you saw a large reduction in new pool counts, the top line of Hayward only decreased about 12%–13% during a period where the new pool counts decreased 60%. Again, I can't emphasize just how critical and important the aftermarket is to Hayward. That's the engine in the industry. Most people during an economic down cycle typically cut back on things like cruises and vacations, and they do staycations, and they typically retreat to their backyard, which becomes their haven. That's proven out over the last 20 years.
Interest rates, again, generally not correlated to new pool count construction. That's proven out historically. It's this aftermarket and the installed base, which continues to be the engine of our organization and provides that resiliency to our both top line and earnings.
Okay, that's great. 12–13% revenue decline for Hayward during the GFC when pool construction was down by 60%. That's-
Yes.
That implies that the remodel activity and, you know, the aftermarket repair model was actually very resilient. I mean, just the basic math will tell you at that time, new construction would have been a much higher proportion of sales as well. It tells you that, you know, the aftermarket was pretty flat during the GFC. Is that correct?
Very much so. I mean, I think that math, if you assume at that point, new construction was, you know, 25 to high 20 percent, you know, straight math on a nearly 60 percent decline in new construction, when you flush that math through aftermarket more or less held its own, you know, in the darkest times of the GFC.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that's the most recent point in time that we can reflect upon to illustrate the resiliency of the pool aftermarket.
Okay. No, that's great. I don't know if you wanna comment on, you know, where backlogs sit right now, but it certainly feels like your FY 2022 plan is very front-end loaded. Maybe just, maybe confirm, you know, you have 19% price growth in 1Q, of which I think 5 points are surcharge. What's the current thinking on the surcharge? Does that stay in the. I know it's not in your guidance, but does that likely stay in for the full year at this point? Maybe just touch on, Eifion, on where the inflation curves are sitting right now versus plan.
Just to point out, it was actually four.
Sure.
I mean, I don't know if you're rounding up there, Nigel. It's actually 4 on the surcharge.
I usually round up, so yeah.
Got it. Good. Okay. I normally do too.
Yeah. Look, I mean, we continue to monitor the price-cost dynamic. We know we recently, very recently, in the last two or three weeks, have come out with an additional price list increase, and that's roughly around 3%. It varies by product category, but the surcharge still layers on top of that, and it remains in place as we go through the month of May. It is evaluated on a monthly basis. If we do see some elements of the inflation which we acknowledge may be transitory, if we see that dissipate, then we'll remove the surcharge. Again, we have not included the surcharge in our guidance, and nor will we, given the current price-cost situation.
It remains in place through the month of May. In terms of, you know, where we see the inflation curve, it has begun to flatten. I mean, there's been a little bit of chop over the last six weeks, and that's consequential to noise in Europe. I would say Europe has experienced more inflation of late than the U.S. has in commodities and particularly in the energy sector. At the end of the day, I think what's really important, Nigel, is we've proven over the last 12–13 months that we have the agility to offset inflation with progressive price increases. You know, we haven't seen any demand disruption at the consumer level.
Equipment, as we said repeatedly, tends to be a very small proportion of the installed cost or the total cost of the installed pool. It only represents about 10%. A 20% increase in pool equipment only tacks on about 2% in the overall install cost of the pool. It's not a major needle- mover for the consumer. Additionally, in the aftermarket, consumers are particularly seeking out richer features, and that's been proven out in the lifestyle product category growth that we've seen over the last 12 months. We'll stay agile on pricing, and we believe that price cost neutrality has been reached here in Q2, and we'll continue to monitor and take the necessary actions. Great. That's fantastic.
I've got a number of other questions I wanted to get in, but we're out of time, unfortunately. We'll draw a line there. Kevin, Eifion, and Stuart, thank you very much for your time. That was a great discussion and look forward to catching up soon.
Great, Nigel. Thanks for having us.
Thanks, guys. Thank you very much.