Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the James Hardie Global Investor Day, a new James Hardie. I am James Brennan-Chong, Director of Investor Relations here at James Hardie, and I'll be your host today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to join us, and we are excited about this opportunity to virtually connect with all of you. At today's Investor Day, we'll highlight the strategic initiatives that have not only transformed James Hardie over the past two years, but those strategic initiatives that ensure we continue to be a high-performance global company that delivers organic growth above market, with strong returns. Following the innovation presentation, we'll then take a short five-minute break, after which we'll close the presentation with our Chief Financial Officer, Jason Miele, and our CEO, Dr. Jack Truong.
Jason will provide a financial update, and then Jack will provide some brief closing remarks. Finally, we'll move to a live forty-five-minute question and answer session with Jack and Jason. Before we begin, I must mention that statements made in today's presentation may contain forward-looking information. Actual results may differ materially from what we are presenting today. The information you now see identifies and gives you details about some of the risks regarding those forward-looking statements, as well as where to go to get more information about our risk factors. Shortly after the conclusion, to submit questions via the Q&A feature of the hosting platform, we encourage you to ask questions regarding the materials presented today, and we will try to address these questions as part of the forty-five-minute Q&A at the end of the program.
Thanks for taking the time to join us today, and welcome to the new James Hardie. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce Chief Executive Officer of James Hardie, Dr. Jack Truong.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone. I'd like to looking forward to sharing additional details about our future growth strategy with you. Since February 2019, we have been on a journey of global transformation, from being a big, small company to a small, big company. Our progress to date has been exceptional across all of our key strategic initiatives. The foundation we have built will enable us to continue to drive profitable growth into the future. Over this path as a new James Hardie. First, I want to share with you our global vision and mission. Our vision is to be a premier consumer branded company that offer endless design possibilities to exteriors and interiors of the home. This clear and specific vision provide a blueprint on which we can build a future of a new James Hardie.
Throughout the day today, you will hear a lot more about the strategic initiatives for organic growth above market, with strong returns, consistently quarter on quarter and year- on- year. This clear and specific mission ensure we are focused on delivering value to you, our shareholders. Before I discuss the success to date of our strategic transformation, it's also important to provide some context to why the transformation was required. What you see on this page is the financial performance of James Hardie over the five years between fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2019 . Now, if you look at our performance over the five years prior to fiscal year 2020 you will see stable and average financial results, where profitable growth has stalled. Net sales grew at a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 7%. Adjusted EBIT CAGR, 7%.
Adjusted net income CAGR was 9%. This is a clear lack of leverage on our incremental sales growth. Lastly, looking at the operating cash flow, again, what you see is just modest growth with a CAGR of 13% over the same five years. These results reiterate a lack of leverage within the business and an inability to generate significant cash flow with each additional dollar of sales. When we look at these financial results holistically, they do not reflect the results of a high-performing global company, which is our mission. You will recall that in February 2019 , I laid out what would be the first steps in our transformation to become a new James Hardie.
The first initiative we undertook was a foundational step of leveraging on our scale as the world's largest fiber cement producer, to become a world-class manufacturer through the execution of James Hardie Lean Manufacturing Strategy. Our network of plants is on a continuous improvement path of becoming more predictable, with less variability in production output, better quality, and lower cost. Progress in this initiative has enabled us to be a better partner to our customers. Globally, through the end of fiscal year 2021, we have generated over $107 million in lean savings. Continued focus on these foundational elements of our transformation will be critical to building scale and enabling future profitable growth globally. Second, we transform our commercial organization to be truly customer-focused.
We took direct action to shift from an organization that focused solely on creating demand with home builders and contractors, to partnering more closely with our customers, to enable profitable growth for them and also for James Hardie. Instilling this true customer-focused mindset throughout our company has been critical to driving our growth above markets, while taking market share in all three geographies during the past two years. This connectivity to our customers and a shift to the push-pull strategy drove profitable growth on profitable growth in our North American business over this 8% over the previous five years... and the expansion of EBIT margin to 29% from 24%.
Additionally, over the past two years, we have significantly expanded our European business, highlighted by net sales increase of EUR 351 million in fiscal year 2021, from EUR 318 million in fiscal year 2019. And adjusted EBIT increased four times in the Asia Pacific region, where adjusted EBIT margin expanded to 28% from 24%. The third step in our transformation was the integration of our supply chain with that of our customers for mutual benefit. This critical integration ensure we are able to continuously service the market seamlessly to our customers, providing them with the products they want when they need them. During fiscal year 2021, we delivered record operating cash flow of $787 million, a 2.6 times increase from fiscal year 2019 operating cash flow of $304 million.
Now, underpinning our entire transformation was the implementation of a globally integrated management system. This management system enables us to make better and more holistic decisions at the right time across various levels within the company. The successful execution of progress we have made has allowed James Hardie to deliver record global net sales and record global adjusted EBIT for three consecutive quarters. In fact, for fiscal year 2021, all three of our operating regions delivered double-digit growth in EBIT. Now, while the financial results across the past two fiscal years are commendable, it is the transformation itself that has created a new James Hardie, which is strong profitable growth globally. The key step to become a world-class manufacturer is through the execution of lean manufacturing strategy.
As I just mentioned, our results to date have been significant, as we have generated more than $107 million in global savings over the past eight quarters. While we're very pleased with the progress to date, we have a relentless focus on continuous improvements and on furthering our lean fiscal year 2022. As I previously mentioned, the second part of our initial transformation was to transform the commercial organization to be truly customer-focused. Instilling this true customer-focused mindset throughout our company has been key to driving growth on growth in our North American business. While I know our results speak for themselves, I think it's important to hear directly from our customers who have been instrumental in its success.
The feeling or the impression was we were regarded as sort of a means to an end, and we were just a channel and a logistics organization. Today, it's much different than that. There's a true partnership, and it feels like we're really locking arms, and there's value and respect on both sides in the way that we're able to go out and to grow our business together.
Thank you to Hunter. We are with both of our supply chains and how we have aligned together to drive demand for both Lansing and for James Hardie. We will now hear from Mike Jost, Chief Operating Officer of ABC Supply Company. Mike has been a very good partner with my leadership team and me, driving mutual business growth together. Let's hear what Mike has to say about our transformation.
So the relationship between ABC Supply and James Hardie has been an evolution of. In a strategic relationship, we work with the manufacturer to identify targets, to identify markets, to figure out what's the right product for these customers, and then we bring it in, and we work with the manufacturer to sell to those customers. And, you know, over the last fifteen years, we've completed that evolution, and I'd say it really heated up just in the last three to four years, and, we're feeling that we're very much there as a strategic partner. We're a service company, and, you know, we exist to give our customer exactly what they need. I can tell you, for the last several years, Hardie's probably been among the best manufacturers at doing that with us, especially in the pandemic-ridden years, and there's a lot of supply chain issues right now.
Hardie is our best partner at getting us what we need, when we need it, and then going forward, what we'd love to work with them on is, let's identify the products of the future. Let's figure out what else our consumers need. Obviously, they're the products company, we're the service company, but if Hardie can work to develop what the homeowners are gonna want next, we'll work-
With us. The key takeaway from this video is how encouraged he is about James Hardie investing in demand creation directly with homeowners and entering new categories through innovation to create value for ABC Supply. When I take a step back and look at the progress we made during the past two years to fundamentally transform our company, I am pleased with our financial results. We deliver a step change in our financial results during the past two years, year 2021. We increased net sales by $400 million globally since fiscal year 2019, a 16% increase over two years. More significant than that, we increased adjusted EBIT and adjusted net income by 25% and 23% CAGR, respectively, over the past two years. The financial result delivered during the past two years reaffirmed that we're on the right path of being a high-performing...
Of James Hardie as a global company and also expanded the scale and profitability of each region. The acquisition of Fermacell three years ago, along with the successful integration and expansion of our European business, now truly position us as a leading global building materials company. Our global management system has been key in enabling us to replicate global strategy across all three regions, while at the same time, allowing our regional teams to execute the plans locally to deliver on results for the region and for the total company. As an interconnected global company, we have the front row seat to design changes from around the world. For example, this design trend first began in Australia several years ago. In our position as a global company, we were able to see this trend moving its way through Scandinavia and ultimately into the West Coast of the U.S.
This is a powerful example of direct benefits of being an interconnected global company. It allows our global innovation team to stay on top of changing design trends from around the world to promote initiatives in the next phase of profitable organic growth in our company. Number one, extending the James Hardie brand from a premier professional brand into a market-leading consumer brand, that focuses on direct marketing to the homeowners to create real demand. Number two, penetrating and driving growth in existing and new markets and segments, such as repair and remodel. And number three, global innovation, that allow us to expand into other exterior looks and take advantage of the adjacent opportunities in each of our region.
Underpinning these three key strategic initiatives is our continued execution of the foundational initiative we began two years ago, and those are lean manufacturing, increased customer engagement via push/pull, increased integration of our supply chain. I want to briefly talk to each one on how they will enable us to continue to drive profitable organic growth and strong returns into the future. The first of three key strategic initiatives is our new 360-degree integrated marketing campaign, that targets homeowners directly to create demand. Historically, James Hardie brand has resonated strongest with professionals, and evoke a brand that's well appreciated and trusted, with products that are durable, low maintenance, and non-combustible.
We're now very excited to expand the James Hardie brand into a consumer brand, where we market directly to homeowners and communicate. By marketing directly to the homeowners, we believe it will create even more demand and enhance the emotional attachment to the James Hardie brand. The second key initiative is to further penetrate and drive profitable growth in existing and new segments. While we have a good business in the North American repair and remodel segment today, we believe the opportunity for future growth is even more significant. There are over 140 million homes for re-siding and remodeling. Hence, this is a significant pool of opportunity from which we can generate demand for James Hardie exterior products by marketing directly to the homeowners. By creating demand directly with the homeowners and continuing to integrate with our customers, we believe that further growth can be realized within the repair and remodel segments.
Our third key initiative is a focus on global innovation, which will transform the way the world is for the homeowners. While providing the superior performance the market has come to expect from James Hardie products, they are the durability, low maintenance, and non-combustibility, while also improving on labor productivity for the installers and the builders. By combining the trusted protection and low maintenance of James Hardie fiber cement products with lasting beauty and endless design possibilities, we believe that James Hardie will be the only exterior company in the world that can deliver on both, providing homeowners with the peace-of-mind protection they need, with the cutting-edge design they want. We are excited to introduce our new innovation for the North American markets, Hardie Textured Panels. Look at this beautiful home made with our new innovation. Its look is beautiful, unique, and set apart from other homes in the neighborhood.
I'd like to highlight the opportunity that this new product platform opens for our company. The green area of the pie chart represent the portion of the North American exterior markets that our current product portfolio could address. But the blue area of this pie chart is a brand-new and very large market opportunity for us to penetrate and grow with these market-driven innovations. In Australia, we're introducing the new Hardie Fine Texture Cladding. Hardie Fine Texture Cladding offer a new option to the homeowners when remodeling their exteriors or building the new home of their dreams. Similar to North America, this innovation will enable us to expand into a new and very large market that we don't play in today.
At James Hardie, we're excited about these true market-driven innovations, and how they will provide homeowners with endless design possibilities while maintaining the trusted protection and low maintenance consistent with existing James Hardie fiber cement products. To summarize, in order to drive sustainable, profitable growth strategy, number three, continuing to integrate our supply chain with our customers to serve the market seamlessly. We are fundamentally a different company now. We are a new James Hardie.... We are focused on being a high-performance global company that deliver on consistent results. I'm excited for what the future hold for James Hardie Company as we embark on the next phase of profitable growth, driven by three initiatives: trade in new and existing segments, and three, deliver market-led innovations that offer endless design possibilities and trusted protection.
I would just like to extend my gratitude and thanks to all James Hardie colleagues around the world. Their continuous execution of our global strategy over the past two years helped to fundamentally transform James Hardie. We believe it put us in a position to drive significant future growth globally.
Thank you, Jack, for that great overview of the strategic plan. We'll now be joined by Cathleya Buchanan, Head of Marketing for Asia Pacific, and Marc Setty, Head of Marketing for North America. Cath and Mark will be discussing in more detail our strategic initiative to drive growth by marketing directly to the homeowner.
Thank you, James. We're very excited to help drive sustainable growth for the company. It is our commitment to building a global consumer brand with focus on the ultimate decision maker, the homeowner. Underpinning this shift is our exteriors business vision to become the top-of-mind brand that delivers curb appeal to homeowners. As we continue to build upon and leverage our core strengths, which include a trusted and loyal base of customers and trade professionals, as well as the functional durability to meet the needs for the homes of today and unlock new market opportunities as we help design the homes of tomorrow.
By marketing directly to homeowners and inspiring them to create their dream home exterior with endless possibilities, we open up a direct line of communication that will enable James Hardie to identify and serve unmet needs along their purchase journey, market and create demand for a larger portfolio of solutions, and drive more penetration of high-value products like ColorPlus Technology, as well as future innovations. As we embark on this journey, we've gone to great lengths to gain a deeper understanding of homeowners, their attitudes, their habits, and behaviors, all related to home, as well as their needs and wants. We know that owning a home can be a great source of pride, and the interior of a home is often a place homeowners look to express themselves as they create a place of sanctuary.
Yet, what we found is that the market desires exterior products and solutions that will deliver on design and aesthetic preference, as well as functional performance. We believe it's the intersection of these needs where James Hardie delivers a unique and ownable position to serve the homeowner without compromise. Our category-defining building solutions deliver endless design possibilities, lasting beauty, and trusted protection, and we are excited to communicate the marketing campaign, It's Possible, because with James Hardie, it is possible for your dream home exterior to become a reality. We'll communicate this to the homeowner through emotional and evocative storytelling, connecting with the heart and mind, and inspiring them to dream of what's possible, and then we'll stand beside them on their journey to ensure they achieve their vision.
In an industry where marketing heavily focuses on the trade and B2B community, this new consumer marketing approach comes in. We all know one thing is for sure, that the role of home has never been as important as it is today. It's a sanctuary, a safe haven, a home office, and even a home school. As we've shared previously, there are 80 million owner-occupied homes in the United States, and roughly 55% of those homes are 40 years old or more, which tallies up to about 44 million 40-plus-year-old homes. When you think about it, just 5% of that total would come to 2.2 million homes, which is double the size of new construction.
We believe that many of those homes are built with wood and vinyl siding and other materials that are either not durable enough, no longer reflect the self-image the homeowner wants to present to their neighborhood, are highly flammable, or are just not going to be fit to survive more adverse weather conditions. Homeowners don't know there's a solution out there for them. We see James Hardie in that light as... Cathleya will now talk more about our campaign, the Prime Homeowner Target, and how we will reach, inspire, and drive her to action as she is actively in the mindset for an exterior home remodeling project.
Thank you, Mark, and hello, everybody. As we move towards extending our brand beyond our existing trade audience, we shift our center of attention towards the homeowner. More specifically, the female homeowner, who our insights reveal design-oriented homeowners to seek out James Hardie early in the re-siding or remodel process, or aspire to James Hardie for their future home plans, and then keep up this focus on the exterior throughout the whole process. We want to meet her unmet needs and then ultimately accelerate the purchase cycle. So please meet Christine, our global prime target. Through a data-driven and insights-led approach to understand the path to purchase, we have uncovered Christine's key drivers, behaviors, and her sources of influence.
We understand who she is and how to best reach her to inspire, engage, and influence her to ensure James Hardie is her top-of-mind brand that will help empower her to realize her dream home. And so now that we've identified our global prime target, we must communicate to Christine the value James Hardie can offer her, so she can confidently choose and demand our products for her home. As the global leader of fiber cement exterior solutions, James Hardie has a unique and ownable position that combines the best of functional benefits with endless design possibilities. Our wide range of premium exterior solutions give her the flexibility to reflect her design preferences, from traditional to modern home styles.
We'll direct Christine to high-value products like ColorPlus Technology in North America, as well as our future innovations, to show her how we can make her personal vision for her home a reality. But while we have her dreaming about the possibilities, we'll also demonstrate to Christine the other benefits of Hardie Fiber Cement, like the trusted protection that comes with a non-- And we want her to hold on to the feeling of loving her home every day, without the worry or hassle of ongoing maintenance, because she knows it was designed with both beauty and durability in mind.
This unique combination of both endless design possibilities and functional performance mean that Christine's home will look great for many years, and most importantly, that she can trust that her home's exterior is protecting it to satisfy her unmet needs to drive acceleration of the purchase cycle, helping her to overcome any barriers in what can be an overwhelming and complicated process. At the awareness phase, we will introduce her to the James Hardie brand with a deliberate focus to elevate the role exterior solutions play in curb appeal and emphasize it as a reflection of herself she shares with the world. And we do this by leveraging broad-reaching, above-the-line media channels. This is where we can reach Christine with the optimal reach and frequency to make a real impact.
At the consideration phase, we will utilize targeted digital platforms, including our own websites and an ecosystem of influencers and social channels, to prove that only James Hardie can fully empower her to bring her vision to life with endless design possibilities, made with form and function at the core. During the purchase phase, we want to aid her in planning her project by powerfully equipping her with the step-by-step information she needs to achieve her vision and find her style, investing in industry-leading lead generation platforms designed to connect her to aligned James Hardie installation partners. Then finally, at the amplification stage, we want to encourage her to share the unique vision she has built and achieved with her family, friends, and peer group set. We'd now like to share with you some of the advertisements that Christine will see as she navigates her purchase journey.
Myself, Mark, and the entire team at James Hardie can't wait to show you how it's possible with James Hardie.
The It's Possible TV commercial illustrates the meaningful ways a family finds comfort, connection, joy, long-lasting beauty, and protection from their James Hardie home over the years. It's a great representation of the way we are reaching and connecting with the homeowner, using emotional storytelling that resonates with how she feels about her home and the role in which our products help bring her dream to life.
Is it possible to fall in love with your home? To feel a deep, heart-stirring connection? Something about you. To get goosebumps in the driveway? Got me feeling alive. And know that it can give you moments that will become your greatest memories. Is it possible, as the years pass way too fast, to protect it like a mother from Mother Nature, knowing it'll protect us inside? Discover the world of exterior solutions by James Hardie. This is how people fall in love again. Endless colors, textures, and design. It's possible with James Hardie.
We will now build off the emotional connection our TV commercial establishes with Christine by showing her that James Hardie has the vision and solutions to build the lasting, beautiful homes of tomorrow, and ultimately, to make the home of her dreams, we'll show Christine exactly that: It's possible with James Hardie. We'll drive engagement as we accelerate her down the path of her purchase journey, activating over the next twelve months in our regions with locally relevant, personally relevant, and inspirational imagery and messaging that helps her fall in love with her home again and our brand. We'd like to share one more video with you today, our direct response TV commercial, which is now airing in North America.
Purchase phases of her journey to transform the exterior of her home. We will invite Christine to explore more design possibilities, download an inspiration guide, and even offer support in finding local professionals who can help bring her vision to life. Christine can call James Hardie and speak with one of our customer service representatives, or go directly to the James Hardie website to help accelerate her down the path to purchase. Without further ado, here's the spot.
Solutions by James Hardie. With Hardie Fiber Cement siding, soffits, fascia, trims, and more, the design possibilities are endless... Ready to transform your home? We're ready to help. Call us or go online for an inspiration guide to get started. Explore design ideas, experiment with texture combinations, and over seven hundred fade-resistant ColorPlus finishes. We'll even help you find a contractor. Hardie Fiber Cement products are uniquely engineered for lasting beauty that stands up to Mother Nature. It weathers the toughest storms, handles the heat, even helps protect against fire. Your home is more than an address, it's your everything. Let us help you fall in love again. It's possible with James Hardie. Call us or visit online today.
So as you can see, we're extending our brand footprint with a sustained investment targeting the homeowner. But to truly drive sustainable. That will be generated through our marketing campaigns. We will position our customers to capture this demand through enabling their customers, the contractor, to deliver a Hardie exterior solution for Christine. To be successful, we must adopt a truly integrated partnership approach with our customers. We need to ensure we're skilling up their contractors and installers with the right training and education. And we'll work with our customers to provide the right scalable programs, tools, resources, and information needed by their contractors to price, sell, and install a James Hardie solution that will meet Christine's needs. To summarize, James Hardie is just getting started on their journey to build a global consumer brand.
We know our prime target consumer, who she is, what she wants, where and how she shops, and we are establishing a direct line of communication to better serve her specific unmet needs and deliver value to help accelerate her purchase journey. As we empower her to achieve her dream home exterior, we will bring together the best of our functional and emotional benefits, and uniquely position James Hardie not only to capture her imagination, but also drive her to action in all our key markets. This new communication platform will enable James Hardie technology and the innovative solutions you will see and hear more about next. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Mark and Cathleya. After hearing more about our It's Possible campaign, I assume you now understand why we are so excited about our homeowner-driven marketing opportunities. We'll now be joined by Fran Flanagan, Head of Consumer Marketing, and Sami Rahman, Head of Product Management for North America. Sami and Fran will be in, and we'll also hear from homeowners who have utilized these new and exciting products on their home.
Thank you, James. Today, we're excited to share how new innovations will drive profitable organic growth for James Hardie and our customers. As presented in the September 2019 Investor Day, we have transformed our innovation approach to be market driven so we can deliver high-impact new products. To be truly market driven, we focus on three key megatrends to inform our view of value creation opportunities for years to come. The shortage of labor, particularly skilled labor, is a global trend that is expected to continue, and an opportunity for innovation to make sure our solutions are easy to use. Lack of affordable housing, driven by a lack of inventory and rising input costs, requires that innovations deliver value much greater than costs to enable homeownership for many more people.
Finally, urbanization is a trend that has shaped how homes and communities are designed to meet the needs of changing demographics and lifestyle preferences. Now, this trend has been particularly important during the pandemic, as homeowners are spending much more time at home reimagining their living and working spaces, both inside and outside. With these trends in mind, we conduct in-depth discovery and testing to ensure the right insights are prioritizing product concepts that can truly deliver on unmet market needs and create value for stakeholders and James Hardie. This process also increases our confidence to invest in marketing, to make homeowners, architects, and builders aware of our new innovations. At James Hardie, we leverage our global scale and know-how to deliver innovation. With over three billion sq ft of fiber cement and cement technologies that have delivered unparalleled performance for many years.
A dedicated team of over a hundred and thirty global R&D employees in our two research centers have focused on critical technologies that can be implemented in our high-throughput factories to deliver on unmet market needs. Starting with an outside-in view of homeowner insights and unmet market needs, and our global R&D focus on critical technologies, James Hardie combines trusted protection of design and aesthetics with the already established superior performance of James Hardie fiber cement technology, will position us to expand the addressable market of our product portfolio. In North America, our product portfolio has been taking share from wood look alternatives for many years, and the non-wood look market is a significant opportunity for expansion.
Similarly, in Australia, we will expand into the very large render and brick markets through innovations that deliver unique aesthetics and products. North America and Australia, and have been test selling them with great results. These new innovations will deliver solutions for the non-wood look market by delivering unique looks, higher productivity, and also address the maintenance issues specifically around stucco's performance. With that, I am pleased to introduce our newest innovation, Hardie Textured Panels being commercialized in North America. Here, we show a contemporary home replacing stucco with North America to transitional and contemporary designs growing in popularity nationwide, and the modern designs that are already prevalent in Australia. Hardie Textured Panels and Hardie Fine Texture Cladding deliver a unique look and a new design alternative to traditional wet trade building materials like stucco or render.
In test selling, there were many cases of substitution of brick and stone facades for a more modern or contemporary design. These solutions offer a high level of productivity through a single step panel and texture and an efficient joint that also creates a contemporary architectural design element. This new look is backed by James Hardie's unparalleled performance and industry-leading non-prorated warranty. We are very pleased with the results of test selling, where we experienced more than 90% acceptance in our target markets. I will now invite Fran Flanagan, Head of Consumer Marketing, to share homeowner feedback on these units.
Marketing and R&D have also collaborated to create several new research tools to help us gain feedback from all of our stakeholders in the value chain at critical decision points in our commercialization process. We include architects, builders, general contractors, installers, and of course, we have a critical focus on the homeowner. This market-driven process and the new insight tools help to ensure that our innovation team stays focused on the critical elements. Historically, James Hardie's been known for its product features of durability and low maintenance. However, in addition to delivering strong functional benefits, our innovation team is now focused on developing products that are leading the market in new aesthetics while creating new options for design possibilities. Homeowners are investing to beautify their homes, both interiors and exteriors, particularly during COVID, where home has truly been our sanctuary, who purchases and experiences the benefits of James Hardie products.
From the hundreds of test sales of the Hardie Textured Panels in North America and Hardie Fine Texture Cladding in Australia, I have the pleasure of sharing three stories. You will see examples of how the product was received in different market segments. Let's take a look at our first video, which is in the repair and remodel segment in Huntington Beach, California. Here, wood siding was replaced with the Hardie Texture Panel. These homeowners had invested many years in remodeling gradually. Our Hardie Texture Panel created a fresh, new look for the exterior and helped them achieve their dream home.
When I first saw the house, it was dilapidated, to say the least. We definitely did a lot of construction together on the home. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears all the way from then to now, even. The Hardie Texture... You know, I'm not going to be replacing termite damage- Yeah -rotted wood. Right. If there was a fire, we're comfortable in knowing that the product is fire resistant. We have put so much time and hard work into this home. This is where we're meant to be. Hardie Textured Panels has made it our dream home.
I get excited every time I see this video. It's what you dream of working in innovation, to build products that people truly love and have an emotional attachment to. You heard words like, "Transformed our house." James Hardie is helping people accomplish the home of their dreams. Also, as we've learned in the repair and remodel segment, Hardie Texture Panel is so versatile in its design that it looks great on many styles of homes: modern, coastal, transitional, prairie, and also more traditional styles, and selected Hardie Textured Panels in lieu of three-coat stucco for their new home. In this case, besides the beautiful look, Hardie Texture Panel solved many of the performance pain points that both builders and homeowners experience with traditional stucco. Both builders and homeowners worry about the fact that stucco cracks, creating not only a poor aesthetic, but also potential longer-term performance issues. In our test sales markets, we've heard firsthand.
When you drive up to our house and you see the Hardie Texture Panel, you feel the exquisiteness of the outside, and for me, the outside leads up to what you can expect on the inside. Hardie Texture Panel is like stucco without the bad parts of stucco. It's a texture you can see and feel. As a designer, as a builder, advantages of a fiber cement home, they give us endless possibility on what we can do. Hardie Texture Panel sets the house apart from all the other houses. The lines are clean. It's just the most beautiful house!
One of the most memorable aspects of this story was Sandy's emotions around how important it was for her to create a warm and inviting home for her children. She worked so hard to create in the interior of her home. She said it was wonderful to have the feeling of the outside of her home match the inside. I think Sandy's neighbors also loved the look and feel of her home, because now we have several other homeowners in her neighborhood that will be using Hardie Textured Panels on their new homes as well. Our last story is about a family from Australia who've owned their home for several years, but outgrew it and decided it was time for a remodel to fit their lifestyle.
Jane and Matt undertook a substantial project in order to add square footage, bring in more natural light, and ultimately create a more fluid indoor-outdoor environment for their family. They were looking for something out of the ordinary. The couple was very clear in their brief to the contractors. They didn't want the exterior of their home to look boring or average. I'd like for you to hear more about their journey and the impact that this renovation and siding project has had on their family.
Cottage into our dream home with a minimalist look and clean lines. Hardie Fine Texture Cladding helped us achieve our dream. Our builder recommended a steeply pitched roof so that we could let in as much light as possible, and that's when he introduced us to the product. So we fell in love with it straight away. It had the style and clean lines that we wanted, and we signed off on it. Because the ceiling's so high, the Hardie Fine Texture Cladding was a much better choice, because it's so much better than brick at a lesser price. Now, light pours in every day, and wherever you look, there's something to see. We're protected from the southerlies, too. We're just thrilled that a vision that started with a photo on Pinterest has taken us on a journey and has led us to our dream home.
You can tell from the video that Jane and Matt are really excited about the bold, modern design of their new home. They told us that because the Hardie Fine Texture Cladding was so durable and resisted cracking, that they had the courage to paint their house black, which created even more of a wow factor on their block and in their neighborhood. This home was truly a beautiful transformation. Jane can't wait to start enjoying their outside living space and finally James Hardie to deliver durability, long-term protection. However, when they see the true beauty of their new exterior, they are so happy and elated and full of pride. Just imagine speaking to a homeowner who has just sided with James Hardie, and they tell you they pull into their driveway and just sit and stare in disbelief at their own home!
They never thought that they could live in a home so beautiful. People want a home that reflects their hard work, and then you truly know you're delivering something unique and something truly valuable. I have one more story before I turn it over to Sami. In just the past few weeks, a young woman from New Jersey who just sided with James Hardie told us that her husband was teasing her. He looks out the front window and sees her driving back and forth in front of their home, instead of pulling into the garage when she comes home. She said, "You know, I just want to take a few extra minutes to admire how great our home looks." Other brands in the marketplace. Thank you for listening to just a few of our homeowner stories.
Let me now turn it back over to Sami, who will cover our launch plans for the Hardie Texture Panel.
Thanks, Fran. We are pleased with the progress of test selling so far. For example, in North America, we have had high acceptance levels, with over 90% of our target market converting during test selling, with positive feedback from our customers and homeowners. As we launch, we will make a significant investment in marketing to build awareness and conversion for a new category of designs. Finally, as we move from test selling to launching a new look with the proven performance of James Hardie Fiber Cement, we feel good about the price positioning of our solutions to drive higher revenue and EBIT growth accretive to our existing products. To summarize, we are transforming how we innovate to ensure that we can leverage our global scale and fiber cement and fiber gypsum expertise to develop innovative products that are based on homeowner insights and unmet market needs.
We are building on the strength of the functional performance of our products that delivers trusted protection and low maintenance with lasting beauty and endless design possibilities to make our value proposition truly unique in the market. This will be supported by significant marketing investments to focus on the homeowner. The innovations coming to market this year will expand our addressable market in North America and Australia to deliver profitable organic growth. This is truly an exciting time for the global James Hardie teams that have worked tirelessly to bring our first new innovations to market.
Thank you, Sami and Fran. It's wonderful to hear how excited homeowners are about these new products and how the innovation strategy is driven by market insights. We'll now take a short five-minute break, after which Chief Financial Officer Jason Miele will provide a brief financial update, followed by Jack Truong, who will share some closing remarks.
Good morning, and good evening, everyone. Welcome back from our short break. Jack and I are now joining you live from Chicago. I will now go through a short financial summary, and then Jack will offer some closing comments. We will then go to the Q&A and take your questions. Now, let's move on to slide 50. We've had some great presentations today explaining our strategy. I would like to take a moment to articulate the impact we believe the execution of our key strategic objectives will have on our financial results. First, lean manufacturing, the foundation of our transformation. Lean has enabled margin expansion by a lower and more consistent manufactured cost. Second, driving our push-pull strategy and customer integration.
You heard earn and grow together, and Mike Jost described a strategic relationship and described James Hardie as the best partner in getting ABC what they need, when they need it. We believe these close partnerships with our customers will enable us to continue to drive market share gains. Third, marketing directly to the homeowner. We believe that our investment in connecting directly with the homeowner will create incremental demand for our products. You heard Mark and Cathleya earlier earlier explain how we have identified our target, Christine, and you saw the beginning of our It's Possible campaign. We believe this investment will create demand for our high-value products. Fourth, penetration of existing and new segments. As we seek to further penetrate existing and new segments, especially through remodel and reside segments, we believe our growth will accelerate.
Importantly, we believe this growth will be with our high-value products. Fifth, growth above market. We expect our average net sales price to improve by 4%-6%. This will be driven by our annual price increase, but more importantly, our shift to a high-value product mix, which we will discuss further on the next slide. In North America, as we continue to execute our strategic initiatives, we expect to drive growth above market and drive a high-value product mix. Globally, we expect our product range and all-new innovation, including Hardie Textured Panels, which we officially launched today. The focus of our strategy to drive a high-value product mix is to maximize net sales and gross margin dollars. Our strategic goal is to accelerate volume growth with disciplined price management and shift our mix from low-value to high-value products.
Some examples of how we believe we will drive high-value product mix are, one, shifting to three, expanding into adjacent markets with our market-led innovations. Driving a high-value product mix maximizes net sales and gross margin dollars. Finally, let's move to page 53 for a brief financial summary. First, the strong execution of our strategic initiatives and our global integration has led to a step change in our global financial results over the past two fiscal years, including a two-year CAGR for adjusted net income of 23% and two-year CAGR for operating cash flow of 61%. Second, driving a high-value product mix while accelerating volume growth. We believe driving this shift to a high-value product mix will maximize net sales and gross margin dollars.
Third, based on our strong execution the past two years and our confidence in our strategic initiatives, we have raised our Adjusted EBIT margin targets in all three regions. Fourth, we have a-
Of becoming a world-class manufacturer via Lean. Continue to partner closely with our customers via Push-Pull technology and strategy. Three, continue to integrate our supply chain with our customers to serve the market seamlessly. As we look toward the next phase of continued profitable growth at a large scale, our expanded strategy includes, number one, to market directly to the homeowner in wood. And two, a relentless focus on penetrating the renovation and remodeling segments and shift the mix to Hardie brand products. And three, to deliver market-led innovations that offer endless design possibilities with trusted protection. Thank you, and we would like now to open up for Q&A.
Thanks, Jack. That concludes our presentations for today, and we are now ready to kick off with it through the online portal. If you would like to submit a question via the portal, please use the text box on the left of your screen to submit your question. If you are in full screen mode, you will need to leave full screen mode to enter a question. We encourage you to ask questions related to the content of today's presentations. For those of you joining us via video, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up, and if time permits, we can circle back for additional questions. With that, we'll get started with a question from Keith Chau of MST Marquee. Keith, thank you for-
Now, talking about essentially the push element of the strategy, but what I'm trying to glean or what I'm keen to understand is more the pull element and how the shift to high-value products benefits your dealers and distributors as well, and in relation to that, certainly in a time of tight capacity, it should be easier to market this strategy to both your dealers and distributors, you know, shifting to high-value products when the market distributors, you know, retain their shift to this high-value product mix and prevent them from going back to low-value products, and the same question applying to the homeowner as well, please.
Right. A good question, Keith. Now, first of all, marketing to the homeowner is actually the pull strategy, okay? And then the push strategy is really about us selling and shipping directly to our customers. So let me talk about the pull.
So, marketing, for example, in North America today, is really about for us to tell the story directly to the homeowners about all the possibilities that the homeowners can design the new home, have a beautiful home, but yet being protected with James Hardie Fiber Cement technology, the low maintenance, the durability, the noncombustible, the stability and so on, and that would drive that demand, and then to ultimately would drive that pull, that working closely, be really converting homes, for example, in the Northeast or the Midwest of the U.S., from vinyl homes to James Hardie exterior product through ColorPlus technology.
It is about creating the awareness of our products and our brand, and then the trust with our brand over time, that would just generate the attachments to our brand and more awareness.
Going back to the question on how you incentivize the dealers and distributors, to essentially stay, or continue to sell high-value products, when the capacity, and the market frees up, you know, potentially if demand falls off, what happens on the other side of this curve? Because obviously, at the moment, we're in a period of tight supply, where potentially it could be easier to, I guess, drive this initiative, to your dealers and distributors into perpetuity, in the absence of, homeowners asking for that product.
So, Keith, I think ultimately our customers would really like to sell more of products that the homeowners want, and for us, reaching directly to the homeowners and create demand directly with our products to the homeowners, that would really create more value for our customers, comparing to through the homeowners that then drive more sales of our high-value products to our customer, which is really a win for our customers.
And, you know, at the end, as you have heard, the pre-presentation from Mark Sette and Cathleya on marketing is that our homeowners today don't really know too much about the value of Hardie brand exterior product with ColorPlus Technology, for example, that they can remodel their home today, as opposed to using with vinyl or wood, because it allow them to have beautiful homes, but yet it's low maintenance, and it's durable, and it's non-combustible. And that is the key value creation. And, at the same time, you know, we are still participating in, and so, of course, supply those.
But really, our focus as a marketer and manufacturer of a premium brand product is about creating more value through telling the story and marketing our high-value products to the ultimate demand, and that is with the homeowners.
Okay. We're now joined by Andrew Scott from Morgan Stanley. Andrew?
North Star for the company, it was conspicuous in its absence today. So just interested in the thoughts around, A, is it relevant? And if not, what does good look like as we put some sort of quantitative metrics over the next three years and some of the initiatives you've laid out today?
Oh, it is absolutely relevant, Andrew, because, you know, a lot of what we share with you today in terms of really marketing directly to the homeowners. It's all about there are 44 million homes in the U.S. today that are 40 years or older. That means a lot of those homes need to be re-sided, for example. And that's a big opportunity for us to accelerate our demand creation through the R&R segment. And then third, our market-led innovation is all about creating new innovation to allow it to expand into adjacent markets. So all of these key three strategies that we highlight today is about to ensure that we have the more capability, not only to get to 35, 90, but to actually go beyond that.
Okay, understood. And obviously, for obvious reasons, today was very much residential focused. I'm surprised we haven't heard a little bit more around commercial, where I thought, particularly the panel and the textured panel, would bring quite an opportunity. Is that something that we think about?
Andrew, this is all about, you know, we are really driving the commercialization process of new innovation in our company. That is, we're intending to build a business through these innovations. It's all about making sure that we first commercialize into the residential markets, and then penetrate a lot of the opportunities, and then layer on top will be additional new products that we forthcoming through a more sustainable new business, as opposed to just getting some sales for the short term.
Okay, we're now joined by Brook Campbell-Crawford from JP Morgan.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Are you able to talk a bit about the customer conversion funnel? So, for example, how many Christines are there, this sort of then target customer in the US, and it's the length of the campaign?
Yeah. So, Brook, what I can share with you is this: you know, so we have, so there's 80 million owner-occupied homes in North America today. And, fifty-five percent of those homes are 40 years or older, and, roughly half of them are really located in the Northeast and the Midwest. And, and then, so in terms of where she lives in the homes are actually, 40 years or older and at certain price points. And so those are the key information that would allow us to not only to communicate en masse, but also directly one to one, and really lead her through the whole, purchase journey from awareness to consideration and then to purchase.
And that is really the path that we are embark on to moving on to truly become a consumer products company, to really create demand through the homeowners that expand our incremental growth in the R&R segment, which is very large.
Okay, just a follow-upo n lean manufacturing, how do you think James Hardie stacks up relative to world-class manufacturing companies? Oftentimes, people talk about, you know, Toyota or 3M, and after this period, FY 2022 to FY 2024, if you reach your additional lean targets, how do you think it will compare then? Maybe you can use sort of a scale of one to ten, or however you feel is most relevant. That'd be great.
Yeah, I think if you really look at lean, lean is a continuous improvement journey. It never ends, and then for us that we really made a significant transformation about a year ago so with that big turn, we essentially went from one to, say, three to four, and then during the past two years the execution of lean that have really turned into tangible value, and the tangible value is really about really delivering those key savings that we're able to fundamentally shift our EBIT margin to a new step change, as well as allow us to run our plants a lot more consistently and a more organized way that really drives significant improvements in employee engagement, particularly at the operator level.
So with those two tangible effects, I would say that we're now around a five, and we would never get to a ten, because we always want to continue to improve. And that, as a true world-class manufacturer, our journey-
Yeah, thanks. Just on your Hardie Texture Panel introduction, maybe you could give us some more details about your cost advantage, the time for installation, and the warranty between that product and stucco?
First of all, it really depends, you know, depends on which part of the country the stucco is compared to, but in general, comparing to stucco. But, you know, our Hardie Texture Panel is really meant to deliver more value, not only to stucco, but also to brick and stone. Because, you know, as we've shown during the innovation, that really the two key mega trends that happen around the world is that there is a lack of skilled labor and a lack of affordable housing. So when you think of home that made of bricks, stones, and stuccos, currently have in our fiber cement products.
Okay, and then just as a follow-up, just wondering where you are with respect to your original 35, 90 goals?
We are right now in North America, we're roughly around 22% fiber cement, about 22% of the market.
Thanks, Paul. Now take a question from Sophie Spartalis at Bank of America.
Thanks, Jack. Thanks, Jason. I wanted to explore. Bank of America, we have a strong view that the millennial is the key driver of the U.S. housing market. The millennial isn't part of your target customer base. Can you just talk through the why, you are sort of pitching at the whole budget, where you think the priority sits in that household budget to re-side the home?
Well, first, first of all, you know, we actually target a much broader group beyond what we saw with Christine. You know, what we in our market research have learned is that the millennials actually would like the home to be more individualistic. They don't want those cookie-cutter homes. Products are very is perfect for that, and then also the ability to have different designs. And that is a very, very important part of the millennials. So it is, it's also targeted with the millennials. And then relative to your second question, in terms of affordability, Sophie, can you please repeat?
Yeah, just in terms of affordability, where does the general groceries, et cetera, you know, where do you think that priority sits in re-siding your home? Or do you think that it is at risk of being reprioritized and/or being postponed-
Right.
And coming back, given that it is a roughly $50,000 decision? It's a big decision for a homeowner.
Right. It certainly, yes, I mean, so that is what we have learned during the past 18 months, doing a lot of consumer research. And here's really the two key drivers. One is that. This is really about the law of large numbers. We have roughly 44 million homes out there, owner-occupied in the U.S., that are 40 years or older. And if 5% of those homes need to be re-sided, that's 2.2 million homes that need to be re-sided now.
And again, which is twice as big as re-side today, and need to re-side today, and want to re-side today because there's a big need out there to, you know, welcome homeowners now, and it has so much of the need to make the homes, the exterior of the home more beautiful, and yet it's protected with the James Hardie fiber cement durability and low maintenance and non-combustibility. So that part, the opportunity for us is really about reaching directly to those particular homeowners, and be able to share that story with them about our capability, particularly with the James Hardie exterior product with ColorPlus technology.
So that is really the big opportunity for us right now, is that law of large number, and we know where those homeowners live and what they need and how they need it.
Great. Thanks, Sophie. We're now gonna move to Lisa Huynh from Citi.
Hi. Morning, Jack. Morning, Jason. So in terms of the test selling trials you've seen so far, you saw 90% acceptance in your target trials. I'm just keen to understand and unpick a bit more about what attributes you saw with the new products that gained resonance from homeowners? Is it the value proposition or the speed of installation? Where the homeowners are placing the importance of the new product?
The look, the aesthetic, the design to allow them to have the beauty of their home, and that is really by far the biggest attribute, and then once we told them about the low maintenance and then the durability and then the combustibility, that kind of pushed it to a higher score. You know, that is really the key value proposition of product to the homeowners. The speed of construction is really more about the value proposition for the installers and the builders, but not so much for the homeowners.
Yep, sure. Thanks, and then I guess just on gross margins, there was an interesting comment in the slides that the new products are higher gross margin as well. I guess, without giving away too much, can you kind of unpick what is driving that a bit more, and how, you know, the new product innovation is different from the standard Hardie's board?
It is about taking the our product from being just the functional properties, and now be able to bring the aesthetic and design to it. And that you turn a product from being just a the tangible to now to the more the intangible of the emotional attachment. And that is how it it's really about driving that demand through to the actual consumer or the homeowners. So it's no longer-
Sure.
Just about the performance, it's about the, also about the aesthetics.
Cool. Understood.
Okay. Thanks, Lisa. I'll move on to Simon Thackray from Jefferies.
Thanks very much, Jason and Jack. There's a lot of information in there and very helpful. There's cost headwinds, TIs as well. And then, of course, what most importantly in your LTIs, you've identified this shift to higher value product. All of which is helpful, but we don't really know the starting point in terms of mix. So could you give us some broad understanding of where we're starting with mix, and where we're moving to understand those targets?
Absolutely, Simon. So, the mix in FY twenty-one for North America was... Do you have any follow-up questions?
I do. I do, I do. So Mike Jost at ABC mentioned their role in identifying new product opportunities and helping drive innovation and penetration. And I think Keith touched on it earlier. Can you talk to how the economics of your product strategy are shared with your channel partners?
Well, you know, it's you know, particularly now with during the inflation period, and you have the freight costs are going up and so on and so forth. They also look at how they can deliver more value per shipment to their customers. So it is, it's really for us to develop the right innovation that the homeowners and the builders want, and then that demand is then translate to additional sales for our channel partners.
Fantastic. I appreciate that.
Thanks, Simon.
Jack, I'm gonna-
Yep. Go ahead, Simon. All right. Simon, did you have something else?
Oh, I was just gonna sneak something in because I've been so short. The branded building product, Colorbond Steel, is the only one, other one that I can think of in Australia that's got very much brand identification. Are there any other global examples of branded building consumer branding?
You know, I can share with you the major appliances, the brand like Electrolux, like Miele, are really the type of products that inside the home.
Okay. Thank you.
And of course, Kohler, which is also a brand for the, bathroom.
Good. Thanks, Simon. We'll now move to Peter Wilson from Credit Suisse.
Thanks, Jason. Thanks, Jack. In terms of building a consumer brand, one of your competitors has highlighted that their strength in the retail channel is a key competitive advantage there. I'm just wondering if you agree with that statement. Another way to ask that is, can you build a consumer brand if you're not strong in the retail channel?
Destination in a retail outlet, not only by the professionals, but also by the homeowners. So it's the key for us to really become that strong manufacturer in the retail channel, is to have a strong brand in the minds of the consumers.
Okay. And I guess if that works, so in twelve months time, twenty-four months time, you've built a strong consumer brand, consumers are demanding your product. Does that then allow you to go after that retail channel more? You know, so five years time, do you think that your share of sales in the retail channel will be greater than it is now?
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, Peter, it really for us in the short to midterm is that about for us to reach directly to the homeowners about, and that is our strategy to have a conversion. And this is really the key strategy for us to get to accelerate to thirty-five, ninety is really the replacement of vinyl and wood homes with James Hardie fiber cement exterior with ColorPlus. And then the offshoot of that for midterm is really about allow us to have a much bigger footprint in the retail business. Yes.
Okay. Just wanted to focus in on the response from the competitive environment and a broader question than Pete just asked. The thinking about the stucco market, obviously, a lot of fragmentation in the installation space there, but the materials space a little bit more consolidated, but perhaps not in the mindset that you are from a marketing perspective. How do you foresee some of the responses that you're likely to see in there, and similarly in Australia, particularly in relation to the brick market?
Yeah, Peter, as you know, these, the Hardie Textured Panels technology is really, it is our first global innovation that really developed a technology platform that is relevant and to all three regions of the world that we participate in. You know, it is render or stucco is a huge market in Western Europe and certainly here in the U.S., and then to a certain extent in Australia. So for us, this is about partnering closely with our current customers that would allow us to reach the market. But the key for us is about creating demand directly with the end user, the homeowners, and also the builders to be able to to drive the great sales.
So, in short.
It is a large. So, to Peter, it is a very large market. It's really that we are addressing the unmet needs in the marketplace today. And, so. That solution is not available in the market today. It's a true innovation that will create some true new growth in the markets.
And perhaps just a quick follow-up. So there are obviously vested interests response from vested interests there, so resist your penetration.
I mean, there is, there's always a risk for competitive reaction, but the key for us is that this is why our approach to global innovation is really do a lot of market-led innovation approach, so that we understand exactly the true needs and the true unmet needs. And so after a series of true rigorous, you know, we are very confident with, but certainly in our plan, we always have the plan B to make sure that we address any competitive activities.
Thanks, Jack.
Thanks, Peter. We'll now go to Grant Slade at Morningstar.
Hi, Jack and Jason. On the incremental lean savings that you've discussed today, just curious as to whether or not you could give us a bit of a sense of how you're thinking about potential reinvestment of those incremental savings in the context of the updated EBIT margin targets announced last week?
Go ahead, Jason.
Yeah, Grant, I think when we talked through the guidance a bit earlier, we laid out some significant reinvestments, specifically within SG&A and R&D, focused on SG&A. That's going to help. So that range of $80 million-$110 million globally is really where we're investing currently.
Great. Thanks very much. And just also was curious as to whether or not you can give us a sense of how much latent capacity you unlock from the existing manufacturing network in North America from the incremental lean target?
To go that, our lean execution have unlocked roughly 12% of our capacity as of a year ago, and that is about roughly the rate that we anticipate to continue to generate. Certainly, that's a way to unlock capacity. Second is that, you know, as we partner closely with our customers now, and you've probably heard that from our two customers, we have more of a forward-looking demand, we flow product to the marketplace. Third, it's really about having with a better look of our demand to allow us then to have the right mix of product to be made within our each of our production line. That's also further can unlock more capacity in our existing network.
Okay, great. So the 12% remains relevant going forward?
That's correct.
Hey, Jack and Jason. Thanks for taking my question. I think the analysts, other analysts, have covered off on most things that I wanted to ask, particularly around the distribution channels and the starting point for that higher product mix. I think the presentation was also quite comprehensive regarding the exterior strategy. But if I might just take a step back and ask how you guys are thinking about the interior side of the business and what the strategy for this side of this business is going forward?
Yeah, I mean, if you look quickly at the slide that Jason shared during the financial review, it's that the typical average selling price for HardieBacker today, or the interior products, are a lot lower than our Hardie exterior. It is because it's covered. Once it's used in interior, it's covered by a tile or by paint, and so on and so forth, so the value is not a thing that we will rejuvenate this category once we are ready to commercialize the new line of interior products. But until then, the priority will be on the Hardie brand exterior products.
Okay, now, very, very useful. No, no more further questions, I guess, from me. Thanks.
Okay, great. Thanks, Sam Seow. We can go from there. So a question coming in: Regarding your marketing to homeowner strategy, what do Hunter Lansing and Mike Jost think of James Hardie targeting their customers directly? How closely was your marketing to homeowners strategy developed with your B2B customers from the beginning of the process?
It is every one of our customers are very excited that James Hardie, as a company and as a brand, value that we deliver for our customers and for our top customers. This is the key value that we have been working very closely with our top customer at different levels to integrate the demand creation that we're generating through their sales team at different locations. So this is not something that only we do in the U.S., but we also now start to replicate to our business in Australia and also in Europe. It is something that our customers truly appreciate.
Okay, another question. Can you discuss how your three new initiatives help deliver on your EMEA targets? Thanks.
It is, so this is a global strategy that will be replicated around the world. So for our European queues, our push strategies and really understand who our customers are, and to start to deliver more value to our customers, as well as replicating the lean strategy into our plants in Europe. So now, the next step is really about to execute with the push-pull. The pull here is, as we launch new products, the Hardie VL Plank into Western Europe, we are reaching out to the fiber cement technology. It just create more demand for our products and allows our customers to stock our product and go out and push our product. So that's the first thing. Second thing is the Hardie Texture Panel.
It is the product platform that actually was developed not only for the U.S., but also really driven by the U.S. European market needs. That technology and that product platform will be a key driver for fiber cement growth.
Competitive dynamics changed among the key substrates in North America: fiber cement, vinyl, and engineered wood.
Certainly, now what I can speak for fiber cement is that we are certainly seeing a lot more growth through new construction. Also, as we now expand our footprint a lot more into the renovation market, and really, what we anticipate and expect is that the acceleration of the conversion of vinyl and wood to fiber cement a lot quicker than what we have been doing in the past.
Okay. In terms of your consumer marketing strategy, have you signed any high-profile influencers to drive awareness of your products among U.S. homeowners?
I've certainly, that's a very good question, Zane. But we're also looking to sign a very top influencer that can go national, if not, have the global footprint. And that remain to be seen, but that certainly is part of our plan.
Great. I'm being told that all questions have been answered at this time. So I'll hand it over to you, Jack, for some closing remarks.
Thank you, Jason, and thanks to all James Hardie colleagues around the world. Their continued execution of global strategy over the past two years helped to fundamentally transform James Hardie company. We believe it will put us in a position to drive significant future profitable growth globally. Thank you.