Okay. All right. Oh, there we go. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the webcast here. Really, really happy to have MSA Safety, Lee McChesney, Senior Vice President and CFO. We've got Larry De Maria, Executive Director of Investor Relations, here in the audience as well. You know, I think my name is Amit Mehrotra. I'm the Electrical Equipment Multi-Industry Analyst here at UBS. It's been my pleasure to kinda learn about MSA Safety for the last couple weeks. Really, really a company with a lot of history, over 100 years of history, with great technology, great products, and, and, you know, it's just been a pleasure to kinda get to know this company, over the last couple weeks, and really happy to dig into kinda some of the investment points here.
Lee's got a few minutes, or maybe 10 minutes, of prepared remarks going through a presentation, and then we'll dive into Q&A, lots to talk about with this company, so Lee, thanks for joining, and I'll hand it over to you.
Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, again, so number one, appreciate the invitation. A couple times now we've been to this conference, and I'd like to take just a few minutes to walk us through MSA, a little bit of our mission, and you know, why we think this is such a good investment opportunity from a long-term perspective. So, before I do that, just obviously required to talk about you know, for cautionary statements on forward-looking statements and our non-GAAP measures. And then finally, this session is being webcast, and it will be posted to our website after this today. So if you wanna digest that, we encourage you to do that as well. So let's talk about MSA for just a couple minutes here. It starts first of all with our mission.
Our mission goes back to 1914, in the 1910s here, and when the company was founded. You know, that mission is simply this: that men and women go to work, they work in safety, they their families in the communities really may live in health throughout the world. That was created with the company's foundation. It's still what we rally around today, 110 years later. We service that mission really through, you know, a leadership position in industrial safety. That is driven by innovation. That is one of the key differentiations for us in the marketplace today. Now, again, fast forward to we just celebrated 110-year anniversary. We wanted to share, you know, this year we shared what we've really done in terms of how we keep people safe around the world.
So, we communicated 40 million workers annually are protected by MSA Safety. And, certainly, you know, go back to the origins when that mission was created, quite a build from those original origins, in keeping people safe in mind. So a little bit of recap on the company. If you go backwards on a 12-month basis, about $1.8 billion in sales. We make significant investments in R&D at over 4.5%, almost $80 million a year going into R&D. And that drives a very strong productivity, certainly for an industrial business, of 37%.
That's measured by percentage of sales that are new introduction over what period of time?
Over a 5-year basis.
Got it. Okay.
So, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And, you know, so that focus on innovation I've talked about, and then also our business system, which really focuses on driving productivity, really brings together these really strong gross margin and operating margins, certainly, some really good values here from an industrial perspective. And, you know, one of the things we'll talk about, you know, throughout our session today is also just the consistency and the resiliency of that performance as well, based on just how the business is made up. So that's the, you know, the kind of the P&L side of things. Certainly, a really strong balance sheet, really, really good cash flow perspective today. You know, net leverage is below 1. We do that, obviously, with even digesting, you know, several acquisitions over the last decade as well. So we're very, very disciplined, from a capital allocation perspective.
Certainly, if you look at our history, good performance organically through acquisitions. And then certainly what we do in terms of returning dollars to our shareholders. So quite disciplined. Really about a third of it goes into, you know, innovation and organic growth. Another third goes into acquisitions, and then a third into really a very strong dividend history. And then we certainly do buy back shares to offset any type of dilution and things like that. So you know, that's the business in a snapshot. Now again, very diverse. So you see on the slide there, you know, about 70% of that's in the Americas, but that also includes Latin America. So about 53% is in the US, 47% really addressed around the world there. Our product category's been very focused in these areas the last three, last 10 years.
It's led by fire service which is almost 40% of our sales, detection which is about 36%, and then industrial PPE is 25%. Again, these are three product categories we've really focused on the last 10 years. It's really been a differentiator in terms of how the company has performed over this past decade.
I assume detection's growing faster with higher margins. Fire safety's kinda stable. What's the margin differential? Not to interrupt your prepared remarks.
No, it's okay. It's interesting. Detection has all the attributes to grow at a faster rates, you know, just the TAM itself in terms of what's going on there. Certainly, it's a good margin category for us. It's our highest.
Yeah.
But, you know, quite frankly, our focus in all three of these are high margin categories. That's how you end up with a 48% gross margin, but certainly, detection leads the way. But fire has been a growth catalyst for us, and it's also benefited from some really good acquisitions as well. So probably if you asked us five years ago, we might've said detection was gonna be the largest segment, and then some really good things happened in fire services organically and through acquisitions, so.
What, when I look at, like, Honeywell or 3M, I was doing this a couple days ago and, like, looking at some of their PPE and business, they sell a lot of the same stuff you guys do, but I think the differentiator here is that maybe they're a little bit more higher volume, lower tech, and you guys are kind of deeper on the technology side. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Sure. I mean, just overall, I mean, innovation really is the driver for everything we do. So you're right. In these three product categories, we certainly lead with innovation, and as a result, really in the product lines that we focus on, you know, we have a strong kinda leading position, number one, number two. Yeah. In many cases, and you're right. That's a great description of, you know, we focus on the end user. What do they need? What's the solution? And bring that to marketplace. And that's really what we're known for. That's why people turn to us oftentimes. In many cases, they need a, you know, to solve a problem, you know, they're addressing a safety issue, and we're seeing, in many cases, having, you know, really some of the best solutions out there.
On the detection side, can you break down fixed versus wearables?
Mm-hmm.
How that's growing.
Sure.
And some of that?
Yeah.
Again, sorry.
No, it's good.
You want to continue to prepared remarks?
Please, you probably. Please, you probably seen the slides a little bit as well, so this is actually perfect. So let me give you a little bit of background there. Really, three product categories as I just mentioned here. So detection is, you know, certainly a growing category as we just talked about. Really benefits from some really strong organic growth and acquisition growth over the past decade. And, you know, really two orientations to that. So number one, you think about detection connected to a worker. That's what we call portable solutions. And then think about detection that's really about critical infrastructure, attaching to facilities and things like that. That's what we call our fixed business. That fixed business is about two-thirds of detection today, and the portable's about a third.
You know, the portable also includes our, you know, our connected worker platform, you know, what we go through with MSA + today. It's really been nice, high-growth category, which I'm sure you'll ask about in a second as well.
Mm-hmm.
So certainly been a nice driving category there. Fire service, as we just talked about, still our leading category today. Head-to-toe solutions for a firefighter. You know, that's certainly been a benefit again from a good organic growth, but also through acquisition.
Does a lot of that rely on some funding? And can you talk about kind of the outlook for the funding piece?
Yeah. So in the fire service category, certainly we sell to large departments and then municipal departments all over the world.
Sure.
You know, certainly funding from a federal level, local level is important. We have, you know, historically has been, and it's been very consistent. Really, around the world, no matter, you know, which way the leaning administration is, a lot of support for firefighters. I mean, I think the way we've seen it is if there is a good environment, people wanna fund, you know, first responders, certainly firefighters.
Sure.
And then if there's even a bit of a challenged economic cycle, it's, you know, it's a good place for, you know, us to invest in.
Mm-hmm.
A good place to put dollars. And so as we look forward, we think that will still continue really, no matter what happens in the administration, 'cause there's just broadly a lot of support here. And for us, what's nice about that is it adds to the stability, this diversity of the business. So, I'll show in a chart in a second here. If you look back in time, this business is quite steady, and it's a nice foundation for the business. It's a good cash business. Enables us to really stay on mission with safety. We're not, you know, having to deal with as much as big a swings as you can get in some other industrial companies and things like that.
Got it. And then finally, industrial PPE. So certainly the largest two pieces of that start with our iconic head industrial head protection. I have a hard hat, by the way, made by MSA.
Oh, you? You're well, you.
Brain Technologies, which is one of the best hard hats I've ever had, so. That's perfect because a good amount of what we do there is also branded for end users, 'cause, you know, it's obviously part of their safety protocols to do that.
Yeah.
Leading position there, that iconic V-Gard. You look on a construction site, you know, really anywhere, except for residential, you're probably likely to see a V-Gard hat today if you take a look. We've also focused on really, you know, again, following our end users. Fall protection's still one of the top issues on a job site.
Mm-hmm.
So we've really brought our innovation mindset there as well. And, you know, we think that's a big growing category. We today, you know, that's the one business we are in a leading position, but we are seeing, you know, almost near double-digit growth there consistently, over the last five years as we really double down on our fall protection business. So, you know, that's a nice growing category as well here. So if we pivot just a little bit, I just wanna give a quick update on 2024. So no change in our outlook. We back in September, with our in October, we released our three key results. We gave a bit of an update. And I really look at 2024 as, you know, example of really this stable makeup of the business. Obviously, it's been a dynamic environment. You've had lots of conversations.
You know, we still have, you know, really persevered quite well. You know, here in the fourth quarter, we're looking at mid-single-digit growth. The orders that we saw early in the quarter's still playing out that way, and the full-year low single-digit growth a little bit misleading because, I mean, I always look at this company interestingly like a GDP plus, plus, plus business.
Mm-hmm.
But then you have obviously had that big Air Force contract that's kind of messing up the comps a little bit. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah. So, I mean, I think actually the fourth quarter's a perfect example, right? So we're looking at mid-single-digit growth, and we're gonna comp on top of mid-teens from last year. So really. Yeah. You think about the whole year, you know, we have low single-digit growth, but on top of almost mid-teens growth from last year. So we're actually quite, quite happy with that. And you're and you're right. We've had some large wins, over the last several years that have been, been helpful and great. And then, you know, to your point, you can get some lumps here and there, but, as I'll show you in a second, you know, that's, that is part of the business, but obvi in, in the end, it's really the diversity of all these end markets and all these different places we serve, you know, that give us this nice stability.
Got it.
And so, you know, I think the last thing I'll just say on here for 2024, again, no change in outlook. And beyond that growth, still looking at really strong incrementals, kind of the high end of 30%-40% for the full year and cash flow still being in that kinda 90%-100% zone for the year.
And so the growth algorithm outside of maybe this comp issue is it mid-single high mid to high, a little bit mid-plus single digit?
Mm-hmm.
Obviously, you're converting at 30, but so there's GDP, there's pricing, there's maybe some market share gains.
Mm-hmm.
Can you kinda de-dissect that for us?
Yeah, so yeah, the investment thesis in the U.S. is definitely about mid-single-digit growth, and that's from the detection category has the opportunities to grow a little bit faster than that.
Mm-hmm.
Certainly, fire overall depends on the, you know, the large wins and things like that. That's gonna be in the middle. And then you can get some swings in industrial PPE. You look at a year like this where you've got a little bit more slower, broader growth. You could have a, you know, a little bit of lower growth there. And then you get into more of a boom cycle, lower interest rates and things like that. Industrial PPE could be actually a nice positive. But on average, about mid-single-digit growth. We talk about, you know, incrementals between 30%-40%. And then, you know, we have very strong cash flow, very consistently delivering 90%-100% per 100%.
Is there an opportunity for the incrementals to meet? I mean, international margins are obviously lagging behind domestic margins. Talk about kinda the opportunity there. Then I know in Europe, you maybe went from, like, a model where you're everything to everybody to more focused, to w hat type of opportunity are we through the benefits of that, or what's the opportunity prospectively there?
Yeah. So yeah, I'll mention this in a second, but just, I mean, broadly, a lot of progress in margin over the last decade, certainly the last five years. You know, we show, you know, almost a thousand basis points of operating margin improvement. And, you know, what's great about that is certainly the Americas team has done a wonderful job. They've brought their margins in many cases up to the high 20s, low 30s. But the international business, you know, like I think a lot of industrials has challenges just based on things that happen in Europe and the infrastructure you need in different countries and things like that. We've made a lot of progress. You know, our industrial international business has moved from single-digit operating margin to the mid-teens.
Yeah.
So, you know, probably one of the most popular questions asked is, you know, can the international get to the, you know, the Americas level? And I think it has certainly equal levels of improvement, but I think there will be, you know, always some difference just because of the, the nature of the international business versus the U.S., particularly the, you know, the dynamics of what happens in Europe. But overall, as we look forward, you know, we, we really see, you know, some consistent, you know, 30-50 basis points of operating margin opportunity. That's gonna come from the business system I mentioned earlier. Certainly, we've done a nice job of managing inflation and, and price. And then, you know, we have innovation and innovation that's helping fuel the businesses. You know, obviously, that's a nice help for margins.
Also, you know, there's been an orientation towards the detection, and detection is our highest margin category. So we consistently, just by strategy, have a nice positive mix element that comes out as well.
I was always intrigued by that product vitality. I think it was almost 40% or something like that. That is such a key, you know, just in my experience, companies that constantly invest in R&D and have an innovation funnel, obviously that translates directly to growth. Is that a high number for you guys, or is that more normal? As you look over the next couple of years, do you think that the innovation pipeline is more robust where we could actually grow that number? What's the view there?
Yeah. Well, I think, number one, if you look at us, we are a pure safety company. It's 100% of what we do. It's all we think about all day. So I think one of our biggest advantages over the last decade is no matter what's happened, economic cycles, you know.
Yeah.
COVID, we've continued to invest in innovation, and so, you know, I said today, you know, we're gonna spend over $80 million this year. We spent, you know, a very similar amount during COVID year, as opposed to, like, trying to pull back 'cause we were trying to, you know, avoid some type of massive swing. We still had a pretty stable growth environment in that year, which enables us to continue the focus on innovation. So I think the trick for us is the consistency. We drive that vitality rate, and we bring products to market, and these products become five, 10, 15-year products for us, so certainly where you're putting more dollars into certain categories, that's certainly a process we've gone through, just as we consistently review the portfolio, so detection certainly gets a higher ratio than that 4% today.
We spent a lot of money, for example, on the connected worker, which has really helped drive growth in both industrial, and we're seeing some really nice opportunities in firefighters over time as well, so I think it's the consistency and the discipline, but again, it's how we service that mission is we are known for having, in many cases, the best solutions out there, and you only do that by consistently investing.
There's also, like, when you think about innovation and products, but there's also, I think, innovation in kind of how you guys go to market. One of the things that I was struck by, I was talking to Larry earlier on, was really the subscription model and detection and kinda the SaaS approach. Can you just dig into that a little bit?
Sure.
Like, what the margin profile of having a more recurring stream of business and what that actually means for you guys?
Yeah. No, absolutely. I'm actually gonna pivot here, just have this as a backdrop for you. So, you know, that highlight there is a key part of, you know, what we just back in May, we did Investor Day. And, you know, we identified, obviously, we wanna still stay in these secular trends in leading with industrial safety. And, you know, we picked these product categories. They've served us well over the last 10 years. But we've also identified these really nice growth catalysts, and certainly the connected worker is one of them. And so what we've been doing for the last, now probably almost, you know, seven years investing in this connected worker strategy. And we see opportunities that can play out really in all three of the product categories I highlighted.
Certainly, you know, firefighter today, every SCBA we sell is connected, so that data's being captured. We can turn that into productivity, analytical solutions. We can help them do tracking of their items and really just overall inventory control. So those are features that are out there today. In the even in the fall protection space, we've had work with large distribution clients really working on, you know, how do I make sure people use that safety gear? 'Cause one of the challenges with safety gear is make it comfortable, but also make sure they're using it.
Mm-hmm.
You know, imagine, you know, a fall protection device is connected and tells people whether they're using it. If they're not using it, you know, a piece of equipment won't work or something like that.
Mm-hmm.
So all that's been going on over the last 5+ years. But probably the fastest adoption has been in industrial. So, you know, today we have a product, for example, called io4, and that is a portable detection device that's attached to the worker. And, you know, we have the actual detection unit, and now it's also connected to our Grid software platform.
Mm-hmm.
So, you imagine a—you know—a facility, an EH&S manager trying to oversee 1,000 employees and making sure that they are safe. You know, they are now on the scene. And instead of that unit that used to just be attached to them, they kinda would wear it for the day, and it was kinda really up to the employee to follow the directions. It's all connected. So I can see if I'm in a certain area of the facility, I'm picking up maybe trace amounts of some type of contaminant.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe not enough that it's a safety issue that you stop doing that, but imagine now I have the power of all those employees going all over the site. So I have a great solution, but now it's fully connected, and I can start building out these additional insights to help them from not only a safety perspective, but really from a productivity perspective.
Sounds like a Waze for detection.
Yeah. It, well, and it really, again, solve the safety solution.
Yeah.
Compliance is really important. Record-keeping compliance is really important safety, but also, you know, there's some productivity savings. You know, in the old days, someone would get a device, they'd have to check it in. Today, you can tap it to your badge. I mean, this, so we're seeing really a rapid acceleration adoption for us. We're just a little bit over two years into this. And, you know, we're seeing really a strong adoption rate. And what we're doing is we're also selling it on a subscription basis. So you can buy the unit and then turn on these features over time, or you can come to us and, you know, sign up for a three- or four-year model. We guarantee performance. If there's any issue, you just get a replacement.
You know, we're seeing, today really a lot of interest in signing up for that type of model, and we're seeing some really good, incremental business 'cause we have seen new customers coming to us that we didn't necessarily have before just in our traditional units.
Can we talk about the short-cycle piece of the business a little bit? So on the industrial PPE side, obviously you have great market position in hard hats and fall protection, maybe another growing area where you're taking market share. But I assume, like, a lot of your customers, when they need it, they need it. And so that creates a little bit of challenges from a stocking perspective, especially in an industrial environment that's a little bit weaker. So, one, can you talk about? Have you seen any trends? I mean, we're a global industrial conference here. You guys are a little bit different because you're so critical to every company. Safety is the number one priority because the cost of being unsafe is just so significant. So it's a little bit of an isolated kinda dynamic.
But anything on the short-cycle side that you think is notable? And how do you guys manage kind of the ability to kinda deliver on big orders that come very quickly on the industrial PPE?
Yeah. No, let me answer your question directly first. For us today, about 25% of the business is what I'd call, you know, more short-cycle.
Mm-hmm.
You know, that number used to be like 40% plus. But what's really happened is these other parts of the business have grown faster.
Sure.
This business has still continued to grow, but, you know, it's just become a smaller percentage. But what we're seeing across the globe, you know, to your question there is, you know, surprising resiliency. You know, if you know, again, I think over the last 20 years at United, I can imagine you, you kinda see the cycle where it is today, and you'd expect a bit more of a falloff.
Yeah.
We've seen it hold. Now, keep in mind, you know, we obviously are selling safety products. Again, this is the nice thing about the resiliency of the business. You know, it doesn't really matter what the economy is. People need to be kept safe. Maybe people even think about protecting their workers even more after COVID than they did before. But we are seeing, you know, I just to give you some insights around the world, certainly in the U.S., where the unemployment levels are still quite low, we're seeing, you know, maybe what had been something that would've been a bit more negative is kinda more flattish.
Mm-hmm.
And then, you know, certainly, you go into Latin America, you know, a combination of, you know, it's mixed, but we're doing a nice job ourselves just in terms of winning share. So we're seeing actually some nice positive numbers there. And then if I move over to the international market, certainly we saw the slowdown in China that a lot of people did see, but we've now, I would say, lapped kinda what was this year-long period of decline, and it's now a bit more stable. I still think Europe's challenged. You know, we're doing some good things to drive share, but certainly when you look at the core market, it's a bit negative on those more short-cycle times today.
Deal with all this, obviously one of the big topics for us in industrials in the U.S. is this kind of reshoring of industrial manufacturing capacity in North America. I don't know if it's U.S., but it's North America. Maybe it's more U.S. now prospectively. Is that a huge, like I mean, is that we haven't necessarily seen the output of that because the construction capacity is actually being put in place as we speak.
Mm-hmm.
But is that, as you guys think about kind of your longer-term opportunity, is that something that is really top of mind for you, or is that something that, yeah, if it comes, great, but it's not necessarily something that we're necessarily hanging our hat on in terms of prospective growth?
Yeah. I think a couple of things. I mean, you bring up that's generally as a positive, right? So, if you go around the world, there's certainly different levels of dollars put into safety. Certainly, you know, more Western markets spend probably more per worker.
Yeah.
thought that I would say that equation's changing over time. You see that number growing really across the globe universally. I think to your point, whether it's on shoring, whether it's infrastructure spending, those are positive things for us. It's maybe that's also part of why we see some of those short-cycle things, not seeing the same pressure maybe we would've seen in the past. And as we look forward, I think, you know, trends like that, I would just say broadly, safety is just a secular trend as well. So, you mix that combination together, I think it's been a positive for us. And as we look forward, we think it's actually one of the nice positives for us as well.
Okay. So the long-term algorithm, mid-single-digit kind of organic growth, pricing market share plus GDP, you've got 30%-40%, high 30% incremental margin. So that's maybe high single, low double-digit EPS growth. So that's, that's a great organic algorithm. But let's talk about, you know, the $1.5 billion you have.
Mm-hmm.
With respect to firepower.
Yeah.
So that's kinda fun in terms of the opportunity to drive inorganic growth. Can you talk about? I'm not super familiar with the company, but can you just talk about your history of it? Seems like a company that's not overly focused on buying, you know, products that don't have great market positions already.
Mm-hmm.
You wanna stick with quality and kind of focus on that. But just talk about the M&A history and where you're, I assume you're gonna be focused on detection going forward, but talk about.
Yeah.
If that's not right.
I love the question and I got a couple good slides for that, so actually I'm gonna put them together.
Okay. Good. Yeah.
So yeah.
I kinda hijacked your presenter part.
Oh, no. It's okay.
Sorry about that.
Let me go back here for a sec. So this is a slide that, you know, obviously this is all public information. This is the last 10 years of performance. This really was the basis for something we showed back in May. So, we speak about the resiliency of the business. So this shows you the last 10 years of MSA Safety.
Okay.
Certainly, you know, I think the numbers speak for themselves.
By the way, the CAGR is pretty consistent. There's only a couple years where it's down.
Yeah.
Actually, so that's pretty impressive.
Again, you know, very steady business model, right? We like we talked about the fire services in detection, in fixed detection. Once you install that devices, you know, there's a lot of replacement work and things like that.
Right.
So, you know, over 60% of the business is very stable, really, no matter what happens with the economy. But we've certainly focused on, you know, bringing the business system to life. We talked about innovation before. You see, you know, the operating margins expanding almost 1,000 basis points. But the numbers are impressive, but also, you know, it's the consistency.
Mm-hmm.
So, this was the backdrop. Think about what happened in the last 10 years, right? Two recessions, COVID, supply chain changes, you name it. This is certainly, you know, this speaks to really the makeup of the business, and where we are today. So with that backdrop, and again, we touched on really the strategies we look forward here. We did put out in May goals for 2028. So, you know, going back to your perspective here. So yes, on the growth perspective, you know, really a resilient business, as we just showed there, and it's certainly the mindset. You know, we haven't put out targets, ever in our history.
So, Steve and I, with the rest of the leadership team, felt this is the appropriate time to do that based on this momentum we've been building as an organization. And, you know, these are the organic growth goals, which, you know, would push us into the $2 billion+ range. Certainly the focus on innovation, the business system really driving that margin acceleration we talked about, you know, and then just frankly, volume leverage puts us in an opportunity to really have operating margins approach 25%. And then ultimately, you know, an EPS that gets into the $10+ range. And then to your point, that's all organic.
Yeah.
Certainly, again, you look at those charts looking 10 years back. Acquisitions were really important. There's probably five acquisitions to help support those financial returns as well. Part of our message is, you know, M&A has been important. We have been very disciplined in what we do bring in. You know, we're very focused on what they do, you know, they lead with innovation, what are their financials, where do you think the financials can go. And that's why it's been very complementary. We haven't had to really step backwards with this M&A. With all that said, yeah, there's $1.5 billion of capital that can be deployed here. This is after doing the dividends and share buybacks and things like that.
And still keeping the leverage, obviously, very reasonable. Yeah.
Yeah. And I, and we said, you know, we probably think the leverage over time is probably more between 1 .5 and 2 .5 . But again, we're gonna be disciplined. We, we do have a tremendous amount of optionality, which is really a strategic advantage. Again, we got this really core, strong organic business, and then we can continue to add through acquisitions. And we're certainly in the marketplace participating. But we're, we're looking for things that, again, complement what we do today. You know, we, we certainly our disciplined investors are looking for, you know, EPS that's accretive pretty soon after ownership.
Mm-hmm.
You know, our cost of capital's pretty low. It's about 8%. So we certainly wanna cross that, you know, I'll say in the first five or six years. And, you know, that's why you see here today with the confidence level that organically we can do this. And then certainly we have this cash flow to enhance that with acquisitions.
Is that $1.5 billion kind of specifically, I assume, obviously, detection's growing above that mid-single digit?
Mm-hmm.
Is that where you wanna be? And talk about, like.
Yeah.
I assume you have a lot of SKUs and there's places where maybe you're underrepresented relative to that growth.
Yeah.
Where, what does that, how does that inform kinda where you wanna deploy that capital?
Yeah. So yeah, it's interesting. Clearly, if you look at the business today, detection has been a key focus area. And you know, that business has almost doubled in size.
Yeah.
So certainly that will remain a key focus area. And I think it's detection, adjacencies that we're already in today would be natural enhancements to that, you know, where you get into instrumentation and monitoring and things like that, which again is an outtake from what we do in the safety space. But fire is still interesting to us. So yes, we have a strong, strong position. But, you know, there's also a lot of global opportunities out there. And there's other things in the firefighter space that would be interesting. And then I think in the industrial PPE, probably fall protection.
Mm-hmm.
It's probably the focus here. As I mentioned earlier, that's still the number one solution that needs to be solved for in the workplace. And we think there's a lot of inherent growth, really around the world for us. And, you know, we'd like to get our share even stronger. We've moved that share from single digits to low teens, but we're still number three in that space today.
In terms of, when I think about the pipeline of opportunities, you obviously have some very large competitors, but how just give us a sense of how fragmented it is and how you think about, you know, the funnel of opportunities from an M&A perspective?
Yeah. So, you know, clearly, if we step back, you know, we have a good funnel. We've been focused on even probably growing that funnel over the last couple of years as the market's been a little bit softer and just creating those relationships. But certainly, you know, I think fragmentation-wise, there's probably more opportunities in detection.
Mm-hmm.
So, you know, it'd be a natural bolt-on, you know, types, you know, there's things out there. If you look at what we've done, the most recent acquisition was Bacharach. And, you know, here's a business that was just a bit under $100 million. It was squarely in the detection space. We did some in that space, but they were certainly the leaders in that. You know, that was owned by private equity. We've also done a lot of private as well.
Mm-hmm.
You know, those are probably the likely scenarios for us to do on a common basis. Certainly, there's larger things out there. They just would have a higher level of, I'll say, financial discipline to make sure they check all the boxes or something like that. But certainly, we participate in those as well. I mean, if you look at our history over the last 10 years and kinda where we are today, we certainly have the capacity to do even more in terms of quantity, but also just size.
So that 1050 2028 target, what does that imply from like a compounded organic growth perspective from your starting point? And then I guess the M&A piece is accretive to that, right?
So yeah. So what we have out here for, you know, in growth is we have 3%-5% organic growth in here from an organic perspective. The EPS growth here is just kinda high single digits, about 8%. And again, if you put that in perspective that we just showed in the 10-year basis.
12%, whatever. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, obviously, M&A becomes an option to take those numbers to a higher level, which is what you saw over the last.
That 3-5 is probably maybe on the conservative side a little bit relative to the history and obviously the opportunity.
Yeah, well, that, to your point, that is solely just linked to this special 2024 we're having where we also have this U.S. Air Force business, which.
Right.
Again, $75 million of business, but it won't be there next year. So it just becomes a little bit part of the math.
Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense. Okay. Cool. I think we're gonna do. You have any final remarks or I just may I could finish it, but why don't you talk about.
Yeah. No, I'll just a final thought here. So again, I'll start where I did as well. Just the focus on the mission. We serve that mission. We wake up each and every day focused on safety. That's what the organization's rallied around. Certainly, we have leading positions in these areas around the world in these three product categories. You know, innovation combination with the business system has really put us in a really good place from a financial perspective. And, you know, we're focused on really leveraging that to drive organic growth and then to complement it with, you know, smart M&A. And, you know, that's why we put out those objectives for 2028, and we're on track for those.
Yeah. It's great. I mean, it's like a great mission, 40 million people made safer combined with good financial performance. So it's kind of a win-win. So thanks, Lee, for taking the time. Really appreciate it. And I hope you have a great day.
Thanks, Amit.
Thank you.