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2022 Full Year Results

  • 02 March 2023

2 March 2023 (07.00 BST) Coats Group plc (‘Coats,’ the ‘Company’ or the ‘Group’), the world’s leading industrial thread and footwear components manufacturer, announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2022.

 

10% organic revenue growth, 22% organic adjusted operating profit growth and strong free cash flow


Continuing operations FY 2022 FY 2021 4 FY 2022 vs FY 2021
    Reported CER Organic
   Revenue $1,584m $1,447m 9% 16% 10%
Adjusted 1          
   Operating profit $235m $198m 19% 27% 22%
   Basic earnings per share 8.2c 7.2c 14%    
   Free cash flow $114m $124m      
   Net debt (excl. lease liabilities) $394m $147m      
Reported 2          
   Operating profit $181m $178m 2% 9% 9%
   Basic earnings per share 5 4.8c 5.8c (18)%    
   Net cash generated by operating activities $96m $129m      
   Final dividend per share 1.73c 1.50c      

Strategic Highlights

  • Another year of excellent strategic progress alongside strong results
  • Acquisition of Texon and Rhenoflex establishes market leader in footwear components; acquisitions trading in line with expectations, and integration and delivery of expected cost synergies on-track
  • Strategic projects delivered accelerated in-year savings of $20 million, ahead of expectations; project scope now also expanded with total savings up from $50 million to $70 million by 2024 for $50 million cash cost
  • Ongoing focus on product innovation with 17 new products brought to market and continuing strong growth from recycled products, with CER revenue increasing 37% to $127 million
  • Substantially delivered against ambitious 2022 Sustainability goals, with significant improvement in all areas; new 2026 targets to drive further momentum to our approved 2030 Science Based Targets and Net Zero
  • Significant progress in de-risking UK pension scheme; £350 million buy-in transaction completed in December 2022
  • Agreement with UK pension scheme trustees on a switch off/on mechanism for future cash contributions, as a result of material improvements in the funding position; gives rise to potential significant Group free cash flow benefits

Financial Highlights

  • Strong Group organic revenue growth of 10% (9% on a reported basis), ahead of targeted medium-term growth of c.6%:
    • Apparel & Footwear (A&F): full year organic revenue growth of 9%, driven by exceptional first half performance, prior to some industry destocking, particularly in Q4
    • Performance Materials (PM): full year organic revenue growth of 13% with all three sub-segments delivering growth
  • Continued competitive gains in thread with market share up >100bps to estimated c.24%
  • Adjusted operating profit increased to $235 million (reported $181 million), in line with market expectations, reflecting strong pricing and mix fully offsetting inflation, as well as part-year contribution from acquisitions and strategic projects
  • Adjusted operating margin up 120bps to 14.8% with A&F and PM both contributing to the increase
  • Adjusted EPS increased 14% to 8.2c, reflecting strong trading performance and delivery of strategic project savings. Basic EPS 4.8c (2021: 5.8c), included impact of exceptional and acquisition-related items
  • Strong free cash flow of $114 million as a result of increased operating profits and good capital expenditure and working capital management
  • Year-end net debt (excluding lease liabilities) of $394 million after acquisitions, with proforma leverage of 1.4x,3 comfortably within 1-2x target range
  • Proposed final dividend of 1.73 cents, +15%, resulting in full year dividend of 2.43 cents, +15%; reflects the strong set of results, organic growth and margin potential, as well as the Board’s confidence in the medium term

Full Year Outlook in Line with the Board’s Expectations

  • Expect to deliver another year of strategic and operational progress. Destocking by customers has continued into the early part of the year, primarily in Apparel markets and to a lesser extent in Footwear
  • Continue to proactively respond to macroeconomic environment and inflationary pressures using our well-defined and tested playbook, focusing on cash, costs, self-help initiatives, deep customer relationships and tactical pricing actions
  • Continue to anticipate full year 2023 performance in line with the Board’s expectations, with second-half weighting, underpinned by the contribution from acquisitions, associated synergies and strategic projects

Commenting on the results Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, said:

“Coats produced a strong set of results in 2022, a year which was characterised by high inflation and supply chain disruption. Organic revenue growth was 10%, above our targeted medium-term growth of around 6%, and organic adjusted operating profit increased 22%.

We made further excellent progress in transforming the Group during the year, and this has made Coats a stronger, fitter and more focused Group, enhancing our leading market positions in industrial thread and footwear component markets. The 2022 acquisitions of Texon and Rhenoflex have not only significantly strengthened our position in the attractive footwear market but also increased our medium-term organic growth and margin potential.

Our strategic projects, aimed at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations, have been successfully progressed at speed during the year and we have today, in a period of macroeconomic uncertainty, increased our total targeted 2024 adjusted operating profit savings to $70 million, from the previous $50 million.

As a result of the transformational work done to date, the Group remains very well-positioned in its markets with a focus on growing brands. In addition, Coats has global leadership, a wide geographic footprint, scale, product and quality differentiation and a pipeline of innovative and sustainable products. Consequently, we remain excited about the growth and margin opportunities across the Group over the medium term.”

1. Adjusted measures are non-statutory measures (Alternative Performance Measures). These are reconciled to the nearest corresponding statutory measure in note 14. Constant Exchange Rate (CER) metrics are 2021 results restated at 2022 exchange rates. Organic figures are results on a CER basis and excluding contributions from Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions.
2. Reported metrics refer to values contained in the IFRS column of the primary financial statements in either the current or comparative period.
3. Leverage calculated on a proforma and frozen GAAP basis and therefore excludes the impact of IFRS 16 on both adjusted EBITDA and net debt and includes a full 12 months of EBITDA for Texon and Rhenoflex.
4. Restated to reflect the results of the Brazil and Argentina business, divested in 2022, as a discontinued operation.
5. From continuing operations.

Conference Call

Coats Management presented its full year results in a webcast at 09.00 GMT (Thursday, 2 March 2023). The webcast is also available in archive form on www.coats.com


Enquiry details
Investors Chris Dyett Coats Group plc +44 (0) 797 497 4690
Media Richard Mountain / Nick Hasell FTI Consulting +44 (0) 20 3727 1374

About Coats Group plc

Coats is a world leader in thread manufacturing and structural components for apparel and footwear, as well as an innovative pioneer in performance materials. These critical solutions are used to create a wide range of products, including ones that provide safety and protection for people, data and the environment. Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE250 company and a FTSE4Good Index constituent. Revenue in 2022 was $1.6 billion. Trusted by the world's leading companies to deliver crucial, innovative, and sustainable solutions, Coats provides value-adding products including apparel, accessory and footwear threads, structural footwear components, fabrics, yarns and software applications. Customer partners include companies from the apparel, footwear, automotive, telecoms, personal protection, and outdoor goods industries. With a proud heritage dating back more than 250 years and spirit of evolution to constantly stay ahead of changing market needs, Coats has operations across some 50 countries with a workforce of 17,000, serving its customers worldwide. Coats connects talent, textiles, and technology, to make a better and more sustainable world. Worldwide, there are three dedicated Coats Innovation Hubs, where experts collaborate with partners to create the materials and products of tomorrow. It participates in the UN Global Compact and is committed to Science Based sustainability targets for 2030 and beyond, with an aspiration of achieving net-zero by 2050. Coats is also committed to achieving its goals in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, workplace health & safety, employee & community wellbeing, and supplier social performance.

Cautionary statement

Certain statements in this full year report are forward-looking. Although the Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements contain risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Group Chief Executive’s review

Purpose and Strategy

Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread and footwear components company. Our purpose is to connect talent, textiles and technology to make a better and more sustainable world, with a strategy to accelerate profitable sales growth by leveraging innovation, sustainability, digital technologies and our global scale to create world class products and services, delivering value to our stakeholders.

2022 Full Year Results Overview

Introduction

We made further excellent progress in transforming the Group during the year. We purchased Texon and Rhenoflex, significantly enhancing our position in the attractive footwear market and increasing our medium-term organic growth and margin potential. The integration of those businesses is on-track with efficiency savings starting to come through at the year end, in line with plan. Our strategic projects, announced at the start of 2022, and which will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations, have been accelerated with greater in-year cost savings achieved as a result ($20 million versus the initially guided $5-$10 million). We have also now expanded the scope of these projects, with our total targeted adjusted operating profit savings by 2024 increasing to $70 million, from the previous $50 million.

In addition, we have also substantially delivered against our ambitious 2022 sustainability targets, exceeding these in some areas, with further details in the Sustainability section below. We have challenged ourselves again by setting further ambitious milestones for delivery in 2026, building on our achievements to date. The milestones will help us continue the momentum to our 2030 Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) approved targets, and our commitment to be Net Zero by 2050.

We delivered revenue of $1,584 million in the year, an increase of 16% on a constant currency basis. This increase reflects the acquisitions of Texon and Rhenoflex in the year and strong Group organic revenue growth of 10%, above our c.6% medium term target growth. This organic revenue growth reflects our outstanding trading performance in H1, which was driven by industry restocking and buffer buying in the face of supply chain disruption, and strong pricing and mix, alongside improving market demand. As anticipated, year-on-year performance slowed during the second half, in part due to the strong 2021 comparator results, as well as a softening in demand due to macroeconomic factors, with some destocking. This was most noticeable in Apparel markets in Q4 but also impacted Footwear towards the end of the year. Reported Group revenue, including adverse currency movements, grew 9%.

Apparel & Footwear delivered organic revenue growth of 9%, reflecting the demand profile across the year described above. The 2022 Texon and Rhenoflex acquisitions traded in line with our expectations. Performance Materials delivered a strong performance, growing 13% organically, with its three sub-segments all delivering good organic growth. As previously announced, and reflecting the changing shape of the Group, we will report from 1 January 2023 a revised three division structure: Apparel, Footwear and Performance Materials.

In recent years our Apparel & Footwear business has grown faster than the underlying market by taking market share. This trend has continued in the year with an organic increase in market share of over 100bps, to an estimated c.24%. We have also achieved significant customer successes in Performance Materials, as we bring new innovative products to market. Our ability to gain market share is testament to the success of our strategy, including our strong customer relationships, with a focus on growing, premium brands. This is, in part, a result of our global scale, the premium quality of our products and our ability to offer value-add technical services. Our investment in innovation across all our businesses enables us to bring new and differentiated products to market. We have a particular focus on products made from recycled or biomaterials, where we are the market leader. Our significant multi-year investment in making our operations more sustainable, an investment many of our smaller competitors cannot replicate, is a real differentiator for many of our customers, who have made their own environmental commitments. This investment is consistent with the increasing trend for consumers to buy sustainable products supported by a sustainable supply chain, and we have continued to rapidly grow our revenue from sustainable products. We are confident that we will continue to grow our market share in future.

The year was also characterised by high inflation and supply chain disruption, although this has moderated in places, as we progressed through the year. Our pricing actions and proactive self-help efficiency programmes have continued to fully offset inflationary pressures in the supply chain for raw materials, labour, energy and freight costs. In the second half, the rate of inflationary increases for raw materials and freight, stabilised or moderated, although input prices remain well ahead of the prior year and are likely to remain elevated for some time.

Despite these significant operational challenges, adjusted operating profit increased 27% on a constant currency basis to $235 million. This reflects the effectiveness of our pricing initiatives, an enhanced mix, the contribution from Texon and Rhenoflex, the initial benefits from our strategic projects as well as ongoing operating efficiencies. The Group adjusted operating margin increased by 120bps to 14.8%. Both Apparel & Footwear and Performance Materials contributed to this increase. Operating profit increased 2% to $181 million, after strategic project costs and acquisition-related items.

We generated strong adjusted free cash flow of $114 million reflecting the increased operating profit alongside well- controlled capital expenditure and working capital management. Year-end net debt (excluding lease liabilities) was $394 million, with proforma leverage of 1.4x net debt/EBITDA after our 2022 acquisitions, comfortably within our target range of 1-2x net debt/EBITDA.

We have made excellent progress in recent years to reduce and de-risk the funding deficit within the Coats UK Pension Scheme. A further significant step was achieved in December 2022, with the trustee purchasing a c.£350m bulk annuity policy from Aviva. This partly de-risks our UK defined benefit scheme by fully funding all financial and demographic risks for approximately 20% of scheme liabilities. In addition, and as a result of the significantly improved funding position and de-risking actions, we have reached agreement with the Pension Scheme Trustees on a mechanism to switch off / switch on the regular cash contributions to the Scheme. This will be based on monthly estimates of the latest funding position, and gives rise to the potential for significant free cash flow benefits from lower or eliminated cash contributions, if the Scheme remains fully funded on its technical provisions basis. On a medium term basis and when market conditions permit, we aim to remove the Scheme from the Group’s balance sheet in a cost effective manner.

Acquisition of Texon and Rhenoflex

During the year we acquired Texon International Group Limited (Texon) in July 2022 and Rhenoflex GmbH (Rhenoflex) in August 2022 for a combined consideration of $355 million. This is equivalent to a post-synergy multiple of around 8x EBITDA. As a result of these acquisitions, on a proforma full-year basis, around a quarter of our total revenue is now in higher growth footwear markets. We estimate medium term market growth of 7-8% per annum, ahead of the medium term Group target of c.6%.

Texon and Rhenoflex are leading footwear and accessories solutions providers, bringing a range of products, including heel counters, toe puffs and insoles, which complement Coats’ existing footwear threads business. Together, the three businesses are the leading, global component supplier to the highly attractive footwear market, within a fragmented supply chain. There is a strong focus in the business on fast-growth, premium-priced quality, sports and athleisure brands.

The combined business has an enhanced portfolio of highly differentiated and innovative components, which are predominantly brand specified. These include a leading portfolio of sustainable products, including recycled and plant based components, which are increasingly in demand for new and long-life footwear products. The acquisitions present exciting opportunities to cross-sell the broad range of complementary components within the business to an expanded customer base. Early conversations with customers have been encouraging, as they can benefit from our ability to supply a wider range of premium, engineered components. This would enable them to consolidate their supply chain with a longstanding and trusted supplier. The acquisitions continue to trade in line with our expectations.

The Group remains on-track to deliver an initial $11 million of annualised cost efficiencies from the integration of the combined business by the end of 2023. These efficiencies principally relate to the elimination of duplicated roles, consolidation of back-office functions and procurement efficiencies resulting from increased scale. Good progress has been made in the year, with the business now operating under a single, energised leadership team. By the end of 2022, we had already delivered run-rate cost efficiencies of $3 million.

Focusing the Portfolio on Attractive Markets

As announced in May 2022, and in line with our strategy to accelerate profitable sales growth, we completed the disposal of our business in Brazil and Argentina. We also exited direct operations in South Africa and all operations in Russia during the first half.

On 31 January 2023, we completed the divestment of our small business operations in Mauritius and Madagascar. Production in these countries has become increasingly focused on domestic and regional customers with the more international customer base gradually migrating their production elsewhere.

Strategic Projects

We have a strong track record of managing our costs lower and delivering operating efficiencies, and we continued to focus on costs during the year. To this end, we announced a number of new strategic projects in March 2022. These will improve margins by optimising the portfolio and footprint, enhance the overall cost base efficiency, and mitigate structural labour availability issues in the US.

We have accelerated project implementation, delivering in-year efficiencies in 2022 ahead of our expectations ($20 million versus the initially guided $5-$10 million). In addition, we now expect to deliver total savings of $70 million by 2024, a significant increase on the $50 million we had previously guided. The additional $20 million savings will primarily arise from expanding the scope of our strategic projects, with a focus on the transformation of our Asian operations, in particular in China and India. The total exceptional cash cost of the projects is expected to be $50 million (previously $35 million).

Optimising the portfolio and footprint and mitigating structural US labour availability issues

We have in-train a number of initiatives to further optimise our portfolio and footprint, including mitigating structural labour availability issues in the US. We have exited legacy facilities and technology in the US and established a new state- of-the-art facility in Huamantla, Mexico, while also making significant investment in our existing plant at Orizaba, Mexico. These sites are operational, following fit-out and recruitment and training of the workforce, with overall project timing on-track. In addition, we expect to commission a second new plant in Mexico by the end of the first half of 2023, which will further improve efficiency and US labour availability issues.

As part of this project, we have installed new, proprietary technology which reduces the number of manufacturing processes, while increasing our flexibility to meet customer needs. The development of a new employee-friendly and digitally controlled bonding process, underpinned by our proprietary infra-red bonding equipment, is a key enhancement to our operations. We have also installed the latest compressed air system resulting in lower energy intensity. To date, the project has enabled us to deliver increased output for key growth segments. Wherever possible, we have re-used equipment from our US plants, reducing the capital requirements of the project and reducing scrap.

Due to their timing and nature, the costs and benefits of these projects are expected to accrue predominantly during 2023 and 2024.

In addition, we have continued to consolidate our footprint in other geographies. Following the announcement of the closure of our warehouse in Poland in the first half, which was completed in August, we exited our warehouse in Hungary at the end of the year. This has enabled us to consolidate our European thread operations in Romania in a modern, purpose-built facility.

Improving the overall cost base efficiency

A further focus is on improving the overall cost base efficiency of the Group, and we commenced a project in the first half with particular emphasis on our higher cost UK and US locations. The objective is to move a number of our corporate and overhead activities closer to our operations and customers, making us at once more efficient and more effective. Following the progress delivered in the first half, we have continued to accelerate implementation of the project and have delivered total savings in 2022 of $20 million. These savings are ahead of our initial expectations of $5-10 million for the year, and ahead of our increased expectations of $15 million set out at the H1 2022 results. The project is continuing into 2023, with further savings expected in line with our original overall expectations.

Strategic Enablers: Innovation, Sustainability and Digital

Our strategic enablers of Innovation, Sustainability and Digital underpin our strategy to accelerate profitable sales growth while delivering sustainable stakeholder value. We made further progress during the year, as follows.

Innovation

We innovate to deliver differentiated, highly-engineered products that will deliver profitable growth. Our innovation is inextricably linked to sustainability, as many of the key market trends have sustainability at their core. These include the sourcing of natural and recycled materials for production, more efficient production techniques, the production of lightweight, protective and multi-use products and technologies that enhance the ability to recycle end-of-life products. Our success in bringing innovative new products to market that drive revenue and margin growth is based on a number of critical factors. These include the use of technology roadmaps, and our close relationships and collaboration with customers.

During the year we launched 17 (2021: 21) new products which delivered a combined $34 million (2021: $37 million) of incremental revenue across the Group in their first year. All of our businesses contribute to the pipeline of new and innovative products, with a few examples from across the Group:

  • EcoCycle: a ground breaking, water dissolvable concept using a blend of water based polymer and substrate. This enables the easy and low-cost separation of textile and non-textile components in end-of-life garments, facilitating re-use;
  • Eco B: a recycled polyester thread that allows synthetic plastic-based fibres to behave more like natural fibres, such as wool;
  • Rhenoprint™ multizone: a process for manufacturing structural components that generates zero waste. It allows for adjustment of the amount of material used to create a more refined product affording greater levels of comfort and stability;
  • Ecostrobe: footwear components made entirely from recycled plastic, without quality or performance loss. The fully recycled nature of the product appeals to customers, as it facilitates end-of-life material re-use;
  • StremX: a composite strength member for fibre optic cables made of a mix of organic and inorganic fibres. The product enables production of lighter, thinner cables as a result of greater tensile strength and crimping characteristics. It is also very cost-effective to manufacture;
  • FlamePro Splash Protect: a metal molten splash protective fabric engineered to be lightweight, soft, flexible and durable. It ensures protection against radian heat, flame, metal splash and other smelting hazards due to its thermal resistant and metal-shedding design. FlamePro Splash Protect is durable after laundry with good wash fastness, so extending the life of the garment.

During the year, Performance Materials opened a new and significantly larger plant in Spain for the manufacture of products for the global telecommunications industry. The plant has a new innovation centre specialising in the development of products for applications in telecommunications and oil and gas markets.

Our new product pipeline remains strong. We will continue to develop our innovation credentials to deliver sustainable, tailored solutions in line with customer requirements.

Sustainability

A key part of our company purpose is to make a better and more sustainable world, and we aim to set benchmark performance for our industry. Not only does this help people and the planet, it also makes good business sense. It enables us to differentiate our offerings and position ourselves to be a supplier of choice in the rapidly growing market for sustainable apparel and footwear products. In addition, by using less resources, including less energy and water, we are aligned with broader sustainability trends but also reducing our costs.

We are continuing towards our long-term commitment of being Net Zero by 2050, initially by following a pathway to our 2030 SBTi goals. As part of these SBTi goals, we will reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by over 46% by 2030 (with scope 3 reduced by 33%), with 70% of our global energy consumption coming from renewables. In addition, no Coats products will be made using new oil-extraction materials such as virgin polyester and nylon. We will also adopt a circularity approach, creating products and packaging solutions that enable recycling and reuse, within our own operations and across the wider garment industry.

Our shorter term 2022 targets were set in 2019. These were set at ambitious levels to challenge us to address at speed the key sustainability issues within the business. We are proud of what we have achieved during the period to the end of 2022, substantially delivering against our goals, and we have met or exceeded the targets for many. In particular, our energy intensity has been reduced from the 2018 baseline, achieving 143% of the 7% target. Our target of 80% of employees working within a Great Place to Work certification has also been exceeded, achieving 108% of the target. We also achieved our 25% waste reduction target.

We have delivered significant improvement in all areas although, in a few cases, we fell just short of our targets. We targeted a 40% reduction in water intensity and achieved 95% of the target. We are also just short of our target of 100% compliance with industry driven Zero Discharge of Harmful Chemicals (ZDHC) effluent standards, delivering a significantly improved 92% ZDHC compliance performance in the year. We have put in place detailed plans to remedy the remaining issues, which arose at a small number of plants.

We continued to rapidly increase sales of our range of 100% recycled products, driven by market demand, where we are the clear global market leader. Our revenue increased in the year by 37% to $127 million (2021: $93 million) at CER. We remain focused on ensuring all our premium polyester threads are made from 100% recycled material by 2024, and we are making good progress towards this.

We have now set further medium-term sustainability milestones, using 2022 as the new baseline. This will enable us to continue on the path to our 2030 SBTi approved targets and our 2050 Net Zero commitment. These specific, measurable and, once again, ambitious 2026 targets continue to focus on people, water, emissions and waste reduction, as well as product innovation and materials transition. We have added two new 2026 target areas. These relate to an increase in the number of female leaders in the business as well as to reductions in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. These 2026 targets will enable us to continue to drive our sustainability momentum.

We had previously earmarked $10 million to fund the scaling up of green technologies and materials that are relevant to our industry supply chain. During the year, we allocated our first tranche of this money to investment in water-free dyeing technology, with other exciting ideas under consideration. The re-purposing of our Asia Innovation Hub in Shenzhen, China to focus on the application of biomaterials has now been completed, following investment in top talent in a range of technologies, including textile engineering, polymer chemistry and dyeing, coating and bonding.

We also submitted our Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate Change and Water questionnaire during the year, receiving a B- and B rating respectively, reflecting our 2021 performance. We aim to improve on this in future surveys.

Digital

By adopting and promoting digital technologies we are able to facilitate closer links with our customers, increase our operational agility and the efficiency of our operations and those of our customers.

During the year, we enhanced our digital customer ecosystem, ShopCoats, through which customers can use automated bulk and sample ordering and status management. We supported valuable key accounts through system integration, refreshed our front-end order system and used Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software to enhance our sales and customer service systems. These tools give us speed, agility, lower cost and increased customer satisfaction.

In addition, our Coats Digital business, part of Apparel & Footwear, sells software which enables fashion brands, sourcing companies and manufacturers to optimise, connect and accelerate business critical processes seamlessly. This includes design and development, method-time-cost optimisation, production planning and control, fabric optimisation and shop floor execution. Orders for this software have increased during the year, reflecting the growing importance of digital business in driving efficiency and business improvement.

As part of the Rhenoflex acquisition in 2022, we acquired the proprietary Rhenoprint™ 3D printing capability. This unique process for developing and producing footwear components provides leading brands a print-to-order solution, according to individual needs. The process facilitates enhanced shoe performance and characteristics, while delivering product as part of a completely waste-free process.

Dividend

We have delivered a strong set of results in the year and, as a result of our ongoing transformation, we are well-positioned in our markets with growth and margin opportunities. Consequently, the Board is pleased to propose a final dividend of 1.73 cents per share, a 15% increase on the prior year. Subject to approval at the forthcoming AGM, the final dividend will be paid on 25 May 2023 to ordinary shareholders on the register at 28 April 2023, with an ex-dividend date of 27 April 2023. Alongside the interim dividend of 0.70 cents per share, this makes a total dividend of 2.43 cents per share for the year, an increase of 15%.

The Board will continue to review the level of dividend payment to shareholders, as we continue to deliver margin and earnings growth, alongside strong cash generation.

Full Year Outlook in Line with the Board’s Expectations

Following a year of excellent progress in transforming the business, market share gains and increased profitability, we expect to deliver another year of strategic and operational progress. Destocking by customers has continued into the early part of the year, primarily in Apparel markets and to a lesser extent in Footwear markets, however we continue to proactively respond to the macroeconomic environment and inflationary pressures using our well-defined and tested playbook that focuses on cash, costs, self-help initiatives, deep customer relationships and tactical pricing actions.

As a result, we continue to anticipate that full year 2023 performance will be in line with the Board’s expectations, with a weighting to the second half. This performance will be underpinned by the contribution from acquisitions, in addition to associated synergies and efficiencies from strategic projects.

Coats has global leadership, a wide geographic footprint, scale, product and quality differentiation and a pipeline of innovative and sustainable products. This will enable revenue growth ahead of market. Looking further ahead, as a result of the transformational work completed to date, we remain well-positioned to grow earnings and cash.

ENDS