Kerry Group plc (KRZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Kerry Group Interim Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. William Lynch, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Kerry's Interim 2021 Results Call. I'm joined on the call by our CEO, Edmond Scanlon; and our CFO, Marguerite Larkin. Edmond and Marguerite will take you through today's presentation. And following this, we will then open the lines for your questions. Before we begin, please note the usual disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements. I will now hand over to Edmond.

Thanks, William. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. So beginning with Slide 4 and my overview comments. The first point I'd make is that we are pleased with the overall performance through the first half of the year from a number of different perspectives. And while recognizing we have had lower comparatives in Q2 2020, the 18% volume growth we delivered in Taste & Nutrition in the second quarter came in ahead of our expectations. From a geographical perspective, the Americas had good overall volume growth. Europe delivered an excellent relative performance and growth in APMEA remained strong despite challenging conditions in some local markets. And then looking at it from a channel perspective, we had very strong growth in the first half of the year. In retail, which accounts for 3/4 of the Taste & Nutrition business, we had continued strong volume growth of 5.4%, supported by an increased level of local innovation, particularly in snacks, beverage and dairy end-use markets. And in foodservice, as you know, the channel was significantly impacted last year. We had good progression and continued underlying improvements in the period with an overall volume growth figure of 25%. This increased activity was supported by further reopenings and an uptick in innovation with our customers in many regions through the second quarter. We also had a number of important strategic developments in the half as we continue to evolve our portfolio. We're very excited about the strategic acquisitions of Niacet, National, Biosearch and Natreon for a combined consideration of over EUR 1 billion. These acquisitions are aligned to 2 key growth areas we've been focusing on in recent years. Firstly is the area of food protection and preservation where we have a strong leadership position. And secondly is the area of proactive health, where we've built up a unique technology portfolio and capability set that we believe we can leverage better than anyone else. We've included a couple of slides later on, which will give you a little bit more color on each of these acquisitions and how they fit into our overall broader strategy in these areas. We also announced last month that we had reached agreement with Pilgrim's for the sale of our Consumer Foods' Meats and Meals business for a cash consideration of EUR 819 million, and this is expected to close at the beginning of the fourth quarter. While the Consumer Foods' Meats and Meals business has played an important role in our history, this deal serves to further enhance Kerry's focus as a leading B2B ingredient solutions provider for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets. We believe that Pilgrim's will make a great future owner of this business, and I'd like to thank the 4,500 employees for their contribution to Kerry's success over the years. Now moving on to Slide 5 and the Taste & Nutrition overview. Reported revenue for Taste & Nutrition was EUR 2.9 billion, with overall volume growth of 9.8% being the main driver, partially offset by FX. Trading margins of 12.4% in the period were up 80 basis points, which Marguerite will take you through shortly. Retail delivered a strong performance through the first half of the year, with beverage, in particular, achieving excellent growth through innovations and launches with Kerry's functional nutrition portfolio, taste systems, natural extracts and our radical plant-based range. Foodservice volumes were up significantly due to a mix of lower Q2 comps and good underlying growth, and volumes in developing markets increased by over 15% with double-digit growth in all 3 regions. Now moving to Slide 6 and our regional performance within Taste & Nutrition. And I will spend some more time on this page than usual because I believe it's useful. Starting first with the Americas region. With a reported revenue of EUR 1.5 billion, which represented an overall volume increase of 8.1% with growth of 17% in Q2. Performance in North America retail was led by the beverage, snacks and bakery end use markets. And in foodservice, we saw continued recovery in H1, where we work with our customers as they began to expand their menu offerings and also introduce LTOs. We also supported customers in the foodservice channel in helping them to manage labor shortages and wage inflation pressures with innovations that help to reduce complexity in back-of-house operations. On our new facility in Rome, Georgia, we continued to make progress through the period, though we did incur some holdups in commissioning due to delays in shipment of manufacturing equipment from Europe. Overall, we're on track to be fully operational in Rome before the end of the year, and this will be a key enabler for future growth in North America. Then moving on to LatAm. Brazil achieved strong growth, particularly in beverage and ice cream, while Mexico performed well, led by snacks. And we also opened a new taste facility in Irapuato, Mexico, which will allow us to expand our offering and serve a number of markets across the region. Now moving on to Europe. We reported revenue of EUR 722 million with overall business volumes up by 10.7% in the half year and 25% in Q2, recognizing that this region was the most impacted by restrictions in the second quarter of last year. Overall performance in the retail channel was particularly strong in the second quarter with very good growth across a number of end-use markets. Meat had excellent growth through launches using our natural preservation and plant-based portfolios. Dairy was strong, particularly in ice cream, and snacks also performed well through new savory taste solutions. In the foodservice channel, we saw a significant improvement in performance with the easing of restrictions in many regions through the second quarter, most notably in the U.K., Southern Eastern Europe. And Russia, in particular, continued to deliver excellent growth, both across retail and foodservice channels led by snacks and meat. Moving on to the APMEA region. We reported revenue of EUR 646 million, representing overall volume growth of 14% in the half and 16% in the second quarter, with varying local market conditions as you look across the region. We had a strong overall growth in the retail channel, led by excellent growth in the beverage end use market across tea, coffee and refreshing beverage. And dairy delivered strong growth through a number of launches with regional leaders, while meat performed very well with an increased demand for local authentic taste offerings. In foodservice, we delivered overall good growth, primarily led by beverage and meals. And looking across the region from a geographic perspective, China, the Middle East and Australia all performed well in the first half of the year while Southeast Asia and Japan were more challenged with the reintroduction of restrictions there and indeed in many other areas in recent weeks and months. And finally, we made good progress in the period on the development of our new taste facility in Durban, and we also announced the construction of a new taste facility in Indonesia which will cater for a wide range of technologies and is expected to be operational by the end of 2022. Finally, turning to Slide 7 and the Consumer Foods division. Reported revenue was EUR 674 million, with volume growth of 4.6% in the period. This represented a strong Q2 performance. Recognizing the second quarter of last year was impacted by restrictions. Trading margins in the division increased by 20 basis points to 7.2%, primarily due to operating leverage. And finally, we had really strong growth in meat-free categories with the launch of plant-based bacon, adding to the award-winning plant-based sausage ranges under both the Richmond and Denny's brands. So with that, I'll hand you over to Marguerite to give you some more detail on the financial performance.

Thanks, Edmond, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you through our financial performance in the period in some more detail. Overall, we are pleased with our financial performance, which continued its positive trajectory despite what remains a highly variable marketplace. Beginning on Slide 9 and our financial overview. Reported revenue increased to EUR 3.6 billion in the period with the primary driver being volume growth of 9%. Trading profit of EUR 357 million represented reported growth of 13% or 70 basis points margin expansion. Adjusted earnings per share of EUR 1.52 was up 24% in constant currency terms and 15% on a reported basis given the significant currency headwind in the first half of the year. Return on capital employed of 10% was up 20 basis points on year-end levels, and we generated EUR 222 million of cash in the period, representing 83% cash conversion. Turning to Slide 10 and the breakdown of revenue components. Overall, group reported revenue increased by 4.9% in the period, comprising a number of elements. Volume growth of 9% represented a combination of good business momentum and the impact of lower prior year comparatives. Pricing of 0.5% in the period reflected the impact of increased input costs. Transaction currency had an adverse impact of 0.1% and translation currency was adverse 5.4% of revenue in the period, driven primarily by currencies in the Americas. Acquisitions contributed revenue growth of 0.9% in the first 6 months of 2021, reflecting the performance of acquisitions completed last year, namely Jining Nature, Bio-K and TecniSpice. And finally, on acquisitions, I'd like to update you on the expected revenue contribution in the year as we are conscious that there are a number of moving parts. We previously gave our estimated full year 2021 revenue impact of the 3 acquisitions completed in 2020 of circa EUR 50 million. And for the 4 acquisitions in 2021 announced to date, we are expecting EUR 70 million of incremental revenue, clearly dependent on the timing and completion of Niacet and Natreon. Moving to Slide 11 and the breakdown of revenue volume performance. On the left-hand side is overall group revenue by business. And on the right-hand side is Taste & Nutrition's quarterly volume performance by channel across the year. In the retail channel, which amounts to circa 75% of revenue, we have seen continued strength with performance above historical levels. And within the foodservice channel, you can see from the trends line, we were significantly impacted by restrictions last year. We continue to outperform the market. And the 82% growth figure in Q2 represents a combination of the impact of prior year comparatives and continued underlying improvement. And now to our group trading margin bridge. Overall, group profit was EUR 357 million, with trading margins up 70 basis points in the period. Looking at the main drivers. Firstly and most notably, we had an improvement of 100 basis points, driven principally by operating leverage, given the improvement in business volumes versus the prior year, particularly in the foodservice channel in the first half of 2020. We continued to incur COVID-related costs through the year as we anticipated having a neutral effect on margins year-on-year. Pricing had very little effect on margins in the period though we are expecting a slight dilution in the full year given the raw material price inflation and the resulting denominator effect. KerryExcel was a net 10 basis points dilution as we continue to deliver efficiencies in operations with an overall net outlay in the period, primarily related to investment to drive growth in strategic growth priority areas. FX was adverse 20 basis points due to the translation currency headwinds I mentioned earlier, and the contribution from acquisitions was neutral from a margin perspective in the period. So overall, a good performance with a net 70 basis points improvement. Moving next to free cash flow on Slide 13. Overall, in the period, we generated free cash flow of EUR 222 million, with cash conversion on the earnings of 83%. Trading profit was up EUR 41 million in the period, as I've just outlined. Depreciation was in line with the prior year. And average working capital was a net investment of EUR 27 million due to revenue growth and similar to the prior year on a days basis. And net capital expenditure was EUR 149 million, driven principally by the strategic investments in the capital projects that Edmond referred to earlier. Moving to our debt profile and credit metrics on Slide 14. Net debt of EUR 2 billion in the period was slightly up from the year-end. But as you can see in the chart, we have a strong maturity profile and the weighted average maturity of circa 5 years. Credit metrics at the end of the period were strong with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.9x, which will remain at a similar level post the recent transactions announced. So overall, we continue to have a very strong balance sheet, which will continue to support our strategic growth initiative. I will cover off a number of other financial matters on Slide 15. On Kerryconnect, we continued our program of mainly virtual deployment through the period in North America. And we have moved a number of scheduled facility deployments to later in the year and the first half of 2022 to ensure the most optimal transition given the current environment. Finance costs decreased by EUR 3 million, primarily due to lower interest rates. On nontrading items, we had a net charge of EUR 20 million primarily due to our previously announced plans to evolve and expand the scope of Kerry's global business services. We have proposed an interim dividend of EUR 0.285 per share, which represents a 10% growth rate. On raw materials, we continue to see input cost inflation in many categories, which we are managing through our pricing model, with an expected outlook of low single-digit inflation for the full year. And on currency, we expect a translation headwind of 2% to 3% on adjusted earnings per share for the full year based on current exchange rates. And finally, to summarize before I hand over to Edmond, I'm pleased to say we delivered a strong overall financial performance in the period, particularly given the current volatility in the marketplace. So with that, back to Edmond for the outlook and future prospects.

Thanks, Marguerite. Before we move to the guidance, I'd just like to give you some color on each of the acquisitions, how they fit within Kerry's broader strategies and how our integrated approach to bringing new businesses onto the Kerry platform really sets us apart and best positions us in our industry to create significant value for all stakeholders. So turning to Slide 17 to profile each of the strategic acquisitions. Firstly, and by far, the largest deal in terms of size is Niacet. I won't spend too much time taking you through this today as we had already a dedicated call a few weeks ago, which is available on our website. But just at a high level, Niacet is a leader in food protection and preservation technologies, particularly for the meat and bakery end-use markets. It's also a strong player in the pharma market. It's a fantastic complement with Kerry's existing clean label offering. And we see significant revenue synergies in this fast-growing market. Our industry has really stepped up its efforts to reduce food waste. And this acquisition positions us really strongly in the space. National Vinegar Company is a bolt-on acquisition, which supports our growth plans in natural preservation and fits in very nicely with our vinegar antimicrobial food protection platform that we've built up. Biosearch Life is a leader in the nutraceutical and functional nutrition sectors within an extensive portfolio of science-backed technologies, spanning probiotics, botanical extracts and Omega 3 oils. This significantly increases Kerry's capabilities in addressing a number of consumer need states, with very strong capabilities in the areas of women's health, in particular. Biosearch is a great example of the business with huge potential for Kerry to leverage into new applications, new geographies and new channels. Natreon brings leading capability in Ayurvedic herbal and botanical extracts with a portfolio of clinically backed branded ingredients and supplies a range of blue-chip North American customers. It primarily addresses 2 major need states. The first is cognition, with stress and sleep being 2 areas that have seen significant increase in demand as a result of COVID-19. And the second is healthy aging. And in particular, the areas of heart and joint health where we've been doing a lot of work in recent years. And again, this expands our penetration into the health care channel and is another business where we see great potential to leverage into new areas. Moving on and what Slide 18 outlines is how these acquisitions fit within Kerry strategies. We've systematically developed a broad range of technology platforms through a variety of different means over the past 20 years. And the 2 areas here on this slide provide great examples of how we've made step changes in recent years. In food protection preservation where the industry drive for sustainability is accelerating demand, we have a breadth of capability and the depth of science across our portfolio. And this includes a range of functional vinegar antimicrobials from Fleischmann's and now add it with National; our bioprotective plant extracts; our significant investment in global fermentation expertise, most notably in our center in Rochester; and now Niacet will expand Kerry's position into conventional preservation. Right across multiple end-use markets, we have a range of Kerry technologies to meet each of their specific food protection and preservation needs. In the area of proactive health, we've seen an acceleration in demand due to COVID-19 as consumers actively seek our products to meet their specific health and wellness needs. And we've built up a leading capability across life stages and need states with our Wellmune technology, our range of probiotics, our hydrolyzed proteins, enzymes, Omega 3s and our natural extracts. While acquisitions have played an important role in broadening our capabilities and market reach, we've also built our strength in these areas by entering a number of strategic partnerships and by continued investment in innovation in these spaces. We've also published a range of clinical efficacy studies covering areas such as reducing respiratory tract issues for children and increasing protein absorption for the elderly. And finally, we've recently developed a unique liquid delivery system for spore-forming probiotics, which enables efficient use in applications or using dry powder as a challenge. This innovation is currently being commercialized and was made possible through Kerry's extensive development and applications expertise, our industry partnerships and our collaborative customer relationships. So in summary, at Kerry, we have a systematic multistep approach to evolving our portfolio to ensure we're best positioned to meet industry and consumer demands. Our integrated approach to acquisitions continues to generate significant value for all stakeholders, and this is a key strength of our business. So now moving to future prospects on Slide 19. Within Taste & Nutrition, we see strong growth prospects in the retail channel with continued recovery in foodservice, underpinned by a very good innovation pipeline and strong customer engagement. We will continue to invest for growth and pursue M&A opportunities. And while we're very clear that varying levels of uncertainty will continue in many regions through the rest of the year, we remain confident in our outlook where we expect to deliver strong volume growth, and our full year earnings guidance before portfolio impacts has been updated to 12% to 15% growth in constant currency. And when we include the estimated net 2% impact from the 2 portfolio developments, assuming they close as expected, this would result in a range of 10% to 13% EPS growth in constant currency. And finally, before we hand it back to the operator for your questions, I'd just like to give you a heads up that we will be hosting a virtual Investor Day on October 13. William and the IR team will be in touch with the details in due course, but we just wanted to give you some notice for your calendars. With that, I thank you for your time, and we look forward to taking your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Graham Hunt from Morgan Stanley.

Maybe I'll just start with two on growth and opportunity. One, the first one on retail. Another very strong quarter in terms of retail growth on a quite difficult comp. What are you seeing there in terms of how you see the rest of the year unfolding? And sort of what the sustainable growth rate in retail is now going forward? Is it that we're just sort of on a faster-growing base and you're seeing that sustainably higher? Or are we still -- is there still some kind of one-off effects in there because of COVID? Just if you could provide some color there, that would be helpful. And then second question, actually, just on the new facility in Indonesia. I'd be interested to understand a bit more around what drove that investment decision, how big that region is at a minute for Asia and what Kerry sees sort of in terms of the biggest opportunities in that region going forward, specifically on Indonesia.

Thanks, Graham, and I'll take those 2 questions. Firstly, on retail, I would say, like you said, their overall retail volumes grew quite well in the period, 5% in first half and circa 5% in the second quarter as well, with growth in the Americas and Europe pretty much in the 4% zone for the first half, while APMEA was more double digit. But what I would say going forward, though, is that we will outperform, let's say, our historic growth rate of 3%, but I wouldn't be flagging a go-forward growth rate of -- at the current levels. So I think it will be more in the 4% zone going forward rather than the 5% that we've seen in recent quarters. In terms of your question on Indonesia, look, we did a deep dive on the Southeast Asia market. It's almost 3 years ago now in Singapore, with -- at an Investor Day. And we brought to life there our, I suppose, track record in that region in terms of growth. And it's a growth -- it's a region pre-COVID that we've achieved in the zone of 10% organic volume growth over many, many years. So it's a decision we made quite some time ago to invest in Indonesia. It's the third largest market for us in the region. And we see a lot of potential there for the long term. Right now, there certainly is some challenges in the region. There are some challenges in Indonesia. Southeast Asia as a subregion within APMEA was certainly challenged and challenged through the second quarter. And we see that continuing into the third quarter, very much in line with what we've seen from a COVID step-back perspective and the lower rate of vaccinations in the region. But long term -- medium term, long term, we would be very positive in Indonesia and positive on Southeast Asia for the medium term and long term.

Our next question is from the line of Patrick Higgins from Goodbody.

Just a couple of questions for me. Firstly, just on the T&N business and within the foodservice channel, in particular. How does the Q2 performance compare, I guess, to the equivalent 2019 levels? I'm interested just to hear some of the building blocks underplaying in that growth. So I guess, how much is underlying recovery versus, say, innovations? Or is there an element of restocking in that number, too? And then my second question is just around innovation. I think the last time you updated us, you mentioned there was a lot of innovation times at some stage during H2, sorry, but difficult to pinpoint the timing on that given the lack of visibility due to COVID. Just interested to know, I guess, how visibility is around that for the rest of the year and how the pipeline of innovation in general looks into H2.

Sure. Patrick, maybe firstly on the foodservice one. I wouldn't necessarily call out any, let's say, restocking at this stage. Frankly, I think that has kind of evened itself out over the weeks and months of the first half. Look, overall, obviously, we're very pleased with the improvement in performance. But on a 2-year view, it might be useful just to share that at an overall level now on foodservice, we were trading at just over 90% of 2019 levels. And we've shared with you the performance there by quarter in the presentation. We do see operators in the foodservice channel, operating their menus through cleaner labels, improved nutrition, plant-based items. And we've seen a step change, frankly, in working on solutions with customers to help them to reduce complexity at back of house. And that's due to the, let's say, the labor issues, especially in North America, that many of our customers are experiencing. Maybe just in terms of outlook on the foodservice channel, I would say that we're not flagging right now that we will be back to 2019 levels in this year. We do see further improvement. But right now, we're not expecting to be back at 2019 levels and in 2021, yes. In terms of innovation, maybe just to zone in on one end use market because you're absolutely right. I've talked quite a bit about, let's say, the innovation pipeline over the last 6, 12 months. And for us, it's really manifesting itself in the beverage end use market. And you've heard there in the presentation that we've had an excellent performance in beverage pretty much globally, achieving double-digit growth in that end use market. And I'd call out 3 areas in particular that is driving that performance and from an innovation perspective. Firstly, on sugar reduction and clean label preservation. And there continues to be an evolution in the category from carbonated beverage to noncarbonated, more healthier, let's say, refreshing beverages. And this is happening in both retail and foodservice, but primarily so on retail. So our taste sense -- or taste modulation capability really is a winner for us there. The second call out I would make is in the whole coffee space. We've built a really strong capability, particularly in North America around coffee extracts, coffee flavors and general coffee taste. And this would be a particular call out in the foodservice channel where many of our customers have been leveraging our capabilities to replace conventional coffee making in the back of stores. So this goes back to the presentation in terms of bringing more simplicity to operators in their back-of-house operations. And not only that, but it's -- our coffee extract capabilities is also bringing significant waste reduction also for the operator. And the third area that I've mentioned at the last -- at the Q1 results is the formulated functional beverage. It's probably with the most significant driver of growth in the beverage end use market for us from an innovation perspective. And it's all about bringing real, identifiable, approvable functional benefits to the beverage category. And our proactive health portfolio, like I've touched there on the presentation, is a major winner for us in driving innovation to that category as well.

The next question is from the line of Mr. James Targett from Berenberg.

A couple of questions. Firstly, just on your guidance for the full year. So if I just look at the guidance pre the transactions and the 12% to 15%. I think Q2 was probably -- it seems like it was ahead of expectations. So I just wondered sort of why you haven't -- there hasn't been more of an increase in the guidance pre transactions for the full year. And if there is -- if you're baking in caution for the second half, is that more down to sort of top line uncertainties or whether there's anything in the margin you're more cautious about for the second half of the year? And then my second question is on free cash flow. It's obviously good to see it back over 80% in the first half. The conversion story I just wondered if that's where we should expect it to be for the full year as well.

James, and I might take both of those questions. So firstly, on the guidance and maybe first to give you some context as we look at guidance. And when we guide for the year, we obviously look at a number of scenarios. And really, this is the basis of how we arrive at the overall guidance range. So there's a couple of items that we factor -- that we have factored into the guidance. Clearly, there continues to be a lot of ongoing variability by geography. However, as you say, we've had a good first half performance and where we are today. Firstly, from a volume perspective, we would expect volume growth in Taste & Nutrition to be in the mid- to high single-digit zone for the full year. And as you can see, we have increased the bottom end of our guidance range. And this is due to our continued confidence around the overall volume outlook for the year. Having said that, though, we have seen a heightened level of volatility and variability across our markets. And the reality is one can see that in parts of the APMEA region in Southeast Asia and in other regions also playing out before us. The final component of the guidance just in relation to margins, we expect margins to be stronger than 2020 and group margins to be up in the zone of circa 50 basis points year-on-year. And as you mentioned before, the impact of portfolio changes, and we estimate the margin impact of portfolio changes to be circa 10 basis points favorable for the current year. So as you can see, there's a number of component parts to setting our guidance and we factored all of those in relation to the pre and post portfolio impacts that we've communicated. So then on cash, your second question. In terms of the outlook for the year, we are looking at a significant improvement year-on-year with cash conversion in the zone of 80% for the full year. The cash conversion of 80% includes the portfolio developments, which, as we communicated, are slightly dilutive to cash conversion.

The next question is from the line of Heidi Vesterinen from Exane BNP Paribas.

A few, please. Do you see any regions or channels where inflation is impacting consumer demand, perhaps in the emerging market? And on the back of that inflation question, do you see incremental price pressure from customers. We've seen that many of them have been mourning on margins in the recent result season? And then lastly, perhaps you talked about it at Investor Day in October, is there anything that you could tell us about that? What is the purpose of the event?

Heidi, thanks for the questions. I would say, in terms of inflation first, I wouldn't make any major call out right now in terms of inflation having an impact in demand. It's obviously something we're going to be keeping a very close eye on. It's -- we have -- when we look at these markets and we evaluate what our capabilities are on the level of our business is at from a premium level, let's say, a mid-range level and a value level, we feel that we're, I would say, today fairly well covered in terms of customers being able to trade up and trade down in developing markets. But nonetheless, it's something we're going to be keeping a close eye on, but I wouldn't call out anything right now of note. In terms of pricing pressure coming back from customers. Frankly, it's been fairly quiet in that respect. Clearly, there has been some supply chain challenges that we've been experiencing and our customers have been experiencing with labor availability, with transport availability. And frankly, we see most of our customers more focused on, let's say, having a very smooth supply chain right now than pushing back on their suppliers or partners on pricing. In terms of the Investor Day, what I would say is that, look, we have kicked off a strategy refresh process earlier this year where we've initiated a full bottom-up process globally. As you're aware, we've made a number of significant changes in our portfolio recently. And it would have been 3 years since we've had -- or almost 3 years since we've had an Investor Day. And we normally get excellent feedback on those sessions, and it's a great way to -- for investors to get under the hood. So look, we've kicked off that bottom-up exercise as part of our strategic planning process. We'll see the outcome of that process in due course, and take you through that outcome on the Investor Day. I'm not flagging any change on -- to the Kerry algorithm. We will continue to be a growth-led organization. We continue to see margin expansion opportunities ahead of us, and we'll continue to deliver good cash conversion. So more to come on the Investor Day.

Our next question is from the line of Alex Sloane from Barclays.

Just a couple of questions from me. Just firstly, going back to the retail growth outlook in Taste & Nutrition and the view that maybe 4% can be sustainable from the historic 3% growth zone. That step-up in view, is it fair to assume that's mostly coming from Kerry's innovation capability and innovation pipeline rather than necessarily a stepped-up view on the end market growth outlook there? That would be the first one. And then just secondly, on free cash flow. Good to see the improvement there in the first half and commitment for the full year 2021. Thinking about 2022 and beyond, I just wondered if there's scope for further sustainable improvement in working capital, particularly as the Kerryconnect deployment complete, be interested in your view there.

I might just take the cash flow comment question first, Alex, before handing over to Edmond. I mean, part of our overall strategy is to continue to deliver strong cash conversion. And so clearly, that will continue to be an area of focus for us over the years. It's just probably too early to give any further insights. You'll have heard from some of my comments that while we're making excellent progress in Kerryconnect given the current environment, we have deferred a number of the deployments into the first half of 2022, recognizing the environment -- the COVID environment in North America. So I think perhaps best that we update on our outlook for '22 closer to the year-end.

And in terms of the retail dynamics, Alex, I'll take that question. Maybe a few call outs. First and foremost, I already touched on beverage innovation as an example, and what's happening there. The other area I would call out in terms of innovation, in terms of, let's say, our confidence level in terms of, let's say, the new level of growth in retail would be what's happening in plant-based. And it's continued to perform well for us. But what I would share is that rather than pulling out plant-based as a stand-alone market in itself, we have reorganized the teams and embedded and integrated our plant-based capabilities back into each individual end-use market group. So our plant-based teams now are -- say, our plant-based meat team is embedded and integrated into our meat team, dairy for dairy, snack for snack, meals for meals, et cetera. And our customers are looking for support on plant-based innovative solutions right across end-use markets, geographies, channels. So for us, plant-based has reached a tipping point, where it is, let's say, effectively mainstream at this stage. So we believe that's the right evolution of how we should be managing that opportunity. Beyond that, I mean, we've seen, I suppose -- and we've touched on this previously, an increase in emerging brand innovation, especially in North America. And retailers are still very open to giving space to innovative new ideas, that's been positive for beverage and snacking end-use markets. We're also seeing more localized innovation. We believe we're well positioned there as well. And we're also seeing this concept of low risk rapid innovation as well, where our customers are innovating super quick and getting products out into the market really fast to try and test the market, and then tweak as necessary. It's probably more of a local and regional, I would say, customer type activity right now, but it's something we feel is going to be -- continue to be part of, let's say, the tactics of our customers. So for us, there are maybe 4 or 5 different things that are giving us confidence about that new level of growth, and we feel we'll be able to sustain that into the future.

Our next question is from Faham Baig from Crédit Suisse.

Two for myself as well. Firstly, just housekeeping. Could you give us a full year expectation for your non-trading items? And what part of that will be cash? And the second one, more broader and just on the notion of integrated solutions. Now it's been about 3 to 4 years when competition -- where your competitors have really stepped up their view and their sort of intro into integrated solutions, and there have been combinations from -- within your competitive base as well. How has that impacted the marketplace over the years and more recently? And are you seeing increased competition in integrated solutions, in the marketplace that could be impacting your share growth potential?

So Faham, maybe I'll just take the NTI question first. As you know, we'll have restructuring costs associated with our Kerry Global Business Services of circa EUR 35 million to EUR 40 million net. And we will have acquisition integration costs reflecting the M&A activity that we've financed to date and also in relation to the past acquisitions in FY '20 in the zone of EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million. Having said that, as you know, there will also be a significant profit on disposals, which we're working through finalization in terms of currency and working capital adjustments. There's a number of moving parts just as we look at the integration of the M&A, so probably a little early to give an indication on the specific between cash and cash though we will have a significant element of noncash in the NTI as well as the cash component.

In terms of integrated solutions, I think what we've seen, Faham, is really many of our peers adding to their portfolio. So adding new technologies into their portfolio, toolbox. In terms of, let's say, those peers turning up with customers with a coherent integrated solution plan, that's something we haven't seen right now. We're not seeing it back from our customers or we're not getting it back from our own people. So for us right now, we feel that we still lead the pack by quite some distance. And I think it's really manifesting itself in foodservice, where even through the crisis of the last 12 months and the real, I suppose, low point 12 months ago. I think in that period, our relationships and our engagements with foodservice operators have grown. And I think our integrated solutions capability and way of working and approach has even been a bigger dynamic for those customers as they've been trying to build back their business and now most recently, actually, figure out ways of reducing complexity in the back of house. So that really goes to our integrated solutions capability. And from what we can see in the market right now, while peers have added to their portfolios, we haven't seen any elevated level of competition in that part of our business.

Our next question is from Lauren Molyneux from Citi.

I just had a couple. So on foodservice, I was wondering if you could give us any more detail around how your customer mix look for foodservice and maybe how that's changed over the last 12 months and over COVID. So for instance, I think you've talked previously about quick service retailers, independent operators and convenience customers. And then maybe some of the trends that you may be seeing across those different customers. And then my second question would be around whether you're seeing any shift because of the -- obviously, all the raw material inflation that's going to be coming through in the second half of the year. Are you seeing any shift in demand by your customers towards maybe reformulating products and taking cost out in order to kind of offset some of those cost headwinds rather than actual kind of product innovation? And then anything you can say about trends around that or difference in margins there.

William, I might ask you to just maybe touch on the foodservice breakdown?

Yes. I mean the -- what we saw as we moved to last year was clearly there was momentum with the larger players. And that, that was the key catalyst to the innovation pipeline that have been referenced to earlier, in particular in places like beverage and places like plant. So clearly, as we've come into this year, the momentum has definitely been more orientated towards the larger operators. And that has played out with obviously facilities that have been more oriented for non-dining occasions. So it did help probably in particular areas like quick service restaurants, let's call it, sub-channel within the foodservice channel. As things have opened up and as we've moved through the first half, and we are seeing more independent operators and we are seeing those coming more to the party, we are seeing more of an element of a rebalance within that equation. But overall, it's definitely the larger operators that are more on the front foot, but we are seeing, let's call it, more of an element of a rebalance as we move through the year.

Lauren, in terms of the second part of your question, maybe first and foremost, just to dimensionalize it from a geographic perspective, is that what we're seeing right now is primarily a North America dynamic. And that could easily cross into Europe. But right now, it's primarily a North America dynamic where, frankly, they're -- in many instances, there's just not enough labor to actually run, let's say, maybe to allow operators to run for the length of opening that they actually want in a day. So we're seeing some of our customers on the foodservice side make decisions. Okay, we're going to open for breakfast or lunch or we're just going to open for lunch or dinner. We only have 1 crew, and we're going to have to make some decisions around day parts. So it's more actually from what we can see, not necessarily about taking cost out of operations in terms of reducing the cost of an ingredient or a product or something like that, it's actually more around, let's say, simplifying operations where less labor is needed. And of course, that -- ultimately, that will have a cost benefit. It's offset nonetheless by maybe a higher wages that are going to find their way into that channel over time and are starting already. And the last point that I would make is that there are -- we are seeing customers focusing on more premium type products. So let's say, again, in North America, premium chicken products with more authentic, let's say, cooking styles and cooking flavors being used in their chicken offerings. We're also seeing it in the beverage category where some customers are putting together more premium bills. And so that is a factor as well, what I would call out a bigger factor being the simplification of back-of-house operations to minimize labor requirements as opposed to, let's say, cost out programs.

Our next question is from Charles Eden from UBS.

Just one left for me really. On the raw materials, you talk about low input cost inflation for the year. Can I just confirm that's sort of broadly similar with the low to mid-single digits that you talked about with the first quarter results? And just sort of following on from that. That obviously seems below what many of the food and peers have been reporting so far. So just some sense of why you're able to see less? Is it just the breadth of the raw materials you're acquiring? Is it your procuring side? Is it that you have longer-term contracts with your suppliers and maybe you're not -- you're locked into prices, which means you don't feel the raw material inflation as quickly? Just a sense of why it doesn't seem to be impacting your business to the same extent as some of the other food companies that have reported so far?

Charles, I might take that one. And maybe just to summarize, we had raw material inflation of circa 1% in the first half, as you would have seen. We are, though, looking at higher inflation in the second half somewhere still in the zone of low single-digit inflation for the year overall. And that really reflects the interplay of the first and the second half and also the cover that we have in place at this stage of the year. Separately, I would say, we've spoken about some inflationary pressures that we're seeing on non-raw material categories, and we've called those out mainly in relation to labor and freight. But firstly, to close out on the raw material elements, within our basket, there's a number of moving parts. We've seen upward pressures on -- most notably on dairy ingredients and natural oils. You know that we're heavily indexed towards natural ingredients. So we have seen some decreases in proteins, vanilla and cocoa, some of the other inputs. What I would say is this is an area, as you know, that we've very well established framework to manage input cost inflation on raw materials, and that is very much a factor together with our positions as to our outlook overall on raw materials.

As we have no further questions, this concludes today's call. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us on the call today. Thank you.