Pact Group Holdings Ltd (PGH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Pact Group FY '21 Half Year Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn -- hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Dayal, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pact Group's Half Yearly Results Briefing. I'm Sanjay Dayal, the Chief Executive Officer of Pact Group. I'm joined today by Richard Betts, our Chief Financial Officer. Today, I will share with you the highlights of our half yearly results and our progress on safety before handing to Richard to take you through the group's financials and segment performance. I will then return to talk to you about our near-term strategic priorities. We'll be pleased to take questions at the close of the presentation. Turning to Slide 5. In the first half of FY '21, we have delivered an improvement in all key metrics and have maintained momentum in the delivery of our strategy. I'm very pleased to report that revenue increased 1% to $894 million; reported NPAT increased 44% to $50 million; underlying EBIT increased 25% to $99 million; our EBIT margin improved up 2.1 points to 11%; ROIC improved to 12.1%; free cash flow generation of $46 million, up 119%; gearing improved to 2.4x; and the Board has determined to pay an interim dividend of $0.05 franked to 65%. Turning to Slide 6 and the key business highlights. We have delivered strong organic growth, improved our margins and managed our balance sheet with discipline. Organic sales growth of 4% was delivered through increased volumes in our reuse and pooling platform, robust volumes in the hygiene category and improving demand in the health and wellness sector. Margins improved strongly with favorable mix and disciplined input cost management. I continue to be particularly pleased with our strong cash flow performance and balance sheet management. Gearing has improved substantially and is comfortably within our targeted range. Our debt maturity profile has improved through strategic refinancing activities. These results have been delivered against a backdrop of continued operational challenges and market disruption arising from COVID-19, which has been particularly severe in our Asian business. I'm very proud of how well the company continues to respond to these challenges and the demonstrated resilience of our portfolio. Moving to Slide 7 and progress on our strategy. We have continued to make great progress in delivering our strategy to lead the circular economy with all key initiatives on track. Some of our achievements in the period are included here. I'm very pleased with the progress we made in the Australian Packaging turnaround and remain confident that we are on the right path. We have delivered improvements in operational performance, safety, quality and delivery. Our volumes have stabilized and margins are improving. Work on detailed segment strategies during the period have identified some compelling opportunities for future growth and improvement. In the area of recycling, I'm really pleased with our progress. We have several projects under review, which will further enhance our capability to support our customers to deliver the sustainability agendas. These projects will complement our new Albury facility, which will be commissioned later this year, and the acquisition of Flight that was completed in January. Pact is leveraging its capability to provide recycled content to differentiate in the market with contract wins in packaging and infrastructure sectors in the period. Our reuse platform has delivered strong growth in the period through increased penetration in crate pooling and geographic expansion of our hanger reuse services. And in our Asian closures platform, we completed several major contract renewals. These are very pleasing achievements and illustrate the commitment and enthusiasm the team have in delivering our strategy. Finally, a word on the sale for Contract Manufacturing. This process is ongoing. We clearly have a value hurdle that must be met. And if divestment cannot realize this expectation, we will retain the business in our portfolio. We'll keep you informed of progress. Moving to slide on safety, Slide 8. Safety is another area that showed good improvement in the period. The lost-time injury frequency rate for the period was at a record low of 3.8. This result illustrates that we are gaining momentum in improving our safety culture and processes across the organization, and I'm committed to ensuring this continues. COVID-19 continues to present challenges, but these risks have been very well managed. Strict health and safety protocols have protected our sites and our people. And there have been no material impact to our operations during the period. With those opening remarks, I now hand over to Richard to run through the financials in more detail. I will then return to talk to you about our strategic priorities and outlook. Richard?

Thank you, Sanjay, and good morning, everyone. It is very pleasing to report these as my last Pact half year results. Group sales revenue of $894 million was 1% up from the prior period with underlying organic sales growth of 4%, offset partly by the pass-through of lower raw material input costs and foreign exchange. We saw strong growth in our Materials Handling and Contract Manufacturing segments. And pleasingly, our Packaging segment volumes were stable. Underlying EBIT of $99 million was up 25% with the benefit of solid organic growth, efficiency and disciplined margin management resulting in EBIT margins improving 2.1 percentage points. Return on invested capital improved to 12.1%, up from 10.8%. Free cash flow was strongly improved and the balance sheet was well managed. Gearing improved to 2.4x, down on 2.9x in the prior corresponding period and well within our targeted range. EPS for the period of $0.145 was well up on the prior year. Turning now to group EBIT on Slide 11. Group EBIT of $99 million was up 25%, a great result, driven by solid improvement in volume. Margins were well-managed, driven by disciplined pricing and cost efficiencies. The benefit of a property sale in China offset our investment in the turnaround of the Australian Packaging business. We saw stronger volumes in the Materials Handling and Pooling segment with good growth in pooling and reuse services. And the Contract Manufacturing segment benefited from strong demand in the hygiene category and improving demand for nutraceutical products. In our Packaging segment, both the agricultural and industrial sectors were improved. Turning now to our balance sheet on Slide 12. We are particularly pleased with the strength of our balance sheet. We have reduced net debt by $70 million versus the previous corresponding period. Gearing has improved to 2.4x, well within our targeted range of less than 3x. We have improved our debt maturity profile through strategic refinancing with the extension of $298 million of debt to financial year '25, previously maturing in July of 2021. We have undrawn debt capacity of over $300 million, which together with improved gearing will support the delivery of the group's strategic agenda. Turning now to cash management on Slide 13. We have again delivered really pleasing operating cash flows and have managed our working capital very closely despite the challenges of COVID-19. Operating cash was up 51% to $100 million and cash flow conversion was 83%, a great result in what is traditionally a seasonally higher working capital period. Capital expenditure was managed tightly with a strong focus on platform reinvestment and capability to support our strategic objectives. Turning now to Slide 14 and our approach to capital allocations. This framework promotes discipline in all our capital decisions and is designed to ensure we maintain a strong balance sheet. In relation to the model, I make the following points. Spend on sustenance capital is being prioritized. We have set ourselves a benchmark of annualized spend in line with 70% of depreciation. Over the near term, this will be important in rebuilding the competitiveness and efficiency of our Packaging platform, a key strategic priority for the group. Our gross spend will be prioritized based on ROIC returns with a hurdle of 15% implemented. And we're targeting a dividend payout ratio of more than 40% of underlying NPAT. Our intention is to maximize shareholder value by targeting a post-AASB 16 group ROIC of 13.5% by 2025. In the period, we delivered ROIC of 12.1%, an improvement on the 10.8% in the prior period. Moving now to Slide 16 and the segment results for Packaging and Sustainability. The Packaging segment delivered EBIT of $54 million, up 7%. We saw improved volumes in the agricultural, industrial and health and wellness sectors. Favorable mix and disciplined cost management helped deliver improved margins. With the focus on turning around the Australian Packaging business, it is pleasing that volumes in that business have stabilized, and we are delivering improvements in our operational performance. The segment continued to demonstrate resilience through COVID-19 disruptions. Most consumer sectors were stable with some benefit of increased home consumption, though this was largely offset by the impact of volume from lockdowns and related customer closures in Asia. Pleasingly, demand in most industrial sectors improved. Moving to Slide 17 and the Materials Handling and Pooling segment. FY '21 has started as another excellent year for this segment with sales revenue up 9% and EBITDA up 26%, driven by strong organic growth in our pooling and reuse platforms. We have delivered increased pooling penetration in the fresh produce sector, and the expansion of hanger reuse services in the U.S.A. is progressing very well. A strong rebound in demand for reuse services following COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia also helped. In our infrastructure business, volumes were down, impacted by fewer available infrastructure projects with a slow restart following COVID-19. Costs were well-managed and margins improved strongly to 18%. Moving to Slide 18 and the Contract Manufacturing segment. The Contract Manufacturing segment delivered another outstanding result with EBIT of $13 million, up over 300% on the back of strong volumes in the hygiene category and improved platform efficiency. EBIT margins at 8% were up 5.9 percentage points. Volume into the hygiene category remained strong in Q1, though moderated later in the half. In this category, we expect considerably lower volumes in our second half. Pleasingly, demand from the health and wellness sector improved. That concludes my comments on the financials. I will now hand back to Sanjay.

Thank you, Richard. I would now like to spend the next few slides on the key initiatives we are working on in executing our strategy. Pact's vision is to lead the circular economy. Presented here is our strategy on a page giving a clear summary of our aspiration and targets, our key priorities and the enablers required to win. Pact has a special position in the circular economy, which enables it to lead change in the industry and deliver a sustainable, competitive advantage for the company. We have an industry leading packaging capability to improve plastic sustainability through innovation and product design and the scale and technical know-how to provide a meaningful offtake or sync for recycled material. We are a leading plastic recycler well positioned to lead the change needed to close the loop on plastics. And we have solutions through our reuse platforms that meet the growing need for alternatives to single-use packaging. It has been a year since we launched our strategy and my confidence that it provides the opportunity to deliver significant long-term value has only grown. The world has changed a lot in the last 12 months, and the circular economy transition is accelerating. Consumers are increasingly aware of and concerned about the waste they produce. Education, media and labeling are changing consumer preferences with respect to the packaging choices they make. Our customers are a year further on in the journey to deliver meaningful progress in the attainment of their 2025 sustainability target. Many are now recognizing, this will be a difficult journey without strategic partnership. This need represents a significant opportunity for Pact. And in a post-COVID world, government are recognizing that investment in the circular economy can help stimulate growth and activity in the economy. Investment in recycling infrastructure and manufacturing capability is high on the strategic agenda, and bans on the export of plastic waste has now been legislated. The macro factors that are critical to the success of our strategy are stronger than ever before. Moving to Slide 21, our near-term priorities. Our strategy is supported by detailed plans and initiatives. Our key initiatives for the near term are listed here. I will provide more detail about these initiatives on the following slides. Moving ahead to Slide 22. The work we are doing on the packaging turnaround is gaining momentum. Phase 1 of our turnaround has established a structure and leadership to support our customer-centric organization. Phase 2 is all about improving our competitiveness. We have already delivered improvements in safety, quality and delivery, giving me confidence that our turnaround approach is right. In the period, we completed detailed segment strategies, identifying several compelling opportunities to deliver value and growth using our circular economy credentials as a key differentiator. We are now working on implementation plans for each segment that will enable us to capture the value. I remain confident these actions will continue to provide the pathway to lift performance, grow our top line and improve our margins. Moving ahead to Slide 23. Plastic recycling continues to be an exciting and rapidly evolving part of our strategy. Pact is taking a leading position in developing plastic recycling infrastructure in Australia. Our approach has been to collaborate with recognized industry participants to gain access to important waste streams needed for recycling and to secure offtake of recycled products. Our recycling and manufacturing capability close the loop and enables us to deliver change where others cannot. Our joint venture with Cleanaway and Asahi, through which we are developing a new PET recycling facility in Albury, is our first industry collaboration. As I mentioned earlier, construction of this facility has commenced and when operational will lift Australia's speed recycling capability by 20,000 tonnes. We are reviewing several other projects that could further generate 40,000 tonnes of recycled materials in the next few years. We will provide updates on these projects at the appropriate time. Government are committed to creating a world-class infrastructure to manage the local processing of waste. Legislative bans on the export of plastic waste has escalated the need for local capability. Governments are accelerating growth in recycling through funding grants under Recycling Modernization Fund. Grants of $12.5 million for projects we have under review have already been announced. These initiatives provide a step change in our capability to provide customers with recycled content and establish for us an important competitive advantage. I'm incredibly proud of our leadership collaboration and visionary approach in this important area of growth. Moving ahead to Slide 24. Strong growth for recycle content is critical to closing the plastic loop. We are confident that demand for recycled content will continue to grow. In 2025, Australia's National Packaging Targets require a minimum of 20% recycled content in all plastic packaging. For PET products, it is 30%. This is a significant step change from where the industry is today with the use of recycled content in plastic packaging in 2019 at only 2%. There will be greater transparency through labeling to show the inclusion of recycled content. Consumers want to know that their packaging includes locally processed recycling materials. For retailers and large brand owners, the change required is significant, and there is a need to act quickly. Pact is well positioned to be a partner of choice in this area. Supply of recycled content from local sources will be limited. We are already well positioned and have plans underway to expand our capability further with trusted industry partners and strong government support. Use of recycling materials and packaging is not as simple as replacing virgin resins with recycled. There is product development and innovation required and the manufacturing process must be altered. Pact is also well advanced in this area. The acquisition of Flight has provided a competitive platform to supply sustainable packaging in the fresh food segment and has been a key enabler in contract wins during the period. We are supplying crates with up to 100% recycled PET for supply through major supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand. We are manufacturing, packaging in-the-home and personal care categories for a highly recognized brand owner with up to 50% recycled HDPE. In the infrastructure sector, we are supplying freeway noise walls with up to 70% recycled content to a major project in Victoria. Common procurement policy is prioritizing sustainable products in major capital projects, and our circular economy credentials have positioned us strongly to win these contracts. Overall, I'm confident this provides significant opportunity for us to grow. Moving ahead to Slide 25. Our strategy focuses on improving packaging sustainability, not only through recycling but also reuse. Pleasingly, we are already realizing strong growth in this area. In FY '21, we expect our reuse platform to be around 13% of total group revenue. This is a material step change from only 1% in FY '17. It has been an exciting period of growth, driven by organic initiatives, including the expansion of produce crate pooling services into ALDI and Woolworths supply chain and geographic expansion of our garment hanger reuse business into the U.S.A. We see continued growth through increased penetration in the fresh food produce sector. In the period, we delivered 6% growth in crate pooling services through the introduction of new crate sizes, which provide an alternative in produce categories previously reliant on single-use corrugated packaging. Further penetration opportunities in the produce sector as well as diversification of pooling into new categories such as protein is expected to drive double-digit growth in pooling over the strategy period. In our hanger reuse business, we have delivered strong growth through geographic expansion, with revenues up 40% since the acquisition of TIC. This business is now a global leader. Leveraging central manufacturing and sorting facilities in Asia, TIC has potential to expand further, and this remains a focus for us. Moving to Slide 26. Circular economy is developing rapidly. It is driving value and job creation while delivering positive environmental outcomes. Government have committed to turbocharging progress. Stimulus to support recycling infrastructure development and policy to drive demand for recycled content is crucial to building scale solutions and a true circular economy. Pact is now recognized by government, industry and consumers as a leader in this area. We are very encouraged by the pace and the shared commitment to change. Turning now to Slide 27 to summarize. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made in the delivery of our strategy, and our results illustrate the good work we have done across our business. We are targeting top quartile shareholder returns by 2025. Our progress so far gives me confidence that we can achieve this. Through our circular economy credentials, strategic position and continued progress on improving business fundamentals, we will deliver above-industry top line growth and return margins in our Australian Packaging business to global industry standards. I'm looking forward to sharing further progress with you. Finally, our outlook for FY '21, which is on Slide 29. The business continues to demonstrate sustainable momentum and earnings resilience. In a seasonally softer second half, we forecast similar underlying trends to that we enjoyed in the first half, but anticipate a weaker hygiene category. We expect underlying EBIT for the full year to be better than last year, subject to the duration and economic impact of uncertainty related to COVID-19 and other global conditions. That concludes today's presentation. We will now take questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Owen Birrell from Goldman Sachs.

Just a couple of questions from me. The first one, I guess, on the Richard’s turnaround. You mentioned Phase 1 was to establish the right internal structures and management for that business. Can I just ask what -- in terms of Phase 2, improving competitiveness, can you give us some examples of, I guess, how you're going about that process and I guess what sort of benefits you expect to deliver?

Going forward, I mean, first thing is, of course, the fundamentals. That is you need to make sure that your delivery improvement, quality and managing the site, the operations are top-notch. But we are also being able to differentiate through our circular economy credentials. That has really -- we have lots of customers who are keen to engage with us. And for me, that will be a key differentiator going forward. We can see a lot of benefit. I did mention that there are quite a few examples, both in the -- in our packaging business as well as in our infrastructure where recycled content is being seek for, consumers are asking for it, customers are asking for it. So that's a very important differentiator going forward. And I can see a lot of benefit coming out of it. But just to -- where I started, the fundamentals is the key. And we have -- I believe we are well on top of that now, which is why you see the business stabilizing, margins improving, and I'm confident the margins will actually continue to improve to industry standards.

I guess when you go through the process of looking at a customer contract and renegotiating those contracts, what is the -- is it really around, I guess, return hurdles per contract? Or I just wanted to get a sense of how you're thinking about turning that business around really at the grass roots level?

Yes. Look, I mean, I think, Owen, in reality, one of the things that we've got very focused upon is the returns on all of our contracts and all of our business. And I think that becomes even more critical as we go into this next phase-in and around generating value out of recycled material. And so one of the pieces of work that we've done in and around the turnaround is make sure that our salespeople are very clear in terms of value coming out of the business and out of what we add and can differentiate ourselves in terms of what we offer to our customers versus our competitors. And so -- and that focus both exists as part of the work that we've done through the last 6 months within our existing business. But I think more importantly, as we move forward into the circular economy, understanding the value, that brings to our customers and ensuring we're driving an appropriate level of value is becoming more essential as part of that process and the turnaround.

You want to share with us any, I guess, target metrics or anything that you're aiming to achieve, whether it's margin or return profile across that business over the next, let's say, 3 to 5 years?

I had already mentioned -- sorry, sorry, Richard. I was just saying, I had already mentioned that we will go to industry margins, which is about 10%. So that's my ambition for the Australian Package business. If you look at the other parts of business, we are actually already there. But with the Australian Packaging, which is where I think you must be Owen and you must be asking about the turnaround, my ambition is to go to industry margins, which is 10%. There is a lot of opportunity internally as well in terms of improving our efficiency. We are investing in our platforms. As you invest in the platforms, your margin will expand because you'll be able to deliver better quality at a lower cost. So that's already, we can see that happening as well. There's a lot of scope the supply chain area. We've recently recruited an expert in supply chain and procurement, who is also looking at the opportunities, and there are lots of opportunities internal as well. So I think the combination of what Richard said with the -- in terms of the customers as well as internally, I feel margin expansion is something we can aim for. And as I said to you, ambition is to have industry standards margins compared to where we are today, for the Australian business, that is.

And I think just adding to that, Owen, one of the things that you'll see that you've now seen 3 times in our presentations is that capital returns metric on Page 14. And everything from us as an organization starts in terms of a return on invested capital. So whether that be expanded just having margins for the sake of margin is not generating value that can ultimately be reinvested in the business or return to shareholders as dividend. So we're seeking to generate as a priority, a 15% return on invested capital for everything we do. So margins, as Sanjay said, is absolutely essential, but that's got balanced off with our commitment to capital to assure that there's an appropriate return. And that's why we are so committed to ensuring that, that capital return metrics and our progress against that gets put into every one of our packs going forward as part of our 6-month update to the market.

Excellent. That's wonderful. Second question for me, just on TIC. The U.S. expansion, you mentioned that that's sort of ramping up, I guess, post-COVID. Can you give us a sense of, I guess, what the run rate is in the U.S. relative to what that business should have done pre-COVID? I'm acknowledging the fact that it was acquired really at an inopportune time in terms of the impact of COVID. But how much further can we go from here in terms of the volumes in that business under the current structure?

Yes. Look, I think important to understand that, that business was a contract that we won. And hard to understand what they had previously because this is the first time where we've actually introduced a reuse model into that business. Previously, it was primarily one-way hangers. And so increasingly, our focus in terms of driving value in that customer is going to be: one, in terms of getting further efficiency in terms in terms of scale; but secondly, in terms of making sure that we work with the customer around improving the reuse rates. Having said that, they are already exceeding what our initial expectation was around capital, but I think both parties in an environment where increasingly we're seeing the circular economy is important, it works for both parties to be improving that reuse rate. So we still think there's a significant runway in relation to that. But I think the more important part about winning that contract in the U.S.A. is it now gives us the credibility in the U.S.A. market to win more business there and in fact, expand our platform not just in the U.S., but also in Europe against what has traditionally been a very Australian-dominated revenue base.

I’m asking, in terms of credibility and further contracts, is there any kind of in-train or you're working on at the moment? Or is there going to be some time off?

Look, we're continuing to work in the U.S. There is some opportunities. And there will be one, hopefully, relatively soon in the European side of the business. But there's certainly nothing in-train in the U.S. at this stage. But we're having very good discussions with a number of parties, both in Europe and the U.S. about those credentials and working off the back of demonstrated value in that U.S. contract.

The next question comes from Grant Slade from Morningstar.

Sanjay and Richard, look, in Packaging, and I apologize if I missed some of your comments around the moving pieces within volumes. But am I correct that volumes only stabilized in the half despite increased at-home consumption? Is it correct that predominantly it was the favorable mix that benefited segment EBIT during the half?

I think, Grant, that's the right thing that volumes stabilized. That would be the right way to look at it, if that's your question.

Sure. Okay. And look, I guess just as a follow-on to that. I guess I'm curious, if you're able, I guess, to comment on how the revised customer-centric operating model which form part of Phase 1 of the turnaround is working to stem those losses. Do you have the formula right now, do you think? Or is there more that you're going to need to do to get close to your customers?

So firstly, the customer-centric model really helps the leadership to understand each of the segments and what is required to win there and what is required to really delight the customer. So we have got good leadership now in all those segments. That's the first thing. We then went and have done a detailed segment strategy. We got some external help as well to look at each of these segments, see what the opportunities are, what is Pact's advantage and what can we do better in order to win more business as well as improve our margins. And that strategy is now also done in the sense that we know what all is needed. There are lots of compelling opportunities which have come out of that work. And the team is now on to implementing those. So there is a -- what I would say is there is -- in each of those segments, there's a lot of scope, both in terms of externally with customer as we talked about the recycled credentials, but also internally, whether it be in terms of our platforms, whether it be in terms of efficiency, procurement improvements. There's a lot -- once you separate them into different segments and look at different trends and what really works in those segments, what we find is that there's a lot of internal improvement as well we can do in order to service at a much lower cost, but also better to the customer. So there's plenty of scope to expand, particularly our margins there as well as get new business, which is why I have signaled that the business will, in my view, continue to grow, and we have an ambition to increase our margins to industry standards.

The next question comes from John Purtell from Macquarie.

Just have a few questions. The first one, just sort of picking up on sort of the prior question there. Just around whether you think within these results, you've been sort of net COVID beneficiary overall? I appreciate there's probably some puts and takes there. But obviously, Contract Manufacturing has benefited really hygiene demand, and you've seen at-home consumption trends, but also some weaker demand in Asia. So just trying to think through the puts and takes there.

Yes. John, I mean, I think obviously, yes, we have benefited in the half and probably more so in the first quarter where we still did see some benefits of further demand for hand sanitizers. That was in the range of about $5 million. So that probably, in reality, is everything else is probably ups and downs. But that really is probably the extent of the benefit in the result. What we saw within the Packaging and Sustainability business particularly was we certainly saw -- I mean, in the Australian business, we saw some of the benefits associated with that at-home demand. But that was offset by factors in terms the Asian business particularly, where we did see, obviously, impacts of more-so. What was really pleasing was that all our facilities continue to operate, but some of our customers were into force-shut. And so we lost volume which overall meant that probably across that sector -- or not probably, across that sector, we were a wash. I think what was pleasing with that sector though was that we did start to see growth in some of those sectors, particularly in the areas of the industrial volumes and those health and wellness categories, which, as you know, a higher margin and therefore, reflected in the mix numbers that we can see.

The second question in relation to Contract Manufacturing and the sale process there, I mean, acknowledge your comments there on value. But strategically, has there been any change to your view that the business asset remains non-core? And are you looking to sell any change in terms of looking to sell all of it as opposed to sort of parts?

So in terms of strategically, I think the -- it is clear that it is non-core. That's true. And that in terms of our strategy, Pact is really leading the circular economy, and that's where we want to be. Having said that, I am all after value. At the end of it, I need to make sure that the shareholders are getting maximum value, whatever we do with the business. So I am very clear in my head what the value should be based on, if I retain the business, what can I do with it? And I think that, for me, is a very important part that I'm -- it's not that I need to sell the business at any cost. The other piece here is on the balance sheet. Richard mentioned that I think if there was any concerns, let's say, 12 months back around our balance sheet, I don't think -- at least, I don't have those concerns anymore. So there's no compulsion. I don't need to sell it in order to manage my growth, in order to manage my strategy, in order to manage my capital. So as I said, I've got in my mind value, which I believe the shareholders will be looking for. There is no other compulsion for me to sell it. If I don't get a value, I'll just run it myself. And I'm sure it can hum along on the sidelines. We can continue to service our customers well, and it will be a net positive business for us going forward. So I do have that clear in my head rather than just going into a sales process saying, "At any cost, I have to sell."

Just the last question. We've seen raw materials, particularly resin, move higher in the last few months. Can you comment on how you see that potentially impacting the business in the second half?

Yes. Look, I mean, at this stage, one of the things that we've worked very hard on, John, is at our discipline around pricing. We've got tired with managing of our rise and falls. And so we did see some movement down the first half, but the impact for that from a financial perspective was not significant. On the other side, we're not expecting that whilst it is starting to move up, we're not expecting that to be significant either. We've already gone with starting to push some price into the marketplace on the back of some changes in resin. But I think the key for this will be the discipline that we apply to managing those rise and falls in that pricing piece. And I think at the moment, we feel relatively comfortable that we've got the right balance in terms of moving and managing against movement in the raw materials.

The next question comes from Brook Campbell-Crawford from JPMorgan.

Just a couple of quick questions. On Slide 18 of the presentation, because it is not [indiscernible] quite in that. Just looks sort of a very significant incremental margin there with sort of revenue of $12 million that -- sorry, revenue of $12 million flowing through to $9 million benefit from volume that's EBIT. It just seems like it's a very large scale. What am I missing there?

Look, as we said, there's a couple of things that driven. This has obviously been one of the businesses that we've been extremely focused on in terms of delivering value through that organization. When you -- if you look back to the second half last year where certainly, we also had value coming through the hygiene sector. The margins were strong. However, I think whilst there is a component in there in those margins associated with hygiene, I think the other piece is around cost and efficiency. And we've done a lot of work around getting our mix right, getting our efficiency piece right in that business, all of which has gone to an improved margin position. So in terms of that margin, some of that obviously is tied to the hygiene and obviously won't continue. But the majority of that margin movement is tied to getting our pricing disciplines right in relation to pushing on raw material pricing in relation to our core business and also driving efficiency.

Yes. That makes sense. I guess just that 5 -- $9 million, just an [ apology ], which I was curious on that, but -- and we'll take it offline. And...

I think that's just the volume and mix, yes.

Oh, volume and mix. Okay. That's great. And just on the TIC [indiscernible], is the $23 million payment there for the TIC acquisition? Maybe you could just run us through what sort of targets that business reached to trigger that payment?

Yes. So just to be clear, that wasn't an earnout. That was the final of the deferred payments in relation to that business, so that payment was not linked to any performance hurdles. So under the original deal, we paid an amount upfront and then we made a number of payments subsequent to that, which were simply committed. And that was the final. There was an earnout. There was an earnout that applied to this business. However, those hurdles weren't reached. And so no earnout was required to be paid.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Owen Birrell from Goldman Sachs.

Just a couple of follow-up questions from me. Just looking at the opportunities in Victoria and WI for these new recycled content plants. Just wondering, just firstly, on the HDPE plant in Victoria, just wondering $3 million plan. I'm just trying to get a sense of what sort of capacity does that buy you? And what is the current, I guess, market demand for the recycled HDPE?

The plant will -- so firstly, we're still, sort of say, scoping it and working through that. But it will be in the range of about 20,000 tonnes. The key here, Owen, is that it's not about what is the market today. What we are expecting and what we are finding a lot of the customers want to replace current volume with recycled. So there is a lot of opportunity in terms of putting 30%, 40%, 50% recycle in HDPE as well. Who are the primary customers for that? Customers would be like milk bottlers, people who are in the milk business, customers who are in shampoo business and other homecare products. So they have been seeking us out, they've been wanting to talk to us in terms of how can we get more recycled content into their current portfolio. So that's the sort of a customer piece of it. And in terms of...

Can I just ask you -- I'm not sure, I'm sorry, I just got to cut in. I noted that in the slide here, you're talking to using more 100% of recycled PET in trays, for example, and also more HDPE in your homecare products. Have you had any discussion with local councils and recycles about what products they are actually taking to be subsequently recycled? Because, I mean it's cutting close to home city of Yarra in which your head office is, that council is no longer taking PET trays and no longer taking HDPE caps in their recycling fee. So I'm just wondering, is there a bit of a disconnect between what is actually been connect collected versus what you are actually producing?

Listen, I'm not really sure exactly what you're saying because if you come to -- particularly, Yarra Council, I don't know much about. But we have relationships, as you know, in terms of collecting a waste with the Cleanaway, and they have been, have been the ones who have been doing that for us. And that's how the joint ventures have been working so far. And I believe there is plenty of PET and plenty of HDPE waste, which we need to recycle. Getting your -- getting it efficiently to the plant, making sure that, that waste is separated and sorted in the right manner is the challenge. I don't think currently that there is no waste and we may be having trouble getting the waste. I don't think that's the case. If you look at the Flight acquisition, I mean the point which you may be referring to could be that 100% rPET trays. That's around the Flight acquisition, which the raw material of that is coming New Zealand. And that particular facility, takes the PET from New Zealand, which is locally from New Zealand and sorts it out, of course, washes it and then mix it into trays. That's what we call our new fresh food platform, which is about a $600 million opportunity across Australia and New Zealand. And there's a lot of opportunity because a lot of the supermarkets and a lot of customers are looking for rPET, recycled PET, for trays. So some of it is coming from Flight, if you want to refer to what we have said. But generally speaking, there's no -- I think the issue is we do not have enough HDPE plants to recycle. It's not that we don't have any HDPE available yet. That problem, we are not facing today.

Yes. No. The Pact plan for the coming -- potentially to come on. Do you have a rough sense of timing on when these -- this could come to being approved?

Sorry, in terms of new plants?

Yes, the new plants, the WI and Victoria plants.

Yes, yes, yes. Listen, we are scoping them out. I mean the process is that we actually go through with our main project plan to the government and then we get support from the government. So we are scoping them now. In the second half, I'm sure we'll be able to talk about at least some of that.

I think, too, Owen, just to say it on Sanjay's comments, I think it's important to realize that when we -- the reason why there are council is not accepting waste today is that we do not have good processes around locally -- local processes for the conversion of waste. And increasingly, governments, particularly at the federal and the state level, are seeing that it is critical that they take a lead role in working with industry and working with companies such as ourselves to support the funding of building this infrastructure, but more specifically to also assist with regulatory policy, to help in terms of driving changes in behaviors. I mean we've all seen what, 12 to 18 months ago, which just bails and material heading overseas and being sort of there. That is clearly not where government wants to be today and government wants to take responsibility. And these joint funding and joint commitments to driving these -- this infrastructure is critical to Australia taking ownership of ownership of recycled plastic and material, and that's what these processes and these programs are all about. And it's also the government sees it as one of the six core areas for critical investment, both in terms of obviously managing the waste, but also in terms of jobs going into the future.

That’s spot on, Richard. Thanks.