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

February 15, 2022

Australian Securities Exchange AU Materials earnings 42 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good day, and welcome to the Pact Group HY (sic) [ H1 ] '22 Half Year Results. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Dayal, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#2

Good morning, and welcome to Pact Group's FY '22 First Half Results Briefing. I'm Sanjay Dayal, the Chief Executive Officer of Pact Group. I'm joined today by Paul Washer, our Chief Financial Officer. When I presented at our AGM in November, we discussed the widespread challenges our industry was facing with respect to pandemic-related impacts to global supply chains. As I'm sure you have heard from many companies already, the operating environment this financial year is almost unprecedented. International freight markets have been disrupted and remain unpredictable with sharply rising costs. This has impacted the reliability of the supply chain and the availability of materials. In addition, pallet shortages have further aggravated the situation, resulting in disruption to our operations and at times, production delays. And inflation across most categories of inputs has pushed costs sharply higher. While these are industry-wide issues, Pact has not been immune from these challenges. Against this backdrop, I'm particularly pleased at how our Packaging and Materials Handling business (sic) [ businesses ] have performed. We have prioritized our customer and worked hard to ensure we maintain strong delivery and quality metrics. Our operations teams have rallied to overcome challenges in a dynamic environment, demonstrating strong leadership, collaboration and agility. Our strong financial discipline and improved insights have created an intense focus on cost recovery. And our technical and innovation capability has successfully delivered our key strategic and customer projects on time and on budget. Clearly, our strategy is transforming the business and has underpinned our resilience. Our circular economy credentials and differentiation, strong customer focus, improved business fundamentals and financial disciplines have delivered solid results. So overall, a solid and encouraging outcome. However, our Contract Manufacturing business has not demonstrated the same resilience. In the half, our costs were significantly higher. Demand in key segments was weaker, and our pipeline of new business opportunities was inadequate to make up the shortfall. As we discussed at the AGM in November, this materially impacted earnings. We have reported an EBIT loss of $1 million for the half. Our performance has caused us to reassess our impairment assumptions, which have resulted in noncash impairment of $65 million after tax. Our immediate focus in Contract Manufacturing is to deliver the same step improvement in business fundamentals and financial discipline that we have so successfully achieved across the rest of the company. I'll speak further on this shortly. Moving to safety. The lost time injury frequency rate for the period was 4.4, up on 4.2 for FY '21. While this rate has increased, I can report a reduction in the severity of the incidents supported by continued focus on improving safety culture and processes. I'm committed to ensuring this continues. We continue to face into the health risk of COVID through the period with strict health and safety protocols, strong teamwork and vigilant management. Operating performance remained strong throughout most of the period. The outbreak of Omicron in Australia late in December has challenged our operations more than previous outbreaks. The rapid spread of the virus in January has caused high absenteeism and difficulties in securing casual labor, which, in some cases, has impacted production. Pleasingly, the case rate and absenteeism in Australia is improving after the peak in mid-January. New Zealand, to date, has not been materially impacted, but similar outcomes are likely before the end of the financial year. Against these challenges, our teams continue to demonstrate operational agility to maintain production and prioritize our customers. I thank all involved, particularly over the last 2 months. It has not been easy. Underlying EBIT for the group was $83 million, ahead of the outlook provided at the AGM, but down on the prior year due to primarily Contract Manufacturing. Underlying NPAT was $39 million with a reported net loss after tax of $21 million, which includes a net expense of $60 million for underlying adjustments, mostly related to the Contract Manufacturing segment. Volumes for closures, packaging and pooling were higher. And hanger reuse services remained solid, which is a great result. As I said earlier, Contract Manufacturing volumes were down. Our balance sheet remains in good shape. Gearing was at 2.7x, comfortably within our target range. The Board determined to pay an interim dividend of $0.035 franked to 65%. This represented a payout of 31% of underlying NPAT, generally in line with interim dividend payout in the prior year. And the highlights in the Packaging and Sustainability segment. Our performance here in the half was very pleasing with EBIT up 3%, which confirms that our strategy is on track. Our circular economy offering, closeness to customers, improved platform capability and good business fundamentals delivered solid results. I'm particularly encouraged by the strength of our Asia business, which despite the challenges of COVID across all geographies, has continued to deliver strong growth. And we progressed several initiatives aligned to our circular economy strategy that will drive earnings growth into the future. We will complete commissioning of our new Albury recycling facility this month, which will be a great result and quite a feat in the pandemic environment of the last 12 months. I will speak to this project later in the presentation. We commenced new investments that will upgrade our manufacturing platform to enable the inclusion of recycled materials in our packaging and industrial products. The government has recognized the special technical and innovation capability Pact has in this area with a $20 million funding grant to support these projects. These investments will create a step change in our capability to supply recycled content solutions, which will be a key differentiator for Pact. And we continue to progress projects that will improve our platform competitiveness and operational efficiency. Operations in our Australian business continue to improve. And in New Zealand, we have commenced a site rationalization that will enhance our offering and competitiveness in the fresh food segment. This follows the acquisition of Flight Plastics last year, which created a new ANZ fresh food platform. I feel confident that as we deliver on our strategy, momentum in this segment will accelerate. And highlights in the Materials Handling and Pooling segment. In this segment, we delivered good organic growth in fresh produce crate pooling and maintained solid volumes in the garment hanger reuse. Strong operational and financial disciplines delivered good cost management. Looking forward, we remain very confident of continued momentum in the delivery of strategy. In pooling, we are focused on delivering double-digit top line growth as we increase penetration in the produce and protein market. In hanger reuse, we will continue to expand globally. In the period, we've secured some major contract renewals in addition to smaller new business wins. In our environmental business, mobile garbage bin business, we are expecting a lot of growth over the next several years. This growth will be driven by the rollout of 4 bin waste collection initiatives from councils across Australia. To support this growth, we have commenced planning to expand our manufacturing platform and enhance our capability to use recycling materials in the production process. Our activity here is strongly aligned with our circular economy strategy. I'm really pleased with our progress. I will leave it to Paul to take you through the financial performance of this segment later in the presentation, but it is fair to say at this point that it has been disappointing. There is no doubt we need to make a step change in our customer engagement and in our commercial and financial disciplines that will underpin resilience here. As I said earlier, we are moving quickly to get business performance to where it should be. We have appointed new management, who are bringing a sharp focus on recovering costs, improving our operational performance and customer experience. In the area of cost recovery, we are making good progress already with the implementation of pricing strategies underway. Volumes have been weak in this period, and this is an area of focus for the new team. While COVID has not been positive for demand in this business, it would be complacent to say that our volumes are at the level that they should be. We must grow and diversify our customer base. To this end, we will complete small-scale investments to upgrade our capability in liquids filling to create a market-leading and competitive platform. This will be done alongside the unavoidable relocation of an existing site. High-speed filling will position us well to onshore volumes for global brand owners and provide a reliable and competitive dual-supply arrangement for these customers. And we will diversify our customer portfolio with the health and wellness category being a particular focus. This is the category in which we have experienced significant volatility in recent years due to unpredictable export demand. Across the rest of our business, our strong focus on customer and improved business fundamentals has delivered great results. I'm confident that a similar focus in Contract Manufacturing will get this business back to where it should be, which is around a $20 million EBIT business. I think that is achievable over the next 12 to 18 months. I will now hand over to Paul to take you through the financials in more detail. I will return at the end of the presentation to talk briefly on strategy and outlook. Thank you, Paul.

Paul Washer

executive
#3

Thanks, Sanjay, and good morning, everyone. I won't take you through all the numbers here, as Sanjay has touched on many of them already, and I will talk to revenue and EBIT and the segment results in more detail shortly. What I did want to touch on is the impact of cost moves on the business in the period so you have a clear understanding of what we have been managing and what this means to our results. Revenue was up 4% for the group, mostly due to the pass-through of higher input costs, which was a $32 million pricing uplift. This means that the net change in revenue from volume was generally flat with volume growth in the Packaging and Materials Handling segments offset by lower volumes and Contract Manufacturing. At an EBIT level, the price versus cost equation, that is the difference between price increases and cost inflation, was $9 million unfavorable. This difference arises mostly due to time lags between the cost increase and the price increase. With most of our pricing increases implemented quarterly or 6 monthly, an environment with increasing costs will generally create unfavorable lags. What has made financial year '22 so challenging is the speed at which cost increased and that much of the inflation in the period cannot be automatically recovered through rise-and-fall mechanisms in our contractual arrangements. It, therefore, took significant collaboration with customers to implement cost recovery measures. We were very successful in implementing these measures in our Packaging and Materials Handling businesses. Of the total lags of $9 million for the group, only $4 million were in these businesses, meaning around 90% of all cost increases here were recovered within the period. Given the steepness of the cost curve in the period and then in most of our businesses increased international sea freight costs could not be automatically recovered, this was an outstanding result. When costs stabilize and fall, we should get this back. In the Contract Manufacturing segment, however, we were less successful with only 20% of cost increases recovered in the period. Most of our contractual arrangements do not provide for the recovery of cost moves on a routine basis. So here, in a rapidly rising market, it was hard to keep up and our margins reflect that. Reported underlying adjustments were $60 million after tax. This included noncash impairments and inventory write-downs and the Contract Manufacturing segment of $65 million and a net gain of other adjustments of $5 million. Other adjustments delivered a net cash benefit of approximately $14 million in the period. The impairments in the Contract Manufacturing segment have been recognized following an assessment of carrying value as part of Pact's periodic impairment review and reflect current trading conditions, a moderated medium-term outlook and the unavoidable relocation of a major site. The relocation will require capital expenditure of $20 million over the next 12 months. This is included in our group CapEx estimates. The net benefit to annual depreciation and amortization because of the impairments and CapEx spend is expected to be around $3 million. The noncash inventory adjustment in the Contract Manufacturing segment reflects a full write-down of all hand sanitizer-related inventory following an assessment to discontinue with this product line in response to a severely overstocked market. Disposal costs have also been recognized. The China property transaction represents the part disposal of property that has been compulsorily acquired by the local government. Cash of $16 million was received in December in relation to the transfer of property. Further cash proceeds of approximately $20 million will be received when the transaction completes, which is expected in the second half of the financial year. As Sanjay mentioned, we delivered a great result here. Revenue was up 7% and EBIT was up 3%. Higher volume was a key contributor, delivering $5 million in EBIT growth with higher volumes in Asia closures and in the dairy, agriculture and fresh food segments. Growth in the Fresh Foods segment was driven by recycled content packaging, underpinned by capability from the recent acquisition of Flight. The acquisition is performing very well and ahead of expectation. Input costs were up 7% from price inflation, though this was largely recovered through pricing actions. Lags of $2 million, which impacted EBIT in the half, will be recovered in future periods when costs stabilize. Supply chain disruption created some operational inefficiencies, but these were offset by improvements in other areas. Net efficiency of $1 million was delivered in the period. If not for a gain on sale of property in the prior year, earnings would have been up 7% and margin percentages would have been a 9%, a great result. Here, revenue was up 5%, driven by the recovery of higher costs, good organic growth and pooling and stronger infrastructure revenue. This was partly offset by lower crate management revenues following the exit of the Coles contract in the prior year, lower bin volumes and lower hanger volumes following robust post-COVID volumes in the prior period. EBIT was down $3 million at $28 million. Volume positively impacted EBIT by $1 million. We made great progress in recovering higher freight costs, which particularly affected the hanger business, although the price versus cost equation was slightly unfavorable in the first half. Lags of $2 million will be recovered in future periods. In the area of operational management, the team also did a great job, though some operational efficiencies arising from the supply chain disruption did impact earnings. In a very challenging environment, this was a great result. As we have said previously, it was a challenging half for this business with volumes down and costs up in a difficult environment. Volumes were impacted by a range of factors, including COVID restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria in Q1, unfavorable summer weather conditions, loss of auto sales following the fire last year, and continued volatility in the health and wellness segment. Hand sanitizer sales were almost nonexistent. With severe overstocking in the market, we will exit this category. Margins were well down with significant rises in raw material costs not recovered in the market during the first half. Our balance sheet remains strong. Gearing was at 2.7x within our targeted range of less than 3x. Net debt was up $16 million from June 30, but largely in line with the prior corresponding period, a great result given increased working capital mostly due to the higher safety stocks required to manage supply chain risks. We have undrawn debt capacity of over $289 million. Through refinancing activities, we increased the average period to maturity to 3.4 years and diversified our lender base, a pleasing result. Planning is underway for the renewal of our FY '23 debt facilities. Capital returns. This framework guides our capital decisions, ensuring we maintain a strong balance sheet and continuing focus on improved capital returns. Our framework prioritizes spend on sustenance capital. We have set ourselves a benchmark of annualized spend to be 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 growth spend will be prioritized based on work returns with a hurdle of 15% implemented. And we are targeting a dividend payout ratio of more than 40% of underlying net profit after tax. We are targeting group return on invested capital of 13.5% by 2025. In the period, the return on invested capital decreased to 10.5% as a result of lower earnings. The interim dividend is $0.035 at a payout of 31%, generally in line with the payout in the prior corresponding period. Capital expenditure was well controlled at $39 million. Some projects have been delayed due to the inability to source equipment due to supply chain volatility. As a result, we lowered our full year guidance for CapEx to around $85 million. That concludes my comments on the financials. I will now hand back to Sanjay.

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#4

Thank you, Paul. Presented here is our strategy on a page, giving a clear summary of our aspiration and targets, our key priorities with enablers required to win and our values. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made since we launched our strategy to lead the circular economy 2 years ago. It has been quite a challenging environment since the pandemic began, even more so this financial year. And through it, our strategy has underpinned our resilience. Our circular economy credentials and innovation are enabling differentiation and supporting growth, strong leadership and business fundamentals on improving operational performance and protecting our margins. Our financial and capital discipline is maintaining a strong balance sheet and a focus on long-term shareholder value creation. A winning and collaborative culture is emerging across the company, clearly demonstrated by the FY '22 outcomes. As I mentioned earlier, this month, we will achieve a key milestone with the commissioning of our first recycling project in Albury. This really will be a proud moment. It will represent a significant step in establishing an effective local circular economy in Australia. It will give new life to plastic waste, producing around 20,000 tonnes of recycled PET annually, for use in beverage bottles and other food packaging. The project was delivered on time and on budget, which is quite remarkable given the disruption in the operating environment. Formal inauguration is due shortly, which will be a great opportunity to thank the many people involved in bringing this project to life. Albury is the first of several projects we are committed to with leading industry partners that are supporting a step change in Australia's capability to recycle waste locally. A further 2 recycling projects, which will lift recycling output by an additional 40,000 tonnes remain on track for commissioning in FY '23. We are reviewing several other projects that could further enhance Australia's recycling capability. Access to recycling materials differentiates Pact in our packaging and industrial markets, where our customers are increasingly seeking sustainable alternatives. It creates for Pact an enviable position in an industry that is undergoing rapid change and where demand for recycling material is increasing. Our recycling and manufacturing capability close the loop and enables us to deliver change that others cannot. I remain extremely proud of our leadership in this important area of growth. We will use offtake from our recycling facilities in our packaging and industrial products. Most of our customers have set ambitious sustainability objectives for 2025 for increased use of recycled content in plastic packaging. These objectives align with Australia's national packaging targets that require a minimum of 20% recycled content in all plastic packaging. 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. We have access to recycled materials in addition to the technical manufacturing and innovation expertise to supply recycled content packaging. Over the next 3 years, as our customers strive to deliver the 2025 targets, there will be a significant step change in demand for recycled content solutions. Recycled materials for this will be supplied from our new recycling facilities with contracted offtake from Albury and Laverton already almost fully committed. In the period, we won several new contracts in this area, including the supply of bottles for mayonnaise and salad dressing with up to 100% recycling materials. To support this demand, we will invest around $80 million over the next 3 years to upgrade our manufacturing capability. This includes enabling up to 50% recycled content in milk bottles and 100% recycled content in beverage bottles. And as I mentioned earlier, expanding manufacturing capacity for garbage bins. Our capability to supply recycled content solutions will differentiate Pact in the market, drive revenue growth and improve our margins. As I had mentioned at year-end, our strategy has redefined Pact. Today, we are a sustainable packaging solutions provider, firmly recognized by industry, our customers and by governments as leaders in this space. We are a leader in sustainable packaging. Our scale manufacturing platform, innovation capability and access to recycled materials positions us strongly as a partner of choice for our customers in delivering ambitious sustainability agendas. We are a leader in plastic recycling in ANZ and have to deliver not only a network of recycling infrastructure but access to much needed waste. Through industry collaboration, we will revolutionize our capability to recycle waste locally. And we have a best-in-class reuse platform that has significant runway for growth as customers seek alternatives to single-use packaging. As plastic sustainability transform our industry, our unique and integrated capability provides a significant value creation opportunity. In a challenging and disrupted operating environment and intense focus on cost recovery and operational agility will continue to underpin resilience in the Packaging and Materials Handling segment (sic) [ segments ]. In the Contract Manufacturing segment, the turnaround will drive a slightly improved performance in the second half. We expect to deliver FY '22 underlying EBIT of between $155 million to $165 million, subject to global and domestic conditions. That concludes today's presentation. We will now take questions.

Operator

operator
#5

[Operator Instructions] We will take our first question from the line John Purtell.

John Purtell

analyst
#6

Just had a couple of questions, please. Just firstly, in relation to costs. Are you still experiencing -- or do you expect sort of cost to sort of profile higher this half? Or are you seeing them sort of stabilizing? Obviously, talking to sort of raise in freight and that type of thing. So obviously, appreciate you're getting some recovery from lag impacts there, but are you still facing sort of higher underlying costs this half?

Paul Washer

executive
#7

So John, look, we're actually seeing those commodities actually start to just level off. I suppose we've had such a rapid increase over Q2 -- Q1 and Q2 that there does seem to be a bit of a pause going on at the moment. I think the uncertainty, though, with what's happening around the world with Russia, Ukraine and oil prices, I suppose we're still very conscious of where we are. But [ at -- focusing ] to looking forward, we are looking at a very sort of flat pricing at the moment. Nothing is really moving, and that's the same with the international freight side of things as well. So it's just to say it's well balanced, but not really sure which direction it's going to go.

John Purtell

analyst
#8

Okay. And just a second question on Contract Manufacturing there. I mean Sanjay, the path back to sort of the $20 million of EBIT that you flagged, what sort of -- and I know you sort of gave some color on this. It sounds like it's sort of a mix of demand improvement and better cost recovery. But what do you think is sort of -- are the key things that are going to move the dial because, obviously, that's quite an appreciable increase versus where you are at the moment? And obviously, cognizant that you've had a fair bit of sort of adverse externalities.

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#9

Sure, John. First thing is, as I signaled, we put in new leadership and capability. So we have got the top team now, it's totally new, and very focused on driving performance and creating value from -- for the business. We are actually running it almost like a stand-alone business. So the team here can get on and get the job done and focus and then the rest of the company can actually continue to focus on the delivery of the circular economy strategy, so to say. So that's the first thing, and I'm very -- I feel very good about that. The team recently had some meetings with me, and I feel really good about their progress. What are we expecting going forward? I think first thing is we think there will be some things like the market -- the trading conditions should be improving. The foot traffic in some of our customers' base would be improving, so I think the environment will get better. So that's the one thing. The second thing is the cost recovery. One of the reasons we didn't have very good cost recovery was that a lot of our commercial contracts were -- did not have that construct to be able to go and get an increase as it is in the other business like the Package business. So we are now looking at contracts and making sure that the constructs are like that. And that is certainly -- there is some traction in that. We are also diversifying the portfolio, particularly in the wellness -- health and wellness sector. We are dependent on very few customers today, and there is some good traction in that area as well, where there are opportunities to diversify the portfolio in terms of customer. And I did signal that we are -- have got a high-speed line, which we are putting in. It's a small investment, which we are putting in the new site. And that gives us a very competitive platform on -- in liquids, and that should also fuel growth there in the liquids area, which is a very important and a growing area. So I think some environmental improvement and some self-help and good leadership. The combination of those 2, I feel, should be able to get us there by the end of the financial year '23.

Operator

operator
#10

We will take our question -- next question from the line [ Chang Wilson ].

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#11

Just 2 quick ones for me, if I can. Firstly, on the 2022 EBIT guidance that you've provided, that effectively implies a lower second half EBIT on the first half. Are you able to just step us through where you're seeing the main decline half-on-half coming through?

Paul Washer

executive
#12

Yes, thanks for that. I think we're definitely in our outlook considering the impact of Omicron for Q3. So we have actually factored that into our outlook. We are definitely uncertain as to how that thing gets flowed in the market, so there is definitely uncertainty there. And we've put roughly around $5 million aside for [ that, for those cases than ] what we saw in January and February. We are seeing an improvement in Australia. So we think we'll continue to improve as we go into Q4, but that's effectively the difference in our outlook that we had from our -- I was just thinking about our -- the remainder of the year compared to last year.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#13

Okay. Great. And just also on the CapEx spend that you guys have guided to around $85 million. If you strip out half of the $20 million CapEx for the Contract Manufacturing relocation, that's around a 25% increase on what you guided to at the FY '21 result. Can you just talk us through the thinking behind that downward adjustment in your guidance and where that's coming from?

Paul Washer

executive
#14

There's no downward -- most of that additional $20 million will be next year, and that will be part of our envelope as we've always said, we spend $100 million a year. So that won't really be a material impact in terms of the spend for the remainder of FY '20.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#15

Sure. But I mean your underlying CapEx guidance of $75 million, whereas you guided to $100 million at the FY '21 results. Can you just talk about that then, $15 million difference?

Paul Washer

executive
#16

Yes. So the $15 million difference is really the base in terms of lead times around capital projects. So for most of the machines now, you're getting 9 to 12 months lead time. So when we were backed with $100 million guidance, we thought that the environment will start to continue, but actually, it's got harder. So really that $15 million adjusted is basically just reflecting that there has been a harder supply chain environment around the capital [ projects ].

Operator

operator
#17

We will take our next question from the line Bradley Beckett.

Bradley Beckett

analyst
#18

Maybe just on Contract Manufacturing. You sort of commented on how you're structuring that as a stand-alone business. Is there any sort of thinking as you get it back on the path to the $20 million EBIT to return to discussions with potential buyers of that segment? And then maybe just a second question, any sort of updates or progress around securing new packaging business for the sustainability and recycling strategy?

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#19

Yes. On the Contract Manufacturing, listen, now is -- as I said at the AGM, now is not the time to sell. We're focused on getting value back into the business. Once we have that, then we will obviously look at all the options. So currently, I'm just focused on making sure that we return the business to value. The second thing, in terms of -- did you want to know about new contracts in packaging? Is that what the question was? Sorry.

Bradley Beckett

analyst
#20

Yes, yes, that's right. So obviously, you're looking to reviewing...

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#21

Well, we have won quite a few new contracts, particularly at the back of our circular economy credentials. So for example, for mayonnaise and salad dressing, I've signaled we have won contract basically on 100% recycle, which only we can actually provide. Also, we have won 2 -- we have done the Flight acquisition, as you would remember last year, for our PET trays. We have won a major contract in meat for that, quite a significant addition to our portfolio. So there are many contracts, which by using the differentiation and by using the fact that we have got recycling capability today and more is coming, we have been able to win contracts.

Operator

operator
#22

[Operator Instructions] We will take our next question from the line [ Chang Wilson ].

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#23

So just one final one for me. Are you able to just quantify where you're seeing hangers demand at the moment relative to its post-COVID peak? And also where you're seeing crates demand come into the half, if possible?

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#24

I didn't quite catch that question, sorry.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#25

Sorry about that, guys. Can you hear me better now?

Paul Washer

executive
#26

Yes, yes. Sorry, I just didn't get you there.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#27

No worries. Okay. So would you be able to just quantify for us perhaps where hanger's demand is now relative to the peak levels that you were seeing post-COVID and also how crates performed over the half, specifically?

Paul Washer

executive
#28

Yes. So in terms of hanger's demand, we definitely saw a reduction, probably about a $3 million reduction in revenue in respect to the hanger business. Because you need to recall, last year, there was that COVID surge in respect to the U.S.A. coming back. So we saw that by -- in terms of revenue when you look at it this year. In terms of the pooling business, we did actually see 7% growth in the pooling business in Australia. And that's after you take out -- we had a Coles contract, which was in the prior corresponding period. If you take out -- take that out, then we had 7% growth in our pooling business.

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#29

And if I -- just if I may -- sorry. If I may just add, for the hanger, I think the thing which Paul mentioned, the $3 million, that was really a one-off surge. But overall, the hanger business continues to perform very well and continues to grow. We did win some smaller contracts, and we are also bidding for some larger ones. So it has been -- overall, the business has been performing strongly. And in terms of the crate pooling, the only point I'd like to add is we had good volume growth because, as you know, the supermarkets' volumes were also up. But the penetration, the conversion because of the COVID has been slower. So those were the like sort of nuance around the numbers.

Operator

operator
#30

We will take the next question from line John Purtell.

John Purtell

analyst
#31

I just had one follow-up for Paul. Just on the CapEx side, so about $100 million per annum of CapEx that you've previously sort of talked to. Is the $80 million of growth investment over 3 years, is that built into that $100 million expectation?

Paul Washer

executive
#32

Yes. That's right, yes.

Operator

operator
#33

Thank you very much. There's no further questions at this time. [Operator Instructions] It appears there's no further questions at this time. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Sanjay Dayal

executive
#34

Thank you.

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