Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (RKT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I want to start today by thanking all our associates, customers and partners for helping us navigate a year like no other. Thank you for keeping our people safe, serving our customers and for engaging with our communities. I have 4 messages for you today. First, we have delivered very strong growth this year, led by strong execution in a changing demand environment that was shaped by COVID. Second, we have made record investment in the business, investing in growth-led initiatives to build a great house in a great neighborhood. Third, we expect continued growth in 2021 across brands, geographies and channels and locking in the progress we made in 2020. Finally, we've increased confidence in our ability to achieve our medium term revenue and margin targets. The presentation today will be split into 3 sections. I will cover the 2020 highlights, Jeff will then give you a review of the financial performance and 2021 outlook and then I will provide you with an update on our strategic progress. Overall, we delivered very strong growth in 2020, up 11.8% on the back of very strong execution. On a like-for-like basis, our operating profit also improved. Our operating margin declined 260 basis points, in line with our guidance, and reflects the record level of investments we made to position us for a sustained growth acceleration. We have reported record levels of free cash flow and delivered an EPS of 327p, well ahead of our original expectations for the year. The dividend proposed today is unchanged on last year and in line with our policy. Turning to our operational highlights, the performance we delivered was broad-based. Lysol and Dettol are now over GBP 3 billion and are in over 300 million homes around the world. But this growth has only been possible because of the swift response of our teams. We dramatically stepped up supply with over 500 individual products across our portfolio which have been proven to be effective against the coronavirus. It is not just a story of disinfectants only. As example, Finish is up over 20% and has been strong across the board. Airborne, our immunity brand, has doubled revenue over the course of the year. With Durex, we've had significant success entering into the polyurethane ultra-thin condom market in the fourth quarter. Gaviscon has also taken significant share, thanks to excellent innovation and marketing execution. The growth has been broad-based geographically, in particular, strong double digits in the U.S. and India as well as high-single digits in China. These 3 businesses make up almost half our revenues. And our top 10 markets have delivered an average of 15% growth. Beyond revenue growth, the underlying businesses are stronger and we have built the brand equities over the past year. We have shown here just a few examples of our leading disinfectant brands, how they have moved year-on-year and on the right hand side, Dettol's position in India where our performance relative to our leading competitor was very strong. But this isn't just the disinfectant portfolio. We've also made progress across the rest of the portfolio brands, such Finish, Enfamil, Veet and Vanish, with each strengthened over the course of the year. Around the world, consumers recognize the value of RB brands. Turning to our key strategic highlights. While we have absolutely stepped up to the challenge of COVID-19, it is important to note that we have made considerable progress against our strategy and momentum in the business is strong. This year has seen a record of GBP 745 million invested in the business, driving significant global expansion and a material step change in digital and e-commerce. But it has also gone into building the underlying capabilities for the business, in our go-to-market capabilities, adding significant increases in the supply chain capacity as well as capability in order to improve customer service. The investments have strengthened our R&D and innovation pipelines. We've established Global Business Solutions, our professional business. We've put money into sustainability and have further embedded culture change across our business. All of this is funded by a productivity program that is ahead of schedule. We are also taking decisive actions on our portfolio. We have been conducting a strategic review of our infant formula business in China. This business has shown strong underlying execution. Innovations and new products in the market are doing well. Execution off-line has strengthened materially. We've gained share in online and the social commerce channels and have held share overall in Mainland China. We have also gained share relative to other multinationals in Mainland China across channels. But this business has structural challenges that we need to address. The Hong Kong border closure has lasted longer than expected, and there are uncertainties as to when it will open. We see a challenging local environment with local competitors investing heavily to drive growth. We see a change in the regulatory environment, particularly in Mainland China. And with COVID for the near term, there has been a further decline in birth rates. We will keep you updated as our review progresses. We have also announced today the sale of Scholl to the owners of Dr. Scholl. Since we bought the business in 2011, we've been able to extract significant value through a period of strong growth in the middle of last decade. The fit of Scholl and how it has evolved is less compelling than many of our other brands and there is a better owner for this business. As a result, we have sought to unlock value from the business and to recycle this into higher growth niches, better aligned with other parts of our portfolio. A good example of this is the acquisition we also announced today of Biofreeze. Biofreeze is a topical pain relief brand based in the U.S. This move opens up a new range of therapeutic products that we can use to leverage our existing brand equity and also enhance our consumer health footprint. Rooted in sports medicine and with a strong domestic U.S. consumer base, Biofreeze is a proven product that we can develop both domestically and internationally. Overall, moves like this, exiting a slower growth business and investing carefully in bolt-on brands that can accelerate growth are the sort of things you'll see us do more of in the future. And with that, I will hand this over to Jeff to run you through the numbers.

Thank you, Laxman. As you've seen, group like-for-like revenues were up strongly at 11.8%. Hygiene, with broad-based growth across most brands, grew by 19.5% in the year and Health, driven by Dettol, Gaviscon and improving Durex performance, grew by 12.1%. Nutrition was unchanged for the year with IFCN down 4% like-for-like, while the vitamins, mineral and supplements category grew by 32%. The growth across the group was volume-driven, with total volumes up 9.6%, and a key driver of growth has been our investments in e-commerce, which grew sales by 56% and now represents 12% of group revenues. Like-for-like revenue growth in the fourth quarter was 10.2%, with a very strong Hygiene growth and as we'll discuss later, Health impacted by a weak 2020/'21 cold and flu season. Looking at overall group performance. Let me first point to net revenues at GBP 14 billion. They were up year-on-year by 8.9% at actual exchange rates, which gives a foreign exchange headwind of 2.9% in the year. However, despite this, we added GBP 1.1 billion of revenue in the year. Of course, this was impacted by COVID, but the growth was broad-based. Lysol and Dettol grew as consumers sought out our trusted disinfection solutions, but both brands also gained significant market share in their major markets. Also, Finish grew with the benefit of more home nesting, but again, outperformed the market and grew share. Many brands, including Gaviscon, Veet, Cillit Bang, saw strong growth, and there were elements like OTC and IFCN which have been negatively impacted by COVID. Gross margins were down by 20 basis points at 60.3% due to COVID costs, product mix changes, price investments and stock write-downs, which just offset the significant benefits from productivity savings and some modest leverage benefits. Brand marketing, BEI, while down as a margin percentage by 50 basis points due to the unprecedented growth, was up in absolute terms by 7% or GBP 138 million at constant exchange rates. And after adjusting for productivity gains, our gross BEI investment was up around GBP 200 million in 2020. Other costs increased by 290 basis points. As previously discussed, 100 basis points was due to the realignment of 2019 variable pay to normalized levels. The remaining 190 basis points relates to the onetime transformation costs and investments in growth enablers such as R&D and quality and other go-to-market capabilities. Adjusted operating profit of GBP 3.301 billion reflects a 23.6% margin, down 260 basis points versus last year, but in absolute terms, up 0.7% at constant rates and down 2% at actual rates. Reported operating profit for the year was GBP 2.160 billion, and this includes a GBP 985 million impairment charge on IFCN goodwill. Our underlying plans for IFCN remains strong. We see significant margin recovery in 2021 due to the elimination of various onetime charges taken in 2020 and the strong productivity program which is in place. And supported by new product launches such as Adult Nutrition and the expansion of Specialty Nutrition, we expect midterm revenue growth of 3% to 5%. However, in 2020, the underlying margins of IFCN have been impacted due to the volatility relating to COVID-19 and the uncertainties this creates, such as the timing of the removal of cross-border trade restrictions between Hong Kong and Mainland China. Therefore, we've increased the pretax discount rate used to determine the value in use related to IFCN and reflecting these uncertainties, and this has resulted in the impairment. This next chart walks us through the margin bridge, focused on activities such as leverage, productivity and investments from the 26.2% in 2019 to 23.6% in 2020. First, let me emphasize, when normalizing the 2019 margins by 100 basis points for variable pay, i.e., at plan levels, and excluding the onetime of life transformation costs a further 90 basis points, the net movement year-on-year is 70 basis points. I've broken this out into 4 buckets: operating leverage, COVID and other costs, productivity and investments. I'll spend a few moments on each bucket, and then I'll cover investments and productivity in more detail on the next 2 charts. Operating leverage generated 300 basis points upside to group margins. This represents a flow-through of 63%, less than we explained at the half year, since I've included variable pay as an offset to volume leverage. Next, COVID and other costs are 240 basis points in the year. This represents 80 basis points or GBP 120 million of direct COVID related costs, some adverse mix effects and a number of one-off items, including the inventory write-downs related to the Hong Kong IFCN business and the Mexican dryer change over in the first half of the year. Productivity across all P&L categories delivered 280 basis points or GBP 407 million of benefits and finally, investments were 410 basis points or 500 basis points when added to the onetime costs, equivalent to a total of GBP 745 million invested in 2020. One last point I'd like to highlight on this chart, excluding the 90 basis points of onetime finite-life costs, which we expect to mostly fall away in 2022, our group margin in 2020 would have been 24.5%, close to our midterm target margin of mid-20s. So moving on, I'd like to dive into the 500 basis points in investments in more detail. We've classified these into 4 areas. In the first group, we have our growth enablers. These are core capability investments in key areas needed to deliver and sustain mid single-digit growth. Let me expand on just 2 examples. In R&D and quality, we've invested around GBP 50 million in 2020, upgrading and intensifying key areas in science and technology across all business units. And the focus is on creating innovation and supporting new product developments. One area of specific investment is OTC, where we are doubling our overall R&D spend. And we're already seeing signs of the positive returns with new product launches such as the first 12-hour release ibuprofen with Nurofen Long Lasting. My second example is in sales execution. We built up our sales capabilities and developed a sales center of excellence. And together, these have invested some GBP 35 million in people and capabilities to drive better customer engagement with a more consistent approach to senior leadership, improved analytics to support promotions and standardized playbooks that embed a stronger service culture at all levels in our business. There'll be further investments in these growth enablers in 2021 as we embed the investments and start to see an acceleration of the returns. The second area of investment is in competitiveness. This is principally price investments. The overall investment of GBP 153 million is in line with our original expectations and addresses the key competitive concerns we set out last February. The third area of investment are the growth drivers. This includes incremental marketing spend to support the sustainable growth of Lysol and Dettol with increased penetration and moves into new spaces and new places. This also includes investment to set up and drive GBS, Global Business Services, which, as we've highlighted, will contribute around 1% to growth in 2021 and further investments in ERB, which, as we've said, grew at a rate of 56% in 2020. The fourth and final area is the finite-life or onetime transformation costs. These have been reported within our adjusted operating profit definition and not below the line. These are costs needed to transform RB from RB of 2019 to the RB of 2022 and beyond. They include cost to set up our productivity program, the initial setup of GBS, plus the implementation of our operating model with 3 global business units supported by the centers of excellence and global functions. As I've said, these onetime costs will remain around the same level in 2021 before largely falling away in 2022, a key element of our bridge to mid-20s margins. The final point is on productivity, our productivity program. I'm delighted in 2020 that we exceeded our internal targets, and that has given us confidence to raise our 3-year goal from GBP 1.3 billion to GBP 1.6 billion. This means in 2021, we'll need to deliver over GBP 600 million productivity savings, a significant challenge, but one I'm confident we can deliver on. As we've discussed at the half year, there are thousands of individual initiatives contributing to this program, spreading the execution risk and ensuring all parts of the business embed productivity into their long term mindset. Savings from the productivity program will continue to fund our growth initiatives, but they are also needed to offset increasing commodity price and transportation inflation and ongoing COVID costs in 2021. Now let me move on and look at each of our 3 operating segments in turn, starting with Hygiene. As you can see, the progression of revenue growth by quarter has been outstanding. And remember, in quarter 1 2020, we had 2 months with no COVID impact and a very strong March. In the fourth quarter, Hygiene grew like-for-like revenues 25.7% as we continue to increase supply capacity for Lysol both internally and with co-pack partners, and we expect to see supply capacity in line with demand around the middle of 2021. Overall in the year, Lysol grew over 70% and importantly, gained market share in all major markets, including U.S. However, the full year growth was broad-based. Finish and Cillit Bang were up double digits. Airwick, Mortein, Veja and Harpic all grew strongly. We made significant investments in our Hygiene business unit in 2020, not least in e-commerce, digital and UBS. However, these were more than offset by strong leverage and productivity resulting in margins of 25.9% for the year, up 50 basis points versus last year. Our Health business unit has also performed strongly, with like-for-like revenue growth of 12.1% in the year. Breaking that down, Dettol has grown over 50% in the year, with strong share gains in its major markets. Pleasingly, Durex has grown revenues in the year despite a challenging first half due to social distancing rules in many markets. The positive trend in the second half for Durex has been pronounced, for example, in China, where we launched our polyurethane ultra-thin condom in October. The quarterly trends are reflective of the COVID impact on our Health business, specifically OTC where strong pantry loading took place at the end of the first quarter, which unwound during quarter 2 and quarter 3. In the fourth quarter, the impact of the weak cough, cold and flu season has been significant. Overall, OTC like-for-like revenues were down 3% for the full year and just over 20% in the fourth quarter, in line with the market. Mucinex, for example, was down significantly in the fourth quarter, but held share. Other areas of our OTC portfolio performed well in the year. Gaviscon, for example, delivered strong revenue growth. Margins at 27.3% were down 340 basis points, reflecting the investments in growth capability and the transformation previously discussed. Total adjusted operating profit at GBP 1.3 billion was in line with 2019 at constant currency. Moving on to Nutrition. Total net revenue was GBP 3.3 billion with like-for-like revenues unchanged versus the prior year. VMS was up 32% due to strong growth from Neuriva and Airborne, while IFCN was down 4% in the year, largely due to the COVID related closure of the Hong Kong border and the significant reduction in cross-border sales. Elsewhere, IFCN sales, for example, in North America, grew just under 5%, with innovations such as NeuroPro contributing to the successful year. Operating margins were disappointing at 14.1% for the year, down significantly versus the prior year. Adjusting for onetime transformation costs and the variable pay headwinds, margins were down 500 basis points, of which one-off items such as inventory write-downs, accounted for around 50%, with the balance being due to the mix effect of the reduced Hong Kong sales, which are at higher margin. Looking forward, we expect to see margins improve in 2021 and '22 due to the elimination of the onetime charges and transformation costs, along with further productivity savings. Turning to earnings per share. Adjusted EPS was 327p in 2020, significantly higher than we originally guided in February last year. Adjusting for foreign exchange headwinds in 2020, and the one-off tax and interest benefits in 2019, EPS was broadly flat year-on-year. Let's move on to free cash flow. Certainly, 2020 has been an exceptional year with free cash flow at GBP 3.1 billion and free cash flow conversion at 131%. I must caution this, however: there has been a COVID benefit to working capital inflows, which were GBP 895 million in the year. We do anticipate this will partially unwind during 2021. That said, the outcome will be that free cash flow conversion for the 2 years, 2020 and '21, will remain very strong. Included in our guidance is an increase in our capital expenditure as we continue to invest in growth and increase supply chain resilience. As a result, we expect the capital expenditure will grow from GBP 396 million in 2019, GBP 476 million in 2020 to over GBP 500 million in 2021, around 4% of net revenue. With strong free cash flow, we've seen a significant reduction in net debt, down from GBP 10.7 billion in 2019 to GBP 9 billion at the end of 2020. Consequently, leverage has been reduced significantly from 2.9x to 2.4x net debt to adjusted EBITDA. Turning to capital allocation. We've delivered against the capital allocation framework set out a year ago in February 2020. We've delivered strong free cash flow conversion. We've reinvested our outperformance to drive growth. We strengthened our balance sheet and improved our key leverage metrics. In line with what we said a year ago, we're proposing a dividend payout at 174.6p per share, unchanged from 2019. And based on the key criteria of growth potential, return on capital and fit, we're continuing to take steps to actively manage our portfolio. Turning to guidance, and looking forward to 2021. We started the year well, and Q1 is likely to be strong as we lap the pre-COVID months of 2020. So set against an 11.8% growth in 2020, we expect our business to grow in 2021, with like-for-like net revenue growth of between flat to 2%. On margin, we're continuing to invest in line with our plans, and we expect to see the full year effect of these investments come through in 2021. As a result, our guidance is broadly unchanged, with adjusted operating margins expected to be between 40 and 90 basis points lower in 2021 than 2020. On a couple of more technical points, we expect net financing expenses to be around 3% of average net debt, slightly higher than 2020 due to the planning ahead of significant bond redemptions in 2022, and we anticipate our effective tax rate should be unchanged at around 23%. Additionally, we continue to see a stronger pound impacting foreign exchange translation. In January, we published guidance of a 4% foreign exchange headwind on EPS; that was assuming rates remained unchanged. We provide a further update on FX in April prior to our first quarter release. But year-to-date trends are worsening, and we could be looking at stronger FX headwinds. Overall, a strong performance in 2020, as you've seen, and a positive outlook for 2021 as we lock in the gains we've made and invest to secure our mid-term goals. Thank you. And now I'm going to hand back to Laxman.

Thank you, Jeff. Over the next while, I want to walk you through a number of things. I'll provide some insight into the consumer trends affecting our business and how these are being impacted by COVID. I'll provide a reminder of our overarching strategy. I will then walk through our progress against our growth drivers and growth enablers, following on from what Jeff showed you on areas of investment. Finally, we'll describe how we are preparing the business for the long term. First, our portfolio is anchored on and significantly impacted by 5 undeniable global megatrends. These megatrends have been amplified by COVID, and therefore, the underlying growth across our 3 businesses. Additionally, our portfolio is favorably positioned for both a transitionary world as we recover from COVID as well as for the medium to long-term when COVID becomes endemic, which further amplifies these fundamental megatrends that support our growth expectations. In other words, our portfolio benefits, both today as well as benefits in the years to come. It is clear that we have benefited from increased penetration of our disinfectant products, and we believe this will continue for reasons I will come on to. In addition, we are seeing growth in demand for specialty nutrition and immunity, another preventative area that we believe will continue to strengthen. And COVID has brought about a generational step change in online engagement and transactions. But COVID has also had an adverse impact on our portfolio in a number of ways, as social restrictions have led to weaker cold and flu season, impacted birth rates, and reduced demand for sexual well-being products. However, these are transitory. To understand the pace of recovery in these parts of the business, we monitor 4 factors. One, the vaccination rollouts as well as the emergence of new variants; 2, the degree to which the pandemic has been managed in local jurisdictions to lower spreading; 3, the reopening of schools, with which we expect to see cases of the common cold and flu rise; and 4, the return of mobility and socializing, which drives new demand spaces, example, hygiene out-of-home; sustains the rediscovered positives of staying at home, example, family meals; and socializing, which is already driving a recovery in a number of the markets within our sexual well-being business. Therefore, we believe that our portfolio is robustly constructed for both the short-term as well as for the long term. Looking at the hygiene habit specifically, consumer behavior has markedly changed as a result of the pandemic. And as I told you last year, behavioral science says that our habits stick after 66 days of exposure. We are seeing the proof of that right now. 85% of people tell us that they have improved their hygiene habits as a result of COVID. And crucially, 79% of people tell us they expect that these changes will stick. Take the example of China. 86% of people are currently telling us that they are washing their hands more than before the crisis. That is down only 4 percentage points from the peak. A similar dynamic is true in Australia, and we see it in our business results. We're also closely studying Israel and consumers appear desirous of high levels of hygiene despite vaccination. And this benefits not just our disinfectant portfolio. Many also tell us that they will stay at home more, which impacts our brands used at home. And in very small pockets, we do see the evidence that mobility drives a positive uptick to our cough, cold and flu businesses. As I said earlier, our portfolio is constructed to operate well with COVID as well as without COVID. All of this confirms our view that we operate across 3 very attractive growing segments united by a common purpose. Benefiting from our focused growth-led investments, we are confident that we will be able to achieve sustainable mid single-digit revenue growth and mid-20s margins. Let me talk more about how our progress this year reinforces this confidence. As we've set out previously, there are 4 key growth drivers we are focused on across our businesses and portfolio, driving greater product penetration, market share optimization, developing new places and channels and opening up new spaces and adjacencies. We are executing against clear plans with pace. Let me take you through a few examples of what we've already achieved, starting with Hygiene. First, I gave you the example of Harpic India this time last year when we pointed to the 600 basis points increase in penetration versus 2018, thanks to a behavior-led marketing campaign. Over the past year, this has increased by a further 860 basis points or the equivalent of nearly 30 million households. Harpic is now in over 100 million households in India alone. We've performed strongly in market share, having held or gained share in 70% of our top CMUs with several delivering exceptional share gains. Alongside Lysol and Finish, a great example is Mortein where we have dramatically improved our position, led by improved product innovation and better marketing execution. And innovation is taking us to new spaces with the likes of Lysol Smart, a sustainably focused product, and Lysol Pet, our first venture into a new targeted market for Lysol. Overall, our Hygiene business should grow around 4% to 5% as we expect to outperform a larger and faster-growing market for disinfection. This is ahead of the pre-pandemic rates of 4% as we benefit from our investments to grow internationally and in new channels. Turning to Health and first, OTC. We dealt with challenges of misinformation related to Nurofen and then the impact of lockdowns and social distancing. But these are transitory phenomenon. Nurofen market shares have recovered well. And while we are still seeing a weak cough and cold flu season, there is no reason to assume an end to these viruses medium term. Behind the scenes though, we've been making very good progress. Overall, 85% of our top health CMUs by revenue have held or gained share in the year across the health GBU. Gaviscon, for example, has had a very strong year with double-digit revenue growth taking over 100 basis points share as it continues to execute against well-established go-to-market models. With Strepsils, we're entering Vietnam and the Philippines and strengthened our position in Turkey with Strepsils Herbals. And of course, we continue to enter new spaces, an example being the Mucinex Fast-Max All-In-One, which was recognized as the top 25 breakthrough innovation in this year's U.S. Nielsen BASES Awards. Moving on to sexual wellbeing. The category was inevitably impacted by lockdown due to the reduction in social interactions, but our focus on our direct-to-consumer offerings with ultrafast partnerships with Glovo, Deliveroo and Ocado Zoom meant that we were able to reverse this throughout the year and ultimately grew revenue by 9% in Q4. We see a rich area of opportunities for future growth. We will continue to strengthen our range of partnerships to help educate young people and shape long-term attitudes and behaviors. Innovation and product changes related to fit and consistent orientation all linked to consumer insights have helped drive strong share gains. This is particularly true in China, where the launch of the new PU condom in October helped drive 140 basis points of share gain in the condom market. And finally, you will see us continue to enter new spaces. Last month, we bought Queen V, a feminine sexual wellness brand based in California and focused on vaginal health. Combining opportunities for share gains and new space, we see sexual well-being as a business which can grow high single digits per annum and contribute meaningfully to our overall expectations for growth in the health business. Finally, moving to Nutrition. We have had good successes delivering against our growth drivers here also. Neuriva, the adult nutrition brand launched in 2019 and focused around brain health, has shown significant penetration growth over the past year. In the U.S., in a competitive market, successful innovation and marketing with our NeuroPro product has meant we have defended our share position well in Enfa and delivered significant growth online. And as we've said before, a key contributor to Nutrition growth going forward will be the continued expansion into the adult health segment. During the year, we entered the China elderly nutrition market, a market worth around GBP 1 billion, which is showing double-digit growth. This is innovation-led and underpinned by the science capabilities we have in the broader Mead Johnson business, along with the highly respected Mead Johnson brand in China. Along with growth in VMS, we expect innovation and entry into new spaces to be a key contributor to the overall growth rates for Nutrition going forward and continue to see this as a business which can grow in the region of 3% to 5%. Let's turn now to eRB. As we've already said, we grew 56% year-on-year in e-commerce. This is now a very sizable business, representing around 12% of total growth revenue. This is not just about sales moving online during the pandemic, it is much more fundamental. As you know, we break the business into what we call Be Big, our omnichannel business, Be Fast, our direct-to-consumer business, and Be Bold & Open, which is our venture capital, partnership and open innovation model. We have seen good success across each of these. Our revenue growth has been broad-based with our direct-to-consumer business growing even more faster than Be Big. We continue to invest significantly in eRB, including building on our business-to-business footprint. Before I move on to talk about the investment and the enablers of growth, let me talk a little bit about the new places we are bringing our disinfectant portfolio. We expect significant geographic expansion to continue. This is already well progressed. And by the end of 2021, we will have entered a total of 70 markets with Lysol and Dettol compared to 2019. The majority of these entries are white space opportunities where neither Lysol or Dettol operated previously. Pre-COVID, for example, we had no presence in disinfection in Brazil, Turkey and Vietnam. And we had limited presence in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. However, consumers want to feel safe, not only in their own homes, but also in public spaces. As I mentioned earlier, our research is showing that consumers want their workspaces, accommodation, hospitality venues and public transport to not only be clean but be visibly clean, backed by brands they trust. We are, therefore, partnering with owners and operators of such venues to help provide appropriate reassurance to their customers. Established just last year, our GBS business is growing rapidly, and there is clear momentum behind new contracts. For example, we are very pleased to have recently announced a new partnership with British Airways. And we will later today announce a partnership with a football association in England. We expect this momentum to continue and expect GBS to deliver around 100 basis points of contribution to group growth in 2021, and it should represent around 8% of our disinfection portfolio by the end of this year. I want to be clear, however, that we expect this to be a sustainable business. This is a business which has been established directly as a result of COVID, but will endure post pandemic. More than just selling product to our partners, we're integrating ourselves into their protocols, helping them solve long-term challenges related to hygiene and cleaning on their premises. We told you we were focused on growth. And to do that successfully and sustainably, the growth enablers are key. As Jeff referenced earlier, we invested GBP 208 million in 2020 in these areas as part of our record GBP 745 million investment. Let's start with R&D and innovation. Last year, I signaled that returning to our innovation-led growth heritage was strategically important for the rejuvenation of sustainable growth at RB. We have increased our focus here. And in 2021, we will invest around 35% more than we did in 2019. Key to our success will be the investments we are making in science platforms. Here, we are making a fivefold increase in investment, which is funding the hiring of high-caliber scientists, engineers and technical professionals as well as enabling technologies. These science platforms, the 8 areas detailed at the bottom of the slide, will deepen our capabilities in areas like the microbiome, polymer science, digestive health and surface chemistry. They will span all the GBUs and work across a number of consumer needs like immunity, digestive health and pain relief, just a few examples that are shown here. Previously, we were product-led rather than consumer need driven and operated often with siloed approaches rather than leveraging shared resources and insight. For example, our work in polymer science will take place almost entirely within our Durex team. Now they are joined up teams working in close collaboration with the Durex team to ensure they are solving the most important consumer problems. I'm very confident that this strategic change will allow us to make truly game-changing innovations around the small incremental moves of recent years. Much of this investment will provide a long-term step change in our R&D capabilities, which will provide sustainable benefits over a number of years, and we expect the proportion of growth from differentiated new products and solutions to increase over time. But a number of tangible results have already been achieved. Our microbiome and polymer science platforms supported the development of Lysol Smart, creating a new segment of disruptive innovation. This is a new multipurpose cleaner with a smart refill system that can reuse up to 20 times, reducing plastic usage by 70% with minimal effort from the consumer. In OTC, deploying the platforms of surface and polymer science, we've launched the first of its kind, 12-hour sustained release ibuprofen solution, Nurofen Long Lasting, enabling controlled fast and lasting relief. And in Nutrition, we have the launch of an entirely new category for RB in the area of adult nutrition in China. ProVital Immunity is just 1 example in a range of new adult nutrition solutions, building on the deep science of MJN and connecting across the full life space of human nutrition from infant to adult. Looking across the innovation pipeline, there is a significant sustainability component to what we are doing. With Lysol On the Go, we have Lysol Pet, we have Botanical Origin, Lysol and Dettol laundry sanitizers and our dedicated business solutions products, our ongoing response to the rapidly evolving consumer demand is clear. We're also addressing the sexual health crisis with our thinnest condoms that are more appeal to non-condom users and we are addressing consumers of all ages with our nutritional launches. Our pipeline is already bigger and stronger than a year ago, touching all 3 GBUs and has broad geographic relevance. There is much more to come on R&D, including our approach to partnering with leaders from around the world. We are on a good path, and you will hear more directly from the team on this later in the year. Turning next to supply chain investment, another of our growth enablers. Much of the year has been focused upon our response to the demands created by COVID, but we have worked hard to improve the underlying capacity and resilience of our supply chain. We've begun to make material expansion upgrades to a number of our lines, with Gaviscon production in Hull, for example, planned to be up 60% in 2021 compared to 2019. We've also made changes to reflect our growth opportunities. Our emerging direct-to-consumer and GBS businesses have particular supply chain requirements, and we've invested in technology, increasingly employing cutting-edge technology to help with real-time forecasting. And of course, every 1 of our decisions here are looked at through the lens of sustainability and the impact our supply chain is having on the environment. All of these actions will allow us to improve our product fill rates, our ability to reliably and consistently provide our customers with a product they need and when they need it. Moving to customer service. We have made strong improvements here. We have made organizational changes with the creation of a dedicated senior global and regional Chief Customer Officer roles and have created a center of excellence, where we've added around 100 new customer-facing roles to strengthen our customer coverage. This has already made a noticeable difference to our customers. According to the Advantage survey, an annual survey of retailers, we're now considered top-tier for personnel and organization, and overall, we have progressed 9 places compared to 2019. There is more to do, particularly in the area of supply chain, but this is a material externally validated improvement. A year ago, I said I wanted to build on the best of RB's culture, the strong performance orientation and can-do attitude, but also to embed a new sense of purpose and new leadership behaviors and would put doing the right thing always at the heart of our business. Our purpose and fight, which we set out this time last year, has never been more relevant than during the pandemic. Our more than 40,000 employees have worked tirelessly to enable people across the world to make their environments and themselves cleaner and healthier. Additionally, we have during 2021 redefined our leadership behaviors, providing a practical guide of how we expect our leaders to guide their work, embedding a strong cultural change across the business. On the community front, a healthier world was certainly a worldwide ambition throughout 2020 as we all try to cope with the pandemic. Many communities where we work needed greater support. And so we launched and mobilized our Fight For Access Fund with an annual commitment of the equivalent of 1% of our net operating profit to help. We mobilized more than GBP 40 million in support of communities around the world impacted by COVID-19, with more than 20 projects across 41 countries. For example, providing care packages to frontline health care workers in the U.K., supporting hygiene education in disadvantaged school districts in the U.S., partnering with UNAIDS to support disadvantaged communities living with HIV in Africa so they could protect themselves, working with the UN to ensure mothers had access to prenatal care and could protect themselves against COVID while being pregnant in countries like Mexico and the Philippines, donating 10 million bottles of Dettol soap in India for vulnerable communities along with donations of product Lysol and Harpic, and GBP 1 million to the International Rescue Committee's frontline COVID response with refugees and vulnerable communities in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. These are but a few of the ways we played our part. This year has also seen us deliver on our goals for 2020 and increasingly dial up our ESG performance. More than 30% of net revenue came from more sustainable products, measured using our sustainable innovation calculator. This unique tool helps us measure the performance of our product in terms of their carbon and water footprints and the packaging and ingredients they use. It enable us to benefit from increasing expectations of consumers and our customers for more sustainable products. One area for work here is delivering on our plastics pledge, such that all our packaging is recyclable. We use less plastic and we cost effectively include recycled materials. This also mitigates the impacts of emerging tax regimes on plastics in more than 90 countries. There are several examples in our portfolio of how we have worked this, but the impact of more sustainable products goes beyond packaging. Finish's Stop the Rinse (sic) [ Skip the Rinse ] campaign saves dishwater users large amounts of water, 700 million liters so far in Australia, and with similar campaigns being rolled out globally, for example, in the U.S., Turkey and the U.K. Durex is making a material contribution to individual consumers to protect against STIs and HIV, AIDS. But when we considered this specifically to a market in Thailand, we saw the contribution that Durex was making to the wider public health agenda in excess of GBP 120 million annually. In pursuit of our climate change commitments and our goal of accelerating delivery of our science-based targets to support the Paris Climate Agreement, we've surpassed our 2020 target of a 40% reduction, and in fact, reduced carbon per product by 53% relative to our 2012 baseline. All our manufacturing sites in the U.S., Europe and India are only buying renewable power. Around 2/3 of all the electricity we now buy is renewable. We've also established the Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute with a $25 million commitment to promote science-based evidence to improve hygiene behaviors. What this all adds up to is increasing our ESG performance overall. We have improved our sustainalytics score from 23.5 now down to 20.9 in the past 2 years and think there is more to come as we continue our purpose-led growth and the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world. Looking forward, we are further embedding sustainability into our core business as an enabler and driver of future growth. More sustainable products will meet a consumer demand and planetary need. They will provide more than half our revenue by 2030 and also reduce our environmental and chemical footprint and our use of plastic. We're accelerating combating climate change and tackling water stress where it matters most. Our ambition is to be carbon neutral by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris accord. And we're working towards a fairer, more inclusive and diverse society as an employer and in our value chains through our suppliers, but also through our brands and how they communicate. As an example, while we have gender-balanced management ranks, our ambition is to have gender balance across all levels of management by 2030. Most important is the impact we create on people's lives through our purpose-led brands. Our aim for 2030 is to reach half the world with products that contribute to a cleaner, healthier world, engaging 2 billion people in our partnerships, our programs and campaigns that build awareness and help create a positive impact on society. Our Fight For Access Fund will play an important part, but this is led by our brands, and will make a real contribution to meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. You'll hear more about these ambitions at the end of March, and then over the course of the year. Bringing this all together, I've talked to you about how our portfolio is constructed against our 5 global megatrends, and how it is robust for a world with and without COVID with lasting positive changes resulting from the pandemic. I've talked to you about the growth drivers for each of the 3 GBUs, the accelerating growth we are seeing in eRB and the additional contribution of growth that we will deliver through GBS. I've also talked about our growth enablers, our investments in R&D and the breadth of our innovation and the strengthening of our supply chains to better meet demand and improve customer service. We've made the largest investment in our history in our capabilities to drive growth. Finally, I've talked to you about how we are continually developing our agenda on sustainability and on our social commitments. All of this, alongside a year of record investment, is underpinning our overall group revenue and margin targets, with continued work on our portfolio to reposition the company for the long term. With that, I'm going to close where I started with 4 messages. First, our performance in 2020 was very strong, particularly compared to our original expectations and given the challenging environment that has affected us all. Second, 2020 was a year of record investment in growth-led initiatives to build a great house in a great neighborhood. Third, we expect continued growth in 2021 across brands, geographies and channels, locking in the progress we made in 2020. And finally, we have increased confidence in our ability to achieve our medium-term targets. Our underlying growth will accelerate as the record levels of investment take hold while margins will benefit as finite-life costs fall away in 2022. The world's need for the hygiene, health and nutrition support we provide has never been greater and will continue to grow. And I'd like to extend my deep gratitude again to the RB team that makes this happen every single day. Thank you. And Jeff and I will be glad to take any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Richard Taylor at Morgan Stanley.

Just 2 questions from me this morning. The first one, I think I'm right in thinking that you've increased capacity for Lysol over the last 12 months by around 2.5x. So are you now where you need to be on Lysol in terms of capacity? And are you fully meeting demand? And then the second one is just on the variable cost guidance. You say in the statement that there are around 170 basis points of ongoing costs and finite-life costs, which should mostly unwind in '22. You said in the prepared remarks that underlying margins ex costs would have been 24.5% in 2020. You've also said previously that there's 100 basis points of pulse investments, which will come off in '22. So assuming that '21 ends up around 23% margins, what should we be assuming the starting point is for '22 roughly?

Richard, it's Laxman here. Let me take the first question, and then I'll hand the second question over to Jeff. On the first question, the team has done yeoman work in terms of both investing in capacity and also bringing online a range of co-packers that had fulfilled a tremendous upsurge in demand that we have seen. We continue to increase capacity as we go. And my sense is that by the middle of this year, we will be in a much better place where there will be supply demand balance. And with that, let me hand it over to you, Jeff, for the second question that Richard has.

Yes. Thanks a lot, Laxman. Thanks, Richard, for the question. Yes, look, we've been very clear. I -- if you look at the onetime costs, they're running at around 90 basis points. They were 90 basis points in 2020, and that'll be at around the same level in 2021. We also have COVID costs this year at 80 basis points, and we expect COVID costs to largely continue into 2021. So clearly, there's a clear path to margin improvement. And for margins to improve towards the mid-20s level, which we said by the mid-20s, so combined, if there was no COVID costs in '22, with the onetime costs, which was obviously something we plan to eliminate in '22, you could add something of 170 basis points. Now that's not a guidance for 2022, but it gives you the idea of the level of those variable costs in 2020.

We'll take the next question from the line of Celine Pannuti, please.

My first question is on IFCN. You have initiated a strategic review on the China business. Can you give us a bit more detail of what you are looking to achieve? And how confident you feel about the rest of the geographies in IFCN? And relating to that and write-down, the further write-down that you have made on IFCN today on the Mead acquisition. Which kind of margin level in the midterm you feel is appropriate since you mentioned you are not happy with the performance this year? And then my second question is on your guide of 0% to 2% like-for-like for this year. There is a 1% contribution from DvM. Could you give us an idea of the building blocks, maybe by divisions or whether you could share with us what kind of margin -- sorry, top line pressure in Hygiene you are looking at for Lysol and Dettol?

Celine, I'll take the first part of the question and then hand it over to Jeff to handle the other 2 parts that you raised. So the first on the IFCN, I just want to go -- I'll give you a tour of the business. As you know, it's part of our Nutrition business overall. If you look at our Nutrition business outside of IFCN Greater China, it grew at the high end of the single-digits growth. Truly, that business includes not just the IFCN businesses in ASEAN, Latin America and the U.S. It also includes our vitamins, minerals and supplements business. And it includes our new entry into senior and adult nutrition. Just our IFCN business in North America grew mid-single digits last year. When you look at our share performance, our share performance in the Americas was strong. And as I said before, our work in Latin America -- sorry, our work in ASEAN is full work in progress. We have made changes, and we're seeing sequential improvement, but we're not at the stage yet fully yet where I feel it's where it needs to be, but work is going in. And there's real opportunities particularly as you look at e-commerce as well as if you look at adult nutrition in the business in ASEAN, we see a lot of potential. So just on to the Greater China business by itself, I'll break this up into Mainland China and Hong Kong. If you look at Mainland China, last year, Johnson was largely flat in terms of share in Mainland China. We grew share in e-commerce. We grew share in growth rate. And if you look at just the multinational players by themselves, we grew share in the multinational category by itself. It just so happens that the multinational [Technical Difficulty] share to the domestic competitors. What this [Technical Difficulty] of course, is that there is a structural issue in Mainland China, particularly with regard to smaller tier cities and NBS. The other uncertainty and volatility that we have faced in this last year is the situation in Hong Kong. It started towards the end of 2019, but in 2020, particularly driven by COVID, we've had an issue with regard to cross-border. So as you know, it's quite an important part -- business for us and just in 2020, we saw over a 35% decline in cross-border trade in Hong Kong. We also have to write off inventory that we had in Hong Kong because of time delay because these were products that were there, but they couldn't be sold because the entire cross-border trade was shut. And that, in effect, given the uncertainty and the volatility that we face, particularly with regard to Hong Kong, we felt it appropriate to recognize the accounting adjustment that we made. Now to that end, as I look at the strategic review that is underway in Greater China, we have a terrific team, a brand that is extremely well recognized in China, given it has been there over the years, and e-commerce capability that is very strong and is actually quite evident with the kind of share gains that we see, so we do see a need to understand and underscore some of these strategic and structural challenges that do exist in Mainland China, and that is part of what we are doing as part of the strategic review. I don't want to prejudice or presuppose any outcome, and we'll keep you informed as we go. Our new products that we've introduced in Mainland China are doing better than a lot of the other competitor launches. So we feel good about that as well. And as you know, we've just entered adult nutrition, as I mentioned in the presentation, in Mainland China. And so with that, I'd like to hand this over to Jeff. He can provide you with the answers to the 2 other questions that you raised. Jeff?

Thanks a lot, Laxman and Celine. In terms of the margins, I think clearly we see a low point in 2020 and I'd expect margins with the elimination of the one-off items and the opening of the Hong Kong Chinese border to improve in '21 and '22 as they go back towards more historic levels as you see in 2019, which is slightly above 20%. So I expect to see a recovery in margins back towards those levels over the midterm. The second question was around the guidance of 0% to 2%. I'm not going to get into specifics by GBU. Obviously, we've given that guidance. We do have in the guidance some assumptions on, for example, a flu season in 2021-'22 in the second half of this year. And obviously, the guidance is dependent upon certain factors. But what we do have in the portfolio is a natural hedge. So if we were to see a much lower flu season in '21-'22, then clearly, we have a natural hedge with that -- with the sales of Lysol and Dettol, for example. So all in all, we feel that the guidance of 0% to 2% is balanced. It's at the right level, and we feel confident that it's the right guidance for the year. But I'm not going to get into specific breakouts by business units.

Maybe can I just follow-up on that? Is it possible to understand when you launch into new countries, what you highlighted in Hygiene, the size of that opportunity?

I'll give you 1 -- I'll give you a few -- sorry, Jeff, if I could -- if you look at Brazil as 1 example, just the entry into Brazil over the course of the year, what you see is aided awareness for Lysol in Brazil is already north of 40% or so. In addition, if you just look at the share position we've gained, it's already about 15%. We continue to see strong search terms around Lysol in markets like Brazil. Those are clearly opportunities. We have entered a whole bunch of other markets too, including in Eastern Europe that we haven't been in. And if I just go back to the premise of your question, 1 of the things that I said at the presentation is the fact that we have increased penetration systematically worldwide in the Lysol brand, and we feel very good about that. Some of our heaviest users have certainly increased frequency. As we look across the board, what we are doing though is understanding that over time, frequency might mute a bit given what you saw with the data that we showed you on China and Australia and some of these other countries that we're also studying quite closely. We're broadening the shoulders of this brand, including new occasions that you could get to, particularly as consumers go out more but still want that trust, but we're also looking at new markets. And we continue to look at innovation more broadly to broaden our portfolio. So that in a nutshell is how we think about the Lysol and Dettol expansion.

Excellent. Why don't we move on and take -- thank you, Celine. We'll take the next question from the line of Tom Sykes.

Just firstly, you detailed some one-offs this year. And obviously, you've given the one-offs in IFCN in the fourth quarter. But I guess this year, given the operational gearing, is probably a year in which things -- it's a good idea to put things through the P&L if they need to be incurred. Is it possible to give a sort of aggregate one-off number that isn't part of the investments and part of the finite transformation costs and is that meaningfully above sort of the GBP 40 million plus, say, the dryer costs and legal that you mentioned before? And then just on, I suppose, following on the disinfectant question is the demographics of who you're targeting there. Obviously, the risk that different demographics will see is slightly different. And how that affects the go-to-market strategy that you have and the targeting that you have? Is it more older consumers? And is that where you're seeing the stickiness in the usage and the frequency, particularly in the disinfectant brands and how that affects the growth outlook for those, please?

So Jeff, you...

Well, why don't I start, Tom, with the one-offs, and I'll hand over the question to Laxman. I think in the presentation, we showed quite a detailed margin bridge. And within that margin bridge, there was 240 basis points related to COVID and other costs. We mentioned that the COVID costs were 80 basis points. And we talked about a relatively small adverse mix of around 40 basis points. I'd say the balance of that -- of the classification, 120 basis points is broadly kind of one-offs, which have impacted this year. It includes the IFCN write-off that we talked about in Hong Kong, it includes the impact of the delicious dryer change in the first half. And we also mentioned some one-off legal costs that we incurred at the half. So that gives you an understanding of the size and the nature of the one-off items. I'll hand over now to Laxman to talk about the demographics of disinfection.

On your question, Tom, I think it obviously varies across the world. What we are seeing is greater penetration in markets that are more developed like the U.S. but also in some of the more emerging and developing markets, we are seeing a broad base of penetration. If you just take digital in China as 1 example, it's a -- our Dettol business in China is quite digital and e-commerce driven, just as 1 example. If you look at some of the new products that we are creating, including things that are far more environmentally sustainable, we find that also to have a lot of young consumer appeal. So it's a broad base of customers who does vary depending upon which market you're in. And so I think -- I don't think that, that's the prime concern for us in terms of what we look at.

We'll take the next question from the line of Guillaume Delmas.

Laxman and Jeff, 2 questions from me. Firstly, about your medium term mid-single-digit like-for-like sales growth target. In October last year, you brought it forward by 1 year. But if I think about 2021, I mean essentially because of the basis of comparison, your headline number will be much softer, well below the 4% to 6%. So my question is, what underpins your confidence about this medium-term like-for-like sales growth target and your ability to reach it despite the uncertainty, volatility and by uncertainty, I mean how much of the demand, particularly for disinfectants will stick over the next few years? And related to that, what numbers, metrics will you be tracking above and beyond your like-for-like sales growth to assess whether you are fully on track to meet this 4% to 6% in 2022-2023? And then my second question is about your financial leverage. I mean given that your share price today is now below its level of a year ago, pre the new strategy, pre-COVID, pre your underlying progress you reported last year, and given that your net debt-to-EBITDA is under the 2.5x mark, would you say that you could be considering launching a share buyback program in a not-so-distant future?

Let me take the first one, and then I'll hand this over to Jeff to speak about the second. Let me go back to the margin buildup that we had described in the previous -- sorry, the net revenue buildup that we had described in the presentation. If you look at the Hygiene business, pre-COVID, our business grew 4%. As we look in the medium term, we do see the fact there is a structurally higher demand that does exist, given consumer behavior is changing. Furthermore, we have created new occasions, new spaces and new places where the brand will go. And so what we have said, therefore, is that we expect that the Hygiene business to have a 4% to 5% growth rate in the medium term. So it's just 1% higher than what we had actually been growing at before COVID. If you look at the Health business, the Health business is made up of 3 parts. The first part is Dettol, which is very similar to what I described in the case of Hygiene, but it does have a developing market topspin as well to it, given the markets that it is in. So let's say, 4% to 6% is what we think we can get from that business. Our sexual well-being business is a business we believe is a high single-digits growth business. Just so you know, that was the run rate we had at the end of the year last year, and it's clearly the run rate we had before we had executional challenges and the lack of innovation in the case of 2019, things that we are fixing with both technology but also with the acquisition of new brands, and I think you heard me mention earlier, Queen V being 1 of those brands. We think that business is a high single-digits business. And then we go to the OTC business, which even though before 2019 and some of the executional challenges we had there, we have been growing the business somewhere in the 2% to 4% range. As I look ahead with a ton of the innovations coming in, as well as with the market presence, we're saying that's a 2% to 3% business. When you come to the Nutrition business, as I said, the business overall, the instant business overall, we think, is a 3% business. But we see that the VMS or the vitamins, minerals and supplements business as well as the foray into adult nutrition, and just to give you a sense of just the China opportunity is over GBP 1 billion just in the case of adult nutrition, and obviously, the opportunity exists elsewhere as well. When you bring all that together, we see that business as being a 3% to 5% business. When you put that together, that gives us confidence that it's a 4% to 6% or a mid-single-digits growth portfolio, including the hedges that Jeff mentioned, where, in fact, the portfolio is constructed against those 5 megatrends. And we know those 5 megatrends are just amplified. Digital and e-commerce is a big part of the story, but that underpins the growth in each 1 of them. And I think it's fair to say that our digital and e-commerce team has really scaled the opportunity and is growing incredibly quickly with the investments that we are making. But there's more to come. Our direct-to-consumer business and sexual well-being grew faster than our business-to-business -- business services. And there's more to come with some of the partner brands we have, some of the market brands we have. That gives us confidence for the mid-single-digit growth in the medium term. In terms of your questions of metrics and what we are looking at, very specifically, we look at penetration. We do look at market share, we are looking at new places and the growth rate we're getting from new places as well as the new spaces that we are entering, all of which, of course, impinge on innovation. So what we are looking at, on top of that, is also looking at our pipeline in innovation, the strength of that pipeline, and we believe that's going to show up in the marketplace. And over time, we hope to give you more visibility into that as we think about the metrics that we will start reporting on in due course of time. So that in a nutshell is what we look at when we think about the growth rate and the confidence as well as the metrics we're looking at in terms of getting to that. One last thing I'll just say is execution is a huge deal. Last year, just in 2020, if you take a look at the Durex distribution in India, it went up by 40%. We have the ability on medical distribution in many of our brands to further scale that up. And that's the other metric that I look at personally because it's very important for us to be available and accessible to as many consumers as possible. So with that, let me turn it over to you, Jeff, for the second part of the question.