Tate & Lyle plc (TATE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of Tate & Lyle's results for the 6 months to 30th of September 2021. Today's presentation is being run as a webcast, followed by live Q&A. The presentation has been prerecorded, and I will play this recording in a moment. The duration of the presentation is 40 minutes. Following the presentation, there will be a live Q&A with Nick Hampton, Chief Executive. [Operator Instructions] I will now play the recording.

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Tate & Lyle's results for the 6 months to the 30th of September 2021. Reporting the first half results is more complex than usual following the announcement in July that we are selling a controlling stake in our primary products business in the Americas to KPS Capital Partners. This requires us to split our reporting between continuing and discontinued operations. As a result, we released restated comparative financial information for the prior year on the 21st of October. Hopefully, you found this helpful. Looking through this complexity, these results both support the strategic transformation we are undertaking and shine a light on the potential of the new Tate & Lyle as a growth-focused specialty food and beverage solutions business. They give me great confidence in the future of our company. The agenda for today's presentation is on the screen. I will start with a brief overview of the first half. Vivid will run through the financial results in more detail. And then I will come back to talk about the strategic progress in Food & Beverage Solutions and to the outlook. Vivid and I will then take your questions. So starting with an overview of the first half. The group delivered strong performance while successfully progressing a major strategic transformation. Food & Beverage Solutions had an excellent half delivering double-digit revenue growth with new product revenue nearly 50% higher. Like most businesses, we experienced rising cost inflation, which we mitigated well through productivity, cost discipline and pricing. Following the announcement in July, we are making good progress creating 2 focused businesses and we are on track to complete the transaction in the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year. Overall, I am very pleased with our progress. And with the strong platform for growth developed as we transition into a Food & Beverage Solutions focused business. Looking briefly at the financial results. Continuing operations, mainly comprising Food & Beverage Solutions and Sucralose grew revenue by 19%. Adjusted profit before tax was up 20% with adjusted diluted earnings per share, 25% higher. Turning to total operations. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was 3% higher and net debt was GBP 8 million lower at GBP 409 million. The Board has declared an interim dividend of 9p per share, a 2.3% increase on last year. Within continuing operations, Food & Beverage Solutions performance was excellent. Top line delivery was strong, with total revenue growing by 19%. 3 percentage points of growth came from the stevia and tapioca acquisitions completed last year. Our investment and focus on R&D and innovation continues to generate excellent results with revenue from new products growing by 48%, with particularly strong performance from stevia and fibers. New products accounted for 14% of Food & Beverage Solutions revenue. Our customer and innovation pipelines also grew nicely. The value of our new business pipeline was 4% higher and the value of the innovation pipeline increased by 2%. Overall, strong performance and very encouraging in the context of the strategic transformation we are undertaking. We also successfully delivered on the 4 near-term priorities. We set out as we entered the year, to look after our colleagues and communities, to strengthen our relationships with customers, to continue to progress our strategy and to maintain our financial strength. Let me give you a few examples. During the half, we established a new employee resource group focused on providing support and information on mental health, a growing challenge during the COVID pandemic. We also continue to support more than 25 food banks in our local communities across the world. Last month, we opened a new applications lab in Dubai to better serve customers across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. We also launched a new online program for customers to support them for releasing with stabilizer solutions. Turning next to progressing our strategy. As well as the actions we are undertaking to reposition Tate & Lyle as a growth-focused business, the integration of the stevia and tapioca businesses we acquired last year has progressed well. We continue to drive significant benefit from our productivity program, about which Vivid will talk later, and to maintain strong discipline on discretionary spend. And finally, all our manufacturing facilities have remained operational to keep our customers served during the pandemic. Our purpose is helping us to navigate an uncertain and constantly changing world, and I am proud of the progress we are making against our 3 purpose pillars. Under supporting healthy living, we have partnered with the Kellogg's Nutrition & Health Institute, to launch an online course to share the latest science on dietary fibers with health professionals across Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. This has been well received with over 6,000 people enrolled so far. Last month, we launched the Middle East Sugar and Calorie Reduction Knowledge Program together with the UAE Food and Beverage manufacturers Group. A new lab in Dubai will support the rollout of this program. Under building thriving communities, colleagues across the world continue to provide mentoring for school children and young adults about to enter the workplace. In China, we have partnered with the Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to provide children in night schools with a nutritious daily meal and to install modern kitchen equipment in school canteens. We are also working with national authorities to provide nutrition education for students and teachers. Under our caring for our planet purpose pillar, we continue to make good progress on our ambitious clean air, waste, water and sustainable agriculture targets. During the half, we completed major projects at our Lafayette and Decatur corn wet mills in the U.S. to replace coal boilers with natural gas-fired power systems. These projects not only significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency at each site, but also mean we have now delivered on our commitment to eliminate the use of coal in all our operations 4 years ahead of schedule. This represents a very important step in our sustainability journey. We also launched a new sustainable agriculture program for stevia. This program in Eastern China is being operated in partnership with EarthWatch and the local Nanjing Agricultural University. It will enable stevia growers to lower their environmental impact, increase their economic benefits and achieve sustainability verification. It also aligns closely with one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals we focus on, gender equality, as many of the small holdings in the program are owned by women. As I mentioned, we are making good progress towards completion of the transaction announced in July. Shareholder approval was received at a general meeting on the 30th of September, with exceptional 99.9% support. And we have received antitrust clearance from 5 out of the 6 relevant jurisdictions. The legal restructuring required to separate NewCo from Tate & Lyle is making good progress. And the information technology separation to enable both Tate & Lyle and NewCo to report financially on a stand-alone basis from completion is also proceeding as planned. I'm pleased to say, we remain on track to complete the transaction in the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year. With that, I will hand you over to Vivid.

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by being clear on the reporting changes that result from the disposal of the Primary Products business in North America and Latin America. As you know, in the past, we have reported our performance under 3 segments: Food and Beverage Solutions; Sucralose; and Primary Products. Following the announcement of the transaction, we have separated the business into continuing and discontinued operations. Food & Beverage Solutions and Sucralose are included in continuing operations. Food & Beverage Solutions is adjusted to include the retained European Primary Products business and stranded costs. Comparatives have been adjusted accordingly. Our Primary Products businesses in North America and Latin America are now treated as discontinued operations. My presentation will follow this separation between continuing and discontinued operations. Can I also remind you that I will focus on adjusted measures. Items with percentage growth are in constant currency unless I indicate otherwise. As Nick said earlier, the group performed well in the first half despite having to navigate near-term inflationary headwinds and disruption due to international supply chains. Performance was in line with our expectations at the start of the financial year, although the mix of profits was different than anticipated, with stronger profit growth in Food & Beverage Solutions and Sucralose offsetting cost inflation and lower profits from Primary Products. In continuing operations, revenue for Food and Beverage Solutions was 19% higher while operating profit before reporting changes was 9% higher. Sucralose had a very strong half with profit 34% higher as beverage demand recovered and customer orders were phased into the half. Profit before tax was 20% higher. Turning to discontinued operations. Operating profit for primary products was 10% lower as market demand improved, but cost inflation and short-term productivity related operational disruption impacted profit. In total operations, adjusted diluted earnings per share was up 3%. Adjusted free cash flow was GBP 67 million lower. And as Nick mentioned earlier, the board has increased the interim dividend by 2.3%. I'll now go through the key factors driving profit growth in continuing operations. Food & Beverage Solutions' profit was up GBP 8 million driven by revenue growth, strong mix management and cost discipline. Good demand for Sucralose led to higher volume and profit, which was GBP 9 million higher. Strong cost discipline has been a key feature of our response to the pandemic and volatile market conditions. Central costs were GBP 6 million lower. In the retained European Primary Products business, losses increased by GBP 7 million, reflecting the twin challenges of weak sugar prices and high corn prices. Interest costs were in line with the comparative period. Finally, the impact of foreign exchange was to decrease profits by GBP 9 million to GBP 85 million. Now let's turn to our divisional performances. Let's start with Food & Beverage Solutions. Volume was 9% higher and revenue increased by 19%. Strong mix management, together with pass-through of higher corn costs contributed 7 percentage points of price/mix leverage. Profit grew by 2%, 9% before reporting changes, with cost inflation mitigated by our ability to pass price increases through to our customers, strong cost discipline and some selected investment. Taking a look at our regions. In North America, top line momentum continued, with volume up 4%, with demand for in-home consumption remaining strong and out-of-home demand improving, especially in the foodservice channel. Revenue was 19% higher, benefiting from good mix management and strong growth from new products, which increased by more than 50% in the region. In Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, volume increased by 19%, with revenue 20% higher. Revenue growth was strong across the region, especially in Latin America, where sugar reduction solutions for customers addressing the new front-of-pack labeling rules accelerated growth. In Europe, volume was 9% higher revenue was 18% higher, benefiting from strong performance in the beverage, bakery and confectionery categories and the impact of lockdowns in the comparative period. As Nick said earlier, revenue from new products was up 48% and represents 14% of Food & Beverage Solutions revenue. Excluding the impact of revenue from the European Primary Products business, this figure was 15%. Turning to Sucralose. Volume increased by 23%, reflecting strong customer demand in the beverage category as out-of-home consumption recovered and the phasing of customer orders into the first half. This phasing is expected to mostly unwind in the second half. Revenue was 17% higher, impacted by customer mix. Adjusted operating profit of GBP 31 million was 34% higher, reflecting the impact of operational leverage and one-off higher production costs incurred in the comparative period. On this slide, we show the remaining components of profit before tax in continuing operations. As I said earlier, central costs were GBP 6 million lower and net finance charges were in line with the comparative period. The effective rate of tax was 230 basis points lower at 20.2%, primarily reflecting the prevailing rates of corporation tax in the U.S. and the U.K., the jurisdictions most applicable to the group's activities. This rate benefited from the recognition of additional deferred tax assets relating to the announced future increase in the U.K. corporation tax rate. We expect the effective rate of tax for the full year to be a similar level to the current half. Turning to exceptional items. In total operations, net exceptional costs was GBP 61 million in the half. In continuing operations, this comprised mainly costs relating to the separation and disposal of a controlling interest in NewCo. For this, we incurred costs totaling GBP 41 million and impaired certain plants and equipment assets for which we will no longer have any use of a further GBP 13 million. Moving to discontinued operations, which includes our Primary Products business in the Americas and the Almex and Bio-PDO joint ventures. Total volume was 3% higher and operating profit was 10% lower. Sweetener volume was 1% lower with out-of-home consumption continuing to recover following declines during COVID lockdowns. The benefit of this recovery was offset by short-term operational disruption from the installation of new gas turbines at our facility in Indiana to increase long-term efficiency and environmental performance. Industrial starch performed very well, with volume 22% higher, benefiting from continued growth in sustainable plant-based packaging where we grew ahead of the market. Profit from sweeteners and starches was 13% lower, reflecting the impact of productivity related operational disruption of GBP 6 million and input cost inflation. Profit in the comparative period were helped by transactional foreign exchange benefits. Commodities profit was up 4% at GBP 14 million. Coming into the year, market conditions were good, and co-products recovery is high, with market conditions weakening as the half progressed. Across the business, we saw cost inflation of GBP 26 million. This came from different sources, including energy, labor and consumables as well as transportation and supply chain. Cost inflation excludes the impact of corn price changes. While we hedge corn in North America, increasing corn prices had a GBP 7 million impact in the European Primary Products business. In the half, we passed through price increases of GBP 10 million, mainly in Food & Beverage Solutions and generated a further GBP 14 million of productivity benefits. We also maintained a strong cost discipline. We expect cost inflation to increase in the second half and to be partially mitigated through a combination of the same actions with pricing playing a greater role, particularly in the fourth quarter, reflecting the annual contracting cycle. Our productivity program to deliver $150 million of benefits over a 6-year period to March 2024 continues to operate well. As you've seen, this program is an important tool in mitigating cost inflation. We delivered a further $20 million of benefits in the half, both from projects in our operations of $14 million and from cost savings in selling, general and administration of $6 million, mainly from headcount reduction. This brings the total over the first 3.5 years of the program to $144 million. Productivity in operations comes from a range of areas, including capital investments to increase efficiency and reduce energy costs, supply chain efficiencies, continuous improvement and procurement activities. Three examples are shown on the screen, including, as Nick mentioned earlier, the completion of our investments in our plants at Decatur and Lafayette in the U.S. to replace coal boilers with natural gas-powered systems. Turning to the balance sheet. Adjusted free cash flow was GBP 67 million lower at GBP 127 million. As we anticipated coming into the year, higher corn and business growth drove working capital of GBP 54 million higher, with receivables and inventory both increasing. Capital expenditure in 2022 financial year is expected to be between GBP 160 million and GBP 180 million. This assumes completion of the Primary Products transaction on the 31st of March 2022. Net debt decreased by GBP 8 million to GBP 409 million and our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is 0.8x. Our balance sheet remains strong with $1.3 billion of liquidity. So in summary, an excellent first half with food and beverage solutions delivering strong top line growth, a focus on actions to mitigate inflation has been an important feature of the first half with productivity, cost discipline and pricing each playing a part. Adjusted profit before tax for continuing operations up 20%. Our balance sheet is strong. We have increased the interim dividend, and we are well placed to navigate these inflationary times. With that, let me hand you back to Nick.

Thank you, Vivid. In this section of the presentation, I'm going to focus on food and beverage solutions is performance and its growth potential. As well as a strong first half, Food & Beverage Solutions has delivered impressive revenue growth through the pandemic. Over a 2-year period, from the first half of the 2020 financial year. Revenue has grown by 21%, underlying the strong demand for our solutions. The customer and innovation pipelines have also grown through the pandemic with the value of the new business pipeline on the same 2-year comparison, up by 13% and the innovation pipeline by an impressive 23%. This is a credit to the hard work of all of our customer-facing teams who have stayed very close to customers throughout the pandemic and fully embraced the use of technology to collaborate with them. Consumer demand for healthier food and drink continues to strengthen across our markets. Consumers are looking for products which are lower in sugar and calories with cleaner labels and with more fiber to improve their gut health and help build immunity. With governments across the world increasingly focused on the importance of diet and health, these consumer trends are structural and here to stay. Food & Beverage Solutions is very well placed to benefit from these trends. We have leading expertise in sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification and our unique portfolio helps to remove sugar, calories and fat and add fiber to consumer products across the world. In the first half, revenue from products supporting sugar reduction, excluding Sucralose, was up 58%. Our range of clean label texturants delivered revenue growth of 24%. And our soluble fibers, which reduced sugar and provide nutritional benefits such as digestive health, grew by 30%. This slide shows our strategic growth framework. We have been successfully executing this framework over the last 3 years, and we'll look to accelerate its delivery as we focus the new Tate & Lyle on Food & Beverage Solutions. The framework is based on 4 pillars with serving our customers at its core. Let me summarize progress on each pillar in turn. The first pillar is to execute focused market strategies, maximizing opportunities in developed markets and accelerating growth in the faster-growing markets of Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. An encouraging aspect of the growth delivered in the first half was that it was broad-based with double-digit revenue growth across all regions. Each region has also grown strongly through the pandemic. Compared to the first half, of the 2020 fiscal year, revenue from North America is 24% higher. Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America is up 16% and Europe is 18% higher. This growth has come from a combination of staying very close to our customers and our focused category approach. Each region focuses on 3 global categories: dairy; beverages; and soups, sauces and dressings as well as 2 or 3 regional categories where we have local expertise, such as bakery, snacks and confectionery. This category focus, combined with our expertise in sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification provides a unique and attractive offering for customers and it's delivering results. Revenue growth in the dairy category in Latin America in the first half was up 18%. In North America, beverage grew by 17%. In Europe, soup, sauces and dressings grew by 9%. And in Asia, bakery and snacks grew by 26%. To further strengthen our customer offerings, we are increasing our investment in category and consumer insights. For example, through the establishment of a new position of Global Head of Marketing and insights. We are also investing in infrastructure such as the new technical applications lab in Dubai. The second pillar is to expand our portfolio by strengthening our 3 platforms of sweeteners, texturants and health and wellness. And over time, move into new platforms. This will be achieved either organically or through value-enhancing M&A. We recently announced a new addition to our Health and Wellness platform through a distribution agreement with Nutriati, a U.S.-based company, producing plant-based ingredients, primarily chickpea protein and flower. This is another important step in expanding our portfolio and increasing our fortification offering. The integration of the tapioca and stevia acquisitions, we made in the last financial year, has progressed well. We are expanding production capacity for both businesses and have successfully integrated each customer base. Our stevia business has performed very well, with revenue growing by 165% in the half. Excluding the acquisition of Sweet Green Fields, revenue is still up over 50%. Growth is being driven by the combination of our expanded portfolio of stevia solutions and our technical expertise in delivering solutions for sugar reduction. Products launched into the market using a combination of sweeteners is far outpacing products launched with a single sweetener. For example, while product launches containing only stevia grew by 20% between 2016 and 2020, products with a combination of stevia and monk fruit grew by 80% and stevia and fiber by 44%. Stevia has been a great addition to our sweetener platform and is now a core element of our customer offering. The third pillar is about building an integrated solutions approach with the customers to strengthen our position as their partner for growth. This is about bringing together our category expertise and insights our broad portfolio of products and our technical capabilities to provide customers with the solutions they need. Let me give you an example using one of the consumer products on the screen. In Asia, a customer wanted a new sweetening solution for its light chocolate mousse premix. As well as providing sweetness, the solution also had to be non-GM and provide bulk. We developed a prototype with a stevia and fiber solution and then provided the customer with technical assistance on how to formulate the solution and maintain the right mouthfeel and taste. This approach was successful, and we are now working with the customer to provide similar solutions for other products in that portfolio. This integrated solutions approach which was first established in North America, and is now being rolled out in our other regions, is helping us to become a chosen growth partner for our customers. The fourth pillar of our strategic growth framework is to accelerate innovation by increasing our investment in R&D, both by building on our strong in-house scientific expertise and with external partners through increased focus on open innovation. Looking at our in-house expertise first, new products from our innovation pipeline performed very well. Again, growth looking through the pandemic has been strong, with revenue increasing by a compound annual growth rate of 21% compared to the first half of the 2020 financial year. Looking at our 3 innovation platforms. New product revenue in the sweetener platform was over 200% higher, driven mainly by demand for stevia solutions. Revenue in the Health and Wellness platform grew by 23%, with good demand in sports nutrition, while revenue for texturants grew by 9%. Turning to open innovation. We are seeing good progress in our partnership with Sonic an early-stage U.S. company developing enzyme immobilization technologies, which can be used to enhance the efficiency of our production processes. We formed a new partnership with TNO in the Netherlands to explore the use of 3D food digital technology to deliver personalized food and nutrition choices for consumers. And we also extended our existing work with APC Microbiome in Ireland to undertake scientific research on the potential metabolic health benefits of combining dark true fiber with certain bacterial strains. Open innovation is an important part of our innovation approach and will be an area of increased focus for us as we look to unlock exciting new ideas and opportunities for future growth. Stepping back for a moment, the performance of Food & Beverage Solutions in the half and over the last 2 to 3 years, clearly underpins the 5-year ambition. We set out when we announced the repositioning of Tate & Lyle as a growth-focused specialty Food & Beverage Solutions business in July. With positive momentum in the business, the strong platform we have built, the increased focus from the transaction and our plans to increase investments in R&D and innovation, we are confident we can sustainably deliver on our 5-year ambition. This includes mid-single-digit organic revenue growth and annual operating margin expansion of at least 50 to 100 basis points per year and to utilize our strong balance sheet to accelerate growth with accretive M&A. So to summarize. Food & Beverage Solutions is a business with significant growth potential. The top line performance in the first half was excellent and underpins the strategic transformation we are undertaking. Food & Beverage Solutions is a global leader in sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification, with the ability to create solutions for customers, which meet the growing structural consumer trend for healthier food and drink. Our pace of innovation is accelerating with further benefits expected from the planned step-up in investment in R&D. It is also a global business with a strong presence in developed markets and a platform for accelerated growth in the higher growth markets of Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In short, the new Tate & Lyle will be a high-quality growth-focused Specialty Solutions business, operating in exciting segments of the food and beverage markets that are seeing significant growth. Moving now to the outlook and summary. Work on completing the transaction for the disposed Primary Products business in the first quarter of next year is continuing. For the purposes of providing an outlook, we are assuming completion of the transaction on the 31st of March 2022, at the end of this financial year. On that basis, for the year ending the 31st of March 2022, we expect that the continuing operations or what will become the new Tate & Lyle, Food & Beverage Solutions to deliver another year of progress. Sucralose profit to be ahead of the prior year. And growth in adjusted profit before tax in constant currency to be in the high single-digit percent range. For discontinued operations, which will become NewCo, we expect sweeteners and starches adjusted operating profit to be below the prior year and commodities profit to be significantly lower. And finally, for total operations or the current Tate & Lyle group, we expect the change in adjusted diluted earnings per share to be mid-single digits percent lower due to the performance of discontinued operations and expected cost inflation. To conclude, we delivered strong first half performance in a year of significant change. This is a great credit to everyone in the Tate & Lyle team. Food & Beverage Solutions had an excellent half. The strategic transformation is progressing well, and we are making good progress against both our near-term priorities and our purpose and environmental commitments. We are effectively managing near-term inflationary headwinds, and we expect these will continue into the second half in the next financial year. Looking forward, we have built a strong platform for growth as a focused food and beverage solutions business. We are entering a new ambitious and exciting chapter for Tate & Lyle. And I look forward to the future with great optimism. Once again, I would like to finish by thanking everyone at Tate & Lyle for their hard work in delivering these results and for living our purpose with great passion and belief. For their support, I am truly grateful.

Thank you, everyone. That is the end of the recording. I will now hand over to Nick Hampton for a few words before we start the Q&A session.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining the call. Look, as I said on the presentation, the strong first half results really demonstrate the future growth potential of the new Tate & Lyle. Given Vivid's decision announced yesterday to step down from the business at the end of the year. I thought it'd be appropriate to do the Q&A myself this morning. Before I start, I'd like to thank Vivid for his contribution to Tate & Lyle and to wish him all the best for the future. With that, I'm happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from John Ennis from Goldman Sachs.

My first is on R&D. I just wondered if you could give us where the company is now under the new structure relative to your greater than 4% target? And how you see that spend phasing over the 5-year period? And then my second question is on the net finance charges, which are, obviously, a little bit high for the ongoing business based on your forward-looking net debt position. So I guess, what is the plan post disposal? Are you going to pay down this debt as a first step? I know M&A is on the agenda, but just interested to see how you're thinking about managing debt and interest costs. And if I can cheekily squeeze in the third on your margin target of 50 to 100 basis points per annum. Can you give us how much of that is down to central cost reduction and maybe a bit of a steer on where you see central costs falling for this year, given there was a big change year-on-year so far?

Sure. So I think your first question, John -- thank you for the question. It was about R&D spend. So as we said, we're going to focus increased investment in R&D. And rightly so, if you look at the 48% of new product revenue growth we saw in the first half, it's really working. And we're currently in the low 3s. I mean, if that will develop as we balance investment with the inflationary pressures we're seeing through the balance of the year. But we intend to make steady progress towards that 4% over the next few years. And as we land this year, there will be a clear kind of baseline to start that from. But it's in the low 3s at this point. On your points on interest costs, we feel pretty good about actually the level of interest costs in the business in general. Our debt book is very, very, very, efficient. As we've said, at the end of the transaction, we will return GBP 0.5 billion to shareholders through a special dividend and maintain our net debt at 0. So I don't anticipate that interest charge is changing significantly over the next few years, and we're comfortable with where they are. I think your last point was about margin expansion, central costs and the balance. It's going to evolve over time is the simple answer. I will give you a specific answer of what will come from central costs. We're being very cost disciplined at the moment for obvious reasons. Our numbers this year will come in modestly lower than last year, I think, from memory. And again, as we think about setting up the new Tate & Lyle, our first priority is to set the business up for growth post the transaction. And as we then grow through that, we'll see margin expansion come from top line growth, mixed development as we increasingly form the new product pipeline and over time, leverage of central costs, and we'll give more detail on that as the new Tate & Lyle emerges in the new year.

Our next question is from James Targett of Berenberg.

A couple for me. Just first on the sort of cost inflation and pricing outlook. You flagged GBP 26 million in the first half, I think it's excluding sort of the North American corn costs. But where do you see that GBP 26 million trending in the second well where you really see it in the second half of the year? And what are the magnitude of further pricing actions you'd expect? Because I think in the Asia, Middle East, Latin America region, it didn't look like there was any pricing at all. So maybe if you could talk about that, that would be helpful. The second one, I guess, just following up on that kind of mid-term margin outlook because it does seem to be an area we get a lot of questions on the 50 to 100 basis points. Maybe on your productivity savings, I think you're already sort of pretty much there, 2.5 years ahead of plan. So is there going to be -- are you going to -- can we talk about a new productivity target at this stage? And then just maybe one more on your distribution agreement with -- or is it neutrality? How do you see about these sorts of agreements being a way of expanding your portfolio into new areas versus acquiring assets? I wonder if we should expect to see a lot more in this area versus sort of asset acquiring?

Sure. So let me take your first question on inflation and pricing. So in the first half, as you rightly say, we saw around about GBP 26 million of inflation ex corn in the U.S., and you know that's a pass-through. So we deal with that differently through contracting. And we covered it with a combination of productivity, continued focus on cost discipline and pricing. So that's good. We showed the agility to be able to cover it. We're seeing rising inflationary pressures as we go into the second half. And so we're going to see those ramp up through quarter 3 into quarter 4. And critically, we're looking to price that through as we go into the next calendar year and financial year. So our intent is to -- through a combination of continued productivity in the second half, continued cost discipline and then pricing flowing through, especially in the fourth quarter as the pricing round in North America and in Europe evolves is to pass that pricing through, in a way that maintains margins. The pricing round is evolving. We're seeing some encouraging signs early on, and we'll be much clearer on the landing point of that when we get to the new year. But it's very clear the intent to cover the inflation through a combination of productivity and pricing and set the business up for the future. That's the key here. So that's the first point, I think, on cost inflation and pricing. On the margin outlook and productivity, as you rightly say, we are well on the way to the $150 million target. In fact, we will exceed that target this year. That's 2 years ahead of plan, by the way. So we said it was going to come in 2 years' time. So the productivity muscle in the organization is working well. And of course, we're going to continue to look for ongoing productivity as we evolve both within the new Tate & Lyle and within NewCo as they continue their journey as well. So we'll expect to provide more color on that again when we get into the next financial year, because we're not going to stop. I mean it's a muscle that all businesses have to continue to maintain, especially in an inflationary environment. And one we're seeing at the moment is different to the past few years. On neutrality, it's a really interesting proposition. It's a new area for us, protein, chickpea protein and flour, a very high-quality product. We're very excited about the distribution agreement. The way I would think about this is -- if you think about the stevia deal we've just done, incredibly successful for us this year as a business where stevia is growing almost 3x in the first half. And that started with a distribution agreement. And why did we do that? We wanted to learn about a new area before we made a bigger investment. In neutrality, we have a 15% stake as well alongside the distribution agreement. And we're going to see how that business evolves over the next 12 to 18 months. And if successful, then we'll think about deploying more capital into proceeds. So I think that covers all of your 3 questions, James.

Just a follow-up on the first one regarding the, I guess, the -- your comments on the pricing round. Just thinking about European primary products where, obviously, it was a drag on profitability in the first half of the year. Is that something as -- is that something you expect to improve significantly in the second half with pricing in Q4?

So I mean, 2 comments on European primary products. We're clearly currently at the bottom of the cycle, I would say, in that business, in the sense that corn prices have been at a record high in the first half and sugar prices, which is the reference price for our sweeteners in Europe have been low. So that's compressed margins, as you rightly say, has impacted the business this year, although it maintains being cash positive. As we go into the second half of the year, we're anticipating 2 things. Corn prices in Europe starting to moderate; and secondly, as you rightly point out, the pricing round will start to recalibrate as well within the limitations of that sugar price that I talked about.

Our next question comes from Martin Deboo from Jefferies.

Nick. It's Martin Deboo, Jefferies. Nick, I'd just like to probe as far as I can the drivers of growth in FBS in H1 because clearly, the quality of that growth is going to determine the valuation of the going-forward business. The numbers I'm referencing are 10% underlying volume growth gearing to 19% revenue growth sort of ex the Europe effect. And I want to just pro-pricing mix and the acquisition contribution. So what was the split within the 9% price mix of pricing and mix -- back of the envelope, we say pricing is probably about 3% and mix was 6%, which sounds very rich for mix, but tell me if I'm wrong. Secondly, what sort of contribution was Chaodee and Sweet Green Fields making to those numbers as I believe they're reported in FBS. And is that 10% volume growth sort of indicative of momentum? Or did that include some rebound and recovery from COVID? And the associated question is, why did you not see better operating leverage profit from volume, underlying volume and underlying profit ex Europe are about the same, whereas normally the business has delivered positive operating leverage. So those are questions. Sorry, there's a quite a lot detail there.

So let me try and unpack that as best as I can, Martin, and interrupt me if I'm not. Let's start with kind of the volume to revenue leverage. First, you have to discount the impact of corn pass-through. So think about that as around about 2 points. Then you're right, within your sort of mixed pricing, you've got sort of 5 to 6 points. It's difficult to disaggregate precisely what's mix and what's pricing, to be honest. And when you think about that within that volume to revenue leverage, you have to consider acquisitions as well because not all volume is the same. Stevia is very light. And the acquisitions contributed about 3 points of revenue growth in the half. But modestly to volume. So that's a positive mix effect, if you like, but it's really coming from the acquisitions. So if you think about that sort of 6 to 7 points of mix and pricing, broadly 2% to 3% coming from the acquisitions, the rest -- the balance split equally between pricing and mix. And obviously, a big bit of the mix component is that very, very strong NPD growth of 48%. Then you come to the -- your point about -- that volume of 10% is underlying. The way I would look at this is look at it on a 2-year basis, because obviously, we're lapping last year the most challenging period of COVID. And if you look at revenue growth over that 2-year period, we're seeing the 20%-plus revenue growth. So more like 10% a year, which is ahead of the sort of 4% to 6% or mid-single-digit number that we've put out there for the ambition of the business. So it's ahead of our expectations. That's good. So demonstrating the real pull from customers for what we do. And the good news is it's broad based. It's right way across the world. So we saw double-digit revenue growth in all regions. Then your point about revenue to profit. So again, strip out the impacts of corn pass-through to 2 to 3 points. Then the acquisitions by definition in the first year, we're investing in those businesses as well in integration. So we're getting some deleverage from that in the first half, and we're expecting those to be accretive from year 2, which is next year. And then finally, there's a conscious decision because of the affordability of mix to continue to invest in growth. So we announced a couple of weeks ago the investment in the Dubai Innovation Center. We've added some commercial resources into growth markets in the first half of this year because we put that on hold last year through COVID because it was just difficult to get people into the business. So we're consciously investing for the future because the overall 20% profit growth in continuing operations allowed us to do that. So that's how I think about going from sort of revenue to profit flow-through. And over time, we'll make choices on that to make sure we're balancing short-term delivery with the long-term growth of the business.

Our next question comes from Karel Zoete from Kepler.

I also have a follow-up question actually on the last one. The interplay between volumes and margins, of course, last year, H1 was quite disturbed by COVID and a lot of discretionary spend not there. But how should we think about that more specifically in H2? And then somewhat related to that, of course, you said the guidance for 7% to 9% profit before taxes growth for the full year, that after coming off 20% in H1. That kind of assumes H2 PBT to be stable year-on-year. Again, is that the right way to look at that? And what are the big differentiating factors versus H1? And the last question probably on -- go ahead, please.

No, go ahead and ask your last question, and then I'll come back.

I think on M&A you're calling out you want to be more active there and also potentially look at a new platform. So that was, I think, an interesting comment. Can you speak a bit more about what the new platform or pillar might bring to Tate & Lyle compared to, yes, the good momentum you see in your current 3 business lines?

So let me talk about first half, second half first, and it all really links to 3 things. The first thing is, as we enter the second half, we're entering a stronger half last year as the world started to reemerge from COVID. So the lap is slightly different. So we're going to see slightly slower top line growth as a result on the core we anticipate, but still very positive. The second impact is this, half 1, half 2 impact on Sucralose. So we saw a big pull-through -- pull forward on volume in the first half on Sucralose very positive and really strong demand from the market, but also some of our key customers. And we're anticipating rebalancing of some annual contracts in the second half. That may or may not happen, but that's the assumption built into the guidance. And then, of course, the third point is all to do with the inflation environment. So first half inflation, great job of covering it with a balance of productivity, cost discipline and pricing. Second half, much bigger inflationary outlook, impacting the business in quarter 3 before we see the full impact of pricing come through in the second half. So I would think about it in those 3 buckets so that we exit the year with a pricing outcome that allows us to maintain the margin progression that we've talked about in the ambition for the business, but there's a Q3, Q4 impact in half 2. So that's the sort of logic on the outlook for now. Then coming back to your M&A point, as you rightly point out, we do have ambitions to continue to do the right kind of M&A to strengthen the business. And that for me is in 3 areas. The first is as we did last year with the 2 deals we did to strengthen our existing platforms, sweeteners, mouthfeel or texturants and fortification, the third -- second priority rather is to expand our geographic presence. So we're seeing great traction in growth markets and the core business in North America growing very strongly as well. We want to expose ourselves more to higher-growth markets, and that means going east and into Asia specifically. So we're looking very actively there. And then the third area, as you rightly point out, is how might we expand our portfolio in a way that allows us to serve our customers better. And there's no doubt that, that will be plant-based because that's where the world is going. We're intrigued by the protein space and its interaction with our other ingredients to provide plant protein-based solutions. And hence, the distribution agreement with Nutriati. It's those kind of things we're thinking about when we think about a new platform. The key about that platform is it has to allow us to formulate better across our platforms for our customers because that means we'd be a better owner of that business than it would be as a stand-alone. So that's sort of how I think about the priorities from an M&A perspective.

Our next question comes from Alicia Forry from Investec.

I have 2. One is on the new acquisitions that you've made in tapioca and stevia. Can you talk about the revenue synergies that you're seeing there? I know you mentioned them briefly in the presentation, but could you get a bit more granular on how that's actually being delivered and what those businesses have been able to bring to your existing platform? And also, you mentioned strengthening the management team in Thailand. Can you discuss what capabilities you were looking for and what those new hires brought to the table with regards to that business. And then the second question is on Sucralose. Can you remind us where you are on capacity for that product after very strong volume performance that you've just delivered in the first half because it's been sort of roughly flattish in recent years. But if you continue to see traction in that area of the business, would you potentially want to or need to allocate some capital to that area to expand capacity, that would be helpful to understand.

So let me take Sucralose first and cover that. So as you rightly point out, we saw very positive momentum in the first half, I mean, really driven by 3 factors. Number one, clearly, COVID bounce in beverages, especially as out-of-home consumption increased and Sucralose is, obviously, very beverage-focused because of the nature of the ingredient. Secondly, we saw really strong demand from a reformulation perspective. So Sucralose is still the most reformulated high-intensity sweetener out there. And then thirdly, what we're seeing from our customers is some interest to secure supply from a Western source and, obviously, having a manufacturing facility in North America really helps with that. Now we had good inventory coming into the year because, of course, of the softness last year. So that helped us supply that excess demand. We are driving productivity through the plant, which allows us to eke out more capacity. And lastly, actually, we are putting some modest capital into McIntosh to expand capacity to help serve our customers. And when I talk about modest capital, I'm talking about a small number of millions of dollars. It's very, very small. But that's allowing us to debottleneck the plant further and give us a little bit more capacity to just nudge volume up as demand continues to strengthen. And as I said, we're seeing really strong pull for what we do, both because of the security of supply, because of the quality of what we supply and the reliability of it and, frankly, because we're taking care of ingredient reputation management for Sucralose with a leading thinker on that. And that's increasingly important to our customers as their consumers really focus on what they're putting into their bodies as part of a healthier diet. So actually, we feel really good about where we are in Sucralose. And as a result, we've strengthened our view on the outcome for this year. Coming to your second question -- first question about acquisitions. So as I said earlier, in broad terms, acquisitions contributed 3 points of revenue growth in the first half, different in volume because of the relatively light nature of stevia. Most of that came from stevia because we're early days on tapioca. And as you know, we've been developing our stevia portfolio for a number of years. And it's been very, very, what's the right word, compatible with the rest of our sweetener portfolio. So what we're seeing increasingly, I think I mentioned in the presentation, is an increasing cross formulation with stevia and other natural sweeteners, so monk fruit, as an example. So we're seeing increased formulation, not just with high-quality stevia, but with other sweeteners in our portfolio because it provides a more rounded solution to customers. It's a classic example of strengthening the portfolio in a way that allows us to serve our customers better. So really, really positive momentum in the first half in that regard, and we expect to see more of that as we go forward. Coming back to your point about the Thailand management team. So when you buy a small emerging business, you want to raise the quality of the management team to the standards of your business, I guess. So what have we done? We've hired an experienced plant manager to make sure we run the plant safely and run the plant efficiently. We've hired a finance manager to make sure we're taking care of cash. We've got people in the business who are focused on innovation in tapioca. So we step up the quality of the offering in tapioca. So it's really in those areas where selectively we're adding capability to make sure that we can maintain Tate & Lyle's standards as we absorb these acquisitions into the business.

Our next question is from Martin Deboo at Jefferies.

I want to come back to this troublesome GBP 90 million of primary revenue in Europe that you've got, that's losing on an annualized basis sort of GBP 20 million or so. First of all, is this isoglucose the way you were talking about it, I think it was. I thought isoglucose had gone. But the more pertinent question is what's the opportunity in Europe over time to diversify the grind or shift the mix of the grind away from this into more specialty and try and sort of negate what is going to be this running sore in FBS of Europe primary?

Sure. So let me take those questions in 2 pieces, Martin. Firstly, as you know, it's the sort of -- it's the legacy of the Eaststarch divestiture we made. It's actually 2 products. It's isoglucose, which we still make in Boleraz in our plant there. And its native starch coming out of cook. So it's actually -- it's 2 product lines. I wouldn't assume that the half -- first half profit number is a run rate for the full year, either as we see how corn and pricing evolves in the second half. We can -- we'll come back to the detail of that later on. And the opportunity is very clear. So the reason that we're in that business is to balance the primary grind in both plants. Over time, we clearly want to evolve our business to become more specialty focused out of those 2 facilities. We're actually looking at significant investments, especially in Boleraz to do that. And of course, one of the advantages of Europe is it can become a non-GMO source of corn products. So naturally, as non-GMO grows, there's an opportunity to sort of phase out of the legacy Primary Products business into the specialty side of the business through capital investment to diversify grind, as we've done in most of our plants around the world over time, as you know.

Our next question is from Heidi Vesterinen from Exane BNP Paribas.

I've got 3 questions, and I'm going to go one by one. First, coming back on inflation. So you disclosed a GBP 2 million net headwind in H1, given your mitigation efforts. Is it possible for you to share what net headwind is embedded in your full year guidance, please?

I wouldn't want to get into that level of detail. And the reason I say is it's a very dynamic environment. So we're going to see a headwind in the third quarter. It will be bigger than we saw in the first half, and we're expecting to see a net neutral position in quarter 4. So as we exit the year, we come out with a more neutral position. It's a little bit early to give precise guidance, but I would assume that all of that inflation that is built into our guidance for now.

And then the second question. Have you seen any prebuying by customers either in Q2 or into Q3 because if I know there are price increases coming in Q4, you highlighted that, I wonder why wouldn't stock up now in Q3?

Look, I mean the global supply chain at the moment is really tight. And one of the biggest challenges all manufacturers are facing is actually shipping around the world. So as you rightly say, you would have expected to see some stock building as a result of the inflationary environment. But actually, the tightness of the market and supply chain disruption really isn't allowing that. So we really haven't seen anything significant. It's never easy to be precise, but we're not seeing any abnormal patterns simply because of the tightness of the supply-demand balance and then also all the disruption on shipping around the world.

And then lastly, an update on your stranded costs please. You increased your estimate by GBP 5 million. You had said it's to do with retaining your teams in innovation and commercial development. Is there anything more you can add to that as GBP 5 million is quite a big number? And what is the risk of other dissynergies, please?

So I'd make 2 comments in that regard. It's a conscious choice to maintain all of our innovation capability within Tate & Lyle, and that's led to an increase in the estimate, and that's a good thing because it gives us more innovation power. There are also 1 or 2 other things as we finalize the details of the agreements and the separation plans that are built into that. But that work is all done now. So the numbers that we put into the restatements we put out 2 or 3 weeks ago, the sort of final answer, if you like. From a dissynergy perspective, there's nothing more that isn't built into what we put out. So I wouldn't point you to anything, to be honest.

[Operator Instructions] We currently have no further questions on the call, so I will hand back to Nick.

So thank you, operator. And thank you, everybody, for your intelligent questions. Look, we're really pleased with our first half performance. I think it demonstrates the strength and the potential of our Food & Beverage Solutions business. We're very focused on continuing to build that business, to invest in it to enable growth, and to complete the separation successfully of the 2 businesses so both businesses can thrive as we enter the new world. Thank you for your questions, and we look forward to giving you another update when we get to year-end.