Hi everyone, thank you for joining us today. I am Benedetta Masseria, Head of Investor Relations for Princess Group and I'm delighted to introduce you to our full year results. Presenting today we have Simon Harrison, Chief Executive Officer and Fabio Fazeri, Chief Financial Officer. Before we dive into the presentation I would like to draw your attention to the important disclaimer on the screen. I'd now like to hand over to Simon to start the presentation.
Thank you Benedetta and good morning everyone. I'm pleased to report that during 2025 we continue to make strong progress in executing our strategy, further strengthening Princes as a scalable European food and beverage platform. Despite a challenging external environment, the business has delivered some very strong results whilst also positioning itself well for the next phase of our growth. Let me start with a quick recap of the key elements of our investment case. Firstly, we have some very defendable market positions in staple, large and strategically important categories. And having our factories located in the markets in which we operate makes us the natural partner for our customers. Secondly, the fact that we operate across both brand and private label allows us to play a role of cattery captain and to react to changing consumer trends and shopping habits. Our industrial platform allows us to produce most of what we sell in one of our 24 well-invested factories and importantly we still have spare capacity in our sites which allow us to grow without further investments. Our ability to deliver free cash flow conversion through a focused approach to working capital management, disciplined capex spending and improved operating performance delivered an 86% conversion in 2025, providing strength for us to reinvest and fund future growth. A key pillar of our strategy is our ability to acquire businesses, integrate them quickly, and drive long-term value. And I'll provide a further update on the integration of Plasman later on. And finally, it's important to reiterate that the combination of an experienced management team with direct family shareholder involvement makes for quick decision-making, strong financial discipline and our long-term focus. 2025 was a milestone year for us. The listing on the London Stock Exchange has created firepower to fuel our M&A strategy. Integration is on track and has supported delivery of a £15 million worth of synergies with further opportunities identified. We continue to support our customer base and have some significant new business wins and launched some great products from our innovation pipeline. And we've broadened our proposition with the addition of the Plasman baby food business, including the addition of new manufacturing technology and industrial know-how. And finally, and importantly, we've started to supply Carrefour Italy with existing products, but also explored product development opportunities for future growth with them. So on to our financial results. Whilst top line declined due to commodity deflation and some portfolio rationalisation, we did deliver growth in key strategic targets. And importantly, we step-changed the profitability of our business. Adjusted EBITDA is up 22.3%. EBITDA margin is up 181 bps to 7.8%. EBIT is up by 330% and net profit increased by over 500%. Our underlying free cash flow conversion is at 86%, delivering over £128 million. And our net cash available is approaching £400 million. Overall, we believe that the progress achieved during 2025 demonstrates the strength of our business model and the effectiveness of our strategic priorities. With that, I will now hand over to Fabio, who will take you through the financial performance in some more detail. Fabio.
Thank you, Simon. We move through the financials with a general overview of the results. I can say that despite the general deflation impact on the top line, the company achieved the target and reported in line with the expectation. In particular, it is important to highlight the performance on the EBDA side, where we grew 22% versus last year on a like-for-like basis, reaching 181 BIPs of margin improvement. It's a very strong result, and the quality of these results is certified by the cash generations. we got a cash conversion of 86% EBDA to free cash flow, and this is an excellent result that we would like to continue to have also in the next year. Analyzing the P&L, it's important to highlight that the strong improvement that we reached on EBDA is coming from the gross margin where we benefited from the procurement actions and the synergies that we are able that we have been able to deliver we got an improvement of more than 370 bips on the gross margin side and this is reflected also on the a bit margin performance with more than 200 bips of margin improvement. The strong performance on the net profit side is linked to the general operating performance but also to the optimizations of the financial cost. As a general overview in terms of revenues and EBDA it's important to highlight that everywhere we experience this deflation impact on the top line but we got also important evidences, positive evidences in terms of volume trend and probably it's important to highlight the performance in Germany where we got plus 11% in terms of volume versus last year. In terms of EBDA, most of the division got an improvement in absolute terms in terms of a BDA and also in percentage of revenues in terms of profitability. Analyzing the balance sheet is important to say that the real estate transactions that we made during the year acquiring the iconic Royal Library building made stronger our tangible asset base in our balance sheet and it is also important to highlight the strong improvement in terms of networking capital. We reduce from 9% to 7% roughly the incidence of the networking capital on revenues. In terms of cash available it's important to highlight that the company closed the fiscal year 25 with 585 million of cash available in our account this is very important is the result of the strong focus on the cash flow generation and it's also important to I like that this represents more than 60% of our current market capitalization in terms of total shareholder equity it's important to I like that the company closed the fiscal year 25 overpassing 1 billion and this is the result of the earnings that we generate, but also the IPO and the capitalization of the shareholder loan. Today, the total shareholder equity in the balance sheet is above the current market capitalization of the company. In terms of cash flow statement, it's important to highlight that the strong cash flow generations was driven by the operating performance, the improvement of the networking capital positions, and also also by a very disciplinated capex spending that characterizes our approach in the investments. The capital allocation remains substantially the one that we announced during the IPO process. The main focus for investments is M&A, that remains the most important driver for the strategy of the company, but we also continue to be focused on the organic growth and on the shareholder return. I want to give you now an update about the energy and raw material scenario. It's important to highlight immediately that gas and electricity that experienced the most important swing in the past weeks are covered by 70% for 2026. And this is an important news that protect us from this volatility. It's clear that we are experiencing other fluctuations especially for fuel for seafraid and we expect also on packaging especially for plastic to see additional price increase. We are working with all the team to try to find the mitigations but it's clear that that we are also ready to pass through to the customer this new inflation wave. In terms of the mid-term guidance, I can tell you that despite the general uncertainty, the underlying business trend is in line with the market expectation, profitability improvement is continuing in line with the expected trajectory, and we are in the positions to confirm our mid-term guidance with unexpected 3 billion revenues obviously also supported by the M&A activity, EBDA margin to reach 300 bips of improvement from the level of 2024 and the underlying free cash flow conversions to remain above 60%. Now I leave Simon to go on with additional strategic update.
Thanks Fabio. Our strategy remains centred around four clear priorities. Grow, win, optimise and sustain. Firstly, growing the business through disciplined M&A. Secondly, driving commercial value for us and our customers. Thirdly, optimising margins. And finally, ensuring our long-term value creation is centered on ESG commitments. These pillars are designed to reinforce one another, enabling princes to combine scaled expansion with profitability improvements and strong cash generation. During 2025 we made tangible progress across each of these areas which I'll now take you through in a little more detail. So let's start with our M&A strategy. We have a very clear criteria for future acquisitions, building on the experience we have built over 20 plus acquisitions in our history. Identifying assets from multinational corporations that give us scale, that give us new industrial capability and expand our verticals as at the core of our strategy. We target businesses that offer strong free cash flow potential, complementary product portfolios or distribution channels and opportunities for operational improvements. Importantly we continue to prioritise transactions that can be integrated efficiently into our platform and where we can then unlock synergies through our scale and industrial optimisation. A significant milestone during the year was the addition of the plasmon baby food business into the Prince's platform. This transaction provided entry into an attractive category with a resilient demand as well as access to specialised industrial know-how and additional production capabilities. The Latina factory offers substantial utilisation headroom supporting both innovation and international expansion opportunities. Over time we see the scope to leverage Prince's distribution footprint to develop export markets and improve margins through targeted operational initiatives. The acquisition and integration of Plasmin is a great example of our M&A strategy in action. From a strategic perspective, Plasmin enhances our exposure to higher value segments within the food sector. The Western European baby food market remains sizeable and stable with opportunities for premiumization and innovation. In addition, the acquisition allows us to accelerate product development in adjacent categories and unlock new consumption occasions supported by our vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities. Overall we believe this investment is a great example of how we will strengthen Prince's long-term growth profile through accretive acquisitions. In parallel we're continuing to develop our drinks capabilities following the Diageo site acquisition. This is a great example of using M&A to enter into new verticals in alcoholic and alcohol-free adult drinks, while also providing further capacity to expand our soft drink business outside of the UK. We're particularly encouraged by the innovation pipeline we see, including potential brand development opportunities within the Car4Italy network. Looking ahead, we continue to see a strong pipeline of potential acquisition opportunities. We have a short list of five potential targets, reflecting our ambition to drive further consolidation in the European food manufacturing sector. Our medium-term objective remains to deliver a meaningful revenue growth of £1 to £1.5 billion through disciplined execution of this M&A strategy. Alongside growth through M&A, organic expansion remains central to our value creation strategy. We have two broad strategies. Firstly, category-led product development. And then secondly, addressing the white spaces we have across geographies and customers as we bring our combined portfolio together. In terms of category development, we're looking at focusing on new consumption occasions within existing categories such as snacking or food on the go, as well as opportunities to elevate or premiumise some of our core categories. So we're really focused on filling the white spaces across our wider geographical footprints and product developments to target new consumption occasions. These initiatives are supported by our vertically integrated industrial footprints and the significant available capacity we have, enabling volume growth without any major capital investment. Growing our branded presence remains a key strategic objective for us. We have some of Europe's best-loved brands, and we continue to focus on innovation and product development, strengthening our brand relevance. During the year, we launched several successful new products across key brands and achieved strong consumer engagement through targeted marketing initiatives. In Napolina, we launched a whole new range of flavoured oils, flavour-boosting pastes, and new pulses and tomato ranges. Branston continued to take market share, boosted by pack differentiation and pack innovation. And in seafood, we proudly moved to 100% MSC certification and diversified our ocean strategy to move to more sustainable sourced mackerel. As you can see from this slide, we also invest in enhancing brand visibility in-store and strengthening branded relationships with retail partners. We really have a relentless focus on in-store execution, and that's been built over recent years and is really fueling our momentum. Private label remains the backbone of many of our factories and underpins some really strong and strategically important partnerships with our key customers. We've worked collaboratively with private label customers on product developments, including new clean label recipes and packaging improvements. Our strong manufacturing base in the UK remains a key competitive advantage. By leveraging this footprint, we secured multi-year contracts with major retail customers who see the benefit of partnering UK-based manufacturers. And our global sourcing expertise has led to many new contracts where our ability to manage complexity but also manage sustainability is a key advantage. These capabilities continue to reinforce Prince's position as a strategic and long-term partner for customers. And we were delighted throughout the year to receive recognition from several customers which reflects our continued focus on service levels, responsiveness and innovation capabilities. The acquisition of Car4Italy by our parent company represents an important strategic development. It creates a direct route to market opportunity for Prince's products with the potential to increase revenues through participating in both branded categories but also in leading the thinking on an increased focus on private label leveraging our strengths and capabilities in this area. We already have many products in store and a really strong product development pipeline to come in the next few months. We believe this partnership will represent a meaningful growth lever for us over time. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we remain focused on aligning product development with evolving consumer trends, including affordability, health and wellness, globally inspired cuisines, and sustainability. We believe our portfolio is uniquely positioned to capitalise on these consumer trends, whether through our branded portfolio or through our customers' private label ranges. And this will generate long-term category growth for us and for our customers. Turning to efficiency initiatives, we continue to implement a comprehensive programme to structurally improve our cost base. This includes optimising manufacturing processes, increasing insourcing of production wherever we can to utilise our spare capacity and driving procurement discipline. We also remain laser focused on optimising our working capital. Together these actions are expected to deliver additional synergies and support further margin expansion over the medium term. Integration activities across the group also continue to generate tangible margin benefits, including improved utilization of real estate assets and enhanced operational efficiency. These measures contribute directly to the stronger cash flow generation and reinforce the scalability of our platform. During the year, we achieved several important milestones, including further progress in sustainable sourcing and recognition for our seafood brands. We also launched initiatives aimed at strengthening our connection with UK consumers and supporting local communities and partnered customers on charitable initiatives with our brands. We also launched our UKM campaign, which celebrates our pride in UK manufacturing as one of the most significant contributors to the UK employment in the food and beverage sector. We are uniquely positioned to lead this campaign, employing 3,000 employees across 10 manufacturing sites. We're also proud to support UK suppliers, and we know that this campaign resonates with consumers who are now seeking out our UK packs in stores up and down the country. So to summarise, 2025 was a transformational year for princes, and we head into 2026 with significant momentum and confidence that our strategy will continue to drive our results. Thank you. I'll now open up the floor for any questions.
Thank you. We'll take our questions from the conference call first, and we'll go to Matthew Lloyd from BNP. Laura, if you'd like to open the lines for Matthew Lloyd, please.
Good morning. I wanted to just explore a little bit. As we see price rises come through, you've talked about energy, you've talked about potentially shipping, as that works its way into fertilizers and other things. Does that offer the opportunity to sort of put through price rises and perhaps end some of the sort of deflationary headwinds that you've been facing? Perhaps you could talk to us about what you think possible impacts, and I don't expect you to know the future, but possible impacts on pricing and volumes may be.
Yeah, well, thank you for the question. Let me take that. So I think firstly, it's important just to reiterate that the current conflict has certainly significantly disrupted the global oil supply, it's driven up fuel, it's driven up shipping costs across all of our markets. And like every food manufacturer, we are facing some substantial cost increases across the supply chain. Now, where those costs are unavoidable and material, we will need to act to recover them. We remain committed to working transparently with our customers and keeping food affordable. And our policy is that we're only going to pass on inflation where we absolutely have to as a result of this conflict you know this is not a margin driving initiative it's to recover costs that come into our our business in terms of consumer pricing that's obviously not controlled by us you know the the retail customers set the prices but what i would say is that our products are affordable um they're not premium priced uh much of our portfolio is actually private label so at entry level pricing so if we do see inflation coming through um you know we don't envisage a negative impact on demand and volume because our products will remain you know entry level and affordable i think it's also important to say that um from a consumer perspective we've been here before and as inflation bites and people have potentially less money in their pocket it we start to see consumers change their behaviors you know we start to see them probably eating out less in restaurants and bars having less takeaways and ultimately cooking more in the home and that will probably be you know a positive impact for our products you know products that we sell things like pasta tuna you know cooking oil tomatoes baked beans many many other kind of kitchen cupboard staples will be you know more attractive to families as they cook in the home and look for affordable foods. We've seen these changes before, we saw it through previous tough economic conditions and also people tend to buy more private label products actually, which again being a big part of our portfolio. So I guess you know ultimately you know if inflation comes through which we anticipate it will do we do think our portfolio is very resilient and probably in tough economic conditions tends to perform pretty well actually thank you very much no problem thank you we've got a next question from Sergey Sodez from Agua Capital what level of normalized capex should we expect for princess group over the medium term expects a percentage of revenue and how much is maintenance versus growth capex okay well thank you for the question you know our approach remains very similar to the results that we've delivered in 2025 with a very disciplined approach to capex spend but let me ask fabio just to give a few more details on that uh please fabio thank Thank you, Simon.
Yes, the policy on the capex spending remain the same. I think that probably it's important to highlight that the material difference versus our capex on sales ratio versus the sector is linked to a different approach that we have in the sense that for us, The CAPEX means only the investments link to a new project, new growth, but we have a direct treatment as a cost in the P&L for all the maintenance costs. This is the reason why we will continue to maintain this very low percentage, maximum around 2% of revenues in terms of cap expending also for the next years.
That's great. Thank you for that. We've got a further question from Matthew Lloyd from BNP Paribas. The grocer magazine is running with a headline that you may raise prices in the UK. How should we think about these prices? Will it be reduced? The deflationary headwinds you've experienced? How might that impact volume and margins? That might be something that you've answered already.
I think to be honest, Scott, we covered that topic in the first question. Without going over old ground you know we we will need to to pass through exceptional costs as they come in we think that whilst we don't set prices our product portfolio will remain resilient and if anything probably benefit from consumers cooking more in the home but i think we answered pretty much everything else earlier that's great thank you simon our next question is from charles hole from Peel Hunt.
Can you give more details on new business wins?
Yes, to an extent. I don't want to disclose any kind of commercially sensitive information, but we did bring on a number of new businesses in 2025, both across co-manufacturing and our private label business. And on top of that, we launched some new products within our branded portfolio. I think perhaps what's without disclosing the actual business we put on, I think what's important to talk about is maybe just why we see continued momentum in acquiring new business. I think the first thing is to say that, you know, our product development and innovation capabilities are very strong. That's both within our own branded portfolio, but also in working with retailers on their private label portfolio. We've done some really good work around, you know, clean recipe development or, you know, reducing the amount ingredients that go into a package. We've done some really good work around sustainable and recyclable packaging and some work around pack differentiation. So lots of things around product development and innovation fuel our customer acquisition strategy. I think the second thing i'd say is that um we we have a fantastic uk-based manufacturing facility for our uk customers and obviously we have great facilities all over the world and all over europe but the bulk of our business in the uk um and they really uh you know our customers appreciate having a a locally sourced manufacturing base. That allows our customers to be in our sites regularly, work on product development, but also work on capex plans to change formats over time. And I think the third thing that really appeals and drives new business is around our global sourcing. For decades now, we've worked with suppliers around the globe to bring the very best products to market you know some examples would be our multi-ocean tuna sourcing strategy that we have the fact that we can sustainably source products like mackerel and sardines and you've probably seen recently our msc accreditation on that and our ethically sourced tomato so i think those three factors has really helped fuel that acquisition and we signed you know two major multi-year deals on private label in 2025. The other areas then is around our branded portfolio and our brands have performed you know pretty well we've seen good branded execution in the stores and you know really focused on our execution and distribution we've also launched some really good products in 25 and that's you know really helped drive our our performance we did some pack formats around branston beans we launched a large can and for large families and then some smaller cans for smaller families we produced jack mackerel which is the first msc accredited mackerel species we've produced four new flavors of that we redeveloped our cross and black whale recipes we launched a whole range of innovation in napolina flavor boosters pulpit tomatoes black beans and the list goes on so so you know our branded portfolio continues to grow as well so we're really comfortable that we've got a good pipeline a good set of growth initiatives across both private label and brand thanks very much Simon and we're actually going to go back to the conference call just now we have Daniel Cowan from BMP Parabas who'd like to ask a question Daniel your line
is open please go ahead and thank you very much and and good morning to you I've got two questions, please. First one is on the EBITDA margins across the group. You've done a good job of improving those in the segments year on year. Fish was flat year on year. I was just wondering what's going on there. Any comments you can provide around the development of the margins in in in fish um uh compared to the rest of the uh the the segments and the second question is a more general one um in in sort of volatile times such as the ones we're we're currently living um does this vertical integration um help you at all uh any examples you can give of that where it might be helpful or or otherwise indeed thanks daniel um so let's deal with the first question um our um yeah we're really pleased with the uh the growth in our uh EBITDA margins um you
know a lot of focus gone into the business um uh in 25 and into 26 really around uh really optimizing our procurement um uh capability uh looking at how we get better efficiencies out of our factories and our broader supply chain and we've had a real focus on reducing waste and stock losses. In terms of the kind of follow-up question around fish, probably a couple of factors in there. Firstly, we have maintained some competitive promotional pricing to drive volume on brand and then secondly we see supply of some frozen products in 25 which was kind of a traded business that we had that impacted our overall EBITDA on fish. I'll just pause at that before I come on to the question on verticals and just see Fabio if there's anything you wanted to add on EBITDA margins?
No, I think that it's important to say that the story is not ended with this strong improvement that we achieved this year. We are still working on several other initiatives. We started from these actions on procurement and in general on the cost base, But since the summer of last year, we are working on several different projects specific for each plant to try to regain efficiency. We are analysing in deep all the lines, all the cost base, and we expect this very in deep activity to give us additional and important improvement on the profitability also in this year and in the next years.
Thanks, Fabio. In terms of the second question on the power of vertical integration. um you know um the short answer is is yes it definitely helps um we're not you know what you'd say classically uh fully vertically vertically integrated but we're pretty close to in that we work with uh you know farmers and raw material suppliers um over decades of relationships and we're active in our relationship in managing those supply chains. To give you an example, we'll work with the farming cooperatives over in Canada around when and how much navy beans to plant. We provide agronomists into the fields in Italy to advise on use of water, pest control around the tomato season. And we have decades worth of relationships around multi-ocean sourcing strategies in Tunis. So, yes, having that real strong grip of the end-to-end supply chain creates that stability and resilience. and it's something that we've seen play out well in previous years. The area that we are perhaps more vertically integrated in a kind of a more classical sense is oil. Our oil business is a joint venture with ADM And, you know, through that joint venture, we are able to source and procure oil, you know, through their capability. And perhaps just an example of how that's played out in the past would be in the onset of the Ukraine war. And because of that kind of vertical integration, when there was a huge amount of panic buying in stores around oil and difficulty in sourcing raw materials, we were able to keep our retail customers in stock on private label and certainly our brands and ride out that volatility. So, yes, vertical integration in its loosest form definitely plays a big role in our business resilience.
Thank you for the question. Next question is, again, from Matthew Lloyd. Matthew is from BNP. Matthew, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Firstly, sorry for asking the same question verbally that I'd already put into the computer system. My bad. I apologize. um secondly um second question uh could you talk to us a little bit about when new product innovations have phased through the year um and so what the sort of effect of those continuing into 20 sort of calendar 26 are likely to be and how many sort of you have in the pipeline obviously innovation is an important part of of driving growth in your industry so a feel for how that's ramping up would be really useful.
Yeah, no problem, Matthew. I guess it's important just to differentiate between branded innovation and private label innovation. Clearly, a big part of our business is private label, and we work hand-in-hand with major retailers on either product development, product reformulation or innovation throughout the year. And that agenda is largely determined by the retailer, but we play a big kind of strategic role in supporting them. So there's no specific kind of spikes or in kind of focus on that. it's an ongoing everyday kind of relationship that we have and clearly we're not going to disclose some of our retailers innovation plans. What I can talk about is our branded portfolio and maybe before I kind of mention some of the specifics I mean let me talk to you about the kind of overall strategy and where we see innovation heading. The first thing you say is that when you look at our portfolio, it's largely targeting the same consumption occasion, cooking at home. But we know that there are far more occasions where food and beverages are consumed in a day. So we're looking at developing a range of products to be eaten on the go, tuna salads, for example, snacked on the go. So expanding our occasions is one strategy. Second one, and it's a big one, is really the continued focus on health and wellness. And I guess this is becoming more front of mind given the increased focus we see on weight loss drugs like GLP-1. I want to be really clear that we see that as an upside, not a threat to our business. But we also see it as a part of a wider trend of consumers looking for high protein, high fiber, nutrient dense foods, not just as part of a weight loss program. So this increasing focus on health and wellness and particular protein, fiber and nutrient dense foods is something that we're really actively targeting. We believe that we've got the perfect portfolio to help consumers with that. What do we sell? We sell tuna, vegetables, pulses, all of which are ideal for someone who is looking for higher protein, higher fiber meal solutions.
So that's what we're kind of focused on, health and wellness.
The third area that we're focused on from a product development is this increased kind of focus on, we've seen for decades now, but global cuisines and also evening meals made simple. And we have launched already some canned ready meals in the Prince's range. But we're also about to launch some Napolina stir-through sauces to capitalise on that occasion. And in our Naked range, we've launched a range of globally inspired cuisines around Asian, Italian, Mexican ranges. And then the fourth and kind of final focus for us is around sustainability and product development and innovation around sustainability. We're really, really proud of the work we did on innovation on jack mackerel, enabling us to move our sourcing of mackerel to a sustainable ocean, and get Marine Stewardship Council certification as part of that. So lots of work going around those kind of four buckets. This year, I don't want to give too much away on all of our products, but we're launching a range of jack mackerel flavours earlier this year. We're launching into premiumisation of tuna. We're launching some new flavours in canned ready meals. We're doing some soup work on Cross and Blackwell. um we continue to look at range improvements around our our instant businesses i mentioned napolina stirring sauces and we're looking at new pasta shapes as well so we've got a really good pipeline of products coming through on top of dozens of products that were launched in 2025 so a very healthy pipeline coming through on brand and we continue to work with retailers on private label thank you very much very welcome thank you our next question is from salvatore verdoliva from canaccord genuity
and your acquisition target appears to offer substantial potential cost synergies and are each sizeable with revenues above 500 million pounds in the event that these larger opportunities do not materialize what would you consider would you consider revisiting your m a strategy and focusing on smaller, more executable targets instead?
Thank you for the question, Salvatore. I think the first thing to say is that we remain extremely confident in achieving the guidance we've given of an additional £1 to £1.5bn worth of revenue through M&A. We're also confident in our view that the market remains very buoyant in terms of potential targets and we continue to see multinational corporations assessing their portfolio and putting some interesting assets onto the market. In terms of your kind of specific question around scale and what we look for, there are some general principles, scale being one of them. We do need acquisitions that are big enough to serve a very big customer base and make the whole acquisition process efficient. We continue to target underperforming assets because we believe we can generate good returns through our turnaround expertise. And we also continue to target industrial capability. One of our core parts of our DNA, if you like, is that we want to produce almost everything that we sell in one of our own factories so acquiring new industrial know-how is also a key part of our M&A strategy and then of course expansion into new complementary verticals and there's some great examples in recent history with the acquisition of the Diadro production plants in Italy moving us into alcohol, plasmin from Kraft Heinz moving us into baby food but it's also important to stress that we take a disciplined approach and if a target doesn't meet some of that criteria you know we
will walk away and we have visited a few targets over last few months and we've not proceeded and that said we've got a really strong pipeline and maybe Fabio can just add some color around our current focus areas please Fabio yes we continue to remain focus on specific opportunities that are in particular linked to the several different process that we are seeing in place from multinational corporations to divest several different assets and this is I would say the game in which we would like to play in terms of size in terms of the quality of the assets and also in terms of the approach of the seller that usually is going to manage also the timing. This means that we can try to close this potential acquisition in a short period of time and not entering in a very long and out of control, I would say, negotiation. There is another important area in which we continue to remain focused and these are the opportunity to try to get strength and diversification of the existing business that we have. One of the acquisitions that we show in our presentations is related to this specific opportunity, probably is the less sizable of the other, but on the strategic side is make a lot of sense and is coming with a very high level of potential synergies.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Sergei from Agruha Capital. Do you expect further potential improvements in terms of net working capital position? Is the 93 days payable outstanding already at the optimal level in your view?
Thanks for the question, Sergei. I'll hand that straight to Fabio, please.
Yes, I think that we made a very good job on the payable side and linked to the plan that I mentioned before, linked to the efficiency of the plan. We expect to get additional improvement related to the inventories management.
Thank you for that, Fabio.
Next question is from alberto um organization is mudza um can you elaborate a bit on the progress with filling commercial white spaces opportunities and car for share gain uh maybe some number target would help thank you thank you alberto um so in terms of the white spaces just like to explain what we we mean by that um as we brought the legacy parts of the businesses together um throughout second half of 24 and into 25, it became very clear that we had opportunities to cross-sell legacy portfolios into the combined geographies. So a good example would be, you know, despite having the largest tomato processing site in Europe, Princes didn't really sell much tomatoes into Italy and Germany. Now, having that route to market grip, we're able to do that. Conversely, we had a pasta business in the UK that we outsourced production to. So we were able to, with the group coming together, in-house that. So we did an exercise looking at where those white spaces occur, where we can cross sell that portfolio. and, you know, we got to a sizable opportunity of just under £200 million and we are actively pursuing that opportunity right now. The second area that you mentioned, Alberto, is around Carrefour. Carrefour is a great opportunity for us. You know, there is our parent company now has, I think, around 1000 outlets that sell many of the categories that we as princes manufacture. So we are actively looking at where those capabilities exist in our group. We are starting to produce products already. And we are developing new products in the pipeline as well to launch. When we look at the estimate of that across all of those potential categories, you know, that's a sizable opportunity up to about 400 million euros. So that's something that is very, very firmly on our to-do list and we're making great progress on that as we speak.
Simon, thank you for that. That's all the time we've got for questions at the present time. So Simon, maybe I can hand back to yourself for any closing remarks.
Thank you, Scott. Look, I think 2025 was transformational for us. We saw continued progress on integration, delivering 15 million of the 30 million pounds worth of synergies, and we've now identified further synergies beyond that. We've continued to consolidate our business as a leading food and beverage supplier across Europe. We've onboarded new business and secured multi-year contracts with major retailers. Our parent company, New Princes, has completed the acquisition of Car4 that I've just talked about. And we have now an opportunity to work at looking at the potential to supply products into those outlets. And then the acquisitions around the Diageo manufacturing sites and the acquisition of Plasmon by our parent company give us access to new verticals and expanding our product range, which is a key strategic priority of ours. And of course, we listed the business on the London Stock Exchange, which has provided that firepower to execute the M&A strategy that we discussed today. And that is a key part of our strategic plan. This business will target and we are confident in delivering one to one and a half billion pounds of incremental revenue through disciplined M&A. And then finally, I hope you've seen that come through in the results that we've presented today. And we believe we've got real good momentum moving forward. So thank you for joining today and look forward to engaging with you all again soon.
