Bunzl plc’s Post

We are delighted that our strong acquisition momentum this year continues, with the announcement today of two further acquisitions, along with the completion of Grupo RCL which was announced last month. The newest additions to the Bunzl family are: SISTEMAS DE EMBALAJE ANPER, SA., a distributor of industrial packaging to end-users in Spain. This business, which expands our product offering and geographical footprint, generated EUR 28 million (£24 million) of revenue in 2023. Holland Packaging B.V., a distributor of bespoke and customised packaging products and supplies to e-commerce focused companies, based in the Netherlands. The business generated EUR 16 million (£14 million) of revenue in 2023. Commenting on today’s announcement, Frank van Zanten, Chief Executive Officer of Bunzl, said: “Today’s announcement highlights the strength of Bunzl’s continuing consolidation opportunity. The announced acquisitions are highly complementary to our existing businesses, expanding our product offering in Spain and the Netherlands, and have strong margins. I would like to offer a warm welcome to the teams from the newly acquired businesses to the Bunzl family. Our pipeline remains active and the strength of our balance sheet supports our ability to continue to self-fund value-accretive acquisitions alongside other capital allocation options.”

As we enter our closed period for the first half of this year, we are very pleased to announce today that we are upgrading our guidance for the full year, based on an improved margin performance, driven by good margin management, including increased own brand penetration, and acquisitions. We now expect to deliver robust revenue growth in 2024, at constant exchange rates, driven by acquisitions already completed in 2024; with a small decline in underlying revenue. Group operating margin is now expected to be slightly above the level reported for the full year 2023. We are also delighted that the excellent progress we have made with our acquisition strategy so far this year continues, as we welcome two more businesses to the Bunzl family today: Grupo RCL, a Brazilian distributor specialising in surgical and medical devices, which further strengthens our position in this fragmented market. Clean Spot Cleaning Supplies and Equipment, a distributor of cleaning and hygiene products and equipment in Canada, which further enhances our footprint in the country and expands our product offering. Commenting on today’s announcement, Frank van Zanten, Chief Executive Officer of Bunzl, said: “Our agile and entrepreneurial teams continue to deliver robust profit growth. I am delighted with the ongoing successful margin management, including increasing penetration of own brands, demonstrated across the Group, allowing us to upgrade our full year profit outlook today. I am also pleased to welcome two more businesses to the Bunzl family, taking our total committed spend on acquisitions to around £600m so far this year. After an excellent start to the year for acquisitions, we maintain a strong balance sheet, providing us with significant optionality to continue to self-fund value-accretive acquisitions and our pipeline remains active.”

It was fantastic to host our covering analysts, Annelies Vermeulen and Sylvia Barker, CFA, who presented along with Matt Hall from our Corporate Broking team at UBS, at our Global Finance and IT Conference last week. Our assembled finance leaders found your session hugely engaging and informative, and it really brought to life some of the aspects of being a public company and our relationship with the financial markets. Thank you all very much!

Last week in sunny Sitges, Bunzl brought together over 20 of its sustainability leaders from around the world for its first internal sustainability conference since 2019 – when the team assembled numbered only four – highlighting the growing importance of sustainability to the business. Led by Group Head of Sustainability, James Pitcher, the team discussed challenges and opportunities around sustainability adoption in their respective business areas, sharing best practices and brainstorming ideas to accelerate further integration of sustainability across Bunzl to support delivering the Group’s strategy. The team also heard presentations from Alberto Grau, Managing Director for Bunzl Continental Europe, and local business leaders Mario Ballarin, Daniel Tovar, Albert Iglesias and IÑIGO DE ARGUMOSA about how their businesses were successfully integrating sustainability, its growing commercial importance for customers, and the opportunities they saw to further invest in sustainability to deliver organic growth for the Group. The team left Sitges feel enthused and energised, and excited about taking the next steps for Bunzl’s sustainability journey, with the insights gained and the collaborative spirit fostered at this conference paving the way for new innovative strategies that are not only environmentally responsible but also align closely with our core business goals.

Today we announce our trading statement for Q1 2024. Our resilient business model continues to perform well, following its strong performance over recent years. Adjusted operating profit for the quarter was in line with expectations and we maintain our profit guidance for the year. Group revenue in the first quarter declined by 2.4% at constant exchange rates, with underlying revenue declining by 5.4% as expected. Overall, at actual exchange rates, Group revenue declined by 5.9%. Operating margin over the quarter was strong, supporting our outlook for the year. Commenting on the announcement, our Chief Executive Officer, Frank van Zanten said: “I am pleased with the strategic progress that we continue to make after achieving a strong margin performance in 2023… After a strong start to the year for acquisitions, our pipeline is active and our balance sheet remains strong.” Read the full statement here: https://lnkd.in/eMjia6m6

For #InternationalWomensDay this year, we want to celebrate the contributions of our wonderful female colleagues across the world, and reflect on the progress we are making as an organisation to invest in creating a more diverse workforce and leadership talent pipelines, empowering everyone at Bunzl to realise their full potential. We have established thriving ‘Inspiring Women in Bunzl’ networks across our Group, in Bunzl Distribution NA, Bunzl UK and Ireland, Asia Pacific and BUNZL Latino América, aimed at connecting, developing and inspiring future female leaders. Last summer, we hosted our 2nd IWIB conference in Chicago, bringing together 75 female leaders from across the Group. This year, we're looking forward to expanding the event to involve 100 women. Additionally in 2023, we held our first female leaders conference in Latin America bringing together 50 women from across the region. We now have a total of 120 women participating in our female development program in Latin America, and we’re thrilled to have appointed four new female Managing Directors in this region over the last two years. We continue to see the results of our efforts, as we take these steps to address the gender balance across our organisation: - 38% of our total workforce is now female, marking a 2% increase since 2020 - 22% of our senior leadership population (defined as those who receive share awards as part of their remuneration) is now female, showing a 2% increase since last year and up 6% since 2020 - This has been driven by increases in female leadership across the Group: in the UK & Ireland, 30% of our leadership population is now female - In North America, 36% of internal promotions in the leadership team were female in 2023 (up from 33% in 2022 and 14% in 2021) - In Asia Pacific, our wider leadership group is 42% female, and we have reduced our gender pay gap to 1.9%, vs the Australian average of 21% - In Continental Europe, we now have 32% of our leadership roles filled by women We recognise that we still have further to go, and will continue to pursue our goals, but we’re pleased to be working towards building a fulfilling, more inclusive and more equitable future for all. Happy International Women's Day!

Today we have announced our full year results for 2023, a year in which we achieved a record operating margin of 8.0%, and grew adjusted operating profit by 6.2% at constant exchange rates. 2023 was a successful year for acquisitions, as we welcomed 19 new businesses to the Bunzl family, and our momentum has continued into the start of 2024 with the two acquisitions we are announcing today:   Nisbets - A well-established, high quality, own brand focused omnichannel distributor of catering equipment and consumables that operates in the UK and Ireland, Northern Europe, and Australasia   Pamark Group - A leading distributor of cleaning & hygiene, healthcare, foodservice and safety products. This is an anchor acquisition for us in Finland, bringing the total number of countries we operate in to 33   Watch the video below for more highlights from our CEO Frank van Zanten, and click the link to read the full release: https://lnkd.in/e-yhb4Fr

Brilliant to see some of our innovative own brands gaining international awards recognition like this!